Bridges | Rick Grimes

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It always begins and ends the same way; the sharp leg pain, the white light blinding her, the vulnerability she had been forced to deal with, the car door slamming, and the tall, burly man grabbing her by the wrist.

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Eden Frey had continued to receive the same dream every time her eyes closed, falling into a light sleep as the unresting apocalypse took over.

The apocalypse.

Eden Frey was a 33 year old woman, who'd had yet to grow up. Eden's freedom had been taken from her at the young age of twenty-five, when she had her first child, but she was still such a child herself.

When she was 22, Eden Kimberly Wilcox had been married to her high school sweetheart, Daniel Ryan Frey.

Eden and Daniel had both went to military school during and after the last year of high school.

They had two kids together. Harper Eleanor Frey was their first child. She was a smart kid with a 3.8 GPA and straight A's. Well,there may have been a B here and there.

Carlson Olenna Frey had been the second, younger daughter of Daniel and Eden. She'd been a troublemaker, a class clown. She was 5 years younger than her older sister.

And on Carlson's sixth birthday, the dead began to walk.

It was first a shock. Such a state of shock that they had just locked the door and spent three hours watching the news on four different channel programs.

Then, it was the common state of scavenging. Eden and Daniel had taken their 11 and 6 year old daughters and threw their weapons into a car. The first place they had drove to: the local grocery store. They gathered canned food and fruits, and snacks for their children. They had then run out to the nearest gun store and bought tons of weapons. Carlson had been confused and curious, and Harper had been as well, but she knew what was going on.

The next stage was caution. As they drove out, multiple undead beings had chased their car, but with Daniel's speeding and Eden's shooting from the back of the truck, they were good -- for the majority of the time.

As they had made their way through traffic, Harper and Carlson had fallen asleep, as Daniel's eyes had averted from the street and onto the small herds of the undead that he would swerve past.

Well, there was a bigger herd and even as Eden had shot at them, the herd had been too big to drive past. But as Daniel had tried to anyway, their small 4x4 truck had been jammed off of the street and thrown into the trees below the hill they had been driving on. It had  not been a big hill, but Eden had been thrown from the bed of the truck and the truck tumbled as Eden had made contact with the dirt floor, littered with red, yellow and brown leaves.

When Eden had awoke nearly an hour after being concussed, she feebly stumbled around, having felt dizzy and in a bit of a haze.

Eden had spent the rest of the day searching for her family. Her truck, her husband, her daughters.

Just as the sun began to fade from the horizon, Eden saw the most horrific sight anyone could see.

When the truck had crashed, it had hit a tree, and Daniel had flown through the windshield. Now, Eden had seen the big broken gap between the two separate sides of the windshield, blood on either side, staining the shards. He'd ended up crawling through, this was clear.

Daniel was now inside of the vehicle, along with Carlson. Carlson had been bitten on the forearm. They had both bled a lot, too much for any being to have been moving.

They weren't alive, and Eden had known this. The car door on their right side had been opened, and as Eden had stood, paralyzed by the view of her new undead family. Her leg fell limp for a second as her knees gave out, and as she regained her composure, a twig snapped subtly.

Daniel's head snapped to his left as he heard the stick break. Eden looked at the pale, glazed over eyes. Her eyes were now glazed over with tears.

He -- it snarled. Eden had known this was no longer her beloved husband and daughter. Her family was lost in a day. Daniel slumped himself outside of the car, as he shook off the fall, limping forward. Eden stiffened, feebly grabbing the butt of the rifle.

It had payed no attention to the threat; a single bullet. Eden lifted the sniper rifle, revealing pale, small, shaky hands, equivalently as steady as her breaths.

She first shot at his shoulder, after crying out a somber, "Stop!" As he continued to limp, without a hesitation, she began to fire.

With a second of the tough kickback, Eden looked up, to see no damage or reaction from the - thing. So she fired again -- the stomach.

She looked up again, in a pattern. She had seen the obvious limping freak had not shown any signs of pain, just the intense snarls.

So she shot it in the head.

As she looked up, breaths she realized she had not been holding escaped ina loud manner. She felt relief as the body she had known forever slumped to the floor in a forgetful, plain manner.

Her eyes had felt sore as she began to hyperventilate. The love of her life, the high school sweetheart she had known since the young age of 11 had been murdered, by something, and murdered once more by his wife, his romantic interest for that of 25 years. His wife of 14 years had shot him three times before his life was taken completely.

Eden and her jagged short breaths were interrupted by a small growl. As she slowly and hesitantly lifted her head, she watched as her daughter struggled to get free from the car seat. Eden's jaw loosened itself as her gaping mouth and wide eyes became a closed and muffled cry over her dead husband's corpse.

Carlson had been stuck in the car seat when she died. Harper may have tried to help but couldn't get it in time. Carlson had been bitten as the product. As the undead six year old continued to reach for her former mother, Eden continued to sob.

Her body was racked, in a simple, continuous, patterned motion.

Her eyes had hot, fast tears racing down her nose and cheeks.

Eden had never felt such a pain. She had once had to kill a man in self defense. He was a complete stranger, and yes she had felt remorse, for their family; but she had never killed someone so close to her as her husband, a 36 year old war veteran and the youngest daughter between the both of them, Carlson Olenna Frey, the young, funny child who died the day of her birthday.

Eden had just lied there, ignoring the muffled groans of her former daughter as she lied in a heap of sorrow beside the deceased Daniel Ryan Frey.