ʜᴏᴘᴇ's ʙᴜʀᴅᴇɴ [TWD]

01. Waves

The sun was rising, gentle strokes of golden light caressing the young girls hand as she lay at the windowsill full of defeat, the curtains blowing gently with the breeze.

If you asked Rhiley where she'd want to be right now, she would tell you school. She missed the lively atmosphere, her laughing peers, the teachers. She missed feeling safe.

Ever since the world went twisted and the dead began to rise Rhiley had never felt safe. The shadows that danced in the corners of her eyes always seemed to hold a threatening stance causing the girl to feel on edge, worried that the cold hand of death was reaching for her shoulder. More and more, closer each day.

Of course she had her sister there, Marie, who was set on trying to soothe Rhiley's mind and keep her safe from the thoughts that lurked, dipped in the swamp of negativity. Marie was only fifteen, due to turn sixteen in a month or so, it was hard to keep track of time in the apocalypse. People would argue there were more important things to keep track of. Rhiley Holtman however, was a twelve year old girl afraid that losing track of time would mean losing her sense of self. She needed to know when she would turn thirteen, and when Halloween would next be around the corner.

It was the 24th October 2010. Nearly three months into the apocalypse, Rhiley was calling it 'The Arise', not to romanticise it at all. But rather to help her cope, naming it meant she could think up purposes for the event, pros and cons. Most of them were cons though.

She pushed away from the window gently and pulled the curtains closed as a dead one came into view, she knew better than to attract attention. The sisters had only had to move locations once since the arise had begun, the cause being Rhiley. She was feeling bitter and angry at the world for throwing them into this pit of despair. So, she went outside at night, a kitchen knife in hand as she went to the nearest building and began to trash it, using it as her personal rage room.

She caused so much noise it attracted a small herd of the dead that they couldn't risk interacting with anymore after they'd chased Rhiley home. They had to push all the furniture in front of the doors and windows for support against the rotten corpses as they went to the top floor of their home and hid in the bathroom. As soon as daylight came they were sneaking into their rooms to gather their belongings before sneaking out the back door since the herd was still loitering.

Now they were here. Marie had given her a bad scolding after they had to leave and Rhiley had learnt her lesson, she'd never had such close contact with the corpses before and it scared her beyond she thought could be possible. The only other time she'd been so close to the dead ones was at the beginning of the outbreak, she had to watch as they ripped her mother right from her hands. Marie had to drag her away.

The girl headed for her bedroom door, heading down to the kitchen silently she what food they had left. She hadn't eaten yesterday, afraid that Marie had been starving herself for her. She opened the top cupboard and watched as two fruit flies emerged with speed causing her to grimace, that was one of the cons on her list for the outbreak. Bugs. They were everywhere and it disgusted her, she was afraid of all bugs but butterflies before the apocalypse, and while she had to get over her fear it didn't mean she liked them.

She pulled a half eaten granola bar from the cupboard, closing it before turning to Marie who was sitting at the kitchen table writing. It was clear she was doing the math for rations and approximately how long it would take for them to need another food scavenge. Another one was due this week. Rhiley watched as her sister dragged a stressed hand over her face as she quietly sighed, the stress wasn't good for her.

The girl broke the half into two pieces walking over to her sister, "You should sleep." She stated whilst giving her sister the bigger half of the granola, "I'll make sure to keep watch?" She offered with a shrug as Marie shakily stood up, clearly exhausted.