Just as the blue sky started to turn a shade of coral Kenny's eye lids felt like a bag of bricks, urging him to lay back down and sleep for a while longer.

Aj pulled the thin wool blanket over his head making him look like a little kitten.

As be yawned he rubbed his eyes in order to wake up a little more. Kenny's body felt refreshed from the long trip they took the previous day.

"Come on kid, we have to get going" When his gaze traveled to the bed beside him he saw Aj's still body under the covers, no sign of him getting up anytime soon.

Being the responsible adult he did what any parent would do, Which was yanking the blanket off the small child, letting the crisp morning air assault his tiny body.

Aj let out a hiss as he wrapped his arms around his body trying to retain heat, but ultimately failing.

With a heavy sigh he said "I don't recall Rebecca giving birth to cat" every morning Kenny had to deal with Aj's little hissing. To this day he had to clue on where he got the hissing from.

"Grandpa ken! Do we have to get up at the butt crack of dawn!" The small body whined attempting to snatch the blanket back.

"Just because I'm old...er doesn't mean you can over power me" despite his appearance kenny still felt quite young so whenever Aj tried to snatch things from his hand thinking he'd succeed from his looks he'd always add an er at the end since his body was still fighting. "Now get the hell up. We leave in five" he added.

Aj groaned followed by a pout as he moved to the edge of the bed. It's been a while since they last had the luxury of sleeping in a bed instead of on the cold hard ground that was covered in pebbles, bugs, sticks. There's only so much you can clear.

When Aj finally gave into Kenny's words he slid off the bed, his feet making contact with the cold floor sent shivers down his spine.

"Make sure to catch up" was the last thing Kenny said as he made a beeline to the door with his shoes already on and tied as well as his backpack already on his back.

"But it's only been three minutes!" He raised his voice a bit however not loud enough to draw attention.

"Expect the unexpected kiddo" he grinned as he closed the door. The grin on his face turned smug as he saw the panicked look on Aj's face before the door clicked shut.

The older man was already half way out of the small little neighborhood they were in when an out of breath Aj grabbed onto his hand.

"Took you a while"

"I couldn't find my bag" he glared at him

Kenny simply shrugged as he handed him his bag "Take this a second new lesson. Keep an eye on your things at all times"

He rolled his eyes "Whatever" he said under his breath.

The two walked for about three hours, taking four, ten minute breaks in order to not completely kill their feet since the sun was barley half way to the middle.

A few stray walkers roamed about around them. The growls of the dead drowned out the sound of the their footsteps.

With a flick of Kenny's hand he had a old, rusted crowbar in hand. He shared a knowing look with Aj before he ran at one of of the three walkers headed for them.

In one swift motion the crowbar smashed into the walkers face, a sickening crack followed after. Bits of reddish, brownish blood as well as skull pieces flew on the floor.

Kenny's eyes narrowed as he swung his weapon down, getting most of the blood off then raised it up again preparing to swing again.

The walkers feet dragged behind them, more growls surrounded them.

Kenny glanced to the side muttering a small 'Fuck' under his breath as he saw more approaching.

With a sigh he pulled out his gun from his pants and threw it to Aj who ran to grab it.

Focusing his gaze back to the walkers in front of him he quickly stepped back dodging one of the walkers hands reaching out to grab him.

In the blink of an eye his crowbar landed against its face. The body staggered for a second then fell limply to the floor.

Movement in the corner of his eye alarmed him for second however he forced himself to focus his attention to the enemy in front of him, just like he had done to the other two he raised his arm to strike again.

Just he as was about to strike the sound of gun shot reached his ears followed by a thump, Aj had shot the walker coming from the side.

With a proud smile adorning his face he killed the last walker that came from the front.

Three more loud gunshots were heard, as well as two thuds. When Kenny turned around he saw Aj holding the gun in his small hands, he looked up at him like he was waiting for something.

"Your shootings getting better" Kenny praised, Aj's eyes twinkled as the words left the man's lips. A warm fuzzy feeling settling in his stomach.

Kenny laughed softly at the boys little happy dance. Once he finished he went to hand the gun to him however Kenny only shook his head and continued onward.

This made Aj smile wider, quickly shoving the gun into his pants he ran to catch up to him.

Kenny never liked Aj doing any of the killing, he wanted him to have a childhood, he knew that in this world it would be near impossible to provide that.

Even so he would certainly try his damn best to give it to him. Before Aj turned five the only thing he taught Aj were how to read, and only when he reached the age of five did he start teaching the boy things he would need to know to survive.

He started to teach him how to use of knife, of course Kenny made him practiced on a tree not trusting him to go up against a walker.

Next came shooting. Kenny taught Aj how to shoot much like Lee did to Clem. The older man rarely let The young boy kill walkers, in order to preserve some of his innocence.

Deep down he knew he couldn't shelter him forever so slowly he let Aj do more. Thus at the age of six he knew how to scavenge alone, kill walkers at a distance, and lastly know when it was time to run. Kenny wished he would've taught duck sooner.

Kenny shook his head, this wasn't the time to think of such things. He had to keep moving, the sun was directly overhead now.

The walkers they had killed now looked like mere ants to them. They had walked so far that they were barley visible.

The road slowly turned into a broken stone path, trees framing the path. Kenny pulled out the crowbar from its small hand made strap as saw more and more debris.

"Grandpa ken is something wrong" Aj peered go at him, worry growing on his face.

Kenny looked around then kneeled down. "There's nothing worry kiddo. There's a building up ahead, you know what we must do in a new place don't you?" He smiled trying to ease the boy.

"We check if there are walkers. Uh....we, Um Find a way out. Scavenge for supplies" Aj smiled nervously.

"That's right. Make sure you leave the walkers to me, we don't have many bullets left" with that he stood back up, continuing on his way.

The building they arrived at was in shambles, heck he didn't even know if it could be called a building.

Chunks of stone were missing 'guess that explained all the rubble'.

Scorch marks could be seen on the building. Bodies littered the floor. Some were filled with holes and had melted off skin from the fire. Even a poor horse had died here.

Kenny scrunched up his nose at the smell, he had to force himself not to hurl. Taking his crowbar he bashed the walkers in the head as they walked into the building, making sure not to get his clothes snagged on the sharp broken edges of what used to be doors.

Compared to the outside the inside was a bigger mess. It looked like a three sided massacrer took place. Walkers, humans, and even more humans.

They would be lucky if anything survived inside this place by the state of it. Kenny took the initiative and patted down a few corpses finding a few stray bullets, not to mention they he was able to score a pistol that was smothered between the ground and a corpse.

They didn't really find anything else than that. Kenny however decided to still explore the rest of the building which ended up leading them to a nursery, past an abandoned car.

Just simply being in there made Kenny get an ominous feeling. The further in he went the more his hairs stood on end.

The room had muted green lockers with hand print pictures taped on it. Next to it was a small grey shelf that got about to Kenny's mid thigh, looking closely at the shelf he noticed it could have been white if it weren't for all the dirt and ash.

Moving on from that, a single Party banner went stringed from one side to another on top of the two. It added a bit of color to the muted room.

If it weren't for the bunk beds they had to go through to get here the little stuffed bear on the dresser would have been a dead give away that it was some kind of kid room.

Aj picked up the small bear in his hands a look of wonder on his face when he asked "grandpa ken, what is this?" if it weren't for Aj's curiosity he'd probably would have forgotten he was there.

"It's like a pillow in the shape of an animal, kids your age play and sleep with them." he explained plainly, looking around the room for more supplies.

Aj nodded softly, giving the stuffed bear a light squeeze "Its like disco broccoli! But softer!" The young boy exclaimed happily

"Take it with you. No one else is going to" he shrugged.

"But it's broken"

"Nothing that can't be fixed"

After pondering for a few minutes Aj slipped his bag off his shoulders and placed the small bear into his bag.

While on the floor he noticed a pile of papers on the floor, and being the curious kid that he is he picked one up.

The first paper had a picture of a family, It was roughly sketched out in pencil. There was two older looking guys, two kids, and lastly a women.

Picking up another paper he saw a drawing of a girl with small pigtails. He wasn't quite sure how old the girl was from the drawing since it wasn't that good compared to the previous one.

Kenny having not seen anything of worth he peered over Aj's shoulder giving the papers in his hands a quick glance then looking away, however something about those picture caught his attention.

"Let me see those kiddos" Aj hummed and handed the papers back to him, then went back to looking at the rest.

Kenny's eyes widen as he saw the people in the drawings. The one of the family was his family. In the drawing katjaa was holding his hand while duck seemed to be leaning away from Clem who had what looked like a worm in her hand, Lee was smiling softly behind her.

The second drawing looked a bit like Clem however the girl didn't have a hat on.
It made sense that it could have been her since Clem had lost her hat when they got separated and he had it, but what was she doing all the way out here? What happened that lead her here? What happened to this building? Was she looking for them?

There was so many questions he had, but frankly he didn't have time to dwell on it right now. The sun was setting, he for sure was not spending the night in a building that looked like it would collapse if someone so much as sneezed on it.

Tapping the younger boys shoulder he motioned for them to leave which he complied with, with a small sigh. Moving around took it's toll on the boy however Aj didn't voice it often since Kenny would always shut it down with different reasons each time.

The nursery door shrieked as it closed behind them. Aj's little footsteps brought back little memories of the two kids he raised.

When the two reached the red car they had passed earlier Kenny slid into the driver seat while Aj joined him in the passenger side.

"Help me find the keys will you" Aj nodded as a response.

It took the two a merely 3 minutes to find they keys. Turns out it fell under one of the car seats and with Aj's small hands he was able to grab it.

The older male was glad he didn't have to hot wire it. It took a few turns of they key for the engine to let out a roar.

With a smile on his face he put the car into drive and lightly stepped on the gas, he wouldn't want to crash the only working car he was able to find in months.

Aj smiled happily at the idea of not having to walk anymore, not to mention the car was better to sleep in than the hard floor. Of course He wasn't quite fond of cars but it made it easier to travel in plus it gave them shelter from the elements.

As they pulled out of what remained of the building Aj noticed the two drawings he had showed his grandpa "you brought those?"

Kenny was silent for a second before he hesitantly opened his mouth "I did, those pictures they......" he tailed off near the end, wondering if he should tread down memory lain.

Not wanting to keep Aj in the dark he began to speak "they're me and my family, the one of the girl is Clem"

The younger boy nodded. Muttering the name 'Clem' under his breath. Just by looking at his face he could tell he found the name familiar, but couldn't quite remember where he heard it.

His chestnut brown eyes scanned over the drawing of the girl. He stared intently at it for about eight minutes give or take. "I...I think I know her. I remember a girl holding me while humming."

"I'm surprised you remember, you were still pretty young. She raised you like her son." The older man shook his head "you were her son, and she's the closest thing to a mother you ever had." Clem didn't just raise Aj like a son, she made him her son after Rebecca passed.

"Did the walkers get her? She's not with us"

"She's alive. We just separated from each other when you were merely three years old, that's all."

"Oh..." he paused, looking back down to the drawing

Aj looked up at him for a few minutes wondering how he could be so sure she's still alive

This winter he would be turning seven years old. Which means It's been three years since they got separated.

"Can you tell me more about Clem and your family? And maybe my parents?" Aj question nervously.

Kenny shifted his eyes from the road to him and smiled before looking back at the road. "What would you like to know?"

The younger boy fiddled with the paper for a bit wondering what he could possibly ask him. "What were they like?, what kind of people were they?"

"Well for starters clem she's a tough as they come. She's always facing things head on. She's real stubborn too, she gets it from me" he chuckled

"Lee is the guy standing behind her. He was my best fiend, he's clems father figure much like she's your mother figure. Took her in when everything turned to shit. Man...Lee is a better man than I am, that man is wise as hell. He was always there for me even when I got drunk off my ass or acted like a total piece of shit. H-he was there for me when my son got bit...and when my wife shot herself"

Aj frowned at the sadness in his voice however it was gone as quickly as it came.

"Katjaa is the name of my wife. I don't even know where to begin describing her. It may be a bit biased of me to say but I swear she was just an angel."

"What does biased mean?" He chirped

"Being biased is when you side with something because of your beliefs or opinions. That's the best I can explain it kiddo"

"I think I get it. Now continue please" he smiled again, Eager to hear more.

"My sons name is ken junior but we call him duck, and to answer your upcoming question yes a duck as in two wings, two legs, and a head" Kenny smiled fondly at the memories of him. "He never let anything bother him, like water off a ducks back. But Frankly, I think it's because he's dumb as a bag of hammers. He makes up for it with enthusiasm." Aj only shook his head and laughed at what he said about his son.

"Your mother she could be a real nightmare sometimes. She's a tough cookie, and head strong like Clem. Picked fights a lot, but it could have been due to mood wings from her pregnancy. Your dad is the complete opposite of her. Somethings I wonder how they even started dating. He was a coward and soft spoken, if you think about it they work out nicely."

Aj's smiled grew wider at learning about Kenny's and his family, he wished he got the chance to meet them. Maybe someday he would get the chance.

❤︎ E N D  O F ❤︎
❤︎ C H A P T E R ❤︎
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❤︎ W O R D  C O U N T ❤︎

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❤︎ N O T E ❤︎
Extra long chapter for you dolls! Hope you like it and i Hope you have a wonderful day or night.

❤︎ ꪶꪮꪜꫀ ꪖsꫝ ❤︎
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