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Chapter 02 – Instincts

Faye's POV

I had been sitting by the truck for most of the morning when Jaime finally woke up and climbed out of the truck grasping his teddy bear that he never let out of his sight. I helped him out and shut the door. He grasped the hem of my shirt like usual, I guess it made him feel safer. I bent down so I would be eye level with him and started fixing the wrinkles in his clothes.

"Are you feeling alright?" I asked him and he simply nodded a yes. "Are you hungry?" he again nodded his head yes.

I looked around the camp and I saw the other four children also looked hungry and extremely tired. I told Jaime to stay close and we walked over to a slim woman with long wavy dark hair.

"Hi I'm Faye and this is James" I introduced us to her and the young boy by her side.

"I'm Lori and this is my son Carl. Thank you again for helping like you and your family did" she said holding out her hand. I simply said there was no need to as I shook her hand.

"We have some food in the bed of the truck and I was wondering if you wanted to help me find something for the kids" I stated and she gave a smile.

"That's very generous and I'd be glad to help" she replied.

Carl bent down a little to look Jaime in the eyes although Jaime looked down to the ground.

"Hi James, my name is Carl and that is my friend Sophia" he pointed to the little girl sitting at a picnic table. "Would you like to come play with us?"

Jaime squeezed on my shirt as he looked at Carl then up to me. I gave him a smile and a small nudge telling him it was fine with me and he would be safe. He looked back to Carl and nodded a yes. Carl held out his hand and Jaime took it with his free hand.

"I like your teddy bear" Carl said as he led Jaime toward the table. I heard him mumble a thank you before they were sitting at the table.

I turned and had Lori follow me to the truck. When I opened the bed the look on Lori's face made me smirk. It looked as if she though she was imagining it. We had collected a lot of imperishable food while we were in the city. We raided a hospital and got a lot of sanitized packaged food because luckily they had multiple cases of immune deficiency syndrome aka "bubble kid syndrome". I opened one of the containers and saw sanitized cheeseburgers individually wrapped. I looked around the camp again then up the hill and figured everyone would be hungry at some point so I took as many burgers as needed and pulled out the propane hot plate to warm them up.

"Looks like you guys are extremely prepared" she enthused and I nodded as I set up the hot plate. "Rick says you were in the city for over a week before you found James" I simply nodded again as I started opening a burger and put it on the grill. Lori mimicked me. "Must be strong to have survived that long" I looked to her and could see she was just trying to make conversation and I think she knew I did need a friend for the time being.

"My mom made sure we were prepared. I was always telling her she was crazy" I laughed a bit as I pulled out some paper plates and handed them to Lori to put the burgers on. "She had us training for the end of the world since we could walk, but she never did say it would be a zombiepocolypse" I smirked half heartily.

"Yeah who would have thought all those god awful movies would end up having some truth to them" she replied.

We talked a bit longer until the guys and Ava came back down the hill in a truck. When they all got out I noticed Josh wasn't in the truck and neither was the Asain kid or the two cops. Ava came over and whispered to me that Josh wanted the truck bed locked at all times just as I finished the last of the burgers. I simply nodded as she started packing everything back up with me. She told me that Josh had stayed behind to help Glenn, Rick and Shane bury their dead and the others were going to burn the walkers. Lori had brought the kids their food and took a burger for herself. Ava locked the bed of the truck and tossed the keys back to me. Lori came back over and offered to take a burger to the guys up the hill and I gave an appreciated nod. Ava decided to go scout the camp after she took a burger for herself. She was the kind of person who would help in any way she could, but in this world that could get you killed which caused most of her and Josh's fights! As I was placing the two plates of burgers on a cut tree trunk near the truck an older woman with short hair walked over to me.

"Hi my name is Carol" she said lightly as she held out her hand. I took it and introduced myself. She pointed out the little girl who was using her doll to talk to Jaime's teddy bear.

"That's my little girl Sophia" she smiled at the kids playing as did I. It was the first time I had seen a smile on Jaime's face since we rescued him. "How old is your son?" That caused me to twitch and clench my jaw.

"He's five, but James isn't my son. My son would have been 4 a week ago" I stated expressionlessly.

"Walkers?" she asked.

"Leukemia" I said as I lifted one of the plates of burgers. "Could you hand these out to the camp please?" I never talked about my son and I wasn't going to start now. She smiled and took the burgers and started handing them out around the camp. I looked to my side and noticed Daryl making his way toward me. I could tell by the look of pity on his face that he had just heard my and Carol's conversation.

"You know its pretty generous of you to feed a bunch of strangers" he said as he stopped to my side and I turned to face him.

"My brother and I may basically be trained assassins, but we still have our humanity" I half joked as I handed him a burger and took the last one for myself.

"Thanks" he said taking it.

"Don't thank me quite yet. So do you have any family here in the camp?" I saw a bit of sorrow mixed with anger flash quickly in his eyes.

"There was my older brother Merrel but he...we went...well long story short he is missing" he spoke then bit into his burger. He made a face as he started to chew and I couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

"I told you not to thank me" I smirked. "Sanitized food is not the greatest, but its also none perishable and beggars can't be choosers, especially these days"

"Its no McDonald's, that's for sure" he said as he looked at it then took another bite.

"No its definitely not" I laughed a bit again. I looked into his eyes again and I saw a man struggling with a tough past. "I'm sorry about your brother."

"I'm sorry about your son" he spoke softly. I simply nodded. "Thanks for the food" I said it was no problem and he walked away.

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A few hours later Jaime had come back over to the truck with Ava because one of the men named Jim had been bit. As soon as he was close he grabbed the hem of my shirt as usual. Ava and I decided to finally talk as we leaned against the truck.

"Have you gotten to know anyone?" I asked her.

"One of the women. Her name is Andrea. She lost her sister to a bad bite and waited for her to turn to kill her. The fucked up part is today is her sister's birthday" I could not only see it in her eyes but also hear it in her voice that she knew the feeling all too well. "She wants to kill herself. She may not know it yet, but I can see it in her eyes" I knew she knew that feeling too because she had told me she had seen it in her own eyes and I had seen it too, shortly after the world went to shit.

"Did you mention what happened to Bobby? It might help her" I tried to state as gently as possible, but the sound of his name made her flinch.

"She's not ready to hear anything yet, let alone my and my brother's story, but I'll tell her when I think she needs to hear it most" Ava looked in my eyes and gave me a half smile which I returned.

"Have you met anyone?"

"I met Lori and Carol. I talked a bit with that guy Daryl I met last night. Nothing much."

"Is Daryl the one whose ass you saved last night? The one with the crossbow?" she asked and I simply nodded with a smirk. "You like him don't you?" I just looked at her confused as to why she would think that. "I saw you guys talking and I actually caught you laughing" I shook my head.

Just then a truck came down the hill with Josh and the others inside. Josh got out and he was covered in dirt and blood from the neck down. He came over to the truck and gave Ava a kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks for the food earlier sis. Did you feed everyone else?" he asked me and I simply nodded. "Good, good, well Glenn told me about the quarry down the way a bit" he spoke as he opened the truck doors and took some clothes for him and Jaime. "So I was thinking James and I could take a quick bath while we still have daylight" he stopped and looked down at Jamie. "Does that sound good to you buddy?" Jaime simply nodded yes.

"I'll go with you and cover you while I wash up a bit and wash your clothes" Ava stated as she grabbed herself a shirt and her pistol from the front seat then shut the doors.

"Let me guess...I stay here and watch the truck" I said sarcastically as I crossed my arms. Josh simply gave me a look confirming what I had just said. He held Jaime's hand as he led him and Ava onto a path into the woods. "You better watch him like a hawk Joshua!" I yelled after them.

When I turned to my right I saw Daryl making his way toward me again and this time he had one of his hands full of my arrows. He stopped in front of me and held them out and I took them.

"I collected them earlier. As a fellow archer I know you gotta hate to waste an arrow, especially titanium ones" he smirked and so did I.

"Thanks"

"It was nothing. So why a bow?"

"Its quiet and I've always had a thing for archery" I looked up to him and lifted a brow "and archers" he gave a slight face before he smirked when he thought I wasn't looking.

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Later that night after the camp had paid their respects to their dead, Josh cooked up some soup for everyone on the fire as we all got to know one another a little better. By the end of the night I knew everyone's names and one or two things about them and it was vice versa. We had decided to follow the group to the CDC and we were going to pack up and leave first thing in the morning. Josh pitched a tent for Jaime and I while him and Ava would keep watch over the truck and the camp. After a few hours of sleep Ava woke me for my turn to take watch. I got up quietly as not to wake Jaime and Ava took my spot. When I got outside Josh was sitting on the bed of the truck. I wiped my eyes clear of sleep as I sat next to him. He looked over to me and I could see he had something on his mind.

"What's wrong Josh?"

"Nothing really"

"Liar. Come on seriously what's eating at you?" I bumped his shoulder with mine.

"You know the guy Shane you met at the fire tonight?" I simply nodded. "I don't trust him" he said flatly. Over the years I had learned to trust my brother's instincts because they were usually right.

"That's why you want the truck locked and watched at all times right?" he nodded yes. "Is there anyone here you do trust?"

"If I had to say I trusted one person in this camp at this point, then it would have to be Rick"

"Honestly I got the feeling I could trust Daryl" I confessed.

"Well we always trust one another's instincts so if you trust him so do I" Josh stated.

"Same goes for me with Rick" I replied. We gave one another an understanding nod then Josh looked up at the sky. "And if you don't trust Shane then neither do I" I said as I looked up at the sky with him. He picked one arm up and wrapped it around my shoulders and squeezed.

"I love you little sister" he smirked.

"You're never going to let me live the fifteen minutes younger thing down are you?"

"Um..."

"No" we said in unison causing us to laugh. "But at least you got your own birthday with me being born just before midnight and you right after" he smirked.

"Yeah that's true and I love you too Josh" he smiled at me then we continued to look at the sky until daybreak.

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