The last thing I remembered before everything went to shit was sitting in front of the TV with my older brother Nick watching some silly commercial before we found out about the outbreak. I didn't even remember what it was about but I did remember it was so stupid that I had turned down the volume in order to avoid listening to it until a news announcement interrupted the program and began to talk about a virus that was bringing the dead back to life. My brother had grabbed my hand and dragged me into the kitchen gathering some supplies like Band-Aids, gauze, Neosporin cream, my asthma inhalers as well as any can of food in our pantry and we ran to find whatever civilization we could find.

That was almost six months ago and I certainly wasn't the same little girl who clung to her older brother anymore. For one thing my black hair had been cut short falling to the beginning of my neck. I was wearing her brother's old leather jacket with black jeans and combat boots although I was completely covered from head to toe in dirt. Me and my brother had originally bunkered down in an old pharmacy but one day my brother tried to break into the backroom of the pharmacy and had set off the alarm luring dozens of walkers to our location forcing us to flee in separate directions from one another. I was at the top of a tree in some sort of forest casually polishing my knife when I heard a noise in the distance. I froze and scanned my surroundings before listening to determine what the noise was. It was another child crying. I was shocked to the bone. It had been so long since I had run into another survivor let alone another child. As swiftly as I could I carefully climbed down the tree and went off to find out where the crying was coming from. It didn't take long to find her considering she was being quite loud. Underneath a large old looking tree was a little blonde girl around the same age as me clutching a tattered doll sobbing her eyes out. I slowly approached the girl and simply said "hey". The girl yelped before scrambling further into the tree but immediately calmed down once noticing I was a normal human being. "What's your name?" I asked gently hoping not to scare anymore then I already have.

"Sophia" she mumbled clutching her doll closer to her chest.

"I'm Adrian and I didn't mean to scare you," I told her. She smiled weakly before looking down at her shoes with teary eyes. I glanced at her awkwardly. Hanging out with other children had never been my strong point. I was always too busy hanging out with my big brother to play with kids my own age. "What's wrong," I asked as I plopped down beside Sophia.

"A walker came after me," she told me " I got scared and ran off the highway into these woods and got separated from the group and my mommy." Her voice cracked when she mentioned her mom before she started to cry again. I patted Sophia 's back before suddenly getting an idea. " How about you come to my tree with me for the night and then once we wake up in the morning we set out to find your mom and your group?" I asked while standing up and offering my hand to Sophia. Sophia gave me a nervous glance before gently grabbing my hand. "Don't worry Sophia," I told her "I'll keep you safe until we find your mom I promise!" causing her to smile weakly. As we were walking to my tree I was previously lounging in I couldn't help but notice Sophia staring at me so I figured I'd break the silence"My brother was eighteen at the time I was born, busted his ass working so he could afford to take care of me quit college and everything so he could afford to send me to school." I came to a halt causing Sophia to accidently crash into my back not expecting me to stop walking. I felt tears prick my eyes at the thought of my older brother as I continued to tell her the story " He told me it was worth it seeing the complete and utter joy on my face as I walked through those school doors." I wiped my eyes franticly as Sophia gave my hand a little squeeze obviously knowing I was upset before we continued walking. When we had finally arrived at the tree I quickly climbed up before offering my hand to Sophia and helped her slowly climb up. Once we were both securely up in the tree I searched inside my bag before pulling out two chocolate bars. " You hungry?" I asked offering her the treat. She eyed the chocolate hungrily before completely devouring it as I slowly ate mine watching her curiously. "How long has it been since you've had one of those?" I asked

"Too long were did you get it?" she said licking the remaining chocolate off of her fingers causing me to smile a little bit. " I found it in one of the cars on the highway figured it would be a nice snack to have," I told her casually leaning back on the branch twirling my knife between my fingers. Sophia eyed my knife " One of the guys in my group have a knife like that," she said " he's the hunter of the group always bringing back meals and using a knife like your to skin the fur off them it's kind of gross." I looked up and noticed the sun was starting to set. "We should get some rest while we can," I said " at least until the sun rises again it's too dangerous to be wandering around at night in the dark." Once Sophia was lying down I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep, which was a pretty hard thing to do during the apocalypse. "Adrian?" Sophia whispered

"Yeah?"

"I miss my mommy." I looked down solemnly

"I'm sure you do,"

"Adrian will I see my mommy again?"

I sat up and looked Sophia dead in they eyes "Sophia I promise I will do whatever I can to make sure you reunite with your mother and I always keep my promises." I told her before lying down once more and closing my eyes "Adrian?"

"Yes Sophia?"

"Thank you." I felt my lip twitch into a small smile

"anytime."