LOSING GAME | the walking dead

01 | then came the silence

THE DAY THE DEAD started to walk, Corey was in her living room. She remembered it clear as day. Her mother was in the process of scolding her father for putting his dirty boots up on the coffee table when the news rang through the room. "The dead are walking."

They hadn't believed it until the dead finally came knocking one night. First came the scratching on the door, and then they heard the groaning, echoing into the hall like an omen of death. Her father pushed the couch up against the door, her mother armed them with kitchen knives. But it wasn't enough. Barely two weeks later, the dead got inside, and they tore her parents apart, right in front of her eyes.

Corey never liked the news much, but then came the silence, and she missed the sound of the reporter on the television everyday.

As she watched Carl bugging Shane for the fifth time in the last half hour, she tried to transport her mind back to her family's living room. If she tried hard enough, she could almost hear them; the sound of her mother scolding her father and the sound of the television she never liked paying attention to. She missed the world before the dead had overtaken it. She missed her mother's nagging and her father's dirty boots. She missed life.

"Everything alright?" Corey looked up to find Dale standing over her.

"I'm okay," she assured him, picking at the grass in front of her. "Just...thinkin'."

"It's hot out here," he remarked, briefly turning his gaze to the sky. "You're welcome to come and sit inside the RV for a while."

She shook her head, smiling. "Thank you, but I'm good."

"Well, in that case..." He removed his hat and placed it on Corey's head. "Keep you from gettin' sunstroke."

She smiled, straightening the hat on her head. "Thank you, Dale."

When she first arrived at the camp, she was alone, and completely without hope. Carl had brought her in and Shane had immediately pulled a gun on her, demanding to know if she'd been bit. In that moment, she'd almost told him yes, just so he'd put an end to her misery.

Once they'd cleared her, she broke down into tears─the very sight of living people had become too overwhelming for her. And whilst the rest of the group merely watched her in pity, clearly scared to get too close, Dale had laid a hand on her shoulder and told her that she could sit inside the RV for the rest of the night.

That was three weeks ago.

Now, she sat in the grass wearing Dale's hat, watching as the rest of the group went about their tasks for the day. Daryl had gone out hunting─she'd learned that he did that a lot. She hoped maybe he'd take her one day, teach her how to hunt. It was unlikely, but she still intended to at least try to wear him down. Carol and a few others were down by the water. The rest, she was unsure of their whereabouts.

"Hey, Shane!" She finally called, standing up. "Is there anything I can be doin'? It's just─I feel a bit shitty just sittin' on my ass all day."

Shane didn't answer immediately, but she didn't fail to notice the way his mouth turned up into an amused grin. "New hat?" He eventually spoke, chuckling.

"Well?" She pressed, ignoring his amusement. She liked Dale's hat.

He paused a moment, before breaking eye contact with her, returning his attention to the shotgun in his hands. "Nah, you're good. You can help with dinner later, though?"

"Yeah, okay. And Shane?"

"Yeah?"

"This hat is awesome."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

So, that was the first chapter. Hope it wasn't too bad aha. I'll be attempting to update at least once a week, but I hope you're enjoying it so far. Thank you for reading! <3