Barely Alive (#JustWriteIt #SuperCharged)

Chapter 21 - Ghosts

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change."

---Charles Darwin

Three days. It's been three days since Hunter was shot. Three days since Levi died. The entire apocalypse was a war and they were currently on the losing side. Kaylie was currently glaring out the big window. Travis and Anthony had taken Levi's corpse off of the property. She glared at a walker that shuffled by a dead deer corpse on the edge of the property.

"There's a lot more fucking dead deer than humans! Why won't you eat those damned things!" Kaylie yelled to the walker.

She felt a hand clasp over her mouth and started to freak out. When she looked and saw it was only Darcie, she stopped fighting.

"Doing dumb shit like that will get you killed," Darcie told the child.

Kaylie stared at Darcie until she took her hand off her mouth.

"Why don't you trust anyone anymore?"

Darcie looked down into the child's doe-like eyes.

"I don't know. I think after the shit that's happened with Tori, Hunter, and Levi, I think my mind just reset and I don't want to trust anyone who I don't have a strong relationship with."

"That's going to be the death of you."

Darcie pulled away from the child and went outside to where Dawson was in the barn.

"Dawson?" she called.

The blonde turned around and walked towards the girl.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I think I fucked up. I gave up on everyone except you and Travis. I really think I may need you all. I don't know if I'll survive if I can't trust."

Dawson wrapped his arms around the girl and placed a kiss into her hair.

"You need to do what you think is best for you. If what you decided in an emotional haze is best, keep it. If you think it's wrong, it's wrong and fix it."

Darcie pushed away from Dawson and walked to the door.

"Darcie?"

She turned around.

"I love you."

She smiled and blew him a kiss before walking outside. She saw Travis on the roof looking for something.

"Travis?" she barked.

Travis jumped and nearly fell off the roof.

"What the fuck do you want?" he demanded.

"You seem grumpy. I'll just leave you alone and figure it out for myself."

Darcie turned on her heel and walked back into the house. She grabbed an old notebook and a pen.

"Darcie?" Kaylie asked.

The girl looked up and Kaylie approached her. Darcie pulled the small girl up so she was sitting beside her.

"So are you going to trust us?"

"You know what, Kid? I am. I've managed to trust and put up with you guys for so long, what the point in changing my opinion now?"

Travis just stared down at the map. His mind was going a mile a minute.

"Travis? What are you doing?" a voice asked.

Travis looked up and saw Leo standing at the door, his hands in his pockets.

"Thinking."

"You've been staring at the map for nearly twenty minutes. What's going through that pretty little head of yours?"