Title: A Redneck's Willow
Disclaimer: This is a fan story based in my mind as well as the hit tv show The Walking Dead. I have added my own characters and events; but have added lines from episodes of season three. There is no monetary gain from publishing this story. Thank you.
After the farm falls, the group meets a young woman in a house. Why does Daryl keep looking at her? Are there secrets to her?
The winter is a horrid time in Georgia, especially once the power plants and generators were shut off. No heat to keep the air breathable, no way to cook food, except by fires.
But worst of all…
The dead were walking the earth during the cold winter. Any survivors would need others to watch their backs while collecting food and food in the Georgia woods.
Chapter One
Willow's Point-of-view
I must have fallen asleep; light was streaming in through the boarded windows of the living room and the small fire I did have was nothing but cold ash. Trying to stand to get another fire going caused nothing but my muscles to ache and the shivers to rack my entire body.
'It's too damn cold to do this much longer,' I thought, finally pushing myself into a standing position.
I heard a noise coming from outside; but it wasn't a noise that was normal during the zombie apocalypse. It was tires on a dirt road and a motorcycle. Who would be stupid enough to drive a motorcycle with zombies all over the place? Running to the closet in the hall, I curled into a tight ball and hid behind the coats.
'Just take what you want and leave. Just take what you want and leave,' I kept thinking as a mantra to keep calm.
Daryl's Point-of-view
Jumping off the bike, I wait for Rick and T-Dog before checking the handles of the door. Locked. So Rick just kicked the double doors in and the three of us went to work looking for walkers or survivors. Glenn and Maggie had gone around to the back door and were just starting to enter when I smelled the smoke that was still somewhat fresh in the air.
"Smell that?" I asked Rick quietly.
He nodded and we went our separate ways to find whoever was in the house. For some reason, my eyes looked at the coat closet. I stepped forward.
Willow's
Footsteps approaching are definitely not a good sign. I held my breath, but with my body shaking and my teeth that task is practically impossible. Trying to curl into a tighter ball, I wait for the inevitable.
Daryl's
Rick joined me while I stood in front of the closet. His hand reaches out and turns the knob and quickly pulls the door open. Light from the kitchen and living room flooded into the dark space, illuminating a woman's body.
A woman's body that was shivering, so she wasn't dead. Or at least, not fully dead.
Rick lowers his pistol and slowly kneels to her level.
"We're not going to hurt you," Rick said quietly.
I can hear T-dog going up the stairs to the second and third levels with someone else, maybe Glenn. Following his lead, I lower the crossbow and stand back a little, but not relaxed.
"Hey, you hear him?" I ask her.
The blue eyes that I see, is nothing I'm expecting.
"Take what you want," her voice cracking as she spoke.
Hearing the chattering teeth and seeing the blue tinge to her lips, I quickly reach into the closet and pull a coat off a hanger and pull back out of the closet.
"Get the others, Glenn. It's safe here," Rick orders from his spot when he hears the returning steps of the Asian and T-Dog.
"Come on out, we ain't gonna hurt you," I said quietly, not trying to scare the woman even further.
Rick takes a step back to stand next to me while we wait and see what she was going to do. Surprisingly, the girl stands up and uses the door frame to hold herself up. I can tell that she was freezing. The blue tinge of her lips is echoed in her fingernails of her hand that I can see.
"Here."
I hand her the coat and offer her my arm to assist her to the living room, but she declined the help. Heading to the room, I can hear everyone in there unloading their arms of their sleeping bags and pillows, maybe extra clothes too. But before I can enter, I feel a hand on my arm.
"Need to lock the doors somehow," she whispers to the floor, not looking me in the eye.