ᴀ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ ʙᴇᴀᴛɪɴɢ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 1

𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐔𝐩

I wake up from the sun beating down on my face. I look down at my chest and see my little sister lying on me. Not only is this tent extremely small, it can barely keep the sun out. I think about getting a new tent when I notice voices around my tent. I recognize the voices to be Lori and Carol. I don't say anything, I just let them be. Until I hear them mention me in their conversation. 

"What do you think about the two girls? I heard the little one call the other one 'Rayray?'." Carol asked Lori's opinion on me and my sister. "Really? I heard the older one call the younger one 'Bug?' Do you think we should just address them as that?"

I didn't hear anything else, since they were walking away. Maybe we should at least tell them our names...we have been with them for a while. They've given us water, food, protection. It's the least we can do. They haven't given me any reason not to trust them. And it might be nice for Eva to talk to the other kids around. 

I look back down at my sister and lightly shake her. "Hey...It's time to wake up, Bug." I whisper. Eva sits up quickly in a panic, and I follow her. "Hey! It's okay! Everything's okay. It's time to wake up." I say, attempting to calm her down. She nods her head and rubs her eyes. I stay quiet for a few moments before talking again. "I want to talk to you about something." She moves the hair that was covering her face, and yawns. "Hm?" I grab the hairbrush that was beside our pillow and she turns her back towards me. I begin to comb back her short blonde hair.

"I want us to try something new today. I want you to try and play with the other kids." I say as I connect strands of her hair into a bow. She turns back towards me with an unsure look on her face. "Are you sure?" She asks, grabbing a stuffed teddy bear and holding it close to her. I nod my head and show a gentle smile. "Yeah! I'll try to talk to, uhm... Carl! And Sophia!" She takes a deep breath. I pull her into a hug and kiss her cheek. I am very unsure about this and I tell Eva feels the same.  But, I can't let Eva be quiet and lonely forever. I have to at least try this with her, besides most of the kids are about my age. What could be scary about them? Yeah...Easy Peasy.

I step out of the tent first and wait for Eva to step out before I begin to close it. Once I'm done, I grab her hand and begin walking towards a group of kids. Once we got relatively close, I dragged my hand out so Eva was in front of me. Once we were standing in front of them I cleared my throat. It gets their attention and they all look at us with a wondering look. "Hi...We were wondering if we could draw with you. If you didn't mind." I say, putting my hand on Eva's shoulder. 

She looks at the ground, embarrassed. Evangeline was never really big on making friends, even before the apocalypse. They all looked at each other before a little girl, Sophia, nodded her head with a smile. "Sure!" She moves over on her chair and pats beside her. I lightly push Eva to her and she sits with a grateful smile. I noticed there wasn't any more room on her chair and was about to sit on the floor until a little boy moved over. "Here! You can sit with me." He says, looking up at me. I smile and sit beside him. 

"I'm Carl. What's your name?" I hesitate to tell him my name. I take a deep breath. "I'm Raven. Raven Williams. And my little sister is Evangeline Williams." I say, looking back at Eva. She chuckles lightly, as Sophia looks at her. They begin talking and the other kids introduce themselves. I feel a bit more relaxed and I can tell Evangeline feels the same. I look back towards Carl, and he looks back at me. "Here's a piece of paper." He hands me a piece of paper and a few colored pencils. A kid across me showed me what he'd begin drawing and I smiled at it.

A distance away from us is a man with a beard smiling at us. Another man, Some say he is the leader and others would disagree, walks to him. "What are you looking at?" Shane asks. Dale looks at him and then back at us. "Look. They're finally opening up." 

He says, pointing at the kids giggling and drawing. Shane looks towards them and lightly nods his head. "It's about time. It's been like? 2 months?" He asks, looking at them as well. "Oh, well. I mean they're just kids. Who knows how long they were out there, by themselves." Dale says before walking back to the camper and Shane continues to look at us for a while.

I feel as If I'm being watched, and I look towards Shane. He and I keep eye contact for a few moments until Lori calls out his name. I watch him as he leaves and I go back to drawing. I'm not fully ready to trust these people with my and my sister's lives just yet. Not until I know what they're like when times get rough. I'm not risking Evangeline, just like how Shane won't risk Lori. I know what he thinks of me, I'm just a little girl like all the other kids here. But, he's not wrong about one thing.

I'm not stupid.