Anna yawned and stretched as she sat up in her sleeping bag, grimacing at the successive pops of her back. She'd been sleeping on the hard ground for nearly two months. She thought she'd be used to it by now.

She glanced around the empty tent, Anderson's sleeping bag on the opposite side vacant, and noted how bright it was. Anderson must have already gone to the search meeting.

Running her tongue along her teeth, she scratched her scalp and pulled at the knots in her hair. She desperately needed a shower. I'll ask Maggie if I can use hers, she thought briefly.

Her eyes suddenly widened.

"The search meeting!" She gasped, throwing off her sleeping bag. She flung herself from the tent and pulled her boots on, hopping on one foot and then the next as she ran to the group gathered around a map on the hood of the Cherokee.

"No maybe about it. I'm gonna borrow a horse." She heard Daryl say as she finally arrived.

"I'll go with you!" she said, panting from her laborious movement. The others looked at her, eyebrows raised. "What? I want to learn how to track." She said, brushing off their odd looks.

"Uh… right."

"You forget somethin'?" Shane asked, looking her up and down.

Anna paled, and took stock of her attire. The heat of the previous night had forced her to remove her shirt and sleep in just her jeans and black sports bra. Evidently, she'd forgotten to put her shirt back on in her rush.

"Apparently." She muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and ignoring the blush rising to her cheeks. "Please, continue with the plan."

"Uh… I'll… head up to this ridge right here." Daryl started again, keeping his eyes as far from Anna as possible as he pointed out the ridge on the map. "Take a bird's-eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there, I'll spot her."

"Good idea." T-Dog agreed. "Maybe you'll see your Chupacabra up there too." He teased.

"Chupacabra?" Rick asked. Anna was just as confused, looking to Daryl for explanation.

"What, you never heard this?" Dale asked. "First night in camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting and he saw a Chupacabra."

The young boy, Jimmy, from Hershel's group laughed.

"What are you braying at, Jackass?" Daryl snapped.

"So," Rick began, incredulous and drawing Daryl's attention to him, "you believe in a blood-sucking dog?"

Daryl scoffed. "Do you believe dead people walking around?"

Anna stifled her laughter at the back and forth until Jimmy reached for the rifle set on the hood of the car.

"Hey, hey." Rick started, taking the gun from his hands. "Ever fire one before?"

"Well, if I'm going out, I want one." He stated.

"Yeah, and people in hell want Slurpee's." Daryl chided, slinging his crossbow over his shoulder and sauntering off.

Anna went to follow, but she was cut off by Anderson stepping into her path.

"Where's your shirt?" he asked, keeping his eyes carefully trained on her face.

She shrugged in response.

"Probably in the tent. I'll go get it." Anna went to walk around him when he gently placed his hand on her upper arm.

"We need to talk."

"You're not going to stop me from going out, Anderson – not today." She hissed, yanking her arm from his grasp a little too forcefully. She stormed over to the tent to fetch her shirt.

Anderson sighed from behind her.

"I'm not trying to stop you. I'm asking if you'll come with me, instead."

.

They wandered through their grid of the forest in tense silence, nailing yellow rags to trees to mark their perimeter. Anderson was the first to speak.

"Anna," he began slowly, "do you really think that getting...close to someone is a good idea right now?"

Anna rolled her eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you know perfectly well what I'm talking about." He said as he stepped over a fallen tree.

"Refresh my memory." Anna snapped.

"You've been spending a lot of time with Daryl."

"And your point is?" She sighed heavily, already irritated with the way the conversation was going.

"Just that you need to be careful. The world is falling apart around us. Maybe there's other things you should be worried about."

"Like what? Life can't be only about survival." Not that life was anything but survival. So, I want to make friends while we're all stuck at the end of the world. She thought bitterly.

"Even if we weren't in the middle of an apocalypse, you're—" He stopped, turning away in exasperation.

"I'm what?" Anna glowered at Anderson, daring him to continue.

"You're not mentally well. If you want me to say it aloud, I will."

Anna guffawed at his assertion.

"I haven't been "mentally well" for a while, Anderson - you learn to live with it." she leaned against a tree, narrowing her eyes at him

"Have you?" He asked, leveling a heated stare at her. "I don't think you have."

Anna clenched her jaw.

"You add another person into the mix, and it gets even worse." He continued.

"What do you know? Despite it being none of your damn business, there's nothing going on between me and Daryl."

"Just, for your own sake, be careful." He sighed. "Let's keep going."

She glared at Anderson's back as she followed him through the trees, going over the conversation in her head until she'd riled herself up even more. She wondered how Daryl was doing. If he was doing any better than her at the moment.

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A/N: Sorry for such a short chapter. I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far! Leave a review if you'd like, I would enjoy hearing some feedback!