Loginquitas

Prologue

I grew up with the phrase 'once upon a time' starting my bedtime stories, which I'm sure was the same for many others. It started countless possibilities of every story imaginable; some filled with love, some filled with adventure, some filled with a different reality than our own that belonged to the land of the dream world. By starting the story with 'once upon a time', the phrase 'and they all lived happily ever after' inevitably ended these twist-filled plots of fairy tales and dreamers. These two simple phrases gave me the sense of hope of my upending future; perhaps, one day, I'll grow up to live a life of fantasy and happiness? These two simple phrases gave me the assurance that I was going to live happily ever after too.

Though what these two simple phrases didn't prepare me for was the ambiguity of reality and how the world I know of can change within the shortest spaces of times, to something in nightmares.

I never could have imagined what was left of the world now, back then. Back in what seemed like a different time now, the simple things like traffic and work schedules were the biggest stresses in life. Though now it was merely survival.

We had been stripped down to mere beings, whose only duty now was to survive. Fighting to stay alive was a daily duty and something that had to be learned quick. There was no time for the weak and only time for those who didn't hold onto reality too strongly. Times for hopes and dreams were gone now and all that was left was the bitterness and raw inevitability that was the extinction of the human race.

There was no 'happily ever afters' any more and we just had to deal with it.

Momma.

Being away from her mother had always scared Sophia, and as the hordes of walkers passed by them on that graveyard of a highway, Sophia couldn't remember a time when she wanted her mother to hold her as much as then. She could see her. Merely a few cars away, tucked away with Mrs Grimes. Carl lay under a car nearby, though Sophia felt no comfort in his closer presence. She wanted to hide with them. She wanted the monsters to go away.

The numbers appeared to lessen and the pairs of feet that passed by reduced until nothing came. Silence. The groaning and moaning from the walkers seemed to die away as they staggered along, unbeknown of the missed opportunity to feed.

That was it, Sophia could crawl out now and be with her mother again. They were safe and all she wanted to do was hold her mother and never let her go. So, impatient to get to her, Sophia stuck her head out from under the safety of the car; checking it was clear and ready to run into her mother's awaiting arms.

Though it was her impatience that cost her.

A snarl. A hand. A rotting face. Sophia screamed.

She rolled away from the clawing monster and did the only thing she knew to do. She ran. Into the forest and away from the following walker. Away from the highway. Away from Carl and the others. Away from her mother.

There was a blunt crack as the bat connected with the side of the thing's head. Another sound followed; the dull thud as it dropped to the floor. With a strangled cry, I brought the club down a few more times onto it's head to make sure it was truly dead, the sounds of it's skull crunching filling my ears. All that was left when I was done was a mess of skull, blood and brain - that was satisfying as I knew it wouldn't be getting up to try rip me to shreds any time soon.

A timid gasp brought my gaze away from the body of the creature and towards what it was previously just chasing.

A little girl. No more than twelve years of age and who held a terrified expression on her innocent pale face. Her eyes stared up at me with look I couldn't quite place and I watched as her fingers curled furiously around the rag doll she clutched close to her, as if it would protect her from the nightmares of this world.

I swallowed down hard and attempted to hide my bloodied weapon out of view, though kept it still in hand just in case. Raising my free hand to show her I meant no harm, I attempted a smile.

"It's alright." I said, softly. My voice made her flinch, so I paused for a moment for her. "I won't hurt you." She didn't say anything, just stared up at me with big doe eyes. "I'm Ruby. What's your name, sweetie?" The little girl's face seemed to soften slightly and her posture seemed to relax an inch. Though her fingers still held the rag doll tightly. I waited patiently for my answer and when she answered, I had to listen carefully as her voice was so quiet and timid;

"Sophia."

(Author's Note): Thought I'd try my hand at having a go at writing for this fandom. I'm a big fan of the show and wish season 3 would just hurry up already! I miss watching it on Friday nights, though I must say the last episode was a killer, one of my favourites! Can't wait for the second season to come out on DVD so I can relive it all again. Though, for now, this fandom will take up most of my time.

This chapter is short, probably not very interesting, though it's only the prologue. This is set sometime after Sophia disappears (obviously) and for the purpose of this story, I'm going to say that she came across some more walkers after Rick left her and she ran further into the forest, away from the highway. This story is compliment up to 2.01, though from then on I suppose it's slightly AU, I may try to keep to some of the show's storylines. Hopefully my OC isn't too rubbish. I know some people may be sick of OCs and at first, I didn't automatically want to add an OC into the show, the characters are far too fantastic on their own! But hey, hopefully you'll like her!

Please leave a comment, I'd love to know what you think of this so far (I know this chapter is quite short, but still...)