Guys...it's done. It's finally done. MY SCHOOL YEAR IS DONE DAMN IT! Today was my last day of school besides finals! I have five in the nest week, excluding tomorrow, so next week is going to be hard to update, but i'll try as hard as I can because I'm so thankful for the amount of love this story has been getting. So I'm thanking the last few people who had reviewed the last couple of chapters that inspired me to write, and that would bemrskaz453, An Amber Pen, Lina Marie, and Reader. You guys are amazing! This story has been going on for a solid three months now. Damn.
This chapter is probably going to be SUPER short, but bear with me, I'm trying hear. Finals are a bitch!
Now, on with the story!
One way or another I'm gonna find ya
I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha
One way or another I'm gonna win ya
I'll getcha, I'll getcha
One way or another I'm gonna see ya
I'm gonna meetcha meetcha meetcha meetcha
One day, maybe next week
I'm gonna meetcha, I'll meetcha
And if the lights are all out
I'll follow your bus downtown
See who's hanging out
-One Way or Another (Blondie)
Annie's eyes opened slowly as the blinding light from behind the shades woke her up. Seems that not even those could keep the brightness from creeping into the third floor bedroom. She stretches her arms across the bed as she leans up on the headboard. Her hands move to her eyes to rub the sleep away as she tries to adjust to the light that was reflecting off the walls right into her bed.
She places her hands back down and stares around. She was alone, but it was still very bright, so by her guess it was around ten am. She had slept in late compared to how early she had been waking up in the past couple of weeks.
As she slowly got out of the bed she makes sure to grab everything she would probably need for the day. It had been two weeks since she had discovered Daryl and Hallie, and they had been staying there in comfort and peace. To be honest, Annie still was up last at night, thinking about the rest of the group. Where the fuck Jill was, or where her mother was, or Rick or Rachel or anyone that she cared about. It was a never ending loop of worry.
But during the day, she tried to forget about them and just stay calm, because if she didn't then she would probably have an aneurism, and that she most certainly did not want. She walks over to the dresser and grabs a beanie she had snagged from a store a few days back. It was simple, nice and black, but she had always wanted one before the outbreak, and now she finally got one.
She places it on her head and then ties up her boots. Taking one last glance in the mirror, she quickly gives her hait a few strokes of her brush and walks out the door.
The third floor was by far the hottest room of the house. It made Annie sweat even when she was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, which she was doing right now. But instead of panting like a hot dog she decided to quickly head downstairs and see to where exactly she was going. She was still sort of waking up, so her mouth opened and closed slowly as a yawn escaped her.
And then a ball hit her in the stomach.
It wasn't a rough ball. In fact, it was a rubber one. But it was thrown in enough for that she was taken back and had to grip onto the railing to prevent her from tumbling to the ground. Hallie races over and picks up the ball, giving her mother a sorry look, holding the toy close to her chest.
"I'm sorry!" she says quickly. Annie sighs and rolls her eyes.
"It's fine, Hallie. But why don't you go outside and play with the ball? That way you don't hurt anything-or anyone else, for that matter." Hallie smiles and nods, then takes off towards the sliding glass doors that led to the giant backyard that Annie had grown accustomed to over the time she had spent. Hallie had gotten better since she had been found. The shot she had was completely healed now, even though it would leave a scar.
But she was happier and moving. And alive. That's all that mattered to Annie. As long as she was still breathing she could go on.
She moves onto the kitchen and finds Mac and Gina cooking or cleaning away at something. When she walks in, Gina turns around and smiles at her.
"Morning, sweet pea. How ya doing?" she asks in her little southern accent. Annie smiles at her and takes a seat at the kitchen table, placing her elbows upon the flat surface and laying her face on the palm of her hands.
"Good," she replies. Mac snorts.
"Are you sure? You weren't feeling so hot yesterday." Annie rolls her eyes. The day before she had gotten a stomach bug from where the hell knows where. It was the complete flu. High fever of 101.9, coughing, sneezing, soar throat, and let's not forget the constant throwing up. Everyone had been worried she had gotten bit, but there were no bite marks on her body to be seen at all.
"I'm fine. Like I said, it was a stomach bug. It happens every once and a while." Mac smiles.
"I was actually relieved to find out you had other symptoms. If it was just nausea, you could have been pregnant." Annie's brow furrows. To be true, at first she did think it was that, but then the cough came along, and the sneezing, and the whole package deal and she knew that wasn't the case. She wouldn't be against that happening. Her and Daryl had never been that safe, but most of the time they were. It would just be dangerous to bring up a kid in this world.
Look what happened to Kelly and Hallie? She didn't want that again.
"For a while I thought that to, but then I felt like shit and had a high fever." Gina smiles sadly.
"You looked as sick as a dog. Daryl was worried sick about ya the whole entire day. Could barely focus on helping Harry and the boys. Kept glancing up at the window." Annie feels her cheeks redden at this.
"That man loves you so much," Mac mumbles. "It's crazy." She picks up a plate of food and lays it in front of Annie, who stares at it hungrily. There were eggs sunny side up, with a side of sausage. She takes one into her mouth and groans in pleasure. Just like back in New York.
"Where on earth did you find sausage?" she asks happily, shoving another bite into her mouth. Gina laughs.
"Harry found some at this old shop. We were able to restore it and all this happened. Ya like it?" Annie moans in pleasure.
"LOVE!" she exclaims. Both woman laugh and turn back to the sink to finish cleaning up the plates and other dishes while Annie continued to munch down her breakfast.
"So," she starts when she swallows a bit. "Anything for me to do-"
"NO!" they both say at once. Annie drops her fork to the plate at the sudden outburst, the clinging of the metal upon metal echoing the whole entire kitchen. Mac shakes her head.
"You're not doing anything manual today. Nothing of the sort!" Annie looks at her tiredly.
"But I'm feeling be-"
"No, honey. You still have it in your system even if you're feeling better. You need to take it easy today." Annie begins to protest but realizes that she was not going win this. Sighing, she finishes up her breakfast and hands the plate to her outstretched hands.
"Being sick sucks," she states sadly. Both woman laugh.
"Yes it does," they agree. The two woman had become Annie's lights in the past two weeks. After being separated from Jill, she always felt the need to talk to someone her age. She loved Kelly and Hallie, but the women gave her good advice and understood her...adult problems that a little girl would not. Plus, they had amazing senses of humor. The only person she still hadn't met was Lauren, and that's because Dawson and the women had been the people taking care of her.
"Where's Kelly? And Lacey? In fact, where is everyone?" she asks, realizing that only the three of them were in the house. Gina gestures outside with her head, scrubbing away at the leftover dirt and food from the plate she had in her hands.
"Kelly and Lacey are outside playing, while the men are doing certain things. Harry and Dawson are taking care of the harvest and planting the stuff in the barrels," she starts, glancing outside nervously. Annie understood. She knew Gina was always worried about her husband when she went off to fill those things. "While I heard that they sent Leo and Daryl off to go and hunt. They left way early in the morning."
"How early?" Annie asks.
"Like, five am early," Mac replies. "Five hours. Hope they bring back a deer," she mumbles. Annie smiles.
"You could go hunting for days and not bring back anything, so you never know." Mac raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah, but these are are husbands we're talking about. Leo was way into hunting before all this, and I'm pretty sure Daryl's just as good. We'll be eating well tonight." Annie laughs.
"Very true," she replies. Mac sits down at the table.
"So, I want to ask you a question," she says. Annie's brow furrows again when she hears Gina's groan.
"Mackenzie don't ask her this!"
"I want to mama!"
"It's her business!"
"Not when I can hear it!"
"What's going on?" Annie interrupts, her hands going up to stop the two from the ongoing fight. Mac turns to her with a smirk on her face, while Gina shakes her head and mumbles something incoherent while scrubbing on the dishes.
"Judging by the sounds I hear, I'm guessing you and Daryl have a lot of fun. Tell me: Is he good?" Annie's whole entire face reddens at the question while Gina laughs.
"You hear?" she squeaks. Mac chuckles.
"Only a few times," she replies. "But seriously. Is he good? Great? Fantastic?" Annie looks down at the ground, bites her lip, and then looks back up, a bright grin on her face.
"Fucking amazing," she replies. The two woman burst out laughing and Annie joins in. She couldn't believe she said that. At that moment, the door slides open, but the women were too busy laughing to even notice.
"What're ya laughin' about?" she hears from the door. She looks up from her laughing fit and sees Daryl and Leo there. Daryl had an eyebrow raised at her with an amused smirk gracing his lips. She smiles.
"Nothing," she replies while standing up from her chair. Daryl snorts at this while Leo shakes his head, walking over and taking Mac in his arms, giving her a kiss hello.
"That's bullshit," he replies. Mac shakes her head.
"Nah, she's right," she giggles. Daryl walks over to Annie and wraps his arms around her, pulling her close to him. She smelled the forest and sweat on him, but for some reason it was strangely intoxicating. Only him would make it smell good to her.
"How ya feelin'?" he murmurs to her while Leo and Mac talked and Gina continued to clean. Annie shrugs her shoulders.
"Better, but those ladies aren't letting me do anything today."
"I agree with 'em. Need to relax." She rolls her eyes.
"I'm not that sick!"
"But ya still are," he replies snoodily. She crosses her arms and places her head down.
"I don't like feeling useless," she mumbles. He chuckles and takes her hand in his.
"Ya ain't. You're just sick. Everyone gets like that sometimes." She sighs and looks up at him with a small smile.
"Did you at least bring back something for us to eat?" He nods.
"Yeah, got ourselves a deer. Nice big buck. Leo said he'll use the horns for decoratin'." Annie snorts and starts to laugh, while Daryl offers her a quizzical look. "What's so funny?" She shakes her head.
"Just remembering a song," she comments, remembering the song from 'Beauty and the Beast.' Maybe that was where Leo got the idea from. "You home for the day?" He scoffs.
"Came back to drop off the deer and now we're headin' back out." Her brow furrows in confusion.
"What? Why?" He smirks.
"Ya gonna be worried?" She rolls her eyes.
"I always am, you idgit. You just got back!"
"We need more water for the back, so we gotta head out to a store and pick some up. Don't worry. We'll be back soon, Annie. Ain't nothin' bad gonna happen."
"You never know," she says quietly. He leans down and pecks her cheek, avoiding her lips so he wouldn't get sick as well. She smiles at the gesture.
"I'll be fine, Annie," he says finally. He looks up at Leo and nods towards the door. "Faster we get out, faster we get back." Leo nods and kisses Mac before heading out the door first, his gun in his hand. Daryl offers Annie one last look before leaving out the door and closing it behind him. Mac comes up next to her and crosses her arms across her chest.
"I feel like we're sendin' them off to war," she mumbles. Annie laughs.
"War, apocalypse, same thing."
Annie walks up the stairs later in the day after bandaging up ANOTHER cut on Kelly's knee. Kelly had been very active since day one of coming here, messing around with Lacey literally all the fucking time. She was getting very scratched up, but after what happened to her and what has been happening, she didn't cry anymore when she got a cut. She was one of the strongest people that Annie knew now, well, for her age, she guessed.
At least Kelly was acting like a kid and not some psychopath.
She goes to travel to her room but stops when she sees the door to Lauren's room slightly open. Curiosity takes over her, and she starts to slowly walk towards the room, a knife in her hand. She didn't know why, but she was always on defense, even in a house she felt remotely safe in. The person could be dead for all she knew and turned into a walker or something like that.
The door creaks open as she steps inside, and the woman looks up. No, not a woman. It was a girl, probably only a few years younger then her. Funny, she thought she would be older. She had brown hair that was cut short at the top of her neck, or it was just growing in, and her eyes were a dark brown. She had some sort of air tube connected to her nose and the tube was connected to a machine. She had a book in her hands and a tray of breakfast remains right next to the other.
She was very surprised by the new visitor.
Annie smiles at her and closes the door slightly, glancing around the room. It was a bright blue, sort of like sky blue, with white furniture and some other blue compliments such as a dark blue beanbag that was right next to a pure white bookshelf. It looked like a teenagers room, but she didn't think this girl was a teenager anymore.
"Hi," she says sweetly. "I'm Annie, and I'm guessing you're Lauren?" She nods and moves over on her bed slightly to make room, apparently getting over her shock and being happy to see a new face. Annie gladly took the seat next to her with a smile. "Have you been up here for the past three years or what?" Lauren laughs lightly.
"Uh, yeah, I have. Mac doesn't want me exposed to the outside world at all because that can totally affect my breathing and i'll be gone for good." Annie looks down at the small machines and realizes it was an oxygen tank on wheels.
"If you don't mind-"
"It's fine," Lauren interrupts. "I have stage three thyroid cancer. This helps me breath. But if I get any other outside scents she thinks I'll drop dead. I'm not saying I won't, but it would just be nice to feel the open air again." Annie's brow furrows.
"Then why not open a window?" she asks. Lauren shakes her head.
"Can't. Won't let me." Annie snickers.
"I think that's irrational. How old are you?"
"23."
"Then you have the right to do what you want. Open the windows if you want. It's stuffy in here as it is. Here, I'll start it!" She gets up from her bed and runs over to the double window that lay on the wall. Clicking open the lock, she pushes them outside and feels the warm air sneak in. She turns back to Lauren with a smile. "See? Nothing bad. They're just paranoid."
"I don't blame them. This cancer hasn't been fun. But they make it. Mackenzie has been my friend since I was younger, and I was staying here when all this happened. I don't know where my parents are." Annie smiles sadly.
"Well, at least you're ok and so is Mac and family." Lauren smiles and feels the soft air it her face. She sighs in bliss. Why hadn't she done this before?
"You're that new family that moved in a couple of weeks ago. They've told me about you. How do you like it?" Annie smiles.
"It's great. They're nice people." Lauren smiles.
"You and that man love each other a lot. I can see it when I peek out. You and him outside with the kids. It's so cute! I wish I had someone like that. You seen meant to be." Annie chuckles.
"Yeah. Yeah, we are." And the talking continues.
The night breeze had descended on the ground as a small and angry group made their way through the forest, slashing through any branches and bushes that would get in their way, tired and bloody. Three men held their ground in the front as the rest followed them closely behind. And one woman was sharpening her knife very slowly.
'Why isn't she dead?' she thinks angrily. 'I shot her! Didn't I? Dumb bitch can't die, that's what. I gotta kill her from the inside out. Slowly and then all at once. Maybe get the kids, and then her, and then he'll be all mine. But what if the others get in the way? The zone is gone, so that's a plus, but what if they-'
"Carol! Get up here!" Joel yells. Carol is startled from her thoughts and quickly rushes up to his side. He hands her his machete.
"Do you have any clue where they could have gone?" he asks angrily. She shakes her head aggravated.
"I only know that they want shelter. That could be anywhere. Same with Jill and everyone else." Joel growls and stabs a walker in the head as i stumbles from the bushes.
"Fucking assholes," he hisses. "The zone's gone, but now they're all spread out. We need to somehow find these places. Simon!" A lanky man rushes to the front and stands next to Joel. He hands him a walkie talkie and scowls at him.
"Take this and look for anyplace they may be. We gotta kill 'em. Remember that." Simon nods and runs off into the woods to avoid Joel's wrath and anger. A pulsing pain starts at the back of Joels head but he ignores it and sets his sights on Carol. He grins wickedly. "We're gonna stomp their asses." She smiles and nods.
"That's the plan. Damn bitch. I hate her so much." Joel snorts.
"Don't worry, darlin'. We both do. And we'll find them. And we will kill them."
Review? Please with a cherry on top? XD Ok I'm done. :)
