— ZOE GRIMES WASN'T THE KIND OF girl to rebel and go against her mother's wishes, but when she found out that her father was put in a coma, due to being shot in his line of duty, she began to act out. She skipped school, stayed out late and was backchatting to her mom, a lot. She couldn't help it; her father meant the absolute world to her, he was her idol, so, when she was told that he might not ever wake up, she didn't want to believe it, she was completely broken. So when things went to shit, Zoe didn't know what to do or how to act about it or even think about it.

She was sitting outside, far from her home, on the side of the street during the evening of a normal week day, watching as the cars drove past her, most of them going way over the speed limit. She had another argument with Lori, causing her to storm out of the house in order to cool off, like she had been doing for the past couple of days. She normally never argued with Lori, they usually got along very well, having a great mother-daughter relationship, but their relationship had been strained since they had been informed about her dad's condition, both feeling stressed out and worried about the whole situation. They seemed to be taking the whole situation out on each other, having no one else to confide in - and they were both breaking apart from it; if they didn't stop soon, they didn't know what would happen. They were just hoping that Rick would wake up soon, or their relationship would be strained forever.

She sighed and sat up from her place on the small bench on the side of the road, thinking that it was about time that she headed home and faced her mother's wrath once more; she didn't exactly want to, but she knew that she was going to have to do it sooner or later, and now was that time. As she walked along the sidewalk, she couldn't help but notice how empty her town looked, as a Friday night, the streets should be crowded with people drinking and having a laugh, only it was completely empty. Something that Zoe had never seen before, even on a normal weekday. Although, she didn't think much of it, and carried on walking home, back to her mother and brother.

As she approached her house, she still found it strange how there was still hardly any people around, on her whole journey home, she hadn't seen one single person, and most houses were looking empty, no one's cars were in sight and each house had their lights turned off, which was unusual for her hometown, as people would normally be out celebrating on a Friday night, or hanging with friends. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she saw her dad's best friend and her godfather, Shane, putting bags into the car in a rush, like he was stressing out about something that was going down, only, Zoe had no clue about what was happening.

"What's going on?" Zoe asked as she approached him, her hands still deep in her pockets due to the cold breeze of the night.

"Zoe, where have you been?" Lori asked from the front door, upon seeing her daughter, she rushed out to pull her into a tight hug upon thinking that her only daughter had died out there tonight. She forgot about the heated argument they had earlier, as she gripped onto her daughter for dear life.
She had been worrying about her daughter for hours and hours, not knowing if she was safe or not. She didn't understand what was going on, which is why she needed both of her children by her side, so she could look out for them and keep them safe. She would die before she let anything happen to them.

Zoe was confused at why they were both packing up the car, especially at this kind of time, what were they thinking? "I was in town, why are you packing up our things?" She asked her mom, after she pulled away from the hug, motioning towards Shane, who was stuffing things into the boot. She was confused at why her mom wasn't annoyed at her due to their argument earlier on, as normally, she would still be angry with Zoe, and she would be giving her a huge lecture by now about why she should be giving her more respect due to the fact that she was her mother. It's what made Zoe never want to head back after a night of cooling down.

Lori pressed her lips into a thin line and exhaled deeply, not exactly knowing how to explain to her daughter about everything that was going on, "Go to your room and pack a bag, only essentials, then I'll explain everything." She told her, desperately, knowing that she couldn't explain further at the moment - once they were safe and on the road, she could.

"But wh..." Zoe began to ask, only for Shane to cut her off abruptly.

"Just listen to your mother, Zoe, we haven't got enough time to argue." He snapped at her, before turning back to pack the car with more bags in a hurry. He felt bad for snapping at the young girl, but he needed to get it through her head that this wasn't the time to be asking questions. They needed to get out of town as of now, they couldn't risk staying here and getting overrun by those things. Shane was going to keep these kids safe even if it killed him.

Zoe looked back at her mom with furrowed brows on fee again, seeing the desperation in her words and the fearful look on her face, before sighing in defeat and rushing up to her room in order to pack some clothes and essentials. Once she entered her room, she noticed that most of her pictures in her frames were gone, making her room look plain. Almost every single one with her and her family were gone, leaving ones with her and her friends sitting on the empty shelf alone, and unknown to her, to gather more dust over the years. Just as she was about to grab a duffel bag out from her closet, her mom entered with Carl in toe.

"Mom, what's going on? Why are we packing?" Zoe asked her mom as soon as she entered, as Carl rushed up to his older sister, allowing her to pull him in for a tight hug upon seeing his distraught face. She hated it when Carl was sad or scared, the kid meant everything to her.

"It's your father..." Lori began, slowly.

Zoe's face fell at the next words that came out of Lori Grimes' mouth, and it was what changed Zoe's life for good. She had been told the worst news of her life, that her father had died in his coma, when Shane went to get him. It was in that moment, that Lori told her two children that they would be going on a camping trip to wait for the chaos around them to die down and be safe, to try and avoid everything that was happening in the world.
When Shane went to go and collect Rick, he had flatlined, meaning that he wouldn't be able to come with them. Lori, Zoe and Carl were the only Grimes' left..

Now, Shane felt as if it was his duty, to look after his best friends family, and ensure that nothing would ever happen to them, they were his responsibility.

——

Zoe had been crying silently for hours, sitting in the back of her godfathers car as he and her mother sat in the front on the drive to Atlanta, where it was rumoured that the military would be, and where a safe environment would be for them to wait everything out. Carl had fallen asleep on her lap, while Zoe glanced out of the window, seeing only other cars filled with panic struck people on the way. It wasn't until they had to come to a stop within a huge pile up of a traffic jam, did Zoe finally stop crying, noticing that other people were around, and she didn't want people to see her like that. Her hair had become knotted to the point where she had to tie it up, her pink ends sticking out of the bun she had attempted to tie up.

"Mom, what's going on?" Zoe dared to ask, interrupting Lori and Shane's stare out. She didn't know why they had stopped on the highway, and why there were so many other people around, but she knew it wasn't good.

"We don't know yet, Zo." Lori answered, as she waited for Shane to look through the radio in hopes of finding something that could tell them what was going on. Knowing that her kids looked squashed in the back, she turned around to face them, "Do you want to stretch your legs?" She asked her daughter, watching as she nodded frantically, before looking over at Carl, who was stirring in his sleep, "Keep him close to you." She told her, before turning back to the radio in hopes that something would come through about this hold up.

Zoe nodded at her mom's instructions, before gently patting Carl's arm to wake him up, to which he did after a few seconds of shaking. "Hey, we've stopped for a little bit, so we can stretch our legs, you up for it?" She asked him. When a huge smile broke upon his face, she smiled at the sight, "Okay, stay close to me at all times, no running off, and no talking to strangers." She told him seriously, as he nodded at her words.  She smiled that he had actually listened to her, before she opened the car door besides her, climbing out and taking Carl's hand to help him out, too. She instantly began stretching the second her feet hit the ground, feeling her muscles scream in protest due to how long she had been cramped in a car - but after she had stretched, she felt good.

The second she had finished stretching, she looked to her side, in order to take Carl's hand to stop him from wandering off, only to see that he had already wandered off to the car in front, taking a seat next to another little girl, as they both played checkers, with bored expressions. She sighed at the fact he obviously hadn't listened to her, but the fact that the little girls mom looked okay with her brother sitting there, she didn't intervene, instead, looking through her mom's window to tell her that Carl had made a new friend. It wasn't long after that, did Lori step out of the car and apologise for Carl's intrusion, only for the woman known as Carol, to let them know it was no problem.
Carl and the little girl known as Sophia, had actually begun to get along nicely, in this whole screwed situation, it felt nice to see her brother finally hold a genuine smile on his face - as they didn't know what was happening, they didn't know how long it would be like this, so the fact that Carl had made a new friend, felt nice to see.

Zoe decided to take a seat on the hood of their car as she waited for anything to happen, swinging her legs as she fiddled with the nail varnish on her nails, which had begun to chip due to her picking at them. It was something she did with nerves, and she probably wouldn't stop anytime soon. "Me and Shane are gonna head up ahead and scout to see  if we can find anything. You stay here with Carl and keep an eye on him, okay?" Lori came up and asked her daughter, placing both hands on either side of the girls face to get a good look at her.

Zoe nodded at her, "Sure, will you be long?" She asked, noticing how there were lines of people in front of them, it would take her mom and Shane a while to get through all of that.

"Probably not, just.. Stay here, okay?" Lori asked, placing a kiss to Zoe's forehead, giving her a soft, reassuring smile, before she and Shane hurried off to find anything.. Zoe watched the two go with a longing look, before she noticed three men up ahead, with two motorcycles, two wearing leather jackets and the one who looked the oldest, wearing nothing on his arms at all. How he wasn't cold, Zoe wouldn't know, but they didn't seem like the kind of guys she would want to associate herself with, in fact, they kind of scared her, especially the one who looked the eldest. The girl was quick to turn her head away from them, when the tallest one looked over at her, sensing that he had eyes on him and his brothers. When he saw the blonde girl that was watching them, he rolled his eyes, knowing what she was probably thinking.

Any girl that saw Nate and his two brothers together, mostly feared them, and he didn't exactly blame any of them who thought that - after all, Merle looked like a straight up crack addict. With their bikes, too, it didn't surprise him that the girl had looked away quicker than he could even blink. The girl looked harmless enough, but then again, he wasn't interested - right now, all that mattered was staying alive with his brothers, surviving. With a dad that beat them all, the Dixon brothers had had their fair share of shitty lives; this shit for storm outbreak was probably the best to happen to them all - they were never fit for the normal world.. As Daryl and Merle we're conversing on what to do next, the city of Atlanta began lighting up, indicating that bombs had started to go off, and that could only mean one thing.. They were screwed..

"C'mon. Let's go." Merle spoke up, upon seeing the city, "We gotta get outta this shit storm." He said. Nate nodded in agreement, knowing that they had to get anywhere but here, knowing that some riot was probably going to break out. Before he slid on the back of Merle's bike, he glanced back over to the blonde girl on the hood of the car, now clutching a small child, who seemed to be crying. It felt weird to him that she had stood out amongst everyone in this line up of cars - maybe it was the pink ends on her light blonde hair, or maybe it was the way she held herself.

He quickly rid the thought from his mind, knowing that he would never see that girl again..