~Rick~
Thanks to Glenn and Charlie, I am reunited with Lori and Carl. I cannot describe the emotions that ran through me when my eyes set on them when I came out of the truck. When the sun comes up in the morning I need to thank them both.
Charlie really is something. When she was talking to me on the radio, she sounded like this confident who was really determined to save my life. Then when I came face to face with the green eyed brunette, she was nothing like I expected. Whenever I looked at her, her focus was always the floor.
When everyone was gathered around the fire, she offered to tell Daryl about what had happened to his brother. I haven't learnt a lot about her, but then again she is shy. I have learnt that she cares about others, that was shown when she helped me out of the tank and also when she offered to tell Daryl about Merle, even though she wasn't the one who got him in that situation. She is also an emotional girl, screaming when T-Dog was getting beaten by Merle and when she was crying when we made it back to the camp. I don't know why she was crying, but I saw her and she was trying to hide it, but not very well.
No one here is related to her, she has no family. Most likely dead. She likes new things and stuff that gives her a sense of adventure. This was shown when she was driving in the sports car.
This was all I could gather from the teenager, but this information has still yet to be confirmed. Guess I'll find out more as the days go on.
~Charlotte~
The sun was shining golden the next day, peeking through the gap in my tent. I sat up still in my sleeping bag and stretched my arms. I shuffled out of the sleeping bag and put on my socks and shoes. When I tied up the shoelaces on my trainers, I walked outside to find that lots of people are awake. Carol is washing peoples clothes and I walk up to her, trying to spot if she had any new bruises.
"How are you, Carol?" I ask her when I get close. She looks up at me and smiles.
"I'm doing just fine, thanks. What about you? You went to bed early. You feeling alright?"
"Yeah, course I am. I was tired from all the excitement in Atlanta. Not use to that." I tell her with a smile.
I look around the camp and see the red sports car that I had driven yesterday. Then I see Dale, stripping some parts. I walk up to him, not sure what to say, but when I get close, words start to flow from my mouth.
"Morning Dale…what are you doing?"
He looks up at me. "Good morning, Charlie. I am tearing apart the car to get some power for the generators."
I give out a long sigh, visibly upset that the car I had so much fin in yesterday was getting ruined. But it's for the best, so I should just smile.
"Okay. Is Daryl back yet from his hunt?"
"…no…" Dale said. I give a nod.
Dale continues to work on the car and I continue to watch him.
I hear a tent zip unzipping. I turn around to the source of the noise and see Rick coming out of a tent. He says morning to a couple people and heads over to Carol like I had just done.
I scratch my noise and then fold my arms as I watch Dale with curiosity as he pulls apart the car.
Suddenly a presence is next to me. When I look at the figure, I see Rick looming above me, watching Dale pull apart the car.
"Look at 'em. Vultures." I joke, giving a small laugh at my comment and so does Rick.
"Generators need every drop of fuel they can get. Got no power without it. I'm sorry Charlie."
"I just thought I would get to drive it for a few more days." I state, my voice sad.
"Maybe we'll get to steal another one someday." Rick tells me. I laugh again.
"Yeah. Maybe."
I sit on a hard rock, continuing to read my book, when screaming erupts.
"Mom!" I hear Carl scream.
"Carl?" I hear Lori shout. I quickly rush over to my tent and throw my book down next to my sleeping bag and grab my knife that I left in the tent.
I speed out and se everyone running into the woods and I follow behind them, reaching them quickly.
"It's over there!" I hear a man shout.
"Dad!" Carl screams.
"Baby!"
"Mama! Mommy!"
"Rick!" Glenn shouts.
Carl is in Lori's arms and Rick rushes over to see if his son is safe.
"I've got him. I've got him." Lori tells Rick. "Nothing bit you? Nothing scratched you?"
"No, I'm okay."
Everyone delves into the woods and it's not long when we come across a walker that is busy eating a corpse of a deer. I sight makes me want to puke, but I force it back in.
The walker groans, and turns its rotten head to face us. Then as it starts to come forward, the men, Rick, Shane, Glenn, Morales and Jim, start to beat at it with the weapons that they hold in their sweaty hands. Then Dale comes in with an axe, and chops down at the walkers neck, separating its head from its body.
"It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain." Dale says in shock.
"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what." Jim tells us. After a second of silence, we all here a branch snap and everyone is back on alert, waiting for the second walker to attack.
"Oh, Jesus." Dale says when Daryl emerges from the woods, wielding his crossbow, clearly upset that the walker was munching at the dear.
"Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this…" Daryl starts to kick the walker that's on the floor, "filthy, disease bearing, motherless poxy bastard!"
"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale attempts to calm him down, but is failing.
"What to you know about it, old man?" Daryl questions. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'On the Golden Pond'? I've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" he asks, pointing around the part where the deer was eaten.
"I would not risk that." Shane tells him.
Daryl sighs. "That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel. About a dozen or so. That'll have to do,"
Suddenly, the decapitated head of the walker starts to move its teeth, growling, wanting to eat some more.
"Oh God." Andrea says.
"Come on, people. What the hell?" Daryl inquires. He shoots it with one of her arrows. "Its gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?
We all return to the camp, my pistol still in my hands, so I holster it in my leather belt across my waist.
"Merle!" Daryl shouts for his brother, but he doesn't know that he isn't here. Instead he is handcuffed to a roof. My heart starts to race and my head starts to think of all these situations that could soon follow up. None of them are good. "Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Lets stew 'em up."
"Daryl, just slow down. I need to talk to you." Shane decides that it is best for him to tell him I guess. I stand back and wait for the possible fight to happen.
"About what?"
"About Merle…There was a…There was a problem in Atlanta."
There's a pause and you can see sadness and grief in Daryl's face.
"He dead?" You can clearly see that Daryl is trying not to cry.
"We're not sure." Shane replies.
"He either is or he ain't!"
"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Rick starts to take the lead.
"Who are you?"
"Rick Grimes, you got something you want to tell me?"
"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a rood, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Rick explains.
"Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying that you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?"
"Yeah."
In that moment Daryl throws the squirrels that he was holding at Rick and with Rick distracted, Daryl goes in to attack, but Rick pushes him off.
Daryl then pulls out a knife and I fear for everyone's life's when I see the sun shining on the shiny metal. But my fears extinguish when Shane gets Daryl into a chokehold.
"You'd best let me go!"
"Nah, I think it's better if I don't." Shane tells him.
"Chokehold's illegal!"
"You can file a complaint. Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day.
"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" Rick asks Daryl.
"Mmmm. Yeah." Daryl agrees after a brief pause of thought. Shane lets go of Daryl.
"What I did was not a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others." Rick tells Daryl.
"It's not Rick's fault. I dropped the key." God, why did T-Dog have to say that. He could've left it at that.
"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl questions T-Dog angrily.
"Well, I dropped it in a drain."
"If it's suppose to make me feel better, it don't."
"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof, so the geeks cant get at him. With a padlock, its gotta count for something."
"Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him."
"He'll show you." Lori says to Daryl. "Isn't that right?"
"I'm going back." Rick says.
Rick might be going back, but I'm sure I ain't going back.
I have returned to my rock, reading my book that I was reading not too long ago.
"So that's it, huh?" I hear Shane say. "You're just gonna walk off? Just to hell with everybody else?" I look up from my page and stare at Shane who is talking to Rick.
"I'm not saying to hell with anybody…not you Shane."
"Lori last of all. Tell her that."
"She knows."
"Well, look…I…I don't, okay? So could you just….could you just throw me a bone here, man?" Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?"
"Hey!" Daryl shouts. "Choose your words more carefully."
"No I did." Shane remarks. "Douche bag's what I meant. Merle Dixon…the guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst." He certainly wouldn't.
"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me." Rick comments.
I can't concentrate on my reading with them talking near me. I look at my page number and close my book. I stand up from the rock and try to find a better place to read.
The book was small, so I finished it in my tent, isolated from everyone. I take out my iPod that was charging from the portable charger. I plug in my headphones and pocket my iPod in my back pocket. I walk out of the tent, whilst choosing a song to play. I put in on shuffle and make my way to the quarry.
I spot Shane and Carl in the water together and the woman doing the laundry nearby. I slowly make my way to them, staring at the glistening suns reflection in the water.
I get close enough to hear what Carl and Shane are talking about.
"I'm not getting anything." Carl complains.
"Yeah, being all wily, staying submerged. Little suckers, they know something's up. That's what's going on. Just going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. Alright, little man, look. You are the key…you are the key in all this, okay? All I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go after one of them, alright, scare the rest of them off. They're gonna scatter. I'm gonna drive 'em your way, okay?"
I reach Carol, Jacqui, Andrea and Amy. I turn off my music when they face me.
"Can I help?" I ask them.
"Sure." Amy says and I take a seat next to her. I turn around to see Ed having a smoke. When I turn back around I see Carl and Shane splashing about in the cold water.
"I'm beginning to question the division of labour here." Jacqui states and I cant help but agree with her.
"They're coming, little man. Get 'em! Get that net in there and get 'em. What have you got, bad boy? What do you got? What do you got?"
Carl lifts up the net to see if they caught anything.
"Dirt."
I giggle at the young man attempting to catch frogs.
"Can someone explain to me how the women wound up doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?" My laughter turns into a sigh when Jacqui says this.
"It's just the way it is." Carol explains.
"Well, it's wrong." I tell them and look back at Ed who stands by his vehicle, smoking his cigarette, watching us do the work. I grab a shirt and start to wash it. "Have the guys gone to get Merle?" I ask.
"Yeah they have. They should leave him there." Amy says.
"Couldn't agree more." I continue to wash the shirt. "But, he is Daryl's brother. And it's fair that his older brother is cuffed on a roof."
There's silence all around, except for the sound of Carl and Shane splashing in the water. I am tempted to drop what I am doing and join them.
"I do miss my Maytag." Carol complains.
Andrea joins in by making a complaint on what she misses. "I miss my Benz, my sat-nav."
"I miss my coffee maker with that dual-drip filter and built-in grinder, honey." Jacqui tells us. I start running a list through my head with all the objects that I miss.
"My computer. And texting." Amy states.
"I miss my Playstation and Xbox. I was played on them constantly." I sigh.
"I miss my vibrator." Andrea says. My mouth drops at this comment and everyone starts to laugh. I laugh too, but awkwardly as I have had no experience with the object.
"Oh my God." said Amy.
"Me too." Carol says.
We still laugh and I hear the crunching on footsteps coming closer to us.
"What's so funny?" I hear the booming voice of Ed ask.
"Just swapping war stories, Ed." I tell him and continue to do the laundry.
"Yeah." said Amy.
"Problem, Ed?" Andrea asks and paranoia sets in as I don't want Andrea to do anything rash that can get her hurt.
"Nothing that concerns you. And you ought to focus on your work. Ain't no comedy club."
I pick up another shirt that belongs to me. It's a purple v-neck that I constantly enjoy wearing because of the comfort. I start to clean it and feel the presence of Ed make the hairs on my back stand up. I'm beginning to lose my temper. I make eye-contact with all the women and stand up and give a hard look at Ed. Already I'm regretting what I am about to do.
"Ed, tell you what. You don't like how your laundry is done, you are welcome to pitch in and do it yourself. Here." I tell him in one of the most angriest voices I have ever done. I get my shirt and chuck it at him.
I hits him, but he grabs it and throws it right back at me. I gasp at the whip of the fabric hitting my skin violently.
"Ain't my job, missy."
"Charlotte, don't." Carol warns me. She's had lots of beatings from Ed to know what will happen soon. And I know what will happen, but something inside of me doesn't care.
"What is your job?!" I ask him. "Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes?"
"Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some uppity smart-mouthed teenage bitch. Tell you what…" Ed looks down at a scared looking Carol. "…come on. Let's go."
"I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you, Ed." I snap at him.
"And I say it is none of your goddamn business. Come on now. You heard me." he belittles Carol.
Carol stands up. "Carol."
"Charlie, please. It doesn't matter."
"Hey, don't think I wont knock you on your ass just cause you're a weak, shy teenager, alright? Now you come or you'll regret it later."
"So she can show up with fresh bruises later, Ed" Jacqui speaks up. "Yeah, we've seen them."
I look at Shane who is watching us from a distance. Why doesn't he do anything?
Ed laughs at the comment Jacqui made. "Stay out of this. Now come on! You know what? This ain't none of y'all's business. You don't want to keep prodding the bull here, okay? Now I am done talking. Come on."
"No no." I tell Carol as she makes her way to the abusive asshole. "Carol, you don't have to."
"You don't tell me what! I tell you what!" Ed says to Carol. One second after, he gives a hard slap around Carols cheek. And that's when all hell breaks loose from everyone.
All of us run to protect Carol. I grab onto Ed and try to push him, but he is so big and much stronger than me. Suddenly, a huge fist connects with my nose and a pain rushes through my head. I fall back onto the hard ground and skid across it, hurting my legs and elbows. My brain is hammering through my skull as I continue to lay on the ground.
"Get off her!" They all scream at Ed when he holds onto Carol, determined not to let go of his fragile wife. Warm liquid trickles down my lips and I immediately put a hand on my mouth and wipe off the blood.
Shane comes over to Ed and grabs him in a tight grip.
"Get off me!" Ed screams at Shane, demanding him to let go. But Shane isn't cooperating.
Ed is thrown on the ground by Shane and he starts to pummel his face with his knuckles. Ed's face immediately gets bloody from the force of Shane's fists connecting with his face.
I continue to stay on the ground as I watch Ed getting beaten up. The women all watch in horror, not noticing me on the ground. To occupied with Ed getting bloody.
"Shane stop!"
"Stop it! Stop!"
Shane grabs a hold of the beaten up Ed. "You put your hands on your wife, your little girl, Charlie or anybody else in this camp one more time, I will not stop the next time. Do you hear me? Do you hear me!?" When Shane mentioned my name, the women all look around for me. Andrea is the first to spot me on the ground. I hold onto my sore leg and see my jeans all torn and blood escaping wounds that I received from falling on the ground. Andrea runs to me and bends down.
I look up at Andrea, who looks so sad. My nose still really really hurts.
Shane punches Ed one more time and kicks him in the stomach.
"Oh God. No. God!" Carol sobs. "Ed, I'm so sorry, Ed. Ed, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Ed."
The woman don't know how to react when they all see me. Shane sits down next to me.
"Oh God." he says. I remove the hand that was holding onto my bleeding nose. It tingles, everything stings. My green eyes droop shut and I pass out from the pain.
Would you kindly review/follow my story, please! It'll be much appreciated.
Can I ask you a question?
What to you think of Charlotte? Is she a good character?
Anyway, I hope you are enjoying my story and please continuing reading it!