I was lying on something soft, softer then what I was used to since I gave my cot to Paul. I groaned and opened to my eye to find that I was in some sort of metal building. I frowned, remembering a bit of yesterday, why my head hurt so much, and then realized that I didn't see the two guys pull Paul into the truck; the truck that could barely fit three people. I bolted upright, scanning for Paul in the room I was in, ignoring the dizziness and pain that flared each and every time I moved, and grabbed a pair of scissors that were laying on a small table near the bed I was on. I stood up, keeping my bad leg behind me since the boot made a good tool for when you wanted to kick at someone before I noticed someone had taken my right shoe off. Jason did that at first, kept me near camp since I wasn't going to go running off into the woods with no shoes on. I made it out of the room before a door flew open and a women with long brown hair stepped in and I realized I was in a RV. I held the scissors up and the woman held her arms up.
"Hi, I was just coming in to check up on you. How are you feeling now? Merle said you hit your head pretty hard the other day," The woman said with her hands still up.
"Where's Paul? What did you do with Paul?" I asked, not even realizing I was shouting until a man with dark curly hair came in and pushed himself in front of her when he saw the scissors in my hand.
"Why don't we calm down now," the man said as he got closer to me. I snarled and danced out of reach awkwardly, swiping at him with the scissors.
"This one needs to know where Paul is!" Part of me knew what Paul would say, that me panicking wasn't going to get anything done, that I needed to stay calm and ask nicely to get what I wanted but part of me couldn't control myself. I needed to know that I didn't fail Paul, that I didn't kill someone else. I barreled into the man, using my boot as extra weight to get him out of the way, throwing an elbow to where I thought his face was but I was wrong; he grabbed the arm that had the scissors and yanked them out of my hands before pushing me away. I stumbled, tripping over the boot before I scrambled to get myself upright. The man backed away again to try and put the scissor out of my reach when I saw an opening; I took it, leaping though the narrow walkway before falling down the stairs. I heard shouting from the RV and I went running through camp, where I could see the least amount of tents. I turned to look behind me, surprised that the black haired man had stopped running, there was an old man on the roof of the RV who was still shouting for me to stop. I wasn't looking where I was going and ran straight into someone who just grabbed me.
"Hey, hey, hey, I'm not going to hurt you. I have your shoe if you want it," I calmed down a bit because that voice sounded a bit like Paul. I tried to turn around but he wouldn't let me, just kept walking me back towards the RV. Now I started panicking again, kicking out at anything that was within reach when I heard the woman from before come back with someone with the far side of camp.
"Let 'er go," a gruff voice snapped and who ever was holding me slowly let me go before taking a step back. I looked up, still tugging at my hair a bit, and saw the younger man from yesterday. "Hey now girl, take a deep breath an' stop yer shoutin."
I noticed his crossbow was held in his hand and started glancing around again. When he noticed the panic expression on my face, he just dropped it to the ground. He looked calm, real calm and I slowly took a deep breath and nodded my head; a silent measure that I was done screaming for now.
"Ya can't go 'round running with no shoes on. Glenn said he had 'em, go on an' git 'em and we'll go talk to Merle about Paul," the man said as he gestured behind me to the asian guy that sounded a tad bit like Paul. I frowned and started shaking my head.
"This one needs to find Paul now. Paul is more important then feet," I muttered, looking down at the ground, scared I was going to get hit.
"Ya need yer shoe, go on now. Glenn will show ya were it is. Shoe, then Merle, no other way," Crossbow man said. I liked him, he was tough and calm, I liked calm. Paul was always calm. I frowned, thought about arguing with him but then Glenn must have grabbed my arm and I yelped, blindly swinging my elbow back while I spun around. Glenn backed up a bit and just held a hand out for me. I turned around to look at crossbow man and he just nodded towards Glenn. I didn't take Glenn's hand but I took a step towards him, Glenn seemed calm too but not as calm as crossbow man. Glenn smiled at me and showed me the truck from their campsite before pulling my shoe out of the trunk.
"Do you need help sitting down or something?" Glenn asked but I just shook my head no and did a little balance jib to slip my foot in. I frowned and shook my head, inching my way back to crossbow man. When I got there he nodded in approval and indicated with his head that I should follow him.
"Is Paul with Merle?" I whispered as I followed him towards the two tents.
"Merle will tell ya" He grunted and I continued following him. We got there and I was told to stay while Crossbow man went into the tent and emerged with Merle.
"Where is Paul? This one was told that you knew where Paul is," I muttered looking at the ground but taking a lot of glances around me. I noticed the rest of the group coming closer and that Merle started to look a bit mad. Not mad, mad but like how Tony was when I found him the mushrooms that make you high.
"Listen 'ere sugar tits, I know yer were close with Paul but he stayed back so you could leave. Ya know that, went back for 'im but he didn't make it. I owe 'im one so I got ya out, took ya to place were yer good," Merle said, his snappy voice wasn't like Paul's. This one was like my mom's after she went through a bottle or two of wine. I whimpered and brought a hand out to wipe a stray tear but I know Jason didn't like it when I cried, always said he would give me something to cry about.
"You're lying! Paul told this one you would take us both and that you're a man of his word. Paul would never lie to . . . to. . . he would never . . . this one has to go back. . . this one. . . can't leave Paul behind. . . you can never leave one of your men behind. . ." I knew I was going into one. Paul helped me learn when I was getting started but I was too far gone already, shoving Merle in the chest when he mentioned staying at camp, what Paul would want. Crossbow man started coming towards me, weapon down again, hands up, and I could tell he was saying something but I couldn't hear him, couldn't hear Merle shouting at me either. I was just panicking, yanking on my hair, spinning around trying to find a way to get to Paul, to get back to Paul. I took a wild leap backwards when Merle reached out to me swearing when all of a sudden Crossbow man was yanking my arm towards him and moving me away. Somehow in that struggle I wound up with my arms wrapped around my self and him holding onto my forearms pulling me close and down to the ground so that I was kneeling but leaning back into his chest, sobbing hysterically at this point.
"Yer alright, yer good, absolutely fine," Crossbow man muttered into my ear, the same three phrases over and over again. Now that the panic was subsiding I was starting to listen to the calm man, calm I like calm. Now I realized I was screwed when I started seal coughing, large hacking measures of air as I tried to bend over while throwing my head back.
"Now what's sugar tits problem?" Merle drawled as he came out of the tent. I don't even know when he went in but now he had a small canteen of water in his hand.
"It could be asthma? Does she have an inhaler in her bag? I can go check," the old man from before said running back to the truck. Crossbow man was just reminding me to breath for a bit and only asked if he could let me go when I started wiggling around a bit, uncomfortable with someone touching me. I nodded again and he let go of my wrists, and inched back just a bit but stayed close. I shifted position so that I was clutching my knees to my chest and just kept coughing, breathing like my doctors told me before the world went ass up. The old man came back with my bag and I slowly reached a hand out to the side compartment, yanked out my inhaler, and took two puffs. Slowly the coughing subsided until I was just wheezing a bit. Merle now came closer with the canteen held out to me.
"Ya gotta be thirsty after all that screaming and crying sugar tits," Merle said as he gestured with the canteen again. I shook my head no, I didn't want to do anything right now, I wanted to be left alone until I can go find my own water.
"Go on, it's just water and you have to be thirsty," The old man said and I decided that I liked him too, he was calm too.
"This-this one doesn't want . . . what do-" I was cut off sharply when Merle scowled at me.
"Cut the blabbering," He snapped.
"What-what do you want for it?" I asked quickly and quietly. I was going to get in so much trouble now and I quickly scrambled away a bit so that I could keep my eye on Crossbow man who now looked a bit less calm and more calculating.
"What do ya mean, want for it? It's water, got plenty of it. Ya need to drink," Crossbow man asked. I shook my head no again and glanced at all the other people around me. It was too much, too crowded.
"Baby brother asked ya a question, sugar tits. Don't like to ask twice," Merle commented. The old man was not only calm, but he understood because he made everyone else walk away and I felt myself get a wee bit less tense.
"They always made this one do something if Paul or this one needed anything," I stuttered out, now terrified that I was going to wind up in trouble.
"Whatta ya mean do something?" This time Merle asked the question and I started getting antsy again.
"Depends on what Paul needed. . . lot's of things but sometimes. . . sometimes they just took it all at night. Said-said this one would keep them warm at night, have a little fun, this one-this one didn't-this one didn't want too," At this point I was crying again and Crossbow man looked angry and he stormed off with a fucking bastards whispered under his breath but I heard it and yelped before looking up to Merle. Merle looked real mad now and the panic was starting to bubble up but now Glenn was back taking the canteen from Merle and slowly walking towards me before kneeling down. Glenn was calm and I liked it even if I couldn't make eye contact to show it.
"Come on just drink some water, you were uhh really good about doing what we wanted and putting a shoe on. Hmm, that sound good?" Glenn said softly as he held the canteen out to me.
"Promise?" I asked as my hand was half way stretched out. Glenn nodded and my hand darted forward to take it.
"Drink it all sugar tits," Merle commented as he watched me drinking. He just nodded when he saw me looking at him and didn't stop staring at me until I finished. I didn't know what to do and just sat there on the ground, all curled up around myself until I started feeling dizzy and that anxious sick feeling I would get whenever Paul would give me meds to make me fall asleep creeped up and I knew, I knew that he drugged me.
"You-you-" I scowled trying to make sensible words form in my head but the lack of food over the past few days and the excitement of today made me had me passing out sooner then usual. I was barely asleep when I felt someone move to pick me up and then I heard Glenn.
" Lori wanted to talk to us, about her scars, what we think happened to her. Shane thinks she's dangerous after her panic attack. Might want to convince him otherwise."
Unknown POV ***
Shane watched Daryl carry the girl back into the RV where Dale was going to check on her during the night. Apparently they were worried since she hit her head pretty good the other day and had a bruised rib. I was so angry that those no good rednecks just decided they could take a random girl back to camp, one that clearly had issues, no matter how many supplies she came with.
"She can't stay," Shane said as soon as most of the camp had gathered around the fire in front of the RV. For the first time since the start of it all Merle and Daryl were there as well, in the back just frowning and glaring at everyone.
"What do you mean? Have you seen the state of her?" Dale asked, unnerved that someone would be so crass as to disregard someone that so clearly needed help.
"Did you see the same girl that I did today? She clearly has some problem and now isn't the time for coddling," Shane snapped.
"How about you wake up in a strange place without your friend and see how you react!" Glenn yelled causing everyone to look at him. In turn this made him sheepish and he turned red and stared at the ground.
"Don't think ya have much choice," Merle commented from behind everyone. Shane turned and glared at him.
"This is a group descion, not a half-cocked red neck one. We need to ensure GROUP survival," Shane snapped, angry that his authority was being questioned.
"Girl might as well be a Dixon now. I'm a man of my word," Merle replied and then just walked away.
"Well I'm pretty sure that settles it. Even if you don't like the girl if you make her leave then the Dixons will leave. Plus, she came with all of that food and supplies," Amy commented as she grabbed a spare blanket and entered the RV.
Hey! So again I'm kind of showing how Shane doesn't really like being challenged. Again I'm stressing that the Dixons only care about Emmy because of the promise Merle made to Paul cause I have a feeling that they are "men of their words" and military buddies tend to stick together anyway. Anyway, please leave reviews so I know what ya'll think.
