I remember Alexis had once told me long ago invading people's privacy was wrong because everyone needs a little mystery in their life. Everyone carried deep secrets within them and in most cases those mysteries and those secrets made them who they are. I know I have my secrets and Alexis had hers.
Over the years, I had taken a liking to observing people and figuring out what types of secrets they carried with them just based on observations. I became quite good at it. Just like any other game where you can piece together clues and match evidence with observations. It's funny how I can make a game out of the most serious circumstances sometimes. Everyone copes in different ways and for me making things fun was the way to go.
It was dark out already. We had been up in the tree for about 2 hours, I tried not to get restless but it was not exactly the most comfortable position.
From where I was on the tree I could make out 9 people sitting around a small fire. It was hard to make out the full conversation from here, but they all seemed to be intrigued by what the guy on the Sheriff uniform was telling them. He was sitting with his son and wife, or at least I assumed that's what they were by the way he held them close and looked at them. I had not heard anyone mentioned their names yet. Why would someone want to wear their Sheriff uniform now. Sure, it gave him a sense of authority but I don't think he went around giving infractions or arresting people lately.
Across from them sat the guy with the big gun. I think I had heard the Sheriff call him Shane. The looks he gave the little family, did not go unnoticed by me. It was hard to put a word to it but he looked kind of conflicted like he didn't know how to feel. My observation skills allowed me to notice the quick looks the Sherriff's wife and Shane exchanged. Guilt looks maybe? It was hard to look so it could have been something else.
There was also a young Asian guy sitting next to an African American guy and an old man. Hard to tell what type of people they were but to me they were all nice people. Then again Alexis says I trust too easily.
There was also two blonde young women huddled together near the fire. One of them looked to be around our age.
Other people gathered around their own little fires but it was too dark for me to see so I began to pay attention to the conversation these people were having to see if I found out anything useful.
"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?" The old man asked. "He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind."
The African American guy said something about dropping a key and the Sherriff said something about cuffing him. The conversation was a little confusing. I don't know who Daryl Dixon is but I felt bad for him. He used to have someone waiting for him I supposed, and now he was going to come back to that person gone. What if that is all he had, like Alexis and me? A knot formed in my throat just at the thought of not having Alexis around anymore. I pushed it aside and continued listening
"We are going to have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."
"I stopped long enough to chain that door," he continued talking but all I heard was "Dixon's alive and he is still up there handcuffed on that roof." This just kept getting increasingly confusing. So, did they leave the guy's brother handcuffed to a roof? Well that wasn't very nice. I did not know what to make out of this people anymore. Where they good or bad?
After everyone seemed to have gone off to sleep, Alexis and I made our way down from the trees as carefully and quietly as we possibly could. We walked a little deeper into the woods to avoid being heard.
Out of nowhere, thunder growled loud up in the sky. I squealed and ran hugging Alexis. A few seconds later, lightning lit up the woods and the sound of thunder filled my ears again. Me and thunder just no. I did not like the sound it made like explosions up in the sky and you never knew when the next one was coming. I have never liked it and always jumped every time I heard it.
"Get off, we need to get serious right now." She pushed me away and then rain started pouring down on us. The thunder and lightning continued to fill the sky. I tried to ignore it but I just wanted to cover my ears and go hide somewhere.
Alexis continued talking. We were both soaking wet by this time. "Let's take advantage of the rain, it would be harder to see us. The guy with the big gun is on watch right now close by the tents. If we are quiet, we can look around and take any supplies they might have left scattered around."
I simply nodded as more thunder rumbled and made up a plan in my head.
"Okay you take left I take right. We go around the camp not through the middle. If we see something useful we grab it and continue to circle the camp. You saw the RV?" she nodded. "We don't get near it. It's too close to the guy keeping watch."
With the rain still pouring down we started walking towards their camp. With the thunder and the rain, we didn't have to be so careful about being quiet. Looking around I could see some water bottles laying around, a couple of unopened cans of food. I slowly approached the cans, careful and keeping an eye out on Shane who looked lost in thought from here. Putting the cans on my tote bag I kept walking around the other tents.
When I took the next step, my foot came short by what I could tell was my untied shoe laces. Just like that I came down hard into the floor and couldn't help but grunt when I hit the floor. That was all it took for Shane to be alerted about someone sneaking around the camp.
"Who's there!?" He grabbed his big gun and made his way over to this side of camp. I tried standing up but with the rain, the mud had become a slippery trap and I came down on the mud again. When I looked up I was met with Shane pointing the pointy shooting side of his big gun on my face. I felt like I wanted to cry.
With all the commotion, others had woken up and I turned around to see a man dragging Alexis by the arm as she tried to break free of his grasp.
"I caught this bastard trying to rob us of our food!" This man was not with the group I had been observing earlier. A woman and a blonde little girl were behind him.
"Ye I caught one too," Shane said as he pushed his gun closer to me. "Who are ya?"
I turned my gaze to Alexis who slowly shook her head. She didn't want me to say anything. I was scared. The rain had stopped and by now everyone was awake and surrounding us. Looking at either me or Alexis. I saw the Sheriff and his family as well as the old man.
"What should we do with these sons of bitches, Rick?" He was asking the Sheriff.
Rick came forward "Who are you two? What are your names?" he asked in a less menacing tone than Shane had. I turned my gaze the other way refusing to answer.
"Ed bring him over here." Rick motioned for Ed to bring Alexis closer. He shoved Alexis to my side. I tried to get closer to her but was stopped.
"None of you move." Shane kept pointing the gun at me.
"Glenn bring some rope. We have to tie them." Rick said. The Asian boy ran, probably to find some rope.
Rick reached for my tote bag that was on the ground and looked inside. He reached in and took out my small gun. "What were you planning to do with this? Where you going to kill one of us if it came down to that?"
I wanted to speak up and say no a million times because I had never nor would ever kill a person. The gun was for the zombies. One look from Alexis told me to not say a word. They were mad at us, they were probably going to kill us. We were going to die alone with no one that cared about us. No family waiting for us. I held back a sob as lone tears made their way down my cheeks. I know Alexis would have face palmed herself if she could. I got emotional easily. She wasn't even scared at this moment.
"Hey pussy boy why ya crying?" Ed laughed at me.
Glenn got back with some ropes. Alexis was tied down first and I didn't have the guts to do anything. At this moment, I didn't feel an ounce of confidence left in me. She didn't make it easy for them, she trashed and tossed and try to throw some punches. Maybe I should do the same.
When Shane and Rick came over to tie me I was lucky and got in a good punch in Shane's face. That only earned me a mouthful of curse words followed by a kick to the stomach that knocked the air out of me. They finished tying me down. The force of the kick knocked the hat out of my head and my curls came down over my face. I tried grasping for air but it was hard.
"Noah!" Everyone turned to look at me and then Alexis, whose high pitch yelp of my name did not sound like it came from a boy's mouth.
"Shane that was uncalled for!" Rick took a closer look at my face and then walked over to Alexis and yanked the hat out of her head. Her black hair spilled down in wet waves. He took a closer look at her then at me again.
"You are girls." Shock was written over his face. I was sure shock was written all over their faces. It had become easier to breath so I looked up at Shane.
"How does it feel knowing a girl punched you in the face?" I mocked him.
"Bitch," he started walking towards me but Rick got in the way.
"Shane stop. She is messing with your head."
"Look the fact you are girls doesn't change the fact you were stealing from us. We can't just let this go."
"Stealing is such a bad word, more like borrowing." I had found my confidence again.
"You want to be a smartass?" Shane got closer and before Rick could stop him he slapped me hard on the face.
"Shane step back." Rick's voice was filled with authority.
I could taste the blood on my lip. I looked down, I had never been slapped or kicked like that before. It hurt but I pushed the thought to the back of my head.
"So, what's going to happen to us? Are you going to kill us?" Alexis spoke and looked up to meet Rick's eyes.
"It's late. We will figure this out tomorrow. Shane and I will keep watch on you till morning." He looked around to the spectators. "Everyone else go back to bed."
Rick and Shane moved us to the middle of the camp, Shane's grip on my arm was tighter than necessary. They sat us in the ground and took a seat couple of feet away from us. I didn't like Shane and that is rare because it's hard for me not to like people.
"Hey Shane, that nose of yours, you know you could get that fixed with some plastic surgery." I tried not to laugh at my own joke. Shane just stared me down like a predator, with a calm but murderous look on his eyes.
"Shut up Noah," Alexis muttered under her breath.
I yawned and shivered. We were still wet from the rain and the night was fresh. Our backpacks and my tote bag laid scattered away from us. Our knives had been taken away. As had been my slingshot. I was tired but I couldn't bring myself to sleep in the cold wet mud with Rick and Shane watching our every move. I started playing with the mud while Alexis stared off into space.
Morning came soon and the rest were waking up. Everyone was up and about. I couldn't help but smile. All these people had something going on for themselves here. It's been a while since I've seen these many people together. Disappoint filled my face when I realize I would never have that.
"So, Mr. Rick, What now?" I asked him.
He was about to answer when the screams of some children broke through the camp.
"Dad!"
"Mommy!"
Suddenly everyone was running to where the screams came from. Everyone except Shane who had spent all night giving me the death glare. I tried to look at what was going on but I couldn't see or hear. I hope everyone was all right.
After a while I could hear everyone coming back. I turned my neck to get a better look.
"Merle! Get yer ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel!" That voice sounded familiar. Before I could figure it out, I saw him. It was the redneck, Mr. Squirrel. He carried with him a bow and a bunch of squirrels tied together.
He took a close look at me. "You!" He stormed forward, "You son of a bitch, you are the one who stole my squirrel." He obviously had more with him so I don't get what the big deal was. These people didn't like to share.
Ooops.
"I still have it. You want it back? It's in that bag." I nodded my head to my tote bag and tried to give him a friendly smile. Didn't think getting on the bad side of more people was a good idea. Alexis just sat there. I wonder what she was thinking.
"What they doing there all tied up?" Daryl asked Shane.
"We caught them stealing from us last night."
"Stole from me too. Bitches deserve to be tied up."
I was about to protest but he ignored me.
"Where's Merle?"
Shane stood up from where he sat and walked over to Daryl.
"There was a problem in Atlanta."
"He dead?"
I looked closely at him. He was the Daryl they were talking about. It was hard to read him. Shouldn't the thought of his brother's death at least somewhat affect him? His careless movements told me otherwise.
"No, they left your brother handcuff to a roof." I told him. Everyone turned to look at me with open mouths. Had I said something wrong? It was the truth. I heard them talking about it last night. Even Alexis looked at me a little shocked. I think she wanted me to stop talking.
"It's on me." Rick step forward to talk with Mr. Squirrel. I mean Daryl.
"Who are you?"
"Rick Grimes. Your brother was a danger to us all."
"Let me process this. You people handcuffed my brother to a roof? And you left him there?" He paced around as he screamed at Rick. I stayed quiet not sure of what to say for the first time. All eyes were on him. He tried taking a swing at Rick but was shoved by Shane. I watched as he took out a knife but Shane soon had him in a choke hold.
"Let me go! Choke hold's illegal." He struggled to say.
"You can file a complaint," Shane said.
"Can I file a complaint about your excessive use of force last night as well?" I threw out there.
"Noah, stay out of it," Alexis told me loud enough for me to hear.
Daryl had calmed down by now and they tried to talk some sense into him and explained what happened. I hope he was okay. No one deserves to die like that.
Daryl wiped a tear quickly. So, he did care.
"Hey I hope your brother is okay." I said. I would have stood up and gave him a hug but I was still tied down. I didn't like to see people suffer so I felt back. Everyone gave me a weird look.
"I don't need yet pity." He didn't even look my way.
"Well I still hope he is okay. I can go help you look for him," I forgot about my feet being tied for a second and when I tried to stand up I fell down making a fool of myself. He ignored me and turned to look at Rick.
"Tell me where he is. I'll go get 'im."
"I'll show you, I'm going back with you." Rick told him and suddenly an idea popped in my brain.
"We can help you and in return you can let us go." Alexis looked up at me interested at my words.
"No way." Shane laughed at me "What good would you two be?"
"You need all the help you can get and I'm a good shot. We will get our own supplies from the city while we get your brother and once we get him, we will be on our way," I explained to Rick.
He nodded. "All right we leave in a few. Glenn, T-Dog you coming too. Gather what you need." He walked up to us and began to cut the ropes. I rubbed my wrists where the Rope had been tied too tight. Then he walked away to his family.
We picked up our bags with our stuff and I walked up to Daryl and tried handing him his squirrel with his arrow. I gave him a friendly smile but he just yanked the squirrel out my hand and walked away.
So, he was not a friendly person. Its fine I would keep trying. I could tell deep down he was a nice person. I think.