Hi guys!

I have absolutely nothing to declare today, so feel free to skip this! Except for thanks again for all your great reviews, keep it up and I promise to keep updating!


When I woke up the next day I was still sitting in the scrawny looking chair on the roof of the RV. But it was not Daryl that sat in the chair next to me, it was Shane.

"Good mornin'."

"Hey." I said and rubbed my eyes sleepily. "I'm sorry, I must've fallen asleep."

"Don't worry about it. We're all alive, aren't we?"

It was close to sunrise and the camp was quiet. I squinted at my wrist watch and when I realized that it was only half past four I groaned quietly. As I adjusted in my seat I could feel my bladder almost bursting so I stood up hastily. A blue shirt fell off my lap as I got up and I was left staring at it for several seconds before I picked it up. It was wrinkled and smelled of tobacco but it looked clean. I clenched the shirt and wondered if it was Daryl's.

"Is this yours?" Shane leaned over and looked at it.

"No, I don't think so. It's probably Daryl's."

"Where is he?"

"He took off a couple of hours ago. He didn't want to wake you."

"That doesn't sound like him."

"No it doesn't."

I automatically turned in the direction of his tent but the only thing in there was Merle, snoring loudly.

"He's probably out hunting." Shane said as he pulled his cap backwards.

"Yeah, probably."

It would be pathetic to say that I waited for him the whole day but I did. After breakfast I had gone down to a nearby creek to wash his shirt. The cigarette smell was so strong that it took me an hour and a half and two bars of soap to scrub it clean.

But by nightfall I had completely forgot about Daryl. Glenn, T-Dog, Amy and I were playing monopoly by the fire while enjoying a chocolate bar Glenn had found in his backpack.

"Glenn, what the hell are you doing?" Amy, who had just shoved a large piece of chocolate into her mouth, pointed at Glenn who looked horrified.

"What?"

"You just took something from the bank!" Glenn raised his hands innocently. "I saw you! Put it back! You're a total cheat!"

"I told you he cheated!" I said triumphantly. "We played for four hours yesterday and his pile just kept getting bigger even though I owned over half the streets!"

"Now hold on," T-Dog raised his hand in mock sincerity "the man brought chocolate, let him cheat!"

I laughed loudly as I got up to get another bottle of water from behind the RV (Shane and Jim kept moving them to make sure they were kept in the shade). I could still hear them laughing at each other as I opened the bag and grabbed a bottle but as I turned I walked straight into Merle who was smiling oddly at me. He was wobbling unsteadily and by the smell of him he was extremely drunk.

"How you doin', sugar-tits?"

"I'd prefer it if you called me Alice." His moist eyes stared directly at me, as if the alcohol had not affected them and then he grabbed my waist violently. I gave Merle a determined shove to indicate that I was not in the mood for his shenanigans but he would not bulge.

"You changed your mind 'bout us yet, hun'?"

"Hardly."

"You don't know what you're missin'!" I watched as he groped his crotch fiercely with his right hand and licked his thin lips.

"Merle!" Daryl's voice sounded from somewhere behind us. The noise had made Merle slacken his grip so I spun around out of his grasp, taking several steps back.

"There's my useless baby brother!" Merle grabbed Daryl's face with both his hands and looked at him. "Where yah been all day, Darlene?"

"Out huntin' you old fart." Daryl said and shook off Merle's sweaty hands. "What do you think you're doin', bro?"

Merle turned his head and gave me a disturbing look and blew me a kiss. I grimaced and took another step back in pure disgust.

"We were just havin' a bit of fun, weren't we honeybun'?" Daryl grabbed his brother's shoulder as if to lead him away but Merle shrugged it off and stuck a fat finger in his face.

"You're just jealous 'cause you ain't getting any pussy, ain't that right baby brother? We both know that the ladies always preferred Merle!"

"It doesn't look like this one's interested, dumbass."

"Well, I ain't sharin'." Merle said and hiccupped as if he had not heard a word. "So you just keep your dick where I can see it."

And then he walked off, bumping into the RV as he staggered away in the other direction.

"You alright?"

"How much do you charge?" Daryl looked perplexed.

"I thought I could hire you as my personal bodyguard." He snorted and adjusted the crossbow hanging on his back.

"Sorry kid, I ain't for sale."

«Darn it.»

"Merle's just bein' Merle."

It was not until he shifted uncomfortably that I noticed that Daryl seemed to be carrying what looked like a bunch of dead squirrels and rabbits. I automatically gasped in horror.

"Are those… dead squirrels?"

"Yeah, they don't taste so good but at least it's better than canned soup."

"If you think I'm going to eat that you're crazy." He huffed and looked slightly offended.

"Fine, but don't come crying to me when you're all starvin' to death."

He was about to walk off when I suddenly remembered why I had been looking for him all day. I grabbed his shoulder before he could leave and told him to wait. He gave me a short nod and threw his prey on the ground. I ran over to the tent I had been borrowing from Jim and grabbed the neatly folded shirt from my matrass.

"Here," I said as I handed it over to him. He accepted it awkwardly and looked a little embarrassed "and thanks."

"It was the only thing I had that was at least half clean." He said and shoved the shirt into his back pocket. "Didn't wanna spoil your nice clothes."

"I, ehm… I washed it for you." He looked at me as though I had just spoken to him in French. I blushed and scratched my arm awkwardly. "It really smelled like cigarettes so I just thought you'd like it better if it smelled nicer… Maybe…"

"You didn't have to do that." He said quietly, sounding surprised.

"I know, I just… I wanted to do something nice. You know, making you smell good to all the ladies in short skirts." He grunted and gave me a weak smile, his eyes avoiding mine like usual.

"Thanks…"

"Alice, where you at?" T-Dog's deep voice interrupted the silence that had fallen between me and Daryl. It was almost a relief to escape it and get sit down with my friends again. Even if Daryl did not come across as a particularly sensitive guy I had the feeling that he was not at all used to having people do nice things for him, and a part of me hoped that he had appreciated it.

"Ouch! Damn, damn, damn!"

"What happened?"

"I cut my finger on the stupid knife." I exclaimed loudly and put my injured thumb in my mouth. Amy crooked an eyebrow at me and giggled.

"You're not even bleeding."

"Maybe it's internal."

Amy threw one of her half-peeled potatoes at me and laughed loudly when it fell down my t-shirt. Amy and I had spent all morning peeling potatoes down by a small and dirty creek just outside our camp. We had been given a barrel each and were now half way through the massive pile and it was safe to say that we were both extremely exhausted and ill-tempered.

Amy threw her knife away and put her hand on her back, moaning loudly.

"My back hurts."

"My thumb hurt…"

"Why do they always give us the most boring jobs?" She asked angrily and looked crossly over her shoulder at Shane who was currently cleaning his gun.

"Because they think we're useless." I said in earnest as I scrutinized my thumb for blood. Amy looked extremely offended and muttered something about Shane, probably something insulting.

"We're not useless."

"Yes, we are." I said matter-of-factly as I too tossed my knife away and sat back in my chair. "We're completely useless. We can't even peel potatoes without being injured."

"Speak for yourself…"

"Let's face it; we wouldn't even be here if someone hadn't swooped down and saved us in the last minute."

"God, I hate it when you're right."

"Just get used to it. It happens a lot."

None of us were in a particularly good mood that day, mostly because the radio transmitter has stopped working. We were all hoping that it was just something wrong with the device but those hopes were quickly crushed by Merle.

"The radio is fine! They've just stopped givin' a shit about us."

Everyone seemed to be occupied by their own thoughts, including myself. The radio had been the last thing that connected us with the rest of the world and it was a real blow to the stomach when it suddenly disappeared. We were all alone.

I had been sitting alone in my tent for the past half hour, buried deep in my own thoughts, when I suddenly came to think of something. I rummaged through my bag and pulled out a large wooden photo album my mom had made me when I had left for college. I smiled as I gazed down at the photo on the cover; it was a picture of me when I was little, hanging around my mom's neck.

I took it with me as I went outside, trying not to draw any attention to myself. I made my way behind the RV and found a spot on the grass where I sat down and opened the book joyfully. There were four pictures on each side, all with my mom's handwriting underneath.

I touched the pictures with a gentle and longing finger as two salty tears hit the paper. I had thought that the happy memories would make me feel better, but they had not. A part of me wanted to throw the book into the water but instead I clutched it gently and accepted the tears as they came rolling down my cheek.

"Hey, you alright?" I quickly dried my eyes on my sleeves as Daryl came walking up behind me.

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine; I was just looking at some old pictures, that's all." I laughed half-heartedly and shook my head. "I'm just being stupid, I guess."

It looked as though Daryl was having an argument with himself whether to walk away or not because he was looking over his shoulder and scratching the back of his head uncertainly. But eventually he sat down next to me, his elbows resting on his knees.

As I continued to dry my eyes desperately on my sleeves he pulled out a red rag from his pocket and handed it to me. I hesitated.

"Don't be such a brat, I just washed it." I blushed and accepted it, smiling appreciatively.

He leaned over to look at the pictures I had been caressing longingly a moment earlier.

"Is that you?" He pointed at a photograph of me from when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. I chuckled and closed my eyes in embarrassment.

"Yeah, it was my cousin's eighteenth birthday party. I, ehm… I had a thing for pink back then."

"Hell, how did you eat with those things in your mouth?" He was sniggering at the braces I was wearing and looking as though he could not imagine anything worse.

"The worst three years of my life. My brother used to call me brace-face, original huh?" I smiled and pointed at the adolescence boy who was trying to ruin the picture with a grimace.

"Don't tell Glenn though."

I turned the page and moaned longingly when I saw all the pictures from my brother's wedding.

"Oh, this is from my brother's wedding! He got married just before I left for college."

I smiled down at the photograph of my brother and his wife, Catharine. They looked so happy and I was left wondering if they were still together, or more importantly, still alive.

"I remember being really jealous of him, because I'd wanted to get married first. But he beat me to it."

"You got someone, back home?"

"No, no, no, no." I said repeatedly as to make sure that he did not misunderstand me.

"Why not?"

The strange question caught me a bit off guard and left me feeling a little irritated. It was not a deliberate choice to be alone, if that was what he thought.

"I don't know. Perhaps they all just think I'm weird."

"'Cus you ain't queer, are yah?" I laughed loudly and placed a finger on my chin as though I was seriously considering it.

"No, but that would make things easier, wouldn't it." He creased his nose at the thought.

"And do you really think that is the only logical explanation as to why I'm still single?" He raised his shoulders nonchalantly.

"I just told you, I'm weird."

"Christ, you whine like a spoiled brat!" He proclaimed harshly, rolling his eyes at my lack of confidence. "I bet some crazy bastard wouldn't mind sharin' a bed with yah."

"True," I agreed casually "but odds are he's probably lying in a ditch somewhere with a bullet through his head." He eventually nodded in agreement before he turned his attention towards the photo album.

"Were you a bride's maid or somethin'?" After a while, when I had turned another page, he pointed at another picture of me where I was sitting on a garden bench with a bouquet of flowers lying in my lap as I smiled widely at the photographer.

"Yeah, I was, along with my little sister Cara." I squinted down at the picture as if I had never seen it before. "I can barely remember this being taken. I guess it just feels like such a long time ago."

"You looked pretty."

I looked over at Daryl in amazement, almost expecting to see him smiling crudely and tell me to get my head out of my ass. But he did not; he was gazing down at the photograph as though he was studying it.

"What?"

"Are you deaf or somethin'?" He said briskly in his usual cross tone of voice as if I had offended him. "Good lord..!"

"No, I was just… thanks."

He showed a hint of a smile as he nodded shortly and got up and left.