Chapter 3.

"Didn't believe him until you just confirmed it, let me see it" He took a few steps forward, pushing his crossbow onto his back. I took a few steps back. "You lied to Rick about you only being out of that shed they kept you up in a few times"

"I had to" I whispered, biting my tongue from being honest.

"Let me see it"

"Why? All you people want shit from me when they see it, what? You gonna go tell Rick about me?" He looked at me and then shook his head.

"Walk with me"

"Didn't think you liked people following ya?" I asked and he shook his head and started walking anyway, towards the woods. I slowly started to walk after him until he got to an old broken off brick fireplace and he pulled his crossbow and arrows from his back and tossed them onto the brick.

"What happened? How'd you get it?" He asked, keeping his eyes off of me.

I bit down on my bottom lip while taking a deep breath and looking out at the woods before I answered him "It was the night Randall's group came to my camp… after, when they killed my dad, he turned"

"Was he bit?" He asked right away and I shook my head.

"Believe me we were all shocked. They thought it was funny, pushing me into my dad while he was just waking up… one of them, Dave said that they were going to wait until I turned into a walker and they were going to make me kill my own sister, but I didn't turn so they kept me"

"Let me see it" His voice was a little softer now, in a whisper almost and he looked over at me as I held onto the bottom of my black shirt, keeping it down in place while he brushed his hands off on his jeans. "I ain't gonna hurt you, do I look like I'm gonna hurt you?"

"Yes" I muttered and he shook his head as I pulled the side of my shirt up to just under my bust line. He slouched down a bit to get a closer look, ghosting his fingers over the teeth marked scars and then he touched it and pulled his fingers back.

"It's hot"

"I know" I whispered "Dave said that it was like my body fought off the disease that the fever is only in where the bite was. I don't understand it, no one did" He stood back up and I rolled my shirt back down. "I was some sort of prized possession of theirs, Dave called me his Queen of Roamers… sometimes I just thought I'd just die in there, finally become one of those things but it never happened"

"So your walker dad bit you and you survived… you are a prized possession" I cringed at his words, taking a step back "Don't worry I'm not gonna tell anyone, it's not important to me"

"Even if I'm a cure" I whispered and he raised his eyebrows.

"Didn't think of that…" I sighed deeply and rubbed my hand over the mark over my shirt. "Have you cured anyone?" He asked and I didn't answer "I'll take that as a yes"

"Dave… he got bit out on a run one of the nights, decided to test his theory" I held out my wrist "I didn't try and commit suicide if that's what you were thinking from this scar" He looked it over, the perfect straight line across my inner wrist.

"And it worked" I nodded "How'd they uh… use the blood?" He asked

"He had to drink it" I whispered, rubbing at my wrist "The um… abuse stopped after that" He looked me over again and I saw in his eyes flicker with anger, the sympathy was no longer there.

"How old are you?"

"24"

"You're a baby" He muttered and shook his head "I've seen you on those commercials, in those magazines"

I nodded "I figured once you knew my name" He half smiled and once I wrapped my arms around myself again, he leaned up and grabbed the red flannel hanging up a stuck out brick and tossed it to me. "Thanks" I whispered as I pulled it on over my cold arms.

It was silent for a few minutes so I sat down and brought my legs up on the bricks, wrapping my arms around my shins to pull my knees up under my chin.

"So you said you killed before" He muttered as he fiddled with a few of his arrows.

"When I was escaping, one of the guys caught up to me… I got his gun, shot him" He nodded

"How'd you get his gun? You can't weigh more than a buck"

"I got a rock, I think I broke his nose" He nodded

"Smart thinking" He muttered "So when you ran into Hershel, what happened there at the bar?"

"Rick killed Dave and Tony… Rick being the leader I take it, tied me up, kept me quiet, he took my sisters necklace, I should talk to him about getting that back" I whispered to myself.

"Rick took your sisters necklace?" He asked as he pushed arrows into different sockets and places.

"It was in Tony's pocket, she always wore it" He nodded and sat down, and I slid my legs down crossing them Indian style. We stayed silent for about 10 minutes, and I ended up lying down, looking up as the sky got darker.

"Where you sleepin' tonight?" He asked and I raised my eyebrows at the random question.

"The shed I guess"

"Take my tent" He said and I turned my head and looked over at him.

"I'm not taking your tent" I protested

"I don't sleep, just take it" He said a bit annoyed

"Is this because-"

"Of course it's because of that" I sighed, putting my head back down and closing my eyes.

"I'm not taking your tent" I whispered.

"Then we'll both sleep in the cold" He said as he stood up, grabbing his crossbow again and slipped his arms into his jacket, and pulled his vest on over everything. I glanced over at the motorcycle. I had never been on one before, my dad never allowed it.

"Where are you going?" I asked as he started to walk away.

"Where do you think, suns gone" I swung my legs around so I was sitting with my feet on the ground.

"Now?" I asked

"Good time as any" He said and looked back at me "You staying or comin'?" He asked

"Staying" I whispered and he nodded and took a step but started to walk back to me, pulling at the knife in the waist band of his jeans. "What's this?"

"If you're stayin' out here then you gotta have somethin'" He handed me the long bladed knife "You know how to kill 'em right?" I nodded and he looked me over again before he turned and walked away. I ran my finger over the tip and then stood up and pushed it into the belt on my side and sighed deeply. I didn't want to be around when people died, even if it was Randall. The breeze picked up some and I pulled the red flannel tighter around me as I walked towards his bike and ran my fingers gently over the handle bars and then glanced at his tent.

Pulling the zipper of the tent open, I climbed inside and shut it behind me as I sat down in a corner. It was empty except for a few magazines, a pillow and blankets. Of course it was empty; he didn't look like a guy who kept many things. To be honest, I didn't even know his name. Oh, that's so bad. I grabbed a magazine and flipped through it, cars, and cars. I picked up the other, home living. I laughed under my breath at that and lied down as I flipped through it.

"You sleep like the dead" He whispered as he stayed laying on his side, looking at me as I slept, the magazine discarded from my side and put back on the stack.

"I haven't slept in a long time" I whispered, opening my eyes just a bit to look at him.

"I bet" He breathed.

"How'd it go?"

"It didn't happen, Carl came in, fucked the whole thing up"

"Carl?"

"Rick's kid" I nodded and pulled my arm up under my head, keeping my eyes on him. "We lost someone, a guy from our group"

"Tonight?" He nodded

"Walker got in, tore his stomach apart" He looked at me again and I sighed quietly.

"I'm sorry" I whispered, swallowing hard. We stayed in silence for a few moments before I opened my mouth "What's your name?"

He chuckled under his breath "Sharing a tent with a man and you don't even know his name, do that often?" I rolled my eyes but smiled "Daryl Dixon" I nodded.

"Thank you Daryl"

"Don't mention it" He said and brought his hand over and I watched it carefully as he brushed some blonde locks off of my cheek to behind my ear and then he turned over onto his back and sighed. That was the first sweet and innocent touch I'd received in months.

"Tell me something about yourself" I said

"Not much to know"

"Did you have any brothers or sisters? Where are you from?" I asked a few to get him started, seeing that he needed a push.

"Brother, Merle. We lost him back in Atlanta, long story. And I was from a shit town about 100 miles south of here" I nodded

"Was Merle like you?"

"Like me?" He asked, turning his head to look at me.

"Headstrong, closed off, protective?" I asked and he narrowed his eyes

"No, Merle was a dick" He chuckled and I half smiled.

"I had a brother; he was kind of a dick too"

"You had a brother? What happened to him?" He asked

"He was in Atlanta when they dropped those bombs… we just all assumed he was gone" He nodded and looked down before throwing an arm underneath his head, looking up at the top of the dark tent now. "Thanks for letting me crash here, it's kind of soothing to finally be somewhere safe" I watched his Adams apple go up and down, signaling to me that he swallowed hard. "I'm okay you know" I told him "Sure it was bad in the beginning and I can't ever sleep because of it, but I survived somehow"

"I don't know how" He muttered, his eyes closed as I sighed, taking some of the big blanket and fanning it out over his legs and he looked over at me. "I don't need it, keep it"

"Daryl, its cold, shut up" He pulled at the blanket some and I smiled a bit. He was falling asleep now. "Is there a fresh water pond around here somewhere?" I asked him and he nodded lazily.

"About 3 miles North West, why?" He breathed

"No reason" I whispered back "Goodnight" He hummed and soon he was asleep.

The first thing I touched was the down-turned long log by the pond, taking in a deep breath as images of my father sitting here with me, talking about where we were going to be heading the next day before those men came. I glanced over at the side trees, one down against the other and my chest started to ache. I pulled the red flannel tighter around me as I walked over to it, pushing past the bush to look down at the dirt as I crouched down and picked up the sparkling ring and pushed the mud off of it and sighed deeply before hearing a snap of a few twigs to the left of me and I hid against the bushes, hearing the small groaning sounds.

I stood up slowly once it's back was facing me and I walked over to it carefully, pulling the knife from my belt and leaning up and pushed the blade into the back of the walkers head and he groaned louder and then fell to his knees and I pulled the knife out, blood spraying all over my hands as it fell dead onto its stomach. I walked to the pond and crouched down, cleaning off my hands and the blade. I then pulled the belt off of my jeans and my jeans soon followed as I took a few steps into the cold water, cleaning off my legs from dirt and grime.

"Shit" I heard someone mutter and I turned around quickly, seeing Daryl walk out, crossbow pointed and he lowered it slowly and turned around "Why the fuck are you naked?" He asked with annoyance in his voice and I half smirked and wiped the dirt against my upper left thigh.

"I'm not naked" I simply told him.

"You're-"

"I'm in underwear and your shirt, I'm sure you've seen a girl dressed like this before on numerous occasions, don't be weird about it, I'm not" I crouched down and wet my hair and then threw it back into a high ponytail, putting some water on my face as well before walking out of the water and grabbing my pants "Fine, I was just having a bath" I pulled the pants up "You can turn around now" I zipped the jeans and grabbed my belt from the log as he turned around, looking me over and when I looked over at him, he turned his attention to something else.

"That's why you're out here at the crack ass of dawn? To take a damn bath? I woke up and you were gone. No trace of ya, if I hadn't remembered you askin me about this pond I wouldn't have known where you went"

"So you're mad that I ran off to clean up a bit?"

"No… that's not what I'm-"

"This is where it happened ya know, my dad's decomposing body is still over by the bushes, found his wedding ring" I pushed my hand into my pocket and pulled out the ring and then pushed it back in place in my pocket once he saw it.

"Here? Just miles from the farm" I nodded

"We were heading South East, hoping to make it to Florida or somewhere but this is where our Journey ended. If I had known that farm was there, god knows what would have happened" I trailed off, looking over at the rising sun.

"We should head back, c'mon" He said a few moments later and I looked over at him and sighed. Grabbing the knife and pushing it back into place at my hip.

Daryl leaned against the tree, he felt strange just watching her take her jeans off, and then pulling his shirt up on her hips to show off her red spandex small underwear shorts as she walked into the pond up to her knees. He shouldn't be watching her, how her hair would blow in the cool breeze against her back and shoulder, how she'd dip her hips, her hands massaging the water into her dirty skin to make it clean. He readjusted the front of his jeans and groaned silently to himself. He used to watch those commercials of her and her sister when they came on the TV, selling some sort of face cleanser. He could remember her from those ads in the magazines. Why did she have to be the one to make him soft all of a sudden? When she started to turn her head the other way, he thought that making his presence known would be a good thing instead of being a creep and watching her clean herself.

Please Review :) btw Daryl's thoughts are in italics, if you didn't pick that up.