Thank you all for reading. I didn't get much feedback from the last chapter, so I really hope to hear from my viewers this time around. Also, be sure to check out my other story where it shares the same premise expect in that one, Rick is married to Lori like in the show. ;D
Ah, how relieving it was to have my own car. Finally, something that belongs to me. Now, I know that I'll probably have to share it with the rest of the group, but still, it's mine.
We were nearing Atlanta, and I was pretty careless about attracting walkers to us, because the only thing my mind was set on was getting my gun and my bag back. It was also pretty entertaining to see the poor look on Glenn's face the whole time too. I could tell he was antsy on getting back and driving himself and the others in the van we left behind in Atlanta.
As soon as I pulled into the city, I looked over my shoulder to see how Daryl and T-Dog were holding up with my reckless driving (least I'm willing to admit I'm an awful driver). I looked over to Rick and he asked me if I was alright, "Yeah, just making sure everyone's still alive." I replied with a grin on my face.
On the way out of the city, I stopped where we parked for everyone who wanted to get in the box truck to get out, but there was something a little weird. It had to have been my memory because I drove to where I thought it was dropped off but it just wasn't there. I heard a light tap on the window behind me, probably from Daryl trying to tell me to stop, but I continued to cruise around the block where the box truck had been before. No, it couldn't have been my memory, I knew for sure we parked there.
"…what the fuck," I muttered under my breath before stopping the car, "Is this the right spot guys? I'm pretty sure we left it here." I heard Daryl and T-Dog jump out the back to walk around the area some more, but they'd probably end up just as confused as the three of us were.
"W-we did," Glenn agreed in a shaky voice, "We left it right here! Who could've stolen it?"
"Merle." Rick answered with a scowl.
"You, you think he's headed back to camp?" I asked, tightening my grip on the steering wheel.
"Son of a bitch!" He exclaimed, slamming his palm on the dashboard.
"We can make it back in time, Rick." I assured him and honked my horn. I was aware it probably wasn't that smart to do, but I needed to get T-Dog and Daryl back in the car as soon as possible. When they heard the honk, they returned with dirty looks on their faces, but I motioned for them to get in the back and we took off.
We surprisingly made it back before dark, and after checking all of camp for any signs of Merle, we finally were able to settle down for the rest of the day. I had to admit I was giddy as hell, I had my gun, my belongings, my car, the group was safe and I could finally sit down. If only I had a beer and a naked man in the tent waiting for me.
I went back to my tent to briefly go through my belongings while the guys told the rest of the group what happened back there in Atlanta – though they probably left out the whole situation with Guillermo, for good reason too. I didn't think it would go over smoothly with Shane or anyone else for that matter if they knew that Rick gave nearly half of the guns to those guys, but whatever, I agreed with the decision even though I am all for every man for themselves.
I overhead some chatter between Lori, Carol and Andrea, what sounded like mainly just comfort from Lori. Andrea said something along the lines of it not being her fault earlier and that now was her opportunity to finally get out of her relationship with Ed to keep her and Sophia safe; I suppose we missed a lot when we were out and about. I quickly lost interest though and continued inspecting my bag.
When everything was in place, I decided to rest my head on the rolled up sleeping bag for a bit. I was feeling a little lightheaded, probably from not having eaten much earlier before we headed out. It was one of those weird feelings where you're kind of hungry but you don't really want to make the effort of doing something about it so you just wait until your stomach grumbles and your friends or family nag at you to eat, yeah I know that's also called laziness but same difference.
I heard Carol call out that dinner would be ready in about an hour or so, which gave me enough time to just sit back, relax, and not have to listen to or deal with anyone's shit.
I didn't get much rest, since Rick came into the tent just as I was drifting off to sleep. He kept apologizing, but I kept assuring him it was fine since I wouldn't have gotten much sleep in an hour anyways.
He sat next to me on the small sleeping bag and wrapped his arm around me, "I'm glad you came today, you helped a lot."
I shrugged, "Just trying to pull my weight, that's all." I scooted closer and nuzzled against his neck a bit, "I feel like I haven't even asked how you're doing, Rick."
He gave me a small squeeze that made my chest feel warm, "I think things are starting to look up now, but I don't want to get my hopes up too high."
I nodded my head in response, "Yeah, tell me about it. We can never get too comfortable in this kind of world."
Rick leaned back and lay down, "But it is nice to relax for a bit," he yawned, "come lay with me, Belle."
That had a nice ring to it coming from him, even though I always hated being called that nickname through middle school and high school.
I rested my head on his chest and we remained there, enjoying the silence while we could. I could feel his heart beating and the slow rhythm was beginning to make me fall asleep, as if I were being cradled like a baby.
My lids felt heavy when he asked me something I didn't quite hear well the first time. I groaned in response and he chuckled, then repeated himself, "What do you miss the most?"
I was too tired to come up with a logical response, so I blurted out what came to mind, "Mmm…pizza." My legs felt cramped and I scooted away to stretch, which was a huge relief for my aching muscles. I propped myself up on my elbows, "How about you?"
"Honestly? Probably my job. It was something to keep me busy. I really enjoyed it, gave my life meaning by helping people out and keeping the city safe."
I laughed and rolled my eyes, "That sounds like such a typical propaganda response!" I playfully nudged him with my elbow, "Come on Rick, be actually honest with me."
He furrowed his eyebrows together as if he was offended, and my grin slowly slipped into a frown when I realized he wasn't messing around. I was about to apologize, but he cut me off, "Beer." He laughed at my expression and grabbed my hand in an affectionate manner; I was relieved and laughed with him.
"I'm going to have to agree too, actually." I smiled before giving him a small kiss. "You think we'd be able to find any around here?" I asked after pulling away and resting my head on his chest like before.
"It'd be nice if we did." He lightly ran his fingers through my hair, which felt very assuring, sweet, and relaxing.
"Sure would." I quietly agreed.
I closed my eyes again for a brief moment, might as well have tried to catch some z's while I could. Especially in such a comfortable position.
"You make me feel safe, Rick." I mumbled before drifting off to sleep. Hopefully he caught what I said and if not, well I won't lose sleep over it. I'll have many more opportunities in the future.
Someone shook me awake, "Belle, it's time to eat."
I groaned and shook off their hand on my shoulder, "Not hungry."
"Come on." Rick persisted.
Mumbling profanities to myself, I finally pulled myself up to join him, "Fine, but I'm going to give you dirty looks the whole time."
He laughed, "Come on," he repeated, "you need to eat. I don't think I saw you eat today and you're getting thinner."
"I need to lose the weight anyways." I muttered as I joined him to the campfire.
It was more or less the same dinner we had the night before, squirrel, which I didn't mind too much. Anything was better than stale cereal without milk. The group didn't touch much of the canned food either, and for good reason, it was in case we had to leave the camp in an emergency.
It was only my second night with the group, but it felt like I'd been around since the beginning. I was really starting to appreciate how much they'd done to make me feel like I'm a part of the group. They all asked more about our trip to Atlanta, as well as continuing the discussion from last night about our previous lives. While Morales was talking about his younger days and how he met his wife, I took a quick head count and noticed some people were missing, notably Ed and Jim. That's odd, I recalled hearing from Dale the night prior that Jim enjoyed hanging out with the group, didn't hear the same thing about Ed but I couldn't give a shit about his whereabouts, from what I heard earlier I was glad he was away from Sophia and Carol.
When Morales finished speaking I asked the group about Jim, where they all fell silent. Shane looked at me and answered for everyone but with a curt reply, "Jim's tired, couldn't make it out tonight." He returned to eating and I didn't exactly buy his answer but it was still something. I kept eye contact with Shane, "Right…well, should someone check on him? I'm sure he wouldn't want to miss dinner with us."
Before I could stand, Shane glared, "He's tired, Isabelle. Sit down and enjoy dinner with the rest of us." Rick stayed out, thankfully, and everyone waited for me to say something.
I didn't like the answer, but I wasn't going to push it. "Alrighty then.." I said before sitting back down to finish eating. Eventually the group would see that Shane wasn't exactly the best example of a leader, something about him just didn't sit right with me.
I chewed on the tender squirrel while the rest of the group resumed discussion, Rick and Shane shared some police stories, I noticed Carl and Sophia share some squirrel which was adorable, Lori and Carol shared laughs, and Morales teased Dale for his watch.
"Time is important to keep track of, the days at least." He defended his winding watch habit before nudging Andrea, "Back me up here, Andrea." She laughed in response, "I don't know you, Dale." She joked before going back to eating.
He laughed in disbelief, "I can't be the only one who thinks it's pretty important."
I spoke up, "No, you have a point Dale. I thought I was the only one, honestly." I gave him a smile and the rest of the group laughed at us.
He shared a very interesting story about a father giving his son a watch, and I was actually really interested in hearing his reasoning for keeping track of the time. I assumed the same for the rest of the group, until after when it grew silent Amy told Dale he was "so weird".
We all shared a good laugh after that and continued to tease Dale for his bad paraphrasing of Faulkner.
I stepped away from the group when I was done eating for a smoke and my gun. I hadn't had it by me for a while and I felt pretty naked without it. Reaching in the tent, I grabbed a lighter I left in there the day before and the pack of cigarettes from the truck since I didn't want to waste the ones Jane left me.
I sat cross legged and placed a cigarette between my lips, then lit it. As bad as it was, it still felt oddly relaxing and like I said before, I'd come to the realization that I wasn't going to live long out here so might as well enjoy the hedonist lifestyle.
I finished the last drags of the cigarette before stomping it out on the ground when I heard some rustling over by Dale's RV. Before I could get there to investigate, I heard Amy's screams followed by the familiar hisses of walkers.
Son of a bitch.
I pulled my gun out and kept it in front of me, hoping the rest of the group heard the same thing, which they did since all I could hear now was a bunch of gunshots. Andrea ran to her sister on the ground and I couldn't see her condition, but I knew she was bit. Quickly, I took out the two walkers coming up from behind Andrea and the other one roaming around the RV. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jim run and smash his wooden bat into one of the walker's skulls before I could get it, sending brain matter across the ground. I took out another one behind him and ran to him.
"Jim, could you stay here and protect her?"
He nodded and I moved through the camp to take care of the other walkers stumbling into camp. I didn't have much ammo on me, probably around twelve bullets left in my clip so I had to make use of them the best I could.
I tried my best to follow the screams in the camp and help as many as I could, but I was too late for some. I couldn't recall her name, but I kicked off the walker tearing through her torso and pulling out her innards. I angrily stomped its head in so I didn't have to waste a bullet and leaned down next to her. She was going to die soon from blood loss and shock, and I wanted to make sure she wouldn't die alone.
I grabbed her hand firmly and kept her talking, "Hey, what's your name?" I tried to lighten the mood, "Sorry, I'm a bit of a dumbass and forgot."
She laughed weakly in response, "Aleesha, and it- it's okay." Aleesha tried to look down at her torso but I held her chin up to keep her looking at me. Her lip began to quiver and she kept her stare at me, "Am…am I going to die?"
Hold yourself together, Isabelle.
I pulled off my denim shirt and laid it on her torso, but I didn't want to lie to her. I squeezed her hand tightly, "Aleesha…it's not looking good."
"Just please stay with me." She begged while weakly keeping her grip on me.
"I will, I promise. You're safe with me." I listened briefly to hear if there were any more walkers in the area, but it seemed that they'd been cleared out. It sounded like the group had met up at the RV and was doing a head count, but I couldn't hear over Aleesha's scared whimpers.
"Shhh…shh, please, it'll be over soon." I comforted her and ran the back of my hand over her soft cheek. She was young, couldn't have been older than maybe twenty. What a fucking shame.
I heard Rick shouting my name in the background, shit – he was looking for me. I was about to stand up, because I didn't want to worry him or the rest of the group into thinking I was dead or missing but Aleesha pulled me down, too weak to say anything.
"It hurts." She said and I looked to my gun, I knew I couldn't just shoot her but I also couldn't leave her here because I had no idea how long it'd take for her to…pass.
She was eyeing the gun as well and she looked back up at me, "I don't want to hurt anymore."
"I-I don't know…" I hesitated, knowing full well it was wrong to argue with her in this situation.
"Make it quick." She pleaded. I didn't want to argue, I wanted her to die with her dignity and not because she begged for me to shoot her.
I cleared my throat and firmly grabbed my gun to press it against her forehead. She was shaking, as was I, "It'll be over soon." I assured, and pulled the trigger.
It was a quick death, and as sick as I felt, I was glad she didn't die alone. It was a shame that I just met her then though.
I pulled myself up and made my way to the RV, gun holstered and arms crossed to hide my bloody hands.
It was going to be a long day, and for the first time, I don't think I'm going to be prepared for it.
