Little do you know
Chapter 1: A new beginning
A/N: I own nothing except my mistakes. Also, the events take place from season six and onward. A little warning: I write about the main events from the season, and so sometimes I'll stick very close to the show, yet I'll try to manipulate the scene as best as I can to include my OC in it. Especially in the first few chapters will I stay close to the show. When it's more appropriate to turn the events a bit, I will stick more to my own events until another important event from the show is brought up. If you don't like that, then I suggest to not read this story. If you don't mind, however, I hope you'll enjoy!
They ran as fast as they could, making sure to stay deeper into the woods as they caught eyes of a street filled with a never-ending row of walkers. Anissa winced as she brought her hand to her left forearm. The wetness of the blood pouring out fell down on her hand, and she mentally cursed the branches for cutting her open.
A loud scream had them all coming to a halt, and Anissa looked quickly around her, trying to find the source of the screaming but couldn't find anything. "Look!" Her brother Jake whispered and pointed into the distance. There, right next to the road, they saw a man getting bitten by a walker.
Naomi whimpered on her right side, her blonde hair, which hung in loose waves just over her shoulders, was pushed to the back as she desperately looked away from the man. "We've got to do something." Anissa whispered, and went to move to the man but got pulled back by her father. "Are you insane? He's long gone." He angrily whispered in return, earning him an angry scowl from his daughter. "I can't just wait here and do nothing!" Jake interfered just before an argument was starting to arise, focusing their attention back on the bitten man.
"Yes, you can. See?" He said, wiping the dripping sweat on his forehead away with the back of his hand, his brown hair shimmering in the sun due to all the wetness. Anissa let her eyes glide back to the man, and saw a white man with curly brown hair, a dark man and a dark woman with dreads hurrying over to the man. The man with the curly brown hair had seemed to reach him first, desperately trying to quiet him, and eventually did the necessary thing: killing him.
Another loud set of screams had her head turning to the left as she frighteningly looked at the two walkers attacking both her brother and father. Their mouths desperately clung to their heads, their teeth ripping their skin off in fair ease, causing the screams to grow even louder.
Tears fell down her cheeks before she even realized it, but she couldn't move no matter how hard she tried. Blood was streaming down their bodies, organs dripping out. It was too gruesome to even look at, and she didn't even have the opportunity to grief as Naomi was clinging onto her right arm in fear, sobbing madly.
Naomi had been her best friend for more than seventeen years now, but she had always been easily scared. She was always rather jumpy, and it intensified with the apocalypse. Which brought along great consequences, for they could easily be given away by her sobbing or whimpering.
The sound of footsteps had her wheeling around, her hand reaching for her knife out of instinct, but she let her hand drop as she saw the people from before approaching. Without hesitation they put a knife through the walkers' heads, and before she even could protest, through the skulls of her family.
Hopelessly she looked at her father, the one who had been protecting them all from the start, watched how he now dropped to the ground with a loud thud, his entire head ripped open. Then a second later, Jake fell just as blooded and wounded to the ground, lifeless as one could be. So many childhood memories of them flashed through her head, but all of those seemed distant. The situation felt too surreal to acknowledge the truth. They couldn't be dead. They simply couldn't be.
The dark haired woman with the dreads ran to Naomi, whispering soothing words in the hope to quiet her down. To some extent it worked, but the sudden gunfire that was heard, got her jumping and whimpering once more.
Anissa vaguely watched the walkers turn around and walk back to the source of the sound, leaving the little group of people in the woods be. "Listen, it's not safe out here right now. We must hurry." The curly haired man spoke up and Anissa turned her head in surprise to the man, watching his sweaty face and his blood stained shirt. "Where is it that we're off to?" She managed to choke out, trying not to let her gaze drop to the floor, not wanting to see the dead bodies of the ones she loved.
Not just yet was she ready to be confronted with the truth. The curly haired man seemed to be exchanging quick glances with his companions before he answered her question. "We have a safe place to live, but in order to maintain the safety, we must lure the walkers away." He said and nodded to the road behind them.
In a hushed voice he spoke to the others, an Asian man that had joined along with a couple of others waiting in the distance. They nodded in understanding and took off, leaving the three of them behind. "Follow me." The man said and ran ahead, but Anissa remained rooted to the spot.
They were with so many people, and even though they did just save their lives from many more walkers, how could they be so sure they could trust him? The apocalypse had been going on for over two years by now, and people changed for the worse over those two years. The dead had become more trust worthy than the living.
Yet, a nagging voice told her that it was okay. And even if it wasn't, what did they really have to lose? The only reason they had managed to make it out there was because of her family. They had given her the strength and motivation to survive. But what was the point of this all without her father and brother around?
And thus, she nudged Naomi and tried to give her a comforting smile, noticing how her green eyes had completely teared up. Grabbing her friend's hand, they ran behind the man and followed him onto the road. A red old rusty car filled with two people was slowly leading the horde, with a man on a motorcycle next to it.
There was something threatening about him that warned her to stay away from him as far as possible. Yet, she also knew that if you managed to get on his good side, you'd have a friend for life. One who would kill and die for you. And that's what soothed her nerves slightly.
"One of you will get in the car, and the other will have to join Daryl on his motorcycle. What's your name, darling?" The man asked Naomi, who cleared her throat softly as she kept her voice down, as not to rile the walkers. "Naomi Dawn." She whispered loud enough for him to hear. "Nice to meet you, Naomi. I'm Rick Grimes. The man in the car is Abraham, and the woman behind the wheel is Sasha. You'll be in good hands."
"And you?" Rick said, turning to Anissa who in turn nervously looked at the group of walkers as she walked backwards, trying to keep her distance from them just like the other two were doing. "I'm Anissa Leron." She then turned to Naomi, who looked as pale as if she was dead, and sighed as the words left her lips. "'Nay, why don't you take the car?" Anissa suggested with a small smile and Naomi nodded gratefully in return, allowing Rick to guide her to it.
Waiting for him to return, she wondered aloud as she watched the empty space in the car. "Why is it that I can't join?" She asked suspiciously, wondering why he was separating them. "We have a bag of weapons in the car." He shortly informed, looking around him and reaching for his walkie talkie, briefly explaining the situation to the man on the motorcycle, whose name she believed to be Daryl, and to the two people in the car.
The reluctance on Daryl's face of having to take her behind on his motorcycle wasn't hidden as he sped up slightly, creating enough distance between them and the horde for her to get on it without getting bitten. "Hold on tight." The southern drawl was beyond unexpected, and so she warily, and rather awkwardly let her arms encircle his waist, watching Rick disappear back into the woods.
Her heart was beating faster than it had ever done before, as the deafening growling was closing in on her. The smell of dead bodies hitting her nostrils badly, fingers trying to reach her body, scraping just over the side of her black jeans.
The vehicles went tediously slow, but as long as they were safe, she didn't mind as much. Looking to her left and through the window, she watched Naomi gazing in front of her, obviously trying to ignore the many walkers behind her.
A horn was loudly filling the area, making the walkers drift apart as some were going back into the woods, leaving the long line they were trying so desperately to keep together.
Daryl's voice got her attention as he communicated with Rick over his walkie talkie, which she couldn't quite hear what was being said. It was for that reason, why it took her beyond by surprise as they sped up after a discussion between the people in the car and Daryl.
Angry voices were heard through the window, and Anissa wondered if she should ask about it, but shrugged it off as she realized that knowing it or not, there was little she could do with the information.
And so she let the cool breeze of the wind gliding over her face, cooling her body down and relaxing her nerves as they now had a good distance of the horde of walkers that was previously so close behind her.
"What happened back there?" Daryl suddenly asked, making her head turn so she was now looking at the back of his head. His brown hair was wet and sticky, yet just a few hairs were still swaying gently with the wind, creating a gentle flow. Her grip on his waist tightened as he made a sharper turn. Feeling the leather underneath her fingers, the heat of his body radiating off of him, she was slowly warming up once more herself.
The images of blood splashing everywhere, chunks of flesh being ripped out of her father's face, her brother's entire upper body being ripped open protruded her mind and she quickly shook her head in the hope to make the thoughts go away. "I don't want to talk about it." Her voice came out weak as she tried her best to focus her thoughts on the present moment and instead let it fill with worries over her best friend, wondering if she would be okay.
The back of the head bobbed slightly, and she took that as his understanding. Watching the trees flash by, her curiosity did take over as she now turned to look at the man once more, observing the wings on his leather jacket. "Where is that you're going to?" Anissa asked loud enough for him to hear, and waited patiently for his answer.
"Daryl?" The voice over the walkie cut his answer off as he went to answer it, the motorcycle wobbling for just a second as one hand left the wheel. "I'm here." His raspy voice answered, and the voice, which she assumed to belong to Rick replied unintelligible, saying things she couldn't quite hear.
Another woman's voice spoke, sounding accusing, but the wind blocked the words from reaching her ears. The only thing she could make out was "our way", but didn't particularly know what she could do with that piece of information. Daryl, however, remained silence to what she said and kept on riding forwards, to a place she couldn't look thanks to his body.
Rick started talking once more, the words failing to reach her ears, but his voice sounded motivating, with the slightest spark of hope. This intrigued Anissa – how even through the circumstances he still managed to sound so hopeful, so powerful in a way. Which got her wondering if it was perhaps him that was leading the group. The line got quiet once more, letting her thoughts wander off to where their safe-zone might be.
But all those thoughts got pushed aside when she heard sudden gunshots over the walkie. The motorcycle briefly wobbled once more as Daryl's hand shot up to the walkie, "Rick?" His voice came out questioning, but soon turned into worry as he exclaimed a "Rick!" once more.
Without warning, he sped up, causing her to lose balance and take a death grip on his waist, her head flinging forward and resting against his back. Anissa was now starting to feel highly awkward, leaning into a man she just met and didn't know anything about except for his name. Yet, she didn't dare loosen her grip, or leaning her head back in fear of completely losing her balance and falling off the motorcycle.
They rode in rapid speed over a long road, surrounded by mainly grass and forests, approaching a T-junction, where on the left side she could make out the long line of walkers behind the red leading car. Only now did she realize, as she looked into the far distance and could only make out walkers, how many they were actually leading away. And the importance to them of the walkers not reaching their home.
Daryl made a right turn, advancing just slightly on the red car as his speed slowed down greatly, allowing her to retreat from his back and to loosen her grip on his waist. Anissa looked back over her shoulder as best as she could without falling off the motorcycle, and rested her eyes on the blonde haired girl who seemed beyond relief to see her return.
Shooting a reassuring glance at Naomi, she turned her head back around and carefully let one hand go of his waist as she brought it up to her forehead, wiping away the cold drops of sweat and felt the back of her hair to make sure her ponytail was in place, not wanting her long hair to be in the way.
Placing her hand back around his waist, her eyes dropped down and took in the blood stains on her deep green pocket t-shirt, knowing that the fresh blood belonged to her very own family members.
Giggling she ran with her short legs over the grass in their backyard, her dark brown hair swaying gently behind her as she looked over her shoulder and watched her brother chasing her with an equal grin on his face. Tripping over her own feet, she fell face to the floor, tears welling up in her eyes from shock.
Jake rushed to her side, not older than six as she was at the time only four years old, his hands falling gently on her painful knees as he leaned down to place gentle kisses on them. Anissa smiled tearfully at her brother, grateful to feel the pain slipping away and taking his outstretched hands as she allowed him to hoist her up.
Poking her arm softly, he grinned as he exclaimed: "Catch me if you can!" and ran away in the opposite direction, causing Anissa to huff and run behind him, the giggling once more filling her ears.
"Hey!" Anissa warily looked around her, noticing how Daryl's head was turned slightly to the right over his shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of her as he spoke once more. "You hanging in there alright?" He asked, his voice loud enough to be carried over the wind.
Just now did she realize her weakened grip on his waist, and cleared her throat quickly before she answered him. "Yeah, I'm good." The words that escaped her lips sounded unconvincing, yet he let it go and just nodded, focusing his eyes back on the road as she tightened her grip slightly.
The female voice over the walkie sounded once more, and Anissa gave up on trying to make out what was said. With the wind blocking her hearing, and the loud growling from the horde behind them, it was quite impossible to catch what they were saying if you weren't directly next to the walkie.
The conversation died out, and Anissa was grateful for the cold wind clinging to her body, allowing her to finally cool down for a bit after weeks of constant walking and being in the heat. They rode for a long while over the long road, making sure that the horde was still following them.
Daryl had seemed to be advancing on the car just a bit, and was the first to turn to the left as a '642' sign came in view. They rode another road, this one having houses on the left, which seemed horribly demolished by the looks of it.
Gunshots fired right in front of their heads, the sound echoing as loud as thunder as Anissa desperately tried to dodge the bullets. In a flash she could make out the group of people firing the guns, having a better aim at the car than at the fast moving motorcycle.
Worriedly she tried to look over her shoulder, and saw Naomi moving down just in time before the window on her left side was fully shot open. A searing pain shot up her left arm, and only when she was already down on the ground did she realize that Daryl had lost control of the motorcycle.
Making out the abrasion on her left elbow, she hissed painfully as she bitterly thought about the destruction of her left arm that day. "Come on!" Daryl rasped and hurriedly helped her back on her feet before turning to his motorcycle and pushing it back up again.
As soon as he sat down, she followed him suit and was forced to cling desperately onto his leather jacket as he started the engine and rode off, without her having properly sat down on the back. Scooting forward with all the strength she had, she wrapped her arms around his waist again and ducked when she heard more gunshots, hoping that was enough to avoid them.
A crash was heard, but Anissa had no time to look around, no time to wonder about the safety of Naomi as they were now turning around the corner of a blue container, a small group of walkers reaching their hands out for them.
With a lot of sharp turns, Daryl managed to shake one car off as she heard it crashing into something, yet the second still remained to follow them. They rode away from the others, advancing great speed as they temporarily left view as they hit the road once more, Daryl taking a quick turn into the woods and watching as the car ride right past them.
His breathing was irregular as he started the engine once more and rode to the opposite side of the road, entering another forest. One that faded from a vividly green to one that looked as dead as the walkers that were now surrounding the country. The trees had turned pitch black, and the ground had turned into a soft, muddy black pool.
Daryl's panting became worse, and the motorcycle slowed down until they both fell down, forcing Anissa to let go of his body as they fell to the right side, his arms having spread wide and Anissa having fallen diagonally next to his body, her left foot falling just over his right leg, as her right leg was spread as wide as his arms. Her left arm had fallen over his chest, and her head had just touched the tip of his fingers.
A sharp inhalation caught both their heads to snap to the right, their upper bodies reaching up as they looked at the source. A walker had been burned to his bones, the motorcycle helmet stuck over his head. It disturbed her how close her head was to the walker's, and how her right arm was practically touching the burned leg, but as it opposed no real threat, they allowed their exhausted bodies to fall back to the floor and regain some rest.
"How many walkers have you killed?" Daryl still sounded slightly breathless, but after a good few minutes of having lain there, he seemed to have saw fit to ask her a most random question. "What?" She asked confused as she turned her body slightly to the left, only now taking in his features.
His hair was dark and sticky, making it fall into very gentle waves around his face, his slightly blonder goatee seeming to be well groomed for a time like the apocalypse, making her wonder once more where it is they were staying at to be in such good conditions. His blue eyes were looking observingly into her own grey onces, as if he was reading her by just a single look. "Just answer the question." He spoke softly and Anissa shrugged – for as best as she could whilst laying down.
"I kinda stopped keeping count after a while." Anissa answered and he nodded in understanding, and threw yet another unexpected question at her. "How many people have you killed?" Anissa frowned at this, wondering why it is that he wanted to know.
"I haven't. My family did, though." Her voice broke halfway through the sentence as she brought her family up, and he looked questioningly back at her. "Why?" The southern accent kept on surprising her, but she shrugged it off. "We're living in a world where it's kill or be killed now. They were trying to knick our stuff, the only things we had left to survive. They did what they had to do."
For some reason, he seemed satisfied with her answer as he sat up straight, making her remember that her hand was still on his chest, which now awkwardly fell into his lap on its own account. Anissa awkwardly cleared her throat as she could feel the heat rising to her face, quickly pulling her hand back as well as the foot that was still laying on his leg as she went to move up straight with him, gratefully taking his outstretched hand as he helped her up.
Daryl pulled the motorcycle up once more, and pushed it through the muddy ground as Anissa followed, offering to help but getting turned down. "Are you sure you don't want my help?" She asked again as she avoided the burned bodies of the walkers on the floor and saw him struggling to keep the motorcycle up. "Yes." He grumpily answered and she shrugged, "Suit yourself, then." She lightly replied earning her a growl from him.
Anissa leaned her body back as they were going down slightly, chuckling softly as he ran out of control and ended up falling with the motorcycle on top of him. "That sure is a faster way to go down." Daryl shot her a dark look, which added up to her amusement. Normally she would have felt bad for him, but since he so stubbornly refused her help, she thought that this was exactly what he deserved.
Getting up, he reached for his walkie talkie and tried to call out for his friends, but the line remained dead. Anissa watched his chest rising and falling in rapid speed as he tried to regain his breath, his black blouse unbuttoned slightly because of the heat, a nasty cut from before on his head as the blood had slightly dried up.
Watching in concern, she only now saw the blooded hand and waited for him to take off his leather driving glove from his left hand before rushing over to him and grabbing it before he could even protest. He shook her hand off his as he tried to get out of a layer of clothes, which she didn't hesitate with to help.
Standing behind him, she carefully let the blouse and leather jackets glide down from his body and watched as even more blood was shown on his left arm, his elbow bleeding heavily. Even though she was feeling more than sorry for him that he was so wounded, she couldn't help but let out a laugh.
This made his head snap to her, "What?" He asked accusingly and Anissa raised an amused eyebrow. "Seems like we're both a hand short." She said as she raised her own bloodied left arm, showing that they both only had their right arm to properly defend themselves with.
Daryl shook his head, clearly unamused as he walked over to his motorcycle and grabbed his bag off it as well as his crossbow. She wasn't going to lie, as he moved around so much, she did have an appreciation for his arms, which seemed to be surprisingly muscled.
Rustling caught both their attentions, but neither of them could spot anything. Daryl grabbed a branch and covered the motorcycle with it, clearly hiding it from whatever might be wandering around.
"Stay close." Daryl whispered lowly as he raised his crossbow and quietly moved to the direction of the sound they previously heard. Anissa did as she was told, and stuck closely behind him with her own knife in her right hand.
A sudden appearance of two women made her jump slightly in surprise, the brown haired woman speaking up as soon as they got sight of them. "You found us, okay? Here we are." Daryl threateningly walked in front of them, his crossbow pointed at the two women and Anissa moved slightly forwards, staying next to his side as she was wondering what he was going to do.
"We earned what we took." The brown haired woman's eyes switched to a rustling behind them, and before she even had a chance to do anything, they were both knocked out by a blonde haired man.
Not even one day had she met those people on the road, and she had already gotten into more trouble than she had ever done in those two years of the apocalypse. It truly was going to be one hell of a ride for her.
