I don't quite remember the day the outbreak started, I remember my mother loading us into the van,I remember being upset because she left Max; the family dog, at home. I remember my brother sitting next to me, listening to his music just a little too loud. Thundering voices booming through his earbuds and filling the silence with muffled noise. I stared out the window, listening.I had never seen anyone die before, death was this far-away foggy concept. I didn't know what death was; not really anyway. I remember my brother talking about grandma once, she died before I was born, and sometimes he still seemed really torn up about it. But to me, back then at least, death was this meaningless word, a word without anything to attach to it.
My mother was the first person I saw die. It was stupid really, I mean. It was 4 days into the outbreak, my brother was always angry, and they fought a lot. It was one of those fights... a bad one. She yelled at him, and he yelled back. We were living out of the van at that point, day to day, avoiding dead ones.
He locked himself in the van, and I sat in the back seat, staring at him.
I was scared.
Our dingy van was parked on the outskirts of Georgia, by a river and hundreds of trees. They went as far as I could see. As far as anyone could see really. I was thinking about Max when it happened, eyes drawn down to his red collar on the floor, small metal nametag, dirt-smeared.
I heard her scream.
I heard her as her fists slammed against the glass of the driver's door.
I heard her wailing, begging, pleading. She screamed for my brother.
My eyes shot up in an instant, and I watched in horror as she got devoured, I watched as the dead thing tore her skin off her flesh and ate it. I watched as my brother stared emptily at her, crawling over the console and into the driver's seat.
I did not cry.
I was so scared I couldn't bring myself to cry.
"Dani?" I said finally, a small voice escaping my chapped lips. Scared and now orphaned.
"It had to be done," he said, not as much glancing in my direction.
He turned the key, he did not know he had to put her down, and even if he did, I don't think he would have cared enough to do so.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Things were bad for a while after that, Dani could hardly take care of himself before the outbreak, and now he had to, not only take care of himself, but his sister too.
Not that he did much-taking care of me.
He scared me sometimes... actually, he scared me a lot of the time. He was reckless, and mean and sometimes he got a little too violent. I couldn't sleep much when he was around, I was scared he was going to kill me. I knew death now, and I was terrified of it.
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We met some people, two men. Dani liked one of them a lot. He scared me when they were together. Merle and Dani became very good friends before long. Merle taught Dani how to shoot a gun, and how to put down a dead one. How to shoot a deer. How to smoke, how to drink. I didn't recognize Dani anymore, mama always said he had Daddy's eyes, but I couldn't see them anymore, they seemed cold and hard, starting to resemble the dead ones outside.
Daryl was okay, he didn't say much, I mean what could he have to say to an 8-year-old girl? He kept me fed, and that was enough for me.
"Theys some people up ahead," said Merle, his usual mix of southern drawl and drunken slur had become a staple sound in our little group.
Daryl only hummed, I knew I had no place to speak so I kept my mouth shut. We may have been decades apart but we had that connection, the younger sibling. the outlier, the voiceless.
"Ain't a bad idea," Dani said, trying to mimic the older man's tone, cool and sly and sleazy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Turns out we didn't want to rob those people, or maybe we did, I rarely knew what to expect with my brother and Merle. but for now, it seemed these people, mostly women and children were safe instead, our stuff ended up parked alongside the others. A tent is set up next to a real pretty lady and her son. Merle and Dani ain't too kind to these folks, Daryl and I don't say much.
The silent bond of younger siblings grows as time passes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
lori reminds me a lot of Mama, and that kind of scares me, I've heard what Merle does to kind women and I've seen what Dani does to women like Mama.
her boyfriend, Shane seems nice, I expect he'll keep her safe.
her boy seems nice too, although we never speak, I am but a feral child in his eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N :
Hi, my name is Sparrow! welcome to chapter 0 of my fanfiction!
I created a new account free of Voltron and my hero just for this (the dark days of hyper fixation lol) (if you read a bnha little space fanfiction no you didn't) <3
Anyway, look at me getting back into writing fanfiction, I won't lie and say English isn't my first language, so if you see any spelling or grammar mistakes blame it on my education that was entirely in French.
not naming our lovely MC in this chapter was entirely intentional btw (and I definitely haven't just not named her yet because that would be crazy)
the chapter name "coming to story" is a reference to a super good book called the marrow thieves, highly recommend btw.
sorry for the super long A/N I assure you they will be shorter in the future, I just had to get intros out of the way.
YOU ARE READING
Embers - C.G.
Fanfiction"I don't quite remember the day the outbreak started. I remember my mother loading us into the van, I remember being upset because she left Max; the family dog, at home. I remember my brother sitting next to me, listening to his music just a lit...
