The Walking Dead

Chapter 21

The next few days passed in a blur. I only remember grabbing Rick and Shane's arms and telling them that we had to move camps. As soon as possible, we had to leave this place. This was the second time we had lost someone because we had been overrun by walkers.

But they wouldn't listen.

They had just walked away, casting apologetic look back at me. It was then I gave up all hope. There was no life after this. This was the world we were stuck in. It was filled with vile creatures that ate human flash, but they didn't just eat their flesh. As they walked the earth, they stripped every survivor of any hope, peace, happiness, and safety they ever had. They had taken everyone a person had loved, and either Turned them, or made a loved on shoot the infected before they Turned.

I was beside myself with the revelation. Those creatures had taken Sophia's young life, and as the thought cleared in my mind, it was as if a switch had been flipped. I was furious.

I almost went after Rick and Shane and forced them to move the camp. Move it far away feom here so nobody else could lose their life.

Almost.

But the switch the had been flipped deep within my body suddenly flipped again, and I lost all my will to fight. People were always going to die. I couldn't stop that. That's how the human life went.

It was an endless cycle of Life, Reproduction, and Death. In that order. People were put on Earth to reproduce. The only thing that made life livabke was what you could do with it.

A person could focus on a skill - drawing, painting, guitar, bass, drums, singing, writing, acting - and hone that skill so that you were good enough at it to have that specific skill as your career.

But there was a catch.

Because Life isn't easy. It'll trip you, and push you down, and throw rocks at your face. Sometimes it'll even blow up. Because Life is your one twenty-four seven bully. It'll always be there to push you down, make you feel useless.

But Life can also save you. You could be going about your normal routine and all of a sudden, something truly amazing happens. And never in your wildest dreams did you think it would happen. And then you're on cloud nine. You're higher than any drug you could ever use.

Because you got a taste of what living was.

You know that Life isn't permanent, it can be gone in a split second, but you saw it for that amount of time.

Sometimes things didn't go your way. You ciuld audition for a part, and you could be rejected because you weren't 'perfect' for the role. Life threw you a curve ball, but just because that door slammed closed doesn't mean that another one didn't open up. There's always another door, you just have to find it. and if the door is locked, climb through the window.

There will always be a way to carry on. Always. You just have to fine it.

"Faith?" Daryl's voice shook me from my thoughts, and I lifted my sad eyes to meet his.

His blue eyes shone with sympathy. But I didn't want sympathy. I wanted a hug, whether I was going to get choked or not. I just needed somebody to hug me, and lie. Say that everything wluld be alright.

"Are you okay?" Daryl asked, resting a hand on my cheek.

I shook my head, "I'm not okay. Sophia just died. I could have done something. I should have done something." My voice came out broken and weak, and I had to blink my eyes to keep tears back.

Daryl's face fell. "This isn't your fault. You couldn't have dome anything." He said.

I lowered me head as a tear slipped down my cheek. Daryl pulled me into an embrace, and I broke down. I just couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't keep being strong. I had to let out some sorrow that was building up inside of me.

I clung to him, heart-broken sobs racking my body. I buried my face in his shoulder, and tears fell. I knew I was making a most likely giant wet stain on his shirt, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

I cried that night. Harder than I had ever cried. Sophia had wormed her way into my broken and shelter heart. Daryl sat by me the whole time. He rocked my shaking body, rubbed my back soothingly, whispered sweet but reassuring nothings in my ears. But I couldn't stop crying.

I wished I could. I wished so badly that I could quit crying. Excessive tears were useless. You had tear ducts to keep your eyes clean. You didn't have them to cry. Crying was a useless action. It didn't get anything done. It reduced you to a blubbering mess of a human being.

Slowly, my tears dried, but it was well into the night. People were still awake. Some crying over loved ones, others still awake because of the crying.

I stood up on unstable legs, Daryl supporting me the whole way. "Come on." He whispered, leading me to his tent.

I was too greif strucken to care at the moment. I kept my head low, avoiding the gazes of others. I didn't want to look at their faces. They would mirror mine; broken, sad looks staring at me.

"You!" Carol cried, racing after me. She pulled me away from Daryl, and I flinched at her touch, keeping my eyes from hers. "Its all your fault my baby died!" She wailed, tightening her grip on my forearm. "If you had done something instead if standing there like a mindless idiot, my daughter would be alive!"

I turned my gaze to hers wearily. "You think I don't know that? I could have saved her if I had moved my legs. I am a mindless idiot, Carol. I don't need you telling me what I already know."

Daryl tried to argue, but his voice, and everyone else's voice mmediately stopped. At first, I was confused. Why had everyone stopped talking? And why was my face no longer looking straight at Carol?

Then a stinging pain flowered over my cheek, and I realized that Carol had slapped me. The woman who had been abused for the most of her marrige, who knew what being slapped felt like, slapped me.

I didn't turn to face her. I turned my back on the woman, and walked to Daryl's tent. I didn't even look at Daryl as he said Carol hadn't meant it. That she was just a grieving mother.

I didn't listen to him. I slipped into the tent and rolled onto my side, ignoring Daryl as he climbee in beside me.

I shut my eyes and fell asleep, but I was plagued by nightmares the whole time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There wasn't much... conversation in this chapter. I don't know what happened. I guess thats what I think. I only got 11 reads last chapter :/ oh well. I'll try to update tomorrow if I don't have a sever case of writers block.

xoxoThree