You're Family Now

The two girls darted through the trees, trying to escape the approaching herd of zombies. Miranda tripped on a tree root, and crashed to the ground. She didn’t even notice that her jeans ripped at the knee, or that her scraped hands were bleeding.

“Come on!” Brooke panted, hoisting her younger sister to her feet before they continued running.

“There!” Miranda shouted as they came out of the woods and to a small town. Their legs ached from running and their lungs burned, but they took little notice. With danger so close behind, the two girls were in survival mode.

Brooke took Miranda’s hand and pulled her into the nearest shop, one with few windows and two double doors that they shut quickly behind them. They collapsed to the ground, holding the door shut with their bodies as they gasped for breath. Miranda let out a shaky sigh of relief. They barely escaped that time, and at least for the moment, they were safe. Or so she thought. The sound of a gun clicking, ready to fire drew the attention to another boy and a girl that they had ran in on.

“Who are you?” The girl demanded raising the gun and pointing it at the newcomers.

Brooke and Miranda quickly stood up. Brooke stood in front of Miranda and drew her gun.

“I’m Brooke. And this is Miranda. Now who are you?” Brooke responded, gun still held high.

The boy spoke first. “I’m Glenn. This is Maggie,” he responded while gesturing to the girl standing next to him. “Where are you guys from?”

“We’re from up north.” Miranda said from behind Brooke’s back. Maggie nodded. “Are you guys here alone?” she asked.

“We were with our family, but we got separated. So we’ve been on the run trying to find a safe place to stay.” Miranda replied.

Glenn and Maggie shared a look. “So it’s just you two then?” Glenn asked.

Brooke and Miranda nodded. “We don’t have any food. We’re low on ammo. And we’re hopelessly lost. Any help you guys can offer would be extremely appreciated.” Brooke said.

Maggie pulled Glenn aside and whispered something in his ear. Brooke used this opportunity to turn to Miranda and check for injuries. “You okay?” she asked her sister. Miranda nodded. “You?” Brooke nodded. She swept Miranda’s long dark brown hair to the side, to double check that the blood on the younger girl’s shorter frame wasn’t hers. She tucked her own shoulder length hair behind her ear. It had been dyed red, but the roots were beginning to reveal the same color hair as Miranda. They both turned back to the other two. Both pairs gave the others a good look over.

Finally Glenn spoke. “If you want, you can come back to the farm with us. We have shelter and food.”

Brooke glanced at Miranda. “Excuse us for a moment?” She pulled Miranda aside before waiting for a response.

“What do you think? Can we trust them?” Miranda asked. Brooke paused for a moment. “I think so. Are we gonna do this, then?” Brooke nodded.

The two girls walked back to Glenn and Maggie. “Alright. We’ll come with you. But we gotta go. Now. There’s a herd of the undead that were right behind us.”

Maggie started towards the back entrance of the store. “C’mon! This way!” Glenn quickly followed. Brooke and Miranda joined hands and ran out the back door. Glenn lead the way to a car nearby. He got in the driver’s seat and Maggie got in shotgun. The sisters jumped in the backseat and Glenn took off, just as the walkers got into the front of the store.

The ride back to the farmer was relatively quiet. Nobody really knew what to say, so they didn’t say anything. The only thing said was Brooke comforting Miranda, who had tucked herself under Brooke’s arm.

Before too long, the car pulled into a driveway that lead to a farmhouse. As they pulled up, a group of people gathered around the car. Glenn and Maggie got out first followed by Brooke and Miranda who stayed behind the other two. Two men stepped forward. One of them had a buzzcut and a pissed off look on his face. The other had slightly longer hair and and guarded expression.

“Glenn, who are these girls?” the man with the buzzcut asked while glaring at Brooke and Miranda.

“Shane, before you say anything. They’re lost and alone. It’s just the two of them. I think we can trust them.” Glenn said as he stepped in front of the girls.

The other man walked up to the girls and held his hand out to Brooke. “Rick Grimes. And you are?” Brooke shook his hand and replied, “Brooke. And this is Miranda.”

Rick nodded and started pointing to the rest of the members of the group. He pointed to the first man who spoke. “That’s Shane.” Then Rick pointed to a gruff looking man with a crossbow. “That’s Daryl.”

He then pointed out the rest of the group. “That’s Lori, my wife. Carl, my son. Andrea. T-Dog. And Dale. And there’s a few others inside.” Both girls nodded and they tried to remember all the names.

Lori stepped forward. “Let’s get you girls cleaned up and get you something to eat, yeah?”

As the girls walked away, Rick and Shane turned towards each other.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing? They can’t stay here! We already have enough mouths to feed.” Shane all but growled.

Glenn stepped in. “Before you say anything else. Can I add something? The girls said that they’ve been running for a while now. They don’t have any food and they’re low on ammo. And from the looks of them, you can obviously tell that they’ve been running for quite some time. I think we can trust them.”

“I agree with Glenn. I really think we can trust them. The least we can do is let them stay for at least a few days, to see how trustworthy there are.” Rick said.

Shane just grunted and walked away. Rick frowned and look towards the small fire where Lori and the girls had gathered.

“I’m going to go talk to the girls. Daryl, want to do a perimeter check?” Rick said as he started walking away.

Daryl nodded and walked away. The rest of the group looked at each other, at loss at what to do. Glenn shrugged then walked away. Carl headed into the house with Andrea. And T-Dog went to his tent.

As Rick approached Lori and the girls, he could hear them quietly talking.

“...on the run for about 3 months now. We’ve been scavenging whatever we could, which wasn’t much.” Rick heard Brooke say.

Rick cleared his throat to make his presence known. All three looked up at him. Miranda and Brooke both smiled up at him while Lori glanced at him before looking away. Brooke saw it and made a mental note to talk to Rick about it later.

Before he started talking, Rick took a seat on the ground next to Miranda. “Now, before you girls do anything else, there’s a few rules that you need to know.” Both girls nodded for him to go on. “First, we can’t have guns. They need to be kept all together and in the house.”

Brooke reached into her bag, that Rick hadn’t noticed until then, and grabbed her small handgun and the small amount of ammo that was left.

“We only have the one. And that’s all the ammo we have left.” Brooke said as he handed over the gun and ammo.

“Do you need our knives, too? Or can we keep them?” Miranda asked.

Rick thought for a second. “I suppose you can keep them. How many do you have?”

Miranda reached into their shared bag and pulled out her knife that looked more like a small sword. And Brooke grabbed three small knives. She also pulled up her pant leg and grabbed two more. The girls laid the knives out before them.

Both Rick and Lori’s eyes widened in surprise. Brooke laughed. “Can you tell that we like knives?”

“Are those throwing knives?” A voice behind them asked. Brooke grabbed a knife out of reflex and turned toward the voice, which turned out to be Daryl. He held his hands up and took half a step back.
“Now, Brooke Brooke. That’s not very nice. We don’t point knives at men with crossbows.” Miranda said as she took the knife from her sister’s hand.

Brooke stuck her tongue out at Miranda. “Well, men with crossbows should know better than to sneak up on people. “ she replied while looking up at Daryl.

“I think you should watch your mouth, little lady,” Daryl said with a smirk.

“I think I would like to see you try to make me,” she taunted him.

Rick got up to step between the two, but Miranda put her arm out to stop him. “Let’s just see what they do.” she explained.

Meanwhile, Brooke had stood up and was chest to chest with Daryl. She put her hands on her hips and continued to glare up at Daryl.

“Well?” Brooke asked.

“You’re a sassy little thing, ain’t ya?” Daryl replied with a smirk.

“You better friggin’ believe it.” Brooke said and poked him in the chest.

Daryl chuckled. “Keep it up.” Then he turned and walked away.

Both Lori and Rick had a look of surprise on their faces.

“What?” Brooke asked, confused.

“That’s the most we’ve ever heard Daryl say in one conversation.” Lori explained.

Brooke adopted a smug look on her face. “I’m just that special.”

Miranda smacked Brooke on the arm. “Calm it, down. You don’t need to sass everyone that you see.”

“I beg to differ. Sassing is what I do best.” Brooke replied.

“Obviously.” Miranda, Lori, and Rick all said at the same time.

Brooke just rolled her eyes and sat back down.