Chapter 10:

Bree – "Scared of Others"

Merle's finger is on the trigger. His pale, chapped lips crack into a strangely excited grin after he spits off to the side.

"So?" he asks while his blue eyes slither over my terrified face. "What's the verdict on our little forest Walker? Was she hiding bites?"

The women surround Merle in a heartbeat, forcing him to take a few steps away from where I've been petrified by fear.

"Merle, what the hell is wrong with you?" Andrea yells. She's not afraid to get right in his face, almost nose to nose.

"Put that thing away!" Even meek Carol is upset.

Suddenly, the gun is knocked out of Merle's hands and lands with a thud a few feet away from us. All eyes are trained on the gun. I stare at the weapon, thanking God that it didn't go off. My hand flutters to my chest. My heart is beating double-time.

"Merle, we do not point weapons at each other here." Shane, having been the one to knock the loaded gun away, stands in between Merle and I. The two men stare each other down for so long that nervousness is literally eating me up alive. These two are obviously in some sort of power struggle, one always having to be the one to come out on top.

Finally, Merle backs off. He takes two steps away from Shane, hands raised in a "harmless" sort of way. A twisted, sardonic smile is carved across his thin lips.

"No need to get worked up, Deputy-boy-toy," Merle says, still grinning like he thinks almost blowing my head off to be the funniest thing in the world. "Didn't mean her nooo harm, none at'tall. Just tryin' to keep our group safe. That's what you asked me to do, wasn't it?"

Shane's steely glare doesn't soften, not for a moment. "Just watch yourself, Dixon."

Merle's eyebrow quirks upwards and the corner of his mouth twitches with laughter, but he doesn't say a word.

Shane turns around to face me. I'm glad to see the anger that was pulsating in his hazel-colored eyes has faded away. He shifts his gaze over to Lori. It seems like she's second-in-command here, at least in Shane's eyes.

"So, what's the verdict, ladies?" he asks.

Lori smiles. "She's clean. No bitemarks whatsoever. As healthy as any teenager could be, just needs to get cleaned up and get some food into her."

A collective sigh of relief flows through the camp and I suddenly go from rabid outsider to poor, interesting orphan in just a matter of seconds. People crowd around me, asking questions, demanding answers, and completely destroying the meaning of "personal space".

"Welcome to our camp," Baseball-Cap grunts as he manages to break through the crowd. At this range, I can see just how young he is. He can't be much older than me, twenty-three, max. He's got a friendly face beneath his head of jet-black hair and a nice smile that shows his top row of pearly-whites. "I'm Glenn, nice to meet ya!" He extends his clean hand for me to shake.

I look down at my own grungy hand, smeared with dirt, blood, and God knows what else, then offer up a bashful smile.

"Sorry, I'm a mess right now. I've been in the woods for a long, long time. I probably smell and look completely gross right now."

"What were you doing out there alone?" There goes the question I've been dreading since I first laid eyes on Dale and Merle in the woods. A short, squat man with broad shoulders, a micro goatee, and a mean set of black brows is the one who asks this. He watches me carefully but he doesn't seem hostile, like Merle. Just curious.

The rest of the crowd has fallen silent as they wait for me to answer his question. My dry tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. I swallow and force myself to keep eye contact with the man who asked the question.

"I was separated from my family when a horde of monsters swept through our neighborhood," I lie, making sure to keep a straight face. "I've been wandering around, looking for them since that day."

They don't need to know about Sanctuary. They don't need to know about Negan.

"Poor thing," I hear Amy murmur.

Shane claps his hand down on my shoulder and gives me an encouraging smile.

"We all know what you're going through. We've all lost a friend, family member, or loved one here," he explains. Then, he smiles. "Since we have you on the spot, why don't you introduce yourself to everyone?"

Great. It feels like I'm about to give a presentation in high school, except it's ten times worse, since these people were contemplating my death just moments ago, and could possibly still be.

I look around at the sea of faces that surround me and clear my throat. "My name is Ava Evans," I begin. The name still feels false on my tongue but I hope no one notices the little furrow in my brow when I say the name. "I'm originally from…" I pause for a fraction of second to rack my brain for cities in Georgia. "…Savannah. But, like I said, I had to leave once the monsters showed up. I was in the forest for days when Dale and Merle found me."

"Why didn't you want to come back here with us? You seemed so scared." Dale asks another question I've been dreading.

I bite down on the inside of my lip. "I've learned not to trust strangers I meet in the woods," I say.

The worry lines in Dale's forehead deepen. "Smart girl. You never know what weirdos you might find out there nowadays."

I think of Negan, of loyal Lucille swinging by his side, of a Sanctuary that was actually a disguised boot camp.

"Yeah," I agree. "Exactly."

Dale studies my face, as though he notices something about me for the first time, but seems to bite his tongue on whatever the realization might have been. Instead, he smiles and says, "I think I can say that we're all glad you're safe and, quite literally, out of the woods now, even if the process of getting here wasn't a very nice or wise one." He gives Merle a stern glare, but Merle isn't paying attention. He's too busy sizing Shane up and rubbing at the stubble on his own wide jaw. He's moved back to his position beside the squirrel-skinning guy who still hasn't said a word. Judging by his frown and the harsh movements of his increasingly bloodied knife, he's just as pissed off at me being here as Merle is. There's something about Merle and that guy (let's just call him Squirrel Man for now, for lack of a real name) that just seems… different to me. I've noticed that they seem to keep their distance from the rest of the camp members, like they aren't really part of the camp.

After scrutinizing the two defensive men, I look back to Dale and nod. "No hard feelings," I lie. The back of my head is still throbbing. There are plenty of hard feelings towards Merle Dixon, with that dirty mouth of his and big, balding head. But as much as I want to give him a piece of my mind for bashing me in the back of my head like I was some type of criminal, I won't. I don't want to give anyone here any reason to think I'm threatening and decide to keep an even closer eye on me. That would make it that much harder to get the heck out of this place.

"So, uh…," I look around at all of the people surrounding me and rub at my goosebump-ridden arms. "It was nice meeting you all but I should really get back on my way…."

I shift from foot to foot when everyone starts to give each other confused looks.

Andrea steps out of the crowd, head tilted to the side, her loose blonde ponytail hanging above her shoulder.

"You don't want to stay, kid?" she asks. "We've got plenty of room here. I know we're not the best-looking bunch of people but it's safer being with a group than out there in those God-forsaken woods."

I blink at Andrea in shock. I wasn't expecting her to want me to stay, not after how she was treating me earlier. After a moment, my eyes drop back to the ground and I slowly shake my head. "I-I really couldn't stay," I say. "I need to head to Florida to find my family and I… Well, I'm just not looking to stay in one place. Thank you for offering, though."

"You can't just go back there into the woods, all by yourself!" Dale insists. He looks around the group for some support and receives a couple replies of agreement. He looks back to me, eyes squinted with worry. "Yes, your family could be out there but you might not be able to find them on your own! We can help you!"

I can feel myself caving at Dale's heartfelt words. This man doesn't even know me yet he wants to help me find my family? Maybe I was wrong, maybe there are some good people left after all. Maybe I don't have to do this alone.

The corners of my mouth start to quirk upwards a bit and Dale stares at me, silently urging me to respond.

"Who says we're gonna help her?"

Merle Dixon suddenly shoves himself into the gap of space where I stand surrounded by the rest of his camp. He saunters slowly up to me then swirls around to look at the others.

"She ain't no friend of mine! I don't know if you all have went temporarily blind or are just dumb as hell but the dang mother of all apocalypses is happenin'!" Merle continues, while spreading his arms out wide. "We gotta look out for our own! Make sure we're taken care of!" He draws his arms down and pounds his hands against his chest." We don't got time to go lookin' for little Bo Peep's family of lost sheep. Hell, they could be dead for all we know!"

I swallow. It takes everything in me to hold back the tears his words bring to my eyes. I can feel my hands shaking so I draw them to my sides and take a deep breath.

"They aren't dead!" I yell back. "I know my family is alive and I don't need anyone's help in finding them!"

I bump past Merle, who immediately starts slinging a slew of derogatory names my way, but I ignore him as I storm towards the giant tent I'd been tied up in earlier.

I find my backpack resting near the back of the tent. I snatch it up, exit the tent, and start marching right towards the woods, pretending not to notice the upset look on the campers' faces.

"We can't just let her go running back off to the woods! She knows our location now, man!" I hear Merle yelling behind me. "What if she tells somebody about us? We could be gettin' swarmed by her people in no time at all and all of our food, clean water, and everything else is gonna be gone!"

I don't even look back. Anger keeps pushing my feet to carry me further and further down the hill where their camp is located and closer and closer to the forest down below. I can already feel the slightest bit of trepidation trickling in though; I have no food, no water…. I don't know how I'll survive out here. But I'm too angry to listen, too scared of people to turn back. I keep going.

Suddenly, I hear footsteps coming behind me and the hair on the back of my neck stands straight up. Not again…. I refuse to let that redneck touch me again.

I whip around to face Merle, my knife already drawn. But instead of Merle, I see that it was Shane who came after me. The tall, tan man looks down at my knife, then back up to me. He doesn't seem scared of the knife, not at all, but he raises both hands a little, anyway.

He heaves a sigh. "Look, I didn't come down here to hurt you, alright? Please lower your knife, Ava."

I keep my knife raised. "I won't hurt you either, but I'm going to continue from here on my own. You all seem like a good group of people, but I… I really just can't handle being around other people right now." My voice cracks at the end of my sentence and I feel the back of my throat burning, a sure sign that tears were on the way.

Shane nods his head, and I can tell he understands how I feel, even if it's just by a little.

"Now you can leave, ain't no one here gonna stop someone from making their own choices," he relents. "But I just came down to offer you the chance to at least stay the night here with us. Let's be honest: I looked through your bag and you don't have a thing in there that's going to help you survive against the elements or the Walkers."

It takes me a moment to realize that by Walkers, he means Puppets. Embarrassed and defeated by his logic, I grab the straps of my backpack and pull them forward but refuse to meet this cop's eyes.

"I'll survive," I hope out loud.

"No, you won't," Shane disagrees. "You won't last more than a couple of days out there. At least consider staying with us tonight, let us give you some food and water and then, in the morning, we'll point you in the right direction to Florida. That's where you're from, isn't it? Not Savannah."

I open my mouth to lie but close it quickly. Crap, I had accidentally blurted out that my family was in Florida, hadn't I? After a moment of hesitation, I look up at Shane and give a quick nod.

"Then let us point you in the right direction to Florida in the morning. You'll do much better out there after resting up here."

I study his face, trying to find something there that will tell me he's lying, that he has ulterior motives. I find nothing but the face of an honest man who wants to help.

I decide to let my hackles drop. I put away my knife and nod.

"Okay," I say. "Thank you."

Shane lowers his hands and nods back, seeming a little relieved. "Thank you for letting us help you out, Ava," he says. "With the way the world is now, we need to look out for one another."

He approaches me with a smile which I timidly reciprocate. He puts his hand on my shoulder and starts walking with me back up the hill to where the rest of the camp awaits. I keep my eyes on the dirt and grass instead of the camp members as we arrive back to their safe site.

"Oh, thank God," I hear Dale say.

"She gonna stay?" Merle asks.

"Just for tonight," Shane explains from his position by my side. "She's got a long trip ahead of her so we're going to take her in tonight, gather her up some food and water make sure she gets plenty of rest."

I keep my eyes on the ground as he talks, refusing to meet any of their eyes. I'm glad Shane's doing all of the talking. I couldn't speak right now, even if I wanted to. My throat is clammed up by fear and my hands are shaking so badly that I have to fold my arms to keep anyone else from seeing just how afraid I am.

"Well, that's all fine and dandy!" Merle snaps. "Let's take the poor little innocent stranger in, give her some of our supplies, then pat her on the back and send her off into the forest so she can get her buddies to come back and steal the rest of our supplies! Bulls***!"

"It's not gonna to be that way, Dixon," Shane argues. His voice is still calm, still assertive, but I can tell there's an edge there now, most definitely caused by the loudmouth of the group. "I'm getting tired of you running your mouth like you know s*** about how to run this camp. I started it up and I'm gonna be the one to take care of it. She's staying the night. That's final."

It's gone so silent around the camp that it gets too unnerving to not have my eyes on the action. I peel my focus off of the ground and glance between Shane and Merle, who seem to be having some sort of eye war against one another. If eyes could speak, I'd be running for cover from either one of these deadly stares. Everyone in the camp is watching in pure silence. I see some of the men shuffling closer to the two, ready to jump in if anything does pop off. Squirrel Man strides up beside Merle and aims his own cold glare at Shane, clearly picking a side if a fight were to start.

Thankfully, Shane breaks the tension by looking back down at me. "Ignore Dixon. Apparently, no one ever taught him any manners growing up," he jokes. This causes the rest of the camp to chuckle lightly and some of the tension lifts away from the circle of people. I grin at Shane and he smirks and gives a quick wink in my direction.

I think I'm actually going to like this Shane guy.

"Can someone get some food into our guest?" Shane says after turning his attention back to the camp.

"I can heat you up a thing of biscuits and gravy," Carol says, stepping up to me. She gives me a tight but genuine smile. There's a little girl standing beside her. She's hugging tightly to Carol and looking shyly up at me. I give the girl and her mother a smile.

"Thank you," I say, returning her smile. "I'd love that."

Carol's smile becomes a little less tight and she nods her head towards the small fire that's been burning nearby.

"This way," she softly says.

Seeing that I'm being taken care of, Shane nods at me and then walks back towards what had to be his tent, the large white one I was held in. He steps past Merle, who still hasn't removed his narrowed, angry blue gaze from the cop. Once Shane moves past him, Merle laughs once and then lifts his eyes to catch me staring at him. A chill goes down my spine when, instead of cursing at me like I expect, a wry, dangerous grin spreads over his mouth. He and Squirrel Man take off down the hill, heading back towards the woods, and leaving the rest of the camp behind.

Thanks for reading and thank you to all who have reviewed, fav'd, and followed during my hiatus! I feel incredibly guilty for not updating this in so long but I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I enjoyed reading your reviews while I took a break from fanfiction for a while. You guys are awesome ^^