The morning sun rose in the sky and, thankfully, there were no walkers around.

Catori had grown tired of dealing with them. She sat up from the tree she had been leaning against, sleeping, and rumbled through her backpack. It took a minute or so before Catori pulled out a small hair brush and ran it through her long brown hair. The woman re-braided the big strands of green dyed hair and brushed half of her long brown hair up in a messy bun, leaving most of it streaming down her back, reaching her lower thighs.

After 'freshening' up a bit, a small packet of beef jerky was pulled out and opened. Catori thought about things in life, wondering where she was. Once the walkers had taken over, killing her father and her pet dog, she had left. Her father had taught her everything she needed to know about living in the wild, hunting and pretty much taking care of herself. She'd survive here in the middle of nowhere as long as a walker didn't get a hold of her.

No.

She refused to let that happen.

'There has to be other survivors somewhere.' She thought, after taking out a piece of beef jerky then closing the bag, putting it back in her backpack. Sighing, the young woman stood up and was off. She had been traveling for about four days, on foot. Stopping when finding abandoned cars and stores for supplies and such. The weather was hot and dry so she didn't wear her baggy black coat much. Her white Capri-pants were surprisingly stainless. The shirt she wore was styled much like a corset, tight brown material around her torso with loose white material around the breast area. The brown boots were her signature shoes she always wore. Around her neck was a white pearl rosary and a separate necklace of a crescent moon. The rosary had belonged to her mother and her father had given her the other. She still wondered what type of person her mother was, the woman had died shortly after Catori was born.

Movement caught Catori's attention and she reached for her gun but relaxed when she saw a squirrel had been the source of the noise. Her 12 GA. shotgun with a silencer had belonged to her father but she figured he didn't mind her taking it with her now that he was gone and she was forced to leave. Her 9mm had a silencer as well. Catori's father was real big into camping and hunting. He wasn't the gentlest of people; he was a rough guy that always had an ill tone in his voice. The man had forced her to learn hunting skills and survival skills after his paranoia of her getting lost in the woods or in case of a situation like this.

"Where am I?" She whispered, looking up. "There aren't any others left alive, is there?" After another two hours, she sat down against a tree. Deep in thought, she closed her eyes… …But snapped them back open when she heard voices. Catori jumped up, closed her eyes and listened. 'That way!' Almost running in the direction of the voices, she heard them get louder. 'The walkers don't talk! So it must be others that are alive!' She jumped out of the wooded area and saw a dirt road and followed it, coming up on a woman with dark hair and a child. The child was the first to see her, "Mom!" The woman looked up and stopped gathering bits of wood. Catori wasn't sure what to do or say. "Um… Hey, I didn't think there were any more people left… You're…sane, right?" The other woman nodded with a small smile, "Are you wounded or have you been bitten?"

"No, ma'am."

"Can I ask you your name?"

"It's Catori."

She seemed to hesitate when she spoke, "I'm Lori and this is Carl, my son. Come, we'll get you an area here."

Lori showed Catori around the camp, introduced her to everyone except for one who was nowhere to be seen. Catori explained to Lori and Dayle that she could hunt and help out with catching food for everyone.

"Well, Daryl tends to hunt. I don't think he'll take kindly to someone doing the same thing he does." The older man said, "Then again maybe you two would get along."

Right about that time, a guy in his late 20s/early 30s pushed past the group, no 'excuse me' or anything.

"Who was that?"

"That was Daryl."

"Ah." Yep, he was a jerk. His glaring eyes looked up at Catori, "Got a problem?" She shook her head in response then shifted her backpack on her shoulder before returning his glare and walking off.

After a few days passed, Catori (or Cat as everyone had started calling her) became a little bit more talkative with everyone but she still kept to herself, mostly. Everyone was nice to her, except that Ed guy but she had already started plotting a plan to kick his ass when the time came. One afternoon, she saw Daryl away from everyone skinning a deer so decided to approach him in the only way she knew how, "Need any help?"

He stopped and looked at her, "What?"

"Need any help?"

"What would you be able to do? Sit here and gag?"

"No. I hunt and gut things, as well. Just thought I'd ask if you needed help."

Daryl looked a bit shocked, "You?"

She nodded.

"Ok then," He threw the stuff at her and moved to watch, a sarcastic stare graced his face. "Go for it."

He was surprised when she done everything almost too perfectly. Once she was done, she stood up and left.

"Bitch." Daryl was pissed because she was as good as he was but he had to admit, he'd never seen a girl do what she had just done. Well, not without puking all over the place and whining about getting shit on their clothes. The hunter still didn't know if he should be pissed or happy that someone of the opposite gender had the same skills he did. He was still unsure if they would get along or not but he had to admit, "She is kind of pretty, I guess."

"Daryl, you got the hots for our new girl?"

"Damnit, Shane! Mind your own damn business, would ya?"

"Cat, you managed to talk to Daryl without getting snapped at?" Lori had asked, placing a hand on Catori's shoulder.

She nodded, "No big deal. He reminds me of my father and his friends I grew up around. Same attitude, same hunting style with a crossbow."

Lori nodded and watched as she turned to walk back to her area, "Hey, would you like to eat with us tonight? Join our group? You always retreat to your tent and stay by yourself."

"I might." She wasn't there when Rick and his group from Atlanta arrived but she didn't regret not being there once she heard all the mushy affection going on. It was a few hours later when she was walking out to the lake once she saw Ed hit his wife across the face.

'Finally, an excuse to fuck him over!' She thought. 'I need to vent, anyway.'

Catori walked over and punched the man in the face, knocking him into Shane, who gladly picked him up and slung him onto the ground. Catori watched as the cop straddled the man and proceeded to punch him in the face repeatedly. Once he whispered his threats and stood up, Catori made her way to the fallen man and gave a smile before kicking him in the face several good times. She heard his wife yelling for her to stop but she ignored her. Once Ed had begun to cough up blood, she stopped, "You're next, bitch." She stood up, "The walkers are going to get you. You're just too much of a moron to survive a world full of nothing but the walking dead." A hard kick was delivered to the man's crotch, "I can't wait 'till that happens. Women represent life. Our very blood gives life. Therefor you will show respect to every female in this camp. If I knew your wife wouldn't try to stop me I would put a bullet in your head right here and now." As she spoke she held her gun up to his head and tilted her head to the side, "There are no laws or rules to obey, anymore. Learn some respect or I will make sure you suffer. Understand?" Catori stood up then walked away, feeling a bit more stress-free now that she had taken her anger out on something. The plan for the day was to go out to the small body of water and possibly fish or just relax and enjoy the scenery but the fat bastard had ruined that.

Propping her shotgun over her shoulder, the woman made her way back to the camp. What she wasn't expecting was Daryl to step in front of her, "Girl. You alright." He gave a mischievous smile and nodded back towards Ed, "That asshole deserved getting his ass kicked by a girl."

Her gold eyes stared at him for a while but she finally spoke, "Thanks, I suppose. Um… I'm not good with other people so I'm sorry if I offend you."

"Offend?"

"Yeah, my people skills suck."

"You're people skills are just fine." He nodded to her then walked past her to go laugh in Ed's face.

Inside her tent, Catori was lying on her back and staring blankly at the ceiling of the tent. Time seemed to go by very slowly and laying down doing nothing was making it much slower. She sighed and crawled out of her tent and began walking, a destination not in mind. Eventually, she found herself next to Daryl who was skinning squirrels. He looked up when she approached, "Need something?"

"Just bored. Need help?" Like last time, he threw a few squirrels to her and watched. They made small talk, him talking about his brother, her talking about her father. After a while Daryl realized he was beginning to like her company. Footsteps sounded behind them and, without even turning around, Catori spoke, "Hey, Amy."

"How'd you-?"

"Your footsteps, breathing, length between one step to the other." She hadn't even looked up at the girl behind her yet. "You have a certain pattern when you walk."

"Well, would you and Daryl like to eat with us? We have some things cooking over a fire." A second passed then Cat looked up and nodded, "Yeah, ok."

Amy walked away and Daryl looked at Catori, "Damn. Your dad did teach you well."

"Yeah, well… I was forced to learn. He wanted to make sure I'd survive anything and everything. The only thing he didn't teach me was how to talk with other human beings. Never really had a friend growing up."

"What about boyfriends?"

"Didn't have any of those, either." She handed him the last squirrel and looked up at him, "I was to different and quiet for everyone's taste. I Guess I scared them away. Heh, their loss."

He watched as she stood and threw a small bag at him, "What's this?"

"Deer jerky. It lasts a good long while. I got plenty in my goody bag and I don't just share with anybody." She turned and walked to the others, silently accepting their invitation. 'Damn… She ain't too bad, at all.'

The 'dinner' wasn't bad, no one really said anything much. They asked her a few questions about her encounters with Daryl and were somewhat shocked when she admitted that she had a bit of a crush on him. Shane smiled, laughing quietly, "Well, he said you was pretty the other day."

"Me?"

"Aww!" Jacque turned and looked at her, "Maybe he likes you, too. You can help him change his act up, stop being so ill and mean all the damn time."

Cat said nothing but a blush touched her pale cheeks. Everyone noticed but said nothing. Carl spoke next, "I saw Ed after you and Shane kicked his butt today!"

"Carl!" Lori whispered in a harsh tone, attempting to hush him up.

But Shane just laughed, "Well, most of the damage was caused by her. And that speech you gave? I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't come out of his hidey hole for a while."

So she managed to get her point across to everyone, good.

That next day, Catori woke up to hear a commotion. When she arrived to the area, she saw Daryl in a fight with some people that had recently arrived with a man named Rick. Once Daryl walked away from the others, Catori approached him, "What's wrong?" She touched his shoulder to stop him. When he jerked away from her was when she spoke, "Daryl?"

"Mind your own fuckin' business!"

"Geeze… Just trying to help."

"Don't bother." He snapped.

"Fine." Cat huffed then turned and walked away. But she did see him off when he left with the group to go get his brother. "Please. Be careful." But Daryl just rolled his eyes and left. "I saw that."

Cat turned around to see Jacque, "What?"

"He is such a jerk but I know he likes you. Give him time."

If he liked her then he had a very unique and confusing way of showing it. Catori walked off to be alone. She needed to think, which sometimes took forever to the point of where she wouldn't be seen for days. Emotions were complicated and sometimes they needed to be sorted out when things seemed crazy. Even when the world around them had already gone insane.

Why did she fall for Daryl? She had a habit of crushing on guys that were complete jerks, but then again… She couldn't blame him for being mad. If she had a brother someone left handcuffed on a roof during a zombie attack, she'd be pretty pissed, too. Her father had taught her how to survive any and every situation except for one like this, dealing with those of the opposite gender.

Back in her tent, thoughts about Daryl were racing through her head. She couldn't believe she was thinking about him again. The others said he had a thing for her but she wasn't sure if they were right or not.

Nighttime fell; she walked out of the tent and was making her way to the others in time to hear Amy scream. When she reached for her gun, she saw the walkers invading the area. 'Shit!' Guns were shot and blunt objects were slung for what seemed like forever until she heard a familiar voice, screaming something she couldn't understand. 'That was Rick! They must be back!' The woman ran towards the shouts, bashing a walker in the face with her gun, and saw Daryl, "Daryl-!" But she was interrupted by a walker grabbing her from behind.

"Cat!" Daryl screamed and ran towards her, aiming at the walker with his signature crossbow.

"Let me go!" She head butted the walker and it threw her to the side, down a hill. Her head cracking against a rock made her black out for a few seconds, maybe it was a minute. Her eyes were opened, that she knew, but she couldn't see anything. Moving shot pain through her head and down her back and she opened her mouth in a silent scream of agony. "You're ok, don't talk or move."

"W-wha-?"

"Damnit, I said not to talk!" Catori would've smiled if she were in so much pain. It was wonderful to hear his voice again, even if he was yelling at her to shut the hell up.

It was dawn when her gold eyes opened and saw a blurred figure beside her. Catori was afraid to move after remembering last night. When she moved, it was so very painful.

"How ya feeling?" Daryl's voice was soft, which was weird since he never really spoke in such a manner around her before. Feeling a bit brave, she turned her head to look at him. Her neck was sore but no random shots of pain attacked her. "Damnit…"

"What's wrong?"

"My head..." Her fingers reached up and felt bandages around her head, "Ow… If my father were here, he'd lecture me about getting distracted. He'd probably fwap me over the head as well."

"You should rest; I need to go destroy the bodies. Don't need any more dead bitches runnin' around."

"What?"

"Some of us didn't make it."

"Oh no..."

Cat jumped up, ignoring the pain in her head and climbed out of the tent and viewed her surroundings. Amy was the first one she saw with Andrea kneeling over her. Andrea seemed more than broken over the loss of her sister. She felt like she had to say something. "Andrea?"

The blonde moved a bit to confirm that she had her attention.

"I'm sorry this happened."

"I just... I can't..."

"I know." Cat's fingers moved over the mermaid necklace Andrea had shown everyone the night before, "She loves it, I know she does. She loves you."

"And I love her more than life itself."

"And she knows that."

Catori stood up and made her way to the area where the walker's bodies were being burned. Hopefully the group would have some good news of sorts soon...