Barely Alive (#JustWriteIt #SuperCharged)

Chapter 13 - Not the End

"How is this place still holding together? Didn't we ravage it already?" Anthony asked.

No one gave him an answer. Tori carried Kaylie to the kid's section and set her down at a miniature table. Darcie and Tori went a couple of rows in and climbed the bookcases to sit and talk. Anthony sighed to himself and walked to the desk. He jumped over and sat in the office chair. He sat down and started to clean his gun. Tori looked over at him.

"Darc, maybe we should actually take this as a chance to get to know Anthony. The whole reason we brought him along was so we could get to know him. He's been in the group for so long yet neither of us have had a full conversation with him," Tori pointed out.

"Tori, please don't force me to be his friend."

"Do you have any idea how racist you sound right now? But okay. If you really don't don't want to be an open minded person, fine. I just want to ask you this though. Have you figured out which of the boys in the group has a crush on you?"

"Excuse me? One of the guys has a crush on me?"

"Are you seriously that blind to love?"

Darcie sighed and looked down at her hands that were folded on her lap.

"Love is a pointless void in existence that poor saps feel the need to fill. There is no rhyme or reason behind love. People only need it so they don't feel like they're alone, like they're going to die alone. Love in the romantic setting is the dumbest part of human existence. Life is survival of the fittest. Love doesn't help. Love is a distraction. What you need is good trustworthy friends and people who won't turn their back on you when the opportunity arises. A boyfriend or girlfriend shouldn't be what your life depends on," Darcie ranted.

"You really hate love, don't you?"

"Yeah. I never want a boyfriend. He'll just be a distraction."

"Oh no," Tori said, looking at something behind Darcie.

"What do you mean 'oh no'?"

Tori grabbed her best friend's face and turned her to look at the distracted Anthony. He wasn't aware of the group of walkers that exited the office and was approaching him.

"Please tell me you have your gun or maybe some throwing weapon," Tori pleaded.

"I left my gun with the bag," Darcie admitted.

"Anthony!" Tori yelled.

Anthony looked up and raised his eyebrow at the girl.

"Walkers!" Darcie yelled.

Anthony turned his chair to looked around. He jumped up and dropped his gun before scampering back.

"Idiot!" Darcie yelled. "Grab the fucking gun."

Anthony didn't have time to react before the three walkers were shot in between their eyes. Darcie and Tori met gazes while Anthony scampered to grab his gun.

"How the hell-"

"Kaylie!" Tori realized.

The girls looked down at the eight year old. Sure enough, she had her gun out and still aimed in the correct direction.

"Boom. Take that Amasa," Kaylie mumbled.

Darcie and Tori exchanged another look before jumping off the shelves. Darcie grabbed her gun and ran towards the back room so she could check for more walkers while Tori ran to the little girl.

"Kaylie are you alright?!" Tori asked.

"Yep," Kaylie said. "But my leg is starting to hurt again."

Kaylie never wanted to make Levi worry, so she never told anyone except Hunter that her leg was still bothering her.

"Kaylie, you do know Darcie and I are the closest people you'll ever have to sisters, right? If there is anything you two need to talk about as girls, you can talk to us. There will always be things you can't talk to Levi about. You can always come to Darcie or me. The reason I say we're the closest things is because more girls are dead than boys. We may never encounter another girl. If you aren't comfortable with us, you'll never be comfortable speaking to another girls. Darcie never had someone she could consider a sister before me. All she has got siblings is Travis. We're a family," Tori whispered to the child. "Plus, we can keep secrets from anyone you want us to."

Tori stood up and started walking away from the young girl to go check on Darcie. However, she paused and looked over her shoulder.

"By the way, just because we never attended real school doesn't make Darcie and me stupid and oblivious. We're smarter and more in-the-know than people think."

Kaylie just looked on.

'I didn't say anything.' she thought.