"Man, forget this. We haven't found shit all day."

"Daryl, we need the food. The kids, Lori, and all the others can't keep going like this. With that herd blocking the highway, we gotta lie low at the camp till we figure out what to do. Until then we need to find anything we can use to keep us going."

Bella ducked down underneath the window when the shadows on the curtains flickered, the two voices from inside getting fainter. She breathed in deeply, a futile attempt calm herself down, before looking up at the starry sky.

She could leave. This had been going on far too long, and the three bastards she's been tracking for the past two days hadn't led her straight to their camp as she hoped. Instead, the men had been blindly traipsing through the forest looking for more people to loot. This finally led them, and Bella, to a decrepit, beat-up cabin where their new victims, two unsuspecting men, are about to be jumped and probably gruesomely killed.

A loud huff from inside interrupted her thoughts. Voice rough and gravelly, Daryl had a distinct low, southern twang. "Rick, I'm tellin ya our best bet is to head back, and I'll snatch up as much game as I can to feed the families."

Rick and Daryl, the two idiots who, as far as she can tell, seem to have no care for their own wellbeing, have families. She added that to the pro of helping them live. Bella's eyebrows furrowed, and, with a frown, she stared intently at her bow, as if willing it to make a choice for her. Instead, a June bug smacked her in the face after a failed attempt to make it to the window and landed next to her boots. She narrowed her eyes at it.

Knowing that the men were almost on Rick and Daryl, Bella made a decision. She shot a look of distaste at the June bug that was currently on its back, struggling to flip over. Without making a sound, she crept to the front of the cabin where the door was left wide open, almost as if inviting her in.


Daryl was pissed. After being dragged by Rick to help him with a run that Daryl knew was pointless (which indeed it was), they ended up being jumped by three guys who looked like they could barely figure out left from right.

Dumb as they looked, they still had Rick and Daryl kneeling with guns to their heads.

The leader of the group, Roy, kicked Daryl's crossbow. "Watch it," Daryl snarled, his steel blue eyes narrowing dangerously at him. But pain flared in Daryl's jaw as Will gave a solid punch, knocking Daryl down in the process.

Deputy Friendly, in his stupid sheriff getup, tried to talk to Roy imploringly. His hat strewn across the ground a couple feet away from him, Rick said, "Look, you can take what we have and be on your way. We don't have much, but no one has to get hurt."

Roy gave out a booming laugh. Daryl could only see a rifle slung across his back and a hatchet in his hand. Get rid of the hatchet first, thought Daryl. Roy wouldn't have time to reach for his gun. "Well, ya see here, sheriff, my boys and I here haven't had the chance to meet many people these days. And from what we heard before we came to introduce ourselves, you sirs also got a camp with even more people."

"That means some food and women," added Aiden. He looked like one of those men Daryl would see at dive bars on a Tuesday night. Balding prematurely and with a proud, round belly, the man looked like he had never made a living – now and before. It was a wonder that this kind of guy could still be alive now.

Immediately, Rick and Daryl tensed up. Daryl knew they had to get out of this shit before it could get any worse. Jaw clenched, he took in their surroundings.

They were holed up in some crusty bedroom with Roy on one side of the room, right of the doorway. Rick and Daryl were put on the other side of the room, left of the doorway. Aiden and Rick were closest to the exit, while Daryl and Will were the farthest which meant he was next to the window.

Daryl also noted that Will was the youngest and most likely the weakest of the men. As thin as a twig, Will was holding his gun with a And, conveniently, he was the one that was in charge of Daryl.

Roy, again, laughed. Daryl swore if he heard Roy make that noise again he'd kill him. "Ignore Aiden over there. We just a little bit worked up. There's some psycho bitch out there that has been causing a bit of trouble for us, so we been out here all week trying to deal with that problem." Roy nonchalantly strolled in front of Rick, as if he's got all the time in the world.

He grinned as if he just came up with the greatest solution. "But enough about us. We'll make this simple for y'all. You tell us where you gents are holed up, and we won't kill ya. Or else we gotta kill you first." He pointed his hatchet toward Rick, "and then save this guy," he swung the hatchet towards Daryl, "for last."

Roy raised his eyebrows at them expectantly, as if waiting for them to congratulate him. Instead, the sheriff was giving him the creepiest side-eye glare Roy's ever seen, and the redneck was staring him with murder in his eyes. Roy squinted his eyes at them and shrugged. "Well if that is how it's gotta be," he said before raising his axe above Rick.

Daryl tensed, bracing himself to knock Will over, when suddenly, an arrow suddenly was buried in Roy's head. The end of the arrow was sticking out from the back of his head, the white of its feathers looking glaringly out of place. Everyone froze in place as blood trickled out of Roy's nose. First came a thud from the axe that had slipped out of Roy's hand and then finally the thump of Roy's body as he slumped in front of Rick.

Before anyone could react, something – someone – lunged out from the hallway and jumped on Aiden, knocking the gun out of his hand. Aiden, although bigger, was obviously and woefully outmatched in this fight. The woman, for Daryl startlingly realized was indeed a woman, clearly had fighting experience. She brutally shoved her elbow into her opponent's side, causing him to bend over with a grunt. She then used her other elbow to smash into Aiden's jaw. He stumbled backwards but blindly shot his arm out. He managed to land a solid punch on her cheek, causing her to be knocked onto the floor with a dull thud.

It was at this point Rick, Daryl, and Will alike seemed to have recovered from the shock of what had just occurred. Will had his gun pointed toward the two fighting but, realizing he had no clear shot, too late tried to point it back towards Daryl. Daryl lunged and easily grappled the gun out of Will's hand, while Rick threw himself towards Aiden's gun that had slid across the room.

Meanwhile, Bella had kicked Aiden's legs out from underneath him. He had fallen back, causing his head to bang hard against the floor, thus effectively knocking him out. Before he had even hit the ground, Bella lunged for her bow, which she had dropped before tackling the man.

In a heartbeat, she strung an arrow and, with one knee still on the ground, whirled to aim it toward the two men that she had, quite successfully if she had to say so herself, rescued.

At the same time, Daryl and Rick, now armed with the guns that were once pointed at their own heads, aimed their weapons toward the woman who had just saved their lives.