There's Light at the End of the Tunnel

Chapter 1

As I pull the trigger to kill the moaning, groaning, stumbling dead in front of me, a child walks in front of me. I am able to kill it, but the breathing, alive child scared me half to death. She screams in surprise and shock, and hides behind a tree. I stab the rest of the dead in the head killing them again, she slowly emerges from the tree.

"T-thank you..." she is terrified, voice is trembling with fear.

"Ya should be more careful" I clean my knife and arrow.

"I-I'm sorry..." she pulls her old, dirty doll close.

"Go back to ya people 'fore ya get eat'n" I say to her putting away my knife.

She pauses for a second and looks at her feet. She has to be at least eleven, her short hair makes her look younger than she probably is.

"I-I got lost and I'm not sure where they are..."

"Where were they?" Great, I do not need to watch over some kid.

"The highway..." She looks up at me with her blue eyes.

"I'll take ya there but then I'm leavin'"

"Thank you... so much..." She goes to hug me but I walk away. I do not need anyone getting attached to me.

"Let's go. It's 'bout an hour walk" I start walking with the sun on my left shoulder.

"Okay" She walks next to me.

As we walk, I kill a few dead ones, and sadly, protect this girl with my life.

We make it to the highway, where she says she ran away, to see the hood of a car covered in food and water.

"This is it! My mommy did this!" She is all excited now to know they were looking for her.

"Place is pretty clear. You should be fine till they come for ya" I take my bow off my shoulder.

"No! Please don't leave me! You can come back with me and I can show mommy who saved me!" She has hope they are coming back for her, and she wants me to go with her.

The paint on the car was still damp, they left here not too long ago.

"I'll stay till the sun gets ta the middle of the trees. Then I'm really leavin'. No stoppin' me" I say to her in a serious tone.

She nods and opens a juice box.

"You want something? You can have some if you like?"

She tries to be as polite to me as possible, she doesn't want me to leave her until her people come for her.

I sit on the roof of the Toyota, watching North, where her people were probably headed.

"Nah I'm fine" I watch for someone or some people so I can get the hell out of here.

Staying in one spot too long is dangerous, and so is having an eleven year old follow their tracks on her own.

After about an hour of waiting, I see figures in the distance.

"Look it's mommy!" She starts jumping up and down, waving her arms.

"Ya sure?" I stand up on the roof.

A woman and two men are coming this way. I quickly get down and wait until they get closer.

"Mommy!!" She yells happily.

A woman, I am assuming her mother starts running over. I go off into the woods, the girl won't notice I'm gone.

"Wait where are you going?" She yells to me, but I keep walking.

I have picked up my pace now so hopefully they didn't see me walk away.

"Mommy someone saved me! She went into the woods again..." It's the last thing I hear from her before I cross the stream.

-POV CHANGE-

"Where did they go baby?" I ask her, making sure she is okay.

"She went that way" She point into the direction she went off in when a walker went after her.

"Do you think they are worth going after?" I ask.

"All depends. What do you think?" The sheriff asks my daughter.

"They saved me! Of course!" She smiles.

"They obviously don't want nothin'
ta do with us if they ran off" The bowman comments

"Maybe they ain't used to a group. They probably didn't know what to expect. You head back, we will try to find them okay?" He has some faith in what she explained.

"Thank you!" She hugs him.

I take her back to the rest of the group. Everyone is so happy to see her back.

~UPDATES EVERY OTHER DAY. MAYBE EVERYDAY ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY~