Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Short ad sweet.

AN: So this is a new story I have been working on. And it's been going pretty smoothly so far. I have had complete and total tunnel vision on The Walking Dead so I've decided to try my hand at it. I have quite a number of chapters under my belt on this story. Now I learned my lesson about about posting everything I have so I'm only gonna post a chapter or two a week. I hope you guys enjoy.

Chapter 2

Adrian Hunter had been hunting since dawn and it was getting to close to dark to stay out much longer but she hadn't really found anything to her liking. Sure she picked up whatever edible nuts and berries she spotted, but what she had been hoping for was a few juicy rabbits or, if she was lucky, a fat ass deer. Her and Kale could use the meat.

She knew the camp a few miles East of them had a hunter or two but they never seemed to hunt in the same areas. Adrian was keeping a close eye out on the somewhat soft ground for any kind of fresh animal tracks when she heard and unusual sound.

Adrian tilted her hear in the direction she had thought she had heard the sound to see if she heard it again. And sure enough she did. Adrian was never really one to jump head first into what could possibly be a dangerous situation so she stalked cautiously in the direction of the noise.

Equipped with a razor sharp machete, a sharp big game hunting knife, and a Genesis compound bow that she mostly used for hunting, Adrian came upon quite a sight. A young boy of no more than maybe eleven or twelve was in a somewhat small pine tree just out of reach of about three of those things that just refused to die.

How that kid got into that tree was a mystery to her. 'Must have spider-monkeyed his way up there.' Adrian thought to herself as she raised her bow and shot the first on in the head, which quickly drew the attention of the other two. Adrian had just enough time to knock another arrow and shoot a second one before she had to resort to Plan B. Use the machete.

Adrian retrieved her arrows and grabbed a few handfuls of leaves and cleaned off as much of the black goo off of her machete as possible. Sheathing her machete, Adrian looked up in the tree to see the little boy looking fearfully at her. He had shaggy dark brown or black hair and pale skin and his clothes were filthy.

"Are you okay up there sweetie?" she asked the boy as she leaned her bow at the base of the tree he was squirreled up in. "Yeah." the boy said breathing hard. "Are you hurt? Bit or scratched anywhere?" she asked looking up at him. "No. Who are you?" the boy asked. "My name is Adrian. And who are you?" Adrian said still talking softly as if she was talking to a scared child.

Adrian scuffed at herself at that thought. She was talking to a scared child.

After a minute of silence the boy finally answered. "Carl. My name is Carl." he finally said. "Are you one of the creepers Daryl talks about after he comes back from hunting?" Carl asked her. "A creeper am I?" Adrian said with a friendly smile. "You live at that camp a few miles away?" she asked as the question occurred to her. It could be dangerous for her if she brought the boy back herself.

"Yeah. Out there where that big lake is." Carl answered. "Daryl? Is he one of your hunters?" Adrian asked trying to get a little information from the little tree monkey. "Yeah. Him and his older brother, Merle. But neither one of them are very nice." he said causing Adrian to laugh at that last statement.

Adrian looked around her at the zombies as she liked to call them and sighed. 'Well better here than closer to camp.' Adrian thought not liking her next task.

Looking back up at Carl, Adrian decided that she had no other choice than to bring him back to camp. "Let me take care of these things and we'll get you down from that tree and you can come back to my camp for the night." Adrian said taking off to pile up the zombies so she could burn them.

Adrian spent the next hour dragging and piling the heavy dead bodies of the zombies to the fire she had built. She had Carl jump down to her from the tree after he confessed to not knowing how to get down.

She had tried to prepare herself for the sudden weight of the boy but had collapsed to the ground anyway.

After getting up, Adrian grabbed her bow and Carl's hand and carefully headed back towards Kale and her camp.

After walking for about thirty minutes Carl and Adrian reached camp just as the sun was setting. "Kale. We got company so be nice. Carl, this is Kale Hagan, my partner. Kale, this here is Carl Grimes, my new little boyfriend." Adrian said smiling at the boy. "Ain't that right, Carl?" she laughed.

"He's from that campsite out there by the lake. What's he doin' here?" Kale asked standing from across the fire he had lit.

"Found him up a tree with three zombies trying to climb up to get him. Killed them and burned the bodies, per usual." she said leading Carl the to the fire and sit him down on a fallen log.

"Is that smoke again?" Shane asked seeing plumes of white smoke floating towards the sky. Daryl and Rick had been searching the woods for three days looking for Carl but after a whole day of heavy downpour Daryl had lost what few tracks he had had.

"Yeah. Second time in three days." Daryl said squinting against the harsh rays of the sun as he looked upwards.

"Maybe it's a camp fire?" Shane asked. "Nah. Too much smoke to be a camp fire. Somebody's burnin' somethin'." Daryl said looking back towards the ground. He had spotted some small tracks every now and then but they were too big to be Carl's.

After another hour Daryl finally got two sets of fresh tracks. One was the set he had seen off and on and another smaller set of tracks that could have been Carl's. It was shortly after noon but the day was still sizzling hot but the shade of the forest helped a little.

A short while later Daryl and Shane heard what they thought could be voices not far ahead. As they got closer to the edge of the woods, Daryl signaled for Shane to stay put while he went ahead.

Daryl carefully stalked forwards into what looked to be a good sized clearing and there was Carl, picking berries from bushes and nuts from the ground. Being so focused on Carl, Daryl forgot to watch his footing and stepped on a twig, snapping it.

Carl jerked his head up to try and see where the noise had come from and Daryl walked out of the cover of the trees just as someone had run out of the foliage and grabbed Carl jerking him backwards.

The first thing Daryl noticed about the person jerking Carl behind them was their flaming red hair. The second was the neon pink compound bow that was raised and aimed at him.

The woman was small, maybe just over five feet tall, if that. She had red-orange hair that was braided over one shoulder and reached her waist and it looked like it was on fire from the rays of the sun. She looked kind of skinny but not unhealthy looking like Carl's mom, Lori. She had on a tight, pink short sleeve shirt with some kind of picture on the front and tight, ripped up, light blue faded jeans with a large hunting knife strapped to her right thigh.

All in all, she didn't look intimidating at all. As if the freaking world hadn't even ended.

"Let the boy go!" Daryl yelled from across the clearing. "Fuck you! Who the hell are you?" the woman yelled back.

Daryl seen Carl poke his head from around the small woman and look at him, slightly stunned. Carl reached up and grabbed a hold of her shirt and said something to her. She said something back but never took her eyes or aim off of him.

After a minute she lowered her bow but still starred at him and pulled Carl out from behind her.

"So you're Daryl Dixon, huh? Heard you call me "The Creeper". Now that's not very nice, now is it?" she said with a smile on her lips.