SHOOTING STAR | THE WALKING DEAD

Chapter 2, Ribboned Pigtails.

"Nothing," Andrea states bluntly. Nothing on the radio; I've been in this group for a week, and there has been silence from the government. They must've fallen by now.

At least I can throw knives with some accuracy now, not a perfect aim, but enough to get a geek. Though, I haven't tried to kill a geek yet.

That isn't a problem since it is an outbreak and all. 

I'll wait until dinner to get my way into going to the city. It's 4:00, so I can help with dinner until it's ready.

"Lori," I call out.

"Yes?"

"Can I help with dinner?"

"Sure, get the plates ready when this is done cooking," She gives me a task. The plates are on the ground next to the fire where she's cooking some squirrel that Merle's brother got.

I go to the quarry's edge and dangle my feet on the edge. The sun is starting to set; the sky is orange and pink.

After about 10 minutes, I head back, grab a big serving plate, and hold it for Lori to put the squirrel on.

"How much does everyone get?" I ask.

"Cut it into eighths," She tells me as she puts another squirrel on the grill. I take one of the steak knives and quickly slice quarters the short and long way. I put the knife down and bring the plate to Lori.

"This good?" I make sure.

"That was fast. And yes, it's good."

I grab the tongs she was using dish out the squirrel pieces to half the plates and return the tongs.

"Is dinner almost ready?" Clementine asks me.

"Yeah, almost, like seven minutes," I reply.

"Alright." She walks off. That was so awkward. Kill me now.

I pace around camp for the next seven or so minutes while listening to Lori talk. She rambles on about her experience before the apocalypse, her husband, though she doesn't mention his name, and how Shane helped her. Her whole story seems off though, I don't think she'd lie about it but it doesn't feel right.

"Dinner everyone!" Lori yells. The squirrel is on the serving platter but not yet cut. I grab the knife and do the same thing as before. Quarters, then in half. 

I feel like the tooth fairy as I take the tongs and drop off the squirrel onto plates. At my spot, there's the same chunk of squirrel everyone else got and I begin eating. 

"I'm gonna do a run tomorrow, so if you need anything make a list," Glenn states as he sits down.

"Can I come with?" I ask. Everyone looks at me like it's shocking, I'm 14, and I don't want to stay here in this camp all day. 

"I don't see why not," Glenn says, looking at the others for reassurance, Dale and Shane share a look and end up nodding in approval. 

"Cool, thanks," I say. 

"Can you get me some drawing stuff?" Clementine requests. 

"Yeah."

"Thank you." Dale and everyone else take over the conversation from there. Shane throws everyone a protein bar to go with the squirrel. 

I finish my food quickly and quickly head to the quarry to just hang out. I put my headphones on while I think.

How can I be helpful on the run? When I first found Glenn, he was just running away, constantly. The only reason he killed the geek was because there was no other way.