The Apocalypse: The First Year

On Our Own

"We can't just leave, dad said to-"

"They're not coming back, Spence." Glen says, turning me to face him. "It's been four days. We have to accept the fact that-"

"No." I shake my head. "I'm not leaving here without them. They're our parent's Glen." My voice cracks, as the tears begin to well in my eyes.

I know Glen is right. If they were okay they would have been back by now.

"We have to. We're not gonna survive here. We're sitting ducks, Spence." He grabs both my arms and begins to rub them up and down to calm me.

I feel an episode coming on.

"But..." I trail off as my breathing picks up.

"Just calm down, baby sis. I promise I'm gonna take care of you. No worries." Glen forces a smile to try to make me believe in his words. It takes me a moment to calm down and when I finally do, Glen packs up our things and loads the weapons. "You're gonna have to use this, Spence." He says handing me the gun.

"I know." I tell him, taking the gun.

"You ready?" He asks, throwing his backpack over his shoulder.

"Yeah." I nod doing the same.

Glen and I were doing good on our own.

Surviving.

Scavenging.

As the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months we figured we could do this. That it could be just him and I and we'd be alright. But this world...the one we're fighting to stay alive in...everything to me...started to seem not so worth it.

–

"I think we've passed this tree before." Aiden says pointing to a tree. A tree that looked exactly like every other tree in this forest. Finally, someone dumber than Glen.

"Aiden, shut up." Ashley says not even turning around to look at her friend.

"We need to rest. We've been walking for hours. It's gonna be nightfall soon." Carmen says.

"You're right." Ashley stops and turns to face us. We've been looking in the woods for about six or so hours now and we haven't found the rest of their group. If they had only a two-hour head start we should have found them by now. "We can set up camp here for the night and continue tomorrow."

"Wait that wasn't the deal." Tim says holding up his hand as Ashley takes a tent from her back pack.

"The deal was that you help us find our group and we help you find yours." She says not stopping what she's doing.

"No." Tim says firmly. "We were only supposed to help today. By the time we start looking for our group they could be days away." Tim adds. He's right. Rick knows not to stay in one place too long. He'll keep moving and we have no idea what direction they'll be traveling in.

"You can leave." Ashley shrugs. I really don't like where this conversation is going.

"How about we just discuss this tomorrow. No one can do anything tonight so why stress over it." I but in. Tim can get a bit abrasive.

"Fine." Tim says and takes his pack off his back to let out his tent. Aiden does the same and then looks to Glen.

"With me?" He questions Glen, who gives me a look. Normally we share a tent.

"It's fine, go." I wave him off.

"Thanks." He smiles and hugs me before joining Aiden in the setting up of his tent.

"I'll take the first shift." I tell Tim and he nods.

"I can stay up with you if you'd like." Carmen says and I shake my head.

"I'll be fine." I tell her with a smile.

"Okay." She nods and joins Tim in his tent. I walk over to a spot that I believe has the best view of all my angles and take a seat up against a tree.

"Want some company?" Ashley comes over and sits next to me.

"You don't have to stay up." I look over to her and tell her.

"I want to." She shrugs and places her bow down in front of her.

"I'm sorry about your sister." I say after a moment.

"I'm sure they're fine. She's pretty smart." She says with a smile.

"Okay." I smile back.

"So you still haven't told me anything about yourself." She says picking up a stick from the ground and take a knife out of her pocket. She breaks the long stick in half and begins to carve the edge into a point.

"Nothing much to tell." I shrug. She stops what she's doing and gives me a thoughtful look.

"I doubt that." She says before going back to carving the stick.

"My life has been pretty boring thus far." I say and almost have to hold back a chuckle.

"I seriously doubt that!" Ashley says through laughter. "This is anything but boring." She adds, gesturing around us. She looks at me and sees that I'm not the least bit interested in this conversation and asks, "You're guarded, why?"

I shrug. "Look around us, like you said." I say not turning to look at her.

"But at the house you were the one to tell your brother that we're all people and earlier you talked that guy Tim into helping us look for my sister...why?" She asks with a confused expression on her face.

"Because in a world where everything has gone to shit, if the few people who are left lose their humanity...then what's the point?" I say looking off into the distance. I can feel her staring at me and in my peripheral I can see that she's stopped what she was doing.

"You know, Spencer, you shouldn't be so guarded." She says picking back up her stick and continuing to carve the end of it.

"And why is that?" I ask, turning to face her.

"Cause it's good to let people in every once in a while. Someone might surprise you." She says with a smile. I stop myself from returning one.

"I'm gonna go pee." I say suddenly, standing up.

"Okay." She nods and smiles but doesn't take her eye of her work. I make my way through some shrubs and pull down my pants to pee.

I don't get what's up with this girl. One minute she's all J.I Jane and the next she's Oprah.

I shake thoughts of Ashley out of my head as I stand and pull of my pants.

"Arrgh, ungh." I hear behind me and I turn around to see a walker approaching me quickly. I fumble to get my knife out of my pocket when I hear something whiz past me. I look up as the walker hits the ground. I turn around and see Ashley pointing her bow in this direction. She runs over to me.

"You okay?" She asks, putting a foot to the head of the walker as she pulls her arrow out of his head.

"I...I'm fine." I nod.

"Close one." She says with a smile, reloading her bow.

"Yeah." I breathe out. A little too close, I think to myself.

"Maybe next time I'll come with." She says with a smirk and then walks away.

"Yeah okay." I nod my head, still in shock as I follow behind her.