Chapter One
Disclaimer: Any recognizable character, plot ideas, or settings, I do not take credit. I only take claim for original ideas and character. I do not make a profit off my work nor do I own any of it. Even though I wish I had Daryl Dixon.
AN: I want to say that I have made a few edits to the first four chapters. Nothing major, just some changes in flow, grammar, nicknames. The storyline is still the same.
Before the apocalypse, Ayden had been an emergency room nurse. She had grown up in a small town in North Carolina. She had moved to Georgia, following her brother. Her brother had moved out to here after he finished his doctorate at Carolina, environmental science or something like that. It didn't really matter now. She had just moved out here, living over his garage in the small loft apartment, and their sister, Emily, had been visiting when everything went to hell. His house was off the grid, fueled by clean energy and well water. He always joked how it would be their saving grace in the future, but little did he know. Dempsey and his wife had been at the local hospital when the outbreak happened, and never made it back. He never got to see how his environmental ways saved his two sisters and son.
Ayden had immediately gone into survival mode from the moment she figured out what had happened. She knew running to Atlanta was a mistake. Too many people, too little space, some sort of virus or biological weapon running rampant, it could only end in disaster. She started by securing the property, and gathering what food she could find. Growing up on a farm, hunting, fishing, and camping, gave her a good set of survival skills. She stock piled dry goods, hunted and froze what game they didn't eat. Raided abandon farms for chickens and two goats. While everyone else randomly looted, grabbing what food they could carry. She and the Bates planned, and made their places sustainable.
The large, thick branches of an old oak tree provided enough cover for Ayden to watch the small campsite. When she left the house this morning, she hadn't expected this much excitement. People, new people, a group of ten, maybe more; these were the first new people she had seen in months. It wasn't like she had been alone since the fall, her sister, nephew, and the neighbors had been with her since the beginning, but these people were strangers. She couldn't help but wonder if they were friendly or not.
She had stumbled onto the group early in the morning. So early, the sun hadn't even risen over the horizon. The man with a crossbow never saw her as she climbed up the tree. He still hadn't spotted her against the foliage around the camouflage with she wore. She was so grateful she didn't have Emily's bleach blonde hair for once. Her dark brown hair blended well against the foliage, and didn't draw attention to her hiding spot. She perched in an u-shaped fork in the branches, waiting and watching the group silently.
When the sun began to rise, the group slowly started to stir. She counted five men including the crossbow wielding one, three women, a teenage girl, and a boy. She watched as one of the men started a fire and they huddled around to try and get warm. She couldn't tell from this far away if they were malnourished or not, but she knew in her heart they had to be. There weren't many people who had been as lucky as her.
They divided up their morning food ration from small tin cans. She couldn't hear them but she could see the man who was on watch, talk to another man who had a thick beard. Ayden decided there, that Crossbow and Scruffy were their names. Scruffy seemed to be holding court. He was a man that had authority and respect. She could easily tell by the way the Crossbow seemed to follow his lead and nodded when he spoke.
Ayden watched as Crossbow and Scruffy went over to the rest. They all sat for a while before splitting up in different directions, no one on their own. The Scruffy and Crossbow went deeper into the woods, while two of the women took baskets of laundry to the east to an area Ayden knew where a creek was. The older gentleman and the black man went north to the highway, while the woman with dark long hair and the Asian man stayed at camp with the teenager and the boy.
She watched as the long haired woman gathered the cans and rinsed them in a bucket of water while the two younger ones sat on a blanket with books stern across it. The Asian man stood on the top of the SUV with a rifle, obviously keeping watch. It was a long, uneventful day. She watched the small group until she felt the cold start to set in her stiff muscles. She knew she would have to head back. It was mid-October and even though she couldn't know exactly what the weather was going to do, her father's old barometer had indicated a drop in pressure, which normal meant a storm front was probably coming.
She knew she couldn't leave these people out here. The place they had decided to make camp was low land. It tended to flood with a good amount of rain. They would either get washed out from this storm, possible freeze to death when the temperature dropped more, or get eating by the walking cadavers. She didn't think she could live with that on her conscious, not when they had youngins with them.
She noticed Crossbow and Scruffy before the others did. The young boy ran to them when he saw them, beaming eagerly at Scruffy, whom Ayden assumed was the boy's father, and looked hungrily at Crossbow's belt where three or four dead squirrels hung. Ayden winced as she looked at the thin squirrels and she knew she wasn't going to leave without offering a new place to stay. They weren't gonna make it much longer not without more food and with winter rearing its ugly head. From what she had observed all day, they weren't a threat.
Slowly, she climbed down the tree, and her feet hit the ground with a crunch of the dead leaves. "What was that?" She heard a woman's shaky voice.
The sound of running feet, sticks and dry leaves crunching under heavy footfall filled the woods. She turned around quickly. Yanking the recurve bow from her shoulders smoothly and drew an arrow just as Crossbow came into her vision, his weapon at the ready. He stopped dead in his tracks seeing Ayden standing there, her own bow drawn. Scruffy followed him quickly, gun drawn and pointing at the ground. His eyes displayed his shock clearly as he came up to the pair. Ayden lowered her bow and slowly released the tension in the string and set the weapon down on the ground at her feet, before reaching around to her back for her quiver.
"Stop! Dontcha move." Crossbow growled out. Ayden froze and held her hands out in front of her.
"Relax, I was just gonna drop the quiver, Hotshot. I have a knife on my left hip and a pistol strapped at my left ankle." She nodded to her left side. Crossbow reached out and took the quiver from her shoulder and grabbed the other two weapons from her.
"How do we know you ain't lying, hmm?" His voice was gruff against her ear. His warm breath tickled against her neck.
"Feel free to check me if you want," She raised an eyebrow and licked her lips, staring at him with a challenging look.
"Daryl, ease up. She's unarmed." Scruffy commanded. "I am sorry, Miss?"
"Ayden, Ayden Lawson." She smiled as the man's southern manners kicked in. She let her arms drop to her side and she stuck out her hand his.
He smiled softly and accepted her greeting. "Rick Grimes and the hotshot is Daryl. Sorry about the treatment ma'am, but you can't be too careful nowadays." She nodded her head in understanding.
"Didn't mean to startle you, but I had to know you guys weren't dangerous. Ten against one isn't that fair." Ayden grinned at the two of them. "You gonna take that crossbow out of my face, Hotshot?" Daryl made a face at the nickname but lowered the crossbow and handed her the items he took off of her.
"How long have yah been up in that tree, bitch?" He took a few swaggering steps away from her, cocking his head to the side.
"Since before dawn, stumbled upon y'all this morning when I was hunting. Like I said, I had to know you weren't dangerous, numskull." She growled out at the harsh name Daryl called her.
"Now, now," Rick said stepping in between the two before one lunged at the other. "Let's relax a bit. Are you out here alone?"
"Yeah," Ayden said, never taking her eyes off of Daryl. The man looked mad enough to spit nails, but wasn't acting on it because of Rick.
"Well why don't you come back with us and tell us a bit about why you have been in that tree all day," Rick offered and she accepted.
"Yeah, that's all we need boss, another fuckin' mouth to feed." Daryl grumbled loud enough for both her and Rick to hear.
"Rick lead them over to the campsite where he introduced Ayden to Lori, Carl, Carol, Beth, Maggie, and Glenn. T-Dog and Hershel hadn't gotten back from the highway yet. One of their cars had broken down a week ago and they were having trouble finding the part to fix it. Ayden accepted a glass of stale boiled water but refused any food. She listened to Carl as he talked excitedly about how many walkers he had killed. She couldn't believe he had seen so much as his age. Her sister was fourteen and had barely seen the freaks they called Walkers.
"Rick! Daryl! Everybody! There is a new truck parked about five miles down the…." T-Dog and Hershel came running up to camp out of breath, trying to stay quite as they described Ayden's truck. T-Dog trailed off when he saw the new girl sitting there at the campsite. Rick looked at her questioningly.
"It's mine. Hi, I'm Ayden. Stumbled across y'all hunting this morning." She shook T-Dog and Hershel's hands.
"Yeah, hanging in a tree for six hours like a goddamn monkey," Daryl growled, furiously whittling on a stick. Ayden cut her eyes at him. She didn't know how to take him. She understood his wariness at letting her around the group, but his anger and hostility made him unpredictable. She was almost immediately comfortable around Rick and the rest, but Daryl made her skin prickle and put her senses into overdrive.
"Like I told them, I had to make sure your group wasn't a threat; ten against one and all." Hershel and T-Dog nodded their understanding.
"How big is the group you are with?" Carol asked delicately after glaring at Daryl at his harsh behavior to the newcomer.
"Not much of a group actually, it's just me, my sister, and our nephew. We live in a house about twenty miles down the road. Then there is another family about fifteen miles farther." Ayden shrugged taking a sip of water. Daryl picked his head up from the arrow.
"Which direction?" Hershel asked sitting down between Maggie and Beth.
"West," Ayden watched as Rick and Daryl shared a look.
"West of here?" Rick asked perplexed. "We drove from that way. It's all woods land."
"Ayden smiled a small secretive smile, "Yeah I guess it would look that way to someone who isn't looking for the path. The house sits about three maybe four miles in a clearing. It was my brother's. He and his wife were very private people."
"They're gone, aren't they?" Lori inquired gently. The young girl nodded her head.
"Just Em, Luke, and me left." Ayden smiled sadly, she could see the compassion on everyone's face, even Daryl's. It was obvious they all knew what it felt like to lose someone.
The group was silent for a moment and Carol stood and walked over to Ayden and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, squeezing softly. Ayden looked up to the sky and saw the deep oranges from a sunset start to appear. She stood up, whipping her hands on her pants, and looked to each gaunt, dirty face of the group.
"Look, I have to get going. Em's young, fourteen, and Luke's only eighteen months. I need to get back to them soon. The temperature is steadily drop and so has the pressure. A storm's coming. I know y'all can take care of yourselves but I'd feel a lot better if you came back to the house with me." Everyone looked startled at the offer. Rick began to protest, claiming they would be fine.
"Oh come off it! It's the end of hurricane season, and we haven't had one yet. With how hard the wind has been blowing the last few days, I think we are gonna get one. Y'all can stay until it blows over or longer. At least y'all will be out of the rain and wind. I have electricity, hot running water, and enough food and space." At the mention of hot water everyone looked at Rick practically begging.
"How?" Daryl asked, his eyes showing his disbelief. His grip on the hunting knife he was using had gone tight, furious at the thought that she could be lying, leading them into a trap.
She seemed like an okay girl. Been through hell, maybe not in the sense they style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanShe looked barely over the age of twenty-five, and here she was surviving and taking care of a teenager and a baby. But he still didn't trust her. Maybe because of the fact he barely trusted anyone, or it could be because she was so kind, almost too innocent for this new world; like she had barely been touched by the Walkers.
My brother was a 'Save the Environment' type of guy. When he bought the house he rigged it up so it runs completely on solar energy. The water comes from an underground well." The girl said as she started gathering up her stuff. The rest of the group looked at Rick, all hopeful and amazed.
This sounds to fuckin' good to be true, Daryl thought bitterly.