The Evolution of Dakota Graves

No Turning Back

Hannah keeps sobbing, as her hair was wet matted.

"I'm sorry." I said, she shakes her head. Daphne may not have been a mother to me, but she had Hannah, which I never understood....our family is fucked up.

"Why aren't you crying?" Hannah asks. "She's our Mom!" She exclaims.

"We loved her..." Hannah says.

"I have to be strong....and so do you. It's what Mom would want." I said, my voice cracking on the word mom. Although we hated each other, she had her moments, she hid her hatred when I became a teenager, I never once celebrated my birthday but Hannah did, I never went to prom but Hannah did.

But Hannah was the only light, the only reason why I go on. No one could replace her.

"I can't believe he did that....." Hannah says.

"And you shot him Dakota, you didn't even blink....and you left him there." Hannah says.

"Hey.....we're in this together right?" Hannah asks. I nod.

"Then we have to look out for each other, because I can't lose you too." Hannah says, curling herself into a ball.

As hours passed by, I kept driving as Hannah's crying slowly stops.

I cross a bridge, there was a small building of apartments. We could make a pitstop there. There was a fence surrounding it, I pull up inside, parking close to the gate.

"Here." I said, passing Hannah a screwdriver, she hesitantly takes it.

"Just to be safe." I said.

I step outside, then closed the fence, locking it. I motion for Hannah to come out, she slowly steps out, I walk up towards the door, Hannah runs after me, she looks at me, that look whenever she depended me to do something.

"Do you want to live?" I ask, Hannah stays quiet.

"Do you want to live??" I ask a bit louder, she nods.

"That's not a answer." I snap.

"I wanna live." Hannah says.

"Then pull yourself together, Mom would want you to live. But curling yourself into a ball and having other people protect you isn't going to help you. And in order to live, you stay close. You trust me, and you ask questions later." I said.

Hannah takes a deep breath. "I trust you Dakota."

"We're going to break inside this place, you stay close, we'll do one room at a time."

"That's impossible." Hannah groans. It was just a small one story building.

"Not if you do as I say." I said.

"Besides, I never had seen you so pessimistic, if our shitty Dad was here, the only decent advice he'd tell us is to pull our heads out of our asses." I said.

"Are you with me? No crying, no splitting up." I said, she nods, wiping the tears from her eyes then she grabs my hand.

"I'm ready." She says.

We sneak inside, Hannah has her screwdriver firm in her grip. I grab the tubs of water, kicking them down the hall.

Nothing. There was nothing.

"Look how small this place is, whoever was here would've been left." Hannah rambles, she reaches her hand out to the doornob.

"You can never be too sure." I said, smacking her hand away from the door, opening it myself, there was a woman lying against the ground.

"It's the head or nothing at all." I said, Hannah nods as I grab her screwdriver, stabbing her by the head.

"If you're not careful, these things could bite you." I said as I carried the body towards the door bridal style. Hannah follows me as I put the body down outside.

"Roamers." Hannah says quietly.

"What?" I ask.

"They're dead right? And they still walk around, looking for people to devour." Hanmah says.

"Makes sense, I like it." I said, she gives me a small smile.

I close the door, sliding a wooden chair underneath the doorbob so nothing or no one could get inside.

Hannah sits cross legged on the ground.

"Are we staying here?" Hannah asks.

"Maybe." I said, turning around to face Hannah.

"Hey, do you remember when you first heard about my boyfriend?" Hannah asks.

"And how I almost killed him?" I shot back.

I sat down with her, my back against the wall and placing the gun close to me. My thoughts go back on that day when Hannah and I grew closer.

I had my black hair in a small ponytail as I cooked the homemade pizza I bought from the store, Hannah always loved making homemade dishes.

Hannah sat on the countertop, her hair in two braids and her bruise was still fresh on her wrist.

"Dakota?" Hannah asks.

"Yeah?"

"Why do you look like a girl?" Hannah asks with a giggle.

"Because, I'm pretty sure that you don't want hair in your pizza." I said with hands on my hips. Hannah giggles again.

"How come you only get a trim? You never once got a haircut." Hannah says as she absent-mindedly played in my hair as I watched the timer on the oven.

I loved it whenever someone played in my hair, no matter how messy it got.

"I need my hair to cover my scars Hannah." I said, pointing at the scar on my right shoulder, she nods.

"Hey...on a unrelated note, what's gonna happen when you turn eighteen?" She asks.

"I might get my own place, and take you with me." I said, I didn't want to leave Hannah here by herself. I was the only one keeping note of her medicine she had to take, paid half of my paychecks to give her the most amazing birthday ever, took her to fairs, amusement parks, hell, I even paid for a trip to take her and her friends to Virginia.

Yeah, to me, I was the only man taking care of Hannah.

I look down to see Hannah asleep on my shoulder, with a big grin on her face.

"I'm glad you're here Dakota." Hannah mutters before she silently drifted to sleep.