Until the End

Chapter Four: Shadows of the sun.

A hour of walking with a active three year old and two bags of supplies was interesting to say the least. Ten minutes before, Mallorie was back to walking on her own two feet. She skipped a few feet ahead of Kirby, who watched Mallorie like a hawk. If one walker show its decaying face, Kirby was sure to spot it and get Mallorie to safety.

"Be careful, Mallorie. Don't go too fast. I don't want you to fall and hurt yourself." Kirby laughed quietly as Mallorie smiled largely back at Kirby.

"Okay!" Mallorie giggled, slowing down her pace a little.

Twirling around, Mallorie skipped back to Kirby.

"I have to go potty." Mallorie said, gripping the front of the green shirt she wore.

"Yeah, me too." Kirby said and took Mallorie's hand in hers.

Kirby lead Mallorie off to the side of the road and just inside the treeline. Keeping her eyes and ears open, Kirby pulled Mallorie behind a bush.

"Okay, sweetheart, let's do our business." Kirby said grinning.

Mallorie giggled. After tossing the gauze they used to clean themselves off, Kirby cleaned hers and Mallorie's hands off with some sterilizing gel.

"It smells funny." Mallorie said, making a funny face at the gel's scent.

Kirby laughed.

"That's because its making all the germs on your hands go bye bye." Kirby stated.

The sound of a stick breaking caught Kirby's attention and she pulled Mallorie to her. She placed her right pointer finger over her lips, signaling Mallorie to stay quiet. Another snap came from behind them and Kirby whipped around. Seeing movement on the other side of a couple of trees, Kirby grabbed Mallorie's hand and began running in the opposite direction.

Mallorie struggled to keep up, mostly being pulled along for the ride as sounds from the dead erupted from the woods they were in.

'Shit! They must to of came from the highway. Damn it!' Kirby thought, glancing back to see how much of a distance she put between her and the dead.

Her eyes widened when she saw a group of five coming after them. By this time, Mallorie was all but sobbing. Coming to a large tree, Kirby snatched Mallorie up off of her feet and pushed her up on one of the lower branches.

"Climb higher sweetheart. I'll be right behind you." Kirby said when Mallorie cried out, her small hands reaching down for Kirby to get her down.

Sparing a glance behind her, Kirby jumped up, reaching for one of the branches. She missed the first two times, finally able to wrap her fingers around the medium size branch when she dropped the two bags she still carried. Kirby scrambled up the tree, barely lifting her foot out of reach when the group of walkers surrounded them. Mallorie screamed in fright when one of the walker's fingers brushed her sock clad feet.

Kirby stood up on her branch and moved her left foot to stand on Mallorie's branch. With her legs apart, Kirby had more leverage and was able to pull Mallorie into her arms and set her on an even higher branch. Grabbing the branch above her head, Kirby went to lift herself up. She gasped at the vice grip latched around her right ankle and threatened to yank her down from the safety of the tree.

Screaming, Kirby kicked at the mauled hand that held onto her.

"Mama!" Mallorie screamed, wrapping her tiny hands around Kirby's right wrist as she straddled the branch she was on.

With her fingers slipping and the walker's non-stop yanking, Kirby's green eyes met Mallorie's blue ones.

"Let go, baby." Kirby said, her eyes swimming with moisture.

"No! No, Mama!" Mallorie screamed, her sobs almost drowning out her words.

"You have to, sweetheart. I'm slipping and I don't want you to fall when I do." Kirby said just as her left hand slipped completely free of the branch.

Kirby screamed again as she fought to grab back onto the branch.

"Please don't leave me alone!" Mallorie screamed, her tears falling and hitting Kirby's cheeks.

Sending one last kick to the tight grip around her ankle, Kirby was freed from the walker's grip. Running on pure adrenaline, Kirby pulled herself up until she was holding Mallorie in her arms. They cried together, not noticing the other group of men that appeared. This time, with guns.

-

Five days. That's how long Merle, Daryl's brother, has been missing. Merle had left the camp with a group to head into Atlanta in order to gather more supplies. When the group came back, Merle wasn't with them. Turns out when Daryl came back from hunting, the newbie cop had handcuffed Merle on top of the roof of the building they were stuck in. All because of punching the hell out of T-Dog.

Daryl scoffed as he continued cleaning off his arrows. He sent a glare at T-Dog when the dark skinned man got up from his spot on the dirt-laced ground.

'If it wasn't for that clumsy fuck for loosing the damn key down a drainage pipe, Merle would be here instead of wondering around with just one hand.' Daryl thought angrily.

Daryl stood up and stretched, before grabbing his crossbow. He was debating on whether or not to get in a few hours of hunting before night fell. When the first scream echoed through out the hot summer air, everyone in the camp seemed to go quiet. At the second one, Daryl, Rick, Shane, T-Dog and Glenn grabbed their weapons of choice and prepared to go see if they could help whoever it was that needed it.

The other men stayed behind to protect the women and children, who all watched as the five disappeared into the woods. Rick lead in front of the group with Shane and Daryl close behind. Glenn and T-Dog ran along side each other, having each others backs for anything that so much as jumped out at them. They could hear a child's cry and everyone of them seemed to have sped up, wanting to help.

The group entered a small clearing and stopped. They watched in horror as one of the walkers had a hold of a woman's ankle, trying to pull her out of the tree. A small child, who was up higher then the woman, was hanging on to one of the woman's wrist trying to help. What the woman said had everyone's jaw dropping and eyes widening.

"Let go, baby."

"No! No, Mama!" The young girl screamed, her sobs almost drowning out her words.

"You have to, sweetheart. I'm slipping and I don't want you to fall when I do."

Daryl heard the woman say just as her left hand slipped completely free of the branch.

The blond woman screamed again as she fought to grab back onto the branch.

"Please don't leave me alone!" The child screamed, her tears falling and hitting her mother's cheeks.

Whether it was a miracle or just plain luck, the woman managed to kick free of the walker's grip and pull herself up. As she held onto the small girl, Daryl was the first to move forward. He aimed his crossbow and pulled the trigger, hitting one of the walkers in the back of the head. It crumpled to the ground in a heap of body parts as the others began shooting. This had a scream come from the child and the woman tightened her arms around her.

-

At the sound of gun fire, Kirby looked down and watched in shock as the walkers were falling down and not getting back up. She moved her head and spotted a group of five male figures carrying guns. Not knowing if the men themselves were hostile or not, Kirby remained up in the tree.

The one carrying the crossbow was the first to speak up.

"You can come down now. They're not going to get back up." He said, his face showing a look of disgust at the walkers that littered the ground.

"What makes you think I should trust you?" Kirby asked, her voice still a little shaky from the previous moment.