At some point, TWD was the greatest thing on tv. At another point, it became the same episode season after season. But somewhere between the first and 36th season, I wrote a fanfic about “little asskicker”. I wanted to puzzle out what being a kid in a post apocalyptic world would look like. Forget about waiting for the street lights to come on before going home, never mind stranger danger…there had to be other rules that were far more important to follow…
The Rules Of Getting Lost
Chapter one:
Dreams
"I'm running again, but I'm laughing, so thats ok. That's really good. And I see a pool! This swimming pool even has water, it's green water and it has sparkles. If I run fast enough I bet I can jump and touch the clouds and fall into the pool. Daddy said water in a pool splashes up high and all over so thats what I'm going to do. He said you can splash your friends without using your hands even. You just jump. But I cant jump because theres a noise and it's behind me. And I have to pee. So I have to stop running. And I have a rifle now anyway so maybe next time" SNAP!
Judith opened her eyes, held her breath, and listened. The droning of crickets and night sounds faded away as she focused on the air around her. It was damp, and morning felt near, but it was still dark purple outside, and the clouds hid the moonlight so much that it made it hard to focus her eyes through the twigs and brush she piled to hide her while she slept.
"When you wake up, never move, kid, don't even yawn. Just stay still until you know you are safe." Uncle Daryl's voice had played in her head all day long, and now even in the middle of the night. "When you know your safe, move a little,it's ok to make a little noise, but if you have to run, run fast."
Judith was so focused on listening and trying to remember the rules that she hardly noticed she had been sucking her thumb in her sleep. "EW!" she groused. In the cloudy moonlight she could see one little pink thumb surrounded by 4 filthy fingers. "Icky" She whispered, and tried to scrape the taste from her mouth with her dirty palm.
Once she felt it was safe enough, she softly pushed the brush from her face and poked her head up to get a better look. Big trees and little trees surrounded her, and behind her three trees that grew close together made her something to snuggle up to. Uncle Daryl said you should find something that made it hard to get 'sneaked up' on, and to her the three trees looked like a family. The poppa tree was big and fat and had a bump on the bottom that she could wiggle under in case it rained, and the momma tree had two branches like arms that stuck straight out. From those she could hang her "find-ya's".
The baby tree was smaller and not as wide as the other two, but had a place to hide her pack perfectly in a hole at the bottom. "Hi" she said to the baby tree softly. She smiled and said "was I making a lot or a little noise?" The baby tree didnt answer,or smile back, but that was ok, it was busy keeping watch for her. At least that was how she imagined it. If SHE were a big strong tree, she'd do the same for a little girl who snuggled next to her. And like Aunty Michonne said, "you gotta do for others kindness if you want kindness back."
That was a rule. Well, it maybe wasn't a "real" rule, not one of Uncle Daryl's, but Judith wanted it to be a rule, so she added it to the list in her head. Uncle Daryl probably wouldn't mind, especially if she asked him nicely. She leaned up against the baby tree and looked around again, this time focusing on the barn in the valley below, still nothing moving. Uncle Daryl's voice began to speak again, and another rule began to play. He had lots of them, and they spent lots of time remembering them. Mostly on the swing, or when they went squirrlin' together. Some rules were simple, others were too big, like how to clean guns and the rules about rifles he never told because that was for when she was bigger. Some rules scared her, some were silly and fun, but this rule, the rule she was living, this one scared then and scared her now. She closed her eyes and breathed big puffs like daddy said and didn't cry. Morning was coming soon, and she could start a newer day, like Aunty called it, but for now it was time to watch, and wait.
Chapter two:
Remembers
"Let's go over it again okay?" Daryl pushed another cigarette in his mouth and lit it with his Zippo. Judith loved the clink it made when it flipped open, and when he snapped it closed with a flick of his wrist. He leaned forward on his handlebars and stared at her through the hair covering his face. "Well?' he said, snorting out smoke from his nose."
"Do I have to? Again?"
"Hell yeah ya little turd! Start from ther beginning. Rule one. Lets go, I aint got all damn day, shit."
His voice trailed off at the end but she let nothing slip. "I'm telling daddy you're a pottymouth"
"He knows." Daryl tried not to smile but they way she stiffened up when she she scolded him reminded him of her mother. Lorry had a way of cutting through the bullshit and getting right to the point. Darryl hated that, she was unflappable and every damn time he needed to be in his own head she'd be there to pull him out, throw him down and stomp his nonsense like it was a candle. He hated it, and he missed it.
"Awright take it easy kid. Tell them to me. What are the rules" Judith folded her arms and stomped. "FINE!" she yelled as loud as she could. "RULE ONE MAKE FIND-YAS!" RULE TWO NEVER..."
"NO!" Daryl yelled back. It startled Judith and she ended her little girl tantrum and tensed up. Daryl flicked his smoke away and swung his leg over his bike and got to one knee in front of her, grabbing both her elbows tight enough to make her focus on nothing but his face inches from hers. "You think I'm jokin? YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME?" Judiths eyes began to well up but she sniffed the emotion away, shaking her head. "NO CRYIN!" he snapped..."AND FOCUS! RULE ONE! GO!"
"Rule one," she muttered. "Dont get lost, dont wander, and dont leave the house without permission."
"Good, Ok, keep goin'." Daryl stood up slowly and paced in a circle around her, his hands behind his back. He knew he scared her, and he felt bad for a moment, but that passed. He saw kids her age turn. He'd killed kids younger than her. He even once saw an infant, writhing in its crib, blackened by rot, dead from starvation, nothing more than bones. He wanted to end it, but even he couldn't. It was an unholy act,something he let one of the others in the scavanger party do. That wasnt Judith's future. If he had to spook her into understanding that everything had rules now, so be it.
"Rule two, um..." Judith looked past Daryl at the forest line at the edge of the compound. "Stay put, stay hidden,"
"Yep,good...three?"
"If I gotta move, go to the woods and make two find-yas where I enter, and move the way the sun goes or leave find yas if I turn. But follow the sun first."
"That's what direction?"
Judith thought for a second, then held up her hand and touched her fingers trying to remember her compass directions. It's west. Go west?"
"You askin' or tellin?"
"It's west" she scowled.
"If you can't go west? What are your choices?"
"UGH!" This was where she always got tripped up. She sat on the grass and closed her eyes and tried to remember Carols song. She started to sing softly, then began to remember and sang a little louder. "It goes...um...West is the best, but only unless, I'm not being chased wherever, Then east to the..."
Daryl folded his arms and shook his head, trying to hide the smile creeping up on him.
"No wait! Then north to the river or east to the barn, but south is never never never!"
Daryl took a long drag from his smoke and stomped the butt under his boot. "Carol teach you that shi...um...that stuff? song? whatever?"
"Yes.Can I play now?"
"Lemme see yer find-ya's first."
Judith popped up and picked out two sticks from the grass. "Okay, like this?"
"No man, real ones, when you first go in. Green ones. Like that bush." Daryl pointed to an apple tree Carol had transplanted by the edge of the garden.
"Not that one it's a baby silly!Dont break baby sticks! These ones are better!" Judith pointed to a few tomato plants instead. Daryl shrugged, and Judith walked inbetween them both. "So if this is the forest and I go in..." Carefully, she bent the stalk on the left one. "Yeah, Ok, but which way you gonna turn?" Daryl scoffed."
"I ain't done!" she protested,spinning around on her heels. She turned back, and did the same to the opposite plant, this time breaking the stalk completely."
"Left!" she commanded, then thought for a moment. She looked at both plants, pantimimed turning in the direction of the bent one, then agreed with herself. "Yes, left!"
"Then what?"
"I break sticks along my way and let them hang."
Darly scooped her up, and kissed her cheek. "Thats our little ass kicker!. Hey? Whats the last rule?"
"Last? we didnt do the others yet?"
"Tomorrow. We got more to do tomorrow, but you gotta help me with my bike too. Just tell me the last one."
"It's the most important one, uncle Daryl." Judith said, holding a finger in the air as if she were reciting a campaign promise "The last rule is, if I follow these rules, you'll always find me!"
"Damn straight kid."
"Pottymouth!"
Chapter Three
Hide and seek
As the sun rose so did the noises of the forest. Roosters in the distance, birds in the trees, all of it could attract walkers. Judith made her find-ya's toward the barn, kissed the baby tree goodbye and set off, keeping low and moving quickly between the natural hiding places on the forest floor. Carol always said she was quick like a squirrel, and they never got caught by walkers, so she pretended to be one. \
She made her way around the forest to the east so that she could see the last side of the barn, the side she didnt see before it got dark the day before, then decided it was safe to move in closer. There were two doors, but she knew the one with the window way up high was always locked, the other was open a little. Nobody fixed it from the storm, and everybody talked about it in the morning campfire safety talks. The clearing between her and the building was mostly tall sawgrass and thistlbrush, still easy to move through but noisy. If anything was in the barn it would hear her coming. Daddy never went to the barn the same way twice so there was no path worn into the grass. Walkers seemed to always roam along pathways, and he didnt want them to wander where they didnt need to be. She hunkered low, and moved along the grass when the breeze blew, then stopped when it became calm.
Daryl used to call this "being slealthy" and it was how he won hide and seek every time. Once she got to where the grass was low and could no longer cover her, she walked softly, then tiptoed onto the wooden step near the locked door. Her heart was racing, because this was the time somebody always popped out. Daddy would tickle her, Aunty Michonne would say "BOO!" and Daryl? He would just say "gotcha!" or call her a loser. But this wasn't hide and seek anymore. This wasn't a game.
"Okay,"she thought "rules for clearing the barn. Look, listen, tap, run to the other side." She had looked, and so far she had heard nothing. Now was the scary part, tap on the locked door, then run quietly to the open door and look inside. If anything moved, if anything made a sound, run to the woods and start all over again. She set her backpack down, took a deep breath, made a big girl fist like daddy showed her and tried to bang on the door three times, but with the first blow the door swung open with a loud creak and something inside scurried across the floor and ended with a loud crash of broken glass. Judith screamed, grabbed the doorknob and pulled it shut but it only banged open again, this time even wider, and as she turned to run she tripped over her backpack, landing with a thud on the grass outside. She stood again as panic filled her chest. Her knee was bleeding, and she knew if it was a "young" walker, one that had recently turned, it could smell her, and it could run. She had no chance, she thought, something was already moving toward the door frame, a slow dragging sound getting louder. She froze, trying to remember what to do. She grabbed a stick nearby in the tall grass and held it like a knife. Rules swirled in her head. Tears filled her eyes and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't keep from sobbing. She stared at the open door, wiped her face then tried not to scream when the creature finally came to the door. It peered out at her with black eyes, and bared it's yellow teeth, then turned and disappeared inside again. Judith wiped her tears then stood and grabbed her backpack. She took a look around and wiped her eyes again. "No crying" she said to herself. She opened her pack and pulled out a torn hankercheif and wrapped it around her knee. "I'm not good at tying, I wish Carol was here." She reached back into her pack and pulled out a small slice of deer jerky. She walked toward the barn , looked behind her one last time, then slipped inside and quietly closed the door behind her.
Chapter four
The Forgotten
Coming soon?
