Chapter 16

BPOV

The past week had been pretty busy. We had cleared the yard at the prison and started to reinforce the fence. Pens were being built for the animals that we are supposed to bring over in the next few days. Later today we are going to start clearing out the inside of C block and then go from there, but before that Daryl and I go hunting. We made a pretty good team to feed as many people as there were in the group. The first couple of days we kept running into each other and just decided to hunt together. He had started to talk a little more to me and even told me a story about him being lost in the woods for 9 days as a kid. As badly as I wanted to feel for Daryl ever being in that situation to begin with, I know he wouldn't want me to feel pity for him. So when he talked about the part of wiping his ass with poison oak, I laughed a little. As horrible as it was, I bet he double checked everything he wiped with since then.

He never talked about anything too personal and neither did I. Hunting with him was the highlight of my day though, even if we didn't really talk about anything. I learned a few things I didn't know before about traps and tracking, and I think he was slightly impressed with how much I already knew. We had developed a pattern. If there were two squirrels on a tree, he would shoot high and I would shoot low; Two rabbits, he would shoot right and I would shoot left. Today our prize was a feast for the group. We had tracked a deer for most of our morning and came upon it near a small creek. We both lifted our bows at the same time, I shot for the lungs and he shot for the heart. The deer dropped where it stood, keeping us from having to track it again. Daryl had told me about the deer that the dead ones had eaten when he took too long to track it by the quarry so I was happy we wouldn't run the risk of wasting our kill to the dead ones.

The longer I was around, the less the group had stared. Some of them had even been pretty nice to me, offering to get me another car after learning Lori wrecked mine, but I waved them off for now. Glenn and Amy were the only two that I felt I could trust besides Rick, Sofia, Carol, and Daryl. Andrea had tried to apologize for the way she acted, but it was too late for me. I accepted but there was no way we were going to be buddy buddy after that shit. I felt like she would be one turn from stabbing me in the back. Since I wouldn't make nice with Andrea, that kept Dale and T-dog at a distance as well. Beth had just started to come out of the house again, her every move being watched by Maggie; Well that is when Maggie wasn't taking a roll in the hay with Glenn, but Beth still didn't approach me. She would smile and slightly wave then look to the ground. I couldn't force her to learn so I just had to wait.

Shane had all but dropped off the radar. He was teaching some people to shoot which was good, but he was definitely up to something. The only time I even noticed him was when I would catch him and Rick arguing about Randall. Aw yes, Randall, a thorn in my side. I had talked to Rick about him and told him what I know, but he was still hesitant to kill him. Which I understood I guess, it was probably hard to kill someone in what seemed to be cold blood, but I sure as hell wasn't going to be some kind of sex slave for the weirdo's in his group. I couldn't kill him either; I would be suspect number 1, well number 2 actually, right up there with Shane. So unless they were going to release him, I wouldn't step in for now.

When we arrived back at camp, everyone hooted and hollered about getting some meat on their bones while Daryl strung up the deer. I stayed and helped with what I could and learned things that would make it easier for me if I had the need to kill such big pray. I had never had the need to kill anything so big before with it just being myself most of the time. It was basically the same process but just bigger. Daryl didn't say anything about me standing around watching, but I noticed his glances at me. I also noticed that no one else came over to help; only Carol and Sofia came to collect the meat to cook for the group. I thought other people would want to learn a skill that they could use in this new world, but no one even seemed remotely interested, well except for waiting for their plate to be ready. "Do they always wait for you to do all the dirty work?" I asked Daryl. He just shrugged one shoulder and kept on doing his thing.

After the late breakfast of venison and eggs was served, a group headed to the prison. Hershel came along this time to check out everything before he consented to moving the animals in the next couple of days. Cleaning out C-block was not as difficult as I thought it would be, so we had decided after resting for a bit we would continue on to try and find the mess hall to see what supplies would still be good. Remembering Alice's warning, I stepped outside and pulled some of the riot gear off the dead. Hershel was lounging on a clean bunk seemingly lost in his own world when I took his leg and started duct taping the riot gear over his boots and pants. He said nothing but I could feel his questioning gaze burning a hole in the side of my head. I went ahead and did his forearms as well just to be thorough.

Rick took the lead of the group as we all turned on our flashlights and stepped through the door. I'm not saying that I am afraid of the dark but this was beyond terrifying. You could hear to the moans and groans through the darkness; the dead bumping into the walls as it echoed down the hall. It seemed more like the video games Emmett used to play where the enemy just pops out of the darkness to kill you. I saddled up next to Daryl as we stepped through, not missing the questioning glance he sent me. I slightly shook my head and raised my knife trying to control my breathing.

The rest was a heart stopping blur; a zombie would pop into your beam of light and you would stab it. It continued like this until we reached a hall with too many of them; Maggie and Glenn were separated from the rest as we tried to find a safe place. We went to search for them after the dead had moved on, Hershel calling out for them quietly. When they finally came around a corner, what appeared to be a dead zombie up against the wall grabbed Hershel's leg and clamped its jaws around it. The gear did what it was supposed to do and kept him from being bitten. As he stabbed it in the head, his gaze shot to me, as did Rick's, Daryl's, and Glenn's; T-dog and Maggie were oblivious. I looked to the doors ahead of us, avoiding their looks. They stepped forward to open the doors just as a group of the dead came around a corner. We rushed into the cafeteria and blocked the doors.

The smell of bleach burned my nose as the cleanliness of the room caught my eye. Then I remembered the people that were alive in here. I quickly pulled Rick aside and told him that there were people somewhere in this room, warning him that one of them was slightly off the rails. He once again gave me a look, and I responded by rolling my eyes and waving my arm to gesture the room. He sighed and stood up with his gun drawn, everyone else following his movement "I know you're in here, come out and talk with us or we'll leave you trapped in here once more." Slowly one by one, men started to rise up from behind a counter, staring at us like we were some kind of gods.

I know it's been awhile! Life has been hectic, but now things are calming down again. I hope to get back into the groove of updating ever 3 days or so. This isn't the longest chapter, I've been trying to get past some writer's block. Thank you for the reviews, you all are great! I'm going to finish this story, don't worry!!