Our Extinction Event {Daryl Dixon}

The Camp

Atlanta had fallen. Not only had it been overrun by walkers, the name so graciously given to the dead who wandered the country, but to prevent further outbreaks, the military had bombed the city and left it to burn. Parker hadn't seen the destruction of the place because she had stayed in the car with Carl, who had been sleeping in her arms, but when Lori and Shane returned with haunted looks in their eyes, she knew. She knew something bad had happened.

"Is Atlanta no longer an option?" Parker asked as Lori revealed what she and Shane had just witnessed. They'd bombed it. "Well, what do we do now?"

"I don't know." Lori pushed her hair out of her face, as she and Shane walked back to the car.

"We could keep moving?" Shane suggested. "We have enough fuel in the tank to get us to a safe place for the night."

"I don't know." Parker hesitated, before disagreeing, trying to weigh out the risks of everything. "That sounds risky. What if we get trapped somewhere? Plus, none of us know what to expect." None of them had encountered a walker because since they left their homes, they spent most of their time in the car, but now that Atlanta had fallen, they had no choice. Parker grabbed the map Carl had been using as a blanket and scanned the location for a possible safe spot. "We could camp," Parker suggested her idea, looking at the map. "There will definitely be a water supply and I'm sure we can find food. I mean, we have tents and trees so we can make a fire. Sound like a crazy idea?"

"No," Lori answered, looking at Shane. "It is a good idea. We can accommodate anyone who needs security. Post signs to warn people to stay away from the city."

"We'll do what we can." Shane agreed, starting the engine. "But right now, we must go to a safe place." And that's exactly what they did. 

They found a place to set up camp, and shortly after doing so, they were joined by another family, Ed and Carol, with their daughter Sophia. They were welcomed into their camp and although no one said anything about it, it was clear to Shane, Lori, and Parker that Carol's husband wasn't the nicest. The scattering of bruises on Carol's cheek that were already fading and the way she obeyed his every command with a frenzy made it almost explicit that Ed was abusive. 

Over time, more people joined them, and that's how Parker became friends with a boy named Glenn. He couldn't have been more than twenty-five years old, but he had expert knowledge of the city and could get in and out with ease. He brought food and supplies each time he went, and as more people entered the camp, it became more like a community. They began to organize security measures that would allow them to go into the forest to collect mushrooms and berries to eat, placing cans on the ground to alert them of any unwanted visitors. 

Parker liked camping, and although the circumstances were not ideal and she was still mourning the death of her brother, she knew she had something better than anything she had hoped for. Carl needed her, and on those nights when Lori wasn't there to offer him the safety of her embrace, it was Parker who stepped up and took that position. Their life isn't what it used to be, and Parker knew it never would be, but what they had was better than nothing and she was happy to have some friendly faces to talk to. She was also willing to put up with waking up with cold feet every morning if that meant she woke up alive because none of them knew when their last day would be. 

She pretended not to notice how close Lori and Shane were out of respect for their privacy and the fact that if she found concrete evidence that Lori and Shane were a thing, she didn't think she'd handle it that well. Instead, she focused on her nephew, helping him with schoolwork and even helping Carol's daughter Sophia, whom Carl had quickly become friends with. One day, a few weeks after arriving in Atlanta, Parker sat with Carl with a book open in front of them while she tried to teach him math. Eventually, they both gave up, because the heat of the sun, and the fact that they were both pretty bored, made giving up pretty easy.

"Aunt Parker, have you camped before?" Carl looked up from the book, tired of doing homework.

"Your dad and I used to camp out in the yard when we were kids. We would light a small campfire and pretend we were explorers." She laughed at how stupid she and her brother were as kids.

"That sounds like fun." Carl looked at the trees around them. "I would like to explore."

"Well, when we have the rest of the security measures, you can," Parker told him, messing up his hair. "We just have to be careful."

"I know- Aunt Parker, stop!" Carl squealed, pushing her hand away. "Should we keep pretending we're doing our homework?"

"Yup. One hundred percent, your mom would kill me." Parker answered. "I'd rather your mom didn't yell at me. Don't tell her this, but she's terrifying."

"No, she's not." Carl laughed.

"No, she's not," Parker agreed with the boy, laughing. "But I hate when she screams. Do you want to play hangman?" 

There was a lake below where they had settled, and when Parker was asked to help with the laundry, she cringed at the thought of rubbing her fingers on a washboard. Still, she did what she could, because everyone had to put in the effort, but she would rather be doing something more exciting. That's how she ended up scavenging for supplies with Glenn, doing everything she could to avoid having to do laundry, and that's when she encountered her first walker. It wasn't a dangerous situation because Glenn knew his way around the city like the back of his hand, so sneaking in and out was easy, but when he and Parker walked into a pharmacy and saw the walkers outside, Parker stopped, feeling a chill run through her bones. "Wow..." Parker quietly admired the walkers from behind the safety of a window.

"What?" Glenn quietly asked, noticing the way Parker looked at the walkers beyond the window. "Have you never seen one?"

"No." Parker shook her head. They were horrible creature-things. Dead and rotting flesh hung from the bones of the walkers, their eyes sunken and anguished. They dragged their feet as they walked, moving slowly. Blood covered them from head to toe and Parker didn't know if it was theirs or not. She wasn't willing to get close enough to find out. It was then that she realized the true nature of this situation.

 Her camp was as safe as possible in the mountains, and she knew she was safe as long as she was surrounded by people. But now, looking at the masses of walkers wandering the streets, Parker realized that this was serious and not something to take lightly. There wasn't much that could scare Parker Grimes, but the realization that the world had ended and would never go back to the way it was before filled her with a terror caused by the fact that she had no idea what to expect.