Most likely my last update for the night. Just wanted to keep the story moving along to some more interesting parts. Redangel2463: She's definitely in for some interesting times ahead!

Sunlight beat against my face, warming it. My eyelids fluttered open and my eyes took a few moments to adjust to the brightness. For a minute I forgot where I was. Outside the window were open fields covered in the golden morning light. Trees were off in the distance, a green backdrop complimenting the golden foreground. There were birds fluttering from fence post to fence post somewhere in between. The view was beautiful, peaceful even.

I jolted upright immediately when I remembered the farm, Carl's health, my newfound family. My back ached from the uncomfortable position I had apparently slept in all night. Glancing to the floor, I noticed Glenn and his makeshift bed had disappeared. My eyes darted to the bigger couch next to mine. Even T-Dog had woken up before me.

I pulled the blanket from off of me and quickly folded it. As I was placing it neatly onto the back of the couch, movement outside caught my eye. Four people were picking up logs and placing them in wheelbarrows. I recognized Glenn and T-Dog among the group, but the young blonde girl and the man with a shaved head and baggy overalls I couldn't quite place.

I could hear sounds coming from upstairs. It sounded like Carl's voice mixed with Rick and Lori's laughter. My eyes returned to the window again and I noticed a car parked in the driveway that I hadn't noticed last night. Shane and Otis must have come back in time last night. I smiled knowing Carl would be okay. I still worried about Sophia though.

"Good mornin' sunshine!"

I spun around immediately, a hand gripping my chest. I let out a sharp breath when I spotted the young, dark haired girl in front of me.

"Was wondering when you'd finally stir," she continued on as she made her way towards me. "Maggie cooked up some eggs for breakfast a bit ago. I saved you some." She smiled at me before tilting her head to the side in a questioning way. "How's your head doing? Last time I saw you it had a giant bandage across it."

I stood with my mouth hanging open for a moment, entirely dumbfounded.

"Sorry," she said, grin still intact as she held her hand outstretched for me to shake. "I'm Sarah. Your sister."

I stared at her outstretched hand with a questioning brow. She had blue nail polish chipping off of her fingernails. Who finds time to paint their nails when the world has gone to hell?

Hesitantly I reached out my own dirtied hand and shook hers. I could see the dried dirt caked beneath my unkempt nails.

She lightly shook my hand and seemed to smile larger.

"Seems so weird being this formal with you considering you were the one who used to bail me out of trouble every time I'd sneak out and go to Bobby Wells' parties. You'd just as easily scold me for drinking as much as I did while holding my hair back as I puked out of your car." She raised a hand to her mouth as if she was going to share a secret before leaning in and whispering, "But we don't talk about that around Uncle Hershel. He'd never let us near Maggie and Beth again. Bad influences." She leaned back, her hand dropping back at her side as she shot me a cheeky grin.

How was she was so cheerful and jovial?

"You know….I don't remember you at all…right?" I asked her, feeling uncomfortable saying this aloud.

She nodded her head before gesturing to the couches. Awkwardly I made my way back to the couch I'd been on moments ago as she took a seat on the couch next to it.

"Maggie told me already. She said you didn't remember her or Uncle Hershel. She said you probably wouldn't remember me or Beth, either," the young woman confessed.

"And…that doesn't bother you?"

Her head tilted to the side again. "Of course it bothers me. What makes you think it doesn't?"

I made a gesture with my hands towards her. "You seem, I don't know, happy almost?"

She shot me a meaningful smile. "I'm happy because I thought I'd lost you, but here you are. Too stubborn to become infected with that sickness. Too stubborn to stay in that hospital. Maybe you don't remember any of us, but you will. I know you will. You just need time."

"You seem so sure of that," I pointed out.

"I may not be as God-fearing as our cousins, but if fate or divine intervention, or whatever it was, lead you out of that hospital and right back here…I find it hard to believe you won't remember things."

I fidgeted with my hands awkwardly in my lap. "So…you're okay with me not remembering things? You're not going to stare at me like I killed your dog?"

She shook her head, a smile still tugging at her lips.

"Nope," she said, popping the 'p.' "Just means I get to catch you up on everything. Maybe something will make your memories come back. How about we get you some breakfast and you can ask me whatever you want?"

My stomach let out a low growl in response, to which Sarah smiled her cheeky grin.

"Sounds like a yes if I ever heard one."

I followed her into the kitchen and watched her set a plate of scrambled eggs onto the table. I sat down and began to eat as Sarah plopped into the chair across from me.

"Who was Bobby Wells?" I found myself asking.

Sarah let out a snort of laughter. "Out of all the important questions you could lead off with, that's the one you pick?"

I smiled and sent her a shrug as I scooped up more eggs onto my fork. They were cold by now, but I was too hungry to care.

"He played on the football team back in high school. Stereotypical popular jock. Really hot but a total douche," she told me.

"How old are you then? 18?"

She shook her head. "I'm three years younger than you—21 now. Making you 24." Her smile faltered a little when she added, "You missed my birthday a few months ago. Was a real rager."

I paused with a forkful of eggs halfway to my mouth and smiled softly at her. "Sorry."

She waved off my apology. "Doesn't matter now."

"Do you know what happened with my car accident? How it happened?" I asked her hopefully.

She let out a deep sigh and took a moment to pick at the nail polish on one of her nails.

"You were on break from university. All I know is you were heading to your boyfriend Ryan's. I'm guessing you don't remember him either?"

I shook my head in response.

She nodded and then continued. "It was late and a drunk driver slammed head on into your car. You smashed your head through the driver's side window on impact. You suffered a really bad concussion and were in a coma for months. Once all of this happened…I tried to get to you at the hospital. But the roads were so jammed…and everything just happened so fast." Her gaze shifted to her hands on the table. She no longer looked as cheerful as she had earlier. "Our dad was told by the hospital that the military was evacuating all of the patients and taking them to a safe facility where they could recover. We believed them at first…but…" her voice trailed off.

I sat back in my chair in front of the now empty plate. "Our parents…what happened to them?"

"They didn't make it," Sarah told me, nearly choking on the words as she said them.

I felt my stomach sink. I couldn't remember them, but I could still feel the loss of never getting to know them. I could still feel Sarah's sadness as I watched her wipe at her eyes roughly.

"I'm…sorry," I said. I felt like I was apologizing a lot since I'd gotten here.

She smiled in my direction as she tried to regain her composure. "If you're finished I can introduce you to our cousin Beth."

"Yeah…okay," I told her, letting her drop the subject as she picked up the empty plate and placed it in the sink.

"She's outside collecting firewood with the others. Come on," Sarah said.

I followed her out of the kitchen and towards the front door. It was warm outside, but I could feel a chill in the air every time the wind picked up. It was beginning to get colder and I knew that wasn't a good thing. Keeping warm at night was soon going to be a big priority.

"Beth!" Sarah's voice rang out to the group.

Everyone stopped and looked in our direction. As we neared the group, I noticed the man with the baggy overalls was Shane.

When did he cut all of his hair off?

"Sleeping Beauty finally awakens! Come meet your cousin!" Sarah called out to the young blonde girl.

I watched as she dropped an armful of logs into a wheelbarrow as the others continued their work. When she was standing a few feet in front of me I noticed she looked quite young.

"Hey," she said warmly. She tucked a piece of hair that had escaped from her ponytail behind her ear. "I'm Beth."

"Hey," I said feeling awkward. "You look...a lot younger than Maggie."

"Yeah. I'm sixteen," she replied.

I cleared my throat and spotted Sarah giving me a reassuring smile. "Sorry," I told Beth. "This is all just so much to take in. And it's…"

"Weird?" Beth supplied with a small smile.

"Yes…definitely weird," I admitted.

Beth turned her attention to Sarah when she spoke again. "You should let her get washed up. Give her some clean clothes."

"I was just about to get to that," Sarah told Beth before turning to me. "Fancy a hot shower?"

My jaw dropped a little. "Are you kidding?"

Both girls chuckled in amusement.

"I can wash your clothes with the others. Come on," Sarah said.

I turned my attention back to Beth. "It was nice to…meet you?"

She let out a small laugh before nodding her head and making her way back to collecting firewood with the others.

"Glenn and your friend T-Dog already showered up this morning. Shane did last night when he got back from the run," Sarah told me conversationally as she led me back into the house and towards the stairway.

"I just want to see Carl first," I told Sarah as I stopped outside of the room he was in.

"Of course," she said to me. "I'll go rummage through some of the things I have, see what I can find to fit you."

I peeked into the bedroom and spotted Lori and Rick sitting on the bed beside a sleeping Carl. I knocked lightly on the doorframe, just loud enough to alert the two to my presence without disturbing the young boy's rest. They both turned at the sound.

"Hey," I greeted them. "Mind if I step in for a moment?"

I noticed the pair both looked remarkably better than when I'd seen them last night. Lori shot me a friendly smile and shook her head before glancing back down at her son.

"How's he doing?" I asked Rick, trying to keep my voice down.

"Better," Rick told me. "Hershel got the rest of the bullet fragments out of him last night when Shane got back. He was up for awhile this morning talking. He's just resting now."

I nodded my head before I suddenly picked up on something Rick had said. I figured I'd ask Sarah instead of Rick. He already had enough to worry about with Carl's current state of health.

"I was just going to wash up, but I wanted to check in on him first. I'm really glad he's okay," I told Lori and Rick before exiting the room.

Sarah was just emerging from a room down the hall, her arms full of some clothing.

"These should fit you just fine," Sarah said as she handed the clothing to me. "The water stays hot for about twenty minutes. There's soap, shampoo and conditioner in the shower. Brushes and towels are in the closet and cabinets. Take whatever you need. The dirty clothes we've been gathering in a basket in the bathroom. I'll be washing those after you're done."

"Hey Sarah," I asked her. "When Shane came back last night…did the man Otis make it back as well? Something Rick had said just…made me wonder."

The joking glint in her eye that had been there most of the morning disappeared.

"No. He didn't make it back," was all she said before she turned and made her way downstairs.

I stood there, taking in the information. A man had died last night trying to help us. I felt my stomach churn. I didn't think I'd ever get comfortable with the rising body count. At least, I hoped I never would.

Not having anything else to do, I made my way into the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I undressed and placed my dirty clothes into the basket that Sarah had told me about. It was already nearly full of clothes and towels.

I glanced in the shower. Sure enough there was everything I would need already lined up along the tub's edge. I found a towel in the small linen closet and turned on the water, letting it heat up. The moment it was warm I stepped in and felt my muscles relax. I stood in the hot water for a few minutes, just enjoying the relaxing feeling until I remembered the hot water wouldn't last forever. Quickly I began to wash up, watching as the water ran brown from all of the dirt I was covered in.

When I finished, I got out and dried off before wrapping myself in the towel. I wiped some of the condensation off of the mirror before trying to locate a brush. A few minutes had passed before I had combed all of the tangles out of my hair. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I suddenly realized I didn't really know what I looked like. I hadn't taken the time since I'd left the hospital to really look at myself.

I stared at my eyes a moment. They were a light green, not a blue like Sarah's had been. Or Beth's. And while Sarah had dark brown hair, mine was a dirty blonde. The only things we seemed to have in common were our noses and our chins. Otherwise I didn't see too much of a resemblance. She seemed to look more like the Greenes than I did.

"Yet another way to make me feel like an outsider," I grumbled to my reflection. "As if not remembering them didn't do that enough."

A rumbling noise outside caught my attention and I paused, squinting at my own reflection as I tried to focus on the sound. It was steadily growing louder and louder.

I watched as a smile spread across my reflection's face once recognition hit.

Daryl's motorcycle. The rest of our group made it here.