"Ugh."

Sunlight was burning into her eyes when she woke up, painfully searing down on her skin leaving hot flesh. When she tried to block the sun from her eyes by rolling over, Adelaide ended up in a heap on a dirty carpet floor and a pounding headache.

Wait. Carpet?

She opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. It looked like one of those moveable living car thingers… What were they called? Oh yeah, RVs. What does that stand for? Roaming Vehicle?

Shaking her head, she pushed the silly thought out of her head and began to try and understand what happened to her. She had only just been hanging in a tree, up side down… Then she took a little bit of a 50-foot drop to the floor. Adelaide raised a hand up to her temple where her head throbbed angrily, feeling something wet. When she pulled away and looked at her hand it was covered in blood – most likely a battle wound from her little trip.

Looking around, it seemed she'd been holed up on the RVs makeshift couch by the table, and not even a foot away was a sink with a couple shiny pots that she could make out a rough reflection of herself on.

Her long chocolate brown hair was matted against her forehead, her bangs gross and sticking to her skin; her face was paler than it'd even been in her entire life; but her eyes… Her eyes were the worst part of everything she saw. The once vibrant gold-flecked emerald eyes she sported had dulled to a frosty green, the gold flecked completely fogged up. They were as dead as the world.

Adelaide couldn't control herself at that moment. Tears pooled up and spilled out – she was crying without a sound.

She could just hear her father proudly boasting about her eyes, about how he'd been the one that gave 'em to her. How they were a real treasure.

"Look at her! Best eyes on this planet, I tell you!" The familiar booming laughter that filled her ears only brought a more intense onslaught of tears.

She crawled back onto the makeshift couch, and stuffed herself between the table and the backing of the seat. Pulling her legs up to her chest, she let the tears flow, but never did she choke out a sob.

Her eyes were the most precious gift she'd ever gotten from her father – Adelaide truly believed this. They were as much her treasure as they were her father's pride. And just look. Just look. She'd ruined them.

At that time, Adelaide couldn't give a rat's ass if someone – something – walked in and took her life..

It was as if she could feel something inside of her literally withering up and dying.

She was just drying up inside.

After what felt like half a lifetime, she pulled herself out of her corner of safety and sat at the edge of the seat, trying to think about what had happened to her. There were some dark spots in her memory, all she could see in her head was the fall to earth… And those steely blue eyes. Those eyes!

From those eyes, everything just came pouring back to her. The squirrel, the boots, and that damned bird. But most of all, the man. Just who was he?

The door to the RV creaked open with a slight protest of age, causing Adelaide to become swiftly alert and reach for a pot as a weapon.

In walked an older man with a snow-white beard, an unattractive hat, and the most hideous shirt she'd ever seen.

He looked surprised to see her and raised his hands up in innocence as he approached, "Look, I'm not going to hurt you. You can put that down now." His voice was calming to her, like a grandfather with wise advice. A part of her trusted the man, but the other part screamed at her to never trust another human being again.

She couldn't afford to be duped by false kindness.

Adelaide's fingers only tightened around the pot handle in anticipation.

The man seemed to notice, "You can trust me. I promise that I won't hurt you." He stopped moving forward, knowing that she'd only get more defensive if he got too close. "My name is Dale, Dale Horvath. This is my RV," he paused to see if she was listening. She was. "You're at a camp where other refugees are, at the edge of Atlanta City."

Adelaide processed this slowly. She was in a camp, next to Atlanta, in some man's RV… How the hell did she get there?

"One of our men found and brought you here." It was like he read her mind.

She remembered the blue-eyed stranger at the foot of her so-called 'safe tree'. Some tree it turned out to be.

Adelaide turned her attention to Dale, looking him point-blank in the eyes. She searched for any ill intentions, not that she was a psychic but sometimes you could feel something when people are a little off. It's human nature to feel scared in situations where you are in danger.

But, Adelaide didn't feel anything like that from Dale. From what she could tell, he was a nice guy. She felt that he was a genuinely kind person. She just didn't know how right she was.

The pot came down from the air and settled onto the table.

"I'm… Adelaide," she could barely put that out in a whisper. It was like she hadn't spoken in years, even though she'd just yelled at the blue-eyed stranger not too long ago.

This environment was strange to her, she didn't know what she should do.

"Hello, Adelaide. It's nice you meet you," he greeted warmly before taking a step forward, "Is it a okay?" She knew what he was referring to, was she okay with him getting close to her? Yes, she was. Adelaide nodded her head and Dale walked slowly toward her, stopping just in front of the table, and knelt down.

His old hands touched her temples, "The bandage is soaked… Did you knock your head around again?" She looked at him with furrowed eyebrows so he told her, "When you took a mighty drop from a tree, you split the side of you head wide open. I tried patching you up with some gauze from my first-aid kit but… It's not holding up so well."

The medical instinct in Adelaide stirred, of course no piece of gauze was going to hold an open wound shut if it was big enough. From what she could tell, she needed to stitch herself up.

"May I see your kit?" Her unnaturally soft voice spoke again. It just wasn't right, the way her voice couldn't project itself. She felt so off.

Dale gave her a weird look, but yielded to her. He brought out a white box with a red cross from one of his cabinets in the RV.

The box was so familiar to her when she was training as an EMT back in the day. Somewhere in her bags, God knows where they are, she had her old EMT bag filled with medical supplies, but she wouldn't dare say anything about that right now.

Inside she found a suture needle and thread along with a lighter. "Do you have a mirror?" Dale grabbed one from the side, and placed the stand-up mirror in front of her. Right now he wasn't questioning her because it looked like she knew what she was doing.

Adelaide flicked the lighter on and heated the suture needle until it was red hot. She took a good look at her open wound after pulling off the red-soaked gauze. The split wasn't as bad as it could have been, there was no puss or infection, it was as red and wet with blood as it should have been when she got it – probably because she had recently fell on it and opened it right up.

Without a flinch or cringe, she began sewing her head back up with precision and expertise. A year in the ER had done her good.

"You seem to know what you're doing there," Dale commented. Adelaide could tell, though, he wanted to know some of her background and this was an easy-access route.

"I was still completing my residency when it happened."

"What were you aiming for?"

"Trauma."

Adelaide's answers were becoming increasingly laconic, but she couldn't help it herself if she wanted to. The little part that was opening up to Dale was quickly shutting down.

Dale stopped asking personal questions. Pushing her too much too soon would only close the opening faster. He watched her finish and cover the stitches with gauze and a large waterproof band-aide.

"Adelaide," Dale started. "Would you like to come out and meet the rest of the group?"

She looked up uncertainly at him.

"They've been waiting to meet you, you've been out for about a day, you know." He smiled at her with white teeth, something you don't commonly see these days. "And, if you're looking for you bags, they're with the man that brought you in."

That perked her interest.

"That man that brought me in?" Her whisper came out again, scratchy now from dehydration.

"Oh!" Dale turned around and grabbed a cup and a pitcher of water, "It isn't cold or anything, but it's clean."

Adelaide nodded her thanks and lifted the cup to lips after inspecting the contents, but looked up expectantly at Dale for an answer.

He was a surprising man; it was like he could just keep reading her mind without a problem.

" His name is Daryl."

She stepped out of the RV with a little assistance from Dale. The feeling of sun on her shoulders was a lot more comforting than it shining in her eyes. If she had been more like herself pre-apocalypse, she probably would have spun around in the sun. She used to like to do that.

She used to like to do a lot of things.

"Hey there," a pretty blonde girl called out to her.

Adelaide looked at her and smiled slightly, "Hi…"

A group of people were all sitting around an unlit fire pit, chatting until not too long before she had stepped out.

Dale led her over to the fire pit and introduced her one by one.

"That's Glenn, Jacqui, T-Dog, Jim, Andrea, Amy, Lori, her son Carl, Shane, Morales and his family, Ed, his wife Carol, and his daughter Sophia," Dale pointed out each one. Amy was the pretty blonde that had said hi to her so nicely.

The man named Shane stood up and held out his hand to me, "Shane, it's nice to meet you."

Adelaide stared at the hand for a few seconds before tentatively grasping it, "Adelaide. Thank you… for allowing me to be here."

Shane nervously chuckled a bit, "I'll admit that I was pretty pissed when Daryl brought you back, but it doesn't seem like you'll be a problem to us." He looked her over and only saw a lone girl that'd barely made it through all that's happened.

She looked up and around, wondering who and where this so-called 'Daryl' was.

Dale put a hand on her shoulder, "He's out hunting. Don't worry."

Adelaide shrugged his hand off, disliking the feeling of being touched without her approval. She walked over to whom she believed to be Amy and Andrea and asked, "May I sit here?"

Amy smiled brightly at her, "Of course!"

Andrea smiled at her sister first, before smiling at Adelaide, "It's a pleasure."

Adelaide sat between Amy and an Asian boy she recognized as Glenn. At first she just watched and listened as the group settled back into conversation. Then she began softly laughing when they teased each other and told stories of their past.

They didn't mind that she was there, and she didn't mind being around people. It seemed like she hadn't seen real people in years, and she meant real people. Although she didn't completely trust them, she felt safer with them than she did with all the others she'd come across.

Adelaide shivered at the bad memories, but quickly got her mind off of them.

"Hey, want some?" Glenn offered her some jerky.

She cautiously gazed at it before taking it and offering him a soft 'Thanks'.

"So, Adelaide, where're you from?" Glenn smiled widely at her.

"Atlanta," she mumbled while nibbling at the rock solid jerky.

"Seems like we got ourselves a doctor here," Dale commented.

The group seemed taken aback before she said, "I didn't finish my residency, so…"

"That don't matter," Shane said firmly. "Now, I'm real glad Daryl found you, we need someone like you around."

The group all nodded their heads, and stared expectantly at Adelaide.

"It'd be a real honor to have you with us," Shane went on and the rest of them verbally agreed.

Under all the looks she was receiving, Adelaide was getting uncomfortable. She could feel a bead of sweat run down her temple, and it wasn't from the hot Atlanta sun, that's for sure. The idea of people counting on her and travelling with others wasn't as appealing as you'd think it'd be. She was so used to being on her own, and the majority of her meetings with other people hadn't turned out so swell up 'til now.

She just couldn't palate the thought right now.

"I… I don't know," her head cast down. "I'd have to think about it…"

"Why don'tcha travel with us fer a lil' bit, honey?"

"Trust me, we'll take real good care 'ya."

Their clammy arms slinked around her shoulders, pulling her toward their tent little by little. And with every step she took, she felt more insecurity. More anxiety.

It didn't take her much longer to experience why.

"H-Hey!" Glenn was shaking her by her shoulders when she snapped to it and slammed her hands against his chest. Glenn was thrown back a couple feet onto his ass, staring up at her in shock.

She hadn't noticed that she'd been shaking in fear with a ghastly white face. The group was staring at her, some in apprehension and a couple with concern.

Adelaide knew she'd just scared the shit out of them.

There was something wrong with her, and now they all knew it.

"Well lookie 'ere. We got ourselves a lil' spitfire, don't we?" A deep southern voice boomed behind her, laughing loudly. "Pushed the lil' Asian boy right down on 'is tiny motherfuckin' ass!"

She turned around and saw two rednecks. One of them was slapping his knee in amusement, like he got almost too much enjoyment out of what'd happened. The other was staring right at her, into her eyes.

He was staring at her with steel blue eyes.

That blue-eyed stranger.