The Apocalypse: The First Year

The Search

"I think we should at least try to search for mom and dad. I mean, what if they're still out there?" I ask Glen as we trek through the woods.

"Spencer it's been over two months since they've been gone. We have to accept the fact that..."

"You don't know that Glen!" I almost shout. We don't know what happened to our parents. They could be out there searching for us right now. "What if after we left that cabin mom and dad came looking for us there?" I question.

"Spencer would you just stop it! Mom and dad are gone and we just have to accept that!" He screams. I think this is the first time Glen has ever raised his voice at me.

"Don't say that." I tell him as the tears well in my eyes. I stop walking and sit down on the cold hard ground. Reality wants to set in. Everything that Glen is saying I know is true. Our parent's are dead because if they weren't they would've come back for us a long time ago.

"I'm sorry baby sis, but you needed to hear that." He says bending down in front of me. "We're alone now. It's just us. We gotta look out for each other." He tells me and I nod.

"Okay."

"Come on, let's keep moving." He says, helping me up from the ground.

–

"We'll search the perimeter, about two miles or so in each direction." Ashley instructs the group. She knows the area the best so she's taking point on the search.

"We're gonna have to make time to scavenge too." Carmen says. "We're running low on everything." She adds.

"We'll figure it out." Ashley nods and loads her bow with an arrow. "You ready?" She turns to me and asks, just above a whisper.

"Yeah." I nod.

"Okay, let's do this guys." Glen says cocking his gun to check if there's a bullet in the chamber.

"We'll be back before sundown." Carmen tells the people we're leaving behind for the second time.

Rick scoffs and says, "We've heard that before." Complete with eye roll.

"What a douche." Ashley leans over and whispers in my ear. I can't help but laugh.

"I love you." Carmen says to Jayden then kisses her. Then bends down and kisses her daughter.

"Be careful mommy." Jessica tells Carmen.

"I will sweetie." Carmen replies, kissing Jessica on the forehead again.

"We need to head out." Glen says.

"We'll be back shortly." I add for no reason...I just didn't want to be the only one that didn't say any encouraging words to the group. Ashley, Carmen, Glen and I all head out of the house, guns locked and loaded...well in Ashley's case...bow locked and loaded.

"Should we split up, we'd cover much more ground that way. Ashley with me and Spencer with Glen?" Carmen suggests.

"No!" Ashley and I almost scream at the exact same time then look at each other. Out the corner of my eye I can see both Carmen and Glen smiling at us. I'm not sure why Ashley doesn't want to split up, but I have my reasons.

"I just don't want anyone else to get lost." I say after a moment. That's not even close to the real reason. I mean, it's important but not what I was just thinking in that moment.

"Yeah." Ashley agrees with a head nod. "Then we'd have to spend more time looking for people when we should be scavenging." She adds and swallows thickly.

"Right." Glen says with a head nod and sly smile. Clearly he's on to us.

"Shit!" We hear Carmen yell.

"What is-" My sentence dies in my throat when I see a herd of walkers headed straight towards us.

"Where the fuck did they just come from?" Glen asks, shaking his head.

"They smelled your funk." I try to joke. Clearly not the right time.

"Classic." Ashley says and laughs as she readies her bow.

See!

Someone appreciates my sense of humor.

"What's the move here Carmen?" Glen asks shaking his head and rolling his eyes at me.

"We can't take them all on and our little plan yesterday backfired. We're gonna just have to outrun them." She says.

"That's no fun." Ashley says with a smile beside me.

"What do you suggest?" Carmen asks, checking the clip on her gun.

"That's about ten or so. I can take out at least five on my own. If we don't take them out we're gonna be running from them all day." Ashley says.

"She's right." Glen agrees.

"Okay. You take point." Carmen says and a cocky grin appears at Ashley's lips.

"With pleasure." She says and I swear she winks at me before aiming her bow and taking out three walkers in one shot.

"Fuuuuuuck." I breathe out.

Is anyone else turned on here?

"Nice shot!" Glen exclaims. Ashley wordlessly reloads her bow and takes out two more and then reloads and takes out another.

"You guys can jump in here at anytime." She turns to us and says. We all break out of our daze and mumble an 'oh' before running towards the walkers with the intent of shooting them all in the head but they all drop to the ground before we get to them.

"What the hell?" I ask as we turn back around to Ashley and see her shaking her head and shrugging like she doesn't know what just happened either.

"What just happened?" Glen asks as we stop in front of the walkers and examine them. "Spence you see this?" He turns to me and asks.

"Yeah." I nod with an open mouth. "I've only ever seen one person shoot like this and that's-"

"Dad." Glen says cutting me off. But he didn't say in realization of what I was going to say, he said it like he was in shock.

"Glen." I say, still examining the dead walkers on the ground.

"Spencer." He says in a tone I can't read.

"What?" I ask.

"Look." He says and I look up at him. He looks like he's seen a ghost. I follow his line of sight.

My mouth drops open. He looks like he's seen a ghost because he has... "Mom, dad." I breathe out as they walk towards us with a group of about six other people, including Aiden and Tim.

Is this real life?