When The World Caves In |C.G.

nineteen

I wake up later than usual the next morning, by the time I pull on fresh clothes everyone is already gathered outside. A group of them including Daddy are loading the cars inside. I hear him revving the engine of the motorcycle as he rides it up through the gates. 

Daddy gets off the bike, looking at me and nods. I don't say nothing, waiting for him to say something instead. He stares at me for a moment before clearing his throat awkwardly.

"Come on," He says, gesturing towards the woods. "We're going to get wood. Won't be too far out." 

I think about it for a second before deciding to follow him silently. I bet he's thinking about what to say next too because he's real quiet. We collect wood in silence, I find logs to put on the top of the pile he's carrying. It's starting to grow bigger and we still haven't spoken. 

We're awkward like that. Daddy doesn't know how to deal with his feelings, in turn neither do I. So I stay quiet, waiting for him to make the first move. 

"That's enough." Rick says, interjecting into this weird tension that Daddy and I have going on. He holds open the fencing, and a couple logs go tumbling down. I stop for a second to pick them up, placing them neatly in a pile so I can carry them easily. I'm a couple yards from the fence line, but it's okay. 

"All right Hershel!" Glenn shouts. He's inside of the fencing, cheering at Hershel who's making his way through the courtyard on a pair of crutches. 

Daddy scolds him for a second, looking back at the walkers that linger in the tree line. I stop to smile at the sight of Hershel. I'm so glad he's alright, he keeps this group stuck together like glue sometimes. We're real far away, but I can see the grin shining brightly on his face.  

I lean down to pick up another log that Daddy dropped when gunshots start sounding out and Rick's shouting. That's when I hear them, there's walkers groaning and it's coming from inside the prison. The shots firing are drawing more walkers out of the woods, and the ones that were clinging close to the fence line are making their way towards me. 

"Shit." I mutter dropping the logs I was carrying. I go to reach for my crossbow but remember I don't have it. All I got is my knife but the walkers are getting closer to me and cutting off the only entrance I got that will get me back into the prison. 

"Aurora!" Daddy yells at me, he's scrambling to climb back through the fencing but walkers are cutting him off from getting back to me. He sends a bolt through ones head, but theres simply too many to take on. "Run along the fence line! I'll get you at the gate!" 

I nod and the three men in the fence line start sprinting towards the main prison. Glenn is closing up the hole in the fence before any walkers can slip through. Daddy stays back with me, keeping a watchful eye on me as I keep up with them.

I can hear walkers behind me, and looking back they're starting to be drawn to the commotion happening at the prison. Removing my knife from it's spot on my hip, I run a little faster trying to get to the gate. When we round the corner though, there's multiple walkers blocking the entrance to that too. Daddy finds my gaze through the fencing, and looks back at the walkers who are looking back at me like I'm they're next meal. They must've decided I was an easier target because one by one they slowly trudge towards me with their feet dragging. 

"No, no," I mutter backing up slowly. "You guys don't want to eat me. Not much meat on these bones." 

"Aurora!" Daddy yells, snapping my attention towards him. The walkers are still making their way towards me and I'm running out of options. "Run! Get to the road! I'll find you, I promise! Go!" 

With one last look at Daddy, I take off sprinting towards the woods. The pack of walkers following after me steadily. I trip over a fallen branch, trying to escape and go tumbling through the grass. I hiss as my knife slices the side of my arm, but I try not to focus on the pain coursing through my arm. Or the way it feels real warm and wet now. My elbows might be scraped up but theres no time to investigate that right now. Not with a group of walkers eyeing me like a Thanksgiving feast, one of the real big ones. 

I stand back up, seeing that the walkers are still following me. My sides hurt, and I'm tired of running. There's alarms blaring from the prison now and I let out a sob, wondering what exactly is going on. Where everything went wrong. I hope everyone is okay, that Daddy, Rick and Glenn made if back up safely. That Lori and Carl are tucked away in a cell somewhere. 

The further I run, the quieter the sounds from the prison get. I've made up a good amount of space and looking around I feel lost. The walkers are no longer following me, but I don't know what direction I ran from anymore, I took too many twists and turns. I could try to retrace my steps... but that might mean I'll lead Daddy in circles. 

My best bet is to find somewhere to hold up for a little bit until he eventually finds me. He's a good tracker, he'll be able to find me. That's what he told me to do anyways. Until then, I don't know what I'll do. I don't have much to defend myself with. Just my knife, I take it out of it's sheath. Running my fingers along the white handle I try not to cry.

I'm close to the road, just like he told me to be. Well, I suppose he only said to get to the road. There wasn't a lot of room for conversation between the walkers and gunfire at the prison. 

There's only a few options for me out here. The trees would be easy to climb, stay out of sight from the forest floor. It'd give me a good vantage point to see if Daddy's coming for me. There's also an abandoned building. The windows are dirty, but I'm willing to bet there's a lot more coverage in there than out here. I could hole up by one of the windows, and block the door. If there's walkers in there though, I'd be in a whole lot of trouble and right back to square one. 

Thinking for just a second longer, I decide on climbing the tree. I won't be out here for much longer, and I'm good at climbing. Daddy should be on his way any minute now. It's not worth the trouble of clearing out an entire store with only my knife. 

Reaching up, I grab one of the branches, pulling myself up and using my feet to push myself off the ground. I wince because the movement hurts my banged up arms but I still go up a couple more branches, just so that I'm above any walkers that might come wandering. Making myself at home at the base of the tree on a wider branch, I allow myself to relax for a second breathing out heavily and leaning my head against the trunk of the tree. 

A peek at my arm shows me that I sliced my arm real nice, it's deep and blood covers my entire bicep. My elbows sting from when I fell, and I was right about the fact that they are bleeding. They're scraped up real nasty, my knees too.  Blood is dripping down them like no tomorrow, and I try my best to clean it up but I just make a bigger mess. I bet I rolled over a real sharp rock when I went tumbling around like a roly poly. My sides hurt real bad too, I hate running for my life. It puts a real damper in my mood. 

I take my knife out again, carving my name into the trunk. It's real boring out here, I got nothing to do. 

R-O-R-Y R-O-S-E D-I-X-O-N

I made it real big, and maybe it was stupid of me to carve my full name, but I doubt there's anyone out here kidnapping little children. That'd be a real turn of events to my day.Looking at my name carved in the wood reminds me of when Carl and I were at the church. Carving our names into the wooden pews. I wonder if anyone's found it. 

I hope everyone back home is alright. Lori and Carl and Daddy and Beth. I hope Daddy finds me soon. Looking around, I start hoping real bad that I heard Daddy correctly when he told me to run towards the road. 

Certainly I did, the road makes the most sense. It's an easy landmark for both of us to find, and he wouldn't have to trek through the woods finding light footprints from me on the forest floor. 

A twig snaps from underneath me and I grip my knife tightly. It's probably Daddy though, or a walker. Still, I keep quiet until I'm able to confirm that it's Daddy. If it's a walker, I don't want it to be alerted to my presence. Then I'd be stuck up here with no hope of escaping. 

Another branch snaps and I whirl my head around trying to figure out where the sound is coming from. Looking down, I hear a low whistle and grip my knife a little tighter. Footsteps enter the clearing, a whole lot of them too. 

"Well, well, well..." A familiar voice rasps. "If it ain't my little Rory Ro!"