Okay, so here's the second chapter. I know it's short, sorry, but it's really just a filler chapter since most of you should already know what happens next. Hope you enjoy, please read and review!

They had been walking for awhile and decided to stop for the night at yet another place. Joe had came to his own conclusion that they were close enough on the trail of Lou's killer that they could rest and catch the killer the next day. They had found an old house to sleep in, so Joe had Billy, Tony, and Dan go in and clear it out. While they did so, he conversed with Harley. Russia and Daryl stood off to the side of the two men, so Russia decided to take another crack at talking to the secretive man.

"So, why are you helping us catch this man?"

"Coulda been a woman."

"It wasn't though." He narrowed his eyes at her, studying her to a degree.

"And how do ya know that?"

"Uh..."

"You saw this guy, didn't ya?"

"Possibly, yes. I'm getting sick of this chase."

"What'd he look like then?"

"I don't know...Any other average male?" He made a low noise in his throat, almost like a grunt, then turned away to watch the other three men come out of the house.

"It's clear!" Tony said to Joe. Joe gestured towards the house, looking at Russia.

"Ladies first." He said with a smirk. Russia rolled her eyes at him, but went into the house nonetheless. She checked the rooms out, before deciding on one of the three bedrooms in the small farmhouse. She sat on the bed while listening to the rest of the group go through the house, claiming their own rooms. She didn't bother checking for food, knowing she had stocked up enough to last a few days. She left her bag on the bed, before going downstairs. As she went through the house, it seemed like the men had already claimed what they wanted. As she walked through the doorway into what appeared to be the living room, she noticed Daryl standing there, looking out the window.

"Claim a room?" She asked, walking up to him with a hand on her hip.

"Naw, figured I'd crash in here." He answered, without turning around.

"You're gonna sleep in the main room of the house, near the door, with a bunch of windows all around ya?" She received somewhat of a grunt in response. "You've got to be kidding me. Let's go."

"Where?"

"Upstairs. Now come on."

"Why the hell would I go upstairs with ya?"

"Because I'm not letting you be a dumbass. You're endangering yourself and us. Snappers could easily see and smell ya if you stay downstairs. Now get your ass movin'." She turned on her heel and made her way back upstairs. As she reached the steps, she heard Daryl walking behind her. She smirked to herself, then led him up the stairs and to the bedroom she had claimed. They both stepped inside, and he shook his head at her.

"I'm not takin' the bed. We ain't sharin' either." She scoffed.

"Hah! Who said you're going anywhere near the bed? I just didn't want you sleeping downstairs and getting me killed. You're takin' the floor." She went to her bag and dug through it, before pulling out a fork and a jar of preserved apple slices in cinnamon. They had raided quite a few farmhouses, which meant many of them had cellars full of canned fruits and vegetables. Some of which were more of a delicacy and contained added spices and sweeteners. She sat back against the headboard and watched Daryl did a can of food from out of his bag. He sat down on a chair in the room, which was next to a lone desk, before opening the can with his knife and eating. She opened her jar and dug into the apples, savoring the cinnamon and apple flavor. After eating, they ended up going to bed.

The next morning, Russia got up early to change into her second outfit. She only had about two pairs of clothes, given she wanted to save space for food and needed items. Russia slipped out of her old clothes quickly, noticing Daryl was still resting on the floor. She slipped into a pair of faded denim skinny jeans, before pulling a gray longsleeve shirt over her head. She put her laceup boots back on, then sat back on the bed, taking a drink out of one of the bottles of water she had. As she did this, Daryl woke up. He sat up and stretched, then went into his bag to grab a bottle of water. They sat there in comfortable silence, drinking their water, until Joe's voice interrupted it.

"Let's go! We've got a son of a bitch to catch today!" She groaned in frustration, before packing up her bag. Daryl followed her out of the room and down the stairs, where all of the men were waiting by the door. Joe looked her over, and then they set off. As they walked down the road, Joe fell into step next to her. He didn't say anything, even though he looked like he wanted to. This annoyed Russia, so she decided to say something.

"Yes Joe? Did you want something?"

"You're gettin' pretty close with Daryl there, Ruskie."

"And?"

"I know he's done no wrong by us yet, but I don't think you should be puttin' yourself in any risk."

"Oh excuse me for wanting to talk to someone who isn't a bastard who treats me like a sex object. So sorry..."

"Don't give me that attitude, Russia. I'm just sayin' you should watch out."

"I can think for myself, Joe. Don't worry about it." He shook his head at her.

"Fine Russia. I'm not helpin' your ass if he isn't as okay as we thought."

"Mhmm, I'll be sure to remember that." They walked in silence for a few minutes, until Russia spoke up again. "Joe?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are we still chasing after this guy? The one that killed Joe?"

"So innocent. Because Russia, he left Lou to die in that bathroom to turn into one of the dead freaks and almost kill one of us. I won't take that nicely."

"But he could be long gone by now? What if Lou tried to kill him, so he killed Lou in defense?" He stared hard into Russia's eyes, trying to read them.

"Russia, are you telling me I should just let this go? Because he possibly just trying to escape with his life?" She didn't reply, so he continued. "Because you should be smart enough to know by now, that I would rather have someone else die, then one of our own. You may have been off livin' the perfect little girl's dream with your friend and her boyfriend the rapist when this whole thing went down, but I was back home, helpin' our neighbors and friends. Lou had to shoot his own little boy in the head, 'cause he got bit. He watched his little girl get mauled and shredded apart by these snappers. Hell, he saved my life when his brother tried to bite me. So now that we've got that all out in the open, tell me again why we should give up on finding Lou's killer?" She lowered her head, staring at the ground as she walked.

"...'M sorry, Joe. I won't bring it up again..."

"Good. I'm gonna go talk to Harley." He left her to walk up to the front of their group, leaving her alone at the very back. When she looked back up from the ground, she noticed Daryl staring back at her. When she made eye contact with him, he quickly averted his eyes to look ahead of him. She jogged up to him, walking beside him.

"Family problems?" He mumbled next to her. She let out a sigh, re-adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

"None of your damn concern, redneck." She didn't exactly feel like telling the man next to her that Joe didn't trust him. Hell, she doubted Daryl even trusted any of them, even her. "Joe thinks I'm being stupid, thinking that we should give up chasing Lou's killer."

"Why do ya think that?"

"Because maybe he was trying to fight for his life or something. We'll probably never know, since Joe will just want to kill the man right away."

"I see your point."

"What was your childhood like? 'M sorry, I just wanna talk about something."

"My childhood ain't important to ya. Stay the hell out of my business." He said to her gruffly, leaving her silent. It was obviously an extremely touchy subject, so she decided not to pry, knowing it was the best thing to do.

The hours passed by quickly, and it was soon nighttime. Joe was walking with the men of his group, while Daryl and Russia were a little behind. She came to the conclusion that she was sick of the silence on his end, so she started up again.

"Look, I'm sorry for pryin'. Can you tell me about the people you were with at least? In your old group?"

"Ain't nobody important."

"They must've been important, especially if you were chasing after one." He almost growled at her it seemed, but he replied anyways.

"A'right. I'll tell ya since your prissy ass won't stop bothering me." She snorted in response. "There was a sheriff with his boy and a little baby girl," He mentioned the little girl with almost a caring sort of tone, "and a family of two girls and their old man. There was a brother and sister, a chinaman, another woman, a black woman with a sword who used to lead walkers on a leash, a black man I found one day while on a run..." He ended up telling her about the people from his old group. He didn't really say much, but he gave simple descriptions of who they were. He spoke of the old man with respect, along with the sword-wielding woman, while he spoke of the one woman fondly, as if she was a close friend. He spoke of the sheriff and his two kids simply, and explained how he had became the sheriff's right-hand man after awhile. He told her about the baby girl, who he had called 'Ass-Kicker', and how her mother had died during childbirth and turned.

"Which one was the girl you were with?"

"The old man's youngest daughter. She was a small thing, pale and blonde. She took care of lil Ass-Kicker. We got overrun by walkers, and she got taken from me by a car when I made it out of the house."

"Oh..Sounds like you had it good there."

"It was. Till we got attacked by a crazy bastard and his little army. Walkers poured in, we all got seperated. I took 'er and ran." She thought about all he had told her, surprised he had even mentioned that much in the first place. When she came back to the present, she noticed that Joe and the rest of the men had disappeared. She glanced up at Daryl.

"We should probably hurry up." He nodded once, and led the way through the undergrowth. They ended up on a road, where there was a single vehicle. Russia could see the smoke from a fire that had been just put out, along with the shadows of Joe and his men, along with two others. Daryl went ahead of her, taking in the sight of Joe with his .45 pointed at a man on the ground. Daryl and the man made eye contact.

"Joe, what are ya doin'?" Joe stopped what he had been doing, counting actually, to answer Daryl.

"Daryl...You stopped me at eight. Do you know these people? This is the son of a bitch who killed our guy."

"No, Joe, these are good people." Russia watched Joe's facial expression change from a blank look to a confused look.

"Now see that, that is a lie. You're sayin' these are 'good people', but they killed Lou."

"Look, take it out on me. They are, Joe." Joe shrugged his shoulders slightly, before motioning to Daryl.

"Beat 'im to a pulp, men." Billy and Harley advanced on Daryl, before throwing punches at him. Daryl tried to fend them off, but they overpowered him. Russia stepped out of their way and walked to the hood of the car to talk to Joe.

"Joe...What the hell is goin' on here?" She finished her sentence and took in the kneeling man's features. It was the man from the bathroom. She didn't think they'd actually find him.

"What does it look like, Ruskie? We found Lou's killer. This bastard's gonna die." He said the next part to the man. "You see, we're gonna have some fun. We're gonna take the boy, then the woman, then finally, finish it all by killin' you." Russia watched in shock as Dan took a boy from out of the vehicle, before tossing him to the ground. He looked like he was just becoming a man, maybe fifteen or sixteen. Tony had his gun pointed at the black woman on the ground. Daryl was still being beaten up by Harley and Billy, while Dan was manhandling the poor boy on the ground. She turned back to Joe.

"Joe, stop this! We don't need to have the child involved." Joe glared at her.

"I'm gettin' sick of your bullshit, Russia. He's with this man, this man who killed our own. So he goes down with him. Now you're gonna stand back and let me deal with this. Got it?" The man on the ground looked over at Dan who was threatening the boy with a knife.

"Tell your guy to leave my boy alone." Joe ignored him. "I said, tell your guy to leave my boy alone!" Joe chuckled, glancing over at Dan to see him starting to undo his belt. Russia glared at Dan, pissed off.

"Dan, get the fuck off of that boy! I'll cut your fucking throat!" Dan looked from her to Joe. Joe narrowed his eyes at Russia.

"Russia, don't fuck around like that. I'm not below putting you where you belong. I'll let these boys have at you, unless you shut your damn mouth." She crossed her arms, angry that Joe was more obsessed with killing these people than protecting her. She watched the scene play out in front of her as Lou's killer threw his head back, hitting Joe square in the gut. Joe released him, but quickly took back control by grabbing the man by his shoulders and hauling him up, landing a punch right to his jaw. They had a quick fight, but Joe got the upperhand once again, holding the man up by his shoulders and restricting his movement. "What are ya gonna do now, sport?"

What happened next haunted Russia for days.

There was chapter 2 of Claiming Life and Death. If you didn't know, the girl in the cover image is Russia. Yes, she's the same girl as Natalya from my COD fanfic story. Her eyes are dark gray now, not green. Also, I know it's kind of obvious what happens next after that kind of pointless cliffhanger, unless you're reading Walking Dead Fanfiction, yet have never seen the show. Anyhow, review please!