This is a time jump to near the end of season 2. We follow Eric's point of view right the way through. Things will be changed about the canon storyline and certain characters will survive and certain characters will die. I will just follow where the story takes me.
I just want to say a quick thank you to the people already supporting me in such early stages. It really is a great inspiration to continue writing so thank you very much :)
Enjoy the next chapter.
A few weeks later: 5.04pm.
"It's getting darker. We should find somewhere to camp... Off the highway." I insisted strongly, after the past few weeks I wasn't ashamed to say that the highway scared the absolute shit out me.
"We got at least another hour of light." Leon pointed out quietly.
"And we'll need it to set up camp." I explained.
"Right." He said, sighing heavily.
"I know bro... We're both tired." I said as he slowed the Jeep down a little bit.
"We should've stayed at the farm, I knew this was... Fuck me!" He said in frustration. I looked out to what he was angry at and saw a pileup on the highway ahead. "We don't have time for this shit." He said, pulling a u-turn and heading back in the other direction.
"You going to that driveway I saw a while back?" I asked him.
He nodded and I rested the rifle between my legs and put my head back. I had been having the same dreams for a long time now. Part of the reason I had insisted we leave was because I thought it would keep me busy enough that I wouldn't think about it. But now we were out here... I knew I had been fooling myself. I had no idea what was driving me... whether it was fear, pride, anger, or depression... I felt myself seeking out the violence. Leon had commented on some of the more brutal kills that I had done since we left. He knew Rochelle but he didn't know how involved we were and he certainly didn't know anything about any baby.
I just couldn't tell him, back before this all happened... I couldn't tell him what my plan was. We had been together for so long and close for so long but I was afraid that it would push him away, or make him feel like he wouldn't be welcome. I wanted him to stay. But I was planning to move Rochelle into the farm at King County with us, in fact it was about a week ago that we had planned for me to pick her up. Before King County we lived in Lexington in Kentucky for five years. Me and Rochelle had met during that time. We had fallen in love very quickly before her pig headed brothers tried to drive me away. I put one of them in hospital and her parents took her away from me and made her stay at a relatives, far away. Leon didn't know about any of this.
I followed her and found her at her relatives in Indiana and stayed in a motel for a week before going home. We met up every day. It was then that I had gotten her pregnant. We moved away to King county and two months later she rang me and let me know. I had been so overjoyed, I promised her there and then that I would come and get her and we could be together.
Now... well now she was... I don't know... Gone? Dead? Alive? Safe? How could I possibly know, I didn't even know if she was still in Indiana, there were so many places to look and all of them were far too dangerous to even contemplate with only the two of them. He still couldn't accept it, but yet he still carried on. Surviving day to day.
"Here it is." Leon said with a grin. "Finally."
I opened my eyes and looked out the windscreen. "How many houses do you think are down here?"
"I saw a lot of letter boxes. I couldn't count them though." He muttered.
"We should clear one out." I said, grabbing his rifle again and looking around out the window. "Woah! Hey!" I said in a hushed whisper. "Roll slow." I said warningly. Leon complied and looked through the scope at the farmhouse in view.
There were multiple tents up amongst a small grouping of trees and I could see a fire burning amongst the camp. There were people staying there. I signalled him to move forward and we drove off to where there was more dense forest, just beyond a large barn.
We stopped a fair way up the rode and hid the jeep behind a large gorse bush. We unloaded the camping gear and climbed down the ridge towards a clearing we saw next to the swamp. A fair way up we saw a walker stuck in the mud. Leon looked at me but I just shrugged my shoulders. "Up to you." I said as I commenced into the tent bag and began putting the contraption together. The tent we had taken from the sports shop in town could fit about six people. It was therefore ample room for the two of us and all the gear they needed with them.
It only took us about fifteen minutes to put the solid tent up and I grabbed the two roll-up foam mattresses from the back of the Jeep. Leon had insisted that we bring two of those fold up deck chairs as he wasn't a fan of sitting on wood every night for the foreseeable future, he pulled them out enthusiastically and sank into his one swiftly and let out a deep breath. I chuckled at him as I threw my pillow into the tent. I grabbed on of the bags of food and put it next to the entrance of the tent.
"Cigarette?" I heard Leon say below me.
He was holding one of his own ones up to me and I smiled at him. "Thanks man." I let it up with my lighter and Leon did the same.
"Rough day man." He commented, his breath sounded ragged.
"You should try sleeping then." I said to him with a grin as I took a puff of my cigarette.
"Speak for yourself buddy. I hear you muttering and yelling. What's that all about?" Leon asked him suddenly.
"How am I supposed to know?" I said defensively. "This is the first I'm hearing of it."
He looked at me curiously, as if he didn't believe a word I had said. "Okay Eric."
I took another puff and then threw the butt into a bush to my side. I went into the tent and relieved myself of my weapons. I unclipped my holster and belt that held my bow and quiver as well as my axe and knife. I pulled the Beretta out the back of my pants and put it on my pillow. I removed my red and black plaid shirt leaving me with a tight white sports singlet and my brown work pants and plain white high top sneakers.
"We should know what's up in that camp..." I said loudly.
I heard Leon get up from his chair and heard the rustle of his rifle as he slung it over his back. "Back in twenty." He said plainly before lightly jogging off back towards the barn.
I lay down on my mattress an went into the backpack that I had claimed and used to carry general items. I found the picture that I kept inside. It was one I had taken with a disposable camera. It was a photo of Me and Rochelle lying in bed at the motel I was at. In the photo we are both laughing hysterically and she is snuggled into my chest. Every time I look at this picture it makes we cringe and I have to go through the ritual of fighting back more tears. The sight of her smile is what gets me the most. In that smile I could see so much. Trust, happiness, comfort... love. Rochelle had loved me, I was as sure of it as I was sure of anything in my entire life. I had left without her to escape her family's wrath. I had always assumed there would be more time for me to ready myself for the beginning of our life together. But how the fuck could I have foreseen this?
"I'm sorry baby." I whispered, stroking the photo gently and lovingly.
I place the photo back in it's special slot in the backpack and zip the thing back up. There was already plenty of wood scattered around on the floor, about a week ago there had been a storm with alarmingly high winds. There had been branches and other debris scattered everywhere on the roads and in the towns... It was a handy thing to be honest, back before the turn they would have cleared it all off the road, but now if you needed firewood, it was at your feet.
I went down to the swamp and watched the walker that was stuck in the mud, it hadn't caught sight of me yet, its back was turned and it was simply wriggling with little dedication as he gargled and moaned with hunger. I found a few big rocks and piled them on top of my forearms. It was a bit of a mission lugging them all back up the hill in one go but I managed after a while. The fire was built swift enough, that part I was good at, and I lit it and sat next to it softly breathing on it as it ignited the twigs that I had collected from nearby. The fire caught to life well and I smiled at my accomplishment. I heard a groan from nearby and knew it wasn't the idiot stuck in the mud, I scampered into the tent keeping low and drew the combat knife from where I had dropped my holster and belt.
I ran back outside and slammed the knife into the top of the walker's head with a hell of a lot of momentum, we both crashed to the ground and I kneeled over him as I placed my knee into his head and wrenched my knife out. I suddenly heard another behind me and kicked out with my left leg catching the walker on the knee, I heard the snap and saw it crumple to the ground, blood was pouring from the woman walker's knee as I saw the bone snapped and poking out, she writhed and reached up at me from the ground, snarling and growling all the while. I kneeled down and swiftly slid the knife in and out of its head and it fell lifelessly to the ground.
I stood up and panted heavily taking in my surroundings again and once more finding peace and quiet. I sighed and grabbed the walker woman's legs and dragged her to the edge of the bank and rolled her down towards the swamp. I did the same with the first that I had killed and sat down in Leon's deck chair heavily. I grabbed the bottle of water from his backpack and took a big swig.
"Jesus." I heard from behind me, Leon was back. "How many?"
"Only two. No big deal." I said briefly. "The camp?"
"I saw Rick, Lori and Carl... And Shane" He added in amazement.
"They're here!?" I asked enthusiastically. Rick made it. And he found his family. "What a miracle." I mentioned.
"They look like they've been through the wars man." Leon said quietly again.
"We shouldn't decide anything until we've talked to Rick. And we shouldn't just go strolling up there." I said cautiously.
"Why not? Rick knows us." He said in confusion. "It seemed like he was the leader."
"Rick's leading?" I said happily. "That's a plus."
"Let's just rest here, see them tomorrow." Leon said as he looked at me carefully.
"I was about to start cooking... when they attacked." I said to him frustratedly.
"We shouldn't cook anyway. Camp might smell it. Let's just have a few of those bars and the rest of that chicken that we cooked the other night." Leon said, rummaging through the bags of food.
"Food fit for a king." I muttered, sinking into the chair and sighing as I got comfortable.
The next morning: 8.56am
Leon had been a much more successful hunter than me since we left. That was why he was now out there rounding up anything he could find, we had already eaten breakfast, but it paid to keep ahead of yourself we had found. Always looking to increase every supply we thought was a necessity.
I was just getting changed out of the sweaty clothes I had used yesterday. The day was incredibly sunny and I decided to put on a hooded grey t-shirt with polo buttons and pulled the hood up to hide my shaggy blonde hair. I pulled on a pair of straight blue faded jeans and pushed my feet back into my white high tops. I wrapped the holster around my left shoulder and clipped it to the belt at the back and on my right side. I slung the bow around onto my back and clipped it into the holder that kept it in place on my back. I decided to finally attach the shoulder holster that clung to the skin in front of my left armpit and held my Beretta. I slipped the silencer into my back pocket and grabbed the quiver that was filled with fourty-five arrows and slid it into place in front of the bow. The combat knife in its sheath hung loosely against my thigh and clipped to the belt and the tomahawk was sitting casually in a steel holster for a hammer from a tool belt.
I walked out to where the ashes of last night's fire sat and I grabbed another energy bar from the bag of food on the ground. I ripped into it and devoured it hungrily. There wasn't much for me to do now but wait. I pulled the combat knife out of the sheath and began practising a few left hand knife throws at a knot in one of the tree trunks next to out tent. Most of them were terrible misses, but after about ten minutes I began to understand the technique needed for a good throw and the knife started driving deeper and deeper into the tree.
I finished up soon after that as my left arm was aching badly and my forehead was dripping with sweat. I wiped my face with a rag that was hanging on a branch next to the tent and suddenly heard a twig snap somewhere out there. It wasn't just a sound of the forest. It sounded forced to me and I very quietly approached the edge of the bank and poked my head up as I crouched to see down towards the swamp. There was a young adolescent wearing a hoodie and a sheriff's hat carrying a Beretta. The sight almost made me laugh... until I recognised Carl Grimes. He looked like he was sneaking... hiding something. He didn't seem to be looking for anyone but I saw him look at the dead walkers that I had rolled down the hill. He kicked one of them in the head and tripped over. I had to laugh into me shirt then, doing my best to keep quiet. I heard the walker in the mud start moaning and looked back over the ridge, the branches on a tree were blocking my eye line and I very swiftly unsheathed my bow and leapt down the hill.
I found myself sliding awkwardly but in a controlled manner, I felt myself collide with a tree and braced myself. The pain was there but I was able to ignore it as I saw Carl standing eye to eye with the walker and aiming at its head. His face was scared and I knew he was balking. I saw the walker's legs wriggling free and as quickly as I could I nocked an arrow to the string and pulled and released in one fluid motion. The arrow punched into it's skull and I noticed the flash before I noticed the blood spray out of the back of the walker's head. Leon just shot it... I realised... Leon's been watching too. I chuckled to myself and slid down the rest of the bank towards where Carl had once again tripped over as he looked with horror at the dead walker. I but the bow back into the clip and stalked over towards him, skilfully running across the log to the other side of the swamp, avoiding all the mud.
"Are you crazy kiddo?" I asked him as I approached.
He looked frightened but he did his best to put on some kind of brave face. "No I'm just..."
"It was a rhetorical question." I said simply. "I take it you don't remember me?" I asked him with a grin.
"Am I supposed to?" He asked with an attitude.
I tutted at him. "You outta learn to rein in your tongue buddy, it could get you hurt one day. I didn't expect you to remember me, we only met twice." I told him, staring into his eyes.
"Did... Did you work with my father?" He asked after a while.
"Sort of, I was new in town."
"Eric...?" He asked looking at me, his scared scowl slowly becoming a wide grin.
"Yes it's me." I held my hand up to him as he tried to speak. "And yes. I am more than a little hurt you didn't recognise me."
"Have you been following us?" He asked curiously.
"We just found you yesterday, we were hoping to catch your father alone, maybe you could get a message to him for us?" I asked him with high hopes.
Carl looked defensive and worried. "What do you want with him?"
"To catch up, talk, see what's what." I said simply. "Believe it or not the man was my friend."
"We got a little camp just up the hill there." Leon said as he approached from the trees with hardly any noise accompanying him.
"Should've known you two would both survive. Dad told us about you taking him in that day." Carl said, looking at them with a smile.
"We're real glad he found you. I hope he can keep you all safe Carl, I really do, but we need to speak to him now. Will you deliver our message or not?" I asked him impatiently.
Carl smiled at me. "Okay sure." He said, he spun on his heel to trudge through the filth again.
He got about ten metres away and I looked at the ground and saw his Beretta in the mud. "Hey!" I called out to him. I emptied the chamber and flicked the gun at him. He caught it expertly and smiled at himself and carried it back with him as he made his way back to the farm.
"Strange boy." Leon muttered.
"He wants to be strong and protect people... Like Rick." I said, watching the young boy leave.
Leon chuckled. "And you?"
"All I need to protect is you and me." I said to him for the hundredth time.
"Mm-Hm." Leon said with a smug grin. "We'll see. So you don't want to take in with this group?"
"Why would I? We have more supplies than we need and we can protect each other easier than we can a whole group of people. I just want to know how Rick is doing." I assured him.
"And then the first sob story you hear we'll be out risking our necks for some shit favour for some shit heads with a shit reward." Leon said, as he started trudging back towards the hill towards camp.
I watched him as he walked away. He had an attitude the last few days; I wasn't sure what was causing it. He had been hearing my nightmares; maybe he is just upset I won't share with him. I didn't want to, it was too hard to even think about on my own, let alone having to listen to someone else say how sorry they were. He was already sorry enough himself. It had even driven him to the thought of pulling the pistol out of his armpit and pulling the trigger into his temple but he was too stubborn to do that. He refused to give up. It was weak and pathetic, and that was definitely not how he wanted to look when he died.
I followed him up the hill and cleaned the arrow I had used on the rag. "Do you not want to take in with a group?" I asked him curiously.
"I just want to know what we are doing Eric!" Leon snapped. "We drift, from house to house, looting any structure we see. What kind of life is this? Is it worth the struggle?" He said emotionally.
"So you do want to take in with a group?" I asked him in confusion.
"Did I say that!?" He asked furiously.
I raised my hands defensively. "Jesus... okay."
"We take in with some group, your gonna spend every single day, every single second doing everything you can to help everyone. And then in a week's time... or two weeks time... you'll be dead... And then I really won't know what the fuck to do." He complained, walking into the tent.
I couldn't believe he was opening up like this. He never talked like this with me before in my entire life, it made me happy that he felt he needed to make his opinion known. "I'm not going to die." I said plainly.
"You don't know that." Leon said sadly from inside.
"Yes I do. I just said. I will not die." I told him confidently.
"Rochelle... The dreams... you're always saying her name... is that Lexington Rochelle?" He asked quietly and nervously, comng back out of the tent.
I looked away and remained silent, I wasn't ready to speak about this, I wasn't even ready to tell Leon I wasn't ready. "Did something happen with her?" He asked me, trying to prompt me to speak.
"Why are you dreami..." He began to say.
"I can't Leon." I said, looking at him sharply as I tried to keep my voice cool. "Talk about it." I added as he looked at me in confusion.
"Hey! Who's out here!?" I heard a strong voice call out from the hill. I heard the leaves of the bush behind me rustle and I smirked as I saw Rick walking over the hill in front of me. Leon aimed the rifle at Rick's head and he held his hands up.
"I just got the revolv... Eric!?" He asked, with a wide grin. "Jesus it is... and Leon. Christ boys, it's great to see you." He said excitedly as he approached them speedily.
"You also, why don't you introduce me to your friend?" I asked him, nodding my head towards where I heard the bushes rustle.
I heard the sound again and turned to see a redneck holding a crossbow loosely at his side shuffle sheepishly out of the foliage. "I'm Eric, a friend of Ricks." I said simply, holding my hand out to the man.
His voice was grunty and hard, he sounded as if everything annoyed him in some way. "Daryl... Dixon."
"You seem to have made some nice new friends." Leon said, clapping Rick on the back as they hugged.
"Their all good people, I promise." He said looking into Eric's eyes. "I hope you've..."
"No sorry. We aren't looking to join any big group. We just wanted to make sure that you were doing okay. How's it all been?" I asked him with a great amount of concern.
Rick sat on one of the deck chairs and Daryl paced back and forth watching our surroundings with his bow at the ready. The redneck peaked my curiousity and I felt myself hoping to get to know the man, but I realised it was a stupid thought, we were not staying. Not now. "We lost a few people... really good people... early on." He said, his eyes were emotional but his voice remained strong. "Lately, it's been quiet. Until I was attacked in town by a group of bandits. We all got swarmed and one of their men, a boy no older than you, got left behind. We saved him and brought him back and now we have to decide what to do with him." He said, his head in his hands.
"So quite a bit then?" I asked with a laugh. "This group he belonged to? You know anything about them."
Daryl approached then. "I had a strong word with the guy, told me all sorts of stories about rape, torture, robbery. They're a bunch of violent thugs."
"You're worried about whether or not you should let him go or kill him. Morality versus safety..." I said carefully
"Rock and a hard place." Leon muttered.
"Shane... He's making it hard for me... calling me out on every decision, never giving me a moments rest. He wants to kill the kid. I know that we probably should... I just... It's too hard... He's a damn human being."
"He's a scumbag." Leon said simply.
"He claims he never took part in the violence." Daryl said to them swiftly.
"He's alive, that means he's a survivor. A survivor will tell you exactly what he needs to in order to survive, id have said the same thing in his place, give myself more time to try and slip the cuffs." I said, looking at them carefully. "Even if he didn't take part in it, he condoned it by not taking a stand."
"I've told myself all of this over and over Eric, don't worry." Rick said distantly, Daryl looked a little frustrated and I had an idea suddenly.
"This man, what is his name?" I asked Daryl.
"Randall." He replied instantly.
"Yes... Randall, and his friends, his group of thugs and criminals murdered my father in our camp a few weeks ago, I've come across your camp looking for prisoners and it just so happens that Randall is one of the men I recognise from that fateful night. I take care of your problem of my own accord and get your pest off of your back for a while." I said slowly as they started to comprehend what I was talking about.
Rick looked at me curiously. "And what do you want?"
"Little food wouldn't hurt. Some gas if you've got it. However much you feel like giving me in return." I said carefully.
Rick was thinking it through, Leon was chuckling to himself as he looked at me and I smiled at him. "The guys gotta die one way or the other. An outside party is always a handy asset."
"Say your cousin, not your father, Shane could remember you didn't have parents." He said, he stood up suddenly and shook hands with both of them. "Thank you for your help with this."
"Our pleasure Deputy." Leon said with a grin.
"I ain't a cop any more." Rick assured them both.
"We'll come by at night time for dramatic effect." I told them as they made their way back to camp. I looked back at Leon and we both sniggered with laughter.
That night: 8.22pm
"Ladies and gentlemen I'm sorry but you may want to shield the children's eyes." I told them with a snarl as I pulled out the combat knife. I had done my best to avoid taking in any of the survivors in the camp, it was better for me and Leon's plan if I didn't try to get to know any of the people that were here. We had showed up about ten minutes ago and I had made a big speech to them all... all empty words filled with fake emotion and false accusation.
Randall had a blindfold on and Leon was holding his throat open by the guy's hair and I loosely held the knife in my grip as I walked towards the man. Everybody except, Rick, Daryl, Shane and the old man that owned the farm left. I reached Randall and let out a fake emotional scream as I plunged the knife into the man's ribs and stomach and listening to him gargle on his own blood. This is to protect Rick's group. I told myself as I sliced the knife along Randall's throat and blood came pouring out like the Niagara Falls.
I stared at the body as it fell to the ground, lifeless, and felt a cold sensation shiver through me. I couldn't feel anything else, no emotion, no pain, no wind or ground. All I could feel was that chill and it went to my very core.
"It's done man." I heard Leon say. "She's avenged."
I looked at him and nodded hazily and he grabbed my arm. I couldn't even face any of these people. I had just murdered some boy I knew nothing about in exchange for supplies. Leon dragged me out of the barn and apologised to everyone as he lead me back towards our camp.
We had gotten at least five minutes away from the barn when I heard the footsteps following us. Leon let go of me and whirled around, pulling out his machete and watching as Shane approached from behind. "What the hells wrong with him? Shouldn't he be celebrating?"
"He just took a human life Shane, Jesus, what are you following us for?" Leon asked him.
"I just wanted to hear about the attack on his cousin." Shane asked him.
"Why?" I groaned distantly, looking at him hazily. "Why... Why would... why would you want me to relive it... again. It's played through my mind enough Shane." I said to him, my voice rising as emotions suddenly started coming back to me. "Go back to you fucking camp and stay out of my emotions you freak." I told him before stalking off towards the bush with Leon in tow.