Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out this fic! Not a whole lot to say so far, this is a Daryl/OC fic of undetermined burn length. Currently going to be rated M for violence, gore, swearing, and some potentially sexual situations later on in the fic. I'd really love feedback, positive or constructive, I want to make sure you guys are enjoying this story. I don't bite, and I respond to most reviews, so if you wanna strike up a conversation I'm usually doing my best to procrastinate on something (this chapter was an effort not to study for my AP Comparative Government test).

Well, I can't wait to hear back from you guys! I hope you enjoy!

I've come back to edit this a bit (not the story, just the note) I've now created a kinda sorta soundtrack for this story, comprised of songs I listen to while I'm writing that fit the general mood of the story. The link is in my profile.

Chapter One - Butterflies in Her Hair

"I want my Mommy." The little girl's voice sounded resigned to her words. It was a sentence she had to say, a mantra she had lost faith in two days and a dead iPod ago.

"Hey, I'm sure we'll find her, kid. I bet she's out here looking for you right now." She smiled into the rearview mirror trying in vain to get one back, but the girl's big, brown doe eyes were glued to fraying shoelaces. Renee did her best to hold in a sigh, she'd lost faith even before Jada had, "This traffic jam's just so long she probably hasn't been able to find you yet."

Jada didn't respond. She was bored, Renee knew, there wasn't exactly much to do in three days of bumper to bumper to traffic. If she'd known she'd be going on the world's slowest road trip with some six year old she would've packed for it. There had to be families on the highway somewhere, other kids for Jada to play with. Maybe someone who would take her in. Renee hadn't exactly been planning on playing Mom at twenty.

She was almost twenty one now, her birthday would be in a month.

She wouldn't have to worry about judgemental looks at least, people thinking she was the mother of a six year old at only twenty. They didn't exactly look a like. Renee was about as white as they came with freckles, and a carrot top, and skin prone to sunburn on a cloudy day. Jada was black, with big brown eyes, and thick hair done up with sparkly plastic balls and butterflies.

"I'm thirsty," Jada complained. She'd been complaining about everything today, Renee guessed she had the right to. The world had gone to shit and so far the kid had proved to be pretty tough, Renee figured a little whining was a hell of a lot better than a full on meltdown.

"Here." She pulled a bottle of water out from under the seat, the rest were in the back, but she was trying to ration them - she didn't really know how long it would be before she could get her hands on more. Hell she didn't really know how long it'd be before she could get off this road.

"It's warm." The little girl grimaced, sending a pretty menacing glare at her bottle.

"I know."

She was pretty well set for the short term. Plenty of clothes, a few cases of water bottles, couple boxes of granola bars, two bags of chex mix, and a king size pack of Reese's she'd been saving at the bottom of her cooler. They were supposed to be a "congrats for surviving the big city" treat, since she'd booked herself a hotel at the heart of Atlanta. It was a cheap room in a nice building, with a picturesque view of a deli's dumpster, but she figured that if she could drive in and out of a city without getting herself killed she'd deserve a treat.

Five days after she'd first seen the Atlanta sky line, she still hadn't managed to put those tall, grey buildings behind her.

Jada wasn't quite so well off. All she had were the clothes on her back, and a bloodied Teddy Bear.

This couldn't last forever though, could it? The city had been lit up, those things...those things couldn't have survived that. This would come to an end, she'd find Jada's aunt or grandma or something. Life would go on.

"Hey would you look at that? We're moving!" Renee said cheerily as they crept along, every once in a while they'd have to weave in and out of cars that had been abandoned. Apparently more than a few people had decided that hiking was a better option.

They'd been doing okay on gas so far, but the needle was tipping ever closer to the red zone. Her dad had insisted she take his old Camaro, and when she said old, she meant very old. Like 1970 solid steel frame, gas cost thirty cents a gallon old. The thing had a lot of miles, but it'd been well taken care of - her dad was a bit of a car freak - and as far as he was concerned there was no better car to take his baby out on her first solo road trip. It'd take a Mactruck to rip that thing apart, especially with all the "shitty fiberglass frames" running around out there.

A frown tugged at the corners of her mouth, the lines had been jammed when she'd tried to call her family the first day. The second, she called ten times, by the fifth time she knew she was only going to get the answering machine. Yesterday her phone died. Today she'd resolved that they were fine, they had a beach house and a boat out on the coast - they probably just went there. Her brother was at UCLA, maybe the west coast hadn't been hit so bad.

Her eyes flitted back to Jada, she'd grown more despondent by the day. The first had been bad, but that was to be expected, the kid had seen a lot of shit that Renee wouldn't have wanted a six year old to see. That Renee didn't want to see. She'd been better the second day, but the events of this hellish week were finally starting to sink in. Little fingers still clung to that Teddy bear, an eye was missing, and pink tinged stuffing was leaking from an arm that had been there a few days ago.

"Hey. Wha'da ya say, we have another dance party?"

"There's no music," she replied.

Renee hadn't been letting them listen to the radio, it was all emergency messages and those terrifying bleeps they liked to play at the beginning and end. The iPod had run out of juice pretty quickly. Before that though, they'd jammed out to Brittany and The Spice Girls. It had been fun, forgetting about the dead and the living who could be dead, and just rocking out with her new little buddy.

The cars were slowing down again, brake lights glowing in the half light of dusk. The ditched cars were growing more and more numerous - off to the shoulder a couple were walking up into the woods with backpacks and a rifle. Maybe when the trail of cars inevitably stopped again she'd hop out and start searching them, there had to be books and toys that some kid couldn't drag along. Maybe she'd find a couple backpacks, she didn't really think a rolling suitcase would be all that convenient once they ran out of gas.

"Why don't you hop up front?" she asked, at this rate she was willing to try anything to get the little girl who'd danced back, who'd screamed lyrics she didn't know at the top of her lungs. The morose silence was far worse than off tune caterwauling, hell Renee could off tune caterwaul with the best of them.

Jada's eyes lit up, "Really?"

"Yeah, couldn't hurt. Not like we're going all that fast." The little girl scrambled to undo her seat belt, and pulled herself and that bear up into the passenger seat. Renee held her breath, she was starting to stink. She doubted she smelled much better, but at least she'd been able to change clothes. "Why don't you keep an eye out for me, let me know when we're coming up on any abandoned cars."

"Why?" She asked. Renee smiled, there was the Jada from the other day. Girl sure as hell could ask 'why' a lot.

"I'm going to start look for some stuff for us. Some clothes and blankets. Maybe a bit more food. Don't know how long it's going to be till we can find your Mommy." Jada nodded thoughtfully, "I'll try and keep an eye out for some books or toys for ya."

Her nose crinkled, "I don't like reading."

"Oh come on, you don't like reading?" Renee teased as she let the Camaro coast along. She was stuck behind some dinky old RV, it could have been bigger, but it didn't exactly give her a great view of the road.

"Nope," she popped her p's and kicked her feet lazily as she strained to look out the windshield, "I liked when Mommy read to me, but I didn't like reading."

"Well, then I'll just have to read to you for her, won't I?" Renee smiled at Jada. She didn't smile back, but nodded enthusiastically enough, totally absorbed in her new job. At least she had something to keep her mind on.

The sun was about to set over Atlanta, thick plumes of black smoke standing out against a fiery sky.

Up ahead people were slipping around an old sedan from the 90s, the back window had been broken out, "Look, look there! There's one!" Jada yelled, pointing over and over for extra emphasis.

"Yeah. Yeah I see it." Renee's eyes narrowed as they rolled closer. Bile rose in her throat as she watched little hands grasp at red stained glass, the elbow was bent all wrong. "Hey Jada, we're going to play another game, okay?"

"What about the car?"

"You did good -"

"Are we gonna stop?" Jada cut her off. There was a hint of a smile in her doe eyes, probably thinking about books and barbies.

"No," Renee said a bit sharply, and then softer, "We'll, stop at the next one. Why don't we play a game? Let's see who can keep their eyes closed the longest."

"That sounds boring," she whined, kicking her legs against the seat even harder.

They were inching closer and closer to the abandoned car. Bloody little hands and broken glass.

"Please, for me?" Jada didn't need to be seeing this.

"How'm I gonna know you ain't cheating?" Damn kids, for being so willing to break rules they sure hated people who broke rules. It was like they all lived in this little lawless bubble of their own, playing judge and jury to everyone except themselves. She knew she'd been like that when she was little, she'd almost broken her brother's nose for cheating at go-fish. Little did he know, she had a whole extra deck of cards under the table, picking out matches for herself when he wasn't looking.

"We'll have an impartial judge." She was grasping at straws now, but she could see a second set of hands beginning to impale themselves on crystal shards.

"A what?" Jada raised an eyebrow.

"Someone else is going to make sure we don't cheat."

The little girl slowly glanced around the otherwise empty Camaro, "Who? You gotta mouse in your pocket?" That must have been something her Mama used to say. Renee would have burst out laughing if she hadn't been so busy trying not throw up, a set of gnashing, lipless baby teeth grinned at her. The boy couldn't have been more than seven, just a little older than Jada. She needed Jada to close her eyes, but she didn't want to worry her. Her mood was only just starting to pick up again.

"Santa. Santa's the judge." Her eyes snapped shut at that, her brow furrowed concentrating as hard as she could to keep her eyes from opening. Renee didn't close them, but she didn't look at the car either. Her eyes stayed glued on the RV's license plate, brow furrowed in concentration as she tried as hard as she could not to gag.

She waited until the car was long out of sight before she told Jada that she'd won. The little girl smiled in the passenger's seat as she kept her eyes peeled for another vehicle to scavenge.

Renee found herself desperately hoping that the next one would just be a car, not a grave.

The line of cars tended to come to a stop sometime after sundown. Most people didn't want to keep driving on through the night, it got tiring. Those who did want to keep driving, well, it was just too bad for them. The sun had been down for a couple hours when the headlights began to blink out.

They still hadn't found a car she'd been willing to stop at, and apparently they needed more food, Jada had perfected the art of opening granola bars very, very quietly. They needed more clothes for her. Renee would kill for a pillow, a few nights of sleeping in the car had left her with a killer crick in her neck.

There was a rumble in the seat next to her, girl ate half a box of granola bars and she was still hungry? Renee ran her face through her hands, oh god she wasn't cut out for this.

"Alright, I'm going to go find us some stuff okay?" Renee said, digging into the glove compartment for the flashlight she always kept in there, "See if I can't bring us back something that isn't chex mix."

"Can I come?" Jada asked, bouncing on her seat. The image of blood soaked baby teeth came to mind, and Renee instantly thought better of it.

"No," she shook her head, slowly opening the car door, "It's late. You need to get your rest, I don't wanna deal with a grumpy Jada tomorrow morning, alright?"

"You're gonna leave me?" Why'd her eyes have to be so damn big?

"Just for a little bit. My sweater's in the back, you can use it as a blanket. I'm going to lock the doors, don't let anyone in but me, okay?" Jada nodded, the butterflies in her hair clacked together.

"Promise, you'll come back?"

"Promise."

She'd never loved the solid click of lock more than that moment, she didn't need a little girl's blood on her hands. With a reassuring smile and wave, she flicked on the flashlight and started down the road. More than a few people shot her dirty looks as her light hit their eyes, a few people kept staring blankly - she skipped those cars.

"Alrighty," she muttered to herself, "This one looks okay. It's a mom car, moms have kids, kids have shit. My kid needs shit." A big, shiny, suburban-mom van sat empty on the side of the road. The doors were closed and the windows tinted, but she should have been able to see some sort of movement if anything were in there. She still had that image of tiny little teeth smiling without lips burned into the back of her lids. Eyes wide open, she took a deep breath, and yanked the handle.

It was empty.

Quickly shining her light around the back seat she spotted a bright pink, kid sized suitcase and matching backpack. Both with Cinderella embroidered on the front. A couple Barbies sat on the middle seat, legs outstretched, seat belt covering them from hip to neck. Jackpot. There had to be some food in there somewhere... maybe the trunk? She'd grab the suitcase and bag first, she'd need something to lug it all back to the Camaro with.

Sighing, partially from exhaustion, partially from nerves she started to pull herself up into the backseat. Fancy suburban mom vans tended to be huge, and at five foot four she just wasn't. She hadn't even hit five four til her sophomore year, it had been hell climbing in and out of her Mom's monster of a leather seated kid carrier.

The backpack was closer. Right on top was a copy of The Chronicles of Narnia - it was a full collection, hardcover, deep blue chased with silver and gold filigree. She smiled, maybe if Jada was still awake she'd read her the first chapter. A quick glance through the suitcase confirmed it was filled with clothes - they'd be a little too big for Jada, but they'd work.

There was a metallic click behind her. She froze, toes poised just off the ground, and tried to push her heart back out of her throat.

"Back off, bitch, we saw it first." There was a belligerence to the thick, southern drawl that made her legs itch to run. She wasn't cut out for this.

Slowly, inch by inch, she let her feet fall flat against the asphalt, and turned, hands up, to look at him. Or both of them. They were both about the same height, but the one with the gun somehow seemed bigger. It wasn't just the fact that he had a pistol aimed at her head either - the other man looked younger, slouched slightly against an old beat up truck. His eyes couldn't seem to focus on any one thing for too long: the car, the man with the gun, the ground, his crossbow, her, the ground.

The bigger man fingered the trigger and she closed her eyes.

She wasn't cut out for this.

She wasn't cut out for big cities or interstate driving. She wasn't cut out for the dead, and she wasn't cut out for guns. She wasn't cut out for a little girl with butterflies in her hair.

They still had a couple granola bars, if she walked away now they'd be okay til tomorrow. Jada needed this though, needed something that could be hers again - something other than a blood soaked bear and pee stained pants. She needed a wardrobe to walk through til Renee could get her...where?

She wasn't cut out for this.

"Please." Her voice cracked a bit, but she was too scared to be embarrassed, "You can keep the food, okay? The food, and the gas, and whatever.I just, I just need a couple -"

"We saw it first," the big man interrupted her, "Innit that right, baby brother?" Big brother seemed pretty jumpy, every time his finger tensed around the trigger she flinched. There was this weird shine to his eyes, a smile that had been taped on. "Innit that right, baby brother?" He repeated himself, this time baby brother glanced at her, just for a second, and nodded stiffly once his eyes were firmly on the ground again. "What's in it's ours."

"I - I…." she stuttered out.

"Now get gone, 'for I start gettin' impatient."

"I -" A little more forcefully this time.

"I said! Get -"

"I just want the Cinderella suitcase!" She yelled.

Big brother blinked. Baby brother blinked. Renee breathed.

Someone screamed.