*Flashback*
THE MOMENT WHERE everyone panicked was when scientist Jenner said they were gonna die in that awful building. Everyone went into flight or fight mode, most chose fight.
But while Daryl was trying to beat down the door and Rick was trying to convince the man to let them free, Emma's mind spiraled. The amount of times her mind spinned should've been billed per month but she began thinking deeply, Simba meowing at her trying to get her attention, not understanding what was happening.
Sometimes Emma wished she were a cat. Not in a werid way, obviously. But like some women wished they were men and some men wished they were women, Emma wished she was a cat. Cats had it so simple, they didn't have to worry, they got free food and a free roof over their heads with unconditional love. They didn't have to worry about getting eaten by the dead. They just lived life along with the humans, not a care in the world.
But as Emma thought, she thought about her mom. She didn't really remember her mother. Her mother died while she gave birth. Then her mind drifted to her father. She wondered where she was right now. Maybe he was surviving along in the world, eating whatever was in sight. Maybe he was sleeping peacefully. Maybe he was dead. The girl didn't know.
She thought about all the people they lost. She thought about Jim. Jim was a nice guy. She didn't know him that well but from their seven to nine weeks together the guy seemed kind, just wanting to protect the camp, even if it took his own life.
Then she thought about Ed and Merle. They were both dicks anyway. Wasn't much to say about them. But as Emma always thought. A villain had a reason to become a villain. Maybe Merle and Ed had bad parents to look up too, maybe they were neglected or abandoned, maybe they were bullied. Maybe something in their life triggered them to become the way they were. Emma tried to treat everyone the same. On the inside everyone each had a heart, lungs, a liver, blood cells. Everything. She tried to think maybe as a kid they were kind, but that was hard to truly imagine.
She thought to her best friend Amy. She didn't know Amy for long. But they instantly clicked. They'd laugh, they'd talk till the sun rose. She always knew how to lighten the mood even in the saddest of times. Amy was the first person to know about her father. She swore not to tell anybody, she couldn't really break that promise now.
Maybe life would be simpler if it just...stopped. The afterlife holds many things people don't know. Some believe it'll just be black, some think it'll be peaceful, some think it'll be heaven or hell, and maybe others think they'll just be on the other side, watching their loved ones without them seeing each other or meeting eye to eye.
But if the girl knew one thing. It was everyone in this world would eventually die. If it wasn't by cancer or gun shot or old age it'd be ripped apart by the ones that were once them. And Emma didn't want to die by the thing she spent months fearing.
She wanted to die a painless death. She wanted to immediately go to the afterlife or heaven or the darkness or whatever. She wanted to stop this pain of suffering.
So when Jenner opened the doors for them and Rick began calling out, trying to get everyone out before the timer hit zero, Emma's feet were glued to the ground as she stayed put.
She thought she was the only one till T-Dog tried to get Jacqui out but she stopped him. "No,no! I'm staying!" She shouted.
Emma didn't really say she was staying, maybe admitting to suicide scared her. Younger her would've been disappointed. Her father would've. Hell, her father was probably dead. He probably died the first day when he was driving home from his shift. Maybe he's still walking around in that goddamn city, snarling at anything that smelled like fresh meat.
"Emma! Come on!" Glenn shouted as he tried to get her snap out of her thoughts, failing miserably.
Glenn sighed in a panic as he quickly ran to where she was, attempting to pull her out of the room when Emma pulled his arm off her. "No! I'm staying aswell" Emma told the man.
Dale's eyes widened at that simple sentence. "What?" He said, almost not believing the words that came out of the younger girls mouth.
Glenn sighed, meeting the girls eyes, praying that she didn't say the words he thought she said. But seeing that look in her eyes, she knew it was true. She was accepting suicide. And there was nothing Glenn could do as he licked his lips and took a step back before turning to the group. "Let's go" He said, the timer being less than four minutes.
"Go! Go!" Jacqui said as the group began running out of the building. All except for Dale and Andrea.
Andrea looked down. "I'm staying too" She said before sitting down, her knees to her chest.
Dale's eyes widened as Emma sat somewhat next to her. She was ready to die.
Dale quickly made his way to Emma and Andrea, leaning down to their height. "Andrea, Emma, this isn't what Amy would want for either of you. And this truly isn't what your parents would've wanted for you!" Dale said to them, pinpointing the last sentence to Emma as she kept her glance ahead.
"She's dead, and you need to leave" Andrea told the man.
Dale turned to Emma. "You know nothing about my parents. And their both dead. My choices shouldn't rely on them" Emma told the man, not meeting his eyes.
The timer was almost down to two minutes. "Time's almost up." Andrea announced.
"Okay. You two win" Dale said before sitting down.
Emma's eyebrows furrowed. "What are you doing? The timers almost down to zero! You need to get out!" Emma began shouting at the man.
"I said okay"
"Don't pull this, Dale" Andrea told the older man, shaking her head.
The man only shrugged. "I'm not pulling anything. If you're staying, I stay too. He's right. We know what's waiting for us out there. I don't want to face it alone"
Emma's jaw clenched. "You wouldn't be alone! You'd have Rick and Daryl and T-Dog and Glenn and Carol and Lori and Shane! You'd be anything but alone" Emma snapped.
"Get the hell out Dale. I don't want you here" Andrea begged the man, not wanting his life to be her fault.
"Too bad. See, you both don't get to do that, to come into somebody's life, make them care and then just check out" Dale told the two girls.
Emma's jaw clenched. "Why are you doing this? You can't just force us to decide with you because it's what you want!" Emma shouted at the man, her voice echoing.
"I'm staying. The matter is settled" Dale said as Emma sighed.
Emma stood up. "I really fucking hate you right now" She said. "Let's go!" She shouted as Andrea stood up aswell, them both leaving the building quickly, all except for Jacqui.
They were running quickly till Rick yelled for them to get down, which they listened. Within ten seconds the entire building they once were in exploded and burned down in flames, Emma's cheeks black as she stood back up along with the others before running into the RV.
*End of flashback*
The group were running blindnessly, not knowing where to go. Shane suggested Fort Benning once more, this time Rick agreed to the idea, not having any other ones to argue with.
So that's where they were driving to. The Grimes and Sophia and Carol were all in one vehicle, Daryl was on his motorcycle, and everyone else was in the RV.
Andrea was watching Shane clean his gun while Dale drove, nobody sharing a word.
Emma was petting Simba's soft fur. She loved Simba, she'd kill for him. But in that moment she didn't know what took over but she didn't care about leaving him. Perhaps it was that fact she knew he'd eventually die, or maybe it was she didn't care at all. She didn't know.
Simba was purring loudly in her lap, sleeping peacefully until Dale stopped the RV.
Being confused Emma sat Simba on the chair, wiping the access fur off her pants and went to Dale. "What's wrong?" She asked him, getting no answer.
Daryl drove to the RV, Dale had the window down. He turned to the younger male, begging that he saw some way through. "There a way through?" He asked.
All the man responded with was the flick of his head and probably almost broke his neck as drove further, the RV following till smoke came out of the engine, making an awful sound that was like forks on plates, making the girl cover her ears.
Dale groaned out loud, everyone getting out of their vehicles. "A thousand times. Dead in the water."
"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked, holding his gun lazyingly in his hand.
"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" The older man paused himself, seeing Daryl with his head tucked in a trunk, pulling items out. "Okay, that was dumb."
"If you can't find a radiator hose here there's a whole bunch of stuff we can find" Daryl told the man.
T-Dog suddenly spoke up, trying to make himself helpful. "I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start" He told them.
"Maybe some water"
"Or food"
At the words of food and water the girls stomach growled as Simba meowed loudly, making Carl and Sophia laugh slightly.
Sophia turned to Carol, whispering something only they could hear before Carol turned to Emma. "Can Sophia pet your cat?" Carol asked.
Emma nodded. "Of course. He's a lover, not a fighter" The girl said with a slight smile as Sophia smiled, petting the cats soft fur.
Carl licked his lips before looking up at Lori. "Why did we have to leave him? Emma didn't leave Simba behind" Carl asked as Emma's eyebrows furrowed.
Lori sighed. "Enough. There's nothing that we can do now" Lori told the boy as Carl sighed.
***
Sophia was now near Emma rather then her mom because Simba would only follow Emma. Carol told the teen girl it was fine, glad Sophia was learning to be less shy and come out of her comfort zone.
The girl was asking Emma questions while she loved on Simba. "How long have you had him?"
"Since I was nine" Emma answered. "My dad was deeply allergic to cats but noticed how lonely I was with no friends so he got me Simba." The girl answered, looking inside one of the trunks.
"What breed is he?" She asked, her voice soft.
"Tabby" The girl answered.
"Does he like dry food or wet food? I heard cats can get addicted to wet food" Sophia asked the girl, giving Simba ear scratches.
"He prefers wet food but I like to give him a little bit of both." Emma said. "Hey, you like dolls right?"
"Yes" Sophia answered with a small smile.
Emma grabbed a massive blue bin, taking the lid off and seeing tons of dolls inside. "I don't think we can bring all of them, but you can at least pick out three or four" Emma said, noticing the huge smile appear on the girls lips.
"Who'd carry a bunch of dolls around?" Carl practically shouted from afar.
"The real question is who wouldn't, Carl" Emma said with a slight chuckle.
Sophia began looking into the container full of multiple brands of dolls, having a hard time picking.
Rick eventually came running, panicking. "Under the cars! Under the cars!" He whisper shouted.
Sophia was holding two dolls in her hands, one was her old was while her second one was the new one of of the bin. Emma grabbed the girls wrist slightly, trying not to hurt her as they got on their knees and crawled under one of the cars, Simba following under.
Simba cuddled next to Sophia, making Sophia's anxiety relax slightly as she hid her face in its stomach, wanting to be anywhere but here while Emma was looking out at the walkers that walked by, only seeing their ankels.
When the walkers started to disappear, Sophia took her head out of Simba's stomach and looked out to see if the coast was clear when a walker came down to her, making her scream.
Emma's eyes widened as she covered Sophia's mouth with her hand, Simba's ears back as he growled back at the walker that tried to grab the two girls.
Another walker came under and Emma realized they could not be under that car any longer. She quickly got out from under the car with Sophia, Simba following along as they ran into the forest.
When they stopped at a river, Emma noticed Simba was gone. She wanted to search for him but he wasn't the main priority unfortunately. Sophia was. She needed to protect Sophia.
The girl sighed. "Look at me. We will get out of this shithole but right now, I'm gonna need you to hide. Okay? Hide in here and don't leave until I come back. Even if it takes hours or days, don't get out" Emma told the girl strictly as Sophia got into the hole.
The walkers arrived and Emma glared at them. "Come get me assholes!" She shouted as she splashed water at them before running into the woods, them following after.
She ran so fast, faster then she'd ever before. But unfortunately for the girl, fate had to get in the way. A branch was right in the walkway the girl was running in, causing her to fall and cut her arm open, blood dripping out as it stung badly, dirt getting inside the wound.
One of the walkers came before the rest. The girl grabbed the stick and stuck it into its eye, it's body falling ontop of her as she stood still. If she smelled like death, simply they wouldn't notice her.
The walkers came to where the girl was but didn't notice anything and drifted off. Emma felt relief.
Till she realized that she had no idea where she was. How'd she be able to find Sophia if she didn't know where Sophia was?
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Words - 2451
Written - March 6th 2024
Published - March 6th 2024
A/N: Chapter two published! Sorry it's so short! If you enjoyed please vote and comment as it keeps me motivated.
Changed some things up if you noticed 😘
Watching the show again I never noticed how hot Andrea was. Like how did I just notice she has veiny hands!? Veiny hands are so hot I swear..
Also, why did they have to make T-Dog's cut look so bad? Like I almost passed out watching it and blood doesn't even make me squeamish.
I also just noticed how filthy Daryl was. 😭😭 he needs to shower!
Anyway, it is currently 8AM, so I am gonna actually get ready for the day. I hope you have a good day/night cause yk time zones.
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