Author's note!: So, does anyone know where I can watch the Walking Dead? I seriously need to refresh my memory of this show, like ahora! Because we get to see a more intense side of everyone, once Rick and the crew come back! So can anyone help me out? Oh! and new game! I'm hiding lyrics in every one of the chapters, so game on! let me know what the lyrics are :D

Dislcaimer: I don't own TWD, or anything else :] Enjoy!

Thankyous!: ThisSideOrTheOther-I will make you love Merle if it kills me :D hahah thanks for the reivew wifey!

Chapter 3: Insomnia!

*California*

"Yours?"

"Nope."

"Yours?"

"Nope."

"Yours?"

"Uh-uh." Daryl repeated for maybe the three hundredth time. I growled and stared at the pile of sleeveless shirt in front of me. I had washed so much redneck attire in the week I had been with the camp. Camp Clueless as I had dubbed it, and I had been stuck doing load after load after load of their clothes.

How they got anything done without me, I had no idea. I mean, I don't think Merle understood the concept of 'soap'.

Daryl sat on a bucket, fooling around with his stupid crossbow. I crossed my legs up on his cot and stretched. Too hot. Way too hot. Georgia sucked.

I continued folding the clothes in front of me. "How is it that I have yet to come across any of yours? I've been washing since I got here!"

"I dunno? Maybe you lost all my shit?" He tossed out. I glared at him.

"I didn't lose anything."

"Well, seein as it ain't in front of ya, I'm gunn' say ya did!"

"Lies!" I defended myself. Okay, maybe it wasn't all a lie, I needed something to sleep in, and Merle was too big. I didn't think Daryl would notice…besides he killed Dean. All's fair.

And yes, I was still holding a grudge for that. Not that he knew about it.

"Don't bullshit me Nia." A smirk had molded onto his face. "Yer too easy to read fer bullshittin'."

"I am not!"

"Yeah, ya are."

"I am not easy!"

"Couldda fooled me!" Merle cackled walking into Daryl's tent. Daryl sniggered, and I knew that meant he was going to shut up. Daryl never talked to me much when Merle was around. Kind of like when we were stuck in the tree that first day. Merle yawned and looked at my neat little piles. "Womanly duties?"

"You sir, are an ass."

"Ass? Hardly." He snorted. "Ya should jus' be happy that we even picked ya up! Too many woman at camp's dangerous."

"Dangerous?" I rolled my eyes. "How are me and Amy dangerous?"

"Ya women spend a full week'a every month bleeding." He spat the word. "And wit' alla you in th' same place, how long b'fer the geeks smell ya?" He looked to his brother for back up, but the subject looked like it was making BFK a little ill. He just looked down at his crossbow.

"Okay…one: Ewww, Merle that's disgusting! Two: we're not bleeding profusely…it's barely any blood. Not enough to attract a heard of geeks." I rolled my eyes at the stupid man, yet again.

"Yeah well, fact's a fact!" He snorted. "Daryl, where's muh' gun?"

"Th' fuck ya need the gun fer?"

"I'm goin wit' th' nigga', th' Nazi bitch, and the chink ta Atlanta." He responded. Daryl raised his eyebrow, and my heart stopped.

Okay so, nigga has to be either Jacqui or T-Dog. Probably T-Dog. Nazi bitch? Like figuratively or literally? Figuratively, I'd have to say Lori. For sure. But literally, either Amy or Andrea. And since there's no way in hell Andrea would let Amy go, it would have to be Andrea. And the chink…

"Glenn's going?" I asked, my voice raising a little. The Great Red Necks stared at me.

"Yup." Merle nodded. "Ya little boyfriend's leadin' th' way. 'Pparently, he knows the town like the back of his hand."

"Oh no he's not." I bit my lip and jump off of Daryl's bed, and out the tent flap. I stormed over to Glenn's tent, where I had bunkered down. Dale hadn't had enough room, and that was alright with me. I wasn't against sleeping on the ground so Glenn had taken me in. I busted in, causing my Asian Amigo to jump a foot into the air. "What the hell do you think you're doing!" I asked, crossing my arms.

Glenn rolled his eyes and pointed towards the piece of notebook paper we had pinned to the wall of our tent. "Rule three."

Oh yes, our roommate rules.

They were, as follows:

Rule one: Roommates can look, but can't touch, unless sufficient amount of alcohol is provided.

Rule two: No small penis jokes. Leave the Asian alone.

Rule three: There will be no yelling inside the tent. It's small and causes headaches.

Rule four: The tampons aren't going anywhere, stop bitching about them.

Rule five: Rules are subject to change when the roommate see fit.

Rule six: If insomnia kicks in, deal with it OUTSIDE of the tent. Because ONE of us is on patrol. And that means that person needs SLEEP!

"I think this is an exception!"

"Nope." Glenn grinned at me. "No yelling!"

"Then explain to me, why you're going back to Atlanta!"

"Supplies?"

"Is it really worth taking all those people?"

"Hey, I didn't want to take any of them! But Shane said if I was going, I wasn't going alone. Then they all volunteered. What was I supposed to do?"

"Say no?" I tilted my head to the side.

"Great suggestion Cali, I hadn't thought to say no. Gee, where were you ten minutes ago?"

"Folding pair after pair of redneck boxers." I shuddered. Glenn just stared at me. I was freakishly good at making the Asian man speechless.

"Gotta say, that sounds way worse then dealing with Shane in one of his moods."

"Awh, who pissed on his pop tarts this morning?"

"Who else?" Glenn smirked at me. "Merle. Shane's making him go with us, because he just doesn't want him hanging around anymore."

"Seriously? Come one! He's not that bad." I defended him. Glenn just gave me another look.

"No, he's pretty bad. He's all jacked up, all the freakin' time. I just don't get why he can't sit down and shut up."

Cocaine. Vast amounts of cocaine. I thought. "I don't know."

"Well, I hope he gets it under control. I'm not exactly looking foreword to having to deal with him." Glenn sighed, and pulled his hat off, running his hand through his black hair. I knelt down to where my bag was stashed, and pulled out a pen. I snatched the Roommate Rules off the wall and scrawled something else onto it.

"Rule seven: Whenever a roommate leaves the tent, they have to promise to come back to the tent." I read aloud, and handed it to Glenn. "Sign it."

"Cali-"

"Sign it Glenn!" I ordered him. He nodded and took the pen from me. I stood up and turned around so he could write on my back. He finished, then handed me the pen.

"You have to sign it too." He smiled. I scoffed.

"It doesn't look like I'll ever be leaving Camp Clueless. You don't have to worry about me."

"You spend half your time with the Dixons. I worry about you." he responded, and turned around so I could use his back. I sighed and scrawled my name at the bottom of the paper. He smiled, satisfied, and pinned the paper back up. "See, now neither of us need to worry."

"You're going up against Geeks…"

"And you're going to be stuck with a paranoid Jacqui, scared stiff Amy…and well, whatever Daryl does when he's hiding away from everyone else."

"He just chills. I guess." huh, what did Daryl do? Sit in his room and brood? Socially awkward, that one.

"Yeah well, watch out either way." Glenn reaffirmed and grabbed his bag off the floor. I nodded and followed him towards the center of camp. Andrea and T-Dog were already there, and Merle was on his way, sniffing rapidly.

Dear God, Merle was a dead man.

"Let's fuckin' go!" Merle cried, sauntering over towards the van. Andrea gave Amy a hug, and followed Merle. T-Dog pressed a kiss against Jacqui's head and he joined the crew of the scavengers. I grabbed Glenn's wrist so he was facing me.

"Please be careful!"

"Of course." He smiled and pulled me into a hug. "Be back before you know it."

"I expect you back ten minutes before you get here." I squeezed. "Oh and Glenn, if you happen to come across some like, Tylenol PM or something, could you bring it back? I ran out a few nights ago."

"A few nights-" He gaped at me. "Christ, yeah. I'll get you some Cali, no problem."

"Thanks." I smiled and pressed my lips against his cheek. "See you soon."

"Yes you will."

"Hey! Chink Chink Chinaman! Hurry th' fuck up!" Merle yelled from the cargo van they were piled into. Glenn growled and turned towards the car. However, he didn't try and get into Merle's face. But then again, they seldom do. Merle's kind of intimidating.

I stood next to Amy and waved goodbye. She sighed and turned towards me. "What are they doing?"

"Well, there's some stuff, that we just can't do without." I answered.

"Like what? What is so important?" she asked. I wasn't sure if I could give her an answer. Glenn hadn't said what they were going to get, but it must be important if he made the petition for the trip anyways.

"I couldn't tell you Amy. I really don't know." I finally answered as the van trailed out of our line of sight.

"Well, might as well do something." She said after a few minutes. I smiled at her, I liked this blonde girl, even though she was my polar opposite. She had white blonde hair, I had my black. She had her wide blue eyes, I had brown. She was pale, and my burn had gradually faded into a nice tan.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Well, it's hot today."

"Today? It's hotter then the devil's whore everyday." I informed her quickly. She rolled her eyes.

"You are so obviously not a blue-blooded Georgian."

"Blue blood? I'll buy blue collared."

"Wow bitch." Amy laughed. "I was going to see if you wanted to go swimming, but now, I might just ask someone else." she lifted her nose in the air.

"Who are you going to ask? Lori?" I snorted. "Come on Amy be real, no one here takes us seriously!"

"You've noticed that too?"

"We're walker bait."

"Who said that?"

"Three guesses." I winked at her.

"Hmmm, Merle?"

"Ding Ding Ding!" I cried, and grabbed her hand. "Come on! Let's go!"

.:.

Night is the worst for me. It always has been.

Sleep had been fighting me for years, back when I was like ten I'd stopped sleeping. For some reason, every time my head hit the pillow, my mind went into overdrive and I wouldn't be able to grasp sleep. I'd been on sleeping pills for a few years now, and they were the only way I'd managed to sleep since.

I'd been stuck in that tree, and I hadn't slept for those three days. I'd had nothing to do but think. It had been a hell, where I had slowly come to terms with the idea that everyone had dead.

Family-dead.

Friends-dead.

Boyfriend-dead.

Town-dead.

Everyone I had ever cared about-dead.

The shock that everyone in Camp Clueless seemed to be in, I had already gone through. Just a whole lot faster. Alone in that tree, I had denied the truth, I had cried, I had broken down God knows how many times.

After the pain, came the numb. The disbelief that this could truly be the end of the world is enough to knock anyone on their ass. It just couldn't happen right? It was a bad dream? It wasn't real. A nightmare.

But I couldn't sleep, it couldn't be a nightmare.

That third day, I had been ready for death. I was going to die, either by heat stroke, or just death of willingness to die. I thought I hadn't wanted to keep going.

Then Best Friend Killer and the Pride of Atlanta had swooped out of nowhere, and pulled me out of that tree, and back towards survival. If there were others out there, then I wasn't as alone as I had thought.

I was allowed to live.

I was allowed to want to live.

"Shit." I groaned as I tossed and turned for the umpteenth time that night. There was no use. I would not be sleeping tonight. I sat up and reached for a pair of shorts, which I pulled on under the shirt I had stole from Daryl.

I silently unzipped the tent, and made my way toward the center of the camp, where the fire usually was. It had dimmed down to almost a slight glow, which told me that whoever was on patrol, had just left on their run. If you're the one on patrol, then you're supposed to add half a log so the fire never really runs out through the night.

I sat down next to the fire, and pulled out the string to make the blue, white and pink bracelet I had been making for Amy. If I wasn't going to sleep, I was at least going to be productive. It wasn't long before the movements became mechanical, and I was able to go on auto pilot. Twist, twist, tie. Twist, twist, tie. Twist, twist-

"Th' fuck are ya doin?"

"Holy shit!" I cried and jumped. I whirled around, and saw Daryl standing behind me, staring at me like I was just the most retarded thing he'd ever seen. "Don't do that!"

"Do whut? Walk?"

"Ugh you know what I meant!"

"Yeah, maybe ya should be more focused in whut's goin' on 'round you." he shrugged. "Whut are ya doin'?"

"Making a bracelet."

"Well, I had actually gathered tha'." He rolled his eyes. "I meant, why are ya doin' tha' out here? At four in th' morning?"

"Oh! Yeah, I couldn't sleep."

"Couldn't sleep?"

"Nope."

"So you came out here, tuh make a bracelet?"

"Yup."

"Yer so fuckin' weird Nia." He shook his head, then did a double take. "Hey! That's mah fuckin' shirt!"

"Oh yeah, I found it." I grinned up at him. He growled. "Pop a squat Daryl, might as well." Daryl thought for a few minutes, before he sat down next to me. "So what are you doing up at four?"

"Goin' huntin'."

"You're leaving too?"

"Yup."

"Oh." I mumbled. I wasn't exactly excited about the fact that every single one of the people I cared about in this camp had just decided to head off.

"We need the meat." He tossed out. I nodded. He sighed, and stared at me. "Why you look like sumone kicked yer puppy?"

"Everyone left." I answered.

"They comin' back."

"No." I whispered. "They're not."

"Th' fuck you talkin' bout?"

"Oh, uh, nothing. Nothing really." I gave him a smile. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why don't you talk to anyone?" Daryl raised his eyebrow.

"Dunno. They don' really talk tuh me." he answered. I chewed the inside of my cheek. Well, that was the truth if I ever heard it. No one really bothered trying to talk to him.

"I see."

"Can I ask ya a question?"

"Sure thing."

"Why can't ya sleep?"

"I ran out of pills." I smiled at him. "I'm an insomniac, you know? Can't sleep." I rubbed my eyes. "It sucks ass man."

"Yeah, I'll bet." he shook his head. "Look, ya should try tuh get some sleep anyways."

"What part of insomniac is confusing you? I-N-S-O-M-N-I-A can't sleep"

"Com'n." He muttered and pulled me up with him. He dragged me towards Glenn's tent. I frowned.

"Just throwing me in there isn't going to work."

"Jus' com'n."

"But Daryl-" I whined. He groaned, but continued to pull me towards the tent. Once we were there, he pointed toward my sleeping back.

"Lay down." I glared at him, but complied. He sat down across from me. "Alrigh', here. Try this. Tell me whut ya did t'day. Backwards."

"Backwards?"

"Yeah. Do it."

"Uh, alright. Let's see." I closed my eyes. "Got in bed. Got pulled here. Talked to you. Made a bracelet. Uh." I screwed my eyes shut tighter. My mind was going foggy. "Took a shower. Helped Amy make dinner." I yawned. Holy shit, this was really working. "Went swimming." I heard Daryl grunt a laugh.

"'Nigh Nia." I felt his hand ruffle my hair. "Sweet dreams."

"Hey Daryl,"

"Yup?"

"Thanks."

"Don' mention it kid." he answered. I heard the tent zip. "I'll see ya soon."

So Daryl's little trick is the on I've used to get over my own sleepy issuses when I run out of pills :D So please review! And seriously, if you have pointers, do *not* hesistate to share! :D