Didn't See That Coming | The Walking Dead(1)

Prologue 2 (The Only Way)

3 weeks after the end - TIME: unknown

"CJ we are out of food, we're almost out of water now that stream dried up and we are dangerously low on ammo. The city is our best chance right now." Tony's voice was quiet as he tried to reason with his sister, looking at her from across the small fire she had built when he went on a hunt. An unsuccessful hunt.

"It's a bad idea, T. You saw it same as me. The city belongs to the dead. We are safer out here than we are in there." CJ knew that the city was probably still a fairly good bet for supplies, but she kind of enjoyed not being eaten alive, so she was hesitant to go on this particular run. "Our best chance now, is to move on. Get a car and get away from the city altogether. This area is picked clean. We can't stay here forever."

The pair had trekked over to the outskirts of the city a few times from their small camp, about a 2-mile walk. One time they even managed to scavenge some clean bottled water and a few canned goods from a corner store.

But the dead came for them, as they always did. It was like they could smell them from the other side of the city.

Tony stood up abruptly, startling CJ, stomping out the flames. "We are going. I promised you we'd survive, and we will. We are. So, get up off your ass, grab your shit and let's go." Nothing but seriousness laced his firm voice.

"If something happens in there-" she started but was rudely interrupted.

"Nothing will happen! We'll be fine. We get in, grab what we can, and we get out. Just like last time."

"Ah yes, the last time. That was fun. I loved the part where I almost bled to death." CJ responded to her brother sarcastically, glaring at him as she pointed to her right thigh.

She had cut her leg on a bit of broken glass when climbing through a window to escape a room of the dead. It wasn't that bad, and she knew-

"It wasn't that bad, and you know it!" he exclaimed with an irritated yet amused look. CJ continued to glare at him with narrow eyes, forcing a slight chuckle to escape his lips. "Stop doing that."

The corner of CJ's lips lifted into a smirk, "I'll stop doing it when you stop laughing."

"I'm not laughing," he responded quickly, looking down at the ground away from the redheaded moron sat in front of where he stood. He forced his smile to drop and turned to look back at her with puppy eyes.

Her smug face dropped immediately. "Don't do this to me T." He did not break eye contact. "Stop it," she ordered firmly.

"C'mon, sis. One more run into the city and we can finally move on. We'll get a car, and we'll find somewhere safe to stay."

CJ looked up at Tony with a look that could only be described as an 'I give up' look. After a few seconds she nodded her head and stood up with a sigh, picking up her bow and pulling her quiver over her shoulder as she began to walk away.

She turned back to look at her brother, his face plastered with his signature shit-eating grin. "Fuck off," she quipped back bluntly, turning on her heel and heading towards the fallen city, with a smug Tony in tow.

- About 5 hours later -

"Stay awake! Stay with me! Come on just a little farther!" CJ's words, however loud she yelled them, were drowned out but the moans and groans of the walking dead right on their tail.

As she tightly clung to her big brother, one arm around his waist, using her other hand to hold his arm over her shoulders, she felt the warm, red, sticky substance pouring out of his left side.