One

The breeze that acted as a comb for my tangled hair also brought with it the cruel stench of geeks, sour and thick on my nose. The awful scent, although common, still wasn't one I was used to, and I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth roughly to block it from delving any further into my senses. I groaned and closed my eyes briefly, my right hand reaching down and finding the handle of the knife I had tucked into my belt loop. I had a hatchet in my canvas bag that was as always slung over my back, and they were my only two weapons. That was fine, though. I preferred close up combat. Opening my eyes again, I listened for the growling. One thing I had learned throughout the past few years was that you would always smell the geeks before you heard them, and you would always hear them before you saw them.

A low rumbling broke out in the trees to my left. There! I pulled out my dirty knife and spun towards the sound, just as the first geek stumbled into sight. A quick evaluation revealed that there were only three, so I lunged forwards and put my left hand on the first geek's shoulder. With my other hand I drove my knife through its skull. I twisted it before yanking it out and stabbing it into the side of a second geek's head. The third and final geek came up around behind me, so I spun around and after a second's aim threw my knife. It landed, blade first, right between the geek's eyes. The lifeless body crumpled to the ground.

Proud of myself, for that was one of the neater kills I had made in the past week or so, I kicked aside the first geek's corpse so I could move to wrench my knife from the rotted skull. After I got it out, I rubbed the fresh blood off with the pad of my thumb and made to tuck it away.

A branch snapping behind me made me freeze. I drew out my knife again and turned to face what I thought would be another geek.

A middle aged woman with dark skin and even darker eyes was pointing a long, slender sword at me. My heart began beating out of my chest as I raked my gaze over her. She was thin, but then again most of us were these days. Her long dark hair was tied up into many braids that were kept out of her face by a bandana she had tied around her head. Her boots were just as worn out as my own, and she carried nothing other than her sword and its sheath. Her eyes were narrowed and her lips slightly parted.

I didn't move, just held my knife in a position ready to throw. The woman - I could hardly call her a lady - didn't move either. We stared at each other for a few moments that felt like hours, neither of us daring to sheath our weapons, until she spoke.

"Are you bit?"

Her question shocked me. I just looked at her for a moment, then said, "What?"

"I said, are you bit?" The woman's voice was deep and slow.

I frowned. "No. Of course not."

Her eyes flicked over me, taking in my appearance. I suddenly felt self conscious about my raggedy look. I wore a black track jacket over a white tee shirt, both of which were heavily stained with dirt and blood and some even darker stuff I couldn't identify. My jeans were ripped in several places, exposing pale and bruised skin underneath. My drawstring bag was closed tight and draped down my back, and my hair was a tangled mess. I had tried to tame it into a knot with a rubber band, but it had hardly done any good at all and I was sure I still looked like I had crawled out of the gutter.

We stared at each other for an eternity longer, and then the dark skinned woman spoke again. "Michonne." I assumed she was telling me her name, so I responded by telling her mine.

"I'm Holly Dixon."

Michonne's eyes flashed with something that I couldn't catch. It might have been a spark of recognition, but it was gone before I could decipher it. She quickly spoke again. "Are you alone?"

A lump grew in my throat as I nodded briskly. It was a tiny nod; if it had been any tinier then Michonne probably wouldn't have seen it. But she did, and acknowledged it with a slight narrowing of her eyes. I swallowed the lump in my throat, blinked back the tears threatening to spill, and said, my voice shaky, "What about you? Are you alone?"

Michonne paused before answering. "I don't know."

I tipped my head slightly to the side. "What does that mean? What happened?"

I didn't get an answer. Instead, with that slow, deep voice of hers, Michonne said, "I'll lower mind if you lower yours."

At first I had no idea what she was talking about, until she wavered her grip on her sword. Oh. She meant the weapons that we still had aimed at each other. I nodded and, slowly, we both moved our weapons out of combat range. Mine went back to my belt loop, hers to the sheath strapped to her back. I pushed my hands into my jacket pockets, while she crossed her arms over her chest. We simply stared at each other for a few moments while I debated what to say.

"Come on. Let's talk. I want to know more about this mysterious group of yours." I took my hands out of my pockets and put them on the straps of my bag instead, preparing to walk.

Michonne started walking towards me. When she got right up next to me, she locked my hazel eyed gaze into her dark brown one. "Later." Then she continued walking past me.

I quickly processed what she said and spun around, walking after her. "Later? You mean, you'll let me stick around?"

"Sure." Michonne glanced at me as I caught up and started walking beside her. "Why not." I smiled. Michonne gave me a look like she was impressed and amused at the same time. "I saw you take out those three walkers. You're pretty quick with that knife."

I couldn't help but blush at the compliment. "Thanks. You call them walkers? I call them geeks."

Michonne nodded. "Walkers, geeks, biters. Doesn't matter. They're all the same. The only thing that really matters is staying alive."

I nodded once. "Yeah." We walked in silence for a few more minutes, me just following Michonne's path through the trees. After we crossed a narrow stream, we came upon the road. Michonne looked both ways and turned to her left, walking down the cracked asphalt. She stayed on the edge, though, close to the tree line that was tightly packed up against both sides. I followed her. "Where's this road go?"

She looked back at me. "Away." Her answer was vague, and I stopped walking. She didn't notice until a few moments later. "What are you doing?"

I blinked at her. "I said, where does this road go?" My curious mind had become determined, and I wasn't going to follow her without getting an answer.

Michonne walked back towards me. Her voice suddenly hard, she said, "I told you. Away. Now come on."

I didn't move. "There's something you're not telling me. How am I supposed to go with you if you're keeping secrets?"

Michonne looked deeply into my eyes. "Everyone has secrets. Especially now that we've got the dead coming back to eat you. You never know who you can trust."

I hesitated, biting my lip. Michonne stared at me for a moment longer. Just as she was turning away, I blurted out, "I trust you."

She froze. Turning slowly back around to face me, she looked shocked. "What?"

I swallowed. "I said I trust you. You didn't kill me, although you could have. You let me come with you after I told you I was alone, even though you could've left me in the woods. I trust you."

Michonne looked at me for a moment. I was worried that she was about to dash off, and then I'd be alone again. Then she smiled. "Let's get going, little Dixon." I couldn't help but smile as I walked with her down the edge of the road.

A/N: Hey guys! Welcome to Holly's story. This will be a somewhat short story, just letting you know, and as far as I'm concerned I believe it'll be a stand alone one. I wrote this a long time ago, and I promise my writing has improved since then, I just wanted to post this one as it is the way I originally wrote it. This takes place during the second half of season four, after the group has fled the prison and they spend the rest of the season trying to get to Terminus and reunite. It's a little bit different than the canon version, I changed up the groups of survivors that are together. Instead of being with Rick and Carl and eventually Daryl, Michonne is alone. The other groups are a little changed up too, you'll see that as the story continues.

Reviews are always welcomed and greatly encouraged!