Chapter One: Are You A Survivor?

It was the first deer I had seen in weeks, but it would have to wait. Somewhere in the growth below the tree I was perched in, I heard the moaning of a walker. I squinted. If I could just see through the foliage, I would be able to shoot the walker through its head without having to give up my position. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it out through the leaves.

"Damnit." I muttered to myself, swinging my crossbow onto my back.

I started down the tree, carefully choosing where I would set my feet down. The last thing I needed was to be grabbed by a walker with both of my hands gripping the tree. I lowered myself down onto a spot where the growth wasn't as thick. Once my feet touched the ground, I whipped out my crossbow again.

From behind me, I heard rustling. I turned just in time to see the deer run off.

"Damnit."

Just as I swore, I heard the moaning again. I turned back around, aiming my crossbow at the foliage surrounding the tree. I cautiously stepped forward at the same time I saw a hand suddenly reach out from the leaves. It gripped the grass loosely for a moment before the fingers relaxed. I peered at it curiously. The flesh of the hand looked healthy and intact. If it was a walker, I figured it had recently turned.

"If you aren't a walker, you better speak up now. Otherwise, I have an arrow for your head."

A second hand reached out of the growth to join the first. The flesh on that hand looked just as healthy as the first. I was starting to doubt that it was a walker moaning in the foliage.

"W-Wait…" A weak voice came from within the leaves.

"Oh what the hell?"

I put my crossbow away as I started towards the pair of hands. I grabbed hold of them and pulled. Out of the growth came a young woman. There were countless leaves and twigs tangled in her light brown hair. Her skin was covered in scrapes and scratches.

I let go of the young woman quickly, and took two steps back.

"Were you bitten? Were you scratched?"

The young woman moaned again before she slowly picked up her head to look at me. There was an old cut on her cheek that was caked in dirt and dry blood.

"No." She answered, lifting a shaky hand to me. "Please help me."

"Help you with what?"

She looked up at me with tired eyes for a moment before laying her head back down.

"…just…forget it."

I studied the young woman. From the looks of the state of her hair and the scrapes on her face and body, I guessed that she had been running through the woods.

I turned my head in the direction that the deer had run. If I went after it soon, I would be able to track it down again. That would mean venison for dinner. Our camp had been living off of the fish the two blonde girls caught and my rodents. Venison would be a welcome change.

If I took the time to take the young woman back to camp, I might not be able to track the deer. Besides, I wasn't sure that she hadn't been bitten or scratched. She could have lied. I wasn't about to bring a walker back to camp.

With a sigh, I got down on my knees. I placed a hand on the young woman's back, shaking her.

"Hello? Are you awake?"

When she didn't respond, I figured she had lapsed into unconsciousness.

"Damnit."

I rolled the woman onto her back. Her eyes were closed. She was still visibly breathing. I lifted both of her arms and looked them over. Most of the scrapes were superficial. Her clothing hadn't been ripped or torn in any way to suggest that she was bitten or scratched by a walker. The more serious cuts she did have were too clean to have come from being clawed at by a walker. She had told me the truth.

"Well, this is your lucky day." I told the unconscious woman.

I lifted her up easily, and threw her over my shoulder. She was light to carry. With one arm around her legs, and the other free to get at my crossbow, I headed in the direction of camp.

As I approached, I heard several of the men from camp talking. When I broke through the trees, I came face to face with Shane's shotgun. I only noticed it for a moment though, because my eyes were drawn to the deer carcass on the ground. It had been mauled by a walker, whose head was smashed in only a few feet away.

"Son of a bitch. That's my deer." I walked up on the deer, looking mournfully down at its half-eaten corpse. "Look at it, all gnawed up on by this filthy, disease bearing, motherless, poxy bastard!"

I was suddenly very angry with myself for having stopped to grab the young woman. If I had followed the deer, I might have taken it down before the walker got to it.

"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale said to me as I finished kicking the walker.

"What do you know about it, old man?" I stepped over the deer towards him. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond?"

I lifted the young woman off of my shoulder, and let her unconscious form fall to the ground. All I cared about was the loss of the deer as I leaned over it, inspecting the bite marks and the organs spilling out of the gut.

"What do you think? Do you think we can cut around-"

"Daryl, who is this woman?" Dale asked, already on his knees beside her body.

Everyone, who had been too consumed with the walker attack and the dead deer, seemed to finally notice the young woman. The two blonde girls rushed over to kneel down beside Dale, who was checking the young woman's scrapes and scratches.

"Daryl?" Shane asked, glancing from the woman to me.

"I found her out in the woods. I thought she was a walker." I shook my head, taking the dead squirrels from around my neck. "Damnit. If it wasn't for that moaning bitch, I would have tracked that deer and we would've all had venison tonight. I got some squirrels, about a dozen or so. That'll have to do."

"Well-"

Just as one of the blondes started to talk, the walker's head suddenly started moving. He gnashed his bloody teeth while his head moved around on the ground.

"Come on, people. What the hell?" I quickly used my crossbow to put an arrow through the eye. The blonde girls looked on, disgusted, as I pulled the arrow from the walker's eye. "It's gotta be the brain. Don't ya'll know nothing?"

I looked at the only person I didn't recognize. He hadn't been at camp. I guessed that he must have arrived while I was out hunting. He returned my stare, but I wasn't interested in knowing his name or learning his story. I looked away from him as I started towards the campsite.

"Merle!"

0o0o0

. "Please help me."

"Help you with what?"

"…just…forget it."

When I woke up, I was laying on a bed. I hadn't slept in a bed in weeks. Having gone without the luxury of something as simple as a bed made me very appreciative of the one I found myself in currently. I burrowed my head into the pillow, and sighed.

"Oh, good, you're awake."

I sat up a little too quickly, and immediately felt dizzy. I covered my forehead with my hand.

"Why don't you lie back down? You're still very dehydrated."

An old man came into view. He looked as though he could have been a normal, everyday man out on a fishing trip. The normalcy of his physical appearance was soothing.

"I brought you water. Try not to drink it too fast. You don't want it coming right back up."

The old man handed me a canteen. The heaviness of it excited me. I had gone without a substantial amount of water for several days before passing out in the woods. I wanted to gulp down the contents of the canteen in one swallow, but was careful to do as the old man said.

"Thank you." I told the old man gratefully when I had taken many liberal sips.

"You're quite welcome." The old man leaned against the wall. "My name is Dale."

"My name is Cheyenne." I held out my hand to Dale.

Dale smiled as he placed his hand in mine, and gave it a gentle shake.

"I haven't done that in a long time." He said with a faraway look in his eyes.

"Dale, where exactly am I?" I asked, slowly sitting up against the pillow.

"This is my RV." Dale replied, arms out to the side.

"Where is this RV located?"

"At a campsite of survivors just outside of the city."

I breathed out as I sat up to take another drink of water. I had run through the woods for many days, and had no idea that I had traveled as far as I did.

"Well, why don't you take it easy while you finish your water? When you feel like you're up to it, come on outside. The girls have all gone to the quarry to do laundry and some of the men have gone to the city on a search and rescue mission."

"Search and rescue?" I asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"I'll explain it all to you when you come outside. I'll be tinkering with the RV. My radiator hose has seen better days."

I smiled as Dale exited the RV.

As I slowly sipped on the rest of my water, I wondered if the man who had rescued me from the woods was part of the search party in the city. I wasn't even sure if he had rescued me. I vaguely remembered our exchange, and he hadn't seemed keen on helping me. I wondered if he decided to help me after all, or if someone else from the campsite had come across me in the woods.

My thoughts started to wander towards the possibility that the man from the woods wasn't part of the survivors' camp. I decided to find out.

I got out of the bed and went into the small bathroom. I turned on the faucet, and began to wipe away the dirt and dry blood on my face, hands, and arms. I looked at myself in the mirror above the sink. My cheeks were terribly sunken in. If I were any paler, and if my dark circles were any darker, I could have passed for one of the undead.

There were several leaves and other bits and pieces of nature stuck in my tangled hair. I carefully picked the twigs and leaves out of my hair. When I was unable to find a brush or a comb, I used my fingers to untangle my hair. I ended up pulling out several strands of hair in the process.

I fished through my jeans pockets, hoping to find a hair tie. Luckily for me, due to the length of my hair, I almost always had at least one hair tie on my person. I quickly plaited my hair into a single braid, and secured it with my found hair tie.

When I was finished freshening up, I took Dale's canteen and went outside. Just as he said, he was working at the front of the RV with a middle aged man in a baseball cap.

"Cheyenne, this is Jim. Jim, Cheyenne." Dale introduced us when he noticed me approach.

"It's good to meet you, Jim." I said with a smile, offering him my hand.

"Yeah. It's good to meet you." Jim replied, shaking my hand once.

"Thank you for the water, Dale, and for letting me rest in your RV. I'm already feeling better." I said, handing Dale his canteen.

"When the girls get back, you can come with me to fetch water." Dale turned to Jim. "You better get back on watch. We need to be diligent after the encounter today."

"Encounter?" I asked, watching Jim head inside of the RV.

"A walker was found just a few yards from camp. It's the first time one has wandered this far out of the city." Dale explained, rummaging through his tool box.

"A walker?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh…you know…one of the infected people."

"One of the undead." I murmured, leaning against the RV.

"Yes."

"Dale?"

"Hmm?"

"There was a man who found me in the woods. He and I barely spoke before I passed out. I don't know if you know him-"

"Daryl. His name is Daryl Dixon." Dale interrupted, shaking his head.

"What is it, Dale? Is it something about Daryl?"

"Daryl and his brother, Merle, are part of our camp. They're both hotheaded and stubborn."

"If they're so horrible, why do you allow them to stay at your camp?"

"Well, Merle and Daryl are very gifted hunters and trackers." Dale sighed, and pulled his hands out of the radiator. "I really believe that Daryl could be different, if only he got out from underneath his older brother's thumb…though now, he might just have that chance."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, the search and rescue mission I told you about? Merle is the man that's in need of rescuing."

"What happened to him?"

"A group of our people went into the city to scavenge for supplies. Apparently, a fight broke out between Merle and another man, T-Dog. From what I understand, Merle ended up handcuffed to a pipe on the roof."

"You mean…the group just left him there?" I asked, surprised.

"…yes."

Though I hadn't really considered the possibility of staying with the survivors, after hearing Dale's story, I was starting to doubt whether I should. Even if Merle started a fight or two, that didn't seem like a good enough reason to leave him for dead. I wanted to believe that there was more to the story, that there was history regarding Merle that I just didn't understand.

I stayed with Dale while he worked on his RV. I learned that he once had a wife, Irma. Unfortunately, she had died of cancer before she and Dale were able to see the country in their RV. Though he had no children, he thought of two of the women in the group, Andrea and Amy, as his surrogate daughters.

"What about you, Cheyenne? What can you tell me about yourself?" Dale asked, wiping his hands off on a cut up T-shirt.

"I-"

"Dale!"

Dale and I both turned to see what was going on. A dark haired man was pulling a fallen man by the leg into the campsite. Three women trailed closely behind. One of them was sobbing uncontrollably in between the other two women, who appeared to be holding her up.

Though I didn't know any of them, I immediately followed Dale to help.

"What happened?" Dale asked worriedly, approaching the dark haired man.

"Ask them." The dark haired man answered roughly, releasing the fallen man's leg.

"Shane?" Dale turned as Shane walked away. "Shane!"

"Let him go, Dale. We…we've all had quite a bit of a shock." One woman said.

"What happened to Ed?" Dale asked, turning to the three women. "Carol?"

The sobbing woman began falling to her knees. The two women on either side of her slowed her fall.

"Amy, help Carol into the RV. She needs to lie down." The woman who had spoken to Dale before turned towards me. "Can you help her?"

"Of course." I replied quickly.

"Dale, will you help me with Ed?"

I went to Amy, and helped Carol to her feet. Her head lulled against my shoulder as Amy and I helped her towards the RV. Carol's tears soaked through my flannel shirt. I could feel them on my neck.

"It's all going to be okay." I murmured soothingly to Carol.

"Ed…" She choked out between sobs. "Ed…"

Amy and I helped Carol onto the RV. Once we were inside, we laid Carol down on the bed. Her sobbing had quieted, but she was still hyperventilating. A thin layer of sweat had form on her face. She was visibly shaking.

"Amy, I think that Carol is going into shock." I said, low enough for only Amy to hear.

"What should we do?" Amy asked, glancing from Carol to me.

"Will you find water for her?"

"Sure."

I took the second pillow from the bed, and lifted Carol's legs high enough to use the pillow to elevate her feet slightly. Though her shirt was loose fitting, I undid the buttons on it.

"Carol? Carol, you need to take deep breaths. You need to breathe slowly." I told Carol gently, running my fingers through her short, silver hair. "Just close your eyes and take nice, deep breaths."

"Ed-"

"Shh. Don't worry about Ed right now. Dale and the others are taking care of him." I reassured her.

"Shane…"

"Do you want me to get Shane?"

"No." Carol replied quickly, her eyes wide. "No."

"Okay. Okay." I replied just as quickly.

Amy returned to the RV with a half filled canteen. She and her sister, Andrea, were going to return to the quarry to collect more water and to fish. Amy said that Jacqui, another woman from the camp, would be returning shortly with others to help me with Carol.

I was able to coax Carol into drinking down the water in the canteen. When she had finished, she quietly cried herself to sleep. When she had fallen asleep deeply enough to where her cries had ended, Jacqui came into the RV.

"You must be Cheyenne." Jacqui greeted me, looking worriedly at Carol.

"I am. Are you Jacqui?"

"I am. How is Carol?" Jacqui asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I think she'll be okay. She just fell asleep about fifteen or twenty minutes ago."

"Good. That's good." Jacqui looked away from Carol, shaking her head.

"May I ask what happened?" I asked slowly, sitting down next to Jacqui.

"Ed. He's what happened." Jacqui answered roughly, her expression full of disgust. "Ed is an abusive son of a bitch. He won't let Carol talk to anyone or do anything without his say so. We all finally had enough and confronted him about his behavior. When he hit Carol, Shane gave Ed what for."

"Oh my god." I shook my head, turning to look at Carol. "Who is Ed?"

"Ed is Carol's husband."

"No…" I looked back at Jacqui. "That's terrible. Jacqui, that's awful."

"The worst part of it is…" Jacqui turned to look at Carol before looking back at me. She leaned in close, her voice barely higher than a whisper. "Carol confided in me that she thinks that Ed is starting to…want Sophia. Sexually."

"Oh no…is Sophia another woman in the group?"

"No…Sophia is their daughter."

0o0o0

Boy, had it been one colorful and eventful day. First, I had learned that a group of survivors had left one of their own handcuffed on a rooftop in the middle of a walker infested city. Then, Shane had beaten Ed nearly to death and poor Carol had gone into shock over it. Then, Jim fell victim to heatstroke and was acting so strangely that Shane tied him up at the base of a tree.

By nightfall, everyone at camp had introduced themselves to me.

Andrea and Amy had brought back a plethora of fish for dinner. Everyone, except Ed, gathered around a fire to eat together. I was surprised when beer was produced, and happily accepted one when it was offered to me.

"Man, oh man, that's good." Shane said, helping himself to more fish. "I miss this."

I agreed. I missed the mundane. I missed sitting on my parents' front porch in Macon, my feet kicked up on an ice chest full of Red Brick beer. I missed listening to my mom preparing a pie or tart from the window as I watched the sunset with our golden retriever, Peach, at my side. I missed the scent of my dad's chewing tobacco. I missed our afternoon barbecues and late night bonfires.

Without realizing it, tears had filled my eyes. I blinked rapidly, trying to keep them from coming. I closed my eyes and took a long drink of my beer.

"So, Cheyenne, do you plan on staying with us?" Jacqui asked kindly, cutting into her fish.

"I…well-"

"Didn't you say before that you were just searching for a safe haven?" Morales asked.

"Well if that's true, you might want to keep looking." Andrea joked.

Everyone laughed, and I joined in.

Amy suddenly stood, and her sister looked up at her worriedly.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to pee. Geez, you try to be discreet around here…" Amy shook her head, embarrassed.

Everyone laughed again.

"Well, Cheyenne? Do you plan on staying?" Dale asked, remembering Jacqui's question.

"I mean…I feel sort of guilty." I admitted softly, looking down at the ground.

"Guilty? Why?" Lori asked, furrowing her brow.

"Well, all of you have a very nice and tight knit group here. You've all obviously worked hard to establish a camp and a way of life. I feel like I've…barged in on that. I wouldn't want to be another mouth to feed or another person to worry about."

"Cheyenne, take a look around you. We are living in tents and an RV by the woods, just outside of a city filled with walkers that could decide to journey this way at any moment. This isn't a government shelter or a state of the art facility. We're just a group of survivors trying to survive out here." Dale pointed across the fire at me. "Are you a survivor?"

Suddenly, Amy was screaming. We all looked to see a walker biting down on Amy's arm while she watched helplessly, screaming in horror and in pain. The walker tore out a chunk of flesh from her arm, and she dropped to the ground.

Then, they were everywhere. Walkers were coming at the camp from all directions.

Carl, Lori's son, was crying out in terror for his mother.

Shane yelled out something before he brandished his shotgun and began firing at walkers. The sound of his gun startled me. I fell to the ground, frozen. I was faintly aware of the taste of blood in my mouth. I had bitten my tongue when I had fallen.

From the ground, I watched Jim swinging a baseball bat at approaching walkers.

Carol was holding onto Sophia, both of them crying as they tried to avoid the walkers.

Andrea was screaming while she hovered over her sister, who had been bitten a second time.

Shane was shielding Lori, who held Carl, and Carol, who held Sophia.

I could see that everyone was slowly trying to follow Shane up the hill towards the RV. I knew that was my best chance of making it out of the attack alive. I began to crawl towards the hill, fisting the dirt as I avoided the walkers feeding on the people they had killed.

Suddenly, there were more gunshots sounding off from behind me. Before I could fathom where they were coming from, a hand encircled my arm. When the hand yanked me to my feet, I cried out in horror, thinking it was a walker.

"Shut the hell up!"

I turned my head to see that Daryl had returned, and had pulled me to my feet.

"Run up the hill! I'll cover you!" Daryl shouted in my face.

Though I wanted to remain frozen in place, I knew that I would be endangering Daryl's life if I held him up any longer. With a weak nod, I turned, and darted up the hill. Walkers on both sides of me were fallings as I made my way towards the others.

Just as quickly as it had started, it was over.

My eyes darted all around, watching as the group reunited with loved ones or mourned over their lost ones.

Carol was on the ground, her arms around Sophia, sobbing like she had been earlier that day. I went to her, wondering where her husband was.

"Carol." I said gently, touching her shoulder. "Carol, are you hurt?"

She didn't answer. She continued to sob while she clung to her child.

"Sophia, are you hurt sweetheart?" I asked, touching the young girl's hair.

"I-I'm…okay." She managed to tell me through her tears.

"Carol…do you want me to check on…Ed?" I asked slowly, trying not to alarm Sophia.

Carol's eyes met mine. They grew wide. She hadn't even remembered her husband. She had been so focused on her daughter that she hadn't thought of Ed.

"Please." Carol replied weakly.

"Okay." I nodded.

I got to my feet, noticing for the first time that I was trembling. I carefully walked down the hill, passing by people who were crying and the dead bodies of their loves ones and walkers alike.

I went to each tent, peeking inside for any sign of Ed. I finally came to one, and looked inside. When I did, I came face to face with a walker consuming what was left of Ed's body. The second I appeared, the walker turned around and saw me. It snarled like an animal, baring its teeth. I was so startled and so frightened that I shrieked.

"Cheyenne!"

I looked down at the ground, spying a bloodied baseball bat lying abandoned nearby. I dove for it as the walker came out of the tent. When I flipped over on my back, bat in hand, the walker was coming towards me. With a cry, I reached the bat as high over my head as I could, and brought it down over the walker's head. Its skull visibly compressed. Blood, bone, and brain matter exploded from the gaping wound.

"Cheyenne."

I looked up to see Dale standing over me. I hadn't realized it, but I was crying. I let go of the baseball bat at the same time that I stood up. I threw my arms around Dale, crying into his shoulder as he embraced me.

"Shh. It's okay, Cheyenne. It's okay." Dale told me softly.

I cried for several minutes until Dale gently pulled me off of him.

"Well, Cheyenne, I would say that you're a survivor."