Chapter 3

Kat woke up and dozed for a couple of seconds until the events of what happened earlier came back to her. her eyes ripped open and she sat up quick as lightning. she didn't get any further than that. the whole world was sliding all over the place and she felt like she had the worst hangover of all time. There were tubes on her arms and she had unfamiliar clothes on.

Hands were pushing her gently back down into the warmth of her bed. she gave in and flopped back weakly.

The second time she woke up she didn't make the same mistake. she opened her eyes slowly, and rolled over. The room she was in was dark. the walls were painted grey like they'd been designed to look horrible, and as she looked around, she saw there were bars on the door.

Kat had a sudden wave of panic until she remembered; The Prison.

"hello." a voice said. it was a man's, but it wasn't that guy's. Daryl was his name she remembered.

Kat tried to sit up.

"Oops, easy does it." gently, hands pulled her up into a sitting position.

The light headedness was less this time. Kat felt a little stronger, and not so pathetic.

"How are you?" asked the voice.

Kat looked around to see an older man with a white beard and hair.

"Good. good i think…" she wasn't sure exactly how good she was. "where's my bow? My knives?" her hands felt around underneath the blankets and found nothing.

"you can have those back when you're feeling better, don't worry." said the old man. "I'm Hershel."

"I'm Kat." said Kat. "Where's Daryl?" She didn't know why she was asking the man, but it seemed like the next most important thing to her bow.

"He's down stairs. I'll go get him in a second." Hershel seemed like a fairly straight forward guy. He had an open face, creased with smile lines. "Don't tell him i said this, but i think he'll be very happy to see you."

He'll be the first person happy to see me in a long time. Kat thought.

"I'll just go get Rick too. you can talk to him." Hershel got up and walked out of the room.

Kat noticed he locked the door behind him.

Daryl was in the room with in seconds. she realised he must've been waiting outside.

"Are you gonna thank me yet?" asked Kat with a smile.

Daryl looked at his feet and when he looked up, he had a smile on his face.

"I got nothin' to thank you for."

They sat in silence until Hershel returned with Rick.

Rick was medium height with dark hair pushed back from his face. he had a worried expression, but an air of confidence. Kat guessed he was the unspoken leader.

"So, Kat is it?"

Kat nodded.

"I'm Rick Grimes."

"nice to meet you" said Kat, a little gruffly.

"Daryl told me you want to join us."

"Thats right, but if you don't want me here, i understand." said Kat. She was coming to terms with the fact she might be out of her own again.

Rick laughed "oh, no, don't worry. Daryl managed to convince me to at least consider taking you in. he can be pretty persuasive when he wants something."

Kat smiled uncertainly and threw a sideways glance at Daryl. He was leaning against a wall looking at his feet.

"but," said Rick, sitting down in a chair next to her bed, "i need to ask you a couple of questions first."

"go for it"

"How many of the corpses have you killed?

"I lost count."

"How many people have you killed?"

Kat tensed up. "I don't kill people. only the ones that are already dead. Is that what you do here? Kill people?"

Rick gave her a measured look.

"Only the ones that try and kill us. You ain't got nothin' to worry about." Daryl said, looking up from the ground straight into her eyes. She believed him, just like that.

"you can stay here for now at least, Kat. " said Rick as he got up to leave.

"Thankyou." Said Kat, although she said it more to Daryl that she did to Rick.