Deadland

Chapter 1- Tolerate

We hear a twig snap and a Walker spots us and starts stumbling towards us. Alyssa squeals and hides behind me. 

"Dude-" I lift my arm up and look at her. "You're twelve years old, you're not going to survive out here if you're scared of Walkers." I look at the Walker and back at Alyssa. 

I sigh, "Fine. I'll kill this one but you're killing the next one." Alyssa smiles and nods. "Promise." She says. I nod in response and walk up to the Walker. 

"Now watch, okay?" Alyssa nods, backing further away from the Walker. 

I grab the walker by its hair, struggling to keep it away from me. "Make sure you get the brain. The heart and everything else won't kill it." I dodge the Walker's hand as it reaches for me. "The best is to go through the top of the head, the brain is right there, the eye works too. Going under the chin only works if you aim for the top of the neck." I stab the Walker through under its chin, hitting its brain stem and killing it. I turn to Alyssa again, "That's where the brain stem is." Alyssa nods in understanding. 

"Will you help me kill the next one?" Alyssa looks at me. I smile slightly and nod, "Of course I will, 'Lyss." Alyssa smiles again and thanks me. I smile slightly but don't respond. 

We hear another twig snap and see a deer drinking out of a puddle. I look at Alyssa. 

"Okay," I whisper very quietly. "Hold the bow with your left hand." I take my bow off of my shoulder, put an arrow in it, and hand it to Alyssa. 

"Use your pointer, middle, and ring finger to pull the string back to your ear-no, the other string." Alyssa uses her three fingers and pulls the string back to her ear. "Now, aim a little lower than the deer's head, the wind will carry the arrow higher than you anticipate. Breathe..." Alyssa takes a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. "And shoot-" Before Alyssa can let go, an arrow pierces the deer's head. I raise an eyebrow and motion to Alyssa to slowly let go of the string and hand me the bow-and-arrow. 

I grab my bow-and-arrow and hold it at the ready. I inch closer to the deer. A person comes out of the bushes and takes their arrow out of the deer. 

I groan and lower my bow-and-arrow. "You dick!" I say, loudly. 

Daryl Dixon looks up at me from the deer. "What? Was this your deer? Sorry, I didn't see your name on it." He rolls his eyes and looks back at the deer.

"I was teaching Alyssa to shoot a bow-and-arrow, asshole." "Y'all were takin' to damn long. I got impatient." 

"We were working on it!" 

Daryl grunts as he lifts the deer and puts it around his neck. "Yeah? Well there are more deer out there." And with that, he picks up his crossbow and walks away. 

I throw my head back and exhale. "God I'm gonna cut his dick off." I mumble. Alyssa covers her mouth and giggles at my words. 

I quickly turn my head to her and smile slightly. "That was not meant for your ears." She smiles, "Well I heard it anyways." I chuckle, "Yeah but uh...don't repeat that to dad or else I'm gonna have green skin." Alyssa looks at me confused. I chuckle, "He'll feed me to the walkers." 

Alyssa eyes widen, "Ohhh!" I smile slightly, "Okay, let's go get another creature before we have to start heading back." I start walking but Alyssa doesn't follow. 

I look behind me and she's just standing there, staring at her feet.

"'Lyss? What's wrong?" I walk over to her and look slightly down at her. She looks up at me and sighs. "I don't like killing animals." I raise an eyebrow and smirk. "Really?" She nods. "Don't you eat meat?" "Well-yeah but I don't like knowing where it came from. Like hotdogs, I don't know where those come from-" I open my mouth to say something but she puts her hand up. "Don't! I don't want to know." I smile.

"Okay well," I crouch down in front of her. "In times like these you have to kill them. We can't just go to the store and grab pre-packed hotdogs anymore." Alyssa looks back down at her feet and nods. 

I look around. Birds caw in the distance and rustle the leaves in the trees. Alyssa visibly stiffens. "Hey," I say in a soft voice. "It's just birds." I exhale and stand up. "Alyssa, you really need to start to toughen up." Alyssa nods, still looking at her feet. "I know." She mumbles. 

"Look at me." Alyssa still continues to look at her feet. "Alyssa, look at me." Her eyes meet mine and she stares at me. "How about we do this another time, alright? You need a clear headspace for this." Alyssa nods, sadly. "I know." "Hey, don't sweat it. You're twelve, you shouldn't have to be worrying about this shit but..." I sigh. "It's how the world is now." Alyssa raises her eyebrows and smiles, "I thought you said-like twenty minutes ago, that I'm twelve and 'I'm not going to survive out here if I'm scared of Walkers'." 

I smirk, "I did say that but..." I hesitate then shake my head. "Yeah, I don't have an excuse." Alyssa smiles and turns to walk back to the camp but then pauses. "Uh...Adrian. Which way is camp?" I chuckle slightly. "Remind me to never let you come out here alone." I point to the left of us. "See how the sun is setting right there? We came from across there." I point to the right. "Because I was tracking the sun as we walked." Alyssa looks at me. 

"So?" "So, that means that I could see the sun. If we came from the left, the sun would have been behind us, and we wouldn't have been able to see it." "Oh!" Alyssa's eyes widen in realization. 

She smiles, "Yeah, don't let me come out here alone." 

I chuckle, "Lead the way." I motion with my hand for Alyssa to start walking to the right and I follow her. 

(Authors Notes:) Hello, this is like almost fully six months later (It's Jan 4th and this chapter was published Jul. 31st). I just want to make it known I GET BETTER AT WRITING I PROMISE!! The first chapters are pretty bad but I work my way up. I'm gonna come back and re-write all of these once I feel like it. But until then, JUST TRY TO READ!! IT GETS BETTER, TRUST.