"In the new world, beauty has consequences."
Twelve-year-old Eva and her mom Muda are like most in the apocalypse. Haunting pasts and dirt-caked skin. With nothing but the clothes on her back and her mom by her side, Eva wants to focus on helping...
(A/N: The discovery of AI generated images will now and forever be my holy grail. Also, sorry for any grammatical errors, all will be fixed in due time.)
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Settling into a house when you've been on the move for so long is rough. We didn't have much, but we still didn't want to bring in everything out of fear. Sure, it was perfect, it had all of the room we could ask for, but what if a herd came through before we secured it? What if whoever Daryl and I heard in the woods came for us before we secured it? Many what ifs, zero solid answers. Needless to say, we didn't settle in fully.
As previously stated, the house was huge. With six bedrooms, an office, a movie room, a second living room, and a basement, there was enough room for each family or single to have their own space. There was a balcony in the back, and easy access to the roof from the balcony. The house was apart of a new development. So there were only a few finished houses around it, but worst of all, no fences. However, it was a semi-easy fix because there was plenty of construction going on around it for us to be able to make one ourselves.
"Whoa!" Carl breathed as we walked out into the backyard. Behind the house was a walking trail. A mile out there was a lake. It was clearly man-made, but it was still beautiful. There was a bridge that went across a thinner piece of the lake that allowed you to look over it as you walked. There was also more wooded area surrounding the trails, and a lot of it stretched out to the houses.
"Rick . . ." Mom mumbled, her voice full of uncertainty. "That's a lot of blind spots."
"It's just temporary," Rick reminded her. "To get us through the winter with a roof above our head."
"Still."
"I understand your concern. That's why we're already thinking of ways that we can fortify this place. Fences, traps, signals—we're gonna do our best to make this place safe for the time we need it."
"How long's that gonna take?" Moms eyebrow lifted. She wanted something that was safe now, and by the looks of it, so did a few of the others.
"Not long, but until then, we continue as usual. Lookouts, security traps—everything."
So, the adults got to work. "Security is our main priority," Rick had said before assigning tasks. All hands needed to be on deck for our new home. That thought made me uncomfortable—settling down without looking for my family. It made me feel guilty.
Lori, Carol, Hershel and Beth were in the house tidying up or doing whatever task was deemed important, while the rest of us were outside. Rick and T-dog were mapping out the land, measuring where the fence should be put and how deep it should go. Apparently T-dog had been in construction a few years pre-apocalypse. Maggie and Mom were both on the roof, both of them keeping watch. The rest of us—Daryl, Glenn, Carl, me—were put in charge of gathering supplies from the abandoned construction sites. At first Daryl tried to argue, saying my twisted ankle didn't need to be used, but after ten painful jumping jacks, my poker face proved to be top notch, and I was allowed to join in on the fun.
