morii - the walking dead

four

layna furrowed her eyebrows while her eyes watered. she tried to make eye contact with her daughter, but she couldn't stop her eyes from drifting toward the trees around her. thinking of her mother's never failed to make her sob, and this was no exception. though this time she couldn't help but think about when her daughter would inevitably die. the apocalypse was cruel to children, and she'd be a fool to think her daughter was an exception.

"no," she lied, shaking her head. finally making eye contact with kaia, she tried her hardest to make it look like she was telling the truth, "i promise they won't. i'll protect you. roro will protect you. abe will. we all will. pinky promise."

the smile that slowly grew on kaia's face broke layna. she had lied to the little girl multiple times throughout her short life, but this was by far the worst. as kaia's small arms wrapped around her torso thanking her mother, layna blankly stared at the ground in front of her, slowly wrapping her own arms around kaia.

snapping out of her little episode, she looked over the truck trying to see the group, but could only see abraham laying underneath looking around. tapping kaia on the shoulder to catch her attention, she pointed over to the group, "wanna go join them now?"

"okay," she whispered back.

as they approached the group, she noticed glenn seemed to be leaving. again. what a surprise. tara walked up to rosita and shoved the gun she had been holding into rosita's hands, who took it with an annoyed look on her face, then walked away calling for glenn.

rosita sighed, looking over at the two boys still with her, then walked off. "what the hell else are we gonna do?"

"well i got nothing better to do," layna shrugged, looking down at her daughter, "you in kai?"

watching the little girl nod, she smiled and led them to follow after glenn, tara, and rosita. abraham was quick to follow before stopping while yelling to the three girls now walking away, "go to washington. fix the whole damn world!"

"there's nothing left dumbass, there's no point." layna looked over her shoulder yelling at the ginger behind her.

____________________________________________________________

trailing behind glenn, tara, and rosita, the mother and daughter played games to try and pass the time. they knew they would be walking for a while, so they decided to do something to pass the time. throughout the apocalypse, layna had taught kaia some of her favorite games from before. the one they had decided to play this time was i spy, layna mothers personal favorite - well it was her mother's favorite when she was alive. can't really make new favorites when you're dead.

"i spy with my little eye... something green."

"mommy," kaia whined, "everything is green. no fair!"

layna smiled teasingly, turning her body around so she walked backward facing Kaia, "life's not fair, baby. which green thing am i seeing?"

kaia stuck her tongue out at layna making her mockingly gasp, then looked around trying to find what her mother was talking about.

"oh, oh!" kaia suddenly yells out after a few moments of looking, making layna look over,

"what? did you find it?"

"no... but look at the pretty butterfly!" the young girl replied pointing into the distance. looking where she was pointing, layna saw the pretty butterfly she was talking about.

the butterfly wasn't very big, but its beauty made up for it. its top half was a dark gray, while the rest of it was a dark blue. smiling at the insect flying around a few feet away, she turned her head toward her daughter once again, "stay here."

"mama,"  the little girl whined, "what are you doing."

layna turned so she was talking backward as she responded to her daughter, "you'll see, be patient young lady!"

kaia stuck out her tongue making layna tilt her head back laughing. she turned around and jogged toward the flying creature, and slowed to a stop in front of it. gently raising her arm, she lead the butterfly towards her hand and held it up to her face. she slightly smiled as she observed the insect that was now resting in her hand. it was beautiful.

"kai, come over here," she quietly called out for her daughter, not wanting her to miss this.

kaia ran quickly to her mother after catching a glimpse of what was in her hand, making her quietly squeal. "oh, it's so pretty!"

"you wanna hold it?" the mother softly smiled at her daughter, holding the hand that was occupied towards the young girl. this only made kaia's excitement grow if that was even possible, and she held out both hands. gently passing over the insect layna spoke quietly to kaia, "you have to be very gentle, baby. you don't want to scare it."

"okay mommy," she responded, too in awe of the creature to listen. she nervously lowered to the floor and crossed her legs slowly, not wanting to scare the butterfly. "i'm gonna name him joey, after grandma."

"i love it."

not hearing the usual banter from layna and kaia, or layna and abraham, rosita nervously turned around, praying nothing had happened without her knowing, only to catch a glance at the sweetest view. she quietly called for the group to slow down as she watched the mother-daughter duo observe the butterfly.

____________________________________________________________

a/n

this is terrible but i haven't written in like two months so honestly i don't care, but here is a chapter after seven years <3

i'm gonna try to update frequently, but every time i say that i disappear for a month... so maybe i'll be back in a few days, or maybe a month, who knows

alsooo this is not very well proofread, so lmk if there's any mistakes! 💗