The Dixon brothers were just waking up on a particularly muggy morning in the Georgian woods when they heard an odd combination of sounds. One of which was clearly the moaning of one of those damn things that they had been running into the past couple days in the woods and had heard about on the news. The second sound was that of a woman shouting "shut up, fucker, it's too damn early!" and the final sound resembled the noise that a hissing cat made. Naturally, this received their full attention. They had been about to start walking back to their truck and maybe see about that whole Atlanta thing that all the news reports wouldn't shut up about, but this caught their attention.

As they followed the source of the noises, what they found was most certainly not what they had been expecting: a woman sitting on a branch near the top of tall tree with a cat standing beside her and one of those bastards at the base of the tree moaning at them, trying to get to them. Merle happily dispatched the damn thing before both he and Daryl returned their attention to the woman in the tree.

Merle, being the more talkative of the two by far, decided to ask her the question that was bouncing around in both his head and Daryl's: "Now girlie, wha' tha' hell is ya doing up in tha' tree for?"

"It seemed as good a place as any to spend the night," she replied curtly, not taking her eyes off the brothers. Her look on her face said that she did not trust them.

"Ya know tha' ya can come on down, don' ya, buttercup? We ain't abou' ta' hurt ya."

She narrowed her eyes, but began to slowly making her way down, using one hand to hold her cat and the other to grip branches. Once she had both feet on the ground, Merle whistled. "Well ain't you petite?" Daryl had to agree with his brother. Both he and Merle towered over her. She wasn't scrawny, though. As he looked at her legs, though they were covered by pants, they looked as though they were somewhat strong.

"Thank you for taking care of that," she said, indicating towards the rotting body on the ground. "Now, I'll get out of your hair."

"Now hold up!" Merle said quickly. "Are you sure that you can take care of those bastards on your own? After all, ya was up in a damn tree."

She placed her cat on the ground indignantly, replying with "I've taken care of myself so far, I think I can continue to do so."

"Well, at least let us escort ya to wherever y'all are goin'. You don' have to worry your pretty little head about it. Darlina and I ain't abou' ta hurt ya. My name's Merle Dixon an tha' pussy there is ma brother Daryl."

She regarded them carefully, trying to decide whether or not to trust them. "My name is Kit Eldridge," she replied guardedly.

"An' where are ya headed, Blondie," he replied, ignoring her introduction.

"To the highway."

"Well that's a long walk from here, Sweet Cheeks. Wham's on the highway? You hitchhiking or somethin'?"

"That happens to be where my car is."

Merle raised his eyebrow while his brother only stared at her. "Then what'ya doin' all tha way out here for? And why tha hell is ya spendin' the night in a damn tree?"

She sighed, clearly not wanting to relay the story to them, but decided to explain. "I left my car to take a piss in the woods. It wouldn't take long and there was no place with actual toilets nearby. After I was done taking my piss, I heard a group of those things coming towards me. I managed to take out a few, but there were about twenty of them, and I decided it would be better to run for it. Eventually, I was too tired to keep running, so I climbed into this tree and spent the night. Most of them gave up eventually, with the exception of the one you so graciously took care of."

"Quite a run," Merle drawled. "Offer still stands; if ya want Daryl and I to take ya to the highway so ya don' get lost, we'll be more than happy to. An before ya go thinkin' tha' we is gonna pull somethin', just keep in mind that if we was plannin' on hurtin' ya, it would already be done."

"Fine," she said tersely. "Thank you."

"Thas mighty kind of ya, girlie. I've been wantin' some company 'sides Darlina, here, for a while." Kit stole a glance towards Daryl, who didn't say a word about what Merle was saying about him.

"Just let me feed my cat," she said awkwardly. She opened up her yellow daypack and pulled some canned cat food out of it, placed the opened can in front of it on the ground. It glanced warily at Merle and Daryl before eating.

The woman herself took a long drink from her water bottle before placing a few snap peas in her mouth. She offered the bag to Merle and Daryl, clearly only doing so out of politeness. "No thanks, Petite," Merle said. "I don't particularly care for greens." She looked to Daryl, giving him the same offer. He shook his head, not feeling hungry. "If ya don' mind me askin', Petite, why tha' hell did ya bring tha' damn thing." He indicated towards the cat.

"Because I wanted to. Besides, he can smell those things from a mile away." She made it clear she didn't want to discuss the matter any further.

"You even brought him to take a piss?"

"I wasn't about to leave him in a hot car."

Once the cat had finished, the girl scooped him up gently in her arms and they all began walking. "How long before we reach the highway?" she asked.

"Won't be 'till tomorrow. Like I said, Blondie, you had quite a long run and I don't intend to be doin' any running today."

The blonde nodded and remained silent for a long while before Merle huffed with irritation. "You ain't much better company than ma brother." She didn't feel the need to reply, so Merle continued. "Well, the least you can do is tell us why you're here in Georgia."

"I live here," she replied simply.

"Maybe," he said with a shrug. "But you certainly ain't from here." She looked at him questioningly. "Honey, you ain't got no Georgian accent. 'Sides, I ain't never seen a true Georgian who can't take the humidity and it is kicking your ass."

Kit had to admit he was observant. She despised the humidity; it made it hard for her to breathe and it made her very, very sweaty. Her clothes were soaked and because of the heat coming off of her body, her glasses, which were already filthy, were beginning to fog up. "I'm from Montana but I'm in Georgia for college."

"Well, well, well, Daryl!" Merle explained. "Looks like we got ourselves a smarty-pants." The girl, who was flushed already, seemed to turn even pinker than she already was. "If I'm right, though, ain't it abou' vacation time?" he asked.

"I was supposed to meet a friend at the University of Georgia. She wasn't there, so I can only assume that she is no longer among the living." Kit's voice was a little dead as she said this.

"An' your family?" Merle asked. He knew he was pushing it, because he certainly didn't give a damn. He just liked having her pretty face to look at and a nice ass to glance at when she wasn't looking.

"Dead," she replied simply. "They were the first of those things that I dispatched."

Daryl had to admit to himself that he was mildly impressed. She was certainly no pansy to have gone through that without cracking. She was still calm and collected, despite Merle pushing her buttons left and right, which Daryl found even more impressive.

Merle continued pestering her, trying to keep their long walk interesting. "Why Georgia, if ya hate it here so much?"

Before Kit even though about what she was saying she said, "The University of Georgia offered me the most money."

Merle grinned with delight. "Well ain't she special, Daryl? Got a scholarship and everything!" Kit looked down to the ground, unhappy that she had let her scholarship slip. "Let's see if I can guess what it's for, now." Kit didn't reply to any of his guesses, but she tensed up when he reached 'academic scholarship'. "Well, Daryl, looks like we really do have a smarty-pants on our hands. They must have given her a lot of money if she could afford to go out of state." Kit was now very certain that despite all appearances, the Dixon brothers were not stupid. In fact, they were very perceptive. "I bet Petite here got a full ride, or close to it at least. No way she'd come a state like Georgia if that wadn't the case." Again, perceptive.

Kit tried to keep her mouth shut as best she could and tune out Merle and was happy when they decided to settle in for the night. "Tomorrow won't be so long," Merle said with a smile. "Now, when we get to this car of yours, would you mind givin' us a ride, buttercup? Wouldn't be more'n an hour's drive or so. We was gonna do some huntin' out here but then we happened upon you and you was more interestin'."

"Sure." Kit didn't like the idea of having the two men in her car with her, but as Merle said: if they wanted to do something to her, they probably would have already. She then began self-consciously rummaging through her bag and pulled out some pills.

Merle's eyes immediately lit up. "Got anythin' in there for me, girlie?" he asked.

"Not unless you think you may become pregnant." This got a raucous laugh from Merle and, surprisingly, a small chuckle from his brother.

His eyes still scanned this pills and he snatched up one of the prescriptions. "Now this one ain't no birth control." He turned his eyes to Kit and saw how uncomfortable he was making her. "Nothin' that I like, though. Don' recognize whatever this drug is." He tossed the pill bottle back to her and she quickly shoved it back into her bag. "Funny," Merle laughed. "Ya didn't seem too scared by tha' thing back there, but you is sure skittish 'round us."

"The world is changing. I don't think that a little caution would be out of place."

They didn't light a fire that night because they didn't want to attract those things. The Dixons surprised Kit, though, when they opted to sleep in the trees as she had the night before. Not that she had gotten much sleep.

"Just makes sense," Merle said. "None of them things walkin' 'round is gonna be able to get to us up here without their arms falling off, them bein' rotten and all."

Kit didn't sleep much, waking frequently throughout the night, until morning light began to slowly eek its way through the trees. She climbed down and fed her cat while she waited on Daryl and Merle, though she didn't have to wait long, as the brothers were both early risers. As they set off, Merle was every bit as talkative as he had been the previous day and Daryl was every bit as silent, which Kit definitely preferred.

"Well, since you been ignorin' everythin' else I been talkin' 'bout, can I ask you a question, Petite?" Kit nodded, hoping it wasn't as personal as some of his other musings had been. "Where ya headed after you drop me an' Daryl off at our truck?"

She shrugged. "Since I have no one here, I was thinking I would go back to Montana. Hide in the woods there until this whole shit-storm blows over… If it blows over."

"You ain't headed to that CDC place? Thas where Daryl an' I were thinkin'."

"If the CDC actually had a cure, as they claim they might have, then things would not be getting this bad this quickly. Also, during a pandemic like this, it's best to avoid large cities, such as Atlanta, so you can lower your risk of being infected. And, in this particular case, being eaten alive. Besides, the traffic heading towards Atlanta is going to be enough to drive a person insane."

For one of the first times since she had met him, Merle got a serious, contemplative look on his face. He nodded and shrugged. "Well, we ain't got nowhere better to go. You sure you don' wanna go with us, girlie? The world's becomin' a much more dangerous place and last I checked, bein' a woman alone in a dangerous place ain't such a great idea, either."

Kit lowered her eyes. She hated to admit it, but Merle had a point. None of her friends in Montana had made any form of contact with her. They were either dead or not interested in whether or not she was dead. "Well," Merle informed her. "We got 'nother hour or so 'fore we reach yer car. You can decide when you drop me an' Daryl off."

Surprisingly, Merle was silent for the rest of the walk, which Kit was grateful for, though she did catch him staring at her ass a couple times. Merle was an irritating, sexist asshole, but neither he nor his brother had hurt her, so she began to seriously consider his offer – despite the obvious drawback of Merle's personality.

When they got close to the highway, they could see the area where she had pulled off the road and Merle let out an enormous "Ha!"

"What?"

"You some kind of soccer mom or somethin'?" he asked, pointing at her minivan.

"It gets decent highway mileage," she mumbled.

The brothers could see as they entered the minivan that Kit was fairly prepared and had a lot of supplies stored in the cars, thanks to the stowaway seats. "Sorry, one of you is going to have to find somewhere to sit on the floor in the back." As Kit turned the key and the engine revved to life, she made her decision, as difficult as it was. "I'm going with you," she said quietly, which earned a smirk from Merle.

"Petite, you betta' get that damn cat away from our meat or I swear I will skin it alive!" Merle hollered.

"Sorry," she said quickly, as she sprinted over to the Dixon camp and quickly made off with her pet before he had time to eat the meat they had caught.

Camp had been set at the quarry for about a week now and most of the inhabitants were finally beginning to settle in and get acquainted with each other. The Dixon brothers opted not to get too well acquainted with anyone.

This particular afternoon was something of a lazy one, for once. This kids were playing card games with each other and their parents while most the camp chose to relax. Daryl sat in a chair, looking at Kit. When they had first arrived, she had quickly distanced herself from the Dixon Brothers, which he had assumed was due to a distaste for them and all their…southern traits. However, he soon learned that his assumption was wrong. Kit didn't want to distance herself from the Dixon Brothers; she wanted to distance herself from everyone at the camp. She currently sat alone, not too far from Daryl, reading a book. He could hear a gossip session going on just far enough away from Kit that she wouldn't be able to hear their hushed whispers.

"Who's that blonde girl over there, the one with the glasses?" a woman asked.

Another woman replied. "Only one or two people actually know her name. She's quiet – keeps mostly to herself. I haven't seen her talk to anyone, actually."

"Why?" This time it was a young Asian kid. When the other woman only shrugged in response, he chose to ask another question. "Has anyone tried to talk to her?" The other six or so people gathered around all looked at each other and shook their heads. Seeing this, the Asian kid stood up from his chair in what Daryl could only assume was supposed to be a bold motion.

From there the kid sauntered over to Kit and began a conversation, which Daryl watched very closely, as he watched everything going on in the camp. "Hi, my name's Glenn Rhee." He peered at the book she was reading and said, very excitedly, "I love H.G. Wells."

This caught Kit's attention. She lowered the book and gave him a disbelieving look. "Really?" she asked.

"Yeah. I love all that sci-fi stuff: Star Wars, Star Trek, and basically anything written by Michael Chrichton. If it's sci-fi, then I'll probably love it, if I don't already."

This, much to everyone's surprise, drew a small smile out of the blonde. "You have good taste," she complimented him. "My name is Kit Eldridge." They shook hands and she very quietly asked, "Have you read Sphere?" Glenn shook his head. "Well," she said jokingly. "You can't truly be a Michael Chrichton fan, then." She began to wring her hands nervously. "I, uh, have a copy in my car if you want to read it." She looked at Glenn apprehensively, as if she wasn't sure if it was appropriate to lend strangers books.

This in turn created an even happier, almost triumphant, look on Glenn's face. "Yeah! Definitely!"

She gave him another tentative smile. "I'll give it to you at dinner, then."

"Okay, I'll see you at dinner," he replied cheerfully. "It was nice meeting you."

With that, the kid strolled of, and gave the gossip group a look that very closely resembled a smirk as he walked past them. Daryl supposed that it made sense the girl would feel more comfortable with a kid her own age. He also supposed that any woman would be nervous around Merle, which was why she hadn't liked talking to him. He decided to try and experiment, since he had nothing better to do.

He approached her and said, "Hey, Dex."

She raised a curious eyebrow, confused. "Dex?"

"As in, Poindexter?" Kit stared at him, trying to decide whether he was trying to compliment her or mock her. While he had her attention, Daryl decided to continue. "Never been much of a Wells fan myself." That comment drew an even greater look of surprise from her face, which caused Daryl to chuckle internally. "I read War of the Worlds and I gotta say that I think the movie was better."

"I've never thought it was one of his better works," she replied. "I liked The Time Machine much more." She glanced at the book she held in her hand. "If you wanted to read it…"

Daryl could tell he made her nervous, but it appeared that people in general made her nervous, so he chose not to take any offense from it. "Sure. Not much else to do in this shit hole." She handed him the book and he took it gently. "Bet ya didn't peg me as the readin' type, did ya?"

She shook her head, but then glanced at Merle, who was staring at them. "I'm definitely sure that he isn't, though."

"Now there yer right. I can't remember the last time Merle picked up a book, if he ever did." He glanced down at the book, seeing that it wasn't particularly long. "I think I'll start on this, then. See ya, Dex."

"I like it," she blurted out quickly, before Daryl left.

"Like what?" he asked.

"The nickname."

Daryl smiled and gave her a quick nod. "Glad ya do." That earned him one of her very elusive small smiles and he didn't know why, but even that tiny little smile made him feel…good. Not to mention that it brightened her face a little.

Daryl meandered over to the camp that he and Merle were sharing, reading the synopsis on the back of the book Kit had given to him.

"Ya realize ya don' have a chance in hell with her, right?" Merle asked. "Women like her don' associate with men like us. Hell, women like her don' even fuck with men like us. Yer wastin' yer time."

"I just wanted the book," Daryl replied, with only the slightest edge to his voice.

"Sure, little brother. Jus' remember what Merle told ya when she tells ya to go to hell."