Nell slowly opens her eyes and immediately squints, adjusting to the light. She looks around, realizing that she is lying on top of white sheets on a bed, surrounded by unfamiliar things.

Where am I?

She looks down at the foot of the bed. Her leg is wrapped in medical bandages. Although her leg hurts, it was nothing compared to how it hurt before.

How long was I unconscious?

Nell sits up, blinking in confusion, and swings her legs around to stand up.
Her eyes finally widen when she realizes that someone is here. And they are most likely dangerous, even though her bandaged-up leg contradicts those assumptions.

The moment she puts pressure on her hurt thigh, a shooting pain strikes up her leg. Nell winces in pain, feeling the stitches rub against the bandage, and she uses the wall to steady herself back onto her feet.

As Nell slowly wobbles her way out of the room, she realizes that her stuff is all gone.

Her dad's knife.

Her last jug of water.

Her rocket ship t-shirt.

Snuggles the bunny.

Whoever fixed up her wound must have also taken all of her stuff.
But why would they help her if they just wanted to take her things? Why not just leave her for the dead?

Nell knew she was in no condition to confront this person for robbing her of her belongings, especially with no weapons.

But despite everything, Nell limps her way into the dining room, fueled with anger and ready to confront this strange person.

Only she doesn't find just one person.

She finds over a dozen.
Over a dozen people sitting at the dinner table eating supper.

And everyone's heads turn to look at her as she stops limping and just stands there, utterly speechless at the huge group of survivors.

"Oh good, you're up," Says an old man, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

Nell just stares at the man with no expression.

"You should sit back down and keep weight off that leg." The old man says again.

Nell just stands there and crosses her arms in front of her chest.

"Where's my stuff?" She finally asks.

"Your shirt is outside drying. We tried to get the blood stains out as best as we could, but there's still a few..." The old man says. "Anyways, come sit. You must be starving..." he says, getting up to give the girl his seat.

"My knife." Nell declares, totally ignoring his offer to sit down. "And my bunny?" She questions the old man.

"Oh that's right, follow me. Your bunny and water jug should be right over here..." the old man says as he walks into the next room.

Nell is hesitant to follow him, but the rest of the people staring at her are starting to make her uncomfortable, so she wobbles into the next room, following the old man.

"Here you go." The old man says, handing her back her stuffed bunny and jug of water.

Snuggles the bunny has been through hell. His fur which was once pink soon became brown. He had many rips and stains, but Ollie loved him anyway. While she was walking through the woods, his arm must have got caught on something and ripped off.

"My daughter, Beth, noticed that the bunny had its arm ripped off, so she stitched it back on for you." The old man said, giving Nell a slight smile.

The man had wispy white hair and sweet eyes, but Nell knew better than to trust him. She wouldn't trust anyone ever again.

Because trusting someone is how you get killed. That's what her father had always told her.

"Nell, I've told ya time and time again, trustin' people only brings pain. Ya can't afford to be naive in a world like this one. Only pussies trust people. And I ain't raising no pussy."

"But Dad, not everyone is bad, right?" Nell asks softly, not wanting to make her father mad.

"Oh, so ya think there are good people out there? Ha!" Her dad laughed. "Just ya wait and see Harley, once I'm gone, ya ain't even gonna live to see the next day!" Her father shouted.

Nell hated it when her father used her real name. Whenever her father said it, it usually meant he was angry at her.

The only person who ever called her "Harley" was her mom. And now she's gone.

Ever since Ollie started calling her "Nell" because he was too young to pronounce "Eleanor", her middle name, Harley Eleanor Ashford had always been Nell.

"My knife," Nell repeats.

"You are safe here, you won't be needing your knife." The old man says.

"It's mine. You got no right to take it from me." Nell says, getting angry at the old man.

"If you are to stay here at my farm, you must follow my rules.." the man begins to speak before Nell interrupts him.

"I'm not stayin'. I'm gonna get my stuff and leave." Nell scoffs.

Trust no one.

The old man sighs.
"If that's what you want. But before you go, you really should eat something and rest up, you don't want to pop any stitches."

Some food and rest couldn't hurt.
Also, if they wanted to kill her, they would have done that ages ago.

Nell gives the old man the slightest nod before heading back to her bed to lie down. She really needs something to eat, but no way in hell is she grabbing something off the table in front of all those people eating dinner.

Nell is beginning to drift off to sleep when a sound next to her wakes her up. Her eyes open to see a pretty blonde girl placing a plate full of food on the nightstand next to her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." The blonde girl says. "For when you get hungry, here's your dinner."
The girl was soft-spoken and had a sweet voice just like the old man.

Nell looked at the plate the girl placed down. The plate was full of rice and meat.

"Thank you.." Nell mumbles.

"You're welcome!" The girl says cheerfully. "I'm Beth by the way, and you are?" Beth asks Nell, curious to find out more about the girl.

"Nell," Nell says.

"Nell?" Beth asks, finding the name odd.

"Short for Eleanor." Is all that Nell says, not wanting to explain her whole life story to Beth.

"That's a very pretty name," Beth says with a smile. "Well, I'm gonna go, it's pretty late out and I'm sure you need to sleep as well. It was nice to meet you, Nell!" Beth says as she backs out of the bedroom.

Maybe these people aren't too bad after all.

Author's note:
Hi!! How do you like Nell? I'm trying to make her an interesting character🙃. Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far! (It gets better I promise).
Love u all!