𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐀 | c. grimes

00. "heart of the forest"

PROLOGUE -
"HEART OF THE FOREST"



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ANOTHER MONSTER crossed the same path as the two girls stuck on the road once did, the feeling of dread only increasing as they noticed the small distance between the dead and the living slowly closing in - almost in a mocking manner, to tease and taunt the two siblings who were so tired that they just could not keep walking anymore and fighting the deadly creatures off.

They looked at each other with different reactions, however, each one making an impact on the other, one of the two seemed content and pleased that living in this world wasn't lasting longer than it should, the other feeling scared and her eyes giving it away.

Although the thoughts weren't expected to give her any comfort, any closure at all - the idea of death and her demise didn't seem as horrible as she thought it would. Not now, when her starving body was malnourished to the point of death and an action as simple as breathing was getting harder and harder with each passing day.

The reason she never gave up and joined the pair of monsters behind them was no other than the girl beside her, her younger sister: Jane. Jane was as pure as any child in this ruined world could be. The last person remaining in the Sheilds family and the youngest one as well. Someone as sweet and kind as Jane didn't deserve a fate so painful, so torturing - to be torn apart and destroyed by something that was once human, that was once just like them.

And so, Blaire fought off the feelings of dread and desperation for as long as she could. Until today, when both of them seem to have come to the silent conclusion that they'll either die of hunger and thirst or at the hands of a dozen terrifying creatures that could be heard aggressively snapping their jaws and growing more and more impatient by the second.

Two kids weren't meant for this world in the first place, but it was still a mystery why they had survived this long, only to have their fate sealed by a simple bite on the neck or shoulder.
Blaire was nearly twelve years old when she woke up to the immense bloodshed that marked the start of the end. She was a child who hadn't even gotten the chance to fully enjoy life yet - barely knowing what it was in the first place. An elementary student. A girl who still slept with numerous stuffed animals on her bed in order to get rid of the plaguing nightmares she had. Someone who wasn't meant to live in the apocalypse, to survive even the first days of the outbreak - but she did anyway, and now it was time for it all to end, to perish, and for Blaire to finally close her eyes and rest for the first time in over two years.

Jane wasn't old either, having celebrated her tenth birthday just a few weeks before the world ended and became this terrifying place they were now forced to live in. A child so innocent and pure that had everything to look forward to - currently about to have her life cut short because of the blood-thirsty creatures roaming behind them, taunting them with every groan and step they took.

When they had gotten so close to the siblings that you could feel their breath against your skin and hear their groans louder than you should, Jane, the youngest of the two, began crying, her whimpers and pleas attracting even more biters behind them.

It wasn't a herd, about eleven - maybe twelve of the monsters, the girls knew they could outrun them or lead them away easily, but after they spent well over two years doing that by themselves and trying to find humanity once again, their hope was long gone and their motivation to keep fighting and living off plants in the woods and the occasional drops of water that fell from the sky - it simply wasn't worth the trouble anymore.