"I've lost track of the date. When each day is the same as the last, you just stop caring. I wake up every morning regretting the fact that I'm still here, still alive even as the world has died around me. Every minute I spend fighting for my life, looking for food, avoiding walkers and raiders, keeping myself from going insane. It's worse now that they're gone. Before, our small talk was enough to get us all by. Skylar would sing in her soothing voice, talk to me about the things she used to do. How she had worked so hard to become a nurse only to see everything tossed out the window. David would crack jokes about everything. He'd keep me smiling even when there wasn't anything to smile about. And Carter... well Carter was just Carter. Always the one keeping us in line but keeping us alive. He was never one for long conversations and now that Skylar and David are gone... It's so quiet now. I think that's why I decided to start this diary of shorts. I never did like writing but I have no one else to talk to... no one else except for you. Whoever you are.

Maybe it's best to start with a little history being that this is my fist entry. I couldn't tell you when the world fell apart... I'm not even sure myself. It seems like I've spent an eternity trying to survive. I can tell you where I was when it did. I was born in New York. Now a shell of it's former self I'm sure. I haven't been there in so long. Before the fall though, I lived in a condominium overlooking the Hudson River. A second home from what I remember. I'd spent my mornings with a light "healthy" breakfast meant to keep me in shape and focused for the private tutor that would arrive shortly there after. Lessons were in French for whatever reason. My parents would talk about the need to improve cognitive abilities, brain functions, silly things to get me ahead of everyone else when I started at the private school they'd enrolled me in. It was all very strict, formal... very unnecessary. At the end of the day none of it mattered. The kids at my school didn't care if I spoke another language, they all did the same and they're wallets were just as big as mine, if not bigger. The only difference was the attitude and I guess that's what set me apart. Before long I had a clique... not particularly something I wanted but it never mattered because every day at lunch, the same girls would take their places around me and chat it up. Regardless of what I'd say, it always seemed the conversation would swing to something only relevant to themselves. And that was my life. Home was work and school was about me... but not really me. I spent years watching friends bullshit through their lives thinking they were the dumb ones but if only I'd known what was around the corner for all of us.

Summer break came around, a breath of fresh air before I would start my first year in high school. Not wanting to deal with another few months of pointless lessons to keep my brain from dying during my 'vacation', I decided it was time to take a little break for myself. I hooked up with my one real good friend, Sarah, got some plans together with her and headed over to her place. We were going to spend a week or so together, running around Manhattan and getting into general trouble. Spending money we weren't supposed to spend, kissing boys who's name we'd forget, eating food that would kill us. It was a time of oblivion that I needed and one that I would never get to enjoy. The first couple of days were spent simply with each other, at her house chatting about nonsense and playing video games. The third day... that's when it happened.

The reports are still so vivid in my mind. Impossible to forget. The infection spread a lot quicker then people expected and within the next day, the Island of Manhattan was closed off and I was stranded, my parents stuck helpless on the other side of the Hudson river. The following week was a complete nightmare. Sarah's family decided that I'd stay with them until my parents could get to me. They had the house boarded up and stocked their supplies as well as they could while they waited for the pandemic to blow over. It never did and as soon as our food ran out we finally realized that help wasn't coming. That was when I met the first group of raiders I'd come across. Men with guns in their hands and faces that looked determined but lost. They came up to the house, broke through the front door, demanded everything. When we gave them all we had... they decided they wanted more... Sarah w-"

[b]"Clo."[/b]

Clover looked up from the blotted page, her vision now blurred and Carter's face unrecognizable through the tears bubbling in her eyes. She hadn't realized she'd begun to cry and quickly blinked the moisture away, shaking her head to clear the fogginess creeping into her mind.

[b]"Yeah... yeah wha-?"[/b] Clover's voice choked a little and she immediately stopped talking.

[b]"Why don't you put that down for a little bit and give me a hand."[/b] Carter knew what was going on even if he hadn't said anything. The grey eyes set deep in his hard face rarely missed a thing, even if he didn't say much. He stepped away from the truck, his left leg hobbling behind his right and his head on a swivel as he took in his surroundings for the hundreth time. Tree's lined either side of the road and from where he stood he could barely make out Mount Olympic in the distance peaking out above the line of trees. Dotted along the road were a number of cars, more spaced out here than one would find closer to cities. However with luck they happened upon a small pile up. It looked like the lead car had somehow been turned sideways and was quickly struck by those behind it. What looked to be nothing more than a heap of twisted metal was in fact a fuel gold mine. All these cars would have gasoline in their tanks needed to get them the rest of the way to Olympia from where they were at: 101 just south of the mountain..

Clover climbed out of the back seat, her face still a little red but her composure showing now signs of emotional fatigue. Without a word she walked around to the bed of the truck, pushed the tarp to the side and began digging for the tools they'd need to syphon fuel, doing her best to ignore Skylar's rifle peaking out from under the blue material.