Okay here is chapter 3!

Sorry that the last chapter was mostly in Daryl's head, but, you know, had to catch you guys up to speed there. Hopefully things can move faster now.

Also, every chapter will probably switch off on main perspectives.

Again, I don't own the Walking Dead, and if you see any grammar stuff, let me know.

Read and review!


The girl had been stuck there all night. She barely slept, what with her cramped position and the hissing walkers below her. After a while they had calmed down a bit, only moaning occasionally and shifting on their stakes or in their nets. The girl had been sawing through the net when her knife slipped and fell to the ground below her. She still had her baseball bat, but it was wedged between her back and her left arm, which was still twisted behind her. Her left ankle had been really bothering her, but it went numb a few hours ago, and she couldn't feel it anymore.

She had no choice but to stay in the net, and she was afraid to wriggle around, for fear of falling and still being trapped in it. Right now, being in the air kept her from hungry walkers that might stagger by, though she hadn't seen any all night. But now, it was morning, and she was growing more and more anxious. Whoever had set the traps would surely be by soon, and when they came she had no idea what they would do with her. She was smart enough not to hope that they wouldn't kill her. In fact, she expected it. For the past few hours, she had been preparing herself for death. There wasn't anyone she could say goodbye to; her family had all been slaughtered in the first nights, and she had already seen a couple of her friends as walkers roaming around. She was alone.

The girl had been thinking for a while when she heard voices in the distance. She couldn't see the field through the trees, but she could hear people talking. She strained to make out what they were saying.

"Where were the traps again?" she heard a raspy male voice call out in a southern accent.

"Over here." She blinked. A woman's voice.

"Where was she, Daryl?" the first voice asked.

"When she got caught in the net, it was over here to the left a little." The girl drew in her breath; they already knew about her. She could clearly hear their footsteps now.

And then they emerged through the trees. The walkers started hissing and writhing in their places. The girl studied the group silently, counting them, watching them, taking notes of their movements. There was a black woman with a strap going across her chest and a handle sticking out over her shoulder. She stared around sullenly, watching the walkers as they wiggled and whined. There was a man with slicked back hair and a stubble-covered jaw, frowning and looking up in the trees. The girl took note of the gun holster on his belt, next to a sheriff's badge. There was another man, younger than the first, with big biceps and a shirt with cut-off sleeves. He was holding a crossbow with many arrows in its holding slots, and he had a weenie little mustache and goatee. He was scowling and looked straight up at her. He had startling blue eyes, she noticed.

"That's her, Rick," he said, pointing. The girl thought he had a sort of redneck air about him.

So he must be Darryl, the girl reasoned.

The other man, Rick, looked up. "Hello," he said in his raspy southern accent.

And then, to the girl's surprise, a young boy stepped out from behind Rick. He looked about thirteen, the girl judged, and he was holding a gun. A big gun. Though, the girl mused, it was, after all, the end of the world. On the boy's head sat a sheriff's hat.

"What is your name?" the first man, Rick, asked.

The girl just stared at him.

"We can't help you if you don't talk to us," Rick said.

The girl cleared her throat. "I don't need help."

The other man, Daryl, spoke. "Sure, we'll just leave then."

The woman, who had been studying the ground, picked up the girl's knife. Wordlessly, she handed it to Rick.

"Is this yours?" Rick asked the girl.

"Dropped it," the girl replied.

"What are you doing here?" the young boy spoke.

"What are any of us doing here?" the girl asked.

"We're getting rid of the walkers," Rick said.

"Are you going to kill me?" it was more of a statement.

Rick paused, looking at the girl, thinking. "Not yet."

The girl wasn't surprised, and she wasn't put out. She had expected it. "Are you going to let me down?"

"Eventually." Rick nodded at the woman, and she turned to the nearest impaled walker. In a smooth flourish, she whipped out the weapon on her back, which the girl noticed to be a saber-like sword. She smoothly swung the sword through the middle of the walkers head, cleanly pulling it up and out. The walker, now inanimate, sagged on the stake. The top half of its head flew off and hit a tree, spraying it with daro blood. Now the boy was pulling out a knife, and calmly walking around, skewering the trapped walkers in the head. Even the man with the crossbow was going around, shooting arrows cleanly into the eyes of the walkers in the nets.

Rick came towards the girl. "Are you alone?"

"We're all alone."

"No, do you have a group? And it will be easier for all of us if you just tell the truth."

The girl stared at the man. "No," she finally said.

Rick sighed, rubbing his eyes. The boy had put his knife back and took his gun out again, and this time the girl noticed the silencer on the end. The boy went to the edge of the first pit and started shooting the walkers in the head. The woman wiped her weapon off on the forest floor, sliding it back into its sheath on her back when she was done. The man named Daryl slung his crossbow onto his back as well, and moved to help her drag some of the inanimate walkers off the stakes and throw them into the first pit; the boy moving off to the second and shooting there. They all ignored the girl as they cleaned up their mess. Rick traded places with Daryl, and Daryl began cutting down the bags of walkers, each with an arrow through their brain, so they were gone. He pulled out his arrows and wiped each of them off, sticking them back into their places on the crossbow. Finally, all the walkers were in the pits, and the smell was so bad the girl's eyes watered. The boy left for a moment, then came back with a tank of gasoline and some matches. The girl watched as they lit each pit and sat there as the walkers burned. The top of the flames barely licked the edges of the pits, and the boy went around the pits' rims, kicking away dry leaves and twigs.

After a few minutes Rick turned back to the girl. The foul smell of the rotted, burning flesh was heavy in the air, and the girl wrinkled her nose in disgust. Rick watched the girl for a moment, then took out his own knife. He cut her down from the tree. The girl landed awkwardly, gasping, for she had landed on her left ankle. The sudden explosion of pain after the numbness brought tears to her eyes. She was still trapped in the net though, and waited for them to do something.

Rick moved forward with the knife, and when the girl shifted in the net the black woman whipped her sword back out so fast the girl didn't see it. In a flash, Daryl had also moved, and now he had his crossbow trained on her, his fingers gripping the trigger. The boy hadn't moved, just focused on her with his eyes, watching silently. Rick tensed, and the girl watched him warily. Judging from how the others acted and spoke to him, he was something like their leader. The girl wasn't worried about Daryl and the woman; they would only act if Rick said so. So the girl simply focused on Rick.

He moved forward slowly, and started to saw through the net. When the girl stayed still he relaxed, but the woman and Daryl did not. The girl waited patiently as Rick finished cutting a sizeable hole, and watched as he stood up and backed away. The girl sat there. She shifted. Daryl gripped the crossbow harder, and the woman tensed. The girl slowly, slowly opened the net, sticking first her right leg through the hole. When the woman shifted her weight, her saber trembling slightly, Rick shook his head. The girl stuck her left leg out gingerly, wincing when her ankle throbbed. She untangled herself from the net, and crouched down outside of it. She reached back in, pulling out the baseball bat tenderly. When the woman raised her saber and Daryl shifted his crossbow she dropped the bat and held up her hands warily, still in her crouched position, leaning to the right.

"Stand up slowly," Rick commanded in his drawling accent, "and turn to face me."

She did, turning to face Rick, who stood by Daryl. The boy was on her left, and the woman at her back. The girl's neck tingled; she could feel the woman glaring hard at her back.

"Drop your bag and keep your hands up."

The girl shrugged her bag off her shoulders, letting it drop to the ground. She stood tall, leaning on her right leg and holding her hands up above her shoulders. A twig snapped in the woods, and she turned slightly to look. The others did the same. When nothing lept out of the woods at them, they turned back to the girl. The boy was still staring into the trees, though.

"What's your name?" Rick asked again.

The girl stayed silent.

Rick sighed. "Carl, get the nets and the stakes. We can easily reuse them."

The boy, now named, went around collecting up the nets and taking the spears out of their places, delicately pointing them down.

"What about her?" Daryl asked, motioning to the girl with his bow.

"We'll take her with us," Rick announced, and the woman sighed. Rick went over to Carl and helped him collect the nets. Smoke was drifting around the trees, and it was beginning to get dark.

The woman said to turn around, and the girl did so. Daryl cut a piece of rope from one of the nets and tied her hands up. Then he picked up her baseball bat and backpack, slung her sling for the bat off the girl's back, and put everything on his back. The woman beckoned the girl to follow her, and she did, limping after the woman with Daryl after her, his crossbow trained on her back. Rick and Carl joined, their arms full of stakes and nets. Rick noticed the girl's limp and asked her what happened.

"I fell," was all she said.

They made their way through the field to a parking lot. There was a side gate with a chain and padlock there, and an asian man was sitting on a crate next to it.

"You guys sure took a while, I was getting worried. But then I saw the smoke." The asian man nodded at the black pillar rising from the trees. "Is that her? Is that the girl?" he said, eyeing the girl.

"Obviously," the boy, Carl, muttered.

The asian man unlocked the gate and threw it open quickly. "I saw two walkers heading towards the smoke, probably attracted to the light. Did you see them?"

"Nope," Rick said. "But I guess it's good we have these locks down."

They walked silently back to the hospital, going in through a set of double doors, walking down a hallway. They stopped at a door on the left, its rectangular window covered. The asian man knocked three times quickly, then two times lightly. The girl tucked that into her head for future use, though there was no doubt they would change it after she left.

The door was pulled open, and a woman with short, gray hair stood there.

They walked into the room, and the girl glanced around at the two other doors, the counter, the sink, the handful of beds, and the stash of supplies in the corner. She was surprised to see a pile of baby formula containers on the counter. She counted three other people in the room besides the six behind her- she was way outnumbered. The three others in the room looked up; an old man, a girl with light blonde hair that looked a little younger than her, and a girl that looked a little older than her. To her surprise, the old man was holding a baby.

These people had a lot to lose, a reason to fight. There was no way she was going to live if these people considered her a threat. And with a sinking feeling, she was ushered into a corner as the door behind her closed shut, the ominous snaking of chains and the click of the pad-lock a sure sign that she wouldn't be leaving here easily.


Okay, okay, that was a pretty boring chapter, I guess, not really much action, but as dear Dale pointed out in his last days at the Greene farm, it will always be a fight against ourselves, too, or something like that. Basically, it's not just the walkers you have to watch out for at the end of the world. So, I had to put in something about how they reacted to this stranger. Hopefully next chapter will be a bit more interesting, have some better, descriptive (gory) action.

Read and Review.

-the shadow-light