Dad was slowly pushing his bike along the road. I was walking in front of him. The road wasn't really a road yet, it was a narrow path through the trees, therefore too narrow for me to walk on the other side of the bike and help push it. There was something strange about the forest; it was dark, like burnt. There were walkers scattered every now and again on the floors, their bodies had been burnt to crisps.

We got to a part of the path that was pretty steep and pretty much a ledge. I turned around to help but had to quickly jump to the side when I realised dad was losing control of the heavy machinery. He fell to his side, still holding the heavy bike. "You okay?" I questioned.

He was breathing deeply. "I'm fine." He confirmed, stepping over the bike to be by me as he tried the walkie talkie. "Sasha? Abraham, you there?"

I noticed blood dripping down my dad's hand, through his fingerless gloves. "Dad, your hand." He looked to his hand, taking off his glove and passing it to me before going to take off his jacket. He was wincing though. "Let me help." I ordered, standing behind him. He stopped putting himself through pain to take off his jacket and just let me slip it down his arms. He had his angel wings leather vest on top of his jacket, so before he moved his arms I slipped the sleeveless leather back onto him. I carried the jacket for him before standing in front of him. 

"Thanks, princess." He said quietly, looking for the source of the blood.

I noticed a deep gash in dad's elbow as I draped his jacket over my shoulders instead of carrying it. "That looks nasty." I said quietly. I heard some sticks snap behind me, after a quick look and I couldn't see anything, I turned back to dad who had also been looking for the source of the sound.

"It'll be alright. Ain't so deep." He responded gruffly, grabbing his crossbow as well as a small bag off of the bike. He then covered the motorbike with the bush it was next too. "Stay behind me." He said quietly, he walked with his crossbow in a defensive position in his hands. I had to hold onto his jacket that was around my shoulders because it was way too big for me. We very slowly walked for about twenty seconds before dad quickly rounded a tree. I saw two girls, both with their hands up. One looked early twenties, the other late twenties.

"You found us, okay?" The older brunette one said with her hands up. The younger blonde's eyes trailed to me. "Here we are. We earned what we took." The brunette continued, also looking confused by my presence. 

All of a sudden a yelp was pulled from my lips when something hard hit my head and I fell to the floor, the last thing I remember was my dad falling next to me.

I felt shaking on my leg. "Don't you touch her!" My dad's voice was cold and angry... Colder and angrier than his usual gruffness with people who aren't me or Sophia.

"Then you wake her up." A man ordered.

I felt rope around my wrists and I forced myself to blink open my eyes. The sun momentarily blinded me. My whole body was cold as I realised I'd spent quite a long time on the cold ground. "Come on, baby." Dad's voice told me quietly as the three stood to the side.

"What's going on." I asked as dad helped push me to stand up, his wrists were also bound with rope but he grabbed my arm and gently pulled. The jacket fell from around my shoulders so I grabbed the material with my bound hands.

"Get up." The man ordered, pointing a gun at my dad who then stood next to me. A cold wind ripped around us and nipped at my exposed arms. I realised my black leather belt was gone, I looked over to the duffel bag they had and realised it must be in there, along with my dad's crossbow. "Follow them." The man ordered.

The two girls started walking, so dad made me go in front while he stayed behind me, the man behind him. I was shivering so I tried to put my dad's jacket around my shoulders again, but I couldn't pull it tight and with how oversized it was it fell off. I went to grab it but I was met with the barrel of a gun. "Hey!" My dad's voice yelled, getting between me and the gun. "You point that thing at her again it'll be the last thing you ever do."

"What are you gonna do? You're tied up." The man raised his eyebrows.

"Dwight, just let the girl put the jacket on. She's obviously freezing." The blonde girl spoke before my dad could. 

"It'll fall off, let's just keep moving. We gotta get to Patty." Dwight replied.

"Come here, sweetheart. Let me help you." The brunette walked over to me, putting the jacket around me and doing up the buttons so it wouldn't fall off. "There you go." She smiled.

"Please, just let us go. We haven't done anything." I begged her.

"Negan sending kids to do his dirty work is a new low." The man, Dwight, said.

"We don't know a Negan." I pointed out as we started walking again.

After a bit more walking the brunette girl offered me some water. "Drink." She told me. I looked to my dad who nodded, he'd seen them drinking out of it as well. I couldn't take the bottle because my hands were hidden under my dad's jacket. He took the bottle from the woman and held it to my lips. He tried to give it all to me, but I forced my mouth back so there would be enough for him, some of it dribbled down my chin when he didn't get the hint to pull the bottle back sooner though. "You too." The brunette said to him. Underneath my dad's jacket, I started trying to loosen the rope around my wrists.

Dad shook his head, so Dwight spoke. "We don't need you falling down. Drink." Dad rolled his eyes before drinking the rest. "If they find us, maybe we give you to them, if they let us call it even. You see, we're reasonable people, people like us don't want anything to happen to the little girl. Everybody's got their code. You feel you gotta kneel? That's fair enough. We don't." Dwight then took the empty bottle from my dad. "Let's go."

We were getting closer to where they were heading. "I can't believe we're back." The blonde said.

"It's not home anymore but it's better than where we were." The brunette replied.

"This is a pit-stop. We pick up Patty, nothing more than that." Dwight ordered.

"How'd you do it?" The blonde questioned.

"You saw where we left the truck?" Dwight asked. "We opened the valve and drove all the way in from Farmview Road. Ran from the treeline until we hit the pavement. Lit up a matchbook from the Sweetwater and dropped it on the trail. Then we just ran for the car. Got in and the dead ones were there. They were beating on the hood, and then- boom. Knocked them on their asses and I took an axe to each one."

"Then we just watched it go up." The brunette added. "No more moans, no more of that wailing. It was just the fire, burning them all away."

"You did this?" I asked, realising what had happened to the forest.

"It was right at the start." The brunette replied. "Everything stopped, tv, radio. We were here. The forest was full of them. And the other ones in town, well they were drawn to it. They just walked right into the flames. We got most of them. Thought we ended it for us, and she was in DC. We thought everyone was fighting them wherever they were."

"Yea, we thought that's what everybody was doing. Fighting it. So that'd we'd all win together." Dwight added.

"Lots of people were still fighting each other. Didn't see the bigger picture." I responded.

"Yea, well, guess that made us stupid." Dwight said, walking in front of me and dad.

"Y'all don't think you're being stupid right now?" Dad questioned. 

All three of them turned to look at us. Dwight got his gun out and approached us again, so dad instantly stood in front of me. "Are you saying I should kill you?" Dwight asked, holding the gun not even thirty centimetres away from my dad. "I mean it, are you going to try and pull something on us. Or are we just being thick here by not removing all doubt? Right now, by me not pulling this trigger, is that a mistake? I'm talking about your girl as well, so choose your next words carefully. I'm serious. I really wanna know. You made the choice to kill for someone else, to have them own you for a roof over your head and three squares, so maybe I'm not considering all aspects here. You're willing to put your daughter in an environment where she will be practically forced to be one of his girls, she's only a few years too young for him. You tell me, am I being stupid?"

"No." Dad answered simply. "Look, we got somewhere to be. We can make a deal. I can help you out."

"You're one of them." Dwight responded. "You're hurt, the only protection you have is a nine year old girl and you'd say anything."

"I'm ten." I mumbled.

"We should never have trusted you people in the first place." Dwight continued, not hearing me. "Go on now. Keep moving." 

I walked around my dad slowly, and then he walked behind me as Dwight once again went to that back, this time with a gun on my dad.

"Still don't know what people you're talking about." I muttered to myself, starting to get annoyed with these people.

We finally got out of the trees and we were presented with Patrick's fuel company. It was surrounded by fences, it had a large building and a large courtyard... Many walkers wondering around in there. "Son of a bitch." Dwight let out, walking in front of us as the three gathered. It reminded me a lot of the prison, only smaller. "Patty." Dwight let out. While they backs were turned to us, I finally got the ropes lose enough around my wrists for me to slip out. I showed my dad the rope by lifting it through the neck hole and he smirked at me before I lowered my hands to be hidden again.

"No, she's gone." I heard Dwight say to something to brunette girl had said.

"Then we make another plan." The brunette nodded.

"Yea, we get out of here, that's the plan." Dwight responded.

"Then that's the plan." The brunette agreed.

"You guys don't have to do this for me." The blonde suddenly said.

"It was the right thing. For all of us." The brunette denied.

"This was the right thing?" The blonde asked. "Even if you guys just went back now. If you just told them that it was me."

"No, we'll find a way." The brunette denied.

"Just think about it." The blonde persisted.

"No." The brunette shook her head. I really needed to figure out these girls names, but it's awkward to ask for your kidnappers names and nobody had said them.

"Okay, maybe we don't get as far, and maybe- hey, hey." Dwight said when the blonde girl just straight up fainted.

"Tina, hey!" The brunette said. Ah, so now I know the blonde girl's name. "Hey, baby sister, look at me."

Dad dived forward for the bag, I got the hint and started running in the forest, I slipped my arms into the sleeves to make it easier as we bolted, dad following quickly behind me. I knew he could overtake me if he wanted, but he stayed behind me... Probably because Dwight would try and shoot at us. "Hey, stop!" I heard Dwight yell and then the gun went off, multiple times.

"Don't! We need that! Please!" I heard the brunette girl yell before we were out of ear shot.

We ran for quite a while until dad decided it safe to stop for a little while. He pretty much tackled me behind a tree so I'd know to stop too. He was breathing heavily, so I assumed his throat was currently burning to much to speak. He tried pulling his ropes off with his teeth, I rolled up the sleeves on his jacket so my hands were out and I could try and untie the knot. It didn't work so I grabbed the knife from his belt that they didn't see to take and cut them off him. "Thanks, baby." He breathed out, checking to make sure they weren't running up on us before opening the duffel.

I tried the walkie talkie. "Sasha, Abraham, you there?" I asked into it. No reply.

Dad pulled out my belt. "Hold up the jacket." 

I did as he said as he attached my weapons belt around my hips. "Do you want your jacket back?" I questioned.

"No, looks better on you." Dad smiled, before ruffling my hair.

"Dad." I laughed, tidying my hair again as he looked through the duffel bag. First he pulled out his crossbow... Then a red cooler box labelled Insulin. "That's what was wrong with that girl." I realised.

Dad chewed his bottom lip, looking deep in thought. "Alright, here's the plan. You go back to the path, you find and follow the road North and you'll get to Alexandria, but it'll take a while. Go straight with no detours. I need to go look for Abraham and Sasha first but I'll still probably catch you up before you get back. I'm going to take this bag back-"

"Wh- dad!" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"If they're bad people I don't want you anywhere near them." Dad responded.

"I don't want you near them either. Just leave the Insulin here and if they track us they can have it." I pleaded with him.

"They could be good people who can't track." Dad countered.

"Please, I don't wanna leave you." I begged.

"Darling-"

"No." I tried with a desperate plea in my tone.

"I need you to do this. I need you to be brave." Dad put his hands on my shoulders. "If you realise you're lost when you're on the road, just stop and stay where you are. Find a safe building to stay in. I'll find you as soon as possible, I promise. You know your way back to the path, don't you?"

"No." I lied.

"Okay, I'll take you back to the path-"

"I'm lying, I know my way back. I just don't want to leave you."

"I thought you were still mad at me?" Dad quirked an eyebrow.

I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. "What if they hurt you?"

Dad scoffed. "I'm Superman. You can't hurt Superman... You ready to do this?"

I chewed my bottom lip before lunging forward and hugging him tightly. Dad squeezed me back. "I love you, daddy... But I'm still a little bit mad."

Dad chuckled. "I love you and I know you can do this."

I pulled back and nodded. "Yea... Yea, okay." 

I stood up and so did dad, securing the duffel and his crossbow. "I'm sorry for what I said back in Alexandria... I was mad at Rick for stopping us from going out to look for people, I thought it was a screwed up idea and I took it out on you. And, I was acting out because you were mad at me, and you had a right to be, and I hated that I'd hurt you."

"So you hurt me more." I nodded and a small laugh escaped my lips.

Dad kneeled down again. "You're not screwed up, babe. I actually think you're one of the most level headed people out there. You need to be calm to deal with the world how it is today. I'm proud of you for that."

"You are?" I smiled.

"Of course." Dad nodded.

I leaned forward and kissed his forehead. "I'll get back to Alexandria."

I'd found the path, found the road and I was walking along it. I still had my dad's jacket. I was holding it up against my nose because it smelt like him, and at that moment I was trying not to cry in my loneliness and worry. He may have smelt like sweat, dirt, and a bit of blood... But there was something about it that smelt like home. Home wasn't Alexandria, or the prison, or Hershel's farm, or even where I lived before the end of the world... Home was whenever I was with my dad, with Sophia, with mum, Rosita, Abraham, Carl, Michonne, Mama Rick, Glenn or Maggie.

"Ellie?" I heard a voice beside me as I was passing an old building. "Ellie, is that you?"

I turned around and saw a woman standing next to a car. She was of average height, with pale slightly wrinkled skin, dark green eyes and curly brown hair that was slightly grey at the roots. "Uhm... Yea... Do I know you?"

"I'm Eileen? Eileen Smith? You seriously don't know me?" She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Oh wait... Didn't you bring round that casserole?" I questioned. 

"Yea." She smiled and nodded. "Did you like it?"

"Nah, it was overcooked. What are you doing here?" I questioned.

"Oh... Uhm... Sorry about the casserole. I was helping with the herding but got separated from the others." She responded.

"This car work?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yea. I've just been waiting here because I wasn't sure what to do.

"Drive North. We're going back to Alexandria." I told her, walking over and getting in the passenger seat. She got back in the car and started driving down the road. "I'm often told that I'm mean. I wasn't trying to be mean about your casserole, Eileen."

"Was it your dark humour I've heard so much about?" She asked with a grin.

"No, it was a terrible casserole. I just didn't think I should lie to you." I replied.

"Ah." Eileen nodded.

The car broke down when we were a mile away. It was dark outside now. "Ah, shit." I let out.

"What do we do?" Eileen questioned.

"There's this amazing new invention called walking." I responded sarcastically, getting out of the car.

Eileen quickly scrambled to follow after me. "Walking a mile in the dark is dangerous."

"I'll keep you safe." I responded.

"Shouldn't I be telling you that? I'm the adult." Eileen reminded me.

"And how many walkers have you killed?" I asked, she went silent. "I'll protect you. Don't worry."

We approached the gate. "Hello! Whoever's on duty! We're out here!" Eileen called.

I heard walkers groaning. It was very loud, I looked around but I couldn't find the source. When things started pushing at the fabric covering behind the metal gate, my heart dropped. "Oh god." I muttered, running around the side of the wall. I saw that some of the wall had given in. When I went closer, I saw walkers, must have been thousands, walking around Alexandria.

"What happened?" Eileen whispered.

I gulped. "They're in."