In no time I had met everyone and was sitting around a collection of embers. In the last twenty four hours Merle had been hand cuffed to a roof in Atlanta by this guy, Rick, claiming to be a cop. Daryl and I found that out when we got back from a hunt. Not that I killed anything not already dead. Sure Rick had the uniform but there wasn't anything left in this world, yet alone the law. To say the least, he wasn't scoring any points in my books anytime soon. Daryl reacted pretty bad as you could imagine so I let him have his space thought sitting around the campfire singing songs wasn't my cup of tea. One thing I didn't mind was sneaking glances at Shane. That's right, I knew his name and we had even had a couple of conversations. Mostly about where me and Daryl would be hunting and the walkers I'd killed but it all counted.
"So let me get this straight; Rick who just found you yesterday is the husband of Lori, father of Carl and best friend of Shane?"
"Yep, crazy ain't it?" I sighed listening into the conversations and flexed my shoulders trying to relax and loosen up. After Daryl constantly doing it I had picked up his bad habit.
"Lucky guy to have found everyone he was looking for." I finally spoke up. Andrea put a hand on my shoulder as if to comfort me but I shrugged her off. Of course that seemed to get everyone's attention because they all turned to face me like I was the centre of gravity or something. I'd known these people for over a week yet all I've allowed them to know is my name pretty much. Like I said, too many people meant death in my eyes. I didn't want to get too attached.
"You never did tell us how you got here, Tammy. It's sort of a ritual here, telling each other about our pre apocalypse lives." I got nervous, not wanting to bring up bad memories. I fake yawned and stretched my arms above my head before standing and wandering to Daryl and Merle's tent. Sure I had my own tent a few metres from theirs but I knew if I was to get any sleep it would be as close to them as possible. Slipping into Daryl's tent I saw everything neatly placed which came as a big surprise. In the middle I saw Daryl sitting in his bed with his head in his hands. I hadn't really gotten remotely close to anybody, not even Daryl who saved me, but I knew what it was like to feel lost and alone. Scared for what would happen in the future that was always just out of reach.
"Daryl..." I sat in the bunk next to him.
"Haven't you done enough." He spat at me.
"What did I do wrong?" I pushed Daryl's shoulder so he was now facing me.
"If you'd walked away when I found you we would have never come with this group and that officer dick wouldn't have been anywhere near my brother." A ball of anger rattled inside of me.
"If I recall you were the one forcing my hand." Sighing in defeat the dirty redneck buried his head back in his hands.
"I'll leave you to... Whatever this is then."
"Please just say here tonight. I don't want Rick getting in your head and finding out bout what we planned." Oh yeah and that thing that I heard Merle say when I fell asleep in the pickup truck on the highway was him planning to rob the camp blind. It was going to be tonight and I was going to help them but now Merle being gone messed up everything. Making myself comfortable on Merle's bed I heard Daryl's breathing start to even out.
"If it counts for anything I'm sort of happy we're not doing it." I wasn't even sure he had heard me because a moment later I slipped into unconsciousness.
Next morning I woke in Daryl's empty tent. Frantically running out I was met with the sun high in the sky. Looking around me I saw the van gone. He'd left me. He'd left me without even a single word. Not that he had a right to anyway, we were hardly friends. Which was sad since I had spent almost every waking second with him and his brother the last few days.
"Where's everyone else?" I yelled up to Dale. He pointed his rifle over to the quarry. The heat was already heating my skin in the few minutes I'd been awake so I must have slept well into the day. I guess that's the price I pay for not sleeping properly for weeks on end. I waved a thanks to Dale and pulled on my new boots. As I started on my way down to the water's edge I spotted all the women washing the clothes by hand, and chatting. As I moved closer I heard, "I miss my vibrator." And an eruption of giggles came from the group. And then Carol, the quietest out of them all commented, "Me too…" Even I couldn't help but laugh as I got closer.
"Hey, Tammy. We decided not to wake you, figured you could use the rest." Amy looked over and gave me one of the warmest looks anyone had given me in months, probably years. I hadn't even sat down yet when Ed came over to get Carol. I wasn't listening to the words being passed, just hearing the ladies protective tones and seeing Carol's worried face. Out of the blue Ed backhanded his wife across the face. It was no secret that Ed beat up his wife, even I knew it but that didn't mean I was going stand of anything of the likes. Jumping into action I dragged my elbow into his gut and then then took his surprise as a chance to crack my fist in his chin. Shane then came over and threw him away from me and started pounding his face in.
"You put your hands on your wife, your little girl, or anyone else in this camp one more time, I will not stop next time. I'll beat you to death, Ed." I saw this wild look in his eyes as he flicked a quick glance at me before storming back to camp. Carol ran over to Ed, crying, stroking his face and repeating to him that she was sorry. Full of rage at how a man could lay hands on his child's mother, his own lover like he had been, it made me feel sick to the stomach. I shook my head and ran back to the camp site before anyone could stop me.
Full of blinding rage that sometimes overpowers me, I dropped to my knees in the dirt and pressed my head to my thighs. A hand on my shoulder makes me jump and I pull out my knife to see that it was only Dale seeing if I was feeling okay.
"Whoa there. I'm only tryin' to help you." He searches my eyes for several seconds as I lowered my weapon but I made sure he couldn't find much emotion.
"I know you've been through a lot but you need to calm down. There' kids here too you know. Now I'm not sure what kinda things you've seen out there," He paused to put his hand back on my shoulder, "Or had to do out there but your safe here. Ain't no need to be scared anymore." A tear escaped from my eye and travelled down my cheek. No one had seen me cry since the night I'd left home but I didn't think the flesh eating monsters would have noticed. I still counted it as it was my brother who had seen it, or at least whatever foul thing had possessed my brother.
"Before you ask, no. I don't want to talk about it." I hopped up from my place on the ground and wiped my tear away. "What can I do to help?" Shane came over to us with the others, excluding Ed, so we could go and talk to this guy digging holes like a mad man. I had forgotten his name but when we got there Shane called him Jim. They try and get him to stop digging but he doesn't listen. Lori attempts to reason with him telling him that he's scaring Carl and Sophia, just like I probably was before. I started to feel really bad for those kids. They were so young and innocent meant to be carefree not dwelling in the pity of the doomed. Shane then started to get angry with Jim and his temper starts to boil, you could tell by his voice. He was yelling at Jim to take a break, barking the order at him like a drill sergeant.
"If I don't…then what? Then you're gonna beat my face in like Ed Peletier, arent'cha?" I can see that he's getting ready to swing his hand with the shovel in it and I move forward just as he does, catching the top of the wooden handle mid-air seconds before Shane tackles him to the ground. Jim then starts crying about his own family.
"The only reason I got away is cause the dead were too busy eating my family." He wailed. The faces of everyone dropped and we hauled the hysterical man back to the camp and tied him to a tree. Shane told us it was for his own safety and most of us agreed. Once he had a few sips of water I sat with him and leaned against the trunk in the cool shade that hid us from the sun.
"You know, Jim, I sorta know how you feel." I didn't dare look at him or I would have broken down. I think he knew because he just sat and listened to me. "I had never gotten along with my family. Dead beat dad, try hard mum and even a sold out big brother. I've been by myself my whole life. When the infection hit my family didn't care, they just went about normally but I prepared myself so I could get out of there before I saw the people I cared about be ripped apart. Unfortunately I was the one who had to shoot them all in the head. The hardest part was that when the walkers' got through not one of them even yelled out my name, didn't even try and look for me to see if I was going to make it out. But I couldn't leave them, not like the monsters they would have turned into." Jim finally looked over at me, his eyes full of sadness.
"Ya know, if my hands weren't tied I would give you a hug right about now." I clasped my hand on one of his shoulders.
"Lucky you are tied to a tree then." I wondered over to where Shane was teaching the kids to scale the fish. I picked up a knife but Shane took it from my fingers.
"I heard what you told Jim. I'm sorry but I overheard it." I guess Andrea was right, everybody really did share their stories in this little group after all. I didn't want to think about what I had to leave behind any longer so I tried to change the topic. I could still see my families milky eyes staring hungrily at me and it's unnerved me, chilled me to my bones.
"I'm trying to help, Shane. What else am I meant to do?" Sighing he gave me the knife back and I started showing Sophia how to fillet a fish. Both her and Carl lost interest though and left us two adults to do the work.
"You have a good reason for pushing people away, Tammy?" I stabbed the point of the blade into the tree right next to us and my hand curled into a fist.
"What makes you think I would tell you, huh? Think I'll spill my soul's secrets to a pretty face? Well think again." I was angry at him. Angry at him for pushing me to open up. Angry at him for thinking I couldn't handle Ed. Angry at him for no reason other than having someone to take it out on. I was angry that Daryl hadn't bothered to even say bye. Taking a couple of deep breaths I ran my hand through my hair.
"Look, Shane. I've never trusted anyone other than myself. I'm gonna need some time to get used to trusting people, so don't listen to me if I say something stupid." There was always the possibility that Merle and Daryl weren't coming back so I needed to fend for myself and at least attempt to make friends. Let's say that I need a lot of work in that department. Picking up half of the cleaned fish I started towards the camp fire which had more rocks around it so we could have higher flames than the night before.
"Nice fire guys." I smiled and passed the meat to Andrea who started to cook it. Shane brought the other pile and we all sat around the warm ring.
"Fish fry!" Carl shouted, making everyone laugh. "Hey Tammy," The boy said coming to sit near me, "Can I call You Tamm? Mum said I had to ask you first." I smirked and ruffled his hair.
"Cause you can lill' man. But only if I can teach you how to shoot a gun." He looked hopefully over to Lori who shrugged. For some reason I had a soft spot for kids and I wasn't sure I was ever going to see any again after wondering in the woods for weeks. Hell, I thought it was just going to be me there.
"May as well, he's going to learn someday." Carl jumped up and down.
"Yes, yes, yes! Thanks Tamm!" He told me before he bounced back to his mum. A few minutes later Amy moves to get up and leave the now chattering circle. I didn't quite catch who but someone asks her where she was headed off to and she laughed at them saying she needed to use the bathroom. Sheesh, everyone questioned what you did here but I guessed that's what made it such a nice way to live. They were only asking those things because they were worried about you. Thinking about that for a couple of seconds and I had made up my mind to tell Shane what he wanted to know. I stood up and quickly sat down next to him so no one would ask why I was getting up when I heard a scream. The last time someone had screamed like that was when Daryl and I were in the woods and our damn deer had been hacked into. Everyone jumped out of their skin and flipped their heads to where the distressed noise had come from. Amy, who had just come out of the RV, had a walker biting her arm and another going for her neck. All around us the walking dead come out from the surrounding woods and attack like a pack of dogs. Most run over behind Shane because he has the gun but I stay right where I am and pull out my knife for the second time that day and stand on a defence position. Carl was crying as Lori and Carol held their children close to them as far away from the flesh eating things as possible. Shane shot as many of them in the head as possible and Dale scrambled to get his rifle. That's when a few came charging at me. I killed about three in the space of about fifteen seconds and two more after that. Making a split second decision I inched my way towards the others, killing another walkers as I went. I was about two feet from everyone else when Rick, T-dog, Glenn and Daryl came bursting through the trees and started to shoot the rest of the walkers with the guns Rick had left in a bag in Atlanta. I see Andrea hugging her dead sister but a walker was rushing towards her. I started running but just as I did it got a hole blown right through its head. The gunshot startled me and I stumbled causing me to trip and fall. Not thinking I dropped my knife under me and I landed on it, a new sharp pain in my thigh. Turns out that the walker that was advancing on Andrea wasn't alone cause soon I saw the rotting and bloody face of one above me. I fumbled for my blade, closing my fingers around it and putting it to my throat. 'The moment that thing bites me I'm going to put an end to my suffering before anyone else has to' I thought to myself. Half a second before it descended on me T-dog came and kicked it out of the way and shot it between the eyes. I still had the pointy blade against my neck and I was so stressed that it had started to slice into me. Drops of crimson blood were dripping down the sides of my neck and onto the ground now but T-dog snatched it out of my white knuckles.
"Holy shit." He muttered under his breath as all around us the screams of terror were dampened into sobs of sadness. Touching my neck I found that the cut wasn't deep, more like a scratch, but the stab in my leg was at least an inch deep. I sat up and inspected the wound, cringing at how much blood and flesh was visible. Out of the blue I felt the cool tip of an arrow press to my forehead. Still in shock I just looked up to see Daryl's face glaring at me.
"Did you get bit?" My mind could hear the words but when I tried to speak my lips wouldn't move to form words. "I said did you get bit?" I raised a hand to try and stop him sending an arrow flying through my head but he just pressed it harder to me. Was he really pointing that thing at me? He had worked so hard to save me and now he was ready to throw it all away just like that?
"Dude, she tripped on her knife. I stopped her being bit. Just chill." The point of the arrow didn't budge. "I said lay off." T-dog shoved Daryl but he was still staring at me with cold eyes. Finally I willed myself to speak.
"I didn't get bit." I let my hand move near my leg. "It was my knife, I tripped and it stabbed me." Daryl grunted and moved to the walker lying next to me. He stomped on its head, crushing any working brain left inside it for the second and last time. I turned to T-dog. He had a look of sheer terror and growing sadness in his eyes.
"You saved me." That's all I remember before blacking out.
Hey guys :) Someone out there, you know who you are, gave me the spark of inspiration I needed to help me write more so here it is. I have changed chapter one and two and am halfway through writing three. Hope you dont have to wait too long for the next couple chapters. I just finished season 3 and cried when Merle died :'( Hope to see ya'll again soon, Love From Breazy xxxx
