A few hours later, Georgie found herself sat by the camp fire eating chunks of rabbit. Despite her protests that she needed only water and she didn't want to put a strain on the camps resources, all but Daryl had insisted that she stay to be fed and at least sleep in the RV with Dale and Andrea. They seemed to regard her as a hero-indeed Sophie, the little girl, could barely leave her alone as she ate, alternately plucking at her mother's arm and Georgie's, for no reason other than to smile at her. T-Dog was also being regarded as a saviour, and was quietly enjoying the attention, occasionally grinning at Georgie over the flames. Georgie found it harder to enjoy the attention, although she was enjoying the rabbit. After three days, she had stopped really feeling the hunger until she had offered to help cook the rabbits that Shane had been carrying. Then the thought of the meat on the bone had made her almost sick with hunger and she had stopped protesting the offer of food.

"So, Georgie." The brunette woman, who had introduced her self as Lori, the wife of Rick who had extended his thanks and the initial invitation. "You're not from around here are you?"

Georgie looked up and grinned. "What was your first clue?"

Lori smiled. "Your accent. It's British, right? I have to say, it's the last thing I expected to hear."

Georgie wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "I can imagine. Yes, I'm from England. A little county called Shropshire. It's very rural. I lived in a town, but lots of my friends lived on or near farms."

The oldest man, Dale, spoke up, a fatherly smile on his face. "I don't suppose what they say about the English and tea is true? Because, I have a whole load of tea bags in my RV..."

Inwardly Georgie groaned-she hated tea with a passion. But she was use to elderly Americans offering it to her, and she figured one cup wouldn't hurt. She wanted to stay on the good side of the camp. "Not about ALL English people, but defiantly this one!"

"Are you telling me that you have tea bags but no coffee in your RV?" Lori stared at Dale incredulously. "You amaze me Dale" The camp laughed, and Dale smiled, twisting the watch on his wrist.

"Hey Georgie." It was Lori and Ricks son, Carl. "What happened to your back? Why is it all scared up?"

Georgie froze, suddenly aware of everyone's eyes even more focused on her. Her shirt had been covered in zombie blood, and she'd burnt it along with the corpses. She was wearing one of Andreas sisters shirts, and when she had been changing Carl had walked in, looking for his mother. Andrea and Lori had tactfully avoided bringing up the multiple whip scars and knife wounds. Carl, at the age of seven, wanted to know more.

"Don't be so rude Carl, you shouldn't ask personal questions like that." Lori looked embarrassed as she told off her son and avoided Georgie's eye

"Lori, it's fine, really." Georgie put down her plate, and considered her response carefully, wording it honestly, but not graphically.

"When the outbreaks got bad, the whole country went to ruins. Most people went to the city. You know how that went. I decided not to, it didn't seem logical to me. So, me and my friend Adele, we just collected up all the equipment from the summer camp we were working on we could and wondered for a while. It was ok for a bit. Most of the people were in cities so we didn't run into many Zombies-or walkers as you call them. But it was scary and I wasn't good at hitting moving targets, so we went hungry a lot.

After a while, we ran these men. Their names were Joe and Ryan, and they were part of a camp. They took us to this complex he and his friends had built, and said we could stay there with them, as long as we earned our keep. It seemed fair, so we stayed. Problem is, once you agreed to stay, it was hard to leave. They were cruel people that ran it, bullies and tyrants. Once they saw I could shoot a bow and arrow, they made me train to be a protector. They got Adele in on it too-they figured she had some fight in her. But that was just an excuse to beat people up and call it training. The man who had found me, Joe, he really went for me. But it wasn't unusual. It was like every man had to pick a woman to beat on. Adele got Ryan beating on her. He liked to kick.

I soon got better at fighting back, and I wasn't above fighting dirty either. That's when they whipped me. As well as other punishments." Georgie let the last sentence hang. She had no doubt the adults would know what she meant.

"I soon realised we would die there. So, I waited until the next expedition, and I just vanished. Made it look like I fell into a river and was swept away, I hope. Since, then, I've been wondering from town to town, looting and shooting. But Adele..." She paused, fighting the lump in her throat. "Adele was supposed to do the same, she fell into the same river. But I never found her. I don't know if she just didn't do it, or drowned, or if they got her, but I couldn't find her when I got out the river. I searched and I searched, but she was gone."

The silence hung over the fire, like a heavy blanket. George knew she had left a lot of the details out, but she didn't want to feed the children's imaginations any more than necessary. Finally, Dale spoke again.

"After all that, why did you follow T-Dog? Weren't you worried or suspicious?"

"No." Georgie spoke without hesitation. "He was protecting the camp, he was suspicious of me. When I made my offer, he was thinking it over, weighing me up. He was trying to decide if I was a threat or not. If he had wanted to trick me, he would have accepted me straight away."

Dale nodded, accepting the logic. Georgina picked her plate up and began to eat again. She was aware of eyes on her, but she was suddenly too tired to deal with them. She hoped silently that they wouldn't ask her anymore questions. Luckily, they seemed to pick up on this, and the chatter went on around her.

"Georgie," Andrea, the blonde lady, spoke softly and Georgie looked up. "You look wiped out hun. Why don't you go to the RV and sleep-no, you deserve an early night, we've got look outs here. We'll be fine." Gratefully, Georgie got to her feet. She smiled a good night at the camp and turned towards the RV. Suddenly, a Southern voice spoke.

"Your bow looks pretty beat. I'll have a look at it for you an' see if I can get it firing fast again." Georgie looked at the man who had spoken, Daryl. He was staring at the fire, an angry look on his face. Georgie couldn't tell if he was actually angry, or if he just looked like that all the time. It was the first sentence he'd spoken to her all day. She wondered if it was his way of saying thank you.

"Thanks." He didn't acknowledge her response, but the rest of the camp smiled at her and said goodnight.

She staggered into the RV and barely managed to pull off her boots before she collapsed on the sofa bed. As she drifted into sleep, she could hear the campers talking in subdued whispers about her story, and if they should believe it or not. Her last thought before she fell into a blissfully dreamless sleep, is that they needed to believe her.

They needed to understand that walkers weren't the worst things out there.