The Beginning Of The End (A Daryl Dixon Fanfiction)

Chapter Seven: Memory Lane

Scavenging had become a routine now, a few people go in, search the house, get rid of any walkers, look for food and supplies, then the rest of the group would come in and set up camp, figure out where they'd be sleeping and whatnot. Sometimes the place had already been ransacked, but they always figured it out, Daryl would hunt or they'd eat dog food.
One of the nights Rain lay awake all night remembering everything that had happened since the start.

She remembered the first time she heard about this virus spreading, dead people walking around. She was at work at her tattoo shop wiping down the chair when her client came in, he was a large biker with a big bushy beard and a pony tail that went down his back. He chose one of Rain's flash pieces, a skull with flames protruding from its eyes before sitting down on the chair.
Rain peeled the stencil off of the man's arm as the Motörhead song that was playing on the radio ended. The radio crackled for a moment and a woman's voice slowly became clearer.
"Local hospitals and food banks are looking for volunteers but the state does advise evacuation." Rain turned the radio up. "The virus has spread around most of the US and has started to pop up in Europe."

~

Most of Georgia evacuated or went to the refugee center in Atlanta but Rain and her mum stayed. The hospital they were working in was completely surrounded by the military.
Rain was cleaning up a patients wound when one of the runners, Steven, came in, he had just returned from a run out to get more medicine. He handed her a box of medical supplies.
"Thanks." Rain smiled. "What's it like out there?"
"Not great." Steven replied. "The soldiers are trying to hold back a heard that's coming but more and more of them are leaving to spend their last days with their family."

That night there was a storm and the doors burst open, Rain suddenly woke to a scream coming from down the hallway. By the time she had left her room, the hallway was full of people trying to fight off the walkers, most of them failing.
"Mom!" Rain yelled, there were four walkers coming right for her but Rain couldn't push through the crowd to get to her. "Mom!" She quickly retrieved her knife from her pocket. "Catch." She raised her arm and let go of it. As the knife flew towards her mom, she looked away, terrified. Suddenly she heard four thuds, she looked up to see the walkers dead and her mom staring at them in shock. "Mom, come here." Rain held her hand out towards her. "We need to get out."
"What about the hospital?" Her mom asked but she just shook her head.
"I'm sorry."

~

"Are you sure you've got everything?" Rain asked her daughter Ruby, she looked up at her mom and nodded. "It's going to be a long journey, make sure you have food, water, a colouring book."
"It's going to be fine, Rain." Michael said as he brushed Ruby's hair out of her face.
"Here." Rain pulled a shiny, red hair clip from her hair and put it in her daughter's before kissing her on the forehead. "I'll find you."

~

After the hospital got overrun, the few soldiers that were left set up some medical tents for them. One day a twelve year old boy came in with a broken leg. Rain helped him and, after a couple of weeks, he seemed to be on the mend.

"Rain." Rain's mum said with an urgent tone. "Matt has a bad fever."
Rain ran to Matt's room to see him sprawled across his bed, dripping in sweat.
She left the room again and found some towels, she drenched them in cold water before returning to the room. Matt was lying face down on the floor next to his bed.
"Matt?" She asked, bending down, she reached out her hand to shake him when she noticed the wound on his shoulder. It was a bite.

"Mum!" She yelled, running down the hallway. "Mum! There's walkers in the hospital." She came to a stop and just stared at one spot, shaking. A walker in a soldiers uniform was bent over her mum, ripping her intestines out of her body.

~

Rain stopped the car and picked up her backpack before getting out, she was on a random road in the middle of nowhere, she walked for a while in the sweltering heat, her tshirt clinging to her back and her fringe drenched in sweat and stuck to her forehead. She finally found a small wooden cottage just on the edge of the forest, outside was a tree stump with an axe sticking out of it. She could hear the groans of a walker coming from inside the house so she pulled the axe out and kept hold of it. She opened the door and the walker stumbled towards her, she had never fought one before or seen one so close up, it's skin was grey and thin so she could see the outline of its bones underneath and one of its arms was dangling from its socket. The walker was quite tall so she first swung the axe at its knees chopping its legs clean off and sending it to the floor, before splitting it's head open. Inside the cottage was so small that there was only one room, it was basically a kitchen with a small rickety bed in the corner of it. Rain opened one of the cupboards and found cans of beans and tins of spam, she also found a fork in the drawer, she shovelled a can of each into her mouth and put the rest in her bag before laying down on the bed and going to sleep.

- Princexiero xx