Chapter One; Enter Bailey Carter.
The light was fading, creating new shadows and dark patches around her. Eyes glimmered from tree hollows. The wind wailed between distorted trunks, carrying the sickly stink of wood rot. She moved faster, ignoring the briars that caught at her jeans, the damp leaves that grimed her skin. She lifted her face, letting the light and shadow dance across her skin. Bees hummed in and out of the pennyroyal. She inhaled its minty smell and continued on, delighting in the sound of her feet sliding through the leaves.
"Keep it down would ya' girl? We're trying to catch up to that deer, not attract every damn walker in the area." His harsh whisper cut through the air, causing Bailey to roll her eyes at her hunting partner. Throwing him a look over her shoulder, she continued to press forward through the dense woods.
"Maybe if you'd use your legs half as much as you use your mouth, we'd have caught up by now." Her snarky reply made Daryl smirk as his eyes wondered, they started from the top; her flowing chestnut colour hair that twisted in curls and waves, stopping just short of her thin waist. Daryls' eyes shortly and firmly landed on her plumped behind. His licked his lips for a moment before speaking.
"Watch your tongue, don't think I won't put an arrow in ya' ass 'cause you're a girl."
"And waste an arrow? I don't think so." By now Bailey had picked up her pace, noticing the tracks beneath her feet belonged to the deer they had been tracking for the past few days. "It's just up ahead, hurry."
"Can't waste an arrow on meat that fine." He muttered to himself quietly. He quickened his steps to catch up to the woman, treading quietly beside her while scanning the ground for tracks. Hearing something in the distance, Daryl held up his hand to signal Bailey, causing her to stop and crouch down as did Daryl. With his crossbow aimed before him, and Baileys' pistol before her, they moved in silence. Eyes' wide for any signs of movement, deer or walker. "Voices?" she asked softly.
"We're close to camp. It must be them." Nodding to each other, they pushed forward and made themselves noticeable to the group. Only then did they notice that the deer they had indeed been hunting these past few days was dead. Not from their arrows, but from the killing of a now dead walker. Rage ran through Daryl which came as no surprise to Bailey as she sighed with disappointment. She looked at the group, nodding to those she knew, and eyeing the new stranger carefully before walking next to Glenn and patting his back.
"Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this.. Filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!" The group watched as Daryl kicked the dead walker with anger and frustration. Bailey understood his emotions; they had both been out tracking this animal for quite some time, even during the thunderous storm that they survived last night in the woods. Before she could do anything, the eldest of the group Dale, spoke out to him.
"Calm down, son. That's not helping."
"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to "on golden pond"? We've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna' drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" Daryl asked, using an arrow to circle the eaten part of the deer.
"I would not risk that." Spoke the 'leader' of the group, Shane. He never sat right with Bailey, something about him made her wearing. She followed his orders to an extent, but only ever did what she thought to be right. Glenn was probably the only person in the group she'd ever consider to trust. A sigh could be heard escaping Daryls' lips. "That's a damn shame. We got some squirrel… about a dozen or so. That'll have to do." He nodded to Bailey who held up her number of squirrels.
Suddenly, the head of the Walker starts to move its teeth, causing Andrea and Amy to gag in disgust. A chorus of 'Oh god.' And 'Ew make it stop' was heard, aggravating Bailey. "Oh come on." She muttered, pulling out her gun, she aimed for its head and shot it between the eyes. Bailey was pretty much the only person from the group who could use a gun at any point as hers' was the only one to have a silencer attached.
"It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" Complained Daryl before making his way pass the group and back to camp, no doubt to see his brother; Merle and to cook up with squirrel they had caught. The group followed closely behind, but Bailey could sense something was not right from the way Glenn remained silent since her arrival.
Once back at camp, Daryl wasted no time in calling out to his brother. " Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up."
"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you." Shane called out to him, following behind. Bailey eyed him while putting her line of squirrels next to Daryls and walking away, leaning against the RV to watch the scene unfold.
"About what?" Daryl replies, turning to face Shane.
"About Merle. There was a… There was a problem in Atlanta." Daryl looked to the ground, hesitant before asking his next question and bracing himself for the answer.
"He dead?"
"We're not sure." Well, that wasn't the answer he was expecting, Bailey watched in curiosity as to how it would all turn out. She knew Daryls' tempter better than anyone here.
"He either is or he ain't!" Confusion and anger was showing clearly on his face as he stepped towards Shane.
"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Spoke the stranger of the group. Bailey pushed off of the RV with her foot and stood forward a couple steps, not trusting the stranger. She crossed her arms over her chest and watched in silence as Daryl spoke the question she had been thinking.
"Who are you?"
"Rick Grimes." Bailey eyed him, noticing his gun tucked away in the back of his jeans. He had some sort of authority about him, not military, but like similar to that of Shane. She also couldn't help but notices the striking resemblance that Carl had to this man. She glanced at the child, whom was holding his mother's hand tightly while watching the scene from inside the RV.
"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Bailey sighed; Rick was both brave and stupid to just openly admit that to Daryl, though she respected his honestly. She knew how Merle could be a handful, but Daryl won't be so understand.
"Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!"
Daryl goes to attack him, but Rick shoves him off. Daryl pulls his knife out, but Shane is able to come up behind him and put him in a chokehold. "You best let me go!"
"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" Rick replied calmly, kneeling down to him on the floor. Receiving a nod from Daryl, Shane let him go and stood back to watch.
"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others." But Rick was cut off by T-Dog.
"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it down a drain." Daryl growled in anger.
"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."
"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof… So the geeks couldn't get at him… With a padlock. It's gotta count for something." T- Dog tried, but Daryl shot him down once again.
"Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him." Bailey yawned and walked away from the scene and towards her tent. She was bored of all this commotion now and just wanted to unwind and clean her guns. So she did just that.
Roughly 30 minutes later, Bailey found herself being approached by Rick. She finished cleaning her gun and put the final pieces together before looking up at him from her chair beside her tent. There was an awkward silence between them for a moment until Bailey raises an eyebrow at him, making him give off a nervous laugh.
"Bailey, wasn't it? You seem to know your way around a gun, and the silencer too. Smart thinking." He eyed the piece in her hand. Bailey stood up and tucked away the gun in the back of her jeans, then tucked her hair behind her ear. "I guess you could say that." Rick nodded.
"So listen, I hear you have some sort of a.. connection, with Daryl." Her eyes flickered to Daryl whom was across the camp collecting more of his arrows. She looked back at Rick with a sceptical look. "Something like that.."
"Well I was hoping you'd come with us to retrieved Merle. Help keep Daryl under control so to say. I have no doubt he's rather unpredictable." Bailey gave a short laugh, looking over at Daryl again. "To be honest we could use all the help we could get, Shane told me you have no problem taking care of yourself." She rolled her eyes and looked into his eyes for a moment, debating in her mind on what to do, eventually she sighed.
"Alright, Just stay out of my way."