Me and Sophia had been lost for a few days, with no sign of anyone. "It's been days, Ellie. How much longer can we live like this? The others probably think we're dead and have taken off. We don't have any weapons or food. I'm so hungry, and tired, and cold." Sophia started to cry, I knew that she missed her mother and brother, I knew everything she told me, I just wish that I had an answer for her.

"We'll get some food today. I'll catch us something." I confirmed. "Hey, down there!" I noticed a river. "Water." We ran towards it as fast as we could, which wasn't that fast in our state.

Sophia jumped into the water, smiling and laughing. I jumped in after her, we'd left Teddy and Dolly on the grass bank next to us, so they didn't get wet. I splashed my face and hair with water, submerging myself. I even drank the water, I didn't care if it was dirty, we had to drink something. We hadn't drunk since a muddy puddle we had found the day before. "Oh my god, this feels so good." Sophia said happily.

"We're gonna freeze after this, but right now, I couldn't care less." I agreed. "Hey, you feel that on your legs?"

"Fish." Sophia realised.

I took a deep breath before going under the water and opening my eyes. It was dark but I was able to make out a lot of fish surrounding our legs. I reached out with my hands, grabbing two handfuls and coming back to the surface. I squeezed them and waited a couple minutes, so I knew they were all dead before going back to the grass bank. Sophia sat next to me. I put the fish on the grass and counted them out. "Eleven." I smiled, giving her six and me five. They were pretty small fish, but they'd do, and I could maybe catch more if we hadn't scared them off.

"What part do we eat?" Sophia asked. I gave her the look. "Oh god."

"We gotta do what we have too so we can survive. All we've seen since we left that cabin is trees, trees and more trees. So... Here's to surviving." I said, putting the first dead fish in my mouth. I gagged as I chewed the raw fish, the blood and eyeballs squirting in my mouth. I gagged but kept it all in my mouth before I swallowed the chewed corpse. I looked up to Sophia who had a scared look on her face. "It's so good." I tried.

Sophia looked back down to one of her fish with a disgusted look on her face. "Here's to surviving, I guess." Then she placed a fish in her mouth and took a bite. She screwed her eyes shut tight and fisted her hands, she chewed as quick as she could before leaning over to the water and drinking some of it. She sat up with water running down her chin. She looked to me. "I don't know if I can do that five more times."

Since me and Sophia decided that it was very difficult to eat the fish that way, we decided to make a fire. We put sticks together and surrounded it with rocks. I then got two sticks and started rubbing them together, trying to make a spark. "Come on, come on." I tried.

We'd gotten further away from the water, but not too far, just far enough so the ground wasn't too wet. "Ellie, behind you." Sophia said, standing up.

I turned around and saw a walker. I grabbed a big, heavy rock that was next to me. I tried to throw the rock at the walker's head... But I tragically missed. I hit the knees, so the walker fell over. Split second thinking got me to run around the walker so I was by its head. I jumped into the air before moving over and landing on the walker's face. The skull collapsed, causing brain damage and instant death to the walker. "Ew." I nodded as its brain juice exploded everywhere.

"How did you know to do that?" Sophia asked, sitting down again, holding Teddy and Dolly in her lap as I tried to get a spark going again.

"The walkers are dead bodies, right? They're rotting, just a lot slower than us. You've seen how easy their bodies rip. I figured their bone structure must also be weak, so one forceful jump to the head, brain damage and death. Boom!" I smiled as I got a spark going, causing a small fire to start in a controlled area so we wouldn't cause a forest fire.

"That's pretty smart... For a nine-year-old." Sophia grinned.

"Who led the three walkers away? Who caught the fish? Who started the fire? Who killed that walker?" I smirked as I stuck one of my fish on a stick and held it over the fire's flames.

"Yea, yea. Who carried you to safety?" Sophia said proudly, handing me Teddy.

"I ever thank you for that?" I asked.

"You don't need too. We save each other's lives now." She sighed. "I guess, that's just what the world has come too." She put one of her fish on a stick and it joined mine above the roaring flames.

"Maybe we can sleep tonight. Take watch, ya know?" I suggested.

"I don't think that's very safe." Sophia shook her head.

"We'll stay up in a tree. I'll take first watch. You need some sleep." I nodded.

"You wake me up halfway through the night though? Cause you need sleep too." Sophia pointed out.

"Sure." I agreed.

After our slightly tastier fish, we found a tree around the water we could stay in. Sophia found a good place in the large tree, surrounded by branches. "If whoever sleeping stays here, it'll make sure that we don't fall out of the tree." Sophia pointed out, cuddling up to Dolly.

"That's a good point." I agreed, sitting on one of the branches next to her head.

"Promise you'll wake me up halfway through. Or even if you get sleepy, or lonely." Sophia looked up to me.

"I promise, now get some sleep, Soph." I smiled.

"Soph?" She repeated with a grin.

"Sorry. Sophia." I corrected myself.

"No, it's okay. I liked it. I've never had a nickname before." She closed her eyes, resting her head against some bark, but she couldn't get comfy.

"Here." I pulled her slightly so that she could rest her head on my lap.

"Thanks." She said softly, indicating how tired she was.

"Goodnight, Soph."  I rested my head back against the bark.

"Goodnight, El." I smiled at Sophia's words. I've also never had a nickname. I've always just been Ellie. Even by my old friends, it's always been Ellie. 

The night came and went, I watched the sun rise with a small smile on my face. I knew my dad would be watching the sun rise too, he loved the colours it made in the morning. I didn't know where he was, I didn't know where I was, but we were under the same sky, looking at the same sun rise.

After a couple more hours under the morning sky, Sophia started to stir awake. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, looking and realising it was morning. "Morning, sleepy head." I said with a yawn.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Sophia asked.

"I tried; you wouldn't wake up." I lied.

"Oh... I'm so sorry." Sophia apologised.

"Don't worry, I'll be alright. I got food and water in me, that's all I need. I'll sleep tonight." I jumped down from the tree. I watched as Sophia stepped on a branch that we hadn't stepped on at all yet. That's when I heard a snap. I looked up and saw Sophia fall to the ground with a scream. "Sophia!" I yelled.

She hit the ground feet first. Tears streamed down her face. "My ankle." She cried out. I rushed to her side, she was holding onto her ankle and sobbing. "It hurts so bad."

"What do I do? Soph, how do I help?" I panicked.

"I don't know- I don't know but it hurts." She was crying, holding Dolly and her ankle.

The noise had attracted walkers, five of them. "Oh my god, you have to stand up." I helped her to stand but she was still loudly crying. The walkers got closer. I gave her Teddy as well, so she held both our comfort toys under her left arm, her right arm was over my shoulders. I held her right hand with mine as my left went around her waist. I was carrying most her weight so she could take the pressure off of her left ankle.

I was nearly carrying her as I made us rush through the forest. I took us through the water, so we'd lose the walkers. With a struggle, we made it to the other side, but there were more walkers. Sophia's crying, my panicked and struggling pained groans combined had attracted nearly fifteen of them. "Why are there so many?" Sophia asked as I tried to run with her.

"I guess their own growls attract one another. They follow the same sounds, same animalistic instincts. So, over time they're gonna group. Maybe one day they'll form one massive herd the size of a city." I said through huffs of breath.

"We can't outrun them. They don't get tired." Sophia pointed out.

"Let me know when you think of another plan, you can't climb up a tree, you're hurt." I answered.

"I'll struggle but I'll do it. Put some distance between us first." Sophia told me.

"Yea, then what? We can't jump on fifteen heads." I turned my head. They were still hot on our trail. I faced the front, trying to increase our speed but it wasn't really working out. "It's not looking good." I admitted.

"You have to leave me." Sophia said.

"What?" I asked.

"Them eating me will give you enough time to get away." Sophia pointed out.

"I'm not leaving you. Ever." I warned.

"El-"

"You're the one person I have in this world now, Soph. I don't know if we'll ever see the group again. I'm not losing you." I ordered. I stopped running, my right hand letting go of hers and I reached down and grabbed under her knees before I ran. I was running faster this way, carrying her bridal style. Sophia was tall, but she was pretty skinny, so it wouldn't have been that difficult for me to carry her if I was at my strongest. I ignored the pain in my arms, my throat, my legs so I could get her to safety... Wherever that may be.