Ben

Even though she tried to move silently, Ben awoke as soon as Adele slipped out from under his arm and crawled out of the sleeping bag. He remained silent, and watched through half opened eyes as Adele felt around the tent for her clothes. The scars on her back stood out in contrast to her pale skin, and he had to fight the urge to reach out and trace them with his fingers. He usually only did this when Adele was asleep- when she was awake, she rolled onto her back so he couldn't see the scars, embarrassed by them. He often wondered if she thought he'd be repulsed by them. She probably did. In reality, he was fascinated by them, and what they told him about her life before he met her. He'd asked her many questions, and she'd given him brief answers, but it was obvious that there was much more to her past then she would let on.

He shifted on the floor slightly, and saw her turn her head. He lay still again. She wanted to leave stealthily, so he would let her. She had a superstition, of sorts, that if she didn't say goodbye, she would survive to come back and say it to him. If he woke up to talk to her, she wouldn't be as confident when she was out and he wanted her to be on her guard and to come back safe to him. So he lay still and waited til she had crawled out of the tent, speaking quietly to someone outside.

"See you later," he murmured. He rolled onto his stomach and stared at the tent wall. He tried to relax and drift back off to sleep, but he couldn't sleep now that Adele had left. He sighed and examined his nails. He may as well get up now; he certainly wasn't going to be able to rest. He sat and looked through the flap of the tent. It was daylight outside, and Adele and whoever she was speaking to, had moved on. He could hear the hum of the truck and car engines as they moved off. He shuffled to the tent opening and looked out, to see if anyone else was up. Georgie, Maggie and Miao were gathered around the ashes of the previous nights camp fire chatting. Rick was stood a little way off from them, looking down a dirt track, presumably in the direction that the others had driven off in. The children were sat nearby, watched over by a sulky looking Matthew. Ben realised that he and Adele must have slept in, and pulled the closet t-shirt he could find on. Pulling himself out of the tent, he moved towards Rick.

"Everyone ok?" Rick nodded.

"T-Dog and Adele have got it covered. Glenn's leading them in. Then he, Andrea and Dale are going to collect ammunition from the bodies, whilst Adele, Daryl and T-Dog scope out the inside, check for anything strange. Hopefully Daryl'll get to shoot something and snap out of that mood he's in." Ben laughed, but cut himself short when he realised Rick was serious. He looked towards Matthew.

"How's Matthew?"

"Still sulking. Tried to sneak into the boot of the car. Luckily Glenn was onto him. So he's not talking to anyone now." Matthew looked at Ben, and seeing him watching, glowered impressively. Ben wanted to laugh, but decided against it. Instead, he bit the inside of his cheek and looked away.

"So what are we going to do until they get back?" Rick turned around and started to walk to the campfire. Ben followed. He'd never been the right hand man before, usually it was T-Dog that Rick gave his instructions to. It was a novel experience, and he was going to take advantage of it.

"Scavenge. Get wood, vegetation. That sort of thing." He looked at the top of the RV. "Adele said you're getting pretty handy with a gun. You can be lookout. You see anything dead coming out of those trees, you shoot it. Georgie's gonna go into the woods with Miao. Me and Maggie will stay close to camp, set some stuff up."

"So you don't think there's anything to worry about in the city then?" Rick shrugged.

"I don't know. I just figured that we should put some of those cans on strings up. Just to keep us safe for the day." Ben nodded. He could see the sense in that. As he got closer to the fire, he could see that the women were not just chatting, but were also attaching metal cans to a piece of washing line, liberated from a shop they'd raided a few days ago. A band aid around Maggie's finger suggested that this was a skill that needed to be picked up quickly. Seeing the men approach, Maggie held up the cans to show Rick.

"Do you think this will be enough? We've used up most of the rope, and all the empty cans. Rick nodded.

"We'll empty more cans. We'll put these up now." Georgie nodded and stood up.

" I'll get my bow. Me and Miao can get looking for...oh man!" She started to shake her foot. "Pins and needles, pins and needles, ah!" She winced as she put pressure on her foot. Maggie laughed.

"The great warrior Georgie Powell, floored by a numb leg." Georgie gave a good natured grin, and started to limp towards her tent. Maggie scooped up an armful of cans and turned to Rick.

"Where are we starting?" Ben left the three of them discussing the best places to put the cans, and moved towards the RV, where two shotguns were leant against the vehicles. As he picked one up, he was struck by a sudden thought.

"Matthew." The boy turned and stared angrily at Ben. "Come help me keep look out on the RV. You're probably a better shot than me anyway." The boys face lightened, and he looked at his brother and his friends. "Don't worry about them, we can watch them from up here." The boy trotted over and scooped up a gun. "I'll go up first, then you pass up two of those plastic chairs from inside."

As they made themselves comfortable, Georgie re emerged from her tent, minus her dead leg and carrying her crossbow. She and Miao waved at the two on the RV before they moved into the forest. Rick and Maggie started to tie the cans to the trees, and the children abandoned their play to 'help', although as far as Ben could see, they were far more of a hindrance. Sophie didn't seem as involved as the others, continually looking into the trees in the direction Georgie had gone. Ben supposed she was anxious that she couldn't see her. He truly believed that somewhere in her subconscious, Sophie did remember her mother and father, but was finding the amount of loss she had witnessed hard to cope with. Her attachment to Georgie was probably her minds way of trying to make sure she never suffered with such a loss again: from what he could tell, she must see Georgie as the one most likely to survive. He sat back in the chair and scanned the trees. He couldn't see anything. He looked over at Matthew. He was sat forward in his chair, watching the woods intensely. Ben could almost see his need to prove himself as an adult, sense his need to be taken seriously. He decided that if there was a shot Matthew could make, he should let him take it. Why not let him have a moment?

They spent most of the day up on the RV. Matthew was a quiet boy anyway, and he and Ben were not close. The only conversation they had, was in the late afternoon, when the trees rustled for a moment, and Matthew raised his shotgun.

"Wait." Ben placed his hand on the muzzle, and they paused, hand in mouth. Then they heard Miao's voice cheerily announcing her arrival. As she pushed the branches aside, Matthew lowered his gun sheepishly. Ben gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it. We all get jumpy now and then. Just, learn to be patient. Think before you fire."

"Yeah." Matthew relaxed back into his chair. "That's what Daryl's always saying." Ben raised an eyebrow, but didn't respond. Instead, he called down to Miao.

"Where's Georgie?"

"Tracking a deer." Miao squinted as she looked up into Bens face. "She's pretty excited about it. Said she might be able to find a herd."

"Awesome." Ben couldn't help but grin at the idea of fresh meat. "Sounds like this might not be such a bad place after all if there's going to be fresh food." No sooner were the words out of his mouth, then he heard the sound of car engines approaching them. Maggie shot out of her tent.

"They're back!" She half walked half ran towards the sound, and started to wave as the cars approached. Matthew shimmied down the ladder, and Ben stood up to follow him. But suddenly, he saw Maggie's face change, from relief, to shock and then horror. He turned to see what she was looking at.

The car had barely stopped when the door was flung open. Glenn shot out, pure panic covering his face.

"Ben! Ben, get over her NOW!" Ben scrambled down the ladder and ran towards the car, fearing the worse.

"What, what's happened." Then he saw Adele. Her face was contorted in pain, and she held a rag to her face, which was saturated in blood. His heart stopped.

"What happened? Let me see are you ok? Oh god, what happened?" He went to peel away the rag, and saw that her hands were red and burnt. "SHIT" He started to pull her to the RV, but to his bewilderment, she pulled away.

"I'm ok, I'm fine. Please, you need to..." she broke off, gasping in pain, as she wrenched her hand from his, and skin peeled from her hands. Before he could try to convince her to let him look at her injuries, he heard the truck screech to a halt behind them, and an unearthly screaming filled the air.

Andrea and Dale leapt out of the front, and raced around to the back, T-Dog kicked down the flap. The screaming was coming from the trunk, and it sounded human. Glenn raced to Ben and pulled him towards the truck. Ben suddenly felt sick to his stomach, as it clicked who was screaming.

"We were ambushed. They had traps, they were waiting for us. There was gasoline, they..." Glenn stared at Ben, his face showing so many emotions, Ben couldn't keep up. "They sethimonfire." Rick had run past the two of them, a blanket in his arms and was at the truck, helping to move something-someone-onto a make shift stretcher. T-Dog jumped out of the truck and grabbed one end, Andrea the other. As they moved toward Ben, he could make out the figure in the blanket, and could see the extent of the damage.

Daryl seemed to have exhausted himself, and was now lying with his eyes closed. His left arm, the side of his neck, and a great deal of the left side of his chest were burnt. Some of the skin had already started to peel away, and red and white bloody blisters were forming. Some had already burnt, leaking fluid down his arm. Ben's stomach turned. These were second degree burns, which needed cleaning as soon as possible. If he didn't attend to them, they would become infected, cause blood poisoning-Daryl could lose the arm. He turned to Adele and scooped her into a hug.

"I'll be with you as soon as possible, I promise." Then he snapped into action.

"T-Dog, Andrea, get him into the R.V. Dale, clear the table and get some belts to tie him down. Glenn, grab as many bandages and antiseptic as you can. Soak three rolls of bandages in the antiseptic. Maggie, take Adele, clean her hands with some water, run it over them. Miao, take the kids away from here, they don't need to see this." He marched behind the group and picked up a knife from a pile that Georgie had been sharpening that morning. Georgie. He stood up and looked into the woods. Shit. Should he send someone into the woods to look for her? Before he could think about it, Rick had picked up a handgun and was walking to the woods.

"I'll bring Georgie back. Doesn't matter about fresh meat now. She can't wonder off by herself." He melted into the trees before anyone could protest. Ben didn't stop to dwell on whether Rick and Georgie would come back. Right now, they had a better chance then Daryl did if he didn't get moving. He gritted his teeth and moved into the RV.

T-Dog and Andrea had set Daryl on the table, and Dale had tied his good arm to his leg with a belt. T-Dog was talking to Daryl-whether to sooth him, or to piss him off enough that he would want to stay alive just to beat the shit out of him later. Either way, Daryl had become more vocal again. He approached the table, knife in hand.

On closer inspection, the burns were worse then he thought. They covered not just the left side of the chest, but most of it, and extended down the top of his left thigh. On the outside of his arm, the skin was stiff, leathery, dead. Ben groaned. He'd have to cut that skin away and hope for the best. The scar would be ugly, but at least Daryl would be alive. He turned to Dale.

"Open the windows." He looked at T-Dog. "Hold him down." T-Dog slapped Daryl on the check, and pressed down on the un-burnt part of Daryl's chest. Ben put the knife on Daryl's chest, and ripped away at the shirt, removing it, and some of his skin. Daryl cursed and screamed, and would have probably punched Ben in the nose had his arm not been strapped down. "Sorry Daryl," Ben muttered. "It's going to get a lot worse." He looked at Andrea, who looked pale and green. "Get out." He didn't need anyone fainting. "If you're staying, breath through your mouth." He moved to the third degree burn, the dead skin. He placed the knife to the skin. He looked at T-Dog. "You ok?" T-Dog nodded grimly. Ben waited til Andrea pulled the door shut. Then, he started to operate, praying that he wouldn't screw up, and that Daryl would be ok.

I have no idea if I was accurate in my treatment of burns, so please don't get mad at my lack of medical knowledge!