Chapter 3
BPOV
Have some faith?! Really Alice… these people sound crazier all the time; but never bet against Alice. My eyes tear up a little as I think of the familiar phrase so often used by the Cullen's, but now is no time to break down. Apparently I have at least one life to save today. After putting my car in the garage and hiding my main pack, I take the smaller one and set off to go hunting. I pulled out the map and found where Ali had marked the quarry. It shouldn't take me too long to reach the camp to scope it out and find my post. I want to be able to check these people out myself since eventually I'll be joining them at one point… Geezz these people already give me anxiety and I don't even know them yet; I might as well just start popping Xanax now to prepare myself.
Eventually, I happen onto a trail that seems to be pretty fresh and from there I proceed with caution until I reach the very outer edge of camp. I can see the RV and people roaming about, but none of them look overly concerned… No wonder Alice sent me here, they don't seem to be worried about the zombies at all up here. The kids are just running around with no adult nearby nor are they armed. Not even a knife on them, they are just defenseless. These people aren't just crazy, but they are very reckless. Skirting around the camp, being very careful to avoid being seen or make any contact, I find the tree I am supposed to take watch in. It looks to have been a deer stand at one point, now half rotted but it'll do. After getting settled the best I could, making sure not to fall and break my ass in the process, I try to identify this Shane person. From what Ali said he is an asshole, so he shouldn't be too hard to find. An hour later, I'm pretty sure I have him pegged. He's wearing a gray t-shirt and everyone seems to come to him to ask something or whatnot at some point. He is clearly the man in charge here right now, and also not an opponent to underestimate it seems. Call it a hunch, but he's had some form of training at some point or another, it's just in the way he carries himself. When nightfall comes, they pretty much light a damn bon fire right in the middle of camp… why not just ring the fucking dinner bell while you're at it… There are two blondes I am keeping an eye on at the fire; Amy has to be one of them. So far it's been pretty easy as they have stayed together, until now when one get up and heads for the RV. I can hear the dead moving about in the brush around the woods and it's starting to freak me out a little. It is a lot of them… I ready my bow and nock an arrow, wondering just how important this Amy person is to risk my ass getting caught up in this mess. Like Shane doesn't sound bad enough on his own, now the dead are milling about heading right for the big ass beacon they've lit in the middle of camp.
The RV door opens and a zombie almost chows down on Amy's arm. I make my one shot count as it flies right in front of her face right though its eye socket. It goes down like a sack of flour and she falls back into the RV. The other blonde comes to her aid and I know that's my queue to hit the road, or trail I should say. As I am leaving in the middle of the chaos, I see headlights coming from the road. The others must be returning; just like Ali said, they would've been too late. I pick up the pace, getting as far from their camp as possible, putting down some of the dead along the way. I stop about halfway back to go ahead and prepare my rabbit as fast as I could. I don't want any reason for the dead to come any closer to where I'm staying; and having bloody rabbit entrails lying around isn't very smart. Remembering the two walkers around the side of the garage, I take them out and go into the loft apartment above the garage. It's actually a pretty nice place, with not to many windows, and gas stove that still works. I cook my rabbit and save the rest that I don't finish for tomorrow; one thing I have to say about the apocalypse is I have a stomach made of frickin cast iron now. I once ate a rare burger and got sick for like a week, but I guess when your body is taking whatever protein it can get, it isn't picky. Eating food that's a day old like that rabbit I wrapped in some foil, no problem. Sleep doesn't come easy for me; even if Alice said it would be safe, I was still scared. She said I would be tracked; I took comfort in the fact that they should be a little more preoccupied right now with what just happened at their camp and tracking is better left till morning anyway.
Early that morning I was up and going like I had ten cups of coffee, even though I felt like shit for getting even less sleep than normal. I quickly packed my gear and cleared out the house of the things I thought I might need, like food, more meds, some extra blankets/pillows, a pot and a skillet. She said I was staying for a while and I wanted to be prepared. After packing the car as fast as I could I took off. I could've sworn I saw someone far back in the woods as I rounded a corner but I'm not 100% and I wasn't sticking around to find out. The map had several back roads marked that took me near a town called Senoia. Keeping Ali's warning in mind, I didn't even think about venturing through town for more supplies. I siphoned some gas to top the tank off along the way just to be on the safe side. After about 4 hours of bumpy back roads, I found the road I was looking for. If you could really call it a road; it was really washed out and grown over, which seemed like a good sign to me. No one had been this way for a long while.
Back At the Quarry
"Hey Dixon! You got a pink fetish we don't know about?" Shane asked as he tossed the arrow to Daryl's feet and walked off. Daryl, scowling at Shane's back as he walked off, picked it up and looked it over knowing it wasn't one of his. Rick walked up and gave him a questioning look. "Ain't mine" was all Daryl had to say. Rick's brows rose as he set off to ask about who had shot it and got a story from Amy that had him baffled. "It came out of nowhere and killed that walker that was about to get me; whoever shot it saved me." Rick kept asking questions as Daryl went to help with the pile of walkers in camp all while thinking about what he heard. Why someone would do that and not make themselves known; they could still be out there somewhere in the darkness watching them. It was the same type of arrow from the rooftop where Merle was supposed to be and Daryl wanted some answers. He made a quick round outside of the camp to see if he could find any signs of someone but came up empty in the dark. He'd set out in the morning to find this person, and he'd get the answers he wanted one way or another.