Until the End

Chapter Eight: There's nothing stronger.

Sitting up against one of the trees around camp, Kirby went through her two bags to tally up what she had. In the medical bag, she noticed with a happy sigh that she managed to grab a variety of medicine. Mallorie sat beside her, playing with a hand made doll that Carol had given her. Kirby stood up with the bag she had filled with food.

"Stay where everyone can see you, sweetheart. I'm going to go give this to Andrea." Kirby said to Mallorie.

"Okay, Mama."

Kirby found Andrea sitting with Dale and T-Dog as Glenn talked about his favorite show.

"Andrea, these are some things I managed to grab while in Columbia." Kirby said, handing over the bag of food.

"Columbia, SC?" Dale asked, surprised.

"That's the one." Kirby said as Andrea and Glenn went through the bag.

"Doritos. She has Doritos." Glenn said and looked as if he was going to start crying as he hugged the bag of chips.

The three laughed at him. Andrea pulled out a small box and gasped.

"Chocolate." Andrea said and pulled a 'Glenn'.

"Is that what I think it is?" Amy asked, spying the box of chocolate Andrea held close to her.

Andrea's eyes widened and she quickly hid the box behind her back.

"What? Yes, Glenn is holding a bag of Doritos." Andrea said, grinning.

Amy glared playfully at Andrea, before jumping her. Andrea let out a yelp of surprise as Amy wrestled the box from her hands.

"No! They're mine, Amy!" Andrea whined, chasing after her younger sister.

Dale and Kirby broke out in laughter.

"Careful, Glenn. Someone might want your chips." Dale said, causing Glenn's eyes to widen.

"What they don't realize is that there is more than one box of chocolate in the bag." Kirby whispered to Dale.

Kirby took a bag of beef jerky from the bag and looked around the camp with a smile. Her smile dropped when she didn't see Mallorie. Folding the plastic bag in half and shoving it into her back pocket, Kirby went looking for Mallorie, thinking she was with Carl and Sophia. Kirby's mouth went dry when she saw that Carl and Sophia were with their mothers and Mallorie was nowhere in sight.

"Mallorie?" Kirby called out, holding back the feeling of screaming out for her.

'Don't freak out, Kirby. She's probably with one of the adults. No way did she wonder off into the woods.' Kirby thought, but it didn't hold back her panic when she couldn't find Mallorie after five minutes of searching.

"Mallorie? Mallorie, sweetheart answer me." Kirby called out.

By now, she was down by the quarry. She heard talking a little ways away, on the other side of the boulder where they had taken their baths yesterday. Halfway to the brink of freaking out and dying of a heart attack, Kirby ran around to the other side of the boulder. She spotted Mallorie squatting down, pointing to a different part of Daryl's crossbow as he told her what it was and what it did.

Kirby let out a shaky breath and almost sunk to her knees in relief. Daryl looked up and frowned at the sight of her unsteady legs.

"Mallorie....why did you disappear like that? You had me so worried." Kirby said as she came over and scooped Mallorie right up off her feet.

"I'm sorry, Mama." Mallorie said, cupping her small hands on Kirby's cheeks.

"Don't ever do that again, sweetheart. I think you scared ten years off my life when I couldn't find you. What are you and Daryl doing?" Kirby finally asked as she sat down.