Chapter Four yo! I'm so excited to be getting closer to meeting our TWD family! This one's gonna be a bit longer, since I said two more chapters. I think Delaney has a lot to learn from them, as well as a lot to teach. Her strength will start to come out a bit more here and we'll meet some more peeps.


It took two days to get to the national guard camp. They stopped in a small town to try and find some gas, but the lack of undead should have been their first clue something was wrong. Scott, Josh and Delaney went into town, leaving everyone else behind and started searching through a small convenience store, keeping their eyes and ears open for anything that might try to eat them. Delaney didn't hear him until it was too late. A man's arm wrapped around her neck and pulled her against his body, she screamed only to be cut off by his arm. She kicked and thrashed but all he did was lift her up, taking her feet off the ground and cutting off her air supply. Black started to cloud her vision as she scratched at the man's arm to let her go. He dragged her out to the street where she could see Josh and Scott. Welles, Franklin and Sean were nowhere to be seen and Delaney smiled a little in that knowledge.

The man behind her let her go, then kicked her in the back of the knee so she would fall. She hit the ground hard, pain jarring up her knee caps, but she stayed focused. There were six men, one who looked to have some muscle, one super skinny one, a kid maybe sixteen years old, the man who grabbed her was fat and smelled like the dead and body odor. There were three other men back a bit more, one blocking the other a little. He had brown hair, average height and build but his head was bald and he had a huge tattoo on his scalp. Of what, Delaney couldn't tell. The next two were blonde, and looked to be twins.

Delaney looked over at Scott and Josh to make sure they were okay. Josh had a bloody lip and a broken nose maybe and Scott looked like he had a pretty big bump appearing on the side of his head but other than that they both looked fine. The Big Man spoke then, his voice cocky and loud.

"Look what I found here Dave!" Just the volume of his voice made Delaney jump, but the men thought it was because she was scared and smiled. The one who looked to be in the best shape responded with a laugh in his voice.

"I'm real sorry miss, Tony is just real excited, it ain't often we get to see pretty girls these days." His voice would have been nice if they weren't all lined up on the street as if they were about to be executed. Delaney was grossed out and a little scared.

"Where ya'll from? We're just passin through, but I see ya'll ain't got a car round here, which means either you're stayin close, or you had people close." His guess was right, his tone soft as if he were trying to make friends. Delaney found herself feeling itchy, just waiting for it to be over. She didn't say a word. Josh on the other hand had a different idea.

"Just left Fort Benning. Got overran today." Dave looked almost shocked to get a real answer, or maybe shocked Fort Benning had fallen, D couldn't really tell. He looked to Josh and said

"No shit? That's actually where we were headed. Been all over you know? Lookin for the end of it. Everyone says something different, West coast says the east coast is clear, east says west, heard they was shippin people out to islands and shit. Looks like we almost made it to Benning though." Delaney got more uncomfortable the more Dave talked. Where is Sean?!

Out of the silence came a car alarm. A loud, ear splitting car alarm from a few streets away. But even being that far they could hear the dead getting riled up. All but Tony ran off to find out what was going on. Tony walked out in front of them with his gun up looking in the direction of the car.

Shoulda kept Delaney in his sight. She stood silently before her brother or Josh could and snuck closer, and with all the power in her body kicked Tony in the back of the knee. As his body crumbled with a yell, his arm and gun went up into the air and with a swiftness Delaney didn't even know she possessed she reached out and snatched the gun from his hand not hesitating for a second to bring it hard across his temple. Tony collapsed against the pavement. They turned and ran as fast and as hard as they could back down the street and finally into the woods. It only took a few minutes to get back out onto the road, where Sean, Welles, and Franklin picked them up. They took off quickly, speeding like crazy for hours until they felt safe, and knew that Dave and his men weren't following them. Delaney still didn't feel sure but Sean seemed confident and Delaney trusted him. Five of them slept in the truck, but Scott sat outside on top of the Humvee on watch all night. He didn't talk, or move... just watched.

By the time they reached the National Guard camp the next day the sun was starting to go down, but they noticed the fences were up, and there didn't seem to be any decaying bodies in line of sight. Delaney knew now this was a bad thing. As they piled out of the Humvee she made sure to stay on Sean's right side. Not that he needed the help because of his hand, but Delaney didn't want to take any chances. Scott stood on her other side.

"I guess we stay close, weapons ready and clear it out. Then we'll find a building we can stay in for the night, spread out tomorrow at sun-up and see what we're really looking at." Franklin took the lead, pushing the big gate open, Josh closed it after the small group walked through. They stayed low, within arms reach of each other with their weapons out. Delaneys nerves seemed to wash away being between the two boys, her confidence growing every second. They didn't encounter a single dead outside the building as they did their entire sweep around before moving inside. Scott quietly mentioned the vehicles and the helicopter parked in the parking lot, remembering to check them all out later and see if they still worked.

As the group entered the building, Welles went first, his gun held up level with his eye as he scanned the hallway before pointing with two fingers to the door on the right. With practiced perfection Josh stepped forward and opened the door, him and Franklin moved in quickly a quiet 'clear!' coming a second later as the men moved back out of the room. They continued this way, for three more rooms until the sound of footsteps interrupted the silence. Not dragging footsteps either. They all crouched, guns up and aimed in the direction of the noise as a group of six men, also in military uniform rounded the corner with their guns immediately trained on Delaney and her group. She stood quickly, putting her gun down and said

"Don't shoot! We're alive!" Her voice was scratchy from being strangled, but it was strong all the same. Scott reached out and grabbed her shoulder, trying to pull her back behind them but she shook him off standing her ground. None of the men in the hallway moved, their guns still aimed at Delaneys head.

"My name is Delaney, these are Scott, Sean, Franklin, Josh, and Lieutenant Welles. We were stationed at Fort Benning until yesterday when it fell. We don't mean no harm." Her words came out in a rush, almost pleading with these new men to understand. After a moment of tense silence the man up front lowered his weapon, all the other men following.

"Why'd you come here?" He asked. He was light skinned, with squinty eyes and it looked like an injury of some kind on one leg as he leaned heavily on the other. Sean responded, stepping forward even with Delaney.

"Just lookin' for a chance bro. You know how it is now. We need some place safe, supplies.."

"Lame-brains can't get in here anymore. We only moved in a few days ago, but we haven't had a chance to finish fixing it up yet." A second man responded from the back of the group. That explained why it was so easy to get in. Unfortunately that meant if they could do it, others could as well. Delaney smiled a big smile and said;

"You ain't got no one on watch?" she asked only to be met with silence. "Lucky for ya'll we're here now to help you out." Welles decided to turn and head back to the car, pulling Josh and Scott with him saying something about getting their shit out of the truck they'd all been stuffed into as the rest of the group followed these new men to what looked like a cafeteria in the old building. Delaney imagined it used to be a school, abandoned long before the turn. The two groups came together talking quietly about what they'd seen out in the world, what they planned to do to the National Guard camp and what had already been done. While the boys got to know each other a little better Delaney walked over to the camp stove that was set up in the middle of the room. It ran on propane but it didn't look like these men had much food. With that thought Welles and the other two boys made it to the cafeteria, boxes and bags in hand that they unceremoniously dumped on the ground next to the door. Delaney started sorting through it, pulling out enough cans of beef stew and green beans to make for, she counted, twenty people.

After dinner was heated up and passed to their now large group someone started passing around a couple bottles of Bourbon to those who wanted to partake, apparently one of the boxes Josh grabbed from Benning was nothing but booze. He claimed it was an accident but Delaney had her doubts. She didn't hesitate to bring the bottle to her lips though, shivering a little at the slow burn that trickled down her throat. After a moment or two of conversation she quietly ducked away from the group, rifle in hand, out the cafeteria door and outside. Delaneys favorite thing about the end of the world were the stars. The old world had too many lights, you couldn't see the sky. But this new world showed it all. She made it around the back of the building to an old metal ladder and climbed to the top, letting her feet hang off the end of the roof she sat the bottle down next to her and looked out at the road.

It felt like hours she sat up there alone keeping watch, thinking about life. She was scared. She had been legitimately scared that day, and not from the dead. She knew of course that people could be horrible, but there was still a naive part of her that hoped the living would fight with the living and against the dead. Now she knew better. Of course Sean came to find her. He sat next to her, his feet hanging off the roof as well and they sat in silence. There was something so comforting about being in his presence. She felt safe in a way Scott had never even tried to provide. He'd always been there to comfort her after their Daddy lost his temper, yelling about what a disappointment she was, but he never tried to stop it, just like in the street that day, Scott didn't try to go after Tony, he didn't try to fight or protect her. Delaney knew that as much as Scott loved her, he was too much of a coward to do so. She didn't blame him or have ill feelings because of it, that's just who Scott was. Sean was different. She knew he would protect her. He was the brother she was supposed to have, and she couldn't help but be thankful the apocalypse and brought them together.


Okay, I'm already halfway through the next one where YES we meet some people we already know. Yay!

I wish Scott could be a better brother but you know, growing up in an abusive household effects a lot of people differently. There's a part of him that shares that resentment with his father, even though he loves his sister and knows its wrong... She's always been the one to start a fight with their dad.. always causing trouble you know? Please review and lemme know what you think! xo