The Walking Dead Imagines (Requests OPEN)

[Maggie Rhee] Little Girl

PROMPT:
You find a young girl alone in the woods and bring her to a nearby farm. The owner of the farmers daughter is particularly grateful.
[female reader x Maggie Greene]

"She was alone. She was in danger...but you're not."

If the high growing shrubbery wasn't a better warning against the dead, you weren't exactly sure what was. This forest of bright green colours and wet dewy grass was your home.

In the middle of the day, the golden sunlight would filter through the trees, creating patterns on the shadowed dirt ground. The birds would hide themselves in the trees and believe it forbidden to sing. Only now, in the new world, were even birds too afraid to mutter a sound.

As if your lips were sewn shut, not even the slightest whimper emit from your mouth. You found yourself chewing on your tongue most of the time, passing the daylights with only your thoughts to listen to. Things were bleak. Dark even in the brightest afternoons. The night would come and you'd find yourself lying on the nylon tent floor and staring at the flyscreen skylight above you. Even the moonlight was too scared to appear. Above was nothing beautiful. Below was a wounded and tired soldier with no driven mission.

"Cheer up." You'd tell yourself, pinching your arm and watching the skin go red. "There are still eternities left to live."

You intended to survive. Surviving meant a lifetime. A lifetime meant getting used to the current state of matter.

When the leaves amongst the tent crunched, you would reach underneath your pillow and pull out the gun. It glimmered in the light, bigger with the silencer screwed on. The routine had left you rid of the anxiety that normally came with killing them. Instead, you would smile to yourself. If any of the biters were to show up at camp, it would probably be the most excitement you'd get for a long time.

With the gun shimmering against the unknown source of light, you'd normally find yourself pointing it at a tall shadow staggering towards you. Sometimes there'd be two. Sometimes they'd growl. Sometimes they'd jump. There was only one constant you could always count on.

They'd be dead.

That constant broke tonight.

"Cheer up." You whispered, shocked at the sound of your own voice. "It only wants to eat you." A delirious smile crept over your face as you scrambled for the gun beneath your pillow. As your ashy hands found their way around it, you unzipped the tent and stood before the silhouette.

A whimper, not a growl, came from the shadowed figure. Small, it was. A young child.

But a dead young child? No. An alive, in the flesh and, heart beating young child?

Yes.

"Please help me!" The young girl had ushered for the moonlight to come out from its hiding place. The moonlight reflected against her pale cheek as she squeezed the stuffed toy in her arms. Her hair framed her face and curled underneath her chin. A rainbow was printed on her blue shirt and you began to shake violently.
"Quickly." You whispered, taking her softly and guiding her into the tent.