"You know Uncle if we keep getting closer to the city we will be getting closer to a shit ton of those things." I explained to my uncle as he and I made our twin Clydesdales walk through the woods.
"That I do Lil' Nightmare of mine but what else are we to do. We can't stay in one place too long. Let's just keep going and once we find a big compound or something we hold up there." My Uncle stated as he nudged his horse Eve along.
I rolled my eyes at him and made my horse Goliath move along to catch up with him. The woods in Georgia were not like the woods in Indiana. It felt more wild, more at peace. A lot of the woods me and Goliath went through were very artificial.
Real trees but they were maintained by people. I readjusted myself on my saddle and breathed in. Nothing better than country air with a hint of rotting death lingering. I looked at my uncle, a tall man with a little bit of a sun burn on his face and the top of his head. He was slowly balding but his hair was still red. If you didn't know any better he looked like a young Santa.
Large belly and a beard attached to his hair line. He was often mistaken as Santa around Christmas time. If you looked at the two of us you would never know that we were related. He a stout six foot five inches and me a stuck five foot biracial girl.
I had short hair, only shoulder length. Brown eyes so dark they looked black. A normal sized nose, I had always wished for a smaller nose but hey what can you do. Plump lips and a rounded face. Coming from a family of larger people I was forever stuck as the pleasantly plump friend that no one wants to have sex with.
But with my plump body came a pain endurance that you wouldn't believe and some muscle to work on the farm that myself and my uncle lived on. We lived with each other since I was about eleven years old. Since then I have been his best farm hand. An now I am thankful to living with him cause he taught me to hunt, scavenge and make sure that if I was alone in the woods for too long I can survive on my own.
"Courtney can you hear something?" My uncle asked while looking around for the source of the sound.
"Give me a sec." I told him and tilted my head and closed my eyes. If I focus on the sound I can pinpoint it better. Then I heard it, the sound of people. Real live people talking and walking. I smirked and lead Goliath towards the sound.
Once the sound got louder I could see that they were camped up on the boarder of the forest. I looked at my uncle and gave him a look asking if we should show ourselves to them. He nodded and we walked towards the camp and looked at the rag tag group of people. They looked at us scared and in awe.
We stopped in the center of their little town and just looked around. All of the people stopped what they were doing to stare at us. My Uncle looked as sweet as he could be, but me I looked a little menacing. My skin, due to my genetics, was a milk chocolate brown but that wasn't what made people uneasy. Whenever I smiled my canines were the first thing they saw. Little longer than normal and sharper too. Yeah most people called me the vamp girl. My face soft and round but held a hint of danger due to the scars on my cheeks.
My chest was large but again due to genetics and my weight and height not having large breasts would be a crying shame. I had long legs, big feet and five tattoos on my body. When most people saw me they were afraid.
Once the people were done staring at us a man with a large gun walked towards us. He was trying to be menacing but due to his really curly hair it wasn't going to happen. I looked around and saw a black man and woman, a woman with brunette hair and a boy behind her, a pudgy guy and a woman with a little girl together, a little Mexican family, an older man with a way older man, two blonde women and two men. One was bald wearing a leather vest while the other had short hair and a shirt with no sleeves.
"Who are you?" The man with the gun yelled at us.
"I'm Uncle Big Al Davis and this is my niece Courtney Lewis. We and the horses have been walking for days and didn't think we would find so many people in one spot." My uncle said as he got off his horse.
"What do you want with us?" Asked one of the blondes.
"Honestly we want to either trade for something or stay here. My girl is a great trapper and we don't have any water at the moment." Uncle Big Al explained.
"We have plenty of meat so you don't have to share with us." Said the man with the gun.
"Good lord Uncle Big Al can we just leave? They are too frightened by my scars to give a damn about the fact that there is a creeper about ten yards from here." I explained and turned Goliath around to walk away from them.
"There aren't any walkers near here." The gun yielder growled.
"Oh wait for it…waaaaaiiiiit for iiiiiit!" I stated and then you heard a quick snap and grab come from the tree line. An low and behold there was a creeper hanging from his legs in the trees.
"Who's the bitch now?" I asked and walked my beloved Goliath towards the hanging human piñata. I smirked and grabbed my machete and stabbed it right in the head. Then I reached up and untied his leg so he would just drop.
They all stared at what just happened. They were trying to figure out what to do next. I continued to smirk as I moved back to my uncle and felt around my pockets for a rag. I was about to just use my shirt when a man with scruff on his face, beautiful blue eyes, no sleeves on his shirt and a bow on his back handed me a blood red rag.
"Here." He said.
"Thank you." I said just loud enough for him to hear me and started to clean my weapon of walker blood.
He just nodded and walked to the front of Goliath and petted his nose. I watched him and got an idea. I opened my back pack and pulled out a dead raccoon that I caught a little while before we came upon them.
I hopped off of Goliath and grabbed a smaller knife. I walked around to a table and skinned the raccoon as a better thank you than before. I ran into the RV and grabbed a plate and put all the pieces you can eat onto it then skinned the raccoon better so you can use the hide. I walked into the woods and grabbed a few twigs and took the shoe string from the dead walker. I then made a square out of the twigs and tied the skin to the frame to dry it out and be made useable for things like clothes or blankets.
I left the meat there but presented the skin frame to him. He just looked at me then slowly took the frame from me.
"It is her way of thanking you other than words. If you get enough furs from her she could sew it together to make clothes, blankets and just about anything else. You leave it in the frame for about a week then take it out. That is when the hide will toughen up but be soft to the touch." Uncle big Al explained.
I gave Daryl a small smile then walked over to Eve and patted her back. She whinnied and pushed her nose into my stomach. I smiled and hugged her around her nose. We would of stayed that way except someone grabbed onto my clothes and tugged on it to get my attention.
I looked down to see the little boy. He stared at the giant beast in front of him. I smiled and lightly pushed him towards Goliath. He reached up and gently stroked Goliath's nose. Goliath stood very still letting the boy play with his face.
"So now that you can see that we aren't here to hurt you why don't we work something out?" Big Al asked and waited.
The adults, except for the bald guy and the man who I gave the raccoon hide to, started talking about what to do. A little blonde girl and a Hispanic boy and girl walked up to the horses and started to touch the horses gently.
"How did you make that trap so fast?" The bald one asked.
"I have to work fast at all times. I'm fat but I know how to move fast when I need to. Who are you anyway?" I stated my question as I patted Eve's nose.
"My name is Merle Dixon and this is my little brother Daryl Dixon. I gotta ask though you are a half breed. How is it that you can hunt, trap, ride and all those things?" Merle asked.
"Raised on a farm with a few Indians nearby. They taught me what my uncle could not. I thank them every day for what they taught me has saved my life." I told him and felt a tear roll down my face.
"Aww I didn't mean to make ya cry girly." Merle said but Daryl got to me first and wiped the tear off my face.
"Thank you again. An Merle you didn't make me cry. Just remembering the past hurts. It's easier on me to just make traps and figure out a way out of the mess we are in now." I told him and walked past them all. Leaving the horses and my uncle with them as I walked into the woods.