Chapter 3:
Daryl signaled for me to crouch down and I obliged him, loading my bow and holding it low. He brought two fingers up to his eyes and pointed out, but he didn't know I saw the buck already, gracefully walking through the trees.
It took us a few hours to catch up with the buck, it was around mid day judging from how sun was casting it shadows through the trees. I began to circle around to the left, keeping low to the ground, and Daryl circled the other way, his eyes darting between myself and the unsuspecting buck. Bringing my bow up, I aimed for the bucks chest and Daryl did the same.
A loud crack rang out and the buck's head snapped up looking over to Daryl, who cursed under his breath. I took this time to let my arrow fly. Every time I took a shot with my bow it seemed to go in slow motion, this shot was no different and I watched expectantly as the arrow stung the buck. Daryl also let one of his bolts fly, and I reloaded my bow, taking one final shot to the deer's heart, a damn good shot for my distance.
The deer jumped in surprise and began to stagger off, running awkwardly. I knew it would only be a matter of time until he dropped dead, like I said, it was a damn good shot.
I stood up and threw my bow over my shoulder, running after the wounded animal. I heard Daryl crunching over the leaves behind me, and in no time he was in stride with me.
"Good shot." He seemed reluctant to compliment me, I couldn't blame him, it was his hunt.
"Couldn't have done it without the distraction." I said with a smirk. He opened his mouth to retaliate, but a set of screams in the distance interrupted him. "Were those children?" the panic in my voice with clearly evident and I grabbed Daryl's arm, dragging him faster through the trees. A woman's voice called out and in a matter of seconds Daryl and I burst through to a clearing filled with half a dozen people.
A woman was consoling two crying children and a group of men stood over something, talking. I knew it was a walker and a feeling of guilt came over to me. The deer had caught its attention, and these children could have been hurt or killed because of it.
The group of men began chatting amongst themselves, all the while looking shiftily at me. Out of instinct I took a step back behind Daryl who was, at this point, fuming.
"…All Gnawed on by this filthy, disease bearing, motherless, proxy bastard." With the last word, he kicked the decapitated body and everyone took a step back. The older gentleman, a voice of reason, tried to calm him, but he was met with a crack about his hat and "On Golden Pond." I could tell they were tiptoeing around him, around something, and I knew I wouldn't have long to wait until it all came out. "We've been trackin' this deer for miles, was gonna bring it back to camp and cook us some venison." He aid, mercilessly grabbing out our arrows. "What do you think? Think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" he pointed to the deer's missing throat.
His suggestion however was met by silence, as the groups eyes were all on me. The silence was broken by the sound of the walkers mouth opening and closing.
"oh god…" One of the women groaned turning away hastily. Dale muttered under his breath and shot the head through the eye. "It's gotta be the brain, don't ya'll know nothing?" his remark got a rise out of the darker haired man with the hat.
"I don't mean to be rude, but who is this?" He asked curtly. A few of the group had begun walking back up he way they came, leaving only myself, Daryl and another gentleman.
"Shane…" the quiet man spoke calmly to him, obviously letting him know that he was being rude.
"I'm just askin' a simple question. A walker comes into camp and Dixon comes back with a new companion." Daryl eyed Shane with contempt as he forcefully pulled the bolt and arrows out of the walker's brain.
"I found her on my trip. Walkers trapped her in the creek bed. Had I known it was a problem, I would've just left her to die." Daryl's words were challenging, and he wiped the arrow on his pants slowly, an obvious dare. "Her shoulder was dislocated, she's got some scrapes, figured she could tag along." Daryl's eyes flicked to the quieter man and he continued. "Seein' how we don't have a problem with new people." Shane crossed his arms over his chest, obviously less than happy with Daryl's tone of voice.
"Of course it's not a problem." This time it was the quiet man who stepped up. Like me, he could tell it was getting tense between the two men. I could practically taste the testosterone. Daryl handed me back my arrows, which I held awkwardly in my other hand, and briskly he pushed past me.
"My name is Rick, what's yours?" he held his hand out to me and hesitantly I took it.
"Beau." I said with a smile.
"Well, this is only my second day here, but the people are good, a big family." Rick ensured me with a smile. "This here is Shane, my deputy." I looked over at him, he was still angry, but had calmed down considerably.
"Nice to meet you." Shane watched Daryl's back as he proceeded up the hill.
"Merle!" Daryl shouted. The two men in front of me exchanged a knowing look and Shane briskly headed up the hill after Daryl.
"Follow me, we've got food, water, somewhere you can sit and rest, and I'll have Dale take a look at those cuts, he's the closest thing we have to a medic." I smiled at him.
"Well, now you have a nurse."
"Oh that's great! So you can probably fix yourself up then?" he was being friendly to me, very welcoming, which immediately left me unguarded.
"And anyone else who needs it." Shouts from the top of the hill could be heard, and Rick's face hardened as we reached the top. The first thing I noticed was a group of tents and an RV.
"There was a, uh, a problem in Atlanta." Shane seemed uncomfortable and Daryl looked at the ground.
"He dead?" Slowly Daryl looked up at Shane.
"Not sure."
"He either is or he ain't." At this point the entire camp was watching as Daryl was put on the spot. Somebody he cared for was gone, and this was how they told him? I felt bad for the man, and a part of me was angry for him. Rick was rubbing his chin and he stepped forward.
"No easy way to say this so I'll just say it."
"Who're you?"
"Rick Grimes."
"Rick Grimes?" Daryl spat. Rick stopped in front of Daryl expectantly. "You got somethin' you wanna tell me?" Rick wasted no time in continuing his story.
"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof to a piece of metal. He's still there." He tried to make his argument sound logical, but it didn't seem that way to Daryl.
"Hold on…" Daryl muttered, turning around. I could tell this news did not sit well with the hunter. "So you handcuffed my brother to roof? And you left him there?" Daryl yelled at Rick who answered him simply.
"Yeah." Daryl paced for a seconds, breathing heavily as his rage set in. before I could tell what had happened, Daryl's string of squirrels came flying towards me, and I nearly had to dive to get out of the way.
"Watch the knife!" As I dusted myself off I saw Daryl swing at Rick with his knife, only to be subdued by Shane and Rick.
"Best let me go!" Daryl shouted as Shane put him in a chokehold. I took a step forward, feeling a soft hand on my arm. "Chokeholds illegal."
"File a complaint." Shane said sarcastically, bringing Daryl to the ground.
"Let him go!" I spoke up. Rick looked at me, and then crouched next to Daryl, completely ignoring the fact that I had spoken.
"Now I wanna have a calm discussion on this topic, think we can manage that?" When Daryl didn't answer Rick asked again. "Think we can manage that?"
"He can't speak because you're choking him!" This time I stepped forward to the gentlemen and pushed Shane, who dropped Daryl to the ground. "You want a calm discussion? Next time how bout if you break the news a little less freely?" I gestured to the entire camp, who was still staring at the group of gentlemen. "And with some damn compassion for the man." My hard gaze met Daryl's, who was still laying in the dirt, and I offered him my hand, which he didn't to take. I hadn't expected him to.
"Your name is Beau right?" The older gentleman, the one that Daryl had insulted minutes prior, asked, breaking the tense silence. I nodded to him, realizing just how awkward the situation was, and felt my cheeks flush. The older man smiled at me and put his hand on my shoulder. "My name is Dale, you seem a little flushed, so why don't you come with me?" I hesitated, and looked back at Daryl who was now looking at the ground. "It's alright, I think everyone has calmed down enough to where they can talk like adults." This time he gave a stern look to Rick and Shane, and finally, Daryl. I did as I was asked and followed the old man to his RV, looking back once to the men. "I've got water and food and even a first aid kit so we can clean those cuts of yours."
Although Dale had taken me away from the fight, I still felt the need to keep an eye on the men who were outside talking.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, may I have a little back story?" Dale smiled warmly, stepping between me and the window, obstructing my view. He had a gauze pad in his hands the reeked of rubbing alcohol, and gently he put it to the cut on my forehead. I cringed in pain at the sting.
"I was a nurse. In med school." I breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled the patch away. The two children in the camper watched me intently and I gave them a forced smile.
"We can always use a nurse." Dale handed me a band-aid for my forehead, then took the gauze pad to a few of my more epic scrapes, cleaning those just as thoroughly as the one on my head. A woman entered the RV and grabbed her son, giving him a tight hug. She seemed incredibly distraught.
"Lori?" Dale was the first to address her. "What happened?" He quickly looked out of the window of the RV and I did the same, just to make sure nobody was dead. Lori gave Dale a grave look.
"They're going back for Merle."
I had settled in with the women of the camp, Lori, Amy and Andrea, trying to make a suitable dinner out of the squirrels Daryl had caught while we were hunting.
"So, Merle almost killed him?" Andrea had decided to take this time to fill me in on just how much of a peach Merle Dixon had been.
"Yeah, if Rick hadn't been there T-Dog would be dead right now." Andrea's eyes flicked quickly to Daryl's back, and then back to the squirrel she was gutting. I followed her gaze, but I didn't look away. I still felt terrible for Daryl, even though Merle was an asshole, he was still Daryl's brother. Daryl still deserved some kind of closure.
"Why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" Shane's tone was not pleased, and he let everyone in camp know as he followed Rick around.
"Hey. Choose your words more carefully." Daryl warned.
"I did. Douche bag's what I meant." Shane replied, not caring what Daryl thought of his opinion. "Merle Dixon. Guy won't give you a glass of water of you were dyin' of thirst." Shane muttered.
"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me." Rick had already made his mind up and it was clear that nobody was changing it, not even his deputy, Shane. "I can't let a man die of thirst. Thirst and exposure. That's not a way to let an animal die, much less a human."
"So you and Daryl? That's your big plan?" His wife, Lori, was the next to undermine him, but he didn't give her much thought either. Instead he turned to the Asian, Glenn.
"Oh, come on." Glenn sighed.
"You know the way, you've been there before. In and out." Glenn was still not sold, so Rick began to beg. "It's not fair of me to ask, I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along." He motioned for his wife. "I know she would too."
"That's just great, now you're gonna risk three men, huh?"
"Four." T-Dog interrupted Shane's disapproval and he put his hands behind his head and took a deep breath while walking away. Daryl scoffed and T-dog glared at him. "You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brothers cracker ass?"
"Why you?" Daryl didn't even look at the man, instead he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. It was quick, but I saw it, and then went back to cleaning his arrows.
"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language."
"You're putting every single one of us at risk, you know that Rick." I understood where Shane was coming from, now they would have a camp consisting of mostly women, children and older men. "You saw that walker, it was here, it was in camp! They're moving out of the cities, we need every able body here to protect camp."
"Seems to me what you really need is a lot more guns."
"That's right, guns." Glenn and Rick knew something Shane didn't.
"What guns?" He asked impatiently.
"6 Shot guns, 2 high powered rifles, over a dozen handguns." Rick paused. "I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left, but I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed."
"Ammo?"
"700 rounds, assorted." Even my mouth was watering at this point, and I knew the attention of the group had been peaked.
"You went through hell to find us." Lori spoke up. "You just got here now you're turning around and leaving?" Her feelings were hurt, but guns and ammunition were what weighed heavily on everyone's shoulders now. "To hell with the guns, Shane is right. Merle Dixon?" Her voice was full of disbelief. "He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in." Lori stood and Rick walked over to her. "Tell me, make me understand."
By now I had stood up and was walking over to the group that was leaving with Rick.
"I can stay." Shane scoffed at me, but I stood my ground. "I know that don't sound like much, but I'm good with a bow, and a knife. I know how to hunt and I'm a nurse"
"And what good is your bow when you're swarmed by walkers?" I hadn't expected my words to make Shane feel that much better, but what he said made me feel useless, something I knew I wasn't. I felt anger flare up inside of me and I took a step closer to him
"Yeah? Well what good is a group of men with no guns between them? You gonna nay say the walkers to death?" Daryl stood and walked up next to me, his eyes fixed on Shane. I decided right then that I didn't like this man. I could still feel Daryl standing next to me, ready to back me up if he needed to and that made me all the more confident. "You can say whatever you want right now, because you're angry that no ones listening to you or cares what you say, but how about if you let me prove it to you before you count me out."
"Fine. Go and get your guns, go and get Merle, but if anything happens in this camp it's on you." Shane said, pointing to Rick before storming off.
"Thank you." I said softly to Daryl. I knew he was watching Shane walk away, so I didn't even look up at him.
"What are you thankin' me for? I was just standin' there."