THE MOTEL

TWO MONTHS HAD passed since the dead started walking around. Bronwyn, Nathan, and Jonah had been entirely alone, for a few days they were able to travel towards Macon, where they finally had to ditch the truck. They ran out of gas. Since then, they'd been walking on foot, finding places to stay the night. They were managing.

But one day everything changed, they were attacked, by some other survivors.

Bronwyn let out a blood curdling scream which caused Jonah to look at her quickly. Nathan had his gun raised at the attackers.

She had been shot. She had a hand on her thigh, which is where the bullet wound was.

She looked up at her brother, tears in her eyes. "Nathan! Bonnie's hurt!" Jonah shouted, as he picked his sister up. They had to get out of there, no matter the cost. The attackers wanted some of their supplies.

Nathan turned and spotted Bronwyn. "Shit," he mumbled, looking back to spot some of their attackers. He sighed deeply and grabbed a bag of their supplies. "Here! Just stop shooting please. You can have it."

Oddly enough, they did stop. They left after they got what they wanted. Everybody was desperately scavenging for supplies, this wasn't the first time they'd ran into attackers.

But none of them ever got hurt. Until now.

"What are we gonna do?" Jonah asked, Bronwyn had buried her head in her brother's chest. The pain in her leg was unbearable.

"We have to find help. Somebody that can... help her," he said.

"Who?"

He shook his head. "I have no clue. But we'll figure it out, I promise Jonah."

Jonah and Nathan ran, to find her help. She needed desperately. Before too much blood was loss, or it became infected. Before she could... turn.

Jonah and Nathan wouldn't let that happen, they would walk across the world to save her, protect her.

—

About an hour after running around Macon, they found a motel, where a group of people were at. "Please help!" Jonah begged once they got there. A girl on top of an RV raised a gun at them.

"Who are you?" She called out. She had long brown hair and a cold expression drawn on her face.

Jonah took a deep breath, his voice was shaky. "My names Jonah, that's Nathan," he told her. "My sister, Bronwyn, she got shot. Please we just need some help. All our supplies were taken. Please help her, she's only a kid."

The girl looked unsure of what to do, some people in the group said no, that they couldn't waste valuable supplies. But other's said they had to help her, they agreed, she was only a kid.

"Drop your weapons," She told them. Jonah looked at Nathan, who nodded and dropped his gun. Jonah did the same.

She turned to look at someone. "Kenny, Lee, go open the gate, Grab their guns."

A man with a mustache and a darker skinned man came towards the gate, opening it up, they carefully approached the three of them.

"I'm Lee," the darker skinned one introduced, he signaled to the other one. "That's Kenny."

They picked the guns up and helped the three inside. "Katjaa can try to help the girl, lay her down there." Kenny said as he pointed to a truck bed and Jonah was quick to lay her down.

Bronwyn looked up at Katjaa approached her. "Hey, I'm Katjaa," she said softly. Bronwyn could hear her brother and Nathan talking to the others, but she couldn't make it out. "Honey, what's your name?"

She carefully lifted the pants leg up to see the bullet wound, before she grabbed some medical supplies. "Bronwyn," she said quietly. "But... everyone calls me Bonnie."

"Well, that's a pretty name," she said, smiling comfortingly at the girl. "How old are you?"

She took a deep shaky breath, as Katjaa cleaned her leg. She winced at the touch, but tried to not show the pain. "I'm 10."

Katjaa smiled again, starting to carefully wrap her leg. "I have a son your age, he's over there," she pointed out a boy who did appear to be around Bronwyn's age.

"I haven't met anyone my age since... since the walkers started walking around," she admitted. Katjaa was doing well at distracting the girl from her bullet wound, Bronwyn couldn't see what she was doing, but even if Katjaa was a stranger, she trusted her.

She had a motherly voice to her, Bronwyn didn't understand how she heard it that way. She barely knew her own mother.

After a few minutes Jonah approached the two girls. He glanced over at Katjaa, desperately waiting for some reassurance on his sister.

"She'll be alright, she just needs to stay off it, rest," She assured him, smiling in the process. "Make sure the bandage is changed every few days, just to lower the risk of infection."

He looked at his sister, who seemed more content that she had been when they arrived. But he could tell, she was still in pain and it shattered his heart to see her like that.

"We lost everything we've gathered over the past few months, we don't have bandages or anything," he told her.

She frowned for a moment before nodding. "Hopefully Kenny and Lee can convince Lilly to let you guys stay."

He nodded slowly. "Do you think she'll let us?" he asked.

She seemed hesitant, before she shrugged. "Lilly lost her father a few days ago. You walked in at the wrong time," she admitted. "She's just been on edge ever since then, but we can hope."

Before Jonah could say anything, Bronwyn did. "Jonah, I wanna stay," she told him. "They have kids, real kids! Like me."

He bit his lip before nodding. "I know, but it's not up to us."

She frowned, but she nodded. She knew nothing was the same anymore, that part she understood.

Katjaa glanced at Jonah. "We've let people in before," she explained.

He nodded. "If it's a matter of not trusting us, I understand," he admitted. "But we're not here to hurt people. I just want my sister and Nathan safe."

"Lilly's more skeptical, but Kenny might try and convince her," she said. "Is Nathan not your brother?"

He shook his head. "He's my... boyfriend," he explained. "He was with me when everything happened."

"Oh goodness, I'm sorry dear, I shouldn't have assumed anything."

"It's okay, I understand."

She smiled warmly. "I assumed he'd be with his family," she admitted. "Where are your parents, you don't look above age."

He shook his head. "I'm 16." He replied. "Nathan's parents are always traveling, he's always spent a lot of time with me, even before we started dating."

He glanced at Bronwyn, who seemed distracted. Katana's expression dropped, "Did yours not make it?"

He shook his head. "I'm not sure, they haven't been apart of my life for awhile now. I've lived with my grandfather. He didn't make it," he explained. "My parents went to prison when Bronwyn was just only 3. She knows this, she just doesn't understand it."

Usually, Jonah wouldn't be so open about his life. But he really wanted to stay, for the safety. He would tell them anything they needed to know, to ensure the safety of Nathan and Bronwyn.

Out of the corner of Jonah's eye, he saw Lilly approaching with Lee and Nathan. Once Katjaa noticed them, she walked off.

He just hoped, hoped for the best. "Hey," Jonah said, facing the three of them.

He could tell his sister was listening intently, hoping for good news as well. He tried to look at Nathan, to get some sort of answer. But his eyes showed nothing.

Lilly looked at Lee, who just nodded. She took a deep breath. "We'll let you stay for now, but if you pull something, you're out."

He nodded, a small smile forming on Jonah's face. "Thank you so much." He said softly.

She nodded, she looked hesitant about her decision, but Jonah wasn't gonna say anything. He didn't want her to change her mind.

Bronwyn watched Jonah walk towards Nathan and Lee, while she glanced around. She spotted Katjaa walking back over, with the other two kids beside her.

"Kids," she said softly, smiling again. "How about you introduce yourselves."

The boy looked excited. "I'm Duck!" He exclaimed, with a cheeky smile on his face.

The girl beside him had dark, curly hair and a hat on her head. "I'm Clementine." she said quietly.

Bronwyn smiled at the two. Despite everything that happened, she was actually excited to have friends again, that were her age. It felt like forever since she had been around other kids, even if it had only been a few months.

She sat up slightly, leaning against the side of the truck bed. "My names Bronwyn," she said, before biting her lip. "Everybody calls me Bonnie."

She was never a fan of Bronwyn, she felt like it was too long, to complicated to say.

"That's a cool name," Clementine said, finally returning a smile.

"I like your hair," Bronwyn added, smiling at her.

authors note :
hello!! i hope you enjoyed this chapter. i know it was kinda slow but i wanted to get it out there. timelines might be messed up because i want bronwyn to be at the motel for a few months before they leave, but she got to the motel after episode two !! i also made a discord server for people that are interested, lmk if you wanna join!