Chapter 10:
Beth's Point of View:
I stooped down to pick up our hidden bags. Hunched over, I could feel Daryl's hand crawling up my back. I blushed and wiggled away. "Hey now, none of that. We have company." I glanced up at him, smirking.
He chuckled. "Sorry, couldn't resist." He grabbed his bags and lifted them over his shoulder. He stared at me, and then asked, "Beth? You think this is a good idea?"
I shrugged. "I don't know Daryl." I answered honestly. "If it isn't, well.. we have ways of putting a stop to it. We've dealt with bad people before. Not like we can't do it again." I turned away before he could say anything else. I jogged back to our guests, who were standing uncomfortablely on the side of the road. "Alright guys, first job to do as a group... get these bags back to the houses!" Brianna giggled slighty, and I returned the smile back.
"No problem," James said easily. He hoisted a bag up on his bag and asked, "Where to?"
"Just down the road actually." I answered. He nodded, and the group made their way down the road. Daryl placed himself in the lead, an obvious sign of leadership. I hung back, eager to talk to the new comers.
"So guys... if it isn't much of me to ask, what is your story?" I asked. Nobody said anything for a bit, and just when I was about to apologize, James piped up. "Well, I was a college student at Georgia State. I was going to school for a major in Sociology."
"Sociology?" I said the unfamiliar word. "What is that?"
James smiled. "It is the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society."
"Wow. And here I am, always thinking I would be a farmer's wife and help take care of the farm." I muttered.
"Nothing wrong with that." James laughed. He went back to his story. "I was just about to graduate actually. I couldn't wait, I already had a down payment on my first apartment, a job lined up. Then the world went to shit." He said bitterly.
"I'm sorry. That must suck, to have your future all planned out, for it to only be like this." I gestered around our area. "Thanks," he said. "It's not a big deal though, I will survive." he smiled again.
I nodded. I turned to look at Abigial and Matt, who were walking behind us. "What about you two? What's your story?" I asked.
Abigial looked at Matt, and he looked at her for the tiniest second. Matt coughed. "I met Abbie after all this started. We met in the city, when Atlanta was under military protection. Of course, that didn't last us very long. The city was soon overtook by walkers. We barely escaped." He ended sadly.
Abigial hung her head. "Yeah, it wasn't good." she said. "Neither of our families survived. When we realized that we just had each other, we took the guns we had and left." I could hear the familiar choke in her throat, so I just nodded.
"We met Tanner, Brianna, and James in a camp that was outside of Atlanta. It was mostly surviors from the city. We've been with them ever since." He concluded.
"Sounds like you have a good group then." I smiled. I looked ahead of us. Tanner and Brianna were walking almost behind Daryl. "Tanner? You have a story?" I asked tentaively.
Tanner didn't say anything. Brianna was quiet as well, but then she said, "We lived outside the city. Dad had a job as a tow truck man. I went to school at the jr high. We had a cute little house, we painted it yellow and had lots of flowers in the yard." I smiled. "Sounds cute Brianna. My sister and I planted flowers in our yard too."
"Where is your sister?" She asked curiously. My face fell, and for a moment, I felt the stab of pain in my chest. Daryl looked at me worringly. I shook my head. "Umm.. well Brianna, I don't know. We got split up." I answered simply.
"Is that part of your story?" James asked.
"Yeah..." I said quietly. I took a deep breath. "Well, the original group was a camp outside of Atlanta. We found them in the woods near our farm. The boy of the group was wounded, so my daddy took them in. At first, they weren't going to stay for long. But we became friends, somehow. Then walkers over ran the place, there were hundreds of them. We fled, and ended up in a prison not far from here. We stayed there for a while.. but... it didn't work out." I ended sadly.
"What happened?" Tanner, of all people, asked.
I shook my head. "A very bad man didn't like us. He came to our prison with an army of people and a tank... he killed my father..." I couldn't finished. I was choking up on tears. Suddenly I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, and I smelled the familiar musky scent of Daryl surround me. He pulled me close to his chest and held me there.
"Hey, it's ok, we don't need to hear anymore." James said consolonling. He tried to put his hand on my back, but Daryl shot him a deadly look and he backed up.
I pulled myself together. I shouldn't loose it, these people might think we were crazy or something. "No, I'm sorry. It just happened a week or so ago. It's hard to get over it." I said. "Come on, the road is right up here. We turned on to our road and marched up the gravel driveway. We all took turned squeezing through the space inbetween the broken gate, and continued on our way.
Daryl coughed. "This is our house," He pointed to the first little yellow house. "I figured you guys would want that one, the little white one, with the green trim. It's cleaned up."
James nodded excitingly. "Sweet, I can hear that couch calling my name!" Brianna giggled again, and we stopped at Daryl and my place. We set the bags down. "Okay," I said with authority. "You guys go ahead to your house. Daryl and I will take this stuff in our place, and we will get some dinner going for you guys. Clean up, and you can have dinner with us tonight. Sound good?" I asked.
Everybody nodded. "Awesome, see you guys in a bit." I smiled. The new group marched down the driveway, and Daryl and I climbed up the porch steps with our bags of goodies.