Woahhh okay so next chapter, bit of Nicole being... well... Nicole. Name-calling, attitude, zombie killing, and Greenday. Yum.
Oh yeah, and enter the Redneck Wonder, this chapter. Sorry about this in advance to all you Daryl Dixon fans... Nicole pretty much hates him at first. Trust me, she'll warm up to him eventually ! Promise !
Disclaimer : All I own is my Nicole!
Willow the Collie: She's 15 :) She says that in the later chapters, so read up ! And glad I entertain you ! I do try x)
DrewSmith93: Ahhaha a list of my favorite lines, too! I needed Nicole to have a good sense of humour since everyone else in camp are so freaking stiff, you know? And I have BIG plans for that twister game ! Just you wait...
We stopped laughing long enough to go and get water from Shane's jeep, remembering to 'boil before use' - yes, mom. I lifted a huge jug and went to set it over by the RV. As I was leaning over, a spine-chilling scream broke through the camp.
"Carl!" Mrs Bed-Hopper Lori and Cop-Man were the first to react, both running at the speed of light to the source of the scream. I grabbed a crowbar from the ground and sprinted after them into the trees. We came into a clearing and found Carl, Jacqui, and Sophia running into us. The kids latched onto their moms and Jacqui pointed to a spot in the bushes. I gripped my crowbar tighter and raced forward with the guys of the camp into another clearing, just outside of the camp boundary. I ducked under the 'fence' of cans on string and flinched when I saw it.
There was a huge broad-shouldered 'walker' hovering over a deer and munching on its innards. I had to do a double take. I'm pretty sure those were arrows sticking out of the deer's side. Someone else killed the deer first. Lazy-ass Vic, feeding off something that someone else killed for it.
I pretty much slapped myself internally for being an idiot. Sick sense of humour, Nicole. Well done.
That's when it decided to turn around. It stood up and suddenly loud out a deep growl. We silenced it quickly by beating it repeatedly with our weapons. Crowbar to the stomach. Pitchfork to the shoulder. Baseball bat to the head.
Axe to the neck.
Dale took the head clean off and we all stood there panting over the now twice-dead body.
"That's the first one we've had up here." Dale said in a shaky voice, "They never come this far up the mountain."
"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what." said Jim.
"Great," I mumbled, "Just great."
Branches snapping in the bushes made us all jump on our toes, lots of pointy sticks and blunt objects facing the invisible figure. Another set of footsteps and a man emerged from the bushes. I blinked a few times. He didn't look very dead.
"Son of a bitch!" The guy growled. Okay, not dead. "That's my deer!
He strolled over to the carcass and started kicking it.
"Look at it, all gnawed on by this, filthy, disease-bearing, motherless, poxy bastard!"
Talk about your anger management problems. I put my bet on the hot-headed redneck being Captain Idiot's brother. There was certainly a resemblance.
"Calm down, son, that's not helping." Dale said. The voice of reason as always.
"What do you know about it, old man?" The Redneck Wonder got in Dale's face and I wanted to shove my crowbar down his throat. No need to take it out on Dale. He's a sweet old guy. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'?"
"Dude, chill out." I shot at him. Yeah, there was definitely some type of relation to Captain Idiot. The glare I was getting resembled him way too close.
"Who the hell are you, little girl?" Everyone went quiet while he got in my face.
I rolled my eyes. "Someone not afraid to tell you to shut the hell up. It's just a damn deer Little Miss Mood-swing."
He took a step forward at me but Shane put out his arm to hold him back.
"We don't need this, Daryl." He said forcefully. "Nicole's got a point."
Of course I do, officer. I rolled my eyes and walked back to camp with my head held high. It's been a long time since I was able to do that. I felt like a boss.
"Holy crap, Nikki!" Glenn was staring at me in disbelief as we walked back to camp.
"What?"
"I've never seen anyone talk like that to a Dixon." He shook his head.
"He was being a dick. I was only defending Dale."
"Still. It took some major guts."
"Bullshit. Killing a walker takes guts. I was telling an asshole where he could go."
He laughed. "Once you've been here for a while, you'll see why no one wanted to stand up to him."
"You talk about the guy like he's a damn high school bully." I raised my brows at him and grinned. "Grow a pair, pizza boy."
"Stripper." He muttered, walking ahead of me to the RV. I shook my head and followed, hearing everyone else return to camp behind us. I got to the RV and planted myself down at the table, reaching for my bag and pulling out my phone. It was pretty much the only thing I had that reminded me of what things used to be like. I'd packed for a trip when I came to Atlanta, so I had a spare battery and a car charger. If I didn't use it often, I could keep it going for a long time.
It was my cure for boredom. While there was no one to text and no signal if I wanted to anyway - and not to mention no internet - I had all my song lyrics on my phone, memo-pads filled with ideas for stories, and about 6GB worth of music and my favorite TV show episodes. Entertainment for hours.
I stuck in my headphones and leaned back in the seat, putting my feet up and turning the volume up on Greenday. Ahh, bliss. I reached into my bag and found my sketchbook and pencils, determined to finish that drawing of a vampire I started a few weeks back. I stared down at it with an artist's eye, picking out imperfections and fixing them swiftly with my wand of graphite. I was a magician, bringing my thoughts to life on the page. I was a hero, telling my brave tale to the paper.
I was being stared at from across the table.
"What, Amy?" I said, taking out my headphones.
She laughed. "It's almost as if the world never ended."
"Huh?" Brilliant answer, Nicole.
"You! Look at you! Sitting there listening to music, drawing in a notepad."
"So what? So I didn't want to change my lifestyle."
"So, it's just funny. Like the apocalypse didn't even phase you."
I laughed. "Damn right it didn't phase me. I was in my own world before everything went to Hell. Now I can really live it."
She laughed and shook her head. I turned my head to the door as I heard deep voices arguing and saw everyone fall into a big crowd outside.
"What's going on?" I asked. Amy shrugged and I set down my stuff, heading to the door to find out what the hell was happening. I reached the door and saw the hot-headed Redneck Wonder having a stand-off with Shane. You could almost feel the testosterone radiating off of them.
"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Rick walked into the circle.
"Who are you?" The redneck - Daryl - spat at him.
"Rick Grimes."
"Rick Grimes? You got somethin' you wanna tell me?"
"Your brother was a danger to us all," Rick said calmly. "So I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."
Finally someone not afraid to tell it like it is.
"Hold on, let me process this." Daryl started heating up. "You saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you just left him there?"
"Yeah." Rick muttered.
That was all it took. Daryl threw his string of squirrels at Rick and jumped at him. Shane tackled him from the side and they hit the ground hard, Shane rolling off when Daryl pulled a knife and stood up. He swung at Rick and he dodged it swiftly, swiping the knife while Shane pulled him into a wrestling hold.
"You best let me go!" Daryl scrambled against Shane to no avail.
"Ah, I think it's better if I don't." Shane said.
"Choke hold's illegal."
"You can file a complaint," Shane said, "Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day."
Rick knelt down in front of him while Shane held him. "I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that? Do you think we can manage that?"
"Hmm?" Shane let him go and dropped him to the ground.
"What I did was not on a whim." Rick said, "Your brother does not work and play well with others."
"It's not Rick's fault." T-dog cut in from behind them. "I had the key. I dropped it."
"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl spat.
"Well, I dropped it in a drain."
Daryl scoffed at him. "If that's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."
"Maybe this will," T-dog said, "Look, I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him. With a padlock."
"It's gotta count for something." Rick insisted.
"Hell with all y'all!" Daryl shouted. "Just tell me where he is. So's I can go get him."
"He'll show you." Lori cut in, looking to her husband with a pair of white-hot daggers. Can't say no to wifey, Cop-Man. "Isn't that right?"
Rick looked to everyone in turn and then nodded.
"I'm going back."
Daryl rolled his eyes. "Well let's go then. What you waitin' on?"
I sighed and went back to the RV, making sure I couldn't hear my own thoughts over my music.
