There's No Emotion in Their Eyes.

Disclaimer:

I do not own The Walking Dead or the familiar characters in the show. Those rights belong to AMC as well as the authors of the graphic novel series. I do not make any profit writing this story; it is all for entertainment and hobby-related fun (and a bit of fangirl-ism).

The only thing I own is Xayden, my made-up character.

This story will be taking place during Season 2 and leak into Season 3 in later chapters.

Please R&R, it will let me know where to steer in with this story and it will also motivate me to write more if people say they enjoy reading it!

If there is a little bit of OC-ness in some characters, or plots are changed, I am warning you all now that they are planned as I will be following the storyline, but I don't want to copy it word for word and have my own views on how some things should have gone down.

Pairings: Daryl Dixon/Xayden McCollins(OC)

Author: Twiggz/Xayden/Shawnie/CannibalisticDesires(all the same person)

Chapter: 1

Civilian

I am nothing without… Pretend I know my faults, can't live with them.

I am nothing without… A man. I know my thoughts, but I can't hide them.

My body felt worn down and ached everywhere as I kept moving on down the stretch of highway that was littered with abandoned cars and dead people; as well as dead walkers. My mind stayed on alert despite my body being tired, and it was the thing that kept me moving even though my whole vascular system wanted to shut down on me. I hadn't eaten anything in almost a week and I was running out of water, so I had to ration it to basically four sips a day despite this heat. My vision, though, was still as sharp as ever and I kept my green/grey eyes straight ahead of me; not looking back unless I heard a noise. I kept my head clear of any thoughts other than the alertness of my own senses, keeping my pain and anguish out of mind as I was making sure the path was safe for when my group and I decided to tailgate it out of the woods we were hiding in and move on for safer grounds. Inspecting the area for three days though wasn't really my whole plan, but if all the things that had happened hadn't happened, I would have had to stay here for so long.

On my first day out I noticed a group of people coming along here with a RV and thought that they were in some trouble when I witnessed a herd of walkers come towards them. Unbeknownst to them, I had killed a majority of the walkers going their way before they reached the group; who had chosen to hide under cars and in the RV (which I had to give them credit on how smart that was). Then I witnessed something that happened to my group a few weeks ago. The little girl was spotted as she was trying to look out to see if the herd was gone and she then ran off into the woods with two walkers after her. A police officer guy went after her, but as I waited for him to return, he had returned empty handed. I stayed off in the distance as I didn't know or trust these people; hell, I barely trusted my own group; so I knew I was of no help to them as I hadn't seen which way the girl had gone. A group of men walked off into the woods with weapons and straight forward attitudes and it was at that time that I left.

I knew they hadn't found the girl, so I had been sticking around hoping that the same thing that happened to my group's boy hadn't happened to this group's little girl. My hopes weren't high though due to the fact that I had been on this highway for three days; witnessing their message to the girl and not daring to touch the food that was meant for her; and still nothing came from her and if she was out in those woods, she would have made it back to the highway by now. Sighing to myself and hanging my head, I walked back to the high part of the forest and disappeared into the dense trees.

Walking a few miles in; and half a days' walk; I reached my group's campsite, where I was happily greeted and told to sit down. I didn't say anything as I sat down, setting my harpoon and my crossbow next to me while I reached up and let my unruly bun of hair out, slight waves of long (almost past my ass), flowing and slightly wavy dark-purple hair fell down along my slightly burnt skin as I reached out for a new bottle of water that was waiting for me, almost downing the two liter in one sitting. Iris almost laughed at me and I glared daggers at her.

"Wanna tell me what's so funny!?" I nearly yelled, my brow furrowed in frustration, making the brunette snicker more as she crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side. She was pissing me off and she knew it. If there was one thing I hated more than walkers, it was ignorance to the fact that people think they're funny while hiding something when in reality they are just plain annoying and all I would like to do to them would be the same thing I love to do to walkers: put an arrow through their skull and call it a day. Huffing my annoyance, I looked away and back to an elderly woman who was dressed in a Hawaiian dress with a jean jacket over it with a sun hat on, looking out through a pair of binoculars after shooting a quick, knowing smile in my direction. Janice was her name, and she had turned into a mother figure to me; though I wouldn't admit that to her. Sighing softly, I got up and walked over to a deer that I had hanging over a huge hole in the ground that it was dripping into. Standing up in a ready stance in front of the deer, I grabbed my knife and cut along the fur and skin line so I could quickly skin it. Grabbing the extra flabs that my cuts had created, I yanked down on the fur and quickly skinned the thing, revealing the meat and a bit more blood. I threw the fur over onto a log as I was going to clean it and make something out of it later. I then walked back up to the deer and quickly cut through the meat and muscles before cracking open the ribs and gutting the deer and dropping the guts into the hole below the deer.

"Is that what we are having for dinner?" A little girl; Coraline, or Coral for short; came up and asked me, finally speaking as she hadn't spoken since the boy we had in our group had been shot in the head. Clearing my throat and looking over to her, I thought for a minute before nodding and wondering if she wanted to learn how to prepare the meat. Motioning for her to come over, which she did with a small smile on her face, I pointed to the still draining deer.

"I'm gonna show ya how to prepare the rest of the meat. Now usually, I would save the organs as gizzards from any animal are good, but I don' think that the rest of the group would like such a thing; so I'm being considerate. Now I want to get this meat tenderized, but I don' want any bones breaking into the meat as getting bone pieces out is a bitch. So what we're gonna do is cut off the head like this." I swung a machete into the air and knocked off the deer's head, not watching as it fell into the hole though Coral was transfixed on the object before she looked back up at me. "Then we're gonna take off huge chunks of meat and wash it and then pound at it a bit to get it tender." With these words, I quickly got out my hunting knife and started cutting off big hunks of meat and showing her how to try and make them all the same size. When I was done with that, I motioned over to a pot that I had prepared recently of boiled water that, by now, had cooled down and we both cleaned off the meat before setting it down on a rock that I always used to tenderize meat. Grabbing another rock from its place in a bag, I showed her how to hammer it against the Venison without completely flattening it and ruining it. After that, I let Coral have at it as she seemed to be having fun. Going into the hole and grabbing the organs and the deer head, I took the nearly naked carcass off the hooks and threw them into the fire we had going for the few walkers the group had killed earlier that day.

It was then that I heard it; the awful groaning and gnawing of teeth against teeth and then a scream that made the birds fly out into the sky. Looking around with alert eyes that hid the fear my heart was feeling, I grabbed my harpoon which was hanging along my side as my crossbow was at the camp. The first walker soon came stumbling out of a thicket of bushes and I shot it in the head, quickly going to get my harpoon arrow back before three more walkers came out of a thicket across the way. Knowing that there were possibly more behind this trio, I quickly ran back to camp and yelled for everyone to get packing, and to do it quickly. Grabbing Coral and pushing her to her father, I grabbed the meat and threw it into a cooler before putting the cooler back on the truck we had. Everyone was pretty fast with packing up, and walkers were starting to surround us. I hopped on my Harley and yelled for everyone to hurry up before I put it upon myself to shoot them in the head. Soon, everyone was in their cars or in the truck and I started up my bike just as a walker tried to grab me. Revving past them, I grabbed my crossbow on my way out of the clearing and back onto the trail that led to the highway; or so I thought.

I was confused as I led the group down the road, not fully understanding why we hadn't come into view with the highway as we had been driving more than the miles I knew were between our camp and the highway. Despite this, though, I kept driving, knowing that turning back would just waste gas and I had yet to turn all the cars into biodegradable engines. Pursing my lips together in slight anger with myself, I was inwardly cursing for getting us lost and it was getting darker by the minute and we were being loud as hell driving along in a row. I kept my eyes peeled as we drove, trying to find the slightest bit of movement as I didn't want us stopping unless it was for good. I never liked traveling at night since the outbreak; not after what happened to my sister. Letting the wind go through my hair; which in my rush I forgot to put back up, I soon saw lights up ahead and got curious. There was a clearing near the lights and there was nothing around this clearing. I stopped my bike and parked it, getting off and grabbing my crossbow before nearly leaving to scout out the perimeter. Everyone was quickly parking as well and jumping out of whatever car they had gotten into. Soon I was faced with Janice, Iris, Coraline, Derrik; Coraline's father; and Mahlikx, who were all giving me a look that silently spoke how close that was to all of us being dead. We had others, but when we went through Atlanta, the walkers got them, our recent one being when we got on that death trap of a highway. Looking around, I looked to Iris before motioning for her to follow me and we both searched the perimeter. When we found no walkers, we went back to the group.

"Alright everyone… We're staying here tonight and I think Xayden wants to check out those lights tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a bit safer, or even someone we may know as Xayden is from these parts, but we will find out tomorrow. No need coming in at this time of night and scaring anyone who is there." Iris informed everyone before looking to me. I had a look of annoyance on my face and I really just wanted to punch the shit out of her right then and there.

"You do know I haven' been here since I was ten, right?" I spat out at her, huffing before walking to the truck to get the cooler out of the bed so I could start cooking the Venison which Coral had tenderized pretty well from what I saw when I grabbed it. Grabbing the skillet and a bag out of the cooler, I started cooking the slabs of meat with some vegetables over the fire that Derrik had just set up, sniffing as the slight chill in the air was starting to bug my nose. With a huff, I tried to finish the food quickly so the group could eat as I had a slab for everyone. With the mixed vegetables we were able to grow and freeze, it brought nice flavor to the meat and I was satisfied with the quick meal I was able to prepare for all of us.

When others were handed their food, I worked on my own food and then quickly ate it near my bike away from the others as I watched the perimeter to make sure any noise I could decipher as an animal or walker. Before a while, everyone was quietly happy talking and sharing smiles and soft laughter and I just stayed where I was until Janice came up to me and leaned against the tree my bike was parked near as she picked at her teeth with a dull knife. Sighing and figuring she wanted to talk, I just kept myself busy by making harpoon arrows and crossbow arrows out of the extra twigs we had gathered that were in the bed of the truck. She chuckled and that is what made me look back up at her again.

"You're always doing something to keep you from talking, but I know you have some thoughts running through that skull of yours. I also bet those thoughts are what will keep us all alive if you were just willing enough to share it with the rest of the group." Janice muttered as she looked me over, pausing picking out her teeth with a soft sigh escaping her pale rose lips and I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her words.

"Why would ya'll wanna hear what I gotta say, no matter? I don' see no difference either way." I shrugged and went back to sharpening twigs, giving a barbed design to some of them for my harpoon arrows as they had to be a bit thicker so they wouldn't move around in the barrel. Sighing harshly, I cleared my throat as I continued to smooth out the wood, trying not to make it appear like a flimsy piece of nature and more like a harsh weapon that it was meant to be when put in my hands, and sooner or later my weapon. As night continued to pass, our group slowly started falling asleep and was soon all out except for me and Janice, who was sitting on the top of the roof to the truck to keep watch like she usually did.

Night passed by quickly and I had to huff as I hadn't slept all night and I finally finished working on my arrows, putting them in an arrow slouch and securing it to my bike. Everyone was waking up and eating the leftovers from last night that they didn't finish while I got my bike ready. I soon got to thinking about the fur that I left on the log and how it was probably mingled and gnawed on. I was so bummed thinking on what I was supposed to make with that fur; or more what I wanted to make out of that fur; and it was all ruined now and who knew when I was going to get another deer. Growling in annoyance, I sat on my bike and started the engine, my lip twitching in slight anger as I knew where I needed to go. Iris was looking at me over her food and I flipped her off before taking off and heading to the farm where I saw all those lights the night before.

It was a quick drive, and I had to admit I was rightfully thankful for that and I headed up the dirt trail to the gate, which I opened, drove in through and closed again before I drove up along the road more and up to the door right when people were coming out of tents and the front door. I had my crossbow ready just in case, but happily none of them appeared to be walkers. I kept the crossbow on me and I huffed when I saw some people holding guns to me, holding my hands up and rolling my eyes.

"I ain't fucking bit, and I ain't a threat if you people get those fucking shooters away from me within a few seconds. I get to three, or even hafta count, I'll shoot ya'll." I growled out, cracking my neck as I moved it from side to side in an annoyed matter. Cracking my fingers next, I watched as people started putting their weapons down and seeing what I had to say before an elderly man came out of the farm and looked to me.

"Xayden? Is that Xayden McCollins is that you? I haven't seen you since you weren't a little girl. Can't forget those eyes though. They still amethyst? They look it from here." At hearing this old man speak, I took the finger off the trigger of my crossbow, chuckling softly at hearing the old man speak more and more before shaking my head.

"Mr. Greene? I can' believe you're still on this farm, old man. Who ya have with ya, I see a lot of tents out here." I muttered as I looked around wearily at everyone watching me despite their weapons being down, their eyes were still alert and watching me despite me being known by the owner of these lands. Clearing my throat, I gave a half-assed wave to Maggie, thinking softly on how she had grown since I last saw her; though she was 3 last time I saw her.

"Well, they were some people that needed help. Let's not talk about that, though, have you been travelling by yourself?" Hershal asked me and I shook my head.

"Nah, I got a small group of my own that I found on my travels right down the dirt road. We took camp when we saw your lights on last night. We're not even half a miles away and right at that dirt road that is right next to your fence. I was told to come up as they thought it might be infested. I'm glad to see it ain't." I muttered and looked up to Hershal who just smiled at me and motioned playfully for me to 'get'.

"Well go get them and come back. Knowing you, we'll all have food tonight." I had to laugh at the old man's words and I just headed out and to go get the others from my camp, nodding my head with a soft smile to the new comers that we would all have to meet and greet later on when I brought my group back.