Status: Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

When the Darkness Comes

I

A raven haired women stormed out of the family farm house, anger and frustration written across her lightly freckled face. She just did not get how ignorant her father could be about this whole situation. Did he not understand that those things were not human? That mom was not mom anymore? Her brother was not her brother? They were dangerous creatures that would bite at any given chance. She would try to argue some sense into him; make him understand that keeping them in that barn was absolutely stupid. What if the door gave in? Those things would come pouring out all over their farm. What made things worse was that her sisters Maggie and Beth did not even back her up. Odis and Patricia and Jimmy just kept quiet, not daring to get in between the two stubborn members of the Green family.

“Did everyone become stupid when shit hit the fan?” she mumbled to her self as she wandered into the stables and went straight to her horse, Taz.

She caressed his nose before hopping on the edge of the stall and sitting there trying to even out her breathing. The gelding nudged her leg in hopes of getting another rub on the nose. Ella smiled slightly and rubbed his nose gently. She ran a hand through her hair and closed her eyes, leaning her head against the pillar behind her. This world was a tough one. Tougher than it was before. At least the only thing she had to worry about before was arriving to work on time and getting homework done. Now it was worrying about staying alive and surviving. Well, more like staying safe on this farm. It was not a bad set up. She considered her and her family to be relatively lucky. No large groups of walkers had come their way so far and they were able to grow their own food and eat their chickens. Against her father's wishes, Ella had come back with a deer one night for them to eat. He was not keen on her, or anyone, going out into the woods. In fact, he forbid it, but Ella did not listen. She was the rebellious daughter. Even at twenty-four she stayed rebellious and hardheaded.

“Help!” an unknown voice howled through out the silence of the farm.

Ella jumped off the stall and sprinted out the stable towards the sound of the voice. She saw in the fields a man carrying what looked like a child in his arms. The child was not moving. Just behind him she was barely able to make out two other men on the tree line. Ella assumed one had to be Odis. He went out hunting today. She ran up to the front of the house and yelled through the door.

“Daddy! Maggie!” she called as the man with the child drew closer to the home, clear distraught and panic on his face.

“Please, help. My son has been shot,” the man stuttered out, his breathing erratic.

Ella's father, Hershel, came out of the house in a rush followed by Maggie and Patricia.

“My son has been shot, please...” the man trailed off.

Hershel glanced at the young boy and then to the man before going back into the home gesturing the man to follow after him, “Quickly, we'll get him set up and get to work fast.”

“What's your name?” Ella inquired.

The man looked to her briefly, “Rick. Rick Grimes. This is my son Carl.”

The man rushed into the home and Ella followed along with Patricia and Maggie. They all headed upstairs into a spare room. The Rick put Carl on the bed and Patricia helped Hershel get him set up with the proper medical equipment.

“I need to tell my wife. Lori needs to know,” the man was frantic.

“Where is she?” Ella asked knowing she could get there fast to help this man out; this boy needed his mother here too.

“In the woods, about four miles North. We have a camp set up on the edge of the highway on the treeline,” Rick said to her.

“We have a group. There should be a few more out there with her.”

“I'll go with you,” Maggie said to Ella as the two women headed out the room, Hershel telling them to be safe before they left.

The two sisters ran to the stables and got their horses set up. Ella being the first to get Taz into a canter with Maggie on her horse right behind her. The rushed into the forest and towards the highway looking for Rick's group, his wife. The girls, hell the whole family, new how important it would be for this young boy's mother to be with him while he went through such a traumatizing event. At least his father was with him for the time being.

Maggie and Ella urged their horses as fast as they could through the thick forest, doing their best to reach this man's group. Ella took notice of the baseball bat on the side of Maggie's saddle. It surprised her a little because Maggie was not the one who would think a weapon was necessary but given the circumstances it was better to be safe than sorry, especially in the forest. Ella glanced down at her saddle to double check that her machete what still on it just incase.

The sisters road deeper into the forest, keeping a look out for a group of people that Rick said should be his group. Ella was just hoping that they would not run into any large groups of walkers. She never came across them when she went out into the forest on her own, but she new it was a possibility. However, she may have been wrong as a scream pierced over the thunder of the horse's hooves. Maggie looked to Ella and they went the direction of the scream, coming into view of a group of people with a walker nearing one of them. Ella reached the walker, taking her machete out and taking off it's head.

“Lori? Lori Grimes?” Maggie asked looking at the group as she stopped in front of them.

Ella jumped off her horse and helped the young blond woman up from the ground.

“Are you okay?” she asked dusting off the dirt and leaves from the women.

She shook her head still in shock from the attack. Ella took her canteen from the saddle and handed it to the women, “Here. She help you calm down a little.”

The women smiled slightly in thanks and drank some the water.

“I'm her,” a tall dark hair women approached Maggie looking concerned.

“I need you to come with me. It's Carl, he's been shot,” Maggie said to Lori.

Ella watched as Lori's face fell to disbelief.

“Your husband is with him at our farm. Our father is helping him,” Maggie told her and held a hand out for Lori to get on the back of her horse.

“I'll lead them back to their camp and meet you back home, Maggie,” Ella said and Maggie nodded in return.

Lori took Maggie's hand and hopped on the back. A man with a crossbow stepped out and grabbed Lori's wrist.

“Hey wait now. How do we know we can trust them?” he asked harshly, throwing a glare to both sister.

“They know my name. And Rick and Carl's. I'm going to be with my son,” she said sternly before Maggie took off with Lori back to the farm.

The group all looked at Ella who nervous fiddled with the reins of her horse. The man that talked looked at her with an intensity, most likely trying to figure out if she could be trusted or not.

“Thank you,” the blond woman said, handing back Ella the canteen.

Ella smiled and put the canteen back.

“I hear you folks are up on the highway. I'll lead you back,” she said turning to walk and lead the group.

“Now wait just a minute, how do we know we can trust you?” the man who spoke earlier asked her.

Ella was growing annoyed with this guy and she had only been here for a few minutes.

“Our farm is just south of here. If you back track on the highway and turn down this dirt road, you'll see a mailbox with the name Green on it. We live down there,” she said to him.

“I wouldn't give you our location if we meant to hurt you guys.”

He stared at her for a bit longer before walking ahead of her, the rest of the group moving slowly, following him. She moved along with them, tugging Taz along with her and by her side.

“You wouldn't have happened to see a small girl, around ten in the woods have you?” a woman asked Ella.

Ella looked at the woman. She had short grey hair and worried bright blue eyes. She frowned at the question. They were looking for a lost little girl and that was heartbreaking. No child should be lost in this world. Or at all.

“No, I haven't. But, I can help you look,” Ella said, offering her help.

The women smiled slightly, “Thank you. The more help the better.”

“We don't need no horse bound woman draggin' us down,” the man from earlier snapped.

'What a real peach,' Ella thought.

“I know these woods backwards. I could help track as well. There's a few places here that she could have holed up in to hide,” Ella said looking back at the woman with a reassuring smile.

“I'm Carol,” the woman introduced her self.

“Ella.”

As they walked forward through the woods, sweating dripping down their faces as the Georgia heat beat down on them, Ella learned who everyone was. Glenn was a young guy around her age. She took note he was gawking at Maggie when they came to get Lori. Andrea was the young woman she had saved from the walker. Ella took notice that she did not seem to be happy at all. It wasn't a world to be cheery in, but she could tell there was a deeper issue. Next was the guy that had a just an oh-so-lovely attitude – Daryl. He had a neutral expression his face nearly the whole time they walked and he was very serious about tracking and everyone keeping quiet.

“What did you do before all this, Ella?” Glenn asked her breaking the silence.

“I worked at a small store in town and was going to school. Just the average young adult life I suppose,” she answered him keeping an eye out for anything unusual just to be safe.

“What were you studying?”

“Astronomy. I wanted to be a professor in California,” she said to him wiping sweat from her face.

“That's really cool. I was majoring in history,” he said.

Ella looked at him with an interesting look, “You don't strike me as the history type.”

Glenn shrugged, “Most people don't, but I loved it.”

“That's all that matters. Hell, maybe one if this shit clears up, you can pursue that again,” she said with some small hope.

Glenn gave her a small smile and they fell silent. Ella held a bit of hope despite the current world situation and knowing how awful shit is now. Hope is what kept her going everyday. Hope that one day the remaining people in this world can move and beat this. Start over. Start new lives and rebuild. Maybe in a year, maybe in ten. But she held onto that belief. It's all she had besides her family.
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