how the women wound up doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?" Jaqui said, seeing Shane and Carl looking for frogs in the quarry, but they weren't having much luck so they were mainly splashing each other.

"The world ended, didn't you get the memo?" Amy replied, wisps of her blonde hair waving about in her face.

Addy noticed Carol looking over to Ed, who was sat on the truck they used to get down to the quarry smoking a cigarette.

"It's just the way it is."

......................................................

"I do miss my Maytag." Carol sighed as she scrubbed a shirt with the washboard. Addy wasn't really doing any washing, she was just sitting on a nearby rock dipping her feet into the cool water.

"I miss my Benz. My sat Nav." Andrea said.

"I miss my coffeemaker with that dual-drip philtre and built-in grinder, honey." Addy had never tried coffee, but she made a promise to herself that she would one day.

"My computer. And texting." Amy spoke, looking out on the water.

"What do you miss, Addy?"

Adelaide looked over to the four women, shocked to be included in their conversation. She didn't have to think twice,

"Ice cream." The women chuckled and nodded at the girl's answer when Andrea said,

"I miss my vibrator."

"Me too."

The women burst out laughing, shocked at Carol's words but happy that it was taking their minds off the current state of the world, however Addy scrunched her nose in confusion.

What was a vibrator? And why is it so funny?

Before she could get an answer to those questions, Ed's voice cut them off.

"What's so funny?"

"Just swapping war stories, Ed." Andrea reassured.

He continued walking and stopped behind Carol, watching her work intently.

"Problem, Ed?" Andrea sighed.

"None that concerns you. And you ought to focus on your work. This ain't no comedy club, speaking of, why ain't she doing nothing? Just sittin' there 'n looking' pretty?"

Addy looked up and saw Ed eyeing her up and down with a cigarette between his lips.

"Because she's a child, Ed." Andrea replied, "And she's already been through enough."

"Whatever." He scoffed, looking around for a moment then landing his gaze back on Addy, then the four women he was standing behind.

"Ed, tell you what, you don't like how your laundry is done? You are welcome to pitch in and do it yourself. Here," Andrea stood up and threw a shirt at Ed, but he chucked it back instantly with more force, making Andrea exclaim,

"Oh!"

"Ain't my job missy,"

"Andrea, don't." Amy told her sister, trying to calm her down.

"What is your job, Ed? Sitting your ass smoking cigarettes while you look little girls up and down?"

"We'll it sure ain't listening to some uppity smart-mouthed bitch, tell you what. Come on, let's go," He gestured to Carol, who was still sitting using the washing board.

"I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you, Ed." Andrea defended the older woman.

"And I say it's none of your business. Come on, now. You heard me."

Andrea turned to face Carol and placed a hand on her shoulder, quietly telling her not to go with him.

"Please, it doesn't matter." She brushed it off.

"Hey, don't I won't knock you on your ass just 'cause you some kind of collage-educated cooze, all right? Now you come on, or your going to regret it later."

Adelaide slid off the rock and where the women were standing. She decided to say something, her voice was barely ever heard but now she hoped it would be.

"So she can turn up with fresh bruises later?" Even Ed seemed shocked that the young girl had spoken against him, but he didn't let it phase him at all.

"What do you know, you little brat? Stay out of this, all of you. Now come on!"

"You knew what? This ain't none of y'all's business. You don't want to keep prodding the bull here, okay? Now I am done talking. Come on." He grabbed Carol's upper arm.

"No, Carol you don't have to -"

"You don't tell me what! I tell you what!" She shouted, and out of nowhere slapped Carol hard across the face. The three other women started pushing and hitting Ed and shouting at him whilst Addy and Amy comforted the distraught woman.

Then, as calm as can be, Shane grabbed Ed's arm and dragged him away from the women, throwing him on the ground and delivering dozens upon dozens of punches to his face, not stopping until Ed's face was a bloody pulp and the women were yelling at him to stop.

"You put your hands on your wife, your little girl, or anybody or anybody else in this camp one more time, I will not stop next time, do you hear me? Do you hear me?" He seethed at the man, grabbing his face forcefully.

"Yes - y-yes!" Ed managed to splutter out.

"I'll beat you to death, Ed." Shane threatened, landing a final punch to his face and a kick to the ribs before rubbing his head and walking off as Carol rushed over to her awful husband, apologising profusely.

......................................................

"Thank you." Addy said politely as Amy passed her a plate of fish she and Andrea had caught earlier in the day.

There was a slight chatter between the people sat the campfire. She was sat next to Carl, and every now and then they would make small jokes that weren't funny but laugh anyway. It was a nice night, it was a bit cold, but the fire was radiating enough heat for them all.

"I gotta ask you, man," Morales suddenly said, "It's been driving me crazy."

"What?" Dale chuckled.

"That watch." The man pointed to the old watch Dale always wore on his wrist.

"I see you, every day, same time, winding that thing like a village priest saying mass." Andrea nodded in agreement.

"I've wondered this myself." Jaqui added, smiling as she cut up her fish.

"I'm missing the point." Dale grinned.

"Unless I'm missing the signs, the world seems to have come to an end, at least hit a speed bump for a good, long while." The woman said, her brown eyes flicking from Dale to his watch.

"But there's you, every day, winding that stupid watch." Morales said.

"Time, it's important to keep track, isn't it? The days, at least. Don't you think, Andrea? Back me up here." Dale replied, grinning.

Andrea let out a breath of air and took a sip of her beer.

"I like - I like what, uh, father said to son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down for generations. He said, I give you a mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine or my father's before me. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment, now and then and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it." Dale finished his speech. Addy didn't know what half those words meant, and she didn't think she would ever know.

"You are so weird." Amy said, saying exactly what Addy was thinking and causing everyone to laugh.

"It's not me, it's Faulkner, William Faulkner. Maybe my bad paraphrasing." The laughs died down and everyone continued to eat and drink in a comfortable silence, until Amy put her food down and stood up.

"Where are you going?" Andrea asked her sister.

"I have to pee. Jeez, you try to be discreet around here." She replied, making everyone chuckle again as she walked off toward the RV.

A moment later, it swung open to reveal the same blonde girl who had walked in there seconds before.

"We're out of toilet paper?"

There was a groan, then a shrill scream, then Amy was on the floor clutching her bleeding arm and there was more screams.

Addy dropped the plate of food and screamed as dozens of walkers filled their supposed safe haven. Her dad and Glenn aren't here, who was she supposed to go to? She heard her name being called somewhere but she didn't have time to see who it was because Shane was firing shots, but what was worse was that there was a female Walker headed straight for her.

Adelaide let out another scream of fright and did all she knew how, she ran. She ran for dear life as her heart pounded in her ears, it was almost as loud as Shane's rifle that was still firing shots.

The young girl ran until she tripped on an upturned root. She pushed herself off of the ground, but the Walker was too quick as it had grabbed her foot and was pulling it towards it's mouth.

She was going to die.

She was going to die.

She was going to die.

The only thoughts that were running through her head a mile a minute were those ones.

She heard her name be called again, but this time it was from across camp and it was more frantic.

"Addy! Adelaide!"

She hadn't told her father she loved him, she hadn't said goodbye to Carl and Sophia, she hadn't thanked Shane for stepping in at the quarry. There was so many things she needed to do but wouldn't be able to, because she was going to die.

The walker had managed to climb completely on top of her now, and the only thing keeping it's bloody and rotten teeth was Addy's arms.

That and a crossbow arrow.

The Walker suddenly went limp and she knew it was dead when someone rolled it off her and pulled her up off of the ground by her forearms.

"You okay?! You bit?!" The frantic voice of her father was enough to make her burst out into tears. She was so glad they were back, so glad.

"It's okay, yer safe, it's over." He soothed, however her sobs didn't die down and he knew he had to keep helping fight the walkers off.

By the time the father daughter duo had made it back to camp, which wasn't as far as Addy thought, the gunfire and screams had seemed to cease. But there was still the sound of children sobbing and the men breathing heavily.

And Amy.

Poor Amy.

Everyone knew she was gone, they just didn't want to accept it.

Addy tried her best to not look at the massacre that had just happened. She didn't know if there was more bodies of the walkers or other camp members. She didn't want to know. All she wanted was all this to be a dream and to wake up any second in her childhood home with her father and uncle Merle.

But Adelaide knew this wasn't a dream, and that thought petrified her.

"I remember my dream now. Why I dug the holes."