15 year old Charlotte, or Charlie, finds herself at the end of the world, amongst people she doesn't know. Struggling to find where she belongs amongst the group, Charlie distances herself from everyone, a certain redneck excluded. She doesn't know why, but she's more comfortable around him than the others. Charlie's never had a real family before, despite all the times she's tried, maybe this time will be different.
I'll start off by apologizing for any spelling or other mistakes made. Because I'm sure there will be some. Above is basically the same summary as the other, just a few words added that I couldn't fit. I do apologize for how crappy it is as well.
If you're even reading this, thanks for giving my story a chance, I hope you like it. The first chapter is a little rough I'm sure, so I hope you stick around for the other chapters to come.
Word count: 4,564. Give or take.
Peace. An odd concept if you think about it. Or maybe that's just me. Everyone has a different version of peace, their own kind of peace. Some people like the quite where others find peace in noise. Some in isolation and others find it when surrounded by others. In open places or closed places. The list goes on, everyone is different.
It can be hard to find peace, and I don't think you can ever truly find peace, just a short moment of it if you're lucky. It is hard to find, but not impossible. At least if you know what you're looking for.
And, thankfully, I do. For the most part. I like solitude, but not necessarily the quiet. I like being able to hear everything around me, know what's going on, hear everything. But when the quiet gets to be too much, I find that it can consume you. Smell is a big part for me as well, I love the smell of rain, oranges, horses. Simple things. Things people may take for granted without even realizing it. We all do it, it's hard not to.
It's in times when those small things are taken away from us that we realize how much we need them, how much we rely on them to get us through our day to day lives. It's important to give a small amount of our time to those things, whatever they may be. Sitting in a quiet place with your favorite book or looking at the stars on a clear night. Whatever it may be for you. Because if we don't take time to enjoy the things that bring us peace, then we can lose ourselves.
So even in your busiest days, hardest days, no matter what's happening and what you're going through, you need to find that thing, that small thing, whatever it may be that brings you that small amount of peace and you need to use it. Life has a tendency to eat away at you, it takes and it takes away from us. So we have to take something back because if we don't there won't be anything left of us.
Hence the reason I'm sitting in the woods, watching the leaves blow in the wind, the occasional woodland creature trotting past. I find it peaceful, always have. It's a good mixture of solitude and quiet. No ones around and there's the noise of the creatures going about their days, the wind disturbing what it can, and sometimes the sound of running water. And the smell, I can never get enough of it.
I noticed at a young age that I had good hearing, I always tried my best to use it to my advantage, people say a lot when they think you can't hear them. But you don't need good hearing in order to hear a car alarm.
Jumping up from the ground, I run around the tree I was leaning on and rush back to camp while wondering what was going on. It's distant, but who's set off a car alarm? At least I think that's what it is, and it's getting closer.
Pushing past the tree line, I quickly make my way to the front of camp where I see a red car speeding up before coming to a halt. That's definitely the source of the sound. Picking up my pace, I make my way to the front of the car just as Glenn pops the hood and I push it up before disconnecting it from the battery, successfully disarming the alarm.
"Yeah, everybody is." I hear Glenn saying to everyone. I'm not sure what else was said before that, I was focused on the car alarm. I had heard people shouting, but didn't think it was important enough to listen too. "Well, Merle not so much." Jerking my head up, I look over and Glenn and furrow my brows.
Merle's not okay? Is he dead? What happened? Daryl's not going to be happy about this.
"Are you crazy driving this wailing bastard up here?" Shane asks Glenn as I slowly close the hood. "Are you trying to draw every walker for miles?"
"I think we're okay." Dale says from behind Shane as I take a seat on the middle of the hood, feeling the heat radiating from the engine.
"You call being stupid okay?"
"Well, that alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source." Dale states calmly. quickly defending himself when Shane turns to look at him. "I'm not arguing. I'm just saying. I wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?" He asks Glenn, giving him a pointed look.
"Sorry. Got a cool car." Glenn says weakly, causing me to shake my head and fight off a smile. Hearing an approaching car, I look over my shoulder and see a big white van driving up the road Glenn had drove up previously.
"Amy!"
"Andrea!" The two sisters call out, running to each other before throwing their arms around each other in a hug. I see Jacqui slowly walking up behind her and Morales quickly passing her to hug his wife and children, T-dog coming up last.
"How'd ya'll get out of there anyway?" Shane asks, drawing my attention to him.
"New guy, he got us out." Glenn answers, my eyes turning to him before looking over to the van. I hope I'm not the only one who's cautious of new people, they were already bad enough before the world went to shit.
"New guy?"
"Yeah, crazy vato just got into town. Hey helicopter boy! come say hello." Morales calls just as I hear one of the van doors opening. Looking over my shoulder, I lean slightly to get a better look at the newcomer, seeing a man with short brown hair, wearing a police uniform. "Guys a cop, like you."
Looking back, I catch an odd look on Shanes' face but before I can even try to figure out what it means, I hear a small voice calling out. "Dad! Dad!"
Jerking my head around, I watch as Carl runs over to the new guy, hugging him as they fall to the ground. I definitely wasn't expecting that.
Watching as the new guy, Carl's dad, hugs his wife and son, I small smile comes to my face. Family. There's nothing like it. It's something you should never take for granted, your own blood, people you're connected too no matter what. People who should always be there for you, never abandon you. I know that's how it should be, but sadly it's not. Not always. Whatever family you have, you should hang on to them for as long as you can.
Because not everyone has a family.
Later that night everyone sat around a fire, listening to Rick tell what happened to him. Me, I'm not much of a people person, I feel crowded easily, so I took up my spot lying on top of the RV looking at the stars, listening from afar.
I must have dozed off at one point because the next thing I know, I opening my eyes to see the sun slowly rising over the trees. I'm surprised I slept through the night, I usually wake up multiple times. Not necessarily for any reason, I think I'm just used to waking up a lot during the night, for whatever the reason may be.
Slowly sitting up, I stretch my sore muscles when I notice a blanket lying over my legs. I didn't have a blanket last night.
"Mornin'" Squinting my tired eyes, I look over and see Dale sitting in his chair. He must be on watch. "Sleep well?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to fall asleep." I mumble as I run my eyes, trying to clear up my blurry sleep vision.
"Nah, you're alright. I just didn't have the heart to wake you." Dale tells me with a smile. That's weird, normally people never had a problem waking me up.
Folding the blanket that was previously in my lap, I stand up and mumbled a quick "thanks" to Dale before easily jumping off the back of the RV with the plan of putting the blanket inside of it.
Being quite, I sneak inside and set the blanket on the table, being sure not to wake the sleeping bodies as I do so before sneaking back out.
It's still early, not many people are awake yet. The sun hasn't even fully come up yet. It's already pretty hot out though, and it doesn't look like anyone's down by the water. Perfect.
Quickly grabbing my bag, I rush down to a secluded area of the lake. The waters not clear, but it still looks clean. Not that I mind that much, and beggars can't be choosers I suppose.
Setting my bag up where it won't get wet, I quickly dig through it for the towel I was sure I had put in there, setting it out for later. Letting my dark hair down from its ponytail, I quickly brush through it, knowing if I don't do it now, it'll be even worse later.
Removing my button up shirt, I set it aside, leaving on my tank top before taking off my jeans. Taking a look around, I carefully walk to the edge of the rock before slipping into the water. It's probably not smart to dive in, could be more shallow than I thought, wouldn't want to hit my head on some rocks.
Dipping under the water, I swim forward a few feet before resurfacing and taking a deep breath while rubbing the water from my eyes. I didn't stay in the water very long, just enough to get most of the dirt and sweat off my body before climbing onto the big rock, sitting next to my bag.
I guess this will be my moment of the day. Daryl will most likely be back and we'll have to tell him about Merle and it doesn't take a genius to know that's not going to go ver very well. Let's just hope he doesn't try to kill anyone. Pulling my knees to my chest, I rest my arms on top of them, the black ink on my inner left forearm catching my attention.
Running my fingers over the tally marks, I shake my head as I think back to when I got them. It was stupid, I know that, but I have a good excuse. All the other kids were doing it.
Snorting, I shake my head and look up at the sun when I notice how high it's gotten. Most people will be up soon, if not already. Quickly, I change into some dry clothes, strap my knife to the back of my pants, and make sure to slip on my button up. The tattoo not being the only thing I want to cover.
Trekking back up to the camp, I push my damp hair over my shoulder, thinking I need to do something with it. I need to put it up or something, it's long, it'll get in the way. I could probably have Lori cut it, it would be an easy fix, but the idea of someone standing that close to me and with scissors in their hands, I'll pass. I'll just throw it into a quick braid.
"Look at 'em. Vultures." I hear Glenn say as I walk near him, also seeing the new guy, Rick, standing next to him. "Yeah, go on, strip it clean." Peeking from behind Glenn and Rick, I watch as Jim takes parts of the engine from the car Glenn drove into camp yesterday.
"Generators need every drop of fuel they can get. Got no power without it. Sorry, Glenn." Dale says as he walks by with a red fuel tank or whatever it's called.
"Though I'd get to drive it at least a few more days." Glenn says sadly.
"Maybe we'll get to steal another one someday." Risk says, patting Glenn on the back before walking away. I never understood peoples want or need for human contact. I've heard people seek comfort in the touch of another, but that doesn't make sense to me.
Sigh, I spin around and make my way to the RV's ladder, climbing it as I hear Shane pull up in his jeep with water for the camp. Walking to the other end of the Rv's roof, I perch on the edge and pull the small notebook from inside.
Opening it's leather flaps, I situate it in my lap and carefully bring the lead of my pencil down onto the paper, occasionally glancing up at the red car.
It wasn't long that I sat there drawing before loud, high pitched screams caught my attention. I'd know the sounds of children screaming from anywhere. Easily throwing my book to the side, I jump onto the hood of the Rv before the ground, running in the direction of the screams, the others quickly following after.
Jumping over the rope and tin cans, I enterally sigh with relief when I see all the children are alright and with there parents as I continue running from where they came, pushing past a few bushes and into a small clearing.
Coming to a quick stop, I feel a few others coming up behind me as I slowly walk around the dead thing currently munching on a deer. A deer with three arrows sticking out of it. throwing a glance at the others, Shane, Rich, Glenn, Jim, Morales and Dale, I move my head behind my back until I fell the cool metal and rubber of my knife handle before pulling it from its sheath.
I briefly wonder if I should do this, the others are here and I'm sure they can handle it. I'm a stick to the shadows kind of person, always have been, and I can tell you right now that this would be considered stepping out of the shadows.
But as I watch the others stand there, watching as the once human eat the neck out of the also dead dear, I decide it doesn't really matter. It's distracted, the others aren't doing anything about it, it'll be an easy kill and not my first.
Taking a deep breath, I almost laugh when I realize the walker isn't the thing that's scaring me, it's the fact that I'm about to be standing in front of people, attention on me. Building up the courage I need, I take to large steps forward, grab the color of the walkers' shirt, plunge my knife into its skull and let it fall limply on the ground.
Feeling many sets of eyes on my back, I ignore them in favor of ripping the arrows out of the deer, having no doubt that they belong to Daryl. Going to turn around, I stop when I hear rustling in the woods.
"Charlie, get back." I hear Shane say as I feel the others moving behind me, ready for another threat only to back down when we see Daryl marching out from the trees.
"Son of a bitch." He says as he pushed past the last few branches, looking at the now useless deer lying on the ground. "That's my deer. Look at it, all gnawed on but this filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard."
Twirling one of the arrows between my fingers, I watch Daryl kick the now double dead body lying on the ground.
"Calm down son, that's not helping." Dale states in his normal calm Dale voice.
"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to "on golden pond"?" Repressing a snort, I watch Daryl get in Dales' face before turning back to the deer. "I've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?"
"I would not risk that." Shane states. I agree, wouldn't risk it.
"That's a damn shame." Also, agree. "I got us some squirrel, about a dozen or so. That'll have to do." Good thing I'm not a picky eater.
Looking around, Daryl's eyes soon land on me. Well, his arrows more likely. Giving me a small nod, he holds out his hand and I easily set them into it, following behind as everyone walks back to camp.
"Merle!" I hear Daryl call out. Shits about to hit the fan isn't it? Well, hit it again I suppose. "Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! Got us some squirrel, let stew 'em up."
Stopping a good distance away, I listen to Shane as he starts to speak. "Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you."
"About what?" Nothing you're going to like.
"About Merle. There was a- there was a problem in Atlanta." Shane tells Daryl as he stands in front of him.
Looking around, Daryl takes a moment before he responds. "He dead?"
"We're not sure."
"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl shouts a lot less calmly than before.
"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Rick says, walking forward.
"Who are you?"
"Rick Grimes."
"Rick Grimes, you got something you want to tell me?"
"Your bother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal." Well, I guess that's one way to do it, just rip the bandaid right off. "He's still there."
"Hold on," Daryl says as he turns his back to Rick. "Let me process this.
You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there!?"
"Yeah." Rick says, causing Daryl to throw the rope of squirrels at him right before Shane knocks him to the ground. Why is fighting everyone's go to answer?
"Watch the knife!" T-Dog yells as Daryl stands, knife in hand, swinging it at Rick. Keeping my distance, pinch the bridge of my nose as they fight, not bothering to watch.
"The hell with all ya'll!" I hear Daryl yell, making me lift my head. "Just tell me where he is, so I can go get 'em."
"He'll show you." Lori says from the doorway of the Rv. "Isn't that right?" Wait, so she wants him to leave? I would think she'd want him to stay here.
"I'm going back." Rick states and I watch as Lori goes into the RV, looking unhappy. She just said he would go but when he said he would she didn't seem happy, I'm confused.
"Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" Shane asked Rick as they walked into the main area of camp.
"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl says from beside me.
"No, I did. Douche bags what I meant."That was almost funny. "Merle Dixion. The guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst." Sure, if he didn't like you. Well, maybe.
"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst-me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."
"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori asks, obviously not happy when just earlier she said that he would show Daryl, I'm still confused.
"I'll go." I said quietly.
"No." Daryl immediately said back, obviously hearing me.
Turning my head, I look up at his tall frame as it towers over my small 5'2 one. He wasn't even looking at me, he was messing with his crossbow. I wonder if he doesn't want me to go because he thinks I'll get in the way. Obviously, that's why what other reason would there be?
"I can help." I say just as quietly as before. I could help I'm sure. I'm fast on my feet and I know how to kill walkers. I may only have two knives but I'm good with them. I may also have a gun but I think I'll keep that to myself for now.
"No." Daryl states again, more firmly this time, looking me in the eye. I can see that he's obviously not going to give in, so putting my hands up in surrender, I look back up as Rick looks at Glenn.
"Oh, come on." Glenn says, already knowing what Rick wants.
"You know the way. You've been there before, in and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask, I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." Rick finished with a look at his wife.
"That's just great. Now you're going to risk three men, huh?" Shanes asks, obviously not agreeing with this plan.
"Four." I hear T-Dog say from behind me.
"My day just gets better and better, don't it." Daryl huffs from beside, having taken a seat on a log.
"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?"
"Yes." I mumbled.
"No." Daryl shoots back with an annoyed look in my direction. He wasn't meant to hear that, oops. "Why you?" He asks T-Dog.
"You wouldn't understand. You don't speak my language."
"That's four." Dale states.
"It's not just four. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that Rick. Come on, you saw that walker." Yes, a lot of us did. Sighing I ignore the rest of their argument, hearing Rick talk about a bag of guns he dropped.
"Dad, I don't want you to go." Hearing Carl say this, I turn around and frown at the small boy. I feel bad for him, he just got his father back and now he's leaving with the chance of never coming back again. No kid should be without their parents.
Shuffling on my feet, I walk over and sit a few feet from Carl as his parents argue.
"Okay?" Rick asks Carl as he crouches in front of him, earning him a nod from the little boy in return. "All right." He says before putting his hand on Carls' head. Again with the contact thing, I just don't get it, gives me the chills just thinking about it.
Sometime later, I find myself back next to Daryl. I honestly don't even know how that happened. He didn't seem to notice me though, or he just didn't care. But I soon find out it's the latter when he suddenly speaks. "No." Looking around slightly, I furrow my brows as my eyes come back to him. "You ain't goin'."
"I didn't even say anything." I quietly state, brows still furrows.
"Ya didn't have to. You ain't goin'." I'm not even sure why I want to go so much. Maybe I'm starting to feel crowded being in camp for so long, despite my walks in the woods. Maybe I want to help Merle. I'll be the first to admit the guys a real asshole, but I agree with what Rick said about no one deserving to die the way he will if we leave him. Well, I partly agree, I have a few names that I wouldn't lose sleep over.
I don't know either of the Dixons to well, but for some reason, I'm more comfortable around them than I am with the others in the group. Well, I am with Daryl at least, not sure why. I don't hang around him much, I'm usually on my own, but if I'm around anyone it would be him or any of the kids.
I didn't even notice I was doing it at first, sticking close to him, until Merle made a comment about it. I remember rolling my eyes at whatever it was he said before going back to ignoring him. I'm not sure what Daryl's reaction was, I had my head in my notebook, sketching a bird I had seen that morning.
Maybe it's that he's quite, he doesn't seem to be much of a people person. Maybe it's because we relate in those small ways. Who knows though, maybe he's annoyed by me and just doesn't say anything about it. That's most likely it. Although he seems like the kind of person to tell me to go away if he didn't want me around and he hasn't done that. Not yet at least.
I usually find myself around him when he's doing something like skinning whatever creature he's killed that day or messing around with his crossbow or arrows. We'll just sit there, doing whatever we're doing, never uttering a word.
"Don't need no kid to look after, got enough problems as it is." Daryl says, pulling me from my thoughts.
"At the risk of sounding childish, I can take care of myself." I say as I look over at him. I can take care of myself, been doing it most of my life. I've always had to look out for myself because I knew no one else would.
"How old are ya anyways, twelve?"
Scoffing, I look over at him again. I am not twelve. Do I look like I'm twelve? I've been told my whole like I look younger than I am, due to my short and skinny frame. Some people even said I looked sick because of it, my natural pale complexion not helping. It's just the way I grew up, food wasn't always around, I missed many meals in my life. Although no one around camp really seems to pay me much mind, guess they're just worried about their own families, not some random girl.
"Sofie's twelve," I say with a deadpan tone. "I'm not twelve. Do I really look like I'm twelve?" I ask him, letting some emotion into my voice.
Daryl lets out a scoff that sounds oddly like a chuckle as he collects all his arrows together, walking past me towards the van. "You didn't answer the question," I whisper-shout to his back as he walks away. "I'm not twelve," I mumbled to myself before picking myself up, following after him.
Moments later as Rick and T-Dog are talking to Dale and Jim about using his bolt cutters, I'm leaning against the back of the van as Daryl paces inside it. He's going to wear a hole into it if he does that much longer.
Jumping when I hear a loud noise, I look into the van to see Daryl hitting the horn with his foot. "Come on, let's go!" Looking down, he catches my annoyed look, rolling his eyes before resuming his pacing.
As T-Dog passes me, I take a step back and give Shane and Rick space as they talk at the back of the van. They say a few things, Shane gives ricks some bullets and walks off before Rick goes around to get into the front of the van.
Finally stopping with his pacing, Daryl makes his way to the back of the van. Reaching up to close the door, his eyes land on me as I send him a small wave, and to my surprise, I receive one in return.
'-'