Heading towards the small convenience store that we had passed a few days before. Holding a hatchet drawn in each hand I walked quietly keeping my eyes open and listening intently. The woods were silent as always, animals hiding from not only humans but the walking corpses that would quite happily snack on little Bambi if they got the chance.
I'd left the lump of a man in the cabin we'd holed up in last night, jamming the door shut on my way out. He'd stayed up on watch over night while I slept so I'd decided to take my ass out and go find some food. The supermarket looked untouched, however when I did arrive the 2 cars and the black motorcycle that were parked up outside were clearly a new arrival. Letting out an annoyed sigh I saw the man stood outside clearly on watch, he was holding a shotgun and I rolled my eyes, bloody typical.
The scream's and shouts that came from inside instantly drew my attention and I stayed close to the tree's watching silently as the man with the shotgun ran inside and a more shouts followed, that's when I noticed the few walkers on the roof ambling about and swore under my breath. The sound of creaking and groaning made my feet move, those people inside were about to be fucking crushed. Once inside I saw the man trapped under the fallen shelf and the people trying to get him out, there was a back to my pulling on the shelf but having no luck in lifting it. Tucking the hatchet's into their holders on my hips I ran over and grabbed hold of the shelf beside him pulling it up. The shelf lifted and the man underneath was pulled out, the man beside me glanced at my hands before his eyes travelled up to my face, the look of shock was instantly covered up by a glare and I released the shelf before seeing the half body of a walker dragging itself across the floor and stomping down hard on its skull. My heavy black combat boots quickly crushed the skull and ended the man's undead days.
As the roof gave another groan I quickly began to drag the man who had been stuck under the shelf and dragged him to his feet pushing him out the door and following. The man from the shelf and the guy who had pulled the trapped man out followed behind us as the roof collapsed. Once outside everyone began to try and catch their breath and I glanced around at the group of people. There were 4 dark skinned people and 3 light skinned men, now that they had all regained their breath they began to stand up straight and I glanced around at the faces, the 5 men and 2 women looked to be in good health, one was carrying a katana, dreadlocks in her long hair, another had her frizzy hair pulled back into a bobble. An Asian men covered in riot gear and carrying a gun, one large burly man with facial hair, a short young looking man, a nervous looking dark skinned man and to finish off the man who had been lifting the shelf, shaggy hair with a leather vest jacket.
"Okay, thanks for helping an all, but who the hell are you?" the Asian gave me a pointed look, he looked me over and I finally realised I must look a mess to these people, my dark auburn hair was slipping out of the messy bun I'd managed to tie it up into earlier, my blue tank top was covered in dark patches of walker blood and lighter patches of my own blood, my black cargo pants had rips at the knees and were just as stained as my shirt, The dried blood that covered my left arm was probably a concern for them, a piece of shredded cloth tied tightly around my left bicep and the dark tattoo splashed with colour running from under my shirt all the way down my right arm. What skin that was on show was muddy and dirty, not to mention the dried blood on my face from the cut above my left eye.
Giving a nervous laugh I looked at the Asian. "Guess there was kinda no time for introductions earlier, names Alexandria, although most people call me Alex or Lexi." I brushed the loose hair off my face and realise there was more hanging down than I first thought and quickly pulled at the tie in my hair, trying to pull it all back into some form of order.
"I'm Glenn, this is Sasha, Zac, Tyreese, Bob, Michonne and Daryl." He motioned to each person as he said there name, I gave a nod and glanced around at their cars.
"Guessing from the fact you were scouting this place out and look quite heavily armed I'm guessing you have some form of group and a camp waiting?" Sitting down on the closest object I could I glanced between the small group, they were mismatched and clearly thrown together.
"We have a group." I glanced up at the gruff voice that addressed me, the man with the shaggy dark hair and leather vest, Daryl, I think gave me a look over, his accent was clearly that of a redneck and I frowned, getting that strange feeling that I was forgetting something.
"You got a group or?" Glenn addressed me again and I shrugged my shoulders.
"No, just me and my friend, he's back at a cabin we stayed at last night, just down the road" Standing back up I patted my two hatchets to make sure they were there.
"We can offer the two of you a place at the group if you wish, however we will have to ask you three questions." Taking another long look at Glenn I thought about it for a second before nodding my head.
"Alright, shoot with the questions."
"How many walkers have you killed?"
Frowning I looked down at the ground and thought hard about it. "Between my friend and myself? Probably about two hundred or so."
The quiet looks the group shared nearly made me proud, they were impressed and I felt good about that.
"How many people have you killed?"
Giving him a long cold look I ignored the pain in my chest before answering. "I've killed 3, my friend has killed 2."
"Why?"
"Two of mine were my parents who had turned, I came home to get them and take them away with me and instead they tried to eat me, the other was a woman we found hiding in a tree in the woods, she was screaming bloody murder and her arm was chewed to the bone, she begged me to end the pain. So I did."
"And your friends kills?"
"One was a man trying to pin me down and rape me, the other was a mercy killing of our friend, he got bit, then asked my friend to put a bullet in his brain so he did it."
The group stayed silent before they all looked at each other silently discussing their options before they seemed to agree.
"Daryl and Michonne will go with you to get your friend while we wait here, then we can head back to our group."
I gave him a nod and turned to face Daryl and Michonne, motioning into the woods. "there's a shortcut through here, cuts the journey in half." Taking off walking I heard the footsteps behind me and just kept walking, I kind of knew the man wasn't going to like this, but I was tired of running, and the safety of numbers seemed safer right now, I was injured and he was getting tired of not sleeping enough.
"What happened to your arm?" I glanced over my shoulder at Michonne, this was the first time she had spoken since we met and I noted that she was quiet and in my opinion she was reserved form everyone.
"Some stupid asshole with an eye patch tried to shoot us down, got me twice in the arm and grazed my head, that's when we lost our friend. Walkers were drawn to the noise and sneaked up on us, bit his shoulder before I killed the bastards and we dragged my friend off." Trying hard to ignore the pain in my chest I bit down on the inside of my cheek, I hated to be shown as weak to people, weakness got you killed.
It wasn't long before we reached the small house and I asked them to wait outside knowing what the man could be like, they complied and I shouldered the door open heading inside, he was awake now and sat sharpening his knife as I walked closer.
"Found a group, we're going back with them, they seem good." The man glanced up at me and I raised my eyebrows daring him to argue with me, the dark circles under his eyes were quite the indication to how much we really needed this.
"We ain't stayin' wit' them fer long." He drawled at me and I rolled my eeys grabbing my pack from the floor and stuffing my small blanket inside, the bag wasn't filled with much, a blanket and a couple of knives some ammo for the 2 guns strapped to my thighs and 4 more hatchets that I had found. He gathered up his belongings before I began to head outside, the two glanced up as I walked out.
The dead silence that filled the air when my friend stepped out concerned me, did they know him? Was this going to come down to a fight. The redneck was staring at the other man from the group and that's when the similarities clicked, my eyes went to the crossbow in the smaller man's hand and I stared, no fucking way had we found him.
"Merle?" The mans voice was laced with emotion and I just stared, looking at the tall redneck with the metal contraption on his right arm where his hand had once been, the stubble and short hair that was growing on his face and head, the scruffy worn clothes. His brother stood before him now, since the Atlanta incident that had reunited me and my friend.
"Well fuckin' hell, guess I take back wha' I said Lexi, looks like we migh' be stayin' awhile." Shaking my head I let out a small chuckle as the younger brother glanced over at me.
"Ya could 'ave told us his name?" His piercing blue eyes caught mind and I saw him instantly flinch away, there were few people even before the apocalypse that could match my steel blue eyes, they were cold and I knew it.
"Now now bruther, don' go blamin' Lexi, gals got more balls than me and ya combined." He let out a short laugh and I turned to look at him, flipping him off.
Swinging my pack onto my back I glanced at the group of three. "We leaving or standing around here chatting?" Putting my hand in my cargo pants I pulled out the packet of cigarettes and handed one to Merle, pausing I offered one to Michonne and Daryl, the latter accepted one but Michonne just shook her head. Shrugging I put them away and lit the cigarette before handing the lighter to Merle, Daryl pulled one form his own pocket and lit up as we began walking. I held the stick between my fingers and rolled my neck the cracking sound made Merle laugh and I smirked at him, Daryl and Michonne were walking behind us while me and Merle walked in front, I took a long drag, blowing the smoke out into the air.
"How'd you two meet anyway?" I glanced over my shoulder at Daryl tehn glanced up at Merle my face registering shock, he glanced down at me and frowned.
"You never mentioned me? I'm insulted Merle." Letting out a short laugh he nudged me then took a drag and I glanced back at Daryl again. "I was his superior in the military, bossed him around and taught him how to behave, soon forgot it when he went home though clearly."
"How's you two meet up then?"
"Just after he cut his hand off, found him crashed in that fucking van on the side of the road, pulled him out and dragged him into a house nearby, we, me and Caleb looked after him and found a way to make him his new weapon, when he was fit to travel we started to try track you down, found the burnt out CDC then got chased off by a couple of herds, found ourselves getting shot at by this whackadoo with a couple of cronies."
Taking the final drag form the cigarette I stubbed it out on a tree and threw the stub into the dirt, glancing around for walkers.
"Ya still wit' Officer Friendly? Think me and the good ol' cop should have a little reunion." Merle had finished his cigarette during my story and was now following my lead glancing around.
"We went back fer ya in Atlanta, Merle. Me, Rick, Glenn, T-Dog." Daryl sounded fed up, he knew Merle well and knew what he was like, although he had to deal with him for longer than I had.
"Yea, yea."
We reached the supermarket and Glenn looked up and froze, his eyes going to Merle and I glanced up at the man who was smirking, nudging him in the side he glanced down at me and I pointed at him.
"You better play nice Merle, I'm tired of being out here so you're going to be nice to these people and keep the past where it belongs." We walked closer to the cars and Glenn and the others shot Merle a few worried glances.
"We're taking you back in separate cars, Merle you're going with me and Michonne. Alexandria-"
"Don't call me by my full name." I caught Glenn's eyes and felt him squirm under my gaze before looking away.
"Okay, you're going with Sasha, Tyreese and Bob. We will have to blindfold you until we know we can trust you." I glanced over at the group of three and sighed.
"Guess you want the weapons handed over?" Glen gave me a slow nod and I let out a grumble before slipping off my pack and opening it, Taking my 2 hatchets from their holsters and slipping them into the bag I removed the 2 guns strapped to my thighs as well as the knife hidden in my boot and turned to Merle who handed me his 2 guns and I watched as he removed the blade from his metal contraption before we shoved everything into the bag and I fastened it shut handing it to Glenn.
The next thing I was given was a pillow case and I grumbled as I got into the car before securing the thing over my head.