I don't own any characters except my own. The Walking Dead belongs to AMC, Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore.

This is a blend of both the comics and the tv show.

I'm not very familiar with the Walking Dead, if there is anything I get wrong, please let me know.

It was a rare quiet morning and that was something that young Carl Grimes was grateful for, especially since their were so few of those since the Walkers had risen and changed the world forever. Carl had lost so many good people in his life and the people he hoped he would never lose would be his Dad, Judith and Sophia. She was a pretty girl yet like him, she had suffered so many losses at such a young age. Like him, she had lost her mother. Sure they had many good people to look after them, but it didn't make growing up in this world any easier. At least they had each other. Carl was then brought out of his thoughts when he heard his Dad, Rick say "What are you are thinking about?"

"No one." Carl muttered as his cheeks turned red.

A knowing smirk appeared on Rick's face as he said "You're thinking about Sophia aren't you?"

As Carl opened his mouth to deny it, Rick added "I remember my first love, her name was Annabelle. I never bothered to keep in touch with before the Walkers rose and I wish I did now."

Before Carl could ask questions on what Annabelle was like, they heard Maggie and Sophia's voices called out "Morning Rick! Morning Carl!."

The father and son turned to see Maggie, Sophia and little Hershel approaching them from their tent with young Judith toddling begins them.

"Morning, Maggie, Sophia and Hershel." Rick greeted. "It sure was a quiet night huh and it seems that Judith woke up early." He added.

"Yes and thank goodness for that." Maggie stated as she held onto both Hershel and Judith hands. She looked down at her little boy, he looked so much like his father that it almost hurt to look at him sometimes.

"Sometimes I wonder if it was right to bring him into this world." Maggie whispered to Rick.

"Don't say that." Rick admonished her before he added "He'll be a fighter just like all of us and this world may not be as good as it used to be, but at least our kids will inherit it even if it's not much of a world left to inherit."

"I only hope that we can make it better." Sophia stated.

"That's the spirit." Maggie stated. "I'm going to be watching you guys while the rest of the adults are on the lookout for….them."

Sophia, Rick, Carl and even little Hershel and Judith became quiet. Maggie didn't need to finish her sentence, everyone knew she was talking about the Walkers.

"Don't forget, we're packing up as soon as the group and I finish patrolling." Rick reminded Maggie and the kids as he gathered his weapons and hurried to join the rest of the group.

Once Rick and the rest of the adults were gone, Maggie turned to Carl and Sophia and said "What would you like to do until they get back?"

Sophia thought it over for a moment before she replied with "Can we have some snacks please? It's been awhile since we had some."

Maggie looked torn, on one hand, the group needed to save every piece of food they could get their hands on, on the other hand it's might be okay to let them have a small snack once in awhile. Maggie made up her mind before she replied "I'll see what I can do."

With that, She and the kids got up from the spot where they were sitting and began to walk over to the food box. As they walked, Carl slipped his own hand into Sophia's. She noticed it, glanced at him with a smile before giving the young boy's hand a gentle squeeze.

Carl hoped that he could have a moment alone with Sophia one day, but he knew that was unlikely since it was dangerous to be alone in this new world. If the Walkers cane at you and you had no one around you...Carl didn't even want to think about that. He then forcefully pulled himself out of his thoughts about the Walkers and thought about Sophia instead. She was awesome and not because she was the only other kid in the group, aside from little Hershel and his sister of course, but because she had something special about her that this new world couldn't crush. She sweet nature, even though the world had taken her mom and Glen away from her, she still managed to bounce back with help from Maggie. Then his thoughts were interrupted as Maggie said "It looks like we can't have any snacks since we're running low on food."

"What?" Both Carl and Sophia muttered in shock. Even little Hershel and Judith looked up in disbelief.

"We must tell the others when they get back." Sophia muttered.

"I know." Maggie agreed as little Hershel let out a small whine if disappointment.

"What do we do now?" Carl questioned.

"I guess I could tell you stories about what the world was like before it went crazy." Maggie said.

Seeing that there wasn't much to do until the adults got back, Carl and Sophia agreed.

Awhile later, the children were sitting down as they listened to Maggie telling a story about when she was around their age.

"The world seemed so much simpler then, to me the only things I had to worry about were my family, my friends and school." Maggie recalled.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I actually miss school now. I want to go back to the days where all I had to worry about was homework." Carl interjected.

"Me too." Sophia agreed.

"Me three." Maggie added.

"In a perfect world, Glen would still here, so would Carol and Lori. Glen and I would be living next door to your family Carl." Maggie started to say.

"And so would mine." Sophia interrupted.

"Yeah, and all we would all hang out together as often as we could." Carl said.

"Still, the one good thing about this world is that we met each other." Sophia replied. "And I have you and Hershel as my family." She added.

"We're all family here." Maggie assured her as she placed her hand over Sophia's. Soon, Carl, Little Hershel and Judith did the same.

Sometime later, Rick and the rest of the group came back from patrol.

"How was your time together?" Rick asked.

"It was fine." Maggie, Carl and Sophia replied.

"Good. We need to pack up and get going soon." Rick reminded them.

As the group began to get to work, Maggie said "That reminds me, we need to get more food. I checked the food storage box and we're low." She explained.

"Thanks for telling me." Rick replied.

Awhile later, everything was packed up and ready to go.

"Let's get out of here." Rick ordered.

At once, everybody picked up their stuff and began to leave their campground behind. As they were walking, Carl asked "Where are we going?"

"I don't know now, but we'll stop at a safe place." Rick promised his children.

As the group walked through the woods, Carl thought about everything he had experienced since the Walkers came and the world fell to ruin. He had been forced to grow up and lost so many people, but still the one silver lining he could take out of all this that he met some pretty good people that he befriended and in spite of all that happened, Carl wouldn't trade any of it for the world or the chance to go back to the way things were.

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