The Last Flame

Chapter 8

Flashback

"Mommy! I'm home!" A little girl ran into the house, her blue backpack bouncing on her back as she bounded into the house.

Bell walked out from the kitchen and into the living room to greet her young daughter, who had just gotten dropped off by the by school bus. "Hey there Kit-Kat! How was school today darlin?" She asked, squatting down to her level as her daughter jumped into her arms, flaming red hair ticking out of her messy ponytail.

The little girl pulled back and looked to her with a toothy grin. "It was great! Today the teacher assigned us some homework to do, we have to write about what we wanna be when we grow up."

"Is that so? Well have you thought about what you wanna write?" She asked the little girl, gently moving wisps of the girls hair to the side that invaded her freckled face.

She nodded enthusiastically. "I knew as soon as she said it! I wanna be like you and uncle Ham! I wanna be a superhero!" She said, placing her hands on her hips and puffing out her chest.

Bell giggled at the little girls attempt to make herself look bigger. "Now Kit-Kat, you know I'm not really a superhero right? I can't fly, or read minds- not yet at least." She said with a smirk.

The little girl giggled and nodded. "Yeah I know, but you help people, and you risk your life to keep us all safe. So close enough right?" She asked her big green eyes.

Bell just nodded, not wanting to diminish the little girls dreams. "Yeah I guess it kind of is, when ya look at it like that." She said, placing a hand on the girls head. "Now I cut ya up some apples and a side of peanut butter to go with it, you get started on that homework okay?"

The little girl nodded and headed into the kitchen and sat down, munching on the crisp juicy green apples and setting her bag on the table as her mother sat across from her. "Hey mom? Do I have to go to dads this weekend?" She asked.

Bell looked at her from across the table and tilted her head. "Why? You don't wanna see your daddy?" She asked. She'd be more than happy to keep her daughter for the weekend, no doubt about it, but she knew how much the girl adored her daddy time.

She shook her head. "I mean, I do, but A.J. and Becca had mentioned how they were gonna ride horses this weekend and invited me to go!"

Bell just chuckled. "Tell ya what, I'll talk to your daddy, see what he thinks, and if he's okay with switching weekends then we can definitely do that. Sound like a deal?"

The girl gave a firm nod and held out her pinky, which her mother responded by hooking her pinky to hers so they were both connected. "Deal."

Present

Carol shoved herself out of Daryl's arms and ran off towards the RV, not wanting to be around anyone. He glanced to his right to see Bell staring at Sophia, a hollow look in her eye. He was about to reach out to her and see if she was okay when a scream grabbed their attention.

One of the young Greene girls, Beth, had ran over to her dead mothers corpse, who they thought to be dead. But it suddenly lunged at her, Beth tried to get out of its grip but it was strong, T-dog grabbed the girl in attempt to pull her away, Andrea ran to grab a scythe hung on the outside wall of the barn but before she could take it down a shot rang out that made everyone freeze.

Everyone turned to look to see who had shot the corpse in the head, they saw a deadpanned looking Bell staring right where she had just fired at the corpse. She lowered her gun and dropped it to the ground, and without a word or look to anybody she walked away, straight towards the woods.