"I'm not the little girl you want, anyway. I might as well leave." Faye snapped. With the dead roaming the streets, the world isn't built for little girls anymore. No, little girls either grow up or perish. And Faye refused to perish. "Where would you go? You're safe with us, no matter how dysfunctional this group is." First impressions aside, this might be the group Faye's been searching for.

"You best shut the hell up!"

"Or what? You gonna come up here and shut my mouth for me? Well, come on and do it then, if you think you're man enough!" Merle cackled as Daryl continued to struggle his way up towards his brother. "Hey! Kick off them damn high heels and climb, son!"

As he laughed, Daryl grunted, wincing over his wound, and grabbed another root. "You know what, if I were you, I'd take a pause for the cause, brother. 'Cause I just don't think you gonna make it to the top. Come on! Come on, little brother."

He laughed before the cocky grin left his face, offering his hand. "Grab your friend Rick's hand."

Daryl's hand hit the ground as he gripped whatever was there to pull himself up. Breathing hard, he shifted his leg up and held a tree trunk for support before he reached the top, landing on his knees. After scrambling to his feet to get another look at the image of his brother, he saw nothing. Swaying slightly on his feet, Daryl shouted. "Yeah, you better run!"

"You're being too loud."

Eyes immediately darting left to the sound of the voice, he almost grabbed his crossbow.

When he finally saw the small figure, Daryl frowned.

"You ain't Sophia."

It's been five days since the camp was overrun.

Five days since I've seen anyone living. Five days since I've seen anyone really living, at least.

Four days since Dad and Andy-

No.

I'm not talking about that. I don't want to talk about that.

Resecuring my backpack on my shoulder, I carried on walking through the forest. I know it isn't safe here, but where is safe anymore? All there is now is dead people walking, and the people left alive aren't all that great, either.

Michael - the leader of our old group - was an example of that.

Dad said he was 'off the deep end'. We knew it wouldn't work with him, but we listened anyway. That's why Dad taught me and Andy survival skills, in case something bad happened.

In the end, the bad stuff did happen. It's Michael's fault we were surrounded with the dead people, they'd been attracted by the noise he made. That was when Andy shoved a gun and my backpack in my hand and told me to run.

So I ran.

Why did we listen to the crazy guy, you ask? He was a crazy guy with guns, that's why. That's what gives you power these days, Dad said.

But, that's what brought me here. I've just been walking. I don't really have a plan. Or a map, for that matter, I'm not sure where I am anymore.

The dead people haven't bothered me here, I guess. By myself, I'm quiet. I haven't used the gun since the attack, don't wanna touch it. Right now it's wrapped up in my hoodie. My knife is close though, so I think I'm safe.

Trees are good here. If I have to, I can climb them to hide from something.

Looking around, though, not many of them have low enough branches. Never mind. I'll figure something ou-

"Woah, woah!"

I froze, immediately hiding behind a tree, hand reaching towards my knife. Holding my breath, I waited.

There was a horse neighing. I swear I heard a neigh!

And that was definitely a voice, too.

Have I found people? I grinned for a moment, before realising they might not be so friendly.

After being surrounded by silence for so long, did I imagine that? It was faint, after all. I thought I heard someone shout a few minutes ago too, a name maybe, but it was too far away for me to know if it was real or not.

After standing still for a moment, I moved.

If that was really a person, I'm finding them.

Walking out from behind her hiding place, Faye carefully tread towards where she thought she heard the horse. She looked around and peered through the trees, but saw no signs of an animal.

Then, as she crept behind a large plant, she noticed the creek and small lake.

Oh, and the man across from her staring at the bush she was in? She saw him too.

Immediately crouching into the undergrowth, Faye looked between the leaves at the person. It was more than likely he couldn't actually see her, her top was green for a reason.

(Alright, so that was a lie. Her top was green because it matched her eyes and was her favourite colour, but Faye had told people it was so she could blend in. To sound cool, she thought.)

Anyway, it was the sound of Faye moving that had alerted him. Edging closer to get a better look, she saw he was injured.

Was that an arrow? Yes, it was, she confirmed as the man turned sideways and waded through the lake, searching for something. There was also a doll tucked into his belt and Faye smiled.

Did he pick that up for another kid? That had to mean there were other children, right?

After a few minutes of fishing around with a stick, she frowned as the man lifted up what Faye originally thought was a gun.

Then, he left the water, and she realised what the weapon was with a grin.

A crossbow.

The first thing that rang through her mind was that crossbows were, to put it simply, bad-ass and she wanted one as well.

The second thought was that he might come over and shoot her with said bad-ass cross bow. Faye was scared for a moment, but dismissed it when he walked the other way.

And the final thing was the strange thought that the man had somehow shot himself with the bad-ass cross bow. This amused the young girl a little, easing her tense position ever-so-slightly.

When she came out of her little weapon-filled day-dream, she saw the man try to climb back up the creek.

No.

This was bad.

She was supposed to go with him! To find people!

Moving to a different cover to get a closer look, she saw he was struggling. Faye reasoned with herself. The man was taking a while, she could get to the top and find him reasonably quickly. However, she was once again drawn out of her thoughts by a crash.

He had fallen again.

Panic immediately set in as Faye realised he was not getting back up. If he was dead, that would mean... Well... He wouldn't truly be dead. And Faye would have to run from the not truly dead person.

If he wasn't dead, that would mean he was injured, and Faye wasn't sure if she could help him. All she had in her pack were three or four paracetamol, which wouldn't help with the arrow wound or whatever happened during his fall.

If she were an adult, they might have left him there, so he wouldn't weigh them down.

But she had missed being with people for two long to not go with him, not to help him.

In the back of her mind, there was doubt that he would even want to take her with him. But she ignored that. Faye was too pleased to see someone after all that happened to take that into consideration.

So, not wanting to be alone anymore, Faye crept out of her hiding place and moved towards the unconscious man.

Once she was a few metres away from him, she saw his mouth move. Maybe he wasn't so unconscious, after all.

Frozen, Faye wasn't sure of her next move. As happy as she was to find someone, she knew he could be dangerous.

"Shitty day, bro." The man murmured.

Faye's eyes widened. Was he talking to her? The surprise faded after a few moments and she frowned rather childishly. He had called her bro! She was a girl!

The girl was about to talk back to him when he spoke again. "Screw you."

He can't be talking to her! She didn't say anything! Taking another step forward, Faye saw the blood on his head. He must have got hit on when he fell, she thought. Saying nothing, the girl stayed where she was, waiting for him to say anything.

"Girl." He paused. "They lost a little girl."

This stumped her. He wasn't talking to her, but he couldn't be talking about her, could he? About her camp being overrun? No. Faye had no idea who he was, and it couldn't have been the other way round.

"Shut up."

Faye frowned. If this guy had lost it, she wanted nothing to do with him. Not after last time. Crazy people are bad. Crazy people are trouble. As he carried on talking to himself, Faye was torn.

It could have just been the fall. Her Dad had said that sometimes, when you hit your head, you can go a little 'funny'.

This man was being a lot 'funny'.

Then again, he could always be this way. Could she risk it? Maybe, she could just wait until he wakes up a little more. Then she could she if he would still talk to himself.

Faye was about to continue thinking over her problem, when she heard a groan. Head whipping round instantly, she saw the walker approaching. Immediately, she pulled out her knife.

Then, Faye realised, she hadn't taken a walker down with a knife. Dad had said how to hold a knife properly, but that was different than actually using it. She had used a gun to get two of them, and almost a third, but that was... different.

She could run. She could just leave the walker with the man. She'd be safe that way.

Unfortunately, Faye disliked that idea greatly. Crazy or not, this man was the first person she had seen in days. She considered him to be extremely important. Leaving him wasn't an option.

Faye scowled. Dad hadn't said anything about this kind of situation.

Her gun was in her backpack, but this walker was getting closer a lot quicker than Faye liked, not enough time to sit down and rummage through her bag. Glancing to the man, he was slightly more alert.

Then, Faye moved. She ran around and past the man, and started to climb up the edge of the creek. She made it about half way before she was able to stop, pull her bag around and unzip it. As her hand reached into the backpack, she looked down to the walker. It was almost at the man's feet.

Both hands were now in her backpack, reaching to the bottom for her hoodie and unwrapping it. There it was. A Glock 19, Faye was pretty sure what Dad had said this was.

As Faye pulled the pistol out, she ran through the steps of preparing the gun, chanting to herself in her head what she had to do with shaking hands. With a click, she swung her hands up, finger on the trigger as she pointed towards the walker. A walker that was starting to look somewhat similar to her.

Blinking, Faye suddenly recognised the face as her brother and froze, eyes now wide. After a second, she remembered previous events and shook her head vigorously. Focusing back on the walker, it's head now looked like a stranger, she didn't know that guy. She could handle that.

Before she could shoot, however, the man kicked it in the head. Releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding, the man held his own against the walker, tumbling on the floor to get on top of it. This gave Faye a moment or two to collect herself.

This wasn't Andy. Or Dad. She had to shoot it.

Unfortunately, although the now awake man was defending himself, this also meant Faye couldn't get a good enough aim. Not wanting to waste a bullet and attract any other dead with the noise, she hoped the man was strong enough.

In the end, she didn't need to worry. Faye stared as the dead stranger's was bashed in three times and the man began to roughly pull out the arrow in his side. She shuffled over to a different branch, clinging to it, as she saw the yet another body walk towards them.

This guy really couldn't catch a break. Faye felt sorry for him.

He was strong though, she had to admit. Loading his cross bow just in the nick of time, the second walker was down.

Seconds later, the man rolled onto his back once more, and passed out.

Faye found herself frowning once more.

It wasn't supposed to go like this.

For a start, she would've liked to have had a conversation with the man, or at least know a name by now. Faye had hoped she would find a group that would welcome her, not a man who had a tendency to talk to himself and pass out.

Either way, she had still found someone.

Time to go check if the dead people were properly dead.

Faye was about to return the gun into her pack, but after staring at the weapon for a few seconds, she decided against it. The situation she had just been in proved she needed quick access to the pistol. Flicking the safety back on, Faye tucked the gun into the back of her jeans.

Then she looked down and realised returning to the bottom of the creek would be a problem. She must have got up there, Faye concluded, from the panic. If she went back down now, it would just be a struggle for bother her and the injured man to get up.

So, she could carry on up the creek and wait for him to wake up. Maybe she wouldn't be able to keep as good of an eye on him, but once he was awake, she could help him from the top.

Yes. Faye decided that was best.

The climb to the top of the creek wasn't easy, Faye's arms weren't exactly muscular, but she made it to the top eventually. Out of breath, the girl lay flat on her back for a little while, chest heaving up and down as she wiped the dirt off of her hands and clothes.

As she sat up, she remembered her reasons for climbing. Scrambling to her feet, she looked over the edge of the creek to see the man sat on a fallen tree trunk, eating something. Faye couldn't tell what is was from the distance, but it was good to see the man up.

What he did next, however, confused her greatly. Going round to each walker, the man crouched down and took something away from them. From one of them, he took a boot lace. After a minute of fiddling, he put the shoe lace around his neck. Faye had no idea what he had done, but he was coming her way.

Eyes widening for a moment, Faye slipped behind one of the trees. As she waited for him to start the climb, she shook her head at herself.

What happened to helping him? He wasn't going to help her unless she revealed herself. Still, despite her inner argument, the girl stayed put. Taking a deep breath in and out, Faye was about to step out when she heard the man's voice.

"You never took care a me. Talk a big game but you was never there! Hell, ya ain't here now - some things never change."

Faye held her head in her hands in frustration. Was he really crazy? She didn't want to deal with this. She knew how crazy people got.

However, the childish side of her that desperately wanted to be with people pointed out the man knew whoever he was talking wasn't there - he knew he shouldn't be talking like this - that she really could go with him.

"I know what a saw!"

Faye waited, deciding she would question him when he got to the top.

"You best shut the hell up!"

That was loud, a shout even. If there were any of the dead people nearby, she thought, they had to have heard. When Faye looked around, she saw none in the immediate vicinity, but the worry lingered despite this.

Then, there was a thud as he man slammed a hand down as he reached the top. There was a few more seconds of struggle before he got to his feet and shouted. "Yeah, you better run!"

With a deep breath in and out to calm herself, knowing that if something went wrong she had her knife and gun, Faye stepped out and said the first thing that came into her head.

"You're being too loud."

The man's head whipped round to see her, hand reaching for his cross bow. The two stared at each other for a few moments, him looking up and down her small figure as his hand moved away from the cross bow (Which, although Faye refused to admit, looked scarier up close). He spoke first.

"You ain't Sophia."

Author's Notes:

Hello!

This is my first Walking Dead fanfiction, so I hope you enjoy. The next chapter will be out very soon.

As I am British, please excuse any mistakes in dialect/accents - let me know if there's anything I should change! :)

Please review, I love to hear your thoughts and advice.

Thanks.

Cobalt Flame.