❪ 𝗚𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗘𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛 ❫

𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝗓𝖾𝗋𝗈 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━
the before. ╱ episode null.

TOBY EMERSON was a boy who always kept to himself. He had always found himself being an introvert. No matter how much more extroverted his siblings were, he always stayed the same. He tended to stay back and watch things unfold, rather than his siblings who were right in the middle of it all. Life was never kind to the Emerson boy, from a young age he had always felt like the odd man out. His family was attached at the hip and then Toby was just trailing behind, dragging his feet. He never felt connected to his family, there's always been a barrier keeping him from showing them who he truly was. Fear ruled who he showed to people, he sometimes felt like he was living a double life.

The Emerson boy had always done what people expected him to do, there wasn't a time where he made a choice because he wanted to, he always did it for the people around him. He needed to hide himself cause the fear of people finding out who he really is was too strong.

Being from deep inside Georgia really backfired what parts of himself he could show. People were ignorant, offensive, and downright bullies to people who were different. If you showed any signs of not being heterosexual, the straights could sniff you out like bloodhounds and harass you until you fled town.

Toby saw that happen to a man he knew, and god forbid if it happened to him. So he shoved who he really was deep down, so the shell of a person was what people saw. He swallowed the disgust of flirting with someone he had no interest in. He turned a blind eye to the blatant homophobia he experienced daily. He felt disgusted with himself. His mother always preached kindness and standing up for the underdog. But instead, Toby acted like a dog with his tail tucked between his legs and stayed quiet, watching his ignorant friends and family harass people who had individuality swimming through their blood.

Toby dreamt of being someone he could admire, he felt trapped in a body of someone he didn't recognize. He never truly thought he could hate himself, but the passionate loathing he felt for himself proved that theory was incorrect. He felt stuck, like he was running in a circle with no way to break the movement. He just wanted to be free from the confinements of his life, he felt locked out of the good life, forever trapped in a world where he could never express who he is.

Toby thought his life couldn't get any worse, but then a sickness began rapidly spreading through the world, and it wasn't the normal flu, people were coming back to life with an inclination to sink their teeth into anything that was alive. And just like that, the world Toby once knew was crumbling around him. He was no longer safe, he was shoved into a world he didn't understand, a world that depended on survival. The brunet boy had always been the one to take the easy way out, he found out that any situation had a very easy scapegoat, and he didn't hesitate to take it every time. He had the knack of ignoring his problem until they went away. But now his problems were literally eating everyone around him, so he now had to face them head-on.

Toby never enjoyed killing biters, it made his stomach churn every time he had to slide his knife into the mushy skull of a person who used to be alive. The first time he had been pressured into doing it, he immediately threw up the contents of his stomach. It was much too real, he had killed someone, even if they were alive or somewhere in between. But the boy did have a knack for scavenging, he found all the nooks and crannies people used to hide the good stuff. He was very thorough, and when he was done he came out with stuff that could give his family a better chance at living.

At first, when it all started, the boy had faith in the government, that it would be able to provide him and his family with safety. But slowly each camp they sought refuge at began falling apart. One after another, they began being infested with the undead. He saw many people be ripped apart before his eyes. Then his hope began to fade, every pipe dream he had, that each camp wasn't going to be like the last, but they always were. They gave him and his family refuge, they settled them in, they gave them a false sense of security, then pulled the rug from beneath their feet. Toby began to lose hope from the world around him, it always got worse. In the beginning, that's when his first loss happened. Toby tried to keep his family close, feared that they would get ripped away from him.

But there was one person that was missing from his family. While the whole pandemic spread like wildfire, his family had a hard time trying to catch up. And his older sister never made it back home from college. He had hope lingering in his chest in the beginning, that one day she would find them and he would reunite with the person that loved him the most. But once they started bombing the major cities in Georgia and surrounding states, he knew she was a lost cause, forever to be exiled into the memory of his old life.

He was never going to see her again, no more movie nights with absolutely awful chick flicks his sister had, no more secret midnight drives while his sister screamed the lyrics to some shitty pop song on the radio. No more nothing, just radio silence. He was forever stuck with the memories he would never get back. He loved his sister, she was the one he never hid from, he didn't lie. He was who he truly was with her, and she accepted it with open arms. Sabrina Emerson was an anomaly in Toby's life. She felt like a defect, like one day she would come back and hurt him in the end. He trusted her with his secrets but feared that they would come back and bite him in the ass.

And when she never came back, it made him feel ripped away from the only support system he truly had. While his mother was there for him and ultimately would accept him if she knew he was gay, he just couldn't with the climate he grew up in. While his mother preached kindness and individuality, his father preached an animosity towards anyone who was different. He believed that people should be the same and if they aren't they're not a creature of God and should be in hell. Since childhood, Toby itched for his father's approval, he chased after it, but he always knew deep down that he would never have it. He often was disgusted by his father and his beliefs, but a pricking feeling always fell across his skin every time he didn't have it.

But all the fears and wants he had didn't matter. Trying to survive and keep his family alive became the most important thing to him. There was no longer faking and hiding, there was no more civilization, just people fighting against the dead that roamed the earth. And in a dark and twisted way, Toby preferred it that way.

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TOBY EMERSON FELT nothing but blood pumping through his veins, his adrenaline was skyrocketing into a full-blown panic. Chaos was all he could see, he felt the breath get knocked right out of his body. Fire surrounded him, tents and refuge, gone up in flames. People's screams of agony flowed through the air, he flashed his head from side to side, not knowing what to do.

Blood covered the forest floor, it was washing in with everything, there wasn't a single inch of the ground that wasn't covered in it. Toby felt his stomach drop watching a panicked woman get tackled by a biter. He went to help her, but it was too late, a swarm of the undead huddled around her. Blood and guts spilled from the small scene, and Toby wanted nothing more than to spew his dinner onto the ground.

There was nothing but disarray lying at his feet, he didn't even know where to start. He didn't know where to find his family. For a few hours, he left the camp, his safety, to go on a small run with another woman from the camp. And in the span of that time, his whole sense of security was collapsing around him. He soon kicked it into high gear and began an endless search through pain and turmoil to find his family.

People were in a frenzy, gunshots, screams, and agony filled the camp, and it only drew more of the dead in. Moments flashed through his head, of his little brother, of his mother, hell, even his father. Bile began rising in his throat at the thought of them getting torn apart. Memories, small little plot points of his family flash in his head and it only added to his panic. Images paint his brain, the images of his family dead and he couldn't save them.

A desperate yelp of his name stops him in his tracks, snapping his head he was met with his baby brother running to him at full speed. Nothing but tears and fear filled his face. Toby dashed to him, instantly the younger boy crashed into his arms. Little arms were tightened around the teen's waist, and Toby swiftly tightened his grip on the younger Emerson sibling.

"Tommy, are you okay? Are you bit? Did anything touch you?" Toby snapped out of it, soon bending down to meet the eyes of Thomas. While he scanned his little brother, Toby constantly flashed his eyes to his surroundings, making sure they were unseen by any of the dead.

"I-I'm f-fine, but m-mommy and d-dad..." Tommy began, but eventually trailed off into a fit of sobs.

Toby's breath halted hearing those dreaded words, "W-What happened to them?"

"I was pl-playing with J-Jordan and all of-of a s-sudden p-people were s-screaming and mommy was p-pulling me with her and d-dad, and th-then they came and m-mommy told me to go hide and w-wait until she c-came and f-found me,"

"Did she come and get you?" Toby rushed out, trying to figure out if his parents were still alive.

Thomas only cried harder, he began shaking his head and Toby's heart completely dropped. "I h-heard m-mommy and dad scream and I-I t-turned to see them g-getting-"

Toby hushed his brother and snapped up to see his surroundings, his head flew through a million scenarios and he decided that he needed to get Thomas' backpack from the tent, knowing that the little boy would need his inhaler. "Okay listen to me, I need to hold my hand tight and never let go, I mean never, you understand?"

The little boy sniffled lightly, but instantly nodded, "I-I understand,"

"Okay good, but now we're gonna have to sneak around some biters, but we're gonna have to be real quick and quiet so they don't notice us,"

"But what i-if they d-do?" Thomas asked.

Toby sighed, quickly unsheathing his hunting knife from his jeans, "I'll take care of them, don't worry okay?"

Without waiting for a reply, Toby instantly gripped his brother's hand tightly, soon pulling him along. The middle Emerson sibling began weaving behind the tents that outlined the camp, eyes flying everywhere in case one biter suddenly popped out. But most of them resided in the middle of the camp where the feeding frenzy was taking place.

After a few minutes of hurriedly running towards their tent, they finally got to it. Toby ripped it open and found no one and or dead person occupying it, he soon gestured his brother towards it, "Grab your stuff and be quick, we need to leave quickly, and don't forget to get your inhaler and back-up inhaler,"

With that, the little Emerson boy was jumping into the tent and hurriedly throwing his stuff into a bag, wanting nothing more than to be away from this place. Toby looked around at the chaos, nothing seemed to end and people still ran around trying to escape. A few biters caught wind of him and began trekking over to him and his brother. "Tommy, we need to leave now,"

The little boy was instantly by his side and the two were dashing down the lines of tents. Toby saw the opening of the camp in their reach, he felt his time tick further and further down as they ran faster and faster. His grip on Tommy's hand never weakened, he didn't worry how harsh his grasp was, he just needed his brother to stay with him.

And to his horror, his little brother was instantly grabbed by a biter, a petrified scream escapes the youngest Emerson child at the action. Toby immediately froze in fear, watching the terror fill his little brother's face. The biter hissed, spit and slobber escaped the mouth, causing an agonizing scream to rip from Tommy's throat. This was all in a span of a second and before Toby could even make the fearful notion of slamming his knife into the biter's skull, a sword was already slicing through it.

The little Emerson boy was instantly released from the biter's grip as it crumbled to the ground, and the boy soon found his way into his older brother's tight grip. Toby flashed his eyes to meet Michonne's concerned ones, "We need to leave now,"

Toby didn't hesitate to nod, soon taking off and following Michonne, his brother tight in his arms, not even giving the boy's feet a chance to touch the ground.

Life just got a whole lot harder and Toby doesn't know if he can take it.

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✿❣︎ 𝘼𝙐𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙍'𝙎 𝙉𝙊𝙏𝙀 ❣︎✿

HEY WELCOME TO
THE PROLOGUE OF
GOOD ENOUGH!!!

I am fully in love with my
boy Toby, he's just a little baby
and must be protected!

I am so excited to explain
the dynamic between
Michonne and him, it's
gonna get hella cute so
be ready.

I'm really excited to write this
book cause I have so many ideas
and I've wanted to write a book
based on season three for ages
and I'm so ready to do this!

Hope you enjoyed!