Finding Sophia (The Walking Dead Fanfiction)

Nine: Hunting

"I'm twelve now." Sophia tells me as we walk through the woods. We'd been staying on the highway for about two weeks now, sleeping in the car and raiding for supplies. We found this one truck full of water, and I think that's the first shower I've had in months. Right now, we were checking some traps we'd set in the woods.

The air's been getting colder, a nip to the air, but we found some jackets in one of he cars. I didn't know what was harder. Killing the geeks or looking at the cars and realizing that these people were dead. Probably undead.

"What day's your birthday?" I ask.

"November 15th." She answers. "It should be soon...unless it's already passed."

"Happy birthday, chipmunk." I say, smiling at her. After the attack with the crazy lady and finding the car with the raided supplies, we've been looking for her group more than ever, but we never leave one another's side. I won't lose her again.

"When your birthday?" She asks.

"August 12th." I answer.

"So you're twenty eight?" She asks.

"Yeah. I guess I am." I answer, looking at my knife. "This way." I lead to the next trap. She knew where all of them were, but I'm so used to telling her, it's turned into a habit.

"I like your tattoo." She comments out of the blue. Honestly, I'd forgotten about the small tattoo on my wrist. I'd gotten it as a form of 'fuck-you-Mom' when I was eighteen, and I still love it. It's a little stitched on heart with needle and thread, so I'm not complaining. It was childish of me, though...

"Rabbit." She suddenly spotted, and pulling her knife out, pointed to a pair of rabbits, one black, and the other white with brown spots...the black one was on top of the other "doing the dirty". Sophia tilted her head to the side, bringing her knife down as a confused look overcame her features, "What are they doing?" She asks.

"They're...um...well..." I stutter, trying to make an excuse, but I can't think of anything. "Let's get them now...and we need to talk." I mumble. There was no avoiding this question, no getting out of it like the countless times she's asked me about Woodbury or my past or my family. This needed to be told. I throw my knife at one, killing the black one. The other one perked up and ran away lightning fast. I cursed to myself and sighed, walking into the clearing. I picked up my knife and the rabbit, strapping it to my belt.

We check the rest of the traps, only finding a few squirrels. I was silently cursing this delicious rabbit when we're sitting on the highway with our low fire, eating the rabbit in silence.

"What were they doing?" Sophia finally asks. "The rabbits, I mean."

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose, "Ok." I lean forward, spreading my legs apart and resting my hands between them, "When a man and a woman love each other very much...they uh...well...there's the birds and the bees and...well...um..." This was going even worse than I'd planned in my head. I run a hand through my hair again and sigh. "Ok...so..." I pause a second, "You know that guys and girls have different...parts, right?"

She nods.

This was going to be fun.

|_|_|_|_|

I can never unsay what I just told that child. I tried being blunt, but that didn't work. So then, I used the birds and the bees analogy, but I don't know which is fucking which, so then it turned into a demonstration, and I don't even know hero that happened.

She still seems like she doesn't understand, thank God, but she doesn't ask me any more. She still seemed pretty...shaken up.

"Do you think we'll find my mom?" She changes the subject, looking in the fire.

No. I think.

"Of course." I say.