Finally. We have soap.
By the time Daryl and Evelyn made their way back to the camp it was almost evening. They hadn't said too much to each other on the return journey, but Daryl was able to shoot about seven squirrels and a few rabbits. Even Evelyn had been able to prove her worth by taking down three pheasants.
Breaking through the trees, Evelyn felt a wave a contentment wash through her at seeing the people just as they were before she left. They were so untouched and that gave her a hope she hadn't known in a while.
Merle was already at work with cleaning whatever game he had caught and, without a word to her, Daryl joined him. Evelyn figured she might as well go return her bow to Dale. As much as she didn't like it, she didn't want to appear as if she were going against any established rules that they had. Dale wasn't atop the RV, so she was about to open the door when she heard Lori say her name, "Evelyn," she said, "how was the trip?"
"It was good," she told her, a little curious as to what she really wanted. "I think I've got a bit of everything to make a crude soap."
"That's great," she said, smiling at her. Evelyn thought the woman was genuine but there was something about her that made Evelyn feel as if she up to something suspicious. Though, she was sure she was imagining. "Were you looking for someone?"
"I was, actually," Evelyn responded, "I was going to give this back to Dale," she held up her bow. "I don't want Shane thinking I'm some malicious rule breaker or something."
Lori gave her a comforting smile, "don't worry about him, he'll come around."
Evelyn returned the smile, "it's alright. I would be just as cautious in his place. He has a lot of people depending on him."
"Yeah, he does."
"Was there something you wanted to talk about?" Evelyn thought it best to get to the point.
"Yes, actually. We set you up a tent," she pointed and Evelyn thought she wanted to yank her hair because it was right beside the Dixons'. "Yeah, I know. Shane wanted it there."
Evelyn shook her head, "no. No, it's alright." What did she have to complain about, really? They were giving her shelter and protection and food- so what if it was right beside an aggravating Merle and his brother that set her nerves on edge? She could handle that. "Thank you," she told Lori.
"Of course." she said, "I can give that to Dale for you," she gestured to the bow. Evelyn bit her lip. She didn't like so many people touching it. "Actually I needed to talk to Shane. I need my knife in order to work with making some of this stuff," she slipped a thumb through the strap on her bag."
"Alright. I'll talk to him and make sure he keeps your things safe." Evelyn supposed there was no getting around it, so she slipped the quiver and the bow off and handed it to Lori. She didn't have any more words for Evelyn, so she made her way over to her new home where her neighbors were slicing open the little forest critters.
"Well, howdy neighbor," Merle greeted her.
"Hi," she said before going into the tent. She didn't know what to expect, but it was less than this. Sure, it was a small tent, but it held a small cot on an elevated metal frame. On it sat folded a couple thick blankets and extra clothes. Where did they even get all this stuff? Sitting on the edge of the bed, she considered how nice it would be to have a long nap on an actual bed, curled up in warm blankets. However, as lovely as it sounded, now wasn't the time. She needed to begin working on medicine. Evelyn had successfully gotten enough plants to create a type of pain killer, sleep aid, fever reducer, a blood clotter, a strong disinfectant, crude soap and more of the salve that she had made for her own cuts. It was enough to keep her busy for a few days.
She sighed, longingly, contemplating laying down for just a few minutes. Just a few. She argued with herself that it would be harmless and it would feel so good, but shaking her head, she knew that if she laid down, she would never get back up. Standing and stretching, Evelyn grabbed her bag and exited, zipping up the door behind her. She could smell the gore from the animals the brothers were gutting and it made her sick to her stomach. Ignoring it, she suddenly wondered if they had some sort of rule about making fire. She would need one in order to create anything, as well as her knife.
"Problem, sugar?" Merle called over to her.
Evelyn bit her lip before answering, "well, I was wondering if I'm allowed to build a fire."
When Merle didn't respond, she supposed he didn't know. So she plopped her bag down in front of her tent and went off to find Shane. She felt like a chicken with no head on account of all the running about she seemed to be doing. But, in a matter of minutes, she found him on the other side of the camp, "I hope you like your tent," he said as she approached.
"It's wonderful, I can't thank you enough." he nodded and she pressed forward, "listen, I need to build a fire for the herbs, but I didn't want to make one without asking."
"Well, I appreciate you comin' to me first, shows me you're willing to cooperate. Go on and build your fire, but I want it kept small. And if you can put it out when it comes dark-do it. If not, build up a rock wall, keep the flames as invisible as possible."
"I can do that."
"Good."
"One more thing though," she said, "my knife. I need it."
He appeared to be thinking it over for a long moment before brushing past her, "c'mon," he said. She followed him to the trunk of a car. Pulling a key from his pocket, he unlocked it and, to Evelyn's surprise, let her see all the guns and spare ammo in the back. It wasn't much, but it was an impressive arsenal. She recognized her belongings among them as well. Reaching down, Shane grabbed her knife in its sheath and handed it to her.
"Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome," he slammed the trunk shut. "I'm lookin forward to seein what you can do."
Evelyn smiled, "I'm going to do everything I can."
Evelyn set out to work immediately, deciding on making the soap first, since it seemed to be something the women were looking forward to. She cut and measured and sliced and scraped and gutted her various vegetations. Mixing them into a pot over her fire, she added and stirred until it became thicker. Once she was certain it was at the correct consistency, she removed her wooden spoon and began cleaning up after herself, bundling up the leftover herbs, packaging all her supplies away, back into the leather roll and buckling it shut. It had taken a few hours and sunset was already settled in.
After putting everything away in her tent, she headed over to the where most of the group was centered. In front of the RV was a fire cooking meat that had teased her all afternoon, chairs and logs were crowded around and plates were stacked on the wooden table. It made her wonder what this place may have looked like before- if big families came up for picnics or if hikers came up for the view.
"Hey, Evelyn!" Amy called. Evelyn made her way over to where her, her sister and Lori and Carl were standing.
"Hi. Anything I can help with?"
"I think we pretty much got it, thanks," Lori said.
"What were you making over there?" Andrea asked.
"Soap," Evelyn said cheerfully. "You all seemed pretty excited about it, so I figured I'd make a batch of it first. Kind of a way to thank you. It's not much, but I hope you'll like it."
"I bet it'll be great!" Amy beamed.
Evelyn smiled back, "we'll see."
They sat around the camp fire as shadows started creeping out of the woods. Evelyn sat facing them, her eyes scanning their edges, alert. Amy sat on one side of her and Dale sat on the other, engaging in the idle chit chat from the group. Evelyn wasn't processing most of it- even as she sat there with people around her and food on her plate, she couldn't turn off the paranoia and the restlessness and the suspicious that came with the darkness. But as she stared, her vision was interrupted by a silhouette across from her, startling her and breaking her concentration. She blinked a few times before recognizing that it was Daryl who sat behind the flames.
Evelyn felt her face get hot, but it wasn't because of the fire. She couldn't help but recall the scene that had played out a few hours earlier. She didn't want these people to see any weakness from her, she wanted them to see her as an asset. While they had been very welcoming, she still didn't know them and it was best to keep an air of caution. For all she knew, Daryl could have told Shane about today's ordeal and he may be keeping tallies, the pros and cons of having her around. If she showed weakness, he could run her off. Or worse. It was hard to tell with people these days.
"So, Evelyn," hearing her name snapped her back from a deep thought she was barely aware she sank into, "tell us a bit about yourself." It was Dale who was speaking and everyone seemed to then focus their attention solely on her- which was a little nerve wracking. She never did enjoy being the center of attention.
"Well…what do you want to know?"
"What did you do before all of this?"
"I was a librarian," she told them. "I shelved books, and was the head event coordinator."
"What did you coordinate?" Glenn asked.
"Just a bunch of different events. There were book clubs, sewing clubs, art classes that had to be scheduled. I did a lot of children's activities as well. I did tutoring classes during the school year and we had summer program where they could come during the day."
"Sounds like a rewarding job," Dale observed.
"I liked it," she smiled.
"Is that where you learned all this botany stuff?" Another question from Glenn.
"Some of it. But, it was my dad who taught me, really."
"What else did you do?" Amy asked her.
"Um, well, I sometimes did some waitressing on night shifts. I really don't have any interesting story to share," Evelyn offered her an apologetic smile.
"Where'd you get so good with that bow?" The question came from the other side of the fire pit, from Merle.
She shrugged, "like I said- instinct. I just got better when I got hungrier."
"Bullshit," he retorted.
"My dad taught me to shoot, but before all of this, I've never even been hunting."
"You said your Dad was a pathologist- that he studied disease," Andrea spoke up.
"Yes, but I also said that he didn't tell me anything, if he knew anything."
"But you said he was in Atlanta. They weren't just bringing civilians there, but doctors too."
Evelyn bit the inside of her lip, "I don't suppose it much matters now, does it?" She didn't mean to respond so sharply, but her tone elicited no more word from Andrea.
"How long you been on your own?" Shane asked. Evelyn was getting tired of questions, but couldn't very well tell them to back off when they had given her so much.
Calculating in her head and a bit on her fingers, she said, "a month and a half…I think…give or take." Evelyn shoved her first bite of food in her mouth, hoping it would deter more questions. As she chewed, she noticed something that she wasn't sure why she didn't sooner. Looking around, she saw a fire with three figures sitting solemnly around it. "Why is Carol and them over there?"
"It's her husband Ed. Likes to keep them away from everyone else." Jacqui informed. Evelyn sensed there was something else there, but didn't pry into it further.
After all the food was gone, Evelyn lent a hand in helping clean up. Morales and his family went to bed, followed by Amy and Andrea and then Jacqui. Little by little as the night crept on, more and more people left to their tents. Eventually it was her, Dale, the Dixons, Shane and Lori that remained seated around the campfire. Carl was there also, but he had long since fallen asleep in his mothers lap, Lori stroking his forehead with that sort of tenderness only mothers had. Regardless of Evelyn's opinion of the woman, it was clear she loved her son and Evelyn wondered if they knew how lucky they were to still have each other.
Watching the fire and listening to it pop against the back drop of the woods was almost serene. It wasn't like the night's she had spent by herself in the woods, it was a world different and Evelyn couldn't help but find it almost funny, in some tragic sort of way.
"Well, now, what are you grinning about?" Dale asked her, breaking the silence.
Evelyn looked around at everyone before staring back into the fire, "it's just…what you have here…It's nothing like what's out there. It doesn't feel like you people are trying to live out the end of the world," Evelyn chuckled, "it feels like you're camping."
"We've been lucky," Lori spoke up.
"Yeah, I guess you have," she responded, her focus on the dying fire.
"That was a good haul today. More than what we've had recently," Shane spoke to the two brothers, sitting side by side.
"Had a little bit of help," Daryl said, nodding in her direction.
She offered them a slight smile. "Yeah," Merle cut in, "she's a fine shot. Gets too distracted by her little flowers though."
"I have all the flowers that I would need for a week or two."
"How long will it take you to make whatever it is you're making?" Shane asked.
"Not long. A few hours will usually do for most things," Shane simply nodded, so Evelyn continued, directing her question to the brothers, "do you go hunting every day?"
"We do now," Daryl told her, "food reserves are runnin' low."
"The animals, they know sumthin's up. Headin' to higher ground. Fortunate for us." Merle explained.
"That doesn't seem too fortunate to me," everyone turned their attention to the skeptic Evelyn. "If the animals are all heading up the mountain, who do you think is going to follow? Atlanta isn't going to sustain the walkers forever. They're going to run out of food- and soon too. By now, the walker to human ratio is at least-"
"We haven't had any up here yet," Lori cut in.
"She has a point though," Dale chimed in her defense.
"We've been lookin' for signs of 'em. Haven't seen anything significant yet, just one or two when we went further down towards the city," Daryl said.
"Those were just stragglers. They have a pack mentality, once a few start moving, they all will start moving. And since they seem to follow anything with a heart beat, it makes sense that they'll be here at some point."
"I think that's enough for tonight," Lori's tone was harsh, but not a moment later did Carl sit up and yawn. Evelyn had forgotten he was there and was glad he had been asleep- she didn't want him to be any more frightened than she imagined he was already. "C'mon, Carl, let's head to bed." He let out a few childlike protests, but didn't argue too much as she ushered him away.
Shane watched them for a moment before turning back around. "I want you two to go back out tomorrow," the Dixons seemed to accept this without conflict, since it made sense to do so. "And I want you to go with them," he looked Evelyn square in the eye and all she could do was nod. "Alright," he confirmed before getting up and going in the same direction Lori and Carl had went.
"Well," Merle stood up stretching, "better get some rest, sugar, got a bright and early, long day tomorrow." She hadn't thought so much about it, but now that Merle mentioned it, Evelyn remembered just how tired she was and her body suddenly ached with exhaustion.
She felt a gentle tap on her shoulder that made her jump. Dale held up his hand to reassure her, "why don't you come with me?"
"Yeah…" she responded with little hesitation, "yeah, okay."
They stood up and Dale led her over to the door of the RV. "Wait here a second." Evelyn did as she was told and looked out among the camp, back pressed up against the side of the vehicle. She saw Merle disappear into his tent and Daryl follow after, the door to their little abode zipping up tight. Dale reappeared in a short time with her bow and her quiver. "I can't give you your gun, but here," he held it out to her and she took it, hugging it protectively against her chest.
"Thank you," she said, surprised at the level of trust she had already been given.
"I'm a pretty good judge of character. I think you're a good person and I don't think you're going to put an arrow in anyone's chest."
Evelyn smiled, "no, I don't think you have to worry about that…Thank you, Dale."
"You're welcome," he smiled, "goodnight, Evelyn."
"Goodnight." Evelyn passed the fire just about reduced to nothing but embers as she made her way to her tent. Once inside she zipped up the door and took a deep breath. It felt good to have some sort of protection, the familiar curve of bow with it's smooth, polished finish was a comfort. Sitting it down on the bed, Evelyn peeled out of her clothes and folded them, placing them beneath the bed. She laid down atop the bed and covered herself with the blankets, her bow laying across her stomach and her quiver by her side.
Evelyn faded in and out of sleep for an incomprehensible amount of time. One minute she was floating, drifting away with not conscious concern and the next images of decaying flesh and the grinning faces of her nightmares returned. She was running, all of a sudden, through the green forest, the fog thicker than smoke. Her lungs were burning and there was pain, but what it was that hurt, she couldn't figure out. The snarling came from all directions-she had no idea where she was going. Panic took her and she fell, her face smacking the hard forest floor and her mouth filling with dirt. She tried to push herself up, but something heavy dropped onto her back, forcing her back onto the floor. And then pain- like she had never felt. She screamed and managed to flip herself over, only to be confronted with rotting faces staring down at her. Their teeth snapped and she tried to get away, but it was no use. They tore into her, dug into her, ripping out her insides. She screamed and screamed and screamed but the pain didn't stop, she didn't die or pass out, she didn't go into shock, she just screamed and watched as they ate her. She was helpless, a rat stuck in a trap. She would die. She would…she would…
Evelyn bolted up, panting. Her hair clung to her face and sweat rolled down her neck. She was shaking and looked around frantically before remembering where she was. With her heart still racing, Evelyn pulled her knees to her chest and balled herself up, not even attempting to suppress the tears that came or the sobs that escaped her throat. It took her a few minutes to bring herself back under control. She knew it would be pointless to try and go back to sleep, so she stepped into one of the extra set of clothes they had given her and slipped her ugly green tunic over her head. She hadn't realized how cold she was until the wool touched her skin. She pulled up the hood and fastened the quiver to her back. If she couldn't sleep, she may as well do something useful, like take a watch to make sure nothing came shuffling out of the woods. Even though that thought was just as scary as her nightmares, it was preferable to laying back down.
Evelyn guessed it was around 4 AM, because she could tell by the fog that light would break very soon, meaning the Dixons would be up and ready to go in no time at all. She did a sweep along the perimeter of the camp, going deeper and deeper each pass. Finally, as she was heading back, she saw the Dixon's emerging from their tent. Perfect timing.
"Where the hell you been?" Daryl asked upon spotting her coming out from the tree line.
"I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd make sure everything was okay," she explained. Merle chuckled and shook his head. "Whatever," Daryl said, "let's go."
She followed the brothers into the forest quietly for what seemed twenty minutes before Merle turned around, "alright girly, we got a system. I go this way and baby brother goes that way then we circle around and make the way back towards camp. Got it?"
"Got it," she said.
"Good," he nodded towards Daryl, "see you at noon."
Daryl turned and started walking in the opposite direction, "c'mon."
"Maybe I could go-"
"You stay with me," Daryl sounded irritated. No doubt he wasn't too eager to have her along. Evelyn wondered how long it would be before he regretted bringing her back.
They walked in silence. Evelyn kept her footsteps light, but she still wasn't as silent as Daryl, nor did she move as gracefully. They maintained a good distance apart, but when she saw him weaving through the trees he looked natural, like the woods was where he belonged. He probably grew up in them, she told herself.
She caught a flicker of movement in her peripheral vision and crouched, silently nocking an arrow and scanning the brush. When she saw the movement again, she didn't hesitate. She pulled back and fired, hearing the small, final cry of an animal. Evelyn made her way over into the brush, finding her arrow through the neck of a good sized rabbit. She retrieved the arrow and wiped it clean with the rag she had tucked in her belt loop. Sliding the arrow back into her quiver, she picked the rabbit up by the legs and made her way back to where Daryl was.
Evelyn gasped, dropping the rabbit. "Jesus Christ, Daryl you scared me." Daryl was standing right behind her.
"You're easy to sneak up on. You should pay more attention." Evelyn picked the rabbit up off the ground and showed it to him. "Good shot. You should try aiming for the head though. Leaves more meat," he held out his hand, "here, I'll carry it." Evelyn didn't object as he tied it to the rope over his shoulder.
They pressed on, deeper into the woods. Daryl kept squatting and shifting the leaves around. "What are you doing?" she asked him.
"Trackin'."
"Tracking what?"
"Looks like another rabbit."
"How can you tell?" He looked up at her for a moment before motioning for her to come closer. She crouched down next to him, staring at the patch of dirt. "I don't see anything."
"Alright, you see how there's this little indent here? That's its print. Only I think it's hurt. See this mark here? It's draggin' it's other leg behind."
Evelyn squinted, but saw nothing but dirt. "Not really…" she admitted, "what do you think hurt it?"
"Hard to say. It happens."
He stood back up and walked with purpose. Evelyn swore his footsteps made absolutely no noise. If she closed her eyes, she'd have no idea he was there at all, which was evident from the fact he was able to sneak up on her. Mentally she was kicking herself. She needed to be more alert. She couldn't let anyone sneak up on her, so she strained to listen to everything around her more intently, hoping she could train herself to hear the smallest movements in her surroundings.
It was getting later into the morning and much hotter. The pair decided to take a rest once they came to a small stream. Evelyn sat her bow and her quiver to the side, taking off her wool shirt and tying it around her waist. She felt much cooler in the baggy white tank top that they'd given her. As she slipped the quiver back across her back, she thought to how, a few months ago, she would have never dressed so immodestly. But then again, she wouldn't have slugged around the woods with a bow shooting little forest friends in the neck with Mr. Mountain Man either. Honestly, she should be home, curled up on her back porch with a glass of lemonade, reading whatever book she decided to bring home from the library that week. That would be nice.
By the time they met back up with Merle, they had six rabbits and seven squirrels. Evelyn had shot three of the rabbits and two of the squirrels. She didn't know how Daryl could shoot them so easily from so far away. They were too small and too fast and she was too unpracticed. Merle had also managed to take down a fair bit of game. "Well, I think we've got ourselves a good haul today," Merle said, spitting onto the ground. He placed a hand on Evelyn's shoulder, "good job, girl." He sounded sarcastic, but Evelyn couldn't tell for sure. He always seemed rather sarcastic.
The trio made their way back to camp. The brother's had set snares up on the way there, they told her, and the first one they came to had successfully trapped a raccoon. "Alright, we got us a coon," Daryl said.
"Maybe we can make a nice hat out of it too," Merle chimed in.
Evelyn watched as they took it off the snare, "can you teach me to do that?"
"Sure thing, Sugar. Merle can teach you all kinds of things." Evelyn was relatively certain that "all kinds of things" included things she didn't really want to learn, but setting a trap wasn't one of them. That could come in handy.
When they got back to the camp, everything was just how they left it, but now everyone was awake doing this and that. Evelyn followed the brothers to where they sat next to their tent to clean the game. She was about to ask them if they wanted her help when, "we got this, if you wanna go play with your little flowers." Evelyn didn't bother to argue, she didn't really like that part anyway. Plus, she hardly knew what she was doing so she could already see them biting her head off for skinning it wrong or whatever. So, instead she just went back to her little makeshift fire pit that was nothing but ashes now. Looking in the pot, her concoction had finally cooled and hardened to a dark oatmeal color. Taking our her knife, she cut the giant block out of the pot and cut it into pieces. A piece for Amy and Andrea, for Carol and her family, Morales and his family, Lori and Carl, Dale and everyone else with a lot of left over. She gathered all the pieces up and dropped it into a bucket.
The girls were all over working on laundry. "I come bearing gifts," she smiled as she walked up to them and reached into her bucket, pulling out a chunk, "ta-da!"
"Oh my gosh, is that what I think it is!?" Amy screeched.
Evelyn handed it to her, "yep! And there's plenty to go around," she reached back in and handed Lori and Andrea a piece. Andrea held it up to her nose, "it doesn't really have a smell," Evelyn told her.
"Neither will I, I'm going to use it right after we finish up here," Andrea joked.
Evelyn made her way around the camp, offering everyone her little slices of gratitude. Everyone seemed to really appreciate them which excited her. When she found Shane, he offered him a piece. "Is this what you've been passin' out to everyone?"
"It's soap," she told him. He took it from her and held it up to his nose, "it doesn't have a smell, but it's safe I promise." Evelyn sat the bucket down and grabbed a piece, breaking a small bit off and popping it into her mouth and scrunched her nose, "doesn't taste good, but it's safe."
He nodded, "thank you, Evelyn. You've done us a service."
"You're welcome," she told him.
Merle and Daryl had finished cleaning the game. "Here comes trouble," Merle laughed. "Whatcha got there?"
Evelyn held it out to him, "it's soap. I thought that since you were done, you might like to wash your hands…or something."
"Well that's mighty nice of ya, Miss Evelyn," Merle told her, accepting it. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. "Don't ya think, Darleena?"
"I have some for you, too," she said, holding it out to Daryl.
"What're you tryin' to say?"
"Nothing, I just thought you might like it. I made enough for everyone." Daryl snorted and went back to sharpening his knife. "Suit yourself," she said, turning away and heading back into the friendlier company.
Evelyn made herself useful around the campsite with the chores until it was time to eat and everyone began to gather around the fire, laughing and stuffing their faces. It was nice, Evelyn definitely thought she could get used to this. But there was that lingering feeling still in the back of her mind. How long would it last? She didn't know. And right at that moment she didn't really care.