Hearts in Hand

We had slept in peace, or however much peaceful can get in a world like mine. Most of my sleeping time is filled with dreamless hours of darkness or nightmares. Thankfully tonight I got the dreamless kind. I haven't had a good dream since I was sleeping in a King sized bed with my wife next to me. Boy, did I miss her.

They say that you don't know what you have till it's taken away from you. This is completely true. When I first married Harley, of course I constantly thought how lucky I was. As the years went by, I started to just see being with her as normal. Don't get me wrong I loved her, I would tell her that multiple times a day, but I never thought about how much she really meant to me. And when she had gone...well, I realized just how special she was to me. I was brought back to the first day I saw her, but that story is for another time.

We had ended up finding four separate rooms each with their own bed. I wanted to keep my children close to me, so I took the mattresses and placed them on the floor. What can I say, I want my kids constantly in my sight (minus my daughter getting dressed, you pervs). I slowly cracked my eyes open and light leaked through the cracks. I immediately shut them. I was never a morning person, Harley was, though.

I shifted myself so I was laying on my side, and I decide to open my eyes again. This time works out better than before, and I find myself staring at my daughter, again not creepily. She looked just like her mother. I sigh, sometimes I felt like I was too young for this much responsibility, I was twenty-seven for Christ's sake. I hit it off pretty young and got married when I turned nineteen. Pretty crazy thing to do, but I was sure I loved her so I didn't see a problem. And then we started, you know, 'fooling around' and one time I forgot to use protection annnnd there was Veronica. She wasn't an accident, no. No child could be an accident. She was an unexpected surprise; a good surprise at that.

God, why was life such a bitch.

'I should probably get up and see if there's any food here' I thought.
We had a lot of food, but we all know with three hungry mouths to feed that would be gone real quick. Lucky for us the people whom had once lived here had left basically everything, so there was all the necessities. There wasn't any water, but bottles that could hold water.

I look through the window in case there's any walkers, and see none. Cautiously, I step outside. Yup, still nothing. Taking a bunch of the bottles that I found, I fill them to the brim with snow to melt for water. As I start to go back, I hear rustling in the bushes just feet away. My gun was inside, so I had no protection other than my own two fists. I hear a whimper. It didn't sound like a scared whimper, more like the thing was in pain. "Hello?" I call out, another whine following in response. I gather up all my courage and push the branch aside.

There laying on it's side was a black and white dog. I think a husky, I'm not sure. It looks up at me with big blue eyes and whimpers quietly, it's tail wagging. Looking over it I see it's paw was covered in blood, and it was so skinny.

"Hey there, how long have you been here, buddy?" I'm not sure why I'm asking it things when I know it can't respond, though it lets out a little yip. Looking closer it's paw was stuck in a fox trap. Lucky for me I knew how to undo those. As soon as it was loose enough the yanked her paw out. There was a collar around her neck (yes, it's a girl) and it looked homemade. Just a rope with a little tag dangling off of it. I grab it and it only has one thing written on it.

"Oog?" I say to myself, "What the hell does that mean?" The dog's tail wagged faster at the word 'oog'. "Hm, maybe that's its name," how weird. "Is that it girl? Is that your name." Her whole body wiggles.

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Of course I couldn't leave the poor animal out there, so we ended up walking back to the little house where my children were hopefully still sleeping. Going inside they were, indeed, still in a deep sleep. In the kitchen was a first aid kit and dress Oog's wound. I don't think I'll ever get used to that name, but if that's what she responds to, then I'll get used to it eventually. I get some water in a bowl and but it down for her.

"Where did she go, she was just right there," she was just right there, what the...
A scream erupts from the living room. "Veronica!" Oh god, what happened. I burst into the living and find her, now laughing, and the husky licking her face. Veronica is now giggling.

"Daddy, look a dog. Aw I love her. What's her name? Can we keep her? What-

"Yes we can keep her. And her name is Oog," I guess the name was kinda fun to say.

"Oog? What a cute name," she smiles. Her smile glows and can light up a whole room I swear. Wait, dogs need to eat. I sigh, what am I getting myself into?