.・゜-: ✧☾　☽✧ :-゜・.

𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀 𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐄 pulled the bowstring back before releasing it, letting the arrow fly through the air before hitting the tree, only inches away from the squirrel. The animal climbed down the tree fast in horror.

"Fuck." Stella whispered under her breath.
The squirrel ran over the leafy ground and onto another tree a few yards away. The girl placed another arrow on the arrowrest and aimed it in front of her as she slowly approached the tree. Her fingers let go of the string. And once again the girl watched as the arrow pierced the air before the sharp end met the small creature, which immediately froze and fell onto the ground with a thud.

The girl tied the dead animal to her other six squirrels that were tied onto a rope, resting on her back.
Her skills with the bow had definitely improved and it had become a habit for her to hunt in the morning. So far, she had only caught squirrels. Every morning she would go out and wish to return with a bigger animal like a deer.

When the girl arrived back to her camp she received a loud cheering as she lifted her animals in the air. It was early in the morning and not everyone from the camp had woke up yet. She sat down next to Levi and Sophia, who were reading a book together, and showed them what she had caught.

"Oh wow! Seven squirrels. Great job, Robin Hood !" He exclaimed. Stella smiled at the nickname.

"Robin Hood? Really? Couldn't I have got something cooler like Legolas or Katniss Everdeen?"

"What's wrong with Robin?" The boy asked sounding offended.

"Robin is cool!" Sophia exclaimed. "He stole from the rich and gave to the poor."

Stella laughed and rolled her eyes playfully.

"Wait, if you're Robin, does that mean that I'm Batman?" The boy said as a sly grin appeared on his face.

"No!" Stella laughed as she frowned.

"Can I be Batman too?" Sophia asked earning a nod from Levi.

"We're  Batman." The boy said with a dark voice trying to imitate the superhero. Sophia tried to make her voice darker and mimicked Levi. "We were born in the darkness."

"Oh, my lord."  Stella rolled her eyes.

"Alright, Robin."

Before Stella could say anything a loud shrike cut through the air, followed by the familiar voice of Carl.
"STELLA! MOM!"

Levi grabbed his knife and Stella grabbed her bow and flew up to follow the sound of her brother's screams.

"Stay close!" Levi demanded Sophia.

"CARL!" The sister yelled as she ran towards the forest.

Her younger brother ran up to her with fright in his eyes. "Stella." The boy whispered as he flew into his sister's arms.

"You okay? Nothing bit you? Nothing scratched you?"

"No, I'm okay." The boy answered.

Stella kissed her brother on the head before she let him go. The scared boy flew into his mother's embrace.
Stella followed her father and Levi, and the rest of the men at the camp to where the kids had run from. She met the sight of a walker leaning over a dead deer, feeding from its throat. The deer had two arrows pierced into it brown furr covered skin. She grabbed an arrow and aimed it at the walker. Stella had not yet met many walkers. Their camp on the quarry was safe and not many walkers made their way up there. Being this close to one, she realized how frightened she was of them. She watched as her father approached the dead slowly. The walker turned around to attack but her father lifted his weapon in the air and hit the dead. The walker fell to the ground and the men formed a circle around it and used their weapons to hit it repeatedly. Dale lifted his axe and cut its head off making a gross sound.

"You guys done?" Stella said to the panting men. The walker's head began to move and groan making everyone gasp. "It has to be the head."
Stella pulled out her knife and leaned over the walker. She pierced the knife through its eye. Her first walker kill. If it counts- it was only the head.

"It's the first one we've had up here," Dale said as he tried to catch his breath. "They never come this far up the mountain."

"Well, they're running out of food in the city that's what," Jim said.

A rustling sound made everyone turn and aim their weapons at the unknown threat from behind the trees. Stella rolled her eyes when she saw who it was -Daryl.

"Son of a bitch!" The man said. Stella sighed as she heard his Southern accent. "That ma deer! Look at it all gnawed on by this... filth.. disease-bearing....motherless... poxy ... bastard."
The man said in between his kicks at the dead walker.
"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale said calmly.
"What do you know about it, old man," Daryl said as she approached Dale with an aggressive look on his face.
"Hey!" Stella heard her own voice yell. "I suggest you back the fuck off, Daryl."
"Who do you think you are!"
Before Stella could say anything to defend herself she was cut off by her father grabbing her shoulder to pull her back and gave her a look to calm down.

"I've been tracking this deer for miles." Daryl said as he backed away from the girl." Was gonna drag it back to camp. Cook us up some venison. What do you think? Think we can cut around the chewed part right here."

"I wouldn't risk it," Shane said.

"Well, I got some squirrels. Like a dozen or so."

"Robin Hood, you've got competition," Levi whispered to Stella earning a smile from the girl.

❀

"Dad don't. I don't understand why you have it do this. I mean why would you risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?"

"Hey Goldilocks, choose your words more carefully." Daryl spat at her.

"Oh, trust me I did." Stella scoffed. "Douchebag's exactly what I meant." The girl turned to her father again." Dad, you just got here. Don't leave again, please."

"I'll be fine, sweetheart." Rick tried to assure his daughter.

"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori asked.

The man turned to Glenn who sighed. "Oh, come on man."

"You know the way. You've been there before. In and out, no problem. You said it yourself." Rick said resting his hands on his hips. " It's not fair of me to ask. I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." The man nodded to his daughter, who stood next to Levi a few yards away. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her face clenched with anger.

"That's just great," Shane said sarcastically . "Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?"

"Four," Stella said stubbornly.

"My day just gets better and better, doesn't it." Daryl scoffed as he looked at the girl, earning an eye roll.

"Stella," Levi said sharply. "You're not going."

"Levi, yes I am and—-" Stella was cut off by her mother who regarded her with a serious expression as she spoke.
"Stella, Levi's right. You're not going."

Before the girl had any time to say anything T-dog stepped forward.
"I'll go."

"But-" Stella tried to protest.

"No, Stella! You're not going! End of discussion!" Her father spoke with a steely and sharp voice.

The girl's face hardened and her mouth was a tight pout with anger.

About an hour later, Stella sat on the hood of one of the cars with her mother and younger brother and watched as the four men packed into the truck. Well, not all of them. Daryl mostly yelled and was being loud and annoying.
"Come on, let's go!" He shouted as he used his foot to honk the truck's horn.

Stella watched as the truck drove away, in the same direction it had driven only a few days ago when her father first arrived. And there she stayed. On the hood of the car. Even when her mother and brother left, she still sat there and watched over the mountains and waited patiently for her father to return.  As the sun rose to its high on the sky, Levi sat down next to her. 

"You've been here all morning. Are you okay, Robin?" Levi said as he jumped onto the hood to sit next to Stella.

"Come on, not this again." She forced a smile on her face as she made eye contact with the boy.

"No but seriously, are you okay?" Levi met her gaze and gave her a serious look.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The girl lied and tried to avoid eye contact. "I'm just... I mean he just got here. And he just leaves for an idiot like Merle Dixon. I mean.... And it's been hours, they should have been back by now. It's a simple mission. In and out."

"Okay, just calm down." The boy's voice was mild and even as he smiled to Stella. "Come on Robin Hood, you wanna eat one of those squirrels you caught earlier?" Levi jumped down from the car and reached out his hand for the girl.

"I think I'm gonna wait here. See if they show up."
The boy's smile faded and his hands found their way into his pockets. "Alright, I'll see you later then, Robin."
The girl did a salute sign that transformed into her playfully giving him the middle finger, earning one back from him.
The girl giggled to herself before a wave of reality washed over her- her father.

She sat and waited for hours, without any sign of him showing up. Levi sat with her a few times and left of some food. He also gave her the news about Shane almost beating Ed to death.
"That asshole definitely deserves it." Stella scoffed as she took a bite from the cooked squirrel.

"Yeah, definitely," Levi answered with his mouth full of food. "And Jim kind of lost it today." The boy said after swallowing the piece of squirrel.

"What?" Stella choked on her food.

"Yeah, he started digging a bunch of holes and said that they were for us. And then he attacked Shane but he knocked him out and tied him to a tree to calm down."

"I spent one day sitting here away from everyone and you guys have the most exciting day ever. Great." Stella sighed.

"Yeah. And that Daryl dude, I mean wow. Nicest person I've ever met." Levi said heavy with sarcasm.

"Real sunshine." Stella scoffed.

A couple of hours passed. The sun began to descend and a darkness consumed and hid their surroundings in the dark. The only thing lighting up the camp was the fire which everyone was sitting around and enjoying their food. Everyone except Stella. She remained in her spot on the hood and stared out into the dark. Distant laughter and chatter would echo between the mountains and the sound of cutlery against plates.

"Stella! Come join us!" Dale shouted. "They probably stopped to sleep on the road because it was too dark. No need to worry. Come on Stella."

"Stella, we're all enjoying your squirrels," Levi said as he walked toward the girl. "Come join us, please." The boy looked at her with puppy eyes.

"But what if they show up?"

"Then it won't matter if you're sitting here or with us. You are joining us, Stella grimes. And I won't take no for an answer." The boy grabbed the girl's hand and began to lead her toward the fire.

Once they walked closer to everyone she earned a loud cheer for her presence. "Look who's here!" Dale exclaimed.
Stella sat down along with Levi who handed her a big plate with squirrel and fish.
"Oh, I'm not hungry." Stella shook her head.
She lied. She was hungry but the food was the last thing on her mind.
"Yeah, you are. Stella, eat." He shoved the plate in Stella's lap and began to eat from the fish Amy and Andrea had caught.

"Mmh, these squirrels, man," Amy said covering her mouth full of food with her hand. "Stella, you are a lifesaver."
Plenty of scattered "yes" and "totally" spread around the fire as the group agreed to Amy's statement.

"I've missed this," Levi said as he leaned back into his camp chair and chewed on a piece of squirrel.

"Eating squirrels?" Carl furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the boy disgusted.

"No, Sherlock," Levi answered playfully. " This, the feeling of joy and home."

"Yeah." Stella agreed. "Me too."

"I've got to ask you, man." Morales smiled at Dale. "It's been driving me crazy."

"What?" Dale frowned.

"That watch." Morales nodded at the watch, resting around Dale's wrist.

"What's wrong with my watch." Dale smiled in confusion and looked at the brown watch.

"I see you every day, the same time, winding that thing like a village priest saying mass."

"I've wondered this myself," Joaquin said.

"I'm missing the point." Dale looked around at the faces around the fire with a confused look glued to his face.

"Unless I've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end." The woman said humorously. "At least hit a speed bump for a good long while."

"But there's you every day winding that stupid watch." Morale filled in.

"Time—" the old man began. "It's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least. Don't you think, Andrea?" The man looked at the blond woman for support but he just earned a look like the man was out of his mind. The woman laughed innocently before placing the beer in her hand to her lip to take a sip.

"I like what a father said to his son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said, 'I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine or my father's before me."
Everyone listened intensely to the man as he spoke.
"I give it to you," he continued. "Not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment, now and then, and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it." His words were followed by a silence as everyone pondered his words.
"You are so weird," Amy said before a laughter spread around the fire.

The blond, young girl put her cup down and stood up.
"Where are you going?" Andrea stopped her.

"I have to pee," Amy whispered, sounding embarrassed. "Jeez, you try to be discreet around here."
Another laugh spread around the fire as the girl walked away.

Only moments later the girl exited the RV to ask, "Are we out of toilet paper?"
Stella turned around to smile at the girl, but her eyes met the horrifying sight of a walker.

"AMY!" Stella yelled and tried to warn the girl, but it was too late. The girl let out a loud scream as the dead grabbed her arm and bit her. Stella choked and felt a bolt of shock right through her. Her heart twisted and her eyes prickled with tears. Stella stood up quickly and grabbed her gun from her holster. A handful more walkers began to appear around the camp. A chaos spread around the camp. People screaming and running around in panic. The sound of Shane's gun echoed through the air. Stella looked around in panic to find Carl, her mother, or Levi. Levi had been standing next to her only seconds ago but now he was gone.
"Levi!" The girl yelled as she looked around. She saw Carl pressing himself into his mother's arms as he looked around in fright.

"Stella!" Levi shouted. The voice was distant and hard to hear due to the screaming. She managed to locate the boy who stood with Stella's bow in his hands. He threw the bow to the girl along with her quiver.
Stella threw the quiver over her shoulder and placed an arrow on the arrowrest with her shaking fingers. Her arrow flew through the air before piercing a walker that was about to bite Dale. She loaded a new arrow and shot two more walkers perfectly in the head. The girl then threw her bow over her shoulder and grabbed her knife.
That's when she heard a loud cry. A cry that she immediately recognized- Carl.

Stella looked around desperately trying to locate her brother. Her gaze shifted panicked between the frightened faces and the walkers and the blood before landing on her brother. He was standing pressed against a car alone with two walkers coming his way. Without hesitation, Stella ran towards her brother with her knife firmly gripped in her hand. Her feet moved on their own knowing she had only seconds before the walkers would get to the abandoned child.

Stella's knife flew into the head of one of the walkers and it collapsed in front of her. The second walker reached it's hand out for the frightened boy with a groan. Stella pulled the knife out of the first walker's head and stabbed the second one, which was only three inches away from the boy's face.

The young boy wrapped his arms around his sister and pressed his face into her shoulder and sobbed.
"It's okay, I'm here." Stella stroked his hair and for a moment, the screams and moans disappeared. She just held her bother tight, to protect him. "Come on," she let go of her brother and pulled him behind her. "We've got to get to mom. Okay? Be brave now, baby."

Stella looked out over the overrun camp- the camp that she used to call home was now roaming with walkers and the moonlight illuminated puddles of blood on the ground. Stella ran past the bodies of people she'd lived with for the past two months. People that she had grown into calling family.
She tried to stop herself from looking, tried to focus on finding her mother, tried to focus on keeping her brother safe. But the girl forced herself to scan the faces of every corpse she passed, praying that none of them would belong to Levi or her mother.

Stella stabbed two more walkers as she ran, impressed by how easy it was. In a situation like that, Stella imagined that she would freak out and panic. But she was brave and strong.

"Everybody, get to the RV." Stella heard Morales yell.

She spotted her mother along with Shane, Carol, and Sophia.
"Stella, Carl!" Their mother yelled as she dragged them to the RV.
More numbers of guns echoed around the camp and Stella managed to catch a glimpse of her father. She knew she should feel relieved but a strong worry consumed her- Levi.

"Dad!" Carl shouted as he ran to his father's embrace.
Soon after the last gunshot was fired and the walkers were dead. Stella's mind felt like it had been microwaved and her hands were shaking uncontrollably. Her clothes were stained with blood and she wasn't sure if it was hers or a walker's. Shock and fear pulsed through her body as the adrenaline washed out of her.

Even though her mind was a space, she managed to grasp a realization.
"Levi! Levi!" The girl shouted multiple times and looked around her, desperate to find the boy.

"I'm okay!" His voice filled Stella with a warm feeling of relief and her heartbeat calmed as she saw the boy step out behind one of the tents.

"Oh, thank god!" Stella said as she flew into his arms. "Dad!" She let go of the boy and ran to her father.

"Stella, you okay?" Her father asked scanning her for bites.

"I'm okay, dad." The girl hugged her father and brother, who was sobbing loudly out of fright.

Stella's eyes met Amy's. Her eyes were glossy with tears that rolled down on the side of her face. They were wide open and she was violently gasping for breath. Her skin was already pale.
Andrea leaned over her sister, pressing onto the big wound where the walker had bit open Amy's neck, making a hopeless attempt to stop the bleeding.

"I don't know what to do, Amy." Andrea sobbed to her sister as she stroked her cheek with her bloody fingers.
Amy lifted her hand and touched her sister's cheek leaving a stain of blood before her eyes shut slowly and her arm fell lifeless to the ground.
Stella heard as a sob escaped her lips. She felt as tears began to form in her eyes and she forced herself to look away from the bloody scene.

The place that Stella had called home looked like a blood bath. Her gaze landed on the open surface in the middle of the camp, where only hours ago Carl and the other kids had been running around, laughing and playing. The open surface was now filled with puddles of blood and bodies were scattered everywhere. The home that Stella had known was gone- replaced with something that looked like a scene from a nightmare.

_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____
𝟑𝟒𝟒𝟗 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝟏𝟎𝐭𝐡
𝟏𝟎:𝟏𝟎 𝐏𝐌
_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____

A/N

I LOVE THIS CHAPTER
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