Chapter 2

The next morning we got up nice and early for a small breakfast of beans, which I didn't complain about, then we got ready to do some laundry. We washed the groups of clothing on wash boards in the lake, then hung them out on a little clothesline to dry since it didn't look like it was going to rain any time soon.

Rick came out of his tent while us girls hung up the last of the clothes. He went over to Lori and told her about how he wanted to go back to Atlanta to get Merle. She was clearly not pleased with the idea, and tried to explain to him how she thought it would be a horrid mistake when screams cut through the tensing air. It was Carl's and Sophia's voices calling out for help. Lucic galloped ahead towards the screams as Jacqui and the kids ran up to us completely out of breath, thankfully none of them had been bitten.

"It's over there." Jacqui said pointing a trembling finger towards a few little trees. Jim, Dale, Rick, Shane, and I came upon the hopeless creature hunched over a deer with arrows in its side. It had torn into the deer's neck and was gorging its face with the raw meat. We all had blunt weapons with us, and once it turned to us, everyone beat it to the ground, pounding its rotting body with all of our strength. Dale ended it when he raised his ax and chopped its head off.

"This is the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain." Dale said in a very concerned tone.

"Well, they're running out of food in the cities, that's what." Jim wiped the sweat off his brow.

We all briskly turned to a rustling bush next to a stack of rocks, waiting to attack another zombie if needed. We let down our guard when a man in a sleeveless shirt, carrying a crossbow and a rope with squirrels tied to it, came out from behind the rocks. He looked down at the deer in disgust. "Son of a bitch." he said with a heavy southern accent. "That's my deer. Look at it, all gnawed on by this filthy, disease-bearing, motherless, poxy bastard." With each insult he kicked the lifeless corpse.

"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale said.

"What do you know about it old man?" He yelled, getting in Dale's face. "I've been tracking this deer for miles." he said snatching the arrows from the unusable deer carcass. He mumbled on about cooking it when Shane told him not to even risk getting anyone sick off the meat.

"Oh God." Amy said behind us, gasping at the moving decapitated head of the zombie.

"Come on, people. What the hell?" the man said. Andrea lead Amy away, as I took out my knife and slammed it through the rotting skull, right before this new man could shoot an arrow into it. I pulled the knife out, getting a few drops of blood onto my light blue shirt, and stood up facing him. He had short, wild, dirty blond hair, a light unshaven mustache and beard, along with a pair of the bluest eyes I had ever seen. I also noticed a mole on the left side of his face, right above his lips. He was thin but not scrawny, not by far. The look he gave me was a look of confusion mixed with annoyance, as if I took away the pleasure of killing the zombie from him. Oh well, he was just going to have to get over it. He smirked at me before walking past us towards the RV, where he started calling for Merle. That's what gave it away to me. This had to be the younger of the Dixon brothers, Daryl.

Shane and Rick told him about Merle being handcuffed to a roof in Atlanta. After Daryl was done yelling, and a little scuffle that involved a knife was subdued, the men decided to go back to Atlanta to get Merle and a bag of guns Rick had dropped there the day before. It was going to be Rick, Daryl, T-Dog, and Glenn who were going to go back to Atlanta. I would have volunteered, but I just didn't trust the cities enough yet to risk my life for a person I hadn't met.

For a person who just got her husband back, Lori did not seem happy with anything Rick did or said that morning. It was almost like she didn't care that he was back. I could tell that Rick felt bad for having to leave his family again, but he felt that he needed to help Merle after trapping him in the city, which I understood, but Lori I guess didn't see it that way.

About a half hour later Rick and Glenn were ready to go. Glenn sat in the driver's seat of the truck while Rick talked to Shane. I was changing Paille's water when I overheard Shane try to talk Rick out of going but he wouldn't back down. I liked Rick more for that reason. He messed up and was going to go try to fix it, no matter what anyone else said to him. Shane on the other hand looked like he had a bug up his ass anytime Rick was around him. As far as I knew, he and Rick were best friends before all this happened. Something changed in Shane, maybe it was the fear, but I knew better, Lori changed him. He craved her, but now that Rick was back in the picture, she was once again off limits to him. It must have driven him mad, and now he is going to take it out on the only person he can hold responsible for it, Rick. He was the only person in Shane's way now. But once again, it was none of my business.

I decided to take a little rest in the tent after a morning of chores, but when I unzipped the door, Lucic ran right past me with one of my favorite shirts in his mouth. "Hey come back here with that!" I yelled after him. I stupidly chased him, knowing it would only cause him to run away faster. Oddly he stopped next to the fire pit where Daryl was sitting, cleaning his arrows. I stood next to the pit, across from them. "Lucic, here." I said pointing to the ground next to my feet. Once again he was in one of his 'I can't hear you' moods, and instead of obeying me, he laid down next to Daryl who looked down at him. I walked over to them and pulled my now dirt covered shirt from his mouth, when Luna ran past us with one of my socks hanging out of her muzzle, but it was pointless chasing her. She was way too fast to catch, so I sat down next to Daryl in one of the folding chairs and sighed.

"You the new animal lady?" he looked at me from the corner of her eye.

"Yup, that's me." I breathed, petting a very warm Lucic, who just licked my hand.

"Where'd they find you?" he asked. "Not in the city."

"God no. You'd have to be crazy to stroll around the cities, even with the animals. No, Lori and Shane found me in the woods around here." I got up to go back to my tent. When I tried to get Lucic to come with me, I called his name be he wouldn't leave Daryl's side. It was very weird. Lucic liked people but he almost always listened to me above anyone else. When it was clear that he wasn't coming I said, "If he gets in your way at all, just nudge him away, he won't bite." From the corner of my eye, I saw Daryl start to pet Lucic. As big a pain in the ass I thought this guy was gonna be, he wasn't that bad actually. Yes, he has his moments but I've seen his kind before. They are like M&Ms, hard on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside. He was defiantly tough and rugged on the outside, but there was so much more to him. Maybe Amy or Andrea knew more about him.

On my way to the tent I found my sock that Luna had. It was right next to the shorts I was wearing the day before, in the dirt next to the tent. I really needed to learn to close my bags. I had nothing better to do, so I took the clothes and saddled up Paille. But first I went to look for the Andrea and Amy, they weren't in the tent, or anywhere around the camp for that matter. The group that was heading back to Atlanta had already left and neither of them were going. Well at least I thought they weren't. I went over to Dale, who was on top of the RV with his gun, keeping watch.

"Hey Dale, have you seen Amy or Andrea?"

"Yeah, they went to find some bate for fishing later. Do you need something?" he asked.

"No, I just wanted to talk to them. Do you have any laundry that was missed this morning? I have to do these." I held up the clothes my dogs had managed to dirty up.

"No, mine were all cleaned, thanks. Do you want some lunch first?" He climbed down the latter and handed the gun to Jim, who replaced him for watch.

"I'll eat if you do." I said.

"I was just heading in myself." We went into the RV to find that Jacqui had just finishing distributing leftover beans from this morning into three bowls. We each took one and sat in the booth. "So how was it you knew each other again?" Dale asked.

"Back when I was little she lived next door to us and when my parents were at work she would babysit us." I said enjoying every plastic forkful of the beans. I had always loved beans.

"Lucy, do you mind telling us what happened to your family? Where's your sister, Emily?" Jacqui asked, knowing that my story last night wasn't completely true. She knew that if my family ever got separated that we would have found one another.

"I told you we just got separated." Which wasn't a total lie, we did get separated. Jacqui knew I wasn't telling her everything, but she wasn't going to force it out of me. She dropped it, and I was thankful for it. I didn't want to think about it right now.

"If I heard you correctly, you said something about doing laundry?" She asked me.

"Yeah. My dumb dogs got into some of my clothes and got dirt all over them."

"Carol, Ed, Andrea, Amy, and I were going to do another batch after lunch. We could do it for you." she offered.

"No, I'll do it. It'll give me something to do, but thanks." I smiled at her.

"Those animals are always getting into trouble. My wife and I had a black lab named Kalie. She was the sweetest thing, but always dug in my wife's garden. It drove her crazy, but we loved her anyway." Dale said, laughing a tear away.

"That's my knuckle heads. They are sweet but pains. They'll teach me to put my stuff away." I laughed

"I'm happy to see animals again. Once you go into survival mode, you don't think of a normal life anymore. Bringing them here gave us all a taste of home." My lip started to quiver at Dale's realization.

"Dale, are you trying to make me cry all over the place?" I giggled, wiping away a stray tear. Both Dale and Jacqui laughed at my weak spot for animals and sad stories. I was always a quick one to cry, but only at feelings, never pain.

"Hey, your human." he said taking my bowl.

"Thanks for lunch, Dale." I said, following Jacqui out of the RV to gather the laundry and people. I emptied out the saddle bags and filled them with the clothes. Carol was holding open the door to the van for me.

"Lucy, you coming?" she called.

"Oh, I'm riding Paille down to the lake. I'll meet you'll down there."

"Okay." she said closing the door. I mounted Paille and started down the dirt road to the lake, with the two furry idiots at my side. When we got down to the lake I took the saddle off Paille and he and the dogs went for a swim. Andrea, Amy, Carol, and I all sat on creates and scrubbed on washboards with coarse brushes, while Jacqui rang out the clothes and put them in the clean pile. Ed on the other hand sat on the bed of the van, smoking and rubbing his perfectly fine arm.

About thirty feet away, Shane and Carl were trying to catch frogs. From where I was sitting, it looked like they weren't getting any. Jacqui looked over at Shane who was splashing in the water and asked, "Can someone explain to me how the women wound up doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?"

"The world ended. Didn't you get the memo?" Amy said. Andrea and I looked over at Ed who just stood there puffing on a cigarette, then at each other and rolled our eyes.

"I do miss my Maytag." Carol said.

"I miss my Benz." Andrea followed.

"I miss my coffeemaker with that dual-drip filter and built in grinder, honey." Jacqui swayed at the thought of a nice cup of hot coffee.

"My computer and texting." Amy looked off into the water with the longing thought of electronics.

"I'm right there with you Amy, texting and the Internet, and a nice stake wound make my day." I wished.

"I miss my vibrator." Andrea said. The rest of us were laughing with her, when Carol said, "Me too." We all lost ourselves with that one.

Ed heard us laughing and came over to see what was so funny. "Just swapping war stories, Ed." Andrea said, holding back the urge to hiss at him. He just stood over the five of us, making sure we were doing our work. Andrea was fed up with him and asked, "Problem, Ed?" He just rudely told us to work more. I couldn't take much more of him myself.

Across the water I could hear Lori arguing with Shane about her family or something, and just as soon as she came down to the lake, she stormed off with Carl, leaving Shane alone at the water's edge.

After a few more cigarettes, Andrea got up to confront him. "Ed, tell you what- you don't like how your laundry is done, you are welcome to pitch in and do it yourself. Here." She tossed a wet shirt to him. He took it and threw it right back at her, catching her off guard.

"Ain't my job missy." We all turned to face him. Even the two dogs came over to us, sensing the tension in the air.

"Andrea don't." Amy got up, trying to calm down her older sister.

"It's not worth it." I said.

"What is your job, Ed?" Andrea said angrily. "Sitting on your ass, smoking cigarettes?"

"Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some uppity smart-mouthed bitch. Tell you what- Come on. Let's go." he ordered Carol.

"I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you Ed." Andrea hissed.

"And I think it's none of your business. Come on now. You heard me." He wagged his finger at her as if she were a dog. She reluctantly got up.

"No Carol." I said to her. We tried to stop her but she almost whispered, "Please, it doesn't matter." "Hey, don't think I won't knock you on your ass, just cause you're some college-educated cooze, alright?" Andrea scoffed at him. "Now you come on now or you'll regret it later."

"So she can show up later with fresh bruises, Ed?" Jacqui barked. "Yeah, we've seen them." He just laughed to himself.

"Stay out of this, now come on. You know what? This ain't none of y'alls business. Now I am done talking, come on." He grabbed her by her arm, leading her away from us. We tried to hold her back and talk her out of it, but now it wasn't her choice. Lucic started to growl at Ed. "You don't tell me what! I tell you what. And you better shut that bitch up, or I'll do it myself. I'll knock you all your asses." he howled at me, looking down at Lucic. Carol resisted again, but this time, Ed smacked her across the face. We pushed him away from her and I pulled my knife out of its sheath and tripped him.

I slowly cut his arm and said, "Don't you dare threaten me, my dogs, or my friends ever again." Shane ran over to us and started punching Ed's face in. We tried to calm down a sobbing Carol as well as try to stop Shane without getting too close.

"You lay a hand on your wife, your little girl, or anyone else in this camp one more time, I will not stop next time. Do you hear me? Do you hear me?!" he said beating his face a few more times, just to make sure the message was received. When Shane was done, we let Carol go to her husband, whose face was swollen and bleeding. Everyone looked at Shane, as if he had gone too far. Yes, he could have killed Ed if he went any further, but did Ed not deserve the lesson? This couldn't have been the first time he had laid a hand on Carol, or anyone else. And how dare he threaten my dogs? Hopefully my little lesson with stick with him about challenging me.

Carol and Jacqui helped Ed into the van and drove him back to camp, while Amy, Andrea, and I finished the laundry. "Hey, Lucy," Amy said. "Thanks for sticking up for us."

"Thank your sister, she was the one who finally confronted him."

"Yeah, but you he'll remember not to mess with any of us with you around." Amy smiled.

"It was nothing. He was out of control." I said finishing my last shirt. Just then I remembered what I was going to ask them. "What's Daryl's story?"

"Daryl?" Andrea asked.

"Yeah."

"I don't know. He was with the group before we met up with Dale. He is the quieter one of the two, and his brother is the biggest asshole. He is hot headed and tough, but that's all I know about him." Amy said.

"Hell, I don't think anyone knows anything about him, other than his brother. Why do you ask?" Andrea nudged my arm. I just smiled down at the shirt. "Oh. That's why." she laughed.

"I've only spoken to him once. Trust me, there is nothing going on there." I laughed with her.

"Once is enough. Don't worry we'll keep your secret." Amy giggled.

"What? There's nothing to keep." I stood up and stretched.

"Hey are you going back up to camp?" Andrea asked.

"Yeah, aren't you?"

"No, Amy and I are going to see if this lake has any fish in it. If there are, we'll find them." she handed me the last of the clothes, which I put into the saddle bags. "Our dad was a big fisher and he taught us everything he knew."

"Oh, well good luck then. See y'all later." I mounted Paille and rode off to camp.