Daughter of the Fallen

Remember

All of us having filed out of our vehicles, the gate opened as we walked towards it.

Looking over, I saw that Carl had stopped and was staring at something over his shoulder.

Curious, I walked over to him. "What is it?" I followed his gaze, trying to see what he saw.

He hesitated for a moment. "Um," he stuttered, clear confusion in his voice. "I thought I saw...never mind."

Though I was just as confused as he was, I nudged his shoulder and he finally turned back to the gate.

We heard a squeaking off to the side and we all raised our guns and Daryl sent his arrow through the source of the noise. He picked up the rodent and looked at the stranger that had appeared at the gate.

"We brought dinner," he told him.

The stranger just looked at Daryl in shock.

"It's okay," Aaron spoke up. "Come on in, guys."

He turned and we slowly followed him inside the walls. I kept my finger on the trigger of my gun, just in case.

Once we were all in, the gate closed, something that made me feel more uneasy.

"Before we go any further," the stranger spoke up. "I need you all to turn in your weapons. If you stay, you hand them over."

I held my gun even tighter, wondering who this guy thought he was.

"We don't know if we want to stay," Rick objected, stepping closer to him.

"It's fine, Nicholas," Aaron said to the stranger.

"If we were gonna use them," Rick continued. "We would've started already."

"Let them talk to Deanna first," Aaron persuaded Nicholas.

"Who's Deanna?" my dad called from next to me.

"She knows everything you'd want to know about this place. Rick, why don't you start?"

Rick nodded and turned as we heard a snarling from behind us. "Sasha."

My mom and I turned to see a walker approaching the gate. She immediately raised her gun and shot it through the head from 10 feet away.

Rick nodded and walked further in. "It's a good thing we're here."

•••

A little after Rick had come back from talking with Deanna, we were forced to put our weapons on a cart.

I begrudgingly placed my gun, rifle, and knife down as Deanna came out.

"They're still your guns," she announced. "You can check them out whenever you go beyond the walls. But inside here, we store them for safety."

Soon, Eric lead me and my parents to go find a house.

He stopped us in front of a big, green house.

"Does this one look alright to you guys?" he asked.

I smiled softly. "Yes, thank you."

He told us where we could find him before walking off.

My parents and I exchanged a look before cautiously walking inside.

We walked into a big, open living room.

My mom and I explored it while my dad went to the kitchen.

"Hey guys?" he called a few moments later.

"Yeah?" my mom responded.

"They have running water here."

I looked at my mom in surprise before allowing a smile to come to my face.