Galwidanatitud: Sadly this is just the beginning, and it's gonna get worse. :(
Zeldadragondraco: Yes girl, yes. I have multiple Bucky stories but they are just ideas right now, sadly. But I will let you know when they're up!
0netflixme0: Here is the update! Enjoy!
Alice had finally fallen to sleep, hugging Burnie tight to her body as if he could protect her while she slept.
The sun had just risen when Miri stepped out of her tent. She looked over with a deep frown at where Andrea was and saw she was still holding dead Amy's hand. Lori was talking to her but she couldn't hear what they were saying.
Miri walked closer to the RV and saw Daryl swing a pickaxe into a dead walker's head as Glenn and T-dog threw bodies into a fire.
"Hey Miri." She turned around and saw Shane, a bruise on his jaw forming from where she at hit him. "How is she?"
"She's finally sleeping now. She didn't want to let me go." She motioned to his bruise. "Sorry about punching you, I just went crazy with worry."
"Don't worry about it," he rubbed the spot. "You still hit pretty damn hard."
Rick walked over to them but was looking over at Andrea. "She still won't move?"
"She won't even talk to us…" Lori sat down on the car seats next to them. "Been there all night. What do we do?"
"We can't just leave Amy like that. We need to deal with it, same as the others." Shane grumbled as he sat on a log.
"She needs time to grieve though, she's human, not a damn machine." Miri started to bite the skin on her lip while looking at Andrea and Amy. "She needs this."
"I'll tell her how it is." Rick walked over to Andrea. He went to go bend down near her when Andrea pulled her gun out on Rick, making Rick back off slowly.
Miri sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. She reminded her too much of her mother. She felt for Andrea and wanted her to have this moment, but she understood the urgency the group was feeling now that the dead were rising.
"Y'all can't be serious! The dead girl's a ticking time bomb!" Daryl had stomped over with his bloody pickaxe, nearly red-faced from anger.
"What do you suggest then?" Rick asked Daryl.
"We take the shot." Daryl told him bluntly. "Clean in the brain from here. Hell, I could hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."
"No." Lori told him. "For God's sake, let her be."
"Lori's right, leave her alone. She knows what she has to do, but let her grieve. Her sister just died in her arms!" Miri pointed to Andrea, who was softly stroking Amy's hair. Daryl narrowed his eyes at the group and scoffed as he turned his back to them and walked away. "I'm going to check on Alice." Miri turned to move when Carol's soft voice called out to her.
"Miri, do you think you could check up on Sophia?" Carol's voice was quiet like a mouse, years of being under her husband's thumb making her keep her quiet. He still had her under his thumb even if he did just get eaten.
"Sure. I'll bring her and Carl over to my tent so they're together." She looked over at Lori to see if it was okay with that idea. Lori gave her a small smile and a silent thank you before Miri moved towards the tent.
Alice was still sleeping, thankfully, so Miri went over to Rick's tent and carried a sleeping Carl into her tent as best as she could. She had just helped Sophia into her tent, who was sleeping in Jacqui's tent before, when she saw Jacqui moving away from Jim.
"A walker got him! A walker bit Jim!" everyone quickly got to their feet and circled around Jim, trapping him in before he could run off or so anything crazy.
"Show it to us!" Daryl ordered Jim, who got a shovel to protect himself.
T-dog came up from behind Jim and held him as Daryl lifted his shirt, revealing an irritated and bloody bite wound. They moved away as Jim mumbled to himself that he was okay. Rick and Shane moved Jim to near the RV and in everyone's sights as the rest of the camp group talked about what to do with Jim.
"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's, and be done with it!" Daryl told the group plainly, not caring about the glares he received. He was used to it.
"Would you want that if that was you?" Shane snapped to Daryl, a slight tone of mocking underneath.
"Yeah and I'd thank you while you did it." Daryl glared right back, no fear in his eyes.
"I'd hate to say it and I didn't think I'd ever would, but maybe Daryl's right." Dale told the group, earning him judgmental stares.
"Jim's not a monster, Dale," Rick told him as he looked to the ground. "Or some rabid dog." Dale tried to get some words in but Rick continued. "He's a sick, sick man and if we go down that road, where do we draw the line?" Rick asked Dale, but Daryl answered.
"The lines pretty clear, zero tolerance for walkers… or them-to-be." Daryl leaned against his pickaxe.
"What if we can get him help? I heard the CDC was working on a cure." Rick looked at everyone as he said this.
"Heard that, heard a lot of things before the world went to hell." Shane squashed the idea.
"What if the CDC is still running? There has to be more people, people fighting to cure this." Miri commented.
Shane whistled, "Man, that is a stretch right there."
"Why? Miri has a point. If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they?" Rick told Shane. "I think it's our best shot. Shelter, recuse, protection-"
"I know you want that for everyone," Shane cut Rick off. "I want that too, now if they exist, they're at the Army base in Fort Benning."
"That's over a hundred miles in the other direction." Lori muttered.
"That's right, but it's away from the hot zone. Now listen, that place is highly operational and heavily armed. We'd be safe there."
"The military were at the front lines of this thing, they got over run and we've all seen that. The CDC is our best choice and Jim's only chance." Rick shot down Shane's idea.
"Find some aspirin," Daryl spoke to Rick. "Do what you need to do," he started to walk backwards towards Jim with his pickaxe in hand. "Someone had to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!"
Rick stopped him by putting his colt to his head and prevented him from taking action. "We don't kill the living." Rick told him as Shane stood in front of Jim, blocking Daryl's view of him.
Daryl put the pickaxe down and turned to glare at Rick, who kept the gun at Daryl's head. "That's funny. Coming from the man who's pointing a gun at my head."
"We may disagree on some things, but not on this. You put it down." Shane told Daryl. "Go on."
Daryl slammed the pickaxe into the ground and walked away. Shane picked it up and followed after him.
Rick went over to Jim and pulled him up. "Where are you taking me?" Jim asked him.
"Some place safe." Rick just told him.
The group separated after, going back to what they were doing.
Miri helped the guys put the bodies that were part of the group into the bed of Daryl's truck with Morales and Glenn. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her arm and looked to the side. Carol was smashing the head in of her now dead husband with a pickaxe while Daryl looked at her from behind. Her hits were getting more aggressive until she stopped, out of breath and tired from crying. Miri took off her gloves as she walked over to her and tucked them into her back pocket. She carefully hugged Carol from behind as she sobbed but stopped hitting her husband's body. "Let go, Carol." Carol calmed down a bit as Miri grabbed the pickaxe from her hands. "You should go be with Sophia, she'll need you. I'll help Daryl with his body."
Carol sniffled and nodded, wiping her eyes as best she could before more tears blurred her eyes. She thanked her and walked away, wanting to be close to her daughter.
Miri looked at Daryl as she put her gloves on. "I grab the feet and you the arms?"
Daryl grunted but nodded, trying not to watch her hair brush against her sweaty collar bones. They bent down and picked him up, but Daryl fumbled with his arms as soon as he looked up. 'Son of a bitch!' he cursed.
She looked at him to see him look everywhere but at her and was a bit red in the face. "What?"
"Do you think you could wear a shirt?" He looked over at me again but looked away when he saw she didn't move.
She looked down at tank top and saw it showed a bit of cleavage when she bent forward. "Seriously?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Can we just please do this?" She bent down to grab and pick up Ed's legs. When she looked up, she saw Daryl had grabbed Ed's arms and was just staring at him, not wanting to see down her shirt again.
They got Ed's body into the bed of the truck with the others when they noticed how everyone was looking over at Andrea. They turned to see Andrea holding a walker Amy. Amy had grabbed Andrea's hair and was pulling Andrea closer to her mouth. Everyone got their guns ready when a gunshot brought Amy down. It was Andrea's gun. Everyone looked on with sadness as Andrea went back to petting her dead sister's hair.
Daryl and Miri went back to putting bodies of dead campers into the bed of his truck as Rick and Shane came over.
"We're going up to the top of the hill to finish digging those graves Jim was making. When you two finish, tell the others to come up." Rick placed his hand on Miri's sweaty shoulder and squeezed it. "If anything, scream."
She nodded and slapped Shane's hand away so he wouldn't mess up her hair.
She and Daryl finally finished putting all the bodies in clean sheets, so the kids wouldn't see the faces and Daryl drove up the hill backwards.
She walked to her tent to see Carol with Sophia, Carl, Lori and Alice. Alice quickly ran over to her and hugged her leg tightly. "Hi." She picked her up and placed her on her hip. She gave her a kiss as Alice placed her head on her shoulder. "Rick and Shane are up at the hill digging graves. He says that we should go up there and bury our fallen." She told Carol, who nodded and got the kids ready.
The group started to follow Daryl's truck as he reversed up the hill.
When everyone made it up the hill, Daryl was talking to Rick and Shane. "Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the right thing to do and we just follow him along?" Rick and Shane continued digging. "These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are."
"There are no rules." Rick told him plainly.
"That's the problem." Lori piped in. "We haven't had one minute to hold anything of our old selves." Her voice shook, so Miri placed her hand on her arm to give her a bit of comfort. "We need to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do." Lori turned around to go back to Carl, who stood near the truck.
Miri put Alice down, told her to go stand by Lori and looked over to Daryl. She put on her gloves and motioned with her head to the bodies in the back of his truck. He came over with Rick and Shane as they helped them put all the bodies into the holes expect for Amy's.
Andrea wanted to put it in herself so everyone else watched from the truck except Dale, who tried to help her but she wouldn't let him.
Miri held Alice close to her as the group cried, watching the graves of the ones they lost.
When Amy's body was covered, everyone went back down to the camp.
Carol came up to Miri with Sophia behind her. "Miri, can you watch Sophia for me while I check on Jim?"
"Of course." She put Alice down and bent down so she could look up at Sophia. "Hey Sophia, you hungry?" Sophia nodded shyly, playing with her fingers and not keeping eye contact with Miri. "Well, follow me, I think I have a few snack in my bag that you two can eat." Alice grabbed her hand as Sophia followed next to her to her tent, which was knocked down last night but remade after the attack. The girls sat down on Alice's sleeping bag as she looked through her bag for something for them. She found a Hershey's chocolate bar. "Ha!" She showed the girls and Alice silently cheered while Sophia looked around scared. "What's wrong?"
"My daddy never let me eat chocolate." Sophia grabbed her shoulder and looked down, remembering her father.
Miri crawled over to her and placed her hand over Sophia's on her shoulder. "Can I look?" she nodded and Miri pulled her shirt back to see bruises down her back and a recent looking cut. "Sweetie, did…" She paused. "Did your daddy do this?"
Sophia nodded. "He hurts me and mommy and there's times where…" she looked ashamed. "He… touches me."
Miri shushed her quickly, not wanting for her to go down that lane of memories. "I'll just clean the cut okay?" She went into the duffel bag and pulled out a tube of Neosporin and the box for large adhesive pad Band-Aids. "It might sting, but it's just cleaning it so it could heal and not hurt anymore." She put some Neosporin on the cut and saw the girl flinch a bit. She relaxed as she reached next to her and pulled a Band-Aid from the box. "There." She put the shirt back over the bruises and cut. "Now, chocolate time." Miri broke the bar in five pieces. She handed two of the pieces to the girls and put the rest in her bag for the other kids in camp.
A tapping came from the door of the tent.
She went over and pushed it away to see Daryl there. "Daryl?" She stepped out and stood in front of him. "What happened?"
He reached into his pocket and pulled a familiar silver chain with two rings. "Fixed it for you."
She gently took it from his hands and put it around her neck. "I thought I lost it forever when that guy took it from me." She kissed the rings and tucked it into her tank. "Thanks, but how did you fix it?" She lifted her hair from underneath the chain so it wouldn't bother her.
"Dale's tools." He started to shift on his feet, feeling his face get even warmer as she smiled at him brightly and her blue eyes light up. He left without saying bye and entered his tent, to hide his embarrassment.
"Weird…" Miri grabbed her newly fixed necklace and played with it, happy to have it back on her. She snapped out of her thoughts as Carol stood next to her.
"Miri? You alright?"
"Huh?" Miri took her eyes away from Daryl's tent to look at Carol. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine." She remembered about Sophia. "Listen… I took care of the cut on Sophia's back." She whispered to her, so the kids and no one around could hear. Carol's eyes grew as she covered her mouth. "Don't worry, it wasn't infected or anything. They're in the tent now, eating a chocolate bar I found back in town."
Carol started to cry again.
"Momma?" the women turned around and saw Sophia coming out of the tent holding Alice's hand.
Carol bent down and hugged her daughter as she cried. "My baby." After Carol finished crying, both she and Sophia walked over to the camp fire where everyone was at.
Miri reached into her bag to take out the chocolate to give the kids. Carl thanked her as he nibbled his piece and Morales' children and wife thanked her. She sat with Alice in between her legs as she was doing her hair, which still had blood and dirt in it. She decided to put it into a high ponytail. "When we wash your hair, I'll make it really pretty, okay?" Alice just nodded but didn't move from her spot. All she did was grip the inside of Miri's jeans by the bottom, like she didn't want her to go.
Rick and Shane came over to the camp fire.
"I've, uh-" Shane started as he put his gun down. Rick walked around Miri, patting her shoulder as he went to go be near Lori and Carl. "I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now look, there are no guarantees. Either way, I will be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time," he looked over at Rick. "I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together." The camp stayed quiet as they all looked at each other. "Those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?" Shane looked at everyone as they processed the information.
The next morning came quickly for everyone. Some would say too quickly since they couldn't really sleep due to being afraid that they would get attacked in the night once again.
Miri had dismantled her tent and packed up all of their things into their bags. She stood with the remaining survivors with Alice half asleep in her arms as they listened to Shane and Rick talk to the group.
"Alright everybody, listen up." Shane called for their attention. "Those of you with CBs, we're going to be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down okay? Now if you got a problem, don't have CB or can't get a signal, you're gonna hit your horn one time." He raised a finger. "That'll stop the RV, any questions?"
Miri jumped slightly when she felt something bump her side. She looked over and saw it was Daryl that hit her with his elbow when he went to rub his eye.
"We are, uh…" Morales looked at everyone. "We're not going."
"We have family in Birmingham." Miranda, Morales' wife, told everyone as she held her daughter closer to her. "We want to be with our people."
"You'll be on your own," Shane warned them. "You won't have anyone to watch your back."
"We'll take the chance." Morales told him. "I gotta do what's best for my family."
"Are you sure?" Rick asked him this time with an understanding tone, but that didn't mean he wasn't worried. This man helped take him out and his sister out of the suicide zone that was Atlanta.
"We talked about it." Morales looked over to his wife then back to Rick and Shane, his nod strong. "We're sure."
Rick nodded. "Alright. Shane." He bent down to grab a pistol and a box of ammo.
"The box is half full." Shane told him as he handed him the box.
Daryl scoffed next to Miri, making Alice jump a bit in her sleep and walked around in his spot. Lori jumped down from the hood of Carol's car and walked over to Miranda to give her a hug. After Miranda hugged Rick, Shane and Lori, she came over to Miri and patted her arm since she was holding Alice.
"You guy be careful." Miri told her with tears in her eyes.
Miranda nodded and softly rubbed Alice's back. "You too."
Morales came over and Miri shook his hand. "Thank you, for getting us out of that city." Miri thanked him.
"It was no problem, though your brother is the one that help everyone out." Morales chuckled. He gave Alice and her a hug before going back to his family and walked them to their car.
"Come on, let's go!" Shane called out to everyone. "Let's move out!"
Rick looked over to Miri and stopped Shane. "Where's Miri gonna go?"
Shane motioned for her to come over to him. "She can ride with me."
"That's fine." She handed Alice over to Shane carefully. "Can you put her in while I put our bags in T-Dog's van?"
Shane nodded and walked off to his jeep with Alice in his arms.
She walked over to their bags and saw Daryl already putting her duffle bag, tent and sleeping bags into T-Dog's van. He handed her Alice and her backpacks. "Thank you, Daryl."
He raised his eyebrow in confusion and shook his head. "Whatever, get out of here quicker if I did it." He grumbled as he walked off to his truck.
She walked over to Shane's jeep and threw their packs and her bow into the back, where Alice was still sleeping.
The RV was in front, then Rick driving Carol's car, T-Dog's van, Shane's jeep and lastly was Daryl with his truck.
Miri put her head back and closed her eyes, enjoying the breeze from the Jeep having no cover. She sighed letting her body relax and just let the wind blow through her long loose waves. The cars drove by houses and power lines for miles, but they had to stop when Dale's RV started to smoke from the front.
Miri stayed near the jeep as the rest of the group went to check what was wrong with the RV and check up on Jim. Alice was just waking up, so Miri stayed with her. "Hey sweetie." She picked her up and put her on her hip. She didn't answer, just held onto her tight as she walked over to the rest of the group.
"I see something up ahead." Shane said as Miri reached the group. He was looking through binoculars. "Gas station, if we're lucky."
Jacqui came running out of the RV. "Y'all, it's Jim! It's bad. I don't think he can take anymore." She was out of breath as she went back to Jim.
"Hey Rick, you wanna hold down the fort?" Shane asked Rick. "I'll drive ahead, see what I can bring back." Rick nodded.
"Yeah, I'll come along too. Back you up." T-Dog looked through the binoculars.
"Y'all keep your eyes open now." Shane warned everyone as Rick went into the caravan to see Jim. "We'll be right back."
Miri started to rub Alice's back. "Ali, you haven't eaten anything expect for that chocolate bar." She told her as they walked to T-Dog's van that had most of the camp's things.
"What's wrong?" Glenn came up next to her as she opened the van and looked inside.
"Alice hasn't properly eaten since last night with the group. I need her to eat." She looked for something for her to eat but couldn't find anything. "Damn it… can't find anything for her to munch on."
"Maybe one of the guys will bring her something from the gas station." Glenn put his hand on her shoulder.
"Hopefully." She pushed hair from her face and put it into a messy bun so her neck could feel the air. They stayed stood near the van for a couple minutes when Shane and T-Dog game back with some bags.
At that moment, Rick stepped out of the RV and motioned for everyone to come to him.
Miri put Alice in Carol's car while the adults talked.
He told everyone what Jim said he wanted them to do. "It's what he said he wants."
"And he's lucid?" Carol asked him.
Rick took off his hat. "He seems to be. I would say yes."
"Back in the camp," Dale started. "When I said Daryl might be right, you shot me down." He shook his head. "You misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man." His words sunk into everyone. "I was just going to suggest we ask him what he wants. I think we have an answer."
"We just leave him here?" Shane lowered his voice to talk to Rick, but Miri could hear since she was right next to Rick. "We take off." He shook his head. "Man, I don't think I could live with that."
"It's not your call." Lori stepped forward. "Either one of you."
"She's right." Miri placed her hands in her back pockets. "Jim said he wanted to do this, so we give him his wish."
Rick and Shane walked into the RV to get Jim as Lori, Carol and Miri got the kids so they could say bye to Jim. The guys came out with Jim and placed him against a tree on top of small hill.
"Hey…" Jim gasped deep breath as he looked up. "Look, another damn tree." He chuckled weakly.
"Hey, Jim." Shane's voice was raspy. "You know it doesn't have to be this."
"No." the pain in his voice shattered everyone's hearts. "It's good. The breeze feels nice."
"Okay." Shane sighed. "Alright." He stepped back and Jacqui knelt down next to Jim.
"Just close your eyes, sweetie." She told him softly as he closed his eyes. She moved forward to kiss his cheek. She got up and walked away, tears in her eyes and her heart heavy.
Rick walked forward now. "Jim, do you want this?" Rick showed him a gun.
"No." Jim weakly shook his head. "You'll need it." Rick put the gun away. "I'm okay." He told him as he stood up.
Dale walked up to Jim now. "Thanks for fighting for us."
Jim nodded and Miri walked up to him as Dale left. "I'm sorry I never go to really know you." Her lips trembled. "I bet you are a wonderful man."
He smiled. "It's okay." He started to cough. "I think everyone should go… I don't have long..." She nodded and followed everyone to their cars.
Shane came up to her with a shiny wrapped item. "Here, I found some of these in the gas station." She took it from him. "I gotta go and give some to the rest of the kids."
It was a milk and cereal honey nut cheerios bar. "Thank you so much, Shane." She quickly opened it and handed it to Alice in the back. "Here, eat this." She took it from Miri's hands and started to slowly nibble on it.
"She finally eatin'?"
She turned to see Daryl with his crossbow. He was watching Alice eat before looking at her. She nodded. "Finally." she reached for her necklace, remembering how grateful she was that it was safe. "Listen, Daryl, I wanted to thank you again for fixing it." she squeezed it to make sure the rings were really there. "This necklace means so much to me."
Daryl nodded and left when he saw Shane walking towards them.
When they got into the Jeep, Shane asked her. "Why was Daryl talking to you?" he sounded annoyed, not liking the fact she was willing talking to some trailer trash.
"I was thanking him for fixing my necklace." She started to play with the loose pieces of hair that wasn't in the bun as they drove by Jim, watching him until he disappeared from sight from the side mirror.