We were in a town that apparently went down during the Independence Day because we had Z's in dressed as president and Uncle Sam.
"Come on. Come on! Doc! " I yelled as Murphy tried to control the Z's as I was holding Lucy.
"Holy acid flashback, man." said Doc. We were down to the last Z's when I handed Lucy to Warren as I shoot the last Z and everything was quiet. We started walking into the woods and made camp.
"I'll take her now. Adorable, isn't she?" Murphy said taking the baby from Warren.
"Thought you didn't like babies." said Warren.
"I never said that. I said I didn't like that baby." Murphy said thinking back to the Military base with the Zombie Baby.
"But she's daddy's precious little angel, aren't you?" Murphy said talking to Lucy.
"How's little Lucy?" Doc asked.
"Finished all her sugar water like a good little girl. Didn't you, LuLu?" said Murphy
"That's a good little stinker." said Doc.
"Oh. Have you smelled yourself lately? Please. Come on. Get away from the big bad man. Yeah, that's it. Come on." Murphy said sitting down on top of the car while Cass stood near.
"Hey. Is anybody else worried about the baby?" Addy asked.
" I don't know whether to be worried for that baby or afraid of that baby. You see the way she attracts Zs? That baby, and I use the word loosely, is gonna get us all killed." Said Warren.
" Guy's she's a baby." I said.
"A baby sprung from Murphy's loins. She's not just a baby. She's something else. She could grow up to be the savior of the human race or the queen of destruction. And we need to find out which and do what we got to do." said Doc
"You know Fatherhood changes you. It makes you want to be a better man." said Murphy, he looked at Cass and said. "Rub my feet, darlin'. These dogs are barking."
"Caught some trout." 10k said holding up 5 fishes.
"Kid, you are a fishing guru. What's your secret?" asked Doc.
"Be one with the fish." 10k said. I laughed and watched as he cleaned the fish.
"Far out. Atta boy Well I got some foil in here somewhere. We're gonna fry one of them bad boys up." Doc said. Murphy called me over and I went to him.
"Can you hold Lucy for a second, I need to stretch." Murphy said handing me Lucy. Murphy got up and started to dress when I showed him what I found at the town.
"Hey Murphy do you want a picture with your daughter. I found a polaroid camera when we were searching for food." I said as everyone came over and looked. "We should all get a picture."
Everyone smiled and knew we should do this.
"All right. Everyone look at the Camera, Cass is gonna take the picture." I went over and stood next to 10k and hugged him as we got the picture. I went over and grabbed the camera and shaked the picture. "Guys it turned out awesome. Thank You!" Everyone went back to do what they were doing while I looked at Murphy. "Here you sit down and hold Lucy and I'll take a picture for you to give her in the future." He sat down and held her when I took the picture. The picture developed and I gave it to him.
"Cassandra darling will you come take a picture with Autumn, Lucy and I please." Murphy said.
I sat down and we took the picture. I gave him both and told him that this is the future you are going to save and I went over to everyone as he sat over there.
"Where's Vasquez?" I asked Warren
"Disappeared again. I passed him in the woods. Heading south toward town." 10k said.
"Well I'm gonna find out where he keeps disappearing to." Warren said. I went over and started to turn over the fish.
"And you two see if you can't get that baby away from Murphy." Warren whispered to Doc and Addy.
"Save me some fish." She said as she left. Doc went over to Murphy to talk to him.
"Hey, Murphy."
"Hey."
"How you doing?"
"What do you want?"
"I just thought I'd give you a break and hold little LuLu for a while."
"She's fine. We're fine. Besides the only one I allow to carry her is Autumn."
"Yeah, sure. Hey, what is she chewing on?" Doc asked.
" I dunno. Something she picked up."
"Is that a finger?"
" Maybe." Doc grabbed it and Lucy started to cry. I looked over and got up to see what was going on.
"Great. You happy now? Shhh." Murphy said rocking her.
"Look, Murphy. Nobody's saying you're a bad father. We just think it'd be a good idea to you know give the baby a little checkup. That's all." said Addy
"What's going on?" I asked. They continued to talk.
"There's nothing wrong with little LuLu. And since when are you a pediatrician, huh?" Murphy said to Doc.
"Murphy, she's just had sugar water to eat. Let Doc have a quick look at her." Addy said.
"She looks fine to me." Murphy said
"Takes a village." Doc said.
"Guys what the hell are you doing?" I said grabbing 10k.
"I don't know what you up to. But I don't like it. Stop following me."
"We're not following you." Addy said. I started grabbing 10k and pulling him back.
"10k stop leave him and Lucy alone."
"You're afraid of her. Or afraid of what she might become. What we might become. Don't forget.
I've seen how you treat babies. And we've seen how you treat humans. I'm not gonna let you hurt her."
I slapped 10k's arm and punched him. He grabbed my arm and slapped me in the face. I fell to the ground. "Knock it off!" I looked at him hurt and he knew what he did.
"Autumn" He said.
"We are going for a walk." Murphy said grabbing me as we started to walk. "Make sure they stay here.
Nobody leaves." Murphy said to Cass as we started walking.
"Where do you think you're going?" asked Addy.
"Someplace safe from people like you." Murphy said to 10k as we started walking.
"Here." Murphy said handing me a cloth.
"It's okay." I said as he look at my busted lip. " I shouldn't have kept grabbing his arm."
We kept walking and we sat down while Murphy talked to Lucy.
"We don't need them. Daddy's got you, and nothing and nobody's gonna hurt you." A couple of Z's started to show up as we were sitting there.
"Get out of here, you zombie varmints." Murphy said. The Z's went away and Murphy looked back at me. "If anything happens to me, I want you to take care of Lucy. I trust only you with her and I feel like you guys will become great sisters. Will you do that for me?"
"Yes of course." I said. "Wait I got something for Lucy. Something she can play with when she gets older." As I gave him a teddy with I love you written in the bottom of the foot.
"Thank you."
Lucy started to cry and she wouldn't stop.
"Okay. Daddy really needs you to be quiet now. Okay? There you go." Murphy said as I gave him a pacifier. But it didn't work.
"I know, sweetie. I miss mommy too. Sort of. But someday, when you're old enough, like 50, I'll tell you the whole horrible tale about how I met your mother. But right now, I need you to shut your little baby face. Please? For daddy? Come on." Murphy said. We came up onto a house with Z's still following us. "Go away, damnit!" Murphy said
"We can hide in here." I said going to the house when a guy and a woman opened the door.
"Who are you guys? What are you doing here?" He asked. He looked back and saw the Z's behind us.
"I guess you and the baby better come inside." He said letting us in.
"It's okay, Ma. They got a little baby with them." He said to a woman who came out of the kitchen.
"Oh, a little one." She said looking at Lucy.
"She's afraid of strangers." Murphy said as he handed her to me.
"I'm sure she's hungry. We've got some rabbit's milk." said the lady.
"Uh, that's very kind." I said following her in the kitchen.
"So is that your dad out there?"
"No he's apart of our group, my dad died when this started and my brother is still with the group. I help take care of her like a sister." I said as we walked back to the living room.
"What's wrong with you? Why are you so blue? Vitamin deficiency? We don't get many folks out here. What's your business?" He asked Murphy as he was still holding the gun.
"Could you point that some other way?" Murphy said.
" Can. Won't. You were telling me your business."
"We got separated from our group."
"Don't you lie to me, mister. I will kill you right where you sit. Just like that last fellow." He said aiming the gun.
"Wait!" I yelled as he aimed the gun at me.
"We left a group of survivors that we were traveling with. I think they wanted to take my girl.
Her crying attracts zombies and when Autumn tried to stop them, they hit her so I took her with." Murphy said.
"Well now we're getting somewhere. Where you headed?" Pa asked.
" I don't know. I just wanted to get them away from there."
"You don't mind me saying, mister, that's not much of a plan. You don't have no food, no water, nothing?"
" No. Not really."
"I ought to shoot you for bad parenting." Pa said.
"Listen. Ummm I have an idea. I can't take her back to the group. And I can't take her with me where I'm going. You seem like good people. You got a nice safe setup here. It's a real home. Would you Would you take my daughter and raise her?" Murphy asked. I looked at him shocked and looked at Murphy. "Are you serious?"
" I've never been more serious in my life." Murphy said taking Lucy.
"Oh, Pa. Could we? I know it's a burden, but here she is. A little angel, fallen into our lives. What's her name?" said Ma
" It's Lucy." I said as she started to cry when they handed her over.
"Lucy. It's okay. It's okay. Is she bitten? She's awful blue. And her eyes Okay, mister. You are going to take your daughters and you're going to leave before I spill blood, okay?" Pa said.
"Just let me explain." Murphy said.
"I said go!"
" Okay. Okay, we're going. Shhh." Murphy said rocking Lucy as she started to cry. "Okay. Shhh. Can I ask one small favor? For Lucy?" Murphy asked. He sent me outside to talk to them. I went outside and 5 minutes later he came out without Lucy.
"They are going to take care of her till I can come back and get her. But you have to promise me not to tell anyone where she is. Please. I think of you as my own so keep this secret for me to protect her and one day we are gonna come back." Murphy said to me as we started to walk.
"I promise"
We started walking and made it back to the group.
"What's going on here? Where's Cassandra?" Murphy asked.
" She's dead." 10k said.
"I'm sorry. Dead? How? What happened?" I asked.
"I mercied her." He said looking at the ground.
"You. I gave her life. And you had no right to take that away." Murphy said getting in his face.
"She wasn't human. That wasn't human. Not since you bit her." He said
"Where's the baby? Where's Lucy?" asked Warren asking Murphy.
" You don't have to worry about the baby anymore." He said
" Autumn where is the baby?" Warren said coming up to me as I flinched. "What happened to your lip?"
"She's safe." I said looking at 10k. 10k walked over to me as I walked away and stood by Vasquez. Warren knew how I got the busted lip.
"I think this is for the best, Pa."
"I agree, Ma. It's the only decent thing to do. That way that nice fellow can get back to his friends while Lucy is safe here with us."
"Isn't she beautiful? We have to be the two luckiest people in the whole apocalypse."
"Amen."
