Eloise Atkinson gripped onto her brothers wooden pocket knife until her knuckles turned white. Her eyes trained on the little 'x' she carved in the wall of her room.

The loud moans of the roamers around the rest of the house. Usually were so loud they kept her up at night but they had now slightly quieted, tiny thuds echoing through the house.

As if her mind had finally caught up with her, she realized what was happening. Someone was in the house. Eloise's attention left the marking on her wall as she crept towards the door of her room. She slowly reached for the door when there was no more moaning or walking.

Her porcelain, shaky hand grabbed the cold metal of the door handle and she slowly twisted her wrist and the door silently opened. Eloise peaked her head out of the room and saw five dead roamers around the hallway and living room. Her soft green eyes traveled over all the bodies before she felt a sudden cold metal pressed against the side of her head, a click ringing through the house.

"Gimme the knife." A woman demanded from her right, a slim hand coming into her eyesight, waiting to be given the weapon. Eloise took a gulp and looked down at the pocketknife, her brother's name craved on one side, her name carved on the other. Jasper and Eloise. She bit the inside of her cheek before tightening her hands around the knife and swinging her arm up to stab the woman but before she could even get halfway to her target, a strong arm wraps around her shoulder and pins her to the wall.

"Oh, you're quick." The woman monotonly cheered as she ripped the knife out of the young brunettes hands. Eloise could finally look at the two people in front of her. A woman with short grey hair and a dark man with a scruffy beard, wearing a beanie covering his forehead and most of his eyebrows.

"Are you all alone?" The man asked Eloise as her mind paid attention to the tone of his voice. It didn't sound threatening, it was filled with pity for her.

"Just me." Eloise's slow voice croaked in worry as she shook her head. "My brother and I got separated by a group of those... things. I found this place about two months ago." The woman nodded her head and finally dropped her gun but the man still had Eloise pinned.

"We don't want to hurt you. We just need a place to stay." Eloise slowly nodded her head, knowing she was definitely outnumbered and if she complied, she still might get a place to stay.

"There's two other rooms here and a couch. H- how many of you are there?" Eloise asks the adults, stammering over her words. "Us and three little girls." The man says as he drops his arms from Eloise. Eloise nods her head and lets out an airy chuckle. "You guys killed all the roamers, I've been here for two months and haven't been able to, so I guess you guys can stay."

The man stuck his hand out for her to shake, a kind smile gracing his face. "I'm Tyreese and this is Carol."

Eloise nodded her head and shook his hand. "Eloise."

Carol's mean demeanor fell as she handed the girl her knife back. Just as Carol was about to say something, the sound of a girl screaming pierced through everyone's ears.

The three ran towards the front of the house, making sure not to step on any bodies. Once Eloise got to the front porch, she saw a blonde girl on the ground screaming with a baby while another blonde was trying to shoot the roamer crawling towards them.

With her body working faster than her mind, Eloise threw her pocket knife and watched, almost in slo-mo, as it went into the roamers head just as the little girl finally shot the walker.

Eloise watched Carol and Tyreese calm the girl on the ground, Tyreese taking the baby out of the young girls hands as Carol motioned for the other girl to lower her gun before walking over to the creature, ripping Eloise's pocket knife out of its skull.

Carol turned back around and handed Eloise her knife. "You've got good aim." Eloise smiled at the compliment.

She heard soft whimpers from beside her and noticed one of the blondes had been crying. Carol noticed too and immediately, the three girls surrounded the crying one as Tyreese took in the baby. "Why are you crying, Lizzie? Were you scared?"

"No." Was all the girl replied with and Eloise felt her face scrunch up. "Then why are you crying?" She softly asked the girl. Even though she didn't know the girl, she wanted to know what upset her.

"I don't want to say." She immediately ran away towards a bench, the smaller blonde running right after her. Eloise held her confused face, hoping one of the adults would explain but neither of them did.

...

After a few hours of getting to know the group and show them around the house, Eloise sat by the fire, playing with Judith when childish footsteps came running into the room. Eloise turned her head to see Mica running in with a big smile, holding the doll that once sat on Eloise's bed.

"Eloise! Is she yours?" Eloise shook her head, a small laugh escaping her lips. "No. She was here before I was. You can have her if you'd like but she'll need a name."

Mica gasped, her smile growing even bigger than before. "A name! How about... Griselda Gunderson." Mica squealed before running over to Eloise to sit beside her as the older of the two played with the baby, trying her hardest to make Judith laugh which only happened once and a while but she did get her to stop crying.

"We gotta bag one of them deer and we're all set. Eloise, you said there's deer around?" Tyreese asked as he walked into the room, taking a seat in the recliner.

Eloise nodded her head but not taking her eyes of the baby in her arms. "Yep. Always see them through my window."

"What's wrong?" Mica's voice squeaked and Eloise looked up to see what she was talking about and she registered Tyreese's distraught face. "I'm not used to this." Was all the man replied with. His voice sounding astonished.

"Used to what?" Lizzie questioned. "We're in a living room. In a house." Tyreese breathed out and Eloise smiled. "Yeah, so relax."

After a couple of seconds of silence, the only sound going through the house was Judith's giggles, Mica spoke up. "We should live here." Eloise immediately smiled, hating the thought of being alone again. "Yeah, you guys should."

Eloise looked back down at Judith, more specifically the big brown eyes staring at her until a gasp from Mica makes her look back up and when she did, Mica was staring directly at her, her eyes wide and a huge smile etched on her face.

"Yes, Mica?" Eloise questioned while an awkward laugh escaped her lips.

"Can I give you a nickname?" The young girl hummed and Eloise laughed at the weird question and nodded her head.

"Sure. What do you got?" Mica put her hand up to her chin, tapping her finger against it as if she was thinking. After a few seconds, her hand fell and her smile came back. "How about Lou?"

Eloise smiled at the name. Her families nickname for her was Louie so hearing the name again made her smile. "I love it."

Mica squealed and looked at everyone else in the room. "Then it's settled, from now on, you're Lou."

...

The next morning, Eloise woke up to the sound of a tea kettle hissing and she immediately got up, swinging her feet off the bed and walking towards the kitchen, giving a smile to Tyreese as she passed by the living room.

She let out a sigh of relief once the kettle was off the stove, the annoying noise was no longer there, but yelling was.

Just outside the window was Carol and Lizzie, Carol on top of a roamer as Lizzie yelled at her.

"She was my friend and you killed her!"

Eloise froze at Lizzie's words before letting out a shaky breath. "Tyreese?" Eloise called out, her voice just as wavy as her breathing.

Tyresse walked in and looked to where Eloise was looking, hearing what she was hearing and sighed. Eloise took a step closer to the window, her eyes not being able to leave the crying girl. "Does she think-" "Yeah." He replied, already knowing what she was asking before she had to finish her sentence.

Eloise felt her jaw drop, letting out tiny incoherent words as she watched the young girl continue to cry over the dead roamer.