Chapter 10
A/N: Hey guys, thanks for all the favourites, follows and reviews. Unfortunately, over the next few weeks I'm really busy with coursework for my Master's degree so chapters will be shorter than normal. There will still be one a week though so please bear with me.
Kat sat down at one of the tables with her plate of food. She took in all of the people around her. Kayla sat opposite her, munching away, swinging her legs under the table as she couldn't reach the floor. Since Kat had helped her leave Woodbury, the little girl seemed to have attached herself to Kat. She'd follow her around whilst Kat carried out her chores. Sometimes she would ask Kat to read to her and Kat became very attached to her shadow. She would do anything for the little girl who was always smiling.
Dr S. sat next to her. He was a pleasant guy who always had a smile for everyone. His medical knowledge was invaluable as well. Kat had made it her job to get to know as many of the people from Woodbury as possible. When they first arrived there was a large divide between the two groups. The people from Woodbury still didn't really trust the people who had attacked their home with guns, even if the reasoning behind the attack had been explained. They were very wary of Merle in particular. Kat had begun to get to know people to try and bridge this gap and she seemed to be accomplishing it quite well. She had been given a place on the council because of this. She didn't think she was responsible enough for that kind of position but everyone else had disagreed. The people from Woodbury were happy with her and Sasha representing them and their needs.
She was brought out of her thoughts of the council by a hand stroking her back as Tyreese plopped down in the seat next to her. After they had left Woodbury, Kat had gravitated towards Tyreese. He was so friendly and warm. They would sit for hours at a time talking about anything and everything. Over the last few months he had become her best friend. She had Carol around that she could talk to but Carol was increasingly busy. Ty always seemed to find time for her, no matter what. She smiled as Ty struck up a conversation with Kayla about what she had been doing today.
She grinned widely as she thought about her family here. Ty and Merle were like her older brothers and Kayla was like her little sister. Carol was her mother figure. There was just one person she couldn't pin down… Daryl. Nothing had happened between them since their almost kiss. It was infuriating and at times Kat doubted whether anything would move forward between them. She had attempted to hint at her feelings several times but was too nervous to make the first move. Daryl had either been oblivious to her hints or was ignoring them purposefully. Kat sincerely hoped he was just oblivious. After all, he seemed oblivious to the eyes of the women from Woodbury that seemed to follow him everywhere he went.
She watched as he walked over to Carol, people yelling greetings to him as he went. Since he brought in more people and provided food by hunting, he was well liked within the community. He spoke with Carol and Carol wanted to show him the fences since he had just got back from hunting with Merle and hadn't seen the build-up of walkers. Patrick stopped them on the way to thank Daryl for hunting and asked to shake his hand. She chuckled when Daryl licked his fingers before shaking his hand.
'No-one ever offers to thank us, eh princess?' Merle said as he put some dead rabbits down on the table.
'Merle, get those things off the table. We're eating here' Kat told him with a sigh. 'And no-one needs to thank me for hunting. I swear I scare off more animals than I ever help catch.'
'We'll make a hunter out of ya yet' Merle laughed as he took off with the rabbits. Kat had wanted to learn how to hunt and so Merle and Daryl were taking her out with them whenever she didn't have too many chores. She wasn't much good as she was too noisy with her feet but Merle was showing her the traps he uses and Daryl had even shown her how to shoot his crossbow.
Merle was also teaching her how to defend herself better. She had improved in her shooting and he was teaching her better self-defence. She was quite effective with her knife now. She had managed to beat Merle a number of times now, a fact that she loved to rub in his face. He was also teaching her how to fight if she had been disarmed; how to fend off people or walkers long enough for her to escape. She felt much safer now.
Carol and Daryl were walking across the yard when Carol turned back to the eating area. She saw Kat watching Daryl as they left and she looked away, blushing, when she realised that Carol was watching her.
'So what's going on between you and Kat?' asked Carol.
'Nothin'' Daryl replied.
'Nothing?' Carol prodded. 'I thought you were gonna tell her how you feel?'
'I don't know' Daryl shrugged and sighed. 'I was gon' do that. Then the people from Woodbury got here and everything got busy. Next thing I know she's always around other people. We never get a minute to ourselves. Now she's always around Tyreese and if he's not there then Dr S. is always around. She could have whoever she wanted and she's got the choice now. She's too good for me.'
'Or maybe I should bash your heads together and that would help' Carol muttered to herself under her breath. She knew that Kat and Daryl were meant to be together but they were both too shy to make the first move. If they didn't pull their heads out of their asses soon, Carol was tempted to lock them in a cell together until they worked it out.
Daryl was putting his supplies in the back of the pick-up when Kat appeared next to him and threw her own empty bag in the back.
'Whatcha doin' asked Daryl, squinting at her.
'You're short-handed because of people going down to the fences. Washing people's clothes can wait. I volunteered to go on the run' she replied with a smile.
'Fine' he grumbled. Daryl never liked it when Kat went out. She only occasionally went out on runs but she was beginning to come out with him and Merle hunting more often. He didn't like the fact that whenever she went outside the fences she was in danger, they all were. He just wanted to protect her.
'I wasn't asking your permission Daryl' she laughed.
Daryl glared at her. If she was going to be going out then he wanted her close to him, so he could protect her. He was about to ask her to join him on his bike when Tyreese appeared behind her.
'Come on. Stop taunting Daryl' Tyreese said, with a smile in Daryl's direction. Daryl just glared back in response to the arm that Tyreese had wrapped around Kat's shoulders. Tyreese steered her away from Daryl and into the backseat of the car. Daryl felt a sting of jealousy at the close relationship the man had with Kat. He wanted to be able to casually touch her like that and tease her. These things just didn't come as naturally to him.
They came to stop outside the chain link fence surrounding an army camp. Daryl jumped off his bike and Kat, Tyreese, Sasha, Zach, Michonne, Bob and Glenn piled out of the two cars. They entered the camp through a hole in the chain link fence and began to look for anything they might be able to scavenge in the camp and looking for any leftover walkers. Kat found a torch that still worked and threw it in her bag.
She ran into Michonne as she wandered around. 'Makes you wonder what happened here' Kat said.
'Nothing good' Michonne said stoically, talkative as ever. Michonne indicated with her head that they should gather outside the shop entrance. The others were beginning to congregate there. This shop, The Big Spot, was their target. Hopefully it wouldn't have been scavenged too much by the military. They were hoping there would be food and supplies that they could take. Kat had been given the task of getting baby clothes for Judith.
She had been spending lots of time with the little girl. She enjoyed being around the infant so much; it made life seem that much more hopeful. She was growing up so fast though. She was outgrowing all of her clothes and so was in desperate need of some new ones.
'Just give it a second' Daryl said as he elbowed the window to draw out any walkers. Kat and Michonne joined the rest of the group and Kat perched herself on the window ledge next to Daryl.
'Okay, I think I got it' Zach said as he joined the two of them.
'Got what?' Michonne asked.
'I've been trying to guess what Daryl did before the turn' Zach answered.
'He's been trying to guess for, like, six weeks' Daryl smirked. Kat smiled and knew that Zach would never guess. She'd already had this discussion with Daryl. He didn't really have a job before all of this. He had just followed Merle around, occasionally doing the odd bit of labour here and there for money. He was good with mechanics though, Kat had no doubt that he could have become a mechanic. Unfortunately, Merle hadn't been the best influence as a brother. The apocalypse had surprisingly been good for both of the brothers. They now had a purpose and had begun to respect each other more. The apocalypse had done her good as well, she had gotten away from her father. It was odd that things were better after the apocalypse.
'Well, the way you are at the prison, you being on the council, you're able to track, you're helping people, but you're still being kind of... surly' Zach started his guess. Kat tried to contain her laugh but failed.
'Whatcha laughin at?' Daryl asked.
'Nothin. Just… surly. It's the perfect word for you' Kat laughed. Daryl elbowed her gently in the arm with a smirk but Kat lost her perch on the window ledge and slipped to the floor. Daryl, Michonne and Zach all laughed at her reaction.
'Big swing here. Homicide cop' Zach finished his guess, causing Michonne to laugh even harder.
'What's so funny?' Daryl asked.
'Nothing. It makes perfect sense' Michonne laughed.
'Actually, the man's right. Undercover' Daryl said with a straight face.
'Come on, really?' Zach asked.
'Yep. I don't like to talk about it 'cause it was a lot of heavy shit, you know?' Daryl said. However, he looked down at Kat and winked.
'Dude, come on, really?' Zach asked, before realising that Daryl was joking. 'Okay. I'll just keep guessing, I guess.'
'Yeah, you keep doing that' Daryl answered, not even flinching when the walkers suddenly hit the window behind him.
'We're gonna do this, Detective?' Michonne asked with a smirk.
'Let's do it' Daryl said, offering Kat a hand and pulling her off the ground before heading to the door. They opened the door and picked off the walkers one by one that had accumulated by the entrance, drawn by the noise.
'All right, we go in, stay in formation for the sweep. After that, you all know what you're supposed to look for. Any questions?' Sasha asked.
'Was there ever a time that you weren't the boss of me?' Tyreese joked.
'You had a few years before I was born' she replied. With that, they all headed off into separate sections of the store to look for the items needed.
Kat headed straight to the baby section and found it fully stocked. The military obviously didn't have any need for any of the baby things. She grabbed a load of outfits suitable for Judith's age and shoved them in her bag. She also grabbed a few stuffed animals, she couldn't help but want to make Judith as happy as possible. She wasn't going to have much of a childhood once she grew older.
Once she was done, she headed over to the clothing section. She had promised some of the Woodbury women that she would try and pick up some clothes. She got the list out of her pocket and began picking up the clothing items in the specified sizes.
She stopped when she heard a crash and smashing bottles.
'What happened?' she heard Glenn yell.
'Everyone's all right. We're over in wine and beer' Zach replied. She calmed down and started to head in their direction to see if they needed any help. She was almost at the other group when a walker fell through the ceiling. A roof tile narrowly missed falling on her and she looked up to see the walker dangling from the ceiling by its intestines. Glenn, Michonne and Sasha ran up behind her when they heard the noise.
'Yeah, uh, we should probably go now' said Glenn in shock at the events.
'Bob's still stuck. Get him out of there' Daryl yelled.
All of a sudden walkers began dropping through the ceiling one after the other. Luckily, a few managed to land on their heads and take themselves out as they fell. They were still in serious shit though, they were outnumbered.
Kat found herself in an aisle with Michonne and Sasha. She took down walkers with her gun until she ran out of ammo. She then resorted to her knife and put Merle's self-defence training to good use. The three of them took down walkers efficiently in their area and then ran to find out if the others needed help.
Kat ran and found Daryl stood on some boxes with walkers surrounding him. He could hold his own but she helped him take down the walkers.
'Try to clear the entrance. We need to get out fast. That's coming down' Daryl yelled indicating at the ceiling. Kat looked up to see a helicopter shifting, looking as though it would fall on them at any minute.
She ran forward and began to clear a path to the exit of walkers. Daryl went back to help get Bob out. She managed to clear most of the walkers when she turned at the yelling behind her. She turned to see that Zach had been grabbed by a walker from underneath the fallen shelf that Bob had been under seconds ago. It dragged Zach to the floor and bit down on his neck. Kat turned away, she couldn't bear to watch another of them die.
The helicopter creaked again and began to fall. They all sprinted for the exit.
The group stopped to catch their breath outside the chain link fence of the camp. They waited to see if any walkers were going to come out of the store but it seemed that they were all trapped inside by the helicopter crash.
The group then let Zach's death hit them. Daryl sat on the floor with his head in his hands. Kat wanted to reach out and comfort him but wasn't sure whether she would be welcomed. She hadn't known Zach all that well but she mourned for his life being cut short when he was so young.
'We should get back' Glenn said gently. The group agreed and slowly started heading for the vehicles.
Kat began to head for the car when Daryl stopped her. 'You're with me' he said simply, indicating to the bike. Kat nodded gently and climbed on to the back of the bike.
She placed her arms around his waist and felt his chest shudder with constrained emotion. She wrapped her arms around him tightly and rested her head against his back. She could comfort him silently. Daryl smiled to himself; Kat knew what he needed and she was comforting him without making him look weaker in front of the group. He started the bike and set off home, taking one hand off the handlebar briefly to squeeze Kat's hand in thanks.
Kat lay in bed thinking through the day. She didn't like going on runs. She only ever volunteered if Daryl was going. He made her feel safer. The events of today didn't shake that feeling of safety. Zach's death was no-one's fault. She knew that Bob blamed himself but it wasn't even his fault. The walkers would still have heard them in the building and still would have fallen through the roof.
She sighed and rolled onto her side. She wasn't going to get much sleep dwelling on the events of today. That was something else that she had learned in this new world. You had to move on or the pain would eat you alive. She blocked all her thoughts out and began to drift off to sleep. Then she coughed.
