Chapter 11

The days turned to weeks and the weather got hotter and hotter. We were still at the farm, which had clean water wells, so finding fresh water was never a problem. Neither was food because Hershel was a farmer. Fresh vegetables were always on the menu and I don't think anyone had a problem with that. The only problem was Hershel. He had told Rick that we could only stay temporarily but Rick felt like this would be the best place for us to settle down for a while. I agreed. I was tired of being on the move constantly and it was such a great feeling to be someplace peaceful for a while.

The night we arrived we were told that a man named Otis had accidentally shot Carl and that he and Shane had went somewhere to find more medical supplies for Hershel. Thankfully Carl lived but Shane was the only one to return from the run he and Otis made. I felt really bad for the family, having just suffered a major loss, so I tried to do as much as I could to help out where ever I could.

"I'm goin' huntin'." Daryl said to me one morning. We had just woken up and I was barely conscious as he was talking to me. "Want me to come with?" I asked as I opened my eyes and glanced in his direction. He was already dressed and had his crossbow on his back, ready to walk out. "Nah, you get more rest. You're gonna need it after the night we had." He smiled at me. Thinking back to the night before I realized that, yeah, I did need the extra rest. "You're right," I said. "Be careful. I love you." He bent down and kissed me on the forehead. "Of course. Love you too." He said and walked out of the tent.

I laid my head back down and sighed. Daryl had already woke me up, the sun was out, and there was no way I was falling back to sleep anytime soon. So I got up and got dressed and wandered outside. I found Lori and Andrea washing clothes. "Sorry." I said to them as I bent down to pick up a shirt to hang on the line. "Quite alright," Andrea said, glancing over at Lori who was smiling at the ground. "Did you?!" I asked, horrified. "Every bit of it." Lori said and they both laughed. Oh geez, I thought, everyone in the group heard our wild night. "Jealous?" I asked, getting really red in my face. "Actually," Andrea said, "I am. It's been a while for me."

"There's always Dale and Glenn." I said to her. "You're disgusting." She replied. We all three laughed and continued to hang the laundry. When we were done Lori went to check on Carl and Andrea went to the RV. I wandered my way around the farm to one of the wells. I could hear growling coming from somewhere and I couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from. Until I looked down.

There at the bottom of the water well was a very large walker. I couldn't tell how long it had been down there but its body was swollen because of the water. "Damn," I said out loud and I left to go find somebody.

I found Rick in the house talking to Carl. "Rick," I called to him and he looked in my direction. "We gotta problem."

He walked me out to the porch so we could talk privately. "What?" He asked me. "I think I'd better show you. You probably won't believe me." I said and I began to lead him in the direction of the water well.

"Holy shit." Rick said when I showed him the walker. "Told ya so." I replied. "What do we do?"

"I'm not sure. I need to talk to Hershel. Hopefully this isn't the water we've been drinking."

"Looks like it's been down there for a while. Wouldn't one of us already got sick from it?"

"I don't know." Rick said, walking away from me and back towards the house.

I decided to stay there and examine the situation. I stared down at the walker who was looking up at me and snarling. It was reaching its arms up trying to reach me. I got bored and sat down, waiting for everyone to return. Soon enough, they all did. Rick, Shane, Glenn, T-Dog, Hershel and Maggie.

"So what do we do?" T-Dog asked.

"Shoot it?" Glenn said.

"No, we can't risk it contaminating the water any more than it already has." Rick said.

"So what do you suggest we do?" I asked. Rick shot Glenn a look that said "it has to be this way" and Glenn knew exactly what he was implying. "Man." Glenn said, rolling his eyes.

Shane brought over some rope, tied one end around Glenn's waist and made a lasso out of another rope. He handed that to Glenn. "When you can reach it, slip this over it's head and under its arms. We'll pull you up then pull the geek out." He explained. I was quite nervous about this plan. I didn't understand why we just couldn't leave it there and not use that well, since there were three or four more. Glenn nervously shook his head, letting Shane know that he understood the plan and we all got in place to lower him down.

We started lowing him down, inch by inch, very slowly. Things were going smoothly until we all heard a snap and we all were pulled forward. Glenn was dangling mere inches away from the walker's head. We all immediately started pulling him up until finally he was above ground. I collapsed on the ground in exhaustion.

"Glenn, you okay?" Shane asked him. "I'm fine." He replied. "Don't worry about it Glenn. Wasn't your fault." Rick said. "Worry about what?" Glenn asked and held up the piece of rope that was tightly secured to the walker's waist. T-Dog laughed and slapped Glenn on the back in appreciation. "Hard parts over." Rick said and we all got back into position to get ready to pull the walker out.

Again, we pulled as hard as we could and I could tell we were getting close because the noises it was making seemed to be getting louder with every pull we made. We had gotten it half way out of the well when the rope cut through the middle of the walker, cutting it in two. The lower half, along with the majority of it's insides, fell back into the well. The top (more dangerous half) landed in the grass and was pulling itself with it's arms, trying to reach Rick's feet. It tripped him, and he fell backwards. I immediately got up, got my gun out and shot it in the head. "Shoulda just shot the damn thing." I said and I kicked the top half back into the well and then I walked away.