Author's Note : Holy shit you guys thank you all so much for the follows and watches, it's a real honour! I'm glad you like it already! xo
Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of the characters, however I do own Riley Addams.
Chapter Two
"She aint awake yet?" Daryl mumbled as he watched the other campers start to build a small fire. The night was drawing in and the new girl still hadnt seemed to have awoken yet. All he'd seen all afternoon was Lori and Andrea going in and out of the tent, taking it it turns to watch over her, just in case she woke up and freaked out.
"Dont git your panties in a bunch there sweetheart" Merle snarled sarcastically, wiping squirrel bits off of his hunting knife. "She'll be up soon and then you can git to stickin the wood to her"
"Aint like that" Daryl growled, his face flushing a little as Morales and his wife glanced over, visibly shocked at Merle's 'joke'. His brother chuckled
"Calm it Darylina I'm only messin" Daryl rolled his eyes, going back to tinkering with his bow. He wouldnt admit it, but he was starting to get a little worried about the kid, she was in a pretty bad state when they found her. And the other people around camp with starting to get a little...funny about having a total stranger lying unconscious in Lori's bed.
"We dont even know her name" Jim poked the small fire to encourage it a little "How do we know that she can be trusted?"
"From the looks of it, she's pretty safe" Dale said, always the optimist "Poor girl only had a baseball bat on her, I saw Merle going through her bag. Just had clothes and a journal in it. Not even a bottle of water, she must be seriously dehydrated."
"And starving" whispered Amy, hugging her knees to her chest as a barrier against the gentle evening breeze.
"We all are" said Andrea, rubbing her sisters' shoulders. She turned around and looked over her shoulder as she heard Lori coming out of her tent.
"She's awake" she said.
When Riley awoke, it was dark. And cold. And her head felt like she'd been in a barfight and lost. She groaned and rolled over, and fell.
"What the..."she grumbled, groggy and disorientated. The ground felt...weird. Cold and plasticky. It eventually dawned on her that she was in a tent. She wasn't in a tent a few hours ago. "The fuck?!" gasped, jumping off the ground and standing up. Yep, definately a tent. With two beds in it, one being the one she just managed to fall out of. She felt around in the dark for her bag, and her bat, neither were to be found. Oh shit. Fuck no this wasnt happening. She'd been caught by some damn hillbillies and now she was gonna be dinner. But..if they were gonna eat her...why did they bandage her up? She looked down at her arm in confusion. That fucking branch must have sliced her a lot deeper than she'd thought. She proceeded to unravel the bandage hastily, wanting to get the hell out of her as fast as possible. With her skin still attached to her body, preferably.
"I wouldnt advise doing that" Riley shat her pants at the sound of a woman's voice, she spun around to come face to face with a tall, thin woman with long brown hair. Riley stepped back and tripped over something hard, landing on her ass, looking up at the woman.
"Look, lady, if you're gonna eat me just do it quickly. And as pain free as possible for me...I dont do good with pain" she begged, ashamed of herself for sounding like such a pussy. SHe frowned when the woman chuckled lightly.
"We aren't gonna eat you, honey. Daryl and Merle found you in the woods, you passed out and the cut on your arm needed treating. They brought you back to our camp and me and Andrea have been looking after you."
Who the fuck was she talking about? Who were these weird people that just picked up people in the woods and brought them into their camp? Who would do that? Especially now. "I'm Lori, Lori Grimes, by the way" she said, extending a thin hand towards Riley, offering to help her up. Riley eyed her up and down before taking her hand.
"Riley Addams" she groaned, as Lori pulled her up. "Well, thanks I guess, for the help."
"It's no problem, we've all gotta look out for each other nowadays, right?" Lori smiled and Riley nodded "Would you like to meet everyone else? Theyve all been asking about you"
"Uh, well I was just gonna grab my things and be on my way, dont wanna be any trouble"
"Please" Lori scoffed "We have room for one more, and by the sounds of your accent, you're not from around here" she acknowledged, handing Riley her backpack.
"Woodbridge, New Jersey" Riley gave Lori a half smile, throwing one strap of her bag over her shoulder, hissing at the sharp pain in her arm.
"Careful!" Lori panicked, frowning slightly "You're a long way from home"
Riley shifted uneasily, looking down at her feet.
"Yeah" she mumbled and Lori figured she didnt want to talk about it. "Little bit" The two women emerged from the tent, and Riley felt the eyes of a dozen or so strangers all on her. The small group by the fire all got to their feet, making their way over to her and Lori, but she noticed two men sat by their own fire, just staring, not getting up.
"That's the Dixon brothers, Daryl, the younger one and Merle. They found you and Daryl carried you back." explained Lori. Riley felt her face blush a little as her eyes connected with the younger Dixon, who scowled and quickly turned away, climbing into the blue pick up truck parked next to their tent. Merle, the older man, winked at her. Riley smiled weakly back. Soon enough, after pleasentries had been exchanged and introductions made, she found herself sitting with everyone around the fire, telling them a bit about herself.
"So...what's New Jersey like?" asked Carl, his eyes shining with fascination.
"Uh..to be honest it's a hole" laughed Riley, and the others joined in "But it's home"
"Did that hurt?" piped up a small girl, named Sophia, gesturing to her nose, referring to Riley's piercing, before she was quickly shushed by her father, a mean, ugly man who she was told was named Ed.
"Just you shush now. You aint gonna be gettin' no whore piercin' like that when you're older" he snarled, glaring at Riley, who scoffed.
"Nah it didnt hurt honey, but this one did" she grinned, poking out her tongue showing her silver stud off. "Whorish enough for ya Ed?" she teased, she loved picking fights. Ed growled and yanked Sophia and his wife, Carol, a scared looking woman, who was staring at Riley in shock, into their tent. "Prick"
"So, Riley, that was a pretty cool bat you were carrying, girl. You play?" asked T-Dog, handing over her melee weapon of choice. She nodded.
"Was on the girl's team in high school, Little League and all that stuff, almost had the chance to play professionally. I turned it down though, my dad said it wasn't a realistic career choice" she huffed, staring into the fire "So I chose the glamourous life of retail instead. Helped my dad run his hunting store."
"And of all weapons to grab during the apocalypse, you grab a baseball bat?" asked Andrea in disbelief.
"Well, considering I was in Georgia when all shit broke loose, and I had no idea where to go, I just grabbed it from a WalMart." she shrugged "Besides, guns run out of ammo and they're loud, one swift swing with this baby and those biters dont stand a chance" she winked.
"You any good with a gun then? Working in a hunting store must have had it's benefits" asked Shane, looking her up and down, it was obvious he didnt trust her as much as the others already did.
"We had to know enough about the guns in order to sell them, which included how to use them, so yeah, I'm a good shot. I'll make myself useful if thats what you're hinting at" Riley stared back at him. She didnt take anyone's shit, especially ex-cops with a God complex. Shane huffed and nodded. As the night got colder, many of the campers returned to their tents. Riley stood up from the cold, hard ground and stretched, yawning. Dale put an arm on her shoulder.
"I found a spare tent in my RV, I took the liberty of setting it up for you, it's over there" he said kindly, pointing towards the small tent inbetween Lori and Carl's and the Dixons'.
"Thanks, man" she smiled at him, picking up her stuff and walking over to her new home away from home. She noticed the Dixons' just putting out their fire. She wasnt great at sparking up conversations with strangers, but they did save her life, so, what the hell.
"Well hello there Sleepin' Beauty" jeered Merle, chucking water over their fire "Have a nice nap? You lookin' mighty cosy over there already, thought you was never gonna grace us with your presence"
"Uh, sorry, i got caught and they wouldnt let me go" she smiled weakly and Merle chuckled. Daryl emerged from their tent. "I just thought I'd come over and say thanks, and hi, and I'm Riley" she offered her hand out to Daryl, who just looked at it as if it were diseased.
"Daryl" he growled, she nodded at him stiffly. He was cute, with the bluest eyes she'd ever seen on a guy, but right now, the dickish attitude outweighed the cute.
"And I'm Merle" the older brother leered, as he took her hand and kissed it "If you ever need anythin' sugar, you just come see ol' Merle, he'll sort ya out" he winked at her again "Pretty little thang, do anythin' for ya"
"Thanks?" she said, feeling her face flush as both brothers eyed her up and down. "Well uh, thanks again, g'night"
"G'night honey" called Merle as she climbed into her tent, rolling her eyes. She knew guys like Merle all too well. Only interested in three things : booze, fighting and fucking. Yeah she enjoyed all three of those herself, but she made sure to stay away from guys like that. She smiled as she saw Dale had laid out a sleeping bag and pillow for her. She rummaged around in her backpack for some sort of night wear, eventually finding her shorts and a black cami top. She stripped off and changed, careful not to lift her wounded arm too high. She settled in to her sleeping bag, sighing contently. This sure beats sleeping in a tree, like she had done for the past...God knows how long. Only choice she had, the forest was crawling with those things, and she couldnt be on guard 24/7, girl's gotta have her beauty sleep. She yawned one more time before closing her eyes, eventually falling into a deep sleep, unwillingly dreaming of a certain Dixon and his piercing blue eyes.