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 4

It had been two weeks since the deal had been struck between Adrian and Shane, and from what Adrian could tell, Shane wasn't holding up his end. Adrian had stayed true to her word and gave the group a heads up that she and Kale would be around for water soon.

Although she could have given them a forewarning a little differently, she just wanted to chap Shane's ass. So she tied a small piece of old pink cloth to the end of an arrow and shot it into the ground in the middle of their campsite.

Got everyone's feathers ruffled pretty good and she was even rewarded for her troubles by earning a few colorful choiced words aimed at her from Shane. She and Kale had been to the quarry three times in the past two weeks and much to her displeasure, she noticed that they were being tracked.

After she realized it she decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and walk around in a few big circles and see if they followed. They did. And Adrian was not pleased. 'No honor amongst thieves I guess.' Adrian thought.

Adrian had been close to the camp a few times to check out the people and now knew the face of the other tracker, Daryl's older brother, Merle. 'Doesn't look like much of hunter.' Adrian thought one day as she starred at the older, much less attractive, Dixon brother.

'Guess I know who I'm going to be tracking down then.' Adrian thought as she silently backed away from the camp site.

Adrian had been quietly tracking Daryl Dixon all day, deliberately staying a ways behind him until they were far enough out for her to confront him. He had been killing squirrels all day and had just set his sights on a big fat rabbit when she decided to mess with him too.

She took her aim at the rabbit and waited until she seen him fixing to strike when she hit the rabbit, killing it instantly.

After a second of silence, Adrian grinned when she heard him. "Dammit that was my rabbit. Been trackin' that damn thing for twenty minutes." she heard Daryl yell.

"I know." Adrian said coming out from behind the tree she had been biding behind. "Because I've been tracking you all day." she said picking up the dead rabbit by the ears.

"Oh yeah? An' why is that?" Daryl asked with some anger in his voice. "Because you, Daryl Dixon, have been tracking me." Adrian said glaring at the dirty, sweaty hunter.

Unfortunately for Adrian that did nothing to take away from his attractiveness. If anything else, it stoked her fire just a little bit hotter.

But she would die before she admitted that to him.

"So." he simply said. So much annoyance in one little word. "So, we had a deal. I give Carl back and let you know when I'm coming for water and you don't track us. That was the deal. So why are you tracking us?" Adrian demanded.

"We don't trust you. We don't like that your around here. I know you been sneakin' around the camp. For all we know you took Carl the second he was outta everybody's sight." Daryl said angrily.

"Hey!" Adrian growled pointing a finger in his direction. "Let's get something straight here. I found Carl in a damn tree with three zombies snappin' at his ankles. If it wasn't for me, Lori Grimes wouldn't have a kid right now." she said glaring at the redneck.

"I killed those things, burned them, brought Carl back to camp. Gave him food and protection. I always intended on giving him back but I wasn't going to walk up to your doorstep and drop him off only to have you track me back to camp. We've been out here longer than you have. If we wanted ANYTHING that you had in that camp, it would be gone before you damn well knew it." Adrian said yanking her arrow out of the rabbit.

She then pointed the blood smeared arrow at him. "You leave us the hell alone. I find you tracking me or my man again, I'll put a damn arrow in your leg. Try tracking me then." she said throwing the rabbit at Daryl's feet.

Adrian then quickly turned fled into the thickness of the forest.

A week after Adrian and Daryl's discussion, Adrian and Kale decided that it was a good night to get water. They had made plans to move out in a few days due to an increase of zombie sightings close to and around their camp.

They were no more than a hundred yards away from the others camp when they started hearing screaming and gun shots. Never knowing what they would encounter on their water runs, Adrian and Kale always came ready for a fight.

Adrian stopped in her tracks and then looked back to Kale. "We have to help them, Kale. Carl and other children are in that camp." Adrian said with a small tremor in her voice. After getting a good look at her face, Kale took his shotgun from his shoulder and then nodded.

They broke through the tree line but didn't go in any farther for fear being mistaken as a zombie and shot. The camp was in chaos. People were trying to run to safety, shooting or hitting the zombies to kill them. Some people weren't so lucky as to get away from the zombies and were screaming in pain at being chewed on.

Adrian looked back at Kale and nodded with a determined expression. Kale took aim and shot at any zombies close to them while Adrian aimed for the ones eating the living. At least if she missed, it would be a blessing to end their suffering.

After a few minutes more gun fire joined the party as four people ran into camp to help eliminate the threat. Adrian looked at the men returning to camp from where they had been and recognized all but one.

There was the black man, T-Dog she had heard people call him, the Asian boy, Glenn who tended to go on alot of the supply runs, and, oh joy, her favorite tracking redneck, Daryl.

She didn't recognize the other man though. He was tall, slim from what she could tell, had dark hair but it was hard to tell in the dark, and he wore what looked like a police uniform.

A minute or so after they ran into camp, guns blazing, everything quietened down. It took a few minutes, but eventually she and Kale were noticed by none other than Shane.

"What the hell are you doin' here?! We had a deal, you don't come to this camp!" Shane yelled stalking towards her.

Since they had already been spotted, Adrian decided it was now safe to retrieve her arrows.

"Yeah and your part of that deal was to keep your bloodhound off my trail!" Adrian yelled back irritated violently yanking an arrow out of the head of one of the zombies.

"Did you think I would be too stupid to notice that he was tracking me? Oh and your welcome, by the way, you ungrateful ass!" she yelled again.

Shane must have gotten to close for Kale's comfort because she heard the unmistakable sound of him pumping his shotgun just behind her. Shane must have heard it too because he stopped where he was but didn't look happy about it.

A small ground then gathered behind Shane for the show. "Adrian! Kale!" they heard Carl yell as he ran towards them, much to his mothers dismay. Carl charged towards Adrian and ran into her head on, wrapping his arms around her waist. Adrian was jolted backwards a bit from the impact of the boy but wrapped her free arm around the small boy.

Rick Grimes walked up beside Shane to see his son hugging a stranger to him, a woman. She was small in size, maybe no bigger than five feet, she had on a tight black shirt that was ripped in a few places, dark blue jeans, a large knife strapped to one thigh, pale skin, and wild red braided hair that reached her waist.

"Carl! Get back over here!" Shane yelled and started towards the woman and Carl, only to be stopped by a young man who stood behind the woman. A young man who had his shotgun aimed at Shane.

"Don' even think about it, Cop." he said to Shane.

The woman grabbed Carl by the face and made him look at her. "Are you okay?" she asked him softly. Carl just nodded his head. "Okay. Now go back to your mom before Shane hurts something he doesn't have. Like a brain." she said with a small smile nodding towards the large group of people.

Carl did as the woman said and went back to his mother. "My name is Rick Grimes." the new man said to Adrian.

"I'm Carl's dad. How do you know my son?" Rick asked her. Adrian looked at him for a second and smirked.

"Found your boy in a tree a few weeks back. Your new here. Ain't seen you around here before." Adrian said to him willing to deal with him rather than Shane. "Stole him is more like it." they all heard Shane grumble. "Shut it, Pig!" Kale yelled at him.

"Kale! Easy." Adrian said half turning to give Kale a look to obey or pay for it later. Kale backed up just a step but still kept his aim on Shane. Adrian then turned back to Rick.

"My name is Adrian Hunter. This is my partner, Kale Hagan. Sorry for your losses here tonight." Adrian said truly sorry.

"If you would like, Kale an' I could help with clean up. Two more sets a hands to make it go by a little quicker." Adrian said looking around at all of the dead.

She knew that most of the men would be doing the dirty work but since she and Kale had no personal attachment to anyone in the camp other than Carl, helping would be no problem.