❝𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐝❞
―
In a world taken over by walkers, ten-year-old Elodie fights to survive each day. But she's not just any survivor-she's a girl who happens to be hard of hearing. Her older brother Jamie isn't exactly supportive. In fact, he...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
〰
Her pink Converse landed on the dusty ground as Elodie carefully hopped out of the RV, taking a quick look around at the highway they were currently stranded on. The RV had broken down after a couple of days on the road, aimlessly driving around in an attempt to reach Fort Benning. The midday sun beat down on the abandoned road, casting long shadows across the cracked asphalt.
Everywhere she looked, there were abandoned cars. Some were overturned, their tires deflated and windows shattered, while others sat eerily still, as if waiting for their owners to return. Belongings were strewn around, scattered across the road. The smell of decay entered her nose once again, making her wrinkle it up in disgust. She could see the faint outlines of bodies lazily slumped against the dusted windows of the cars, shadowed by the sun.
Elodie thought back to the day everything happened, how she, her mother, and Jamie had been stuck on the highway just like they were now. Only this time, it was quieter. There were no horns blasting, no crying and yelling people, no panicked families. No bombs. They were alone this time.
Jamie had been annoying that day, though Elodie scolded herself for thinking that. She still didn't understand why he acted the way he did. If her mother had forced him to dump her flowers, would she have forced him to do everything else he did? Nothing had been cleared up at all. The only thing Elodie knew was that Jamie didn't hate her as much as she thought he did and that her mother was the one behind the flowers. It was stupid. So stupid.
She wished she could just ask him. She wished she could just talk to him again, even if it was just for a minute. But that was impossible. She would never see him again.
Stop it!
Hands flew to her head, delivering a hit or two before she grumbled to herself, shaking her head as she wandered off to the cars. She noticed everyone splitting up and heading further down the road, a few of them digging through the cars. She needed to distract herself, so she decided to just do what everyone else was doing.
She wandered over to the nearest car and pressed the side of her hand against the window, cupping it over her eyes as she peeked inside. It was completely empty, so she figured it was safe to open the door.
Tugging at the handle, she furrowed her eyebrows when it didn't open as smoothly as she thought it would. She pulled again, placing a foot against the car to give herself a bit more strength before the car door suddenly flew open, sending her flying backward.
She yelped and held on tightly to the handle, ensuring she wouldn't fall over. Pulling herself back up straight, she kicked the door once in annoyance before placing her knee on the soft carseat, climbing inside of the musty-smelling car.
Inside the car, Elodie immediately scrunched her nose in distaste as she saw the now-stale and almost-rotten food lying around in the back of the car, annoying flies buzzing about and picking at the leftovers. The dashboard was littered with empty wrappers, broken pens, and even a cap. The colors had long faded after exposure to the sun for so long, but it looked cool anyway, so Elodie placed it on top of her head.
