Chapter 2

Ayce lightly tapped her chin with her index finger, her eyes glazing over and focusing again. Her gaze met Lilith's, her question known, but unspoken. She leaned forward, allowing platinum blonde curls to fall on either side of her face. She rest her elbows on her knees, blue eyes never leaving her step sister's green ones.

"So. What did you do this time that made him call you a whore?"

Ayce was generally a patient person, but her sister's crap was getting old.

Lilith chuckled and looked out the little window their tent had, fixing her eyes on the man in question.

"I only kissed him. If it weren't for the cop, I'd have done more."

The color red seemed to be a close friend of Ayce's, for she kept seeing it so often. She wasn't sure why the brunet's comment made her blood boil. Maybe it was because she was tired of it all. The situation, her tendency to be a princess, or maybe her outright slutness. Ayce shook her head and scowled. "Why must you act like that? You're better than that."

Lilith sighed and stood, straightening her skirt as she did so. Without answering, she stalked from the tent, leaving Ayce alone with a very quiet Annalyn.

Ayce sighed again, pinching the bridge of her nose. She winced as she took a deep breath. Annalyn scooted over to where she sat, giving her a motherly look. "Lift your shirt so I can check it." Ayce complied without a fuss. She stretched out on the ground of the tent and trained her eyes on the top part of the tent while Annalyn poked and prodded at the gash. "Well, it's not getting infected, but it will leave a scar. You need to be resting. Any more of this walking around and picking fights, you're going to end up tearing it open again."

Ayce nodded and a small smile crossed her lips. "Yes mother…"

Annalyn smirked and patted the other blonde's head before standing up. "It's dinner time, but I don't want you moving. I'll bring you your plate." She tossed her last sentence over her shoulder as she walked out, running her fingers though her hair.

Whereas Ayce had large curls that were almost waves, Annalyn was stuck with plain, flat hair. Her sister's was lighter than her own gold color, but they were thankful for the difference. It was really the only way to tell them apart, they looked so much alike. And most could tell that Lilith wasn't really related to them, with her chocolate brown waves and green eyes.

Annalyn approached the fire and plopped down next to the woman with the short hair, Carol. The woman smiled at this, which Annalyn returned. She glanced around as she was handed a bowl of some sort of stew, her face twisting with confusion. "Hey, where's Lilith?" As she voiced her question, Lori walked up to their little group. "Has anyone seen Shane?"

Over in his own little world, Daryl could be heard snickering, barely able to keep his laughter in. Annalyn shot a glare in his direction before standing. "Could someone bring a bowl to Ayce? I'm going to find Lilith."

Annalyn didn't wait to hear their response. They were good people, and wouldn't let Ayce go without eating in her condition.

It wasn't for a good while before she heard rustling in the bushes behind her. She felt the adrenaline course though her, and she mentally scolded herself for going without a weapon. The thing reached her, popping out of the foliage and making her jump.

"Daryl, what the hell? Make some noise or something. What are you doing here?"

The redneck shrugged. "You went without a weapon, and besides, you probably can't track to save your life." Annalyn sighed and shook her head. "No, I really can't…"

Daryl nodded and walked in front of her, crossbow ready. He was the first to break the silence as they walked.

"So, I do wonder why you two do all of this. Not that I care, but neither of you seem to like the stepsister all that much, so why defend her? Why go looking for her when she's most likely screwing around in the bushes?"

Annalyn raised an eyebrow at his questions. "Sounds like someone does care, but smarty pants, how do you know she's our stepsister? We never said she was."

Daryl glanced back with a funny look on his face before facing forward again. "You mean to tell me that two blue-eyed blondes are blood related to a green-eyed brunet? No way. And no, I don't care. Just curious."

Annalyn rolled her eyes, but before she could consider answering him, a noise was heard of to their right. Whatever was doing it was too big to be an animal. Daryl walked with caution, Annalyn a little more careless. She rushed ahead of him blindly. She heard him yell for her to stop, but she kept going. Upon entering the clearing, she did a complete 180, yelling as she did so.

"Oh, God! Really Lilith?!"

Daryl came out of the trees, an amused expression on his face. "Well, what do you know? I was right." He lowered his crossbow and gave a side glance at Annalyn, who was facing her sister again, her expression very different from his own.

Annalyn was livid. Lilith couldn't even go through the end of the world without trying to screw someone.

Lilith was currently backed against a tree, her leg wrapped around Shane's waist and her arms around his neck. Thankfully, the only clothing that seemed to be missing was Shane's shirt. Lilith was set on the ground as Shane turned around to make up some sort of an excuse.

Before the words left his lips, Annalyn held up her hand, silencing him. She grabbed Lilith by the wrist and pulled her off towards the camp. Daryl shook his head and followed.

Ayce, to say the least, was mad. Her shouting seemed to echo throughout the hills, waking people from their sleep, and amusing the redneck.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! You think you can just walk off into the woods to screw someone?! Have you forgotten that I'm still in charge of you? You must seem to think that you are better than everyone, walking off unprotected and disobeying! You are alive now because I've set certain rules, and you think that you can break them the first chance you get! Why?"

At this point, a sort of crowd had gathered, but not in the obvious sense. No, they kept their distance.

Ayce was in the brunet's face, much like she had done Daryl. Lilith tried to keep a bored expression, but a hint of fear was under that. She shrugged her shoulders, taking to examining her nails. "It's not like you're my mother…"

Ayce narrowed her eyes and sneered. "No, I'm not. We don't have one anymore. And who's fault is that?" Lilith put her hand down and got faced Ayce with equal distain. "Your mother was the dumb fuck who married Dad."

A loud SMACK was heard through the camp, and it seemed even the crickets went silent. Ayce's hand stung, but not as much as Lilith's face. Her cheek was bright cherry red, and her eyes watered. She slowly raised a hand to gently touch the already swelling skin.

Lilith narrowed her eyes, almost not believing that Ayce actually hit her. She balled up that hand, and she swung. Ayce stepped back to evade it, but wasn't counting on her shoulder ramming into her stomach. She yelped at the pain that struck her, the wound on her side bleeding freshly. She dropped to her knees, clutching her stomach.

By then, the ones who had rushed from the group to break up the fight had reached them. Analyn had waited this argument out in the tent, but had untangled herself from blankets when she heard the smack. She now stood at the entrance of their tent, slightly shocked at Ayce, but not that shocked.

Ayce clutched her side, gasping slightly. She felt someone pick her up and lead her to the RV mumbling something about stitching her back up. Someone lead Lilith away to get looked at. Ayce shook her head, surprised by her train of thought.

She won't last much longer…

She was sat down in the RV, the person moving about, gathering supplies. Needle, thread, gauze, tape, and alcohol.

"I'm not a doctor, but Anna said that you had some training. So, you can probably take care of that yourself, right?"

Ayce looked up, the confusion written all over her face. Questions ran through her head, but only one came out.

"You call her Anna?"

Daryl laughed softly and shrugged. "Well, Annalyn is kind of a mouthful. So, yea, Ana."

Ayce felt her lips twitch, the smile trying to hide itself. She lifted her shirt, removed the bandage from earlier, and poured the alcohol on it, cleaning the blood off. She hissed at the pain, but kept at it. When the majority of the blood was gone, she plucked the broken strands from her skin and grabbed the needle and thread. She took a deep breath and began the stitching. Only a few had been ripped open, so the task didn't take long.

Ayce set the bloodied needle down and reached for the gauze. However, the object was snatched from her reach. She looked up to see Daryl. "You're still here?" He shrugged at her question and answered gruffly. "Yep." He motioned for her to move her hands out of the way as he knelt in front of her. She obliged, a strange look crossing her features. He didn't meet her gaze as he placed the gauze over the new stitching, or when he applied the tape.

He didn't say anything after that, just stood and left the RV. Ayce kept a look of indifference as she cleaned up and went back to their tent to sleep.

She woke late the next morning. Lilith and Annalyn were already up and gone, doing different things around the campsite. Well, Annalyn was. Lilith didn't like manual labor.

Ayce ran her fingers though her bedhead, attempting to get her curls under control. She glanced about the tent, finally noticing that their things were here.

'Where did they find the time to get it here…?'

She didn't think too hard on it; she was grateful that her bow was here. The backup arrows were there as well, reminding her that she broke the others. That made her grimace. The thought of going through the task of making more did not appeal to her.

She searched her bag for her brush, one of the very few things she carried that were luxuries. After taming the wild mess, she walked out of the tent.

Today, Ayce made it a point to get to know the other people. As it was, Carol turned out to be a very nice person, so she spent a lot of time with her. Ed, her husband, was a real piece of work. He was obviously an abusive person, which made her want to be around Carol even more to keep her safe. Their daughter was a bucket of sunshine, but didn't trust Ayce, that was for sure. Now, there were people that Ayce could live without, like Lori. Annalyn had said what they walked in on with her and Shane, then found out Rick was her husband. She understood Lori's intentions, but didn't agree with them. She disliked Shane simply for what he did with Lori and tried with Lilith. Andrea seemed okay, but very full of herself. Ayce was sure she was a lesbian; she tried so hard to be one of the guys. Dale was certainly the grandfather of the group. He was really amazing, and Ayce took to him instantly.

She knew she had to at least try to pull her weight around here, especially since they've taken such good care of her sisters and herself. She insisted on helping the ladies with their chores around the camp. She sat with Carol, washing clothes. The blonde was over joyed that she could wash her clothes finally. They were talking and laughing, and Ayce wondered how she could have ever thought that avoiding these people was a bad idea.

It wasn't long before Ed came over to them. He made comments to Carol, which angered Ayce and Andrea. Andrea opened her mouth to say something, but Ayce beat her to it. "Hey asshole. How about you go find something productive to do, and leave the woman alone. She's actually doing something, unlike you."

Ed didn't seem to like this. "She's MY wife, so you don't get a say, missy. Besides, what are you going to do, beat me like you did your sister?"

Ayce narrowed her eyes, and they were fine with throwing comments back and forth, but chaos ensued when he grabbed Carol and hit her. All the women jumped up, grabbing Carol and putting her behind them. Ayce punched Ed in the nose, causing blood to go everywhere. He stumbled back a bit, went to hit back, but was intercepted.

Shane had come to the rescue. He beat Ed to a bloody pulp, ignoring the women and their pleas for him to stop. Ayce wanted to knock some sense into Carol. The woman went over to Ed's side, apologizing. Ayce shook her head and walked to get her clothes.