It was the end of a normal school day; the sun was shining brightly, and the sky was painted a bright blue.
Bella Dixon slung her bag over her shoulder as she walked through the white school hallway. The halls were crowned as she walked down them, bumping into a few people.
Bella Dixon had brunette locks that went down to her shoulders, a tall, thin face small plumped lips and beautiful chestnut eyes.
She couldn't help but reach for the small pendant around her neck. Unfortunately, her mother had passed away when giving birth to her ten years ago. Ever since then it's been Bella and her father.
Ashley, one of Bella's friends walked beside her. Ashley Miller was Bella's best friend. From the day they met, they were always together. The two had so many things in common, which is why there were so close.
Ashley's a good person. She was nice, cheerful and helpful. When Bella faced any problems in school, she informed her best friend first. Ashley always tried her best to solve the problem. Then after school, they always used to spend time together at the nearest playground.
The two of them walked outside the school building and began to look for their guardians.
Bella's eyes wandered across the front of the school. After a while, they settled on her father, Daryl Dixon who was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed in front of his stomach.
"Well, I better go." Bella told her best friend.
"See you tomorrow?" Ashley asked.
Bella nodded. "Yep."
The two wrapped each other in a tight hug. Ashley was like a sister to Bella. They did everything together.
Then all of a sudden, a scream was heard in the distance.
Bella and Ashley quickly pulled apart from the hug and gave each other a confused expression before they noticed people, mostly parents, rushing over towards the scream.
Without hesitation, Bella ran over to where everyone else was heading. When she made it to the scene, she stopped. Adults were surrounding and blocking the area. Looking around, she noticed that they all had horrified expressions on their faces.
Bella tried her best to look at what was happening, but she couldn't see anything. She tried looking through the parent's legs... and that's when she felt her stomach drop.
There, right in front of her, was a rotten figure that looked like a dead person, ripping and tearing a body and eating its flesh.
Another scream was heard from the other side of the school.
Bella turned around and saw one of her classmates, Lily, running away from another rotten figure that was chasing after her.
In a matter of seconds, every parent began to race to find their kids.
Bella was extremely confused about what was happening, but all she knew was that she needed to find her father.
Adrenaline flooded through her system, pumping and beating like it was trying to escape. Belly thought her head was going to explode and her eyes widened in fear. She needed to find her father right now.
Everyone was running in every direction, making it difficult to find him.
It was chaos.
It took a moment for Bella to finally see her father racing towards her.
Bella was about to run towards him until she heard a familiar scream. It made her suddenly stop to a halt. Turning towards the scream, her eyes widened in shock.
There was Ashley, lying on the ground screaming as a rotten corpse was tearing her flesh. Blood spread everywhere on the ground.
The rotten corpse had one ear missing, and both its lips had been bitten off, perhaps that was its death kiss from another rotten corpse that turned him into one of the undead. One hand had been mangled and his right bicep was chewed away exposing the white bone beneath. He had been scalped by some failed attempt to slay him and as he drew each rattling breath, he made a low growling moan that chilled Bella's blood.
Bella couldn't breathe, it felt as if someone was choking her. Her heart was racing and all she wanted to do was help her best friend. But she couldn't. A choked cry forced itself up her throat, and she felt a tear run down her cheek.
"Ashley!" Bella cried.
The rotten corpse looked up from Ashley's body and to the brunette. It slowly got up and began limping towards her.
Bella's breathing was unsteady as she quickly turned around and ran in the other direction. She ran as fast as she could until she bumped into someone. Looking up to see who it was, she sighed in relief when she saw that it was her father.
Daryl instantly grabbed his daughter and held her against his hip as they ran out of the school yard.
Looking over her father's shoulder, Bella saw a few of her friends and their parents, including teachers getting eaten alive by multiple rotten corpses.
Tears began rolling down her cheeks. She sniffled and buried her head into her father's neck.
••••
When Bella looked around at her surroundings, she saw trees everywhere. The young, green leaves rustled in the wind as the sounds of dead, weak trees creaked at every push the wind gave. It was the end of fall, and the air was colder than an ice cube, climbing through her jacket to the bottom of her spine.
She then noticed a small wooden house in the distance which caused a small smile to spread across her lips.
Home.
"Bella, start packing your things." Daryl instructed as he placed her down. He opened the front door and stormed inside, starting to pack himself. "Merle! Merle, where are you?!"
Merle Dixon. Daryl's older brother and known as Uncle Merle to Bella. He sometimes stayed over when he couldn't be bothered to do anything. He loved to drink and often babysit Bella when Daryl was busy.
Bella never liked it when Merle had to babysit her.
Bella's room contained a small bed, neatly made, two straight-backed chairs and a small table. There were no drapery curtains at the dormer windows, no pictures on the wall. All day the sun had been pouring down upon the roof, and the little room was like an oven for heat. As there were no screens, the windows had not been raised. A big fly was buzzing angrily at one of them now, up and down, up and down, trying to get out.
Bella raced into her room, grabbed a bag from underneath her bed and began packing her things. Her heart was thumping so hard, it felt like it was about to burst out of her chest.
She quickly pulled out her drawers and grabbed her clothes, shoving them into the bag. As she was about to leave the room, she glanced back into the room to see if she had missed anything. Her eyes landed on the soft brown teddy bear on her bed that belonged to her mother.
It was one of the only things that belonged to her mother that she had.
Without hesitation, Bella quickly grabbed it and placed it into the bag.
"What?" Merle shouted from somewhere in the house.
"We gotta go." Daryl demanded. Bella walked into the living room and saw her father and uncle talking in the kitchen. "There's something... wrong. Something that is eating people. We need to leave now."
"Why would we need to leave?" Merle questioned.
"Because I want my daughter to live!" Daryl exclaimed frustratingly.
Merle hesitated for a moment, looking down at Bella. "Fine. Let's go."
••••
A FEW DAYS LATER
Bella held tight onto her bag as they continued walking. They had been walking for a while now and hadn't encountered anything with the dead... yet, which made her very glad.
Daryl, who led the trio, carried his crossbow and held onto his daughter's hand while Merle trailed behind. Bella glanced around the tree line with slight nervousness, not knowing what was going to appear.
Then suddenly Daryl stopped. Bella halted beside him and looked up in confusion, wanting to know what was happening. He raised his hand before he walked further ahead, up a small hill.
Bella began to worry.
Daryl turned back to face Merle and Bella, nodding slightly. "It's alright."
Walking up a small hill where her father stood, there was a small camp. There was an RV parked on the outskirts, a small fire in the middle of the campsite with a couple of tents beside it. A small group of people approached them. An elder man walked over to Daryl and began talking with him.
As Bella continued to observe the campsite, she noticed two kids around her age approaching her.
The young boy smiled and held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Carl."
"Bella." She introduced, shaking his hand.
Carl had dark brown hair with ocean blue eyes and slight freckles covering his face.
"This is Sophia." Carl informed, gesturing to the blonde girl beside him.
"Nice to meet you, Bella." Sophia greeted.
"Like wise." Bella responded with a small smile.
Hearing someone approaching behind her, Bella turned around to see that it was her father. He kneeled to her height and grabbed her hands.
"We're gonna stick around here for a bit, pal." Daryl announced. Bella looked at the small group with nervousness. "Hey, we're gonna fit in, alright?"
"How long are we staying here?" Bella wondered.
"When this entire thing ends." Daryl replied before he stood up. "Come on, they said that there's an extra tent we can stay in."
Bella followed her father towards the tent that they were going to stay in. It was a light blue colour.
Walking inside, Bella looked around and saw that it had plenty of space for around four people to sleep in. She shrugged off her backpack and placed it on the small bed.
"This is nice." Bella commented.
"Alright." Daryl muttered under his breath. He then motioned for Bella to stand beside him. When she did, the two of them looked over at the other people in the camp. "You got, Amy, Glenn, Lori, Andrea, Dale, Ed, Shane, Carol, Jim, Morales, T-Dog and Jacqui in this camp. Including Carl and Sophia."
Bella nodded. "Okay. Can I go to sleep?"
"Sure, pal." Daryl told her.
Bella then laid down onto the bed and placed her head onto the pillow. She then felt this blackness come over her. Like a blanket, but not a blanket of warmth but a blanket of coldness making her shiver. But somehow, it's making her eyes feel heavier and heavier.
She finally closed her eyes, sending her into a dreamless sleep.
••••
Slowly and reluctantly, Bella uncovered her face. She blinked, closed her eyes, and blinked again. Streaks of sunlight penetrated the tent inside. She sat up and noticed that her father wasn't around.
Dragging her feet off the bed and rubbed her knuckles into her eyes, Bella stretched her arms above her head before she walked out of the tent.
As Bella walked to the middle of the camp to see everyone huddling around the fire. The fire itself was pulsating, the glowing embers seemed to move in rhythm with the flames, matching every dip and sweep. It was mesmerizing to watch, colours of orange and red gave way to yellow and white near the centre, where the emanating heat was greatest.
"Hello. Hello. Can anybody hear my voice?" A voice was heard from the radio.
Amy rushed over to the radio and held it up to her lips. "Hey, hello?"
"Can you hear my voice?" The person asked.
"Yes, I can hear you." Amy confirmed. "You're coming through. Over."
"If anybody reads, please respond." The person continued. "Broadcasting on Emergency Channel. Will be approaching Atlanta on Highway 85. If anybody reads, please respond."
"We're just outside the city." Amy responded. The radio cackled. "Damn it. Hello?" She turned to Dale, who stood beside her. "He couldn't hear me. I couldn't warn him."
"Try to raise him again." Dale told her. He then looked up at Shane. "Come on, son, you know best how to work this thing."
Shane slammed his axe down into a piece of wood before he kneeled down and grabbed the radio.
"Hello, hello. Is the person who called still on the air?" Shane called. There was nothing but static. "This is Officer Shane Walsh broadcasting to person unknown. Please respond." Nothing except from crackling. He placed the radio down with a frown. "He's gone."
"There are others. It's not just us." Lori pointed out as she stood just behind Dale.
"We knew there would be, right? That's why we left the CB on." Shane responded.
"A lot of good it's been doing. I've been saying for a week we ought to put signs up on 85 and warn people away from the city." Lori said.
"Folks got no idea what they're getting into." Amy added.
"Well, we haven't had time." Shane responded as he got back onto his feet.
"I think we need to make time." Lori told him.
"Yeah, that, uh... that's a luxury we can't afford." Shane said, rubbing his chin with his hand. "We are surviving here. We are day-to-day."
"And who the hell would you propose we send?" Dale questioned, looking around.
"I'll go." Lori insisted. "Give me a vehicle."
"Nobody goes anywhere alone. You know that." Shane snapped. Lori turned around and stormed off. Carl was going to follow her until Shane stopped him. "Hey, go on, take a seat, bud. You're all right. Go on. You're all right."
"What was that all about?" Bella asked Carl, approaching him.
"The city's been overrun by Walkers and the man on the radio was going towards the city." Carl simply explained. "Plus, we don't get people over the radio a lot."
"Hey, have you seen my father and Uncle Merle?" Bella wondered.
She then heard footsteps approaching behind her. Turning around, she saw that it was Shane. He kneeled to her height and gave her a gentle smile.
"Your Dad and Uncle are out, looking for supplies, Bella." Shane informed her.
"Are they gonna be alright?" Bella asked.
Shane nodded. "They're gonna be fine. Trust me."
_______________
PUBLISHED: 23.02.18
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