'Run. Don't stop. If you stop, they'll get you.'
It seems she had been running from the dead for days. With only a hatchet to defend her, her future wasn't looking bright in this mess. But ha, whose is now a days?
She kept running, not looking back. 'That's how they always die in the movies. They look back,' she reminded herself.
"FUCK," she yelled as she tripped over a tree root. As she is gets up she sees another one coming toward her from behind the tree. She gets up as fast as she could with her hatchet in hand she drives into the dead's skull and it goes down forever this time. As she yanks her weapon from its skull, she takes a look around her seeing only a few still followed her, but they were farther away than they had been since they started chasing her. She whipped around and started running in the same direction. Running for about 200 feet she came across a highway, littered with abandoned cars.
She began going through the empty vehicles looking for any supplies she could. A bottle of aspirin, a tent, a sleeping bag, matches, some canned goods in the first car she searched. She moved to the truck right beside it, she looked down and saw blood and large tear on her upper right thigh. 'What the fuck?' She touched the bloody spot, wincing once she finally noticed how much pain she was in. She searched the pickup and grabbed a shirt from a bag she found in the backseat. She took the shirt, ripped the bottom into a long strip, then went into her backpack and pulled out a feminine pad and the aspirin she found in the car before. She took a quick look around then pulled her pants down to her knees. She took the pad pressed it against her leg and tied it with the bottom of the t-shirt. Slightly satisfied with her medical skills she pulled up her pants and popped a few aspirins.
'This works I guess' she shrugged and continued searching the pickup finding a few more supplies and clothes, when she heard a strange noise. She grabbed her hatchet from the seat, readying herself for whatever is about to come and crouched down between the back of the truck and the car behind it. The roaring got closer and closer, and she finally peaked around the car to see it was a man on a motorcycle with a crossbow strapped to his back. Not far behind him she saw a RV and an old station wagon. They were slowly moving between the abandoned cluster fuck.
'Oh thank god. People who finally aren't dead' She sighed in relief. The small convoy came to a stop when the RV started smoking. People shuffled out of the RV and the car behind it.
"I said it, didn't I say it?" An older man with grey bread said when he exited the RV, "A thousand times. Dead in the water."
"Problem, Dale?" A guy in a tan button up with black hair asked.
"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of—okay, that was dumb." The older man admitted after looking around him and realizing the gold mine they had hit for spare parts.
She continued studying them—she didn't want to waltz in and startle any of them or worse, get shot. As they continued talking about finding stuff among the cars, she thought of ways to go about introducing herself asking if she could tag along. She didn't mind being alone, but she knew that to survive you needed to be in a group to watch your back.
The group started to scatter looking for supplies. The old man and the sheriff stayed at the RV, the old man climbing on top to keep watch. 'Shit' she ducked back down to hide behind the car out of the view of the old man, but still facing their direction. She was so worried about not getting caught spying that she didn't notice the footsteps behind her until they stepped on a small twig. She whipped around to see a crossbow pointed directly between her eyes. She froze; she was so frightened she couldn't say anything she just looked up at the man.
And he just looked at her. She was a good looking gal, maybe around the Chinaman's age but he couldn't be for sure. She had red hair pulled loosely into a bun with pieces falling all around her face. She had on just a plain old grey t-shirt with a red flannel with a backpack strapped to her, and jeans. She was pale, but it complimented her hair and her soft blue, almost grey eyes. He couldn't stop looking at her eyes, even though they were full of fear. As the man with the crossbow and sleeveless flannel continued to examine this stranger he noticed her blood stained jeans and a makeshift bandage.
"You bit?" He asked her sternly, but in a worried manor. She shook her head "No, I fell running from the uh, zombie looking fuckers." He nodded at her response, lowered his crossbow looking up for the rest of the group-he wasn't quite sure what to do. He spotted a guy in a white tshirt and a holster around his waist and motioned him to come over. He looked at the redneck's new company with a worrisome expression.
"I found her behind the car over there," he informed the police officer "thought she was a walker."
The sheriff looked her up and down and put his hand out, "Name's Rick Grimes. What's that on your leg?"
She shook his hand while thinking how crazy she looks with a pad under her jeans. "I'm Alex." She looked at the guy who first found her and realize she didn't introduce herself. And as if he was thinking the same thing he looked up and said rather quietly, "Daryl."
"I, uh, tripped while running from the walkers? Is that what you call them?" Rick nodded. "Yeah, I was running from them tripped, and before I could examine myself I had to take one out and kept running. I came across the highway and started to get some supplies, bandaged myself up when I saw your group. I didn't mean to spy on you guys, it's just I didn't know what kind of people I was dealing with. And uh, Daryl here found me."
Rick gave her a little smirk, "Yeah, I understand not knowing anymore."
'Damn,' She thought, 'Not half bad looking group for the world ending and all.' They discussed their plans among other things when Rick sees Dale motion ahead of the RV, Rick grabs his rifle and looks through the scope to see several walkers heading their way. He tells Alex and Daryl to get down. Before she could process what was going on Daryl grabbed her, pulled them both underneath a vehicle and put his finger up to his lips to tell her to 'shush.' As she lay beside this redneck, she finally notices the shuffling of dozens of decaying corpses closing in front of them.
She looks ahead and sees the black guy from the group who had just cut his arm on a car door. She looks over to Daryl with those worried eyes of hers. He nods motions for her to stay there and goes after to rescue his injured friend. She watches as the redneck takes a walker nearing that injured man and places it on top of him, and grabs a corpse from the car beside him and hides underneath of it. Most importantly, she watches as the walkers shuffle right past the two. She signs silently to herself, 'that was close.' She throws her hand over her mouth as she remembers the heard passing her. 'SHIT. SHIT. SHIT.' is all she can think about as they go past her hiding place, she's never been so scared in her life, not even when her campsite was attacked for the first time. There was only about half a dozen then, this herd is fucking huge.
Finally, what seems to be the last of them past, but Alex doesn't get out from underneath from the van. She was waiting until that Rick or Daryl man to come tell her it's clear, but then she heard a little girl scream. She got up from underneath the van and ran towards the screams to see Rick's group standing at the guard rail.
"There's two walkers after my baby," the short hair woman cried and the skinny woman tried to console her. Alex looked around and didn't see Rick anywhere, he must have gone after the girl. Everyone gathers around to see what's happening. The skinny lady explained to everyone that the little girl, Sophia is her name, was chased into the forest by walkers and that Rick went after her.
After the skinny one explained what happened, the black hair guy in a tan shirt with a rifle looked at Alex.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked.
"I found her back when we were looking for supplies, didn't have a chance for introductions before the geeks came," Daryl explained and then left after getting something.
"I—I'm Alex. I was here looking for—for supplies."
"Are you alone?" The Asian man asked, at this point everyone is looking at Alex except for the short haired lady.
"Yeah," she nodded mournfully not looking at anywhere else but the ground. When she didn't hear anyone respond she looked up. She figured everyone got the hint when they kind of nodded or looked away continuing to worry about the little girl.
"I'm Glenn," the young Asian man finally said with a half-smile and friendly small wave.
"Hey," looking at the rest of the group awkwardly.
"Oh yeah, right," he replied. "Let's see, the older guy is Dale. The blonde is Andrea. The guy is Shane. Lori is the lady with long hair. Carol's with the short," He leaned in closer to whisper to Alex, "Carol is Sophia's mother." He stepped back a little after and looked around, "I don't know where T-Dog is, but you already know Daryl. Did you meet Rick?"
"Yeah I did. We started talking before the herd." She answered.
"Yeah, Rick's cool. He's kind of the leader around here. Oh, and that boy by Lori is Carl. He is Rick's son and Lori is his mother."
"Oh," she leans in closer to Glenn, which seemed to catch him by surprise, "I wonder if he found—" Just then she sees Rick come out of the woods and head up towards the group. Without Sophia.
"Where is she?" The frantic mother asked.
"I had to kill the walkers, I thought she had come back up here. Shane, Glenn. Where's Daryl? We gonna go find her." Rick replies sadly.
"He's was with T-Dog, I'll go get him." Alex offers and runs towards the RV to find Daryl tending to T-Dogs wound. "Hey, uh, Daryl, Rick needs you to help look for the girl."
Daryl turns around to see the new girl with her damn worried eyes. 'Is this girl ever not worrying?' He looks at T-Dog who tells him to go.
"I'll finish patching him up." She tells him and he nods, grabs his bow and takes off for the woods.
T-Dog, the guy who hurt his arm, looks up at Alex. "I'm T-Dog," he hisses.
She gives him a soft smile, "Hi T-dog. I'm Alex. I saw you cut your arm. Looked pretty bad."
He laughs slightly, "Haha yeah, it hurts like a son of a bitch." She took a closer look at his wound he was applying pressure to. 'Shit, it's pretty deep, it should be stitched.'
"I'll be right back, okay?" She runs off to go get her bag with her mediocre medical supplies. She returns shortly to the older man looking over T-Dog. "Dale right? Alex." She tells the man while sitting across from T-Dog digging in her bag.
"Nice to meet you. Do you have medical training?" He asked eagerly as she pulls out a pad, aspirin and the rest of the t-shirt she tore up earlier.
"Just the bare minimum, sir," she replies. "Do you happen have some clean water and possibly a clean towel or sewing kit, Dale?"
"Yeah, I'll go get it for you." He goes into the camper to retrieve a bottle of water and the cleanest towel he has to offer. "Sorry, no kit," he tells her as he hands the towel over to her.
'Well it's not the best, but it'll have to do,' she thought while taking the towel. "Thank you, Dale." She removes the shirt that T-Dog was holding up his wound. "This might hurt," she warns T-Dog as she pours the water on to the wound and uses the towel to clean up whatever she can. He hisses in pain, but not too badly so she continues. "It's better than alcohol. That shit burns," she chuckles trying to comfort T-Dog, who just smiles painfully at her. Dale is still watching her preform her little nurse routine. He and T-Dog look at her like she's crazy when she un-wraps the pad. "I know, I know. It looks weird, but it's rather sanitary and absorbs blood better than a glaze would, plus its adhesive so you don't have to actually tape his arm," she explained to the horrified looking men.
"Makes pretty good sense to me," Dale states. She smiles a little as she wraps torn up shirt around T-Dogs arm. She grabs the aspirin, gives him a couple and the remaining water in the bottle.
"I know, it's not the best T-Dog but it's the best I can do for you right now. I'd say take some aspirin every so often, and don't overdo yourself please."
He gives a soft smile after taking the pills "Thank you."
"Yeah, not a problem. You should probably go rest up a little to be honest. Get some food in you and plenty of water."
"Where'd you learn about first aid?" Dale asks her. He's genuinely curious about this new gal in the group, who just might have saved T-Dog.
"Oh, I was a—"She stopped as she heard somewhat familiar voices come from the woods. "Excuse me," she said while walking over to the rail. 'Well, she's at least well-mannered at the end of the world,' Dale thought while he begins to care for T-Dog.
As she walks closer she sees the voices were Glenn and Shane.
"Alright everybody, while we wait for Rick and them to return let's move some of these vehicles and gather up some more supplies," Shane ordered.
Alex ran up to Glenn, "Hey," she smiled and then spoke softer "Did you find anything?"
Glenn sighed, "Rick and Daryl are on her trail. How's T-Dog?"
"He's alright, considering. I think I'm gonna go look around here see if I can't find some supplies or food," he nods and they go off their separate ways to search for stuff and for cars to move. Looking for survival gear was always fun for Alex. Even before the world ended.
Going from car to car she started grabbing things she thought everyone might like. Couple of shirts for Carl, as many small blankets she could stuff into a duffle bag she found with a few flung around her shoulder. She came across a bunch of canned food, your everyday camping gear like Swiss army knives and lanterns, taking her small haul back to the RV, telling them to take what they need. She went back to where she was looking previously; she spotted an old jeep a few vehicles away. She opened the back hatch to find the mother lode of survival gear. EMRs filled a large duffle bag with a few gallons of water next to it, two gas cans full as they could be. Quite a few small weapons like bats and crowbars, a few large knives, another duffle bag full of ammunition. She searched everywhere looking for the guns to go with, having no luck but finding the keys. This jeep belonged to someone who knew how to survive, she figured they must not have had time to grab their things before having to abandon the jeep and precious supplies. She grabbed whatever she thought useful in the car next to the jeep, loaded it up. She had a pretty clear path back to the RV, so she got in the front seat and backed up near the RV. The group around her had stopped what they were doing to look and see. Alex hopped out of the jeep, seeing the crowd she seemed to gather she said nothing as she opened the back hatch.
"Holy shit!" Glenn looked at her with awe, "Where did you find all this?"
"Just up the road a ways, figured these would be pretty useful," she smiled as she pulled out the duffle bag pump full of ammo boxes. "I looked for some guns, only found a couple pistols in other vehicles. Also thought everyone could put a couple EMRs in their bags just in case. They taste like shit, but it'll at least be something." She grabbed the other bag and to put on the ground.
"That's not a terrible idea," the skinny Lori woman had said.
The sun was setting fast when Rick and Daryl showed up covered in blood causing Carol to have a panic attack, turned out to just be a walker they gutted. They cleaned themselves up and everyone went off to find a place to sleep for the night. Alex hadn't realized how exhausted she was, running, constantly looking over her shoulder had definitely taken a toll on her body, not to mention the throbbing in her leg from the fall earlier that day.
It was Glen's turn for guard duty on top of the RV, offering his seat inside to Alex who accepted the closest thing to a bed she had in weeks. She was out as soon as her head hit the pillow.
She woke in a cold sweat, not knowing what time it was she went out of the RV carefully avoiding stepping on the redneck that was sprawled out on the floor.
Alex had announced herself to Glen as she climbed up the ladder, "How goes it?" She smiled at Glen who was having trouble staying awake.
"Good, good. I'm good. Trouble sleeping?"
Alex looked up at the vast amount of cars surrounding them then back at her feet, "No, I'm pretty well rested. Looks like you could use some sleep though."
"Yes, thank you!" Glen quickly got up from the lawn chair on top. "If you get tired, Daryl is next for the post. And if you see anything come get us."
"Will do. Sleep tight." She told Glen as he walked down onto the ladder and into the RV he went.
She sat there in the peace and quiet looking up at the stars, thinking about life before the outbreak, how thankful she was for the redneck finding her. Occasionally she would stand up with the binoculars looking around for any signs of the walkers, thankfully having none. After a few hours, lost deep into her thoughts of the night her camp was attacked she heard a muffled grunt coming from inside the RV and then the door opened. She looked down below at the redneck that squinted up at her, made a light grunting noise and started walking towards the ladder.
"I thought it was Glenn's turn." He said once he reached the top.
She nodded, "Yeah, I couldn't go back to sleep so I told him to go and get some rest."
Daryl didn't reply verbally, just nodded his head in understanding. After a few moments of comfortable silence he spoke up quietly again. "Do uh, you want to go back to sleep? Floor's open now."
"Thanks, but if you don't mind I think I'd like to enjoy the peace for a little while longer. You can take the chair if you want." Daryl sat down and began cleaning his crossbow and arrows with a rag he pulled out of his pocket. Alex decided to lay down hands behind her head to look up at the stars that were so perfectly clear that night. Together they sat in silence, Daryl looking up every now and then for walkers.
"Where you from?" Alex asked after Daryl had wiped down his last arrow.
" 'Round here. You?"
"I'm from everywhere. Military brat, mostly the south." She looked at him and he nodded. "My friends and I were camping up near Atlanta when shit hit the fan. My brother called, told me to lay low until things calmed down. That he'd come find me when he could leave his post." Suddenly, she felt tears rolling down into her hairline; she tried to wipe them away as quickly as possible. She hated crying, especially in front of people she didn't know. She sat up and looked in the opposite direction of Daryl.
He noticed her wiping at her eyes and looking away. He looked back down at his crossbow. He wasn't sure what he should do or say to comfort the stranger. He knew how she felt, not knowing if her brother was dead or alive, just like him. Hoping, waiting for some kind of miracle that he'd find Merle again. Granted Merle wasn't his favorite person, but he was the only family Daryl had left.
He carefully placed his hand on her shoulder, "Sorry," Daryl finally managed to get the whisper out of his throat.
Alex looked at him, a little taken back by his concern. She stared into his blue eyes that were glued to hers. They stayed like that for only a brief moment, but what seemed to the both of them forever, finally breaking when she smiled light heartedly at him and put her hand on his. Daryl couldn't help look down at her smile, she looked even better when she smiled—even though he didn't know how that as possible. After a stolen look at his lips she looked forward, shook her head slightly and got up.
"Are you good for the rest of the night? I think I'm gonna go take the floor now." She said through a weak, forced yawn.
Daryl did a little nod, awkwardly adjusting himself to sit further back in the chair, not risking another look at Alex. She climbed down the ladder and he heard the door close lightly. After he did a quick look around, he sighed deeply. He got lost into his thoughts about Alex and those damn eyes got to him every time he looked at her. He'd never seen eyes like hers how they would change slightly from grey to blue, or even to a light green. It would be stupid of him not to notice how good-looking she was even if she was covered in blood and dirt. The way her shirt would slide up from time to time to show off the dimples on her lower back could drive a man crazy. How she could just lay on top of a broken RV surrounded by a sea of cars with a strange man and simply look up at the sky with what seemed like not a care in the world? Well that is until she started to cry of course. Daryl's thoughts shot back in forth between her eyes and their brief moment. 'Staring into her eyes in the moonlight like a fucking romance movie' he scoffed at himself.
'What the fuck was that?' Alex's thoughts wouldn't let her fall asleep as quickly as she would have liked. She kept thinking about Daryl's eyes staring into hers and good god how attractive he really was. He had been the first person to say sorry to her, he'd probably be the only person who would say it. She didn't want an apology or anything of the sort it was just so goddamn nice to hear. And his touch. She never thought a man like Daryl could make her feel so warm, safe. She wanted to kick herself for ending that moment so quickly, but he probably was just trying to be friendly. 'Damn' she sighed tossing over onto her side her thoughts finally stop in memory of his deep blue eyes causing her to drift soundly back to sleep. For the first time in weeks, she hadn't woken in a cold sweat she didn't wake at all until morning. She dreamt of Daryl embarrassingly enough.
Daryl continued to think about Alex, wondering if he had scared her off. 'Fuck,' he sighed. He kept thinking of ways to make it up to her until his mind went back to Sophia. He told himself over and over again how he needed to find her. Then he watched the sun begin to rise having peace in his mind for the first time that night. Shane had woken deciding he should get started on waking up everyone when most of the sun passed the horizon. It was going to be a long day of searching for the little girl.
When everyone was awake Rick laid out a knife set Carl had found the day before. Andrea was bitching about not having a gun, while Glen admired his new weapon. Daryl, Rick and Shane were the only ones who could carry, well, as far as anyone else knew. Alex had her own .9 mm pistol that she wasn't going to let anyone know about, after all her farther gave it to her for her 21th birthday. Some father daughters go to dances, they went to the shooting range.
After Daryl had spoken about where they would begin to look for Sophia, Carl convinced Lori and Rick that he should come along to look for her as well. Andrea began ripping poor Dale a new one once more about him taken her gun from her. Alex didn't know exactly what happened between them other than Andrea wanted to die somehow, but she slightly took Dale's side on this one. Hell, who didn't think about dying these days? It seemed as if it would almost be a relief from this world. But thinking about it and actually going through with it was completely different. Alex couldn't help but think this as they made their way down to the woods finding her place behind Glen.
They had walked for what seemed liked miles without much conversation; everyone was too worried about Sophia and walkers. Eventually they came across a tent that seemed to be empty, Daryl had inched in closer to it when Carol began calling out Sophia's name softy with no response. The redneck unzipped the door to the tent a little further, revealing the smell of a decaying body that even Alex and Glen could smell from where they stood. Daryl was the only one to go in as Rick and Shane stood outside fighting back their vomit. Alex had called out to Daryl somewhat worried about what he had found, and Carol had followed her call. A moment later Daryl was back out of the tent speaking to Carol, "It ain't her."
Lori and Alex had tried to give Carol some comfort from the news.
"What's in there?" Andrea asked.
"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Daryl had responded, looking directly at Alex then the rest of the group. She had no idea who Jenner was, but she guessed it was the guy who also had Andrea thinking about 'opting' out.
Then out of nowhere they all heard church bells ringing in the distance. Everyone took off running towards the bells wondering aloud what caused the bells to go off. The group came across a white church just past the brush with its own cemetery, but no steeple for the bells. The group sprinted after Rick towards the door and had opened the door of the church to find a few walkers in the pews. Alex watched in awe as Rick, Shane and Daryl chose their targets and took them down. Everyone had shuffled their way into the church, Rick yelling for Sophia, Alex just stood in the doorway not wanting to go in. It had been quite a while she was last in one, as a matter fact she was 17, at her mother's funeral. She was lost in her memory of the funeral, how everyone cried, even her father for the first and last time she had ever seen him cry. The noise of the bells had broken her out of her trance and Daryl had sprinted past her toward the bells once more. Turned out the bells where coming from a speaker and a timer. Carol had gone back in to pray for Sophia, as did some others. Alex took her place in the doorway again in time to overhear Carol's prayer, bringing a few tears to Alex. Daryl got uncomfortable hearing Carol's prayers so he turned to walk out when he noticed Alex wiping her eyes. 'He probably thinks I'm the biggest cry baby by now,' Alex had thought when she saw the redneck looking up at her; he nodded as if to say 'You okay?' Alex nodded back at the man and he went his way out of the church.
"You okay Alex?" Glenn had asked looking at her with a caring smile on him.
"I'm fine, just praying we find her is all."
"We all are," they had turned to walk out together with Glen's arm around her shoulder in a comforting way. Even though she hadn't known Glen for more than a day, she felt comfortable with him like her little brother was here with her. But that's how things where now, you built relationships faster than ever, because you could lose that person the next day.
Everyone was waiting outside the church now awaiting the orders from the former policemen. Glen still comforting Alex as she told him the story of her mother's funeral. Daryl had managed to sneak a few glances towards Alex while he had heard the story she was telling Glen. When she had finished the jest of the story she looked over toward the redneck and caught him glancing over at her. 'Shit I probably look like some kind of perv starin' at her,' he had thought as he tried to quickly look away from her eyes.
Finally Rick and Shane had told the group to go on ahead while they stay back, Carl going with them to help look for Sophia. And the group went their separate ways. Alex had managed to stay in between Daryl and Glen while they made their way back to the highway. After a while Carol spoke up, "So this is it? This is the plan?"
"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups," Daryl answered.
"Carrying knives and pointy sticks," Andrea had turned her attention to Lori, "I see you have a gun."
"Why, you want it?" Lori retorted to Andrea's remark. "Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." Andrea took Lori's gun with disbelief written across her face. "All of you."
She sat next to Carol on the log, "Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through and I would do anything to stop it but you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't that any of us would have gone after her the way he did..."
Alex's eyes shot up at Daryl the moment Lori had said this, she couldn't be for sure but she had a feeling Daryl would have gone after Sophia if he have had the chance Rick did.
"Or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently." Carol just kept her eyes on her feet. "Anybody?" Lori looked up at everyone to see if they thought they would have. Truth is no one could say for sure. Alex would have like to think she could have done something differently but who knows? She'll never know until she herself was in that situation and clearly everyone thought the same.
"Y'all look to him and then blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you," Lori had finally stopped to take a drink of water.
"We should keep moving," Andrea was the first to break the silence when handing the revolver Lori had given to her. And then they were off again, no one saying a word after that.
Author's Note: Thank you all for reading the story so far and so, so much for the lovely reviews! Hope you enjoyed their little bonding moment. Who's excited for TWD to return in just 3 days?!