So I just saw that I got two reviews from a guest but they won't show up in my review section on my account. I only saw them when I went in my emails and it made me so happy, but I wish it would show them. And there's a review from a guest I can see on my profile but it's not in my email…this is stupid. Anyway, thank you Anissa for reviewing.

Three weeks later…

Daryl loved the silence of the morning.

There was never the sound of cars or helicopters or inane human banter at five in the morning, his normal waking time. He could just sit in front of a lit fire and smoke a cigarette, do fucking nothing until the group began to rise from sleep. He was doing the same thing right now, hunched in on his knees and staring at the beginning of embers at the bottom of the crimson and orange flames that crackled in front of him. He looked up abruptly when he heard some sort of flapping, seeing a hawk speeding across the quarry. He sighed and looked back to his fire, taking a puff from his cigarette and blowing the white smoke into the flames. It inhaled them faster than he could, changing the color for a moment to white.

Daryl looked up again when he heard movement coming from the other side of the camp grounds. She was coming from her tent, the pale curve of her back facing him as she looked around camp. She was a skinny little thing, but she had gained a tremendous amount of weight since she had became a part of the group. Most of her bones were still seen and her clothes still sit her too loosely for Daryl's liking, but his opinion didn't really matter to her. She looked towards the quarry, biting her chapped lip for a moment as she nodded to herself, pulling her flame red hair into a bun at the nape of her neck. Daryl knew even with a decent amount of weight on her she would still have those sharp ass cheek bones and a narrow chin. He watched her bend into her tent, leaving just that supple ass in view and licked his bottom lip, grunting to himself before he pushed himself to his feet and grabbed his crossbow.

Yeah, Daryl was a dangerous man. She should watch herself, not that he would do anything to her but being so open about that right there…hell that would drive any man to his primal wants and needs.

0000

She sighed into the cool water of the quarry, bare back to the bank, and she dove down deep, opening her eyes when she felt something slide against her. She smiled at the small fish and kicked her way back to the surface. She took in a healthy mouthful of air and giggled a little, feeling sort of normal. Even for the apocalypse she had been in rough condition. But thanks to the women, and the rare exception of men around here, Glenn she was doing better. She could just feel herself getting better, the image was just a bonus.

She stepped out of the water, shivering a little as she wrung out her hair and started to pull on a green summer dress. She had loved it when Amy brought it to her. It was tight around her chest and flared around her waist so it didn't show how skinny she was. Her arms were a problem, but they were quickly solving themselves and she was happy for that. She smoothed down the front of her dress and smiled, satisfied, and grabbed her old clothes before she started for camp again.

The women were up already, poking at fires to get them ready and yawning into their hands. They were mumbling amongst themselves and practically growled when Shane came from the tree line, opening his mouth as if to speak. When he heard the growling noise coming from the women he grumbled himself and turned back around, stomping through to his tent again. Marcine hesitated for a moment on the edge of camp, contemplating going over there, but too afraid. She was not a people person, never had been. She hated groups of people, they always put her under some short of pressure. She wished she could just go through the camp without being drawn into the women's going-ons but there was no way she could avoid that gravitational pull. This early in the morning, hell they were like one big black hole.

"Marcine, come join us. We got shitty coffee." Jackie smiled at the young woman, holding a cracked blue mug in the air.

Marcine smiled politely then shuffled over, sitting between Amy and her sister, Andrea. The older woman looked her up and down with approval, making Marcine want to almost growl at her. Andrea was not the nicest person, and Marcine wished she had the nerve to tear her apart right there or even in private. But Marcine was not that type of girl, she didn't really like confrontation. But that was something she needed now, she needed to be stronger, she needed to be able to defend herself better. She didn't even know how to shoot a gun and sometimes there wouldn't be a knife or a gun anywhere, but she didn't know how to use her hands as weapons either.

"So Marcine?"

She looked up, her face blank. "Huh?" damn she was so smart.

Lori chuckled and took a sip from her coffee, cringing at the taste. "We were talking about why Daryl Dixon is staring at you so hard."

Marcine swallowed hard, fear slipping up her spine as she looked over her shoulder. There he was, cleaning his crossbow. She could see his bright blue eyes staring at her, from this angle it looked like he was glaring at her. She shivered and turned back to the fire, hands folded tightly in her lap.

"I don't know…" she mumbled.

"Well," Amy leaned back to cross her legs and leaned forward on her knees. "Never seen him look at any of us like that."

A collective 'same here' echoed around the fire and everything got quiet. Marcine looked up when she heard shuffling and saw Morales and his family heading for the quarry. They looked so happy, like the world hadn't touched them, and Marcine felt her stomach churn. T-Dog reached over, appearing as if he came through thin air, and grabbed the cup of coffee in Jackie's hand. She glared at him and reached into a large back pack beside the log she was sitting on, pulling out another mug and pouring herself another cup of coffee.

"That boy is gonna be the death o' me I swear." She mumbled, sipping on her own black brew.

"I was thinking of going over and asking him to train me," Marcine mumbled, picking at her nails.

Jackie, Carol and Lori went completely silent while Amy made a choking sound and Andrea jumped up. "The fuck?" Andrea spat.

Marcine shrugged. "I just…do any of the other men know how to take care of themselves like he does?"

Looking around at the doubtful and fear filled faces gave her the answer she was looking for. Lori cleared her throat and set her mug in the sand, leaving it prone to the few ants Marcine saw there. "Honey I just…I don't think any of us think that's a good idea."

"Why? Because they seem like bad people? You guys don't know if their bad people or not, they just might be misunderstood."

"Honey this is not high school, those are not some little punks," Jackie scolded, her face deadly serious. "Those are fully grown men and they have made their mark with us."

Marcine leaned forward a little. "And what mark would that be? Not talking to you guys? Not wanting to be super cheery? Is their acting like the world went to shit, which it did, bothering you?"

Andrea twisted around to crouch in front of Marcine, taking her hands into hers. "Marcine…the day they brought you in, two hours before they actually brought you in…they went down the road to watch out for any other travelers that happened by."

Marcine pulled her hands away. "So what?"

"Marcine we heard a woman scream."

Her blood ran cold. "What?" she whispered.

"We heard a woman scream, once and far away, we're not sure if it had anything to do with him." Lori defended, obviously thinking logically.

"You know it was them," Andrea whispered, looking over her shoulder then back to Marcine. "Marcine, they are…they are just not good people ok? Please think more about this decision before you go out there, asking them to take you out into the woods to teach you anything."

"We need someone to go on a run into the city," Shane stated, walking practically into the fire.

Andrea sighed and stood straight. "Well I'm willing to go."

Lori stood, clasping her hands together in front of her. "Shane, I don't think that would be ok right now."

He sighed. "And why wouldn't it be?" he mocked, well sort of.

Marcine stood and wandered her way back to her tent, falling onto her bedroll with a heavy sigh. It was starting to heat up in the tent, the air thick with humidity. She rolled onto her back, arm spread at her sides. She was so hungry right now, but there was no way she was going over to Shane and asking for a dip into the food supply. They were running low on canned and bagged food, they were almost solely relying on the food the Dixons had been bringing in. Marcine never realized how good squirrel was, of course she never thought you could eat it. She had only heard of eating rabbit, never those rodents you say eating something in the park.

She wanted to be able to do that for herself, wanted to be able to fight her way out of something she couldn't handle in her state now, wanted to be able to get her own food, wanted to be able to handle a gun or a knife. Daryl and his brother could help her, if they wanted to. She was scared of them…but she didn't want to die. She wanted to live, even if the world was pure hell right now she wanted to be able to live as full of a life as possible, even if she wouldn't live to see the age of 30.

She rolled onto her side, staring across to a large trash bag full of clothes. She wanted to trade in her girly attire, she wanted to become…a survivor she guessed.

She shot up, back straight as she stared out towards the Dixon camp, which she was facing. Daryl was still hunched over his crossbow but Merle had come from his tent. Marcine could see the bag in his hand, saw him pull out something small and knock it back, taking a sip from a half full whiskey bottle. Marcine licked her lips, pushing herself forward. She had to do this, when her adrenaline was pumping on full heat. She passed T-Dog and Glenn, who eyed her cautiously, past the gaggle of women who she heard gasp. Why would they gasp? It was so cliché.

When she stopped beside Daryl he simply froze, but Merle leered at her grossly. She didn't feel that familiar shiver of disgust or fear trickle down her spine, she felt nothing. Daryl looked up when she said nothing, eyes slightly narrowed and calculating.

"What?" he asked in his gruff voice.

She swallowed hard. "Teach me what you know." she said, barely above a whisper.

He scoffed. "Hell nah, you couldn't handle it."

"Yes I can! I can handle anything you would throw at me, I need to learn and them over there…they believe you can do it so please…"

He stared up at her. "Hell. No."

"Aw c'mon lil brother," Marcine felt an arm drape over her shoulders. "Let's go teach the lil miss how to handle 'erself."

"Merle," Daryl said in a warning tone.

Marcine cleared her throat. "Now dammit, you need to show me how to handle myself. Please, I don't care what it is. Teach me, I…I need to know how to do this. I can't live in this world and I don't want to die." Her voice was dying.

He stared at her, ice blue eyes flickering between her face and his brothers. It was like he and his brother were having a quick conversation, a very intense one at that. Marcine could practically see the tension rippling through the air and it made her regret what she was asking for. What was she thinking, coming over here and practically demanding that he teach her anything he knew about surviving.

"Fuck," he sighed, standing and rubbing the back of his neck, looking her up and down with his crossbow dangling from his fingers. "We start tomorra."

I hope it's good, I put a lot of work into this. It's like 4:33 here and I am wide fucking awake so I might start working on the next chapter right now. I'm inspired right now, like immensely. I might post two chapters next time, I have one whole chapter written out in my head and the next is forming. Wish me luck!