~Shane~
My opinions on Charlie have changed. She is a good girl. She stood up to a man who was twice the size of her, she truly cares about others. She took a punch to a face from the man she stood up to and that takes some serious guts. I saw her get hit in the face, but no one else did. She fell back and hit her head on a rock, grazed some parts on her body and passed out.
She was easy to lift, so I carried her back to the camp. The women all followed me, concerned about her.
"Lori!" I called for her. She was with Carl talking to him. She turned to face me and saw me carrying the passed out Charlie.
"What happened?" She asks.
"Ed." I answer. "Can I put her in your tent to sleep?"
"Of…of course she can stay in there." She replies.
"I can look at her wounds." Jacqui says.
"She took a bash to the nose, hit the back of her head on a boulder and grazed her hands, arms and legs." I look down at her face. Blood is coming out of her nostrils and running down her face. Her nose looks broken.
Amy unzips Lori and Rick's tent and I enter. Jacqui removes the covers from the bed and I lay her down on it.
"Should probably get some bandages, antibiotics and painkillers." Jacqui tells me. I nod my head and leave the tent.
~Charlotte~
I wake up in an unfamiliar tent, sore and irritated. I sit up and rub the back of my head. My nose feels like its vibrating, I touch it and it feels warm. Someone comes in the tent, I cant tell who though, my vision is blurry and its dark.
It's Lori. I try to move my arms, but they feel restricted at the elbows. I look at them and see bandages wrapped around them. Same with my knees.
Lori has a cup of water in her hands and offers it to me and I take it. I gulp it down in no time.
"Thanks." I gasp. I put my feet on the floor and slowly stand up. Everywhere is so sore. I take one step and stumble, but Lori catches me before I fall.
"Lemme help you out. We're having fish dinner. Amy and Andrea caught a lot of fish. Want some?"
"I would love some."
Lori helps me out of the tent. Everyone is gathered around the fire, enjoying the fish dinner, having a good time.
Lori plonks me down next to Andrea.
"How are you?" Andrea asks me, voice full of concern.
"Considering I got hit in the face by a man twice my size…I feel fine."
"You done good. Standing up to that prick."
"Yeah. I'm proud of myself."
"And you should be." Andrea tells me.
Dale and Morales are having a conversation about Dale's watch and I keep talking to Andrea.
Fish is passed to him and I take a bite out of it.
"Wow. You two catch some nice fish." I tell Amy and Andrea.
"Thanks." They say simultaneously.
Amy stands up and Andrea questions her on where she is going.
"I have to pee. Jeez, you try to be discreet around here…" Amy says and everyone laughs whilst she makes her way to the RV.
I look at Alicia who sits with Daniel and their two sons. "How are you guys?" I ask them, feeling like I haven't spoken to them in a while.
"I'm fine." Alex says.
"Good." Tom says.
Alicia laughs at her sons blunt answers. "This is amazing fish."
"Couldn't agree more." said Daniel.
I hear the RV door opening, "We're out of toilet paper." Amy says. She then steps out of the RV and I take a bite of fish. When I swallow, I almost choke from the sound of a high pitch scream, erupting from Amy.
I look up at her and see a walker's teeth deep into her arm. I drop my plate and everyone starts to scream and scatter.
"Mom!"
"Carl!"
"Lori get him down!" I witness Shane grab his shotgun.
I reach my hand down to my belt to get my pistol, to find that it is not there. Crap. Must've left it in the tent. But I do have my knife. I grab onto it and run up to the walker that bit Amy, tears in my eyes. I stab the walker in the head and it falls onto the floor. Amy has a gapping hole in her left arm and she lies on the ground. I continue to stare at her, screams and groans in the background. A hear moaning getting close to me and when I look at the source of the noise, a walker is making its way to me.
It grabs onto my neck and tries to bite me like a walker done to my friend who lays limp on the ground. I grab onto its head and smash it into the RV, then stab the back of its head with my knife. I run around, not knowing what to do. Andrea goes to her sister that lies on the ground. Amy's eyes open. "Help me." She whispers.
I sprint in one direction, trying to get away from walkers, but skid to a stop when I see a dead body, wide eyed on the floor with a walker eating out of her stomach.
It was Alicia. The walker turns to look at me and I hear screaming, unsure if they are mine. I get a firm grip of my knife and plunge it deep into the walkers head. I lies across Alicia's body and just when I am about to roll the walker off Alicia, growling erupts from behind me. I turn and a walker falls on top of me. When my back hit's the floor, my knife goes flying out of my trembling hands. I'm trying to push the walker off me, but it's too strong. Blood drips out from its open mouth and hits me.
Suddenly the walker falls off me and hit's the ground beside me. I see a bullet hole in its head. I look to see who shot him and I see Glenn. They made it back.
I pick up my knife that flew several feet away from me.
I look back at Glenn, but see another figure next to him, staggering closer.
"Glenn!" I scream. He turns just in time to shoot the walker in between its eyes. I spot Daryl over in the distance, killing a walker with the butt of his rifle.
"Did you get Merle?" I ask Glenn. He shakes his head.
I see dead people. Walking around and dead on the floor. Tears run fast down my face, but I wipe them away with the back on my hand.
It doesn't take too long to kill the remaining walkers. I spot Rick giving Carl a hug, glad that his son is safe.
Andrea is at the RV, by her sisters side. The tears start to fall again when I see Amy touch her sisters face. After she touched her cheek, she went stiff. And died.
Carl begins to sob when he sees Amy die. I cover my mouth with my hand, trying to quiet down my sobs.
"I remember my dream now. Why I dug the holes." Jim says solemnly.
I take the dead walker off Alicia's dead body.
"Mommy!" I hear a little boy scream. I turn and see Tom and Alex, Daniel by their side.
"No no no no." Daniel mutters. He starts to cry, tears violently falling out of his eyes.
"Daniel I am so sorry." I tell him quietly as he runs over to his dead wife. Her stomach is ripped open, with her insides hanging out.
"Alicia…come…come back. You can't. Don't go." He hugs her dead body. I look at Tom and Alex who have run off somewhere. My vision is blurry from tears.
Daniel sniffles, wipes his nose and looks up at me. "Give me your knife." He demands.
I take my knife out of my head cautiously and hold it at the blade and extend it out to Daniel. He grips onto the handle of the knife.
"Goodbye." He sobs, and stabs Alicia in the head.
Andrea is not willing to let go of Amy. She sits next to her sister, holding her. Lori decides to go over to her.
"Andrea. I'm so sorry. She's gone. You got to let us take her. We all cared about her and I promise we'll be as gentle as we can." Lori tells her in a soft, caring voice.
Andrea doesn't let go of her dead sister. Everyone who survived the attack are cleaning up the dead.
"She still won' move?" Rick asks.
"She won't even talk to us. She's been there all night. What do we do?" Lori says.
"Give her time." I say, looking down at my bloody shoes. I loved these shoes, wore them all the time, but now they are stained red from blood.
"Can't just leave Amy like that." said Shane. "We need to deal with it the same as the others."
A tear falls off my chin and hits my bloody shoe.
"I'll tell her how it is." Rick says.
I look up at Rick and see him approach Andrea. "Andrea-" before he can start talking she pulls a gun on him.
"I know how the safety works."
"Alright. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He says as he backs up from her, leaving her with her dead sister.
"Give her time." I repeat the words I said not too long ago and I walk off.
Daniel sits, isolated from everyone. Except he has his two sons by his side.
"I'm gonna go to where my parents-in-law live I need to tell them about Alicia." Daniel tells me in his sad voice. I nod, no idea what to say.
After a while, I think of the words.
"If that's what you think it best, then you should definitely go."
"It is for the best. They need to know what happened to their daughter. My wife." And then he starts to break down. "I wasn't there with her. I should of stayed with her at all times, but I had to find the kids. And now she is dead. And it's my fault!"
"Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb." said Daryl.
"What do you suggest?" Rick asks.
"Leave Andrea mourn her loss." I tell Daryl.
"No. We should take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."
"No. For God's sake, let her be!" I shout.
Since that attack, something happened inside of me. Lots of anger, all boiled up inside and I need to let it go. It's not fair on Andrea, she needs to mourn the loss of her sister and people are not letting her be. I didn't get the chance to say a proper goodbye to my loved ones, and I don't know if they are dead or alive, and that's what's killing me inside.
I am angry because I feel like I could've done something more to reduce the casualties last night.
I see Morales and Daryl, dragging a body of one of our fellow campers, bring them towards the fire. I know what they are gonna do, burn it. But that is not right.
"What are you guys doing?" I ask them. "This is for geeks. Our people go over there." I point to the place where holes are dug, ready to be filled with our dead.
"What's the difference? They're all infected." Daryl states. I clench my fists and shake my head.
"Our people go in that row over there. We don't burn them! We bury them. Understand? Our people go in that row over there."
Morales and Daryl look at each other, unsure what to do at first, but then they start to drag the campers corpse toward the digging hole.
Satisfied, I walk over to Glenn.
"I was gonna say something about burying our dead, but you beat me to it." Glenn tells me.
"I wish Daryl had more of a heart. These were people we knew. And now they are dead." I set my gaze onto the ground and rub my bandaged elbow.
"Maybe he does. And maybe he doesn't want to show his emotions. I don't understand him. Then again, who does? Sometimes it's hard for me to understand you."
I look up at him. "How?"
He gives a low chuckle. "It's like you are two people. You can be this shy little girl, who tried to isolate herself from everyone, not wanting to see violence. Then, you can be this strong woman, who wants to stand up for herself and those around her."
I laugh, "You only see that side of me when I get mad. And I hate that side, because when I try to stand up for myself or others…I either embarrass myself or get myself hurt." And when I say that I gesture to my bandaged legs and elbows. "What side of me do you prefer?"
Glenn hesitates. "Both. Be both."
"A walker got him! A walker got Jim!" Everyone turns to look at Jacqui who is shouting. Everyone gathers around Jim.
"I'm okay. I'm okay."
"Show it to us. Show it to us." Daryl demands.
"Easy, Jim." Shane says
"Grab him." Daryl said and Jim picks up a shovel on the ground, poised to attack
"Jim, put it down. Put it down." Shane tries to calm Jim down.
T-Dog grabs onto Jim from behind.
"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." He repeats.
Daryl grabs onto the bottom of his shirt and pulls it up to reveal a bite mark on his stomach.
"Oh God." I mutter, tears starting to set in again, but this time I refuse to let them fall.
"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay."
Everyone looks at each other, thoughts running through there head. And I know what they are thinking. We are gonna have to put Jim down.
"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it." Daryl says. Again, it seems like Daryl doesn't have a heart.
"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane questions.
"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it."
"I hate to say it…" Dale begins to say, and I already know what he is gonna say next. "I never thought I would…but maybe Daryl's right."
"Well, I completely disagree." I say out loud, shuffling my feet, rubbing my elbow.
"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." said Rick.
"I'm not suggesting-"
"He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?"
"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be." Daryl says.
"What if we get him help? I heard of the CDC was working on a cure."
"I heard that too." Shane says. "Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell."
So did I.
"What if the CDC is still up and running?"
"Man, that's a stretch right there."
"Why?" I can't help but feel like Rick is right about the CDC. A certain hope burns deep inside me that a cure could be in the works. "If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection."
"Okay, Rick, you want those things, alright? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning." Shane thinks that Fort Benning would be safe? A lot of people probably thought that and went there. And someone in there could've gotten bitten and therefore the place wouldn't be as safe as we would've hoped.
"That's a hundred miles in the opposite direction." Lori states.
"That's right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me. If that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there."
"the military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that. The CDC is our best choice and Jim's only chance." Rick backs up his point on going to the CDC, and I agree with him more.
"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" Daryl shouts, heading over to Jim and almost takes a swing at him with his pickaxe, but before he can, Rick's gun is pointed at the back of his head.
"We don't kill the living." Rick tells him.
"That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl puts the pickaxe down and leaves the group.
Rick goes up to Jim and holds onto his arm.
"Where are you taking me?" He asks.
"Somewhere safe."
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