Okay, so I might return to my original Daryl story some day, but until I'm struck with inspiration...I'll keep going on this one.
All reviews, good or bad, are more than welcomed. And as usual, SweetKiwi...you're my girl. :) Thank you.
I don't own The Walking Dead or any of the characters from the show I might use in this story. It's for entertainment, and I make no gain off this story, except entertainment and my own happiness.
At least a day. That was how long I'd slept. I remember waking up once or twice, seeing a bedroom, the sun shining through the windows, then I fell back asleep. The bed was comfortable. But now, I was laying on something hard. As badly as they wanted to stay closed, I forced my eyes open and saw leaves and branches through a mesh top. I was laying in a tent. I heard voices in the distance, the wind slightly rustling the trees, and not much else. I slowly at up, feeling a throbbing in the side of my head. I reached for it, pressing on the wound, and winced. A hundred memories came rushing back at once; me escaping Michael and Miguel, three dead trying to attack me, and having to play possum while I was carried off by a man.
Footsteps approached the tent and I felt panic rush into every limb as a little boy came into view. He knelt down by the opening of the tent, the both of us staring at each other. "You're awake. Are you okay?" I opened my mouth to speak, but heard a woman frantically approaching. "Carl! Get away from her. We haven't had a chance to talk to her yet. You need to go find something else to do." He nodded at her and walked away. I slowly crawled out of the tent, and shakily got to my feet. I came face to face with the woman and three other men. I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I took a deep breath. "Hello." The people seemed on edge, walking on eggshells as they tried to decide what to do. "My name is Rick. How are you feeling?"
My mouth was dry, my head ached like hell, but I wasn't about to complain. "Fine, thank you." This was awkward already. "If you could just give me my things, I'll leave. I won't give you any trouble." Another one of the men stepped forward. "Ain't no way we're gonna let you just walk. We don't know you. You could have fifty people ready to come down on us like rain, and we'd be none the wiser." The voice was harsh, like a whip to my face. Rick gently pressed his hand against the other man. "Shane, hang on just a minute." The man he had called Shane began to protest, then the woman jumped in. "Guys, why don't I take her to get some food. You can hash it out and come find us when you're done." Rick nodded at her. She came over to me, gently guiding me with her arm around my back, towards a camp that was set up.
Tents, a fire, an RV, clothes blew in the breeze. They were actually surviving out here. "I'm Lori. Rick's wife. It's just culture shock, they aren't usually so high strung. Just hard to trust people these days." I sat down in a chair and she grabbed a plate, getting some food from over the fire and handing it to me, with a fork. I took a bite and noticed how hungry I really was. "So what's your name?" I looked at her and sighed. For me, that was a complicated question. In Michael's camp, we were given names. It didn't matter if you already had a name from before, you were stripped of it, renamed, and assigned to a male leader. I shook the thoughts from my head and swallowed the bite of food in my mouth. "Blair." She gave a small smile. "Blair, it'll probably be easier to talk to me than to the men. They're hyped up on testosterone trying to protect the group. What happened to you?"
My father had used a quote often; always have a contingency plan. I couldn't go into the actual history now, but I couldn't out right lie to her. "I was in a group. And we got attacked. Almost everyone died, and the ones that didn't...we just sort of...scattered." I finished the last few bites on my plate and handed it back to her. "Blair, how long were you alone before we found you?" I suddenly got the notion I was being interrogated. But this was the good cop, and if I refused to work with her, I'd get the bad cops. Plural. "I was alone for almost a full day. The day you all found me, we had been attacked the night before. I grabbed the gun I kept under my sleeping bag and I just ran. As far and fast as I could." Remembering the other girls I had left behind to continue to be raped, beaten, murdered, it was enough to make me sick. I held back the gagging sensation and felt tears beginning to form in my eyes.
She took my hands in hers and looked me in the eyes. "We've all lost someone. But they're in a better place now, and we just...have to keep surviving." I nodded and wiped the tears from my eyes, nodding in agreement with her. "Why don't we go find my husband and see if he's been able to cool off Shane. Have a rational discussion." I stood up and followed her inside the white house we were near. The three men were sitting at the table as we sat down and joined them. Lori spoke first. "Guys, this is Blair. She was with a group who got attacked a couple nights ago. She's on her own." Rick slowly nodded, taking in the information, and leaning back in his seat. "Blair, before we get down to brass tacks, you already know Lori, I'm Rick. This is Shane and Daryl. Daryl is the one that found you." I looked at him and offered a small smile of thanks, only to be shut down as he looked down at the table.
"This is an interesting situation. We're not bad people. We've got women, children. We're just trying to make a living in this world. Trying to stay safe. We all work together to try to make everything run as smooth as possible. We've got food, protection, and thanks to a kind man, a place to stay. For now. Now, since you're all on your own, I'd like to make an offer to you; to stay in this group." This felt entirely too much like one of the meetings every month with Michael. I looked around at the people surrounding me and nervously bounced my foot underneath the table. "Why would you do that? Take me in, let me stay?" He folded his hands together on the table top, cocking his head to the side, slightly. "Blair, it's difficult to trust people in this world. Especially now. You don't have to stay, you can go on your own again. We'd send you off with a weapon, if you needed it. But there is always a need for help. Cooking, cleaning clothes, making sure we have ammo, fire wood, there is plenty to be done. If you stayed, you wouldn't be Cinderella with all of the work to do. Everyone pitches in."
Daryl seemed to not be paying any attention to what was going on. I looked at Shane, Lori, then Rick. "If you guys will have me, I'd be more than helpful." Rick smiled at me and stood up, nodding his head. "You're more than welcome to stay. Lori, will you show her where she can sleep?" Lori nodded and stood up, helping me out of the house. "Blair, I'm happy you chose to stay. Like Rick said, we can always use every extra pair of hands we can get." She led me to the RV and walked inside. She hunted through a few cabinets and finally found what she was looking for. "Here's a tent and a sleeping bag. You can set it up anywhere that looks good to you." I smiled and thanked her, then set off to try and find a good spot to set up my camp. This was going to be a long disaster.
So that was Chapter 2. I hope it was okay, and i didn't forget to do the first person. If I did, I'm sorry. Please Read and Review, whether you liked it or not. :)