++++++ I do not own the Walking Dead or an affiliated characters apart from my OC's ++++++

One

Screaming…I can always hear screaming…in my dreams and in waking…these days it's hard to tell the two apart. The gnashing of teeth and the growling, I see them when I close my eyes, hear them when I cover my ears, they're everywhere, we'll never be safe, they will never stop hunting us, the slightest sound, the slightest movement to give us away and we're done for.

Movement…I can hear movement.

Footsteps dragging across the wooden floorboards of the cabin we had taken shelter in last night. Instinct kicks in, a lifetime of living with six brothers and eight years in the marines takes over, I grabbed my bowie knife out from underneath my pillow and sit upright, holding it out, ready to stab the walker in the head.

The walker screamed.

Wait-I stopped-walkers don't scream. I dropped the knife to rub my eyes and take her in my arms. "Poor rabbit," I whispered, trying to sooth her. This world is no longer safe for anyone, especially children like her. I felt a pang in my heart as I stared into those gorgeous blue eyes all I could think of is how unlucky she was to be living in a world like this. I kissed her head, "I'm sorry rabbit, I whispered. "Where's your mother, Jade?"

She shrugged. "I dunno."

I ruffled her golden blonde curls with a soft smile. It was sad knowing that my little rabbit would most likely die before she hit the age of five if we weren't careful, supplies were dwindling and with three mouths to feed I was forced to go out hunting for longer expecting the worse when I returned back to our camp. "Get in the cupboard and hide," I ordered, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed and standing up at the same time I grabbed my knife off the floor.

Sprinting out of the bedroom I squatted down low behind the door as it opened up and more footsteps penetrated the silence. The door slammed shut and I watched a pair of brown leather boots walk across the room before I swung my leg out, knocking her to the floor with a mighty thump.

"Dang it PJ!" she grumbled, lying there on the dusty wood.

I stood up and offered her a hand. "Eyes open, Ebony. I could have been a walker."

"Oh you're going to be a walker in a minute," growled Ebony Hewitt as she dusted off her filthy jeans. "I was just getting water from the stream if you must know. I put the canteens in the jeep, they're ready for boiling whenever we want to use them." She stared at me through her dark brown eyes, "how much longer do you think we can stay here?" she questioned. "Where is Jade?"

"You can come out now," I called out to Jade, hitting the wall three times. It was our little code we had, three taps means come on out, it's safe.

Jade came running out and crashed into her mother. "You were gone a really, really, long time," she whispered with all the strength a four year old could muster without crying in fear.

I had picked up Ebony and Jade Hewitt in New York City on day five of total wildfire, both of them hiding in some shambled apartment almost about to get eaten by a walker. Ebony was a Registered Nurse, used to fixing broken bones and healing cuts, not killing the dead. She had a daughter who was in love with every single Disney princess in the history of Disney, even the ones who weren't really princesses. Well, when I say picked up I didn't mean picked up like a sack of potatoes, Ebony and I had been friends since Jade was only three months old. I was on my way back from six months training with the Australian Special Forces and after twelve straight hours of partying I'd spent the whole trip back to New York past out beside her and practically giving her alcohol poisoning from the fumes that were apparently coming off me-or so she says to this very day.

"PJ?" Ebony repeated. "How much longer can we stay here?" she asked me.

"Two days, three at best," I answered, looking out the window. "I might go hunting today, see if I can find anything, maybe even check the highway out again, see what else I can find. You gonna be ok here with Jade?"

Ebony nodded. "Yeah, we'll be fine. Listen, you know how I feel about you going through dead people's stuff-"

I rolled my eyes at her.

"-but if you could find any books for Jade to read I would be most grateful," Ebony whispered. "Just because society has crumbled doesn't mean my daughter stops learning."

"You'd be better off teaching her how to hunt and protect herself," I lectured her. "I love my rabbit but she's gonna die if we don't teach her to protect herself.

Ebony ignored me. I can't blame her though, this dream world that she was living in was so much better than the real world. I marched into the back room and started gearing up for a long hunt, I would probably be gone for at least a day, tomorrow I'd spent the day skinning and gutting and smoking the meat of what I caught then we'd probably leave. Ebony laughed at me as I headed out the door, she always did seeing me with my hood over my head, it helped me focus on the target ahead of me since I only ever fought in long range when it came to dealing with walkers. Long range combat had been my speciality in the Marine Corps, I was a fantastic sniper up until the point I had to but a bullet in the brain of my spotter when he tried to kill me. But that was the state of the world these days, friends are forced to kill friends. One of these days I would be forced to kill either Ebony or Jade or they would be forced to kill me. Survival rates in this world weren't exactly the best.

I kissed Jade on the head and headed out the door into the crisp morning air. We'd made it as far as the outer regions of Atlanta, in fact I was pretty sure that there was a farm nearby but I had a rule-no people. Ebony hated that rule, we'd argue for hours about hooking up with another group but I was always against it. The closest we'd gotten was joining a group in a quarry not too far from the city but I was against it because it was too close to the city, Ebony didn't talk to me for days after that, I tell you it was pretty awkward when it's two adults and one child.

For the rest of the morning I followed several tracks throughout the woods, catching a couple of rabbits and some squirrels. As I prepared to start the track towards the highway and lug back another ten litre jug of water I heard a scream. It wasn't coming from the direction of the cabin but from a small stream nearby.

I loaded an arrow in my bow and took off at a slow run, following the noise.

Expecting a walker to burst out of the bushes, I was prepped and ready to fire, only it was a child. A small girl, around the age of eleven burst through the bushes clutching to a doll like it was her life. When she saw me, she screamed.

"Shut up!" I hissed, grabbing her and covering her mouth to stop her from screaming. There were walkers in these woods and if I let her keep screaming like this, she would bring them all down on us. "I stared into her frightened eyes, "I'm gonna move my hand kid, and you're not gonna scream or I will leave you to the walkers."

She nodded.

I removed my hand. "Take these," I ordered her, shoving the dead animals over her shoulder. "Follow me and stay quiet." She followed me, the fear was written all over her face but she followed me anyway. Ebony would love another little girl for Jade to play with but all I could think of was how it was just another mouth to feed and more importantly, it was just another walker waiting to happen.