Here we go, chapter four. I hope you guys are liking it, I want to thank everyone who has added this story to their follow/favorite lists. Special thanks to SilverAdvenger12, redangel2463, Black Roses Wilt, and XXBlackfireXX for the reviews. I still haven't really figured out where I'm going with this story, it'll follow the show's plot though I haven't quite decided how strongly - there's still going to be another chapter or two before I get around to episode one, so I guess I don't have to worry about it quite yet. Updates are going to start getting less consistent - I've been sick the past couple days and out of school, but I'm going to try to keep updates to around once a week.
I hope you guys are enjoying the story, and I hope to hear some feedback from you guys!
Chapter 4 - The Kumbayayas
It had been two weeks since they'd made it to the quarry. It would be two more days til Renee's little supply of canned food ran out - maybe three if she skipped a couple meals and left her share to Jada. She frowned, staring at the six cans left - two black beans, two ravioli, one spaghetti, and a small can of tuna. Her stomach was grumbling, she'd already been rationing it the best she could, but the supplies were going to give out - and a hell of a lot sooner than she'd like.
Jada was outside, probably playing with Carl, Sophia, and a couple of the other kids in the camp. Renee had considered asking some of the other families if they had any more food, but it wasn't all that likely, no one had been leaving camp so everyone would be running dry real quick. Or at least everyone but the Dixons, they'd been in and out of the woods constantly since they'd arrived - she could smell meat cooking over their fire almost every night. They didn't seem all that keen to share though.
Well, it wasn't like she was going to make more food by thinking about it.
The tent closed with a cheery zip. It was starting to get late, the orange sky fading to purple. The kids were all sat around a little fold out table by the RV, a deck of cards between them. They were laughing about something, Jada had that self confident grin on her face - the one she got every time someone acknowledged something she did right. She must have told the joke. A smile ghosted over her lips, but it was quickly replaced by a frown - the Dixons were cooking again.
It was in that moment that she desperately wished she'd let her Dad take her hunting. Renee had a basic understanding of how to use a rifle, but she'd only ever shot at targets. Dad had always said she'd been interested in hunting until she was four or five. She'd begged and pleaded, but he always said she'd been too young. It was Bambi that changed her mind, every time she thought about leveling a gun at an animal all she could see were crying baby deer. At this point she'd be willing to eat Bambi himself.
Her brother was good at hunting, guns and bows, but he was in Los Angeles - he couldn't exactly run on over with some deer steaks for her.
Maybe she'd ask someone to babysit for her? She could take the Camaro back down to the traffic jam they'd pushed out of - there had to be more food there. She still had a couple more days to worry about it. Jada waved as Renee approached and she waved back before going to sit around the fire with some of the others.
It was an unspoken rule that people didn't have dinner outside of their family units. Too much worry that you'd have something someone else didn't, that someone else would know you were going without. Just made it easier to live together - they were stronger in numbers, but so far it didn't seem like anyone was going for the 'kumbayaya's' as Daryl had put it. They laughed and chatted with each other, they did laundry side by side, sat around the fire in the evenings. They all lived together, but surviving was a private matter.
"So what'd you do?" T-Dog asked, fiddling absentmindedly with an old swiss army knife.
"What?" Renee asked, taking a seat next to Lori.
"Before all this shit, what'd you do?"
"I was a student, Davidson College in North Carolina. Though I don't think that's really changed or anything, I'll be going back - once all this blows over - finish up my junior and senior years."
"You think everything's gonna go back to normal?" Glenn asked from his spot on her other side. She liked Glenn, he was nice - funny actually - she was pretty sure Jada had a bit of a crush on him. Though he was a bit cooler with the kids than well...everyone else...he was nice, but he was just so awkward sometimes. A fish out of water...living in a desert.
"I mean its got to right? Atlanta fell, but...D.C. or New York, the rest of the world? We're pretty cut off from everything, but that doesn't mean it's all gone, right?"
"Yeah," Shane started from his place across the fire, he was cleaning his gun again - she'd never seen him use it, but he certainly did clean it a lot, "Atlanta just wasn't prepared for that kinda shit. Damn place couldn't handle a snowstorm."
"I dunno man," T-Dog laughed, "You ever driven in the snow? That shit's scary." A wave of chuckles spread around the group, apparently the feeling was mutual - they were from the south after all.
"The military bases have probably held out," Shane continued with a smile as the laughter faded, "just gotta wait for government to get it together."
"Oh, it's them we're waiting on?" Dale said, feigning sudden realization, "Well you better sit tight, folks. We'll be here awhile." Smiles lit up around the fire again.
This was the nice part, the living. With a soft smile she leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and just listened to the conversation. In her head her family was living too, not just as in they hadn't gotten eaten, but they were happy. Her parents were probably getting that vacation they'd always been talking about - just the two of them and the beach house, it would be romantic. Dad might be fishing more than Mom had expected for a romantic get away, but they'd be well fed, and smiling, and together.
Maybe her brother had more time for surfing now, he'd taken that up once he got to California.
That's why they all got around the campfire every night, talking about what had been and what would be. They needed something that wasn't now, that wasn't counting cans alone in your tent with your head in your hands.
Renee took in a deep breath, catching yet another wiff of whatever the Dixon's had over their fire. With a sigh she lolled her head to the side so she could look at them. For a while it had seemed that Daryl had formed a habit of giving her things, and then they'd gotten to the quarry, she'd given him an empty gas can, and they hadn't really spoken since. Right now she was wishing he'd start playing generous again. He and his brother were nothing more than vague outlines in the dying light, Daryl had a rare smile on his lips, Merle was laughing.
She had a feeling that they had right now was what she hoped her family had. Life hadn't changed for the Dixons, they were just on an extended vacation - lord knew that rednecks loved their hunting trips.
The group as a whole wasn't exactly all that cohesive. A little over thirty people in all - that thirty was split down into little groups. Some were familial, some were friendships, a few (like her and Jada, or Dale, Andrea, and Amy) were of the 'shit just kinda happened and here we are' variety. There were a few loners too, Glenn for starters was pretty cool, there were others who were kind of sketchy. There was one man who had been visiting Atlanta from somewhere in Indiana, he helped move the cars, set up his tent, and no one had spoken to him again.
His tent wasn't pitched too far from her and Jada's, so she'd seen him a few times, he was too shifty for her liking. It made her nervous having him that close to Jada, but she couldn't exactly go over and tell him to pack his shit and move back a hundred yards.
It was probably time to get Jada some dinner - Renee had decided it would be best if she didn't eat tonight. The thought of going back out there to look for food didn't sit so well with her, and if she could put it off for a while longer, she would.
"Jada, sweetie, why don't you come back to the tent?" she called as she headed up from the fire to the kid's table.
"But, Renee," she stretched out Renee's name as long as she could, "I'm winning!"
"Are not!" Carl protested.
"Am too!" She shot back.
"Jada -"
"Please, Renee! Pleaaaseee!" Renee sighed. She couldn't decide if the kid was stubborn, or if she was just weak willed.
"Alright, but the next time I ask, you better come, alright?"
Jada nodded vigorously, and Renee sighed, waving goodbye to the other adults before heading back to the tent. Jada could play a while longer while she figured out what they'd do about dinner. How little could she get away with giving Jada without her complaining? God she felt selfish, she was more than willing to let a little girl go hungry if it meant she didn't have to face the big bad world for a couple more days.
Her stomach rumbled and the ache of hunger spread up into her throat, maybe she would eat the little can of tuna. It wasn't like Jada would eat it anyways, she'd been very adamant that she didn't like fish.
Crawling back into the tent, Renee flicked on the electric lantern Dale had let her borrow. She'd give Jada some time to keep playing, for now she wanted her tuna. Popping open the cooler she reached in to pull out - nothing. No that couldn't be right, there were six, there were six cans in that damn cooler. She'd counted them a hundred times, they didn't just disappear. The cooler slammed shut as she began turning over sleeping bags, and clothes, and nothing. The cans were gone, their food was gone.
Her stomach growled.
She didn't even bother rezipping her tent as she stormed back up to the campfire. They needed that food, Jada needed that food - she was just a little girl, she was growing, she needed to eat. What sick fuck stole from a little kid?
No one paid much mind as she strode up to the fire, and leaned down next to Amy, "Hey, walk with me?" Amy's brow furrowed, but she nodded following Renee up towards the RV.
"What's going on?" She asked, a concerned frown on her lips.
"Do you think you could convince the kids to go play in the RV, I don't know...talk about mosquitos or something," she said, glancing over at Jada. The little girl was giggling happily, hunched over with a handful of cards carefully positioned out of the other's sight.
"Why?"
"Someone stole our food...I need to talk to the others about it, but...I don't think Jada should be outside for that." If she had to she'd take the Camaro down to the gridlock tonight, anything to keep Jada from worrying about where her next meal was coming from.
"We got plenty of ramen left - I'm sure Dale wouldn't mind." Amy looked just as worried as Renee felt, if someone was out there stealing food it wouldn't be long before they all went from stretching calories to starving. Well all but one.
"Oh could you? Thank you so much!" She threw her arms around Amy and grinned. The two had gotten close over the past couple weeks, they were about the same age - Amy was only a couple years older - it was easy to sit back and talk about classes, and professors, and boys. Amy had been getting a bit of a crush on Glenn - apparently Jada would have some competition.
Renee waited until Amy and the kids had disappeared inside the RV before she turned back to the fire. Apparently everyone else had noticed the kids had been told to go inside, a couple parents looked mildly miffed that someone else had been ordering their children around, the campfire had gotten awful quiet.
Renee took a deep breath, "My food's gone."
They'd caught a couple rabbits that afternoon. Now it was evening, and he and Merle were a couple of rabbits fuller than they had been. The meat had been warm and greasy, though at this point he wouldn't have minded some bread or something. He'd been living off rodents for two weeks now - he hadn't known he could ever get bored of meat. They hadn't exactly stocked up on a lot of canned food, once they'd started hearing the news reports Merle said they should grab their hunting gear, stock up on bullets, and head for the sticks.
It was Daryl who had convinced him to come towards Atlanta, he thought maybe they could get a better idea of what was happening up that way. Merle hadn't been too happy about it, but he played along just so he could say 'told ya so, baby brother,' as they watched Atlanta burn with forced nonchalance.
Now Daryl kind of wished that he'd listened to Merle in the first place. Things were always better when it was just the two of them. Merle didn't play with others, and it was starting to grate on Daryl's nerves. It wasn't like he was extrovert of the year or anything, it just got to be a bit much sometimes. He could read Merle like a book, he knew exactly when he was about to pull shit, but the man would never listen to him - at least not when it counted. The idiot had already stirred up more shit with Officer Dickhead than Daryl would have liked. It would have been easier if they just packed and left, but Merle was insistent that they rip them off first, he was just biding his sweet time.
"What's Red up to now?" Merle asked with a grin, "Your girl startin trouble?"
"She ain't my girl." Daryl glanced over to the main fire, voices were being raised, Officer Dickbag had stood up, gun in hand. Oh no, the poor bastard had to stand, shit must have been real important, "Barely talked to her. What makes you think she started it anyway?"
"Cause, she talks with her hands when she's pissed," Merle said, matter of factly.
"How the fuck you know that?" Daryl looked at her, hair blazing in the light of the fire, hands flying around this way and that, each sentence punctuated with a harsh drop...damn, he was right.
"Been people watchin', Baby Brother, gotta know who we're dealing with."
"Think we should go -"
"Nah," Merle cut him off, "Ain't our business."
The conversation ended there, but they kept watching - it was like a bad soap opera. Couldn't hear a damn word they were saying, but it was amusing enough just to sit back and watch them working themselves up by trying to calm everyone down. Merle got the giggles when Walsh swung around and accidentally knocked the gun from his own hand. One of the mothers, a single woman with a couple of daughters, was the only one who didn't seem to be jumping in on the conversation. He couldn't remember her name, might've been Lee-Ann...Sue-Ann? Something with an Ann on the end.
Then all of a sudden Renee was marching towards her tent, he watched her figure fade out of the fire light and stalk away. Except she didn't stop, she kept going, a few people followed behind as she yanked open the flap to some poor bastards tent and the yelling started again. He was pretty sure it was Jim, real nervous guy from the midwest somewhere, he looked more confused than anything else as he was dragged back to the fire.
Merle was right, there was no way in hell he wanted to get caught up in this shit. Just wasn't worth it.
"Come on, Baby Brother, let's get some shut eye." Merle jumped up and started stomping out the fire.
"Nah, I ain't tired yet. You go on without me," Daryl said. Merle just nodded, and disappeared into the tent.
Daryl didn't get himself caught up in whatever mess these idiots had created, he just watched it. Watched til the finger pointing stopped, and people slunk back to their tents. Parents picked up kids from the RV, old man was starting a damn baby sitting service. His eyes kept flitting back to Renee as she knelt in front of that little girl she was with, said a few words, before the kid followed one of the blondies back into the RV. Renee didn't follow, just turned and went back to her own tent.
He frowned, watching her go. Didn't make a lick of sense, none of it. The curiosity was starting to win out, the same curiosity that had driven him closer to Atlanta, made him get his ass out of his chair and head down towards the fire. Not that many people had stuck around, the asian kid was still up though, poking around through his own stuff just outside his tent.
"The hell was that about?" Daryl asked, coming up behind him. The kid nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Sorry. Sorry, I didn't see you there," the asian kid, stumbled over his words, "Wow, you're really quiet. Like maybe give a man a warning next to time you go all ninja on him." Glenn gave a nervous smile, Daryl just blinked, he wanted an answer to the damn question. The silence was obviously unnerving the younger guy, who pulled at his collar, it took him a moment to remember the reason Daryl was even standing there in the first place. "Oh! That?" He pointed back towards the fire, "Apparently someone stole Renee's food, or what was left of it, she said she didn't have very much...I was just checking, making sure my stuff's still here," he pointed down at his bags, "You might want to do that too, just in case."
Daryl nodded, turned and headed back towards the tent. With one last glance towards the old yellow Camaro he went to lay down. He was going to wake up early tomorrow.
The next morning was quieter. Most people still weren't up yet, and the sun hadn't quite come over the horizon leaving everything in gray scale. It had still been dark when he'd gotten up, taken a quick glance at Renee's Camaro, and headed off into the woods. He didn't plan on going all that far. The squirrels hadn't woken up much after him, and now four of them were strapped over his shoulder as he wandered back into camp.
Breakfast. One for him, one for Merle, two for Red and that little girl of hers.
Merle wasn't up yet either, but Daryl figured he'd better start cooking. The buck knife was out in seconds, the guts out of one squirrel a couple minutes later. He glanced up at Renee's tent, trying to decide if it would be weirder to show up with squirrels, or to invite her up to their place. The latter, he decided, would definitely be worse. Merle didn't play well with other people. His brow furrowed slightly as he watched Renee's tent and realized something was missing. The Camaro was gone.
Leaving the squirrels out on the chair, he jumped up and headed for the RV. Where the hell could she have gone at five in the fucking morning? He knocked once, twice, almost got to three when a dead tired looking blondie opened the door and glared.
"What the hell do you want?" It was the older one.
"Renee, where is she?"
"Why do you want to know?" Andrea squinched her eyes together, somewhere in the RV he could hear someone else start moving around.
"Her car's gone." Daryl glanced at the ground, he didn't need his motives being questioned. Just wanted to know where she'd gone.
"She and Glenn went back to the highway, left early this morning." Glenn, that was the asian kid wasn't it?
"Why the hell she go and do that?"
"She needed to look for more food, someone -"
He cut her off, "Yeah, yeah I know, stole her food. She didn't need to go nowhere though, I got her some squirrels." He gestured off towards his and Merle's camp.
Andrea crossed her arms and smirked, "You tell her that?"
A rather large flaw in his plan suddenly hit him, "No."
"Well then, that's why she left." Damn bitch looked like she almost thought it was funny.
"She got any weapons?"
"Her knife. I think Glenn's got a bat, why?" Andrea had stopped looking amused, she just seemed tired again. Maybe a bit concerned, but mostly tired, it was five in the morning after all. Daryl scowled, damn girl had gone off to the road with nothing but a knife? This kind of shit was why he thought she was gonna get herself killed. Last time she'd been there she'd beaten a walker to death with a can, but he just didn't think she was gonna get that lucky again.
"I'mma tell Merle to drop one of those squirrels by later, for the kid." He didn't really answer her question, instead just stalked back to the tent, grabbed his crossbow and a pistol, told Merle about the squirrels, told Merle he was taking his bike, and left.
He'd gotten up at the butt crack of dawn to get those squirrels, he'd be damned if she got herself killed before she ate them.
"Push damn it!" Renee yelled out the Camaro's window.
"I'm trying!" Glenn yelled back, sounding more than a bit frustrated as the Camaro roared to no avail.
"Well try harder!" She snapped and slammed her foot down on the pedal. The car shrieked, wobbled, but didn't move. In the back she could hear Glenn groaning, "What now?" She asked, exasperated. He just groaned again. This was damn near perfect, they'd loaded up the Camaro with food and more supplies (they'd agreed to split the haul down the middle), and now they were stuck. Jada would be back in the RV still, or maybe out playing with the other kids. She'd asked Dale if Jada could have a bit of a sleepover, Renee hadn't wanted to make the girl wake up with her at five AM.
The door slammed as she went to go check what the hell his problem was. Glenn had his head hung in defeat, panting heavily, his entire front side and most of his face were absolutely coated in mud.
"This just isn't working." Glenn rubbed his hand over his face, trying to get some of the grime off, "You sure you know what you're doing?"
"Nope."
"Didn't you used to go mudding and stuff, you're like redneck-lite right?" Glenn asked with a grin. Renee shook her head, smiling.
"What makes me redneck-lite?"
"Well, Merle and Daryl are like the heavy draft ale of hicks, so that makes you light beer." Glenn said, crouching down to look at the wheel, again, even though they had both established that they didn't know what that would do.
"What do I gotta do to stop being lite?" She asked as Glenn stood back up.
"You walk into those woods, come back with a squirrel, a bottle of whisky, and a few racial slurs and we'll start calling you just plain old beer."
"Jerk," she laughed, punching his arm playfully, "Just cause I ain't a rodent-eating jackass don't mean I can't be no redneck," she said, over exaggerating her southern twang as much as possible. They broke down in giggles for a moment, before Renee glanced up at the woods. They hadn't seen any loose walkers yet, just a few trapped in cars (those had been put down). The longer they stood there with the Camaro roaring into the mud though, the more likely that corpses would begin to tumble down from the forest. "Come on," lets get back to work, "I was hoping to get back before lunch.
The Camaro struggled, and strained, and sputtered. Every once in a while she'd really ram the gas and it would bellow as the engine revved in vain. Then she heard another rumbling, one that distinctly wasn't the Camaro. It was a...bike. She turned off the engine, and clambered out of the car. Glenn had come up to stand next to her, they shared a quick look, before waving awkwardly to Daryl as he came over.
The man was normally grouchy, so his scowl didn't exactly surprise Renee or anything. Though she was kind of surprised to see him, he hadn't really bothered to say anything to her in weeks, much less show up when she was stuck on the side of the road. She'd tried, a couple of times, to talk to him after they'd reached the quarry. It was always a bit of a moot point, he'd grunt, or nod, or give a one word response, a few times he just didn't respond at all. After a few days she'd given up - the others were far easier to be friendly with, if he wanted to be the loser off in the corner with his big brother, then he was welcome to it.
"The hell did you do?" Daryl asked, looking between the car and the two people - one absolutely covered in mud.
"What does it look like, Dixon," she said dryly, "We're stuck."
"You try rockin' it?" Daryl asked, pointing down at the wheel.
"Of course I fucking tried rocking it," she grumbled, not meeting his gaze. This was almost worse than just being stuck on a walker infested road. Part of her was happy he'd shown up, part of her was handling it just fine on her own - thank you very much.
"You sure? That wheel's in pretty damn deep. You didn't gun it, did ya?"
She glanced back, he was right, it was almost half sunk into the mud, "Might've lost my temper once or twice." Glenn scoffed, gesturing to his absolutely mudcaked clothes. Renee jammed in elbow into his side for the lack of backup.
Daryl looked exasperated as he pushed past them. Well sorry I ain't draft ale, she grumbled to herself as she watched Daryl crouch down next to the car. He stuck his hand into the mud, scowled at the wheel, stood up, wiped his hands on the little red rag in the back of his pants, and then scowled at her.
"You got a shovel?" He asked.
"No. Why the hell would I have a shovel?"
"There's an axe," Glenn piped up, "In the trunk."
"That'll do." Daryl nodded. It took a moment for Renee to pull it out, and the redneck seemed to be getting more impatient the longer it took. She hadn't asked him to help her, no reason for him to get all huffy about it, he was more than free to get back on his bike on leave. She didn't really mean that, she was annoyed, but she and Glenn were fucked without him.
Fifteen minutes and a bit of cursing later the wheels had been dug out a bit, and Daryl had disappeared up into the woods. No explanation, just a 'don't go nowhere,' and then he was gone.
"Watch him come back with a bunch of squirrels and six pack," Renee said with a smile.
"Well, he's already called me chinaman twice."
"Yeah...he's a bit of a jerk. I think Merle might be worse though -"
Glenn nodded, eyes wide, "Yeah, I think Merle's drifting over into hard liquor territory."
They laughed. Daryl hadn't come back yet, so they just sat out on the asphalt enjoying the warm morning. If she ignored the sea of abandoned cars, and the fact that she was sitting in the middle of a highway, she could almost call it a normal day.
Eventually the redneck slid down the embankment, a bundle of sticks and rocks in his arms. A few minutes later he'd laid the debris around the wheels, opened the door, and motioned for her to get back in.
"Alright, don't get carried away with it this time. Rock it back and forth, gentle like - yeah?"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it." She rolled her eyes, and got to work, only partially ignoring the directions Daryl was yelling from the roadside as Glenn pushed from the back. A few minutes later the Camaro was rolling up onto the road. "Yes!" She cheered, grinning as she came to a stop next to Daryl.
"Take her slow for a while, get the mud out ya tires. Don't need ya skiddin all over the road." He said, leaning down to her window. Glenn came around to hop in the passengers seat.
"No!" She snapped suddenly, whipping around towards Glenn, both men looked a bit surprised, "We'll get you some towels or something, you're not getting that shit all over my car."
She thought she heard him mutter something along the lines of 'well you got it all over me,' but she decided to ignore it.
"He can ride with me," Daryl popped back up straight, "Come on, Chinaman!" Glenn looked less than enthused that he would have to hold on to Daryl for the next half hour.
"His name's Glenn, Daryl!" She called out the window after him, Glenn gave her thankful look as he followed the redneck over to the bike.
"Whatever!" Daryl called back, hopping on the bike, barely letting Glenn get settled before he revved the engine and took off. She put the Camaro into first and headed after them.
They'd given a bit of the food to Daryl for his trouble, and split what was left down the middle. It was nice, knowing that she'd be able to feed Jada without worrying for a while. There was still the issue of a thief in the camp, but for now things were going to be okay.
There was going to be another meeting that afternoon, to figure out what to do. She felt kind of bad, last night hadn't really been one of her proudest moments. She'd practically dragged Jim out of his tent by his ear - it was pretty obvious after a while that he hadn't done it.
There were still a couple hours left before the meeting though. She decided to spend it the best she could, just relax for a bit. Renee brought a few cans of food to thank Dale when she picked up Jada, she decided they were going to go swimming that morning. Jada never objected to that, she just grinned and ran to get the outfit she'd designated as her swimsuit - a pair of cloth shorts and a tank top.
"Did you get something to eat this morning?" Renee asked her as they walked down to the water.
" brought me a squirrel." Jada wrinkled her nose a bit, apparently squirrel wasn't all that high on her menu. Renee's brow furrowed...Dixon?
"Which one?"
"The old one." Jada said, laying her towel down on the rocks. Renee smiled, she'd like to see her say that to his face. Though she was kind of surprised that Merle had bothered...it was Merle...and for that matter why was he bringing Jada squirrels?
The morning passed by faster than she would've liked, splashing about in the shallows and giving piggybacks through the deep parts. Jada could swim well, she was like a fish, showing off her freestyle and backstroke. It was almost time for the group talk when she and Jada walked back up to camp. Carol had agreed to babysit the kids this time while everyone else tried to figure out what to do about the thief.
Renee kissed Jada's forehead goodbye and headed over to the fire pit, still dripping wet. There were more people there than she had expected, even the Dixons had shown up - they didn't look happy about it, but they were there.
"Alright," Shane started out, earning a couple of eye rolls from the Dixons. Renee had a feeling they didn't like the cop all that much, "I think we got some things we need to talk about."
Some people nodded, a few just sat quietly as they listened.
"Someone's taken Renee's food, and I hear she went out on a run - but this isn't something that can be repeated. I've already had four other people come to me saying they're missing things too."
"What, you playing Sheriff now?" Merle smirked from his place standing behind Lori and Carl.
"If It's what I gotta do, it's what I gotta do," Shane replied, cocking his head to look at him sideways.
"Shane used to be an officer," Lori added, "He's more than qualified."
"Look, I'm not gonna be stringing anybody up. We need to figure this out though, if whoever's been doing this could just come forward - I'm sure we can -"
"And why the hell would they want to come forward?" T-Dog asked, "I mean the whole group was kinda at eachothers throats last night."
"That was a mistake," Shane made eye contact with her, "Things got out of hand, for a lot of people. It's not like anyone's been stealing guns, or clothes, or jewelry. It was food - something someone needed, now I think we can all understand that. If we know why they were stealing, maybe we can do something to fix the problem."
It was very quiet for a while, eyes trailing from face to face. Every once in a while she'd make eye contact with someone, and quickly move on to the next person. Her gaze met Daryl's and she held it for a moment, it still didn't add up that Merle had brought Jada dinner. Daryl looked down to the ground, had he put him up to it? A bit of a smile spread on her lips, Daryl was a grumpy, anti-social jerk sometimes - most of the time - but he had a good heart.
"It was me," a soft voice broke the silence, and Renee looked up from Daryl to see Sarah-Ann. The older woman wouldn't meet anyone's eyes, but she kept talking, "We ran out of food last week. I couldn't leave them… I just couldn't go back out there," her eyes flicked up to Renee's briefly, "but I couldn't let them go hungry. They're my girls." Her voice cracked, and she trained her eyes on the ground again.
"It's okay," Renee said, "I...I understand." It was a terrifying thought, going outside the relative safety of camp. She'd been willing to stop eating for almost a week if it would have meant not having to go back out. Her missing food had just made her deal with it sooner.
Shane nodded to her, and Renee offered him a quiet smile, apparently he approved of her decision, "We got some things we need to change around here," Shane said, Merle scoffed, but the cop just ignored him and kept going, "We're going to be here for a while, and that's something we're gonna have to deal with. We're a group, we gotta start acting like it - we keep ourselves all closed off like this kids are gonna start going hungry." A few people nodded as they listened, "We gotta start working together, organizing runs to get food and supplies -" he looked towards the Dixons, "I know a lot of people would be grateful if you started sharing some of the meat," Merle didn't look too happy, "The two of you are great hunters, shouldn't be too hard to pick up a few more squirrels out there.
"We need to start sharing what we have. We can't survive on our own much longer, it needs to be a team effort. We agreed?" Shane asked in a way that wasn't really a question so much as a 'this is how it's gonna be from now on', but no one seemed to have any objections. Shane nodded, "Alright."
Renee glanced over at Daryl, Kumbaya.
Well that was chapter four, kind of a long one hahaha. I hope you guys liked it! I'll try to keep updates to about once a week, more if I can, just depends on how much school work I got going on. I hope to hear back from you guys!
See ya soon!