A kiss from the wind -The Walking dead. Daryl Dixon/OC
Chapter 5- There's a dead person in my shed.
Summary: The gnarled hand scrabbled uselessly against the ground, rotting body trapped under the mangled car wreck, reaching, moaning and snarling. Charlotte grimaced, moving further out of reach and crouched to the ground. "Come on kid." Daryl's voice sounded behind her, a hand landing on her shoulder, "Leave it. We got ground to cover." Daryl/OC
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Thanks so much for the great responses, please pass this on to your fellow WD Fanfic friends.. I'm really proud of this work! Thanks!
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2 months earlier…
"There's a dead person in my shed." Charlotte heard the moment she answered her phone.
She blinked sleepily, "A what in your what?"
" A dead person in my shed." Her neighbour and childhood friend Christine repeated, with no hint of laughter in her voice.
"A dead person?" she repeated, sitting up in her bed and pushing her hair behind her ears, "As in a body? Why is it in your shed?"
"Yeah." Christine said, "A dead body. In my shed."
"Christ Chrissy, It's not even nine am, have you been drinking?"
"A couple shots. But that was after I found the dead body in my shed." Her tone told her that alcohol was really not the main concern here.
"Chris-"
"You gotta get over here Charlotte."
Charlotte gave an exasperated sigh, "Give me time to get showered and -"
"No. Charlotte." her friend interrupted again, "Come in your Pjs if you have to but get here soon."
"Okay. Jeez, you could've just called the police or someone else." She said, climbing out of bed, she held the phone between shoulder and ear as she pulled on some relatively clean jeans. She grabbed a clean shirt from her wardrobe and pulled it over her head, "This better not be some prank Chrissy."
"It's not." she replied, "Not even I could fake this."
"I'm leaving right now."
"Charlotte-" She heard her friend say as she climbed into her fathers pick up truck, he hadn't been home for days and wouldn't notice it was gone. Jamie was probably still soundly asleep at a fellow school friends house so he would say anything either, "I think he might be one of those people- like from the news? The sick ones?"
Charlotte swallowed, she had watched the news like everyone else in America and from what the internet told her, the world.
"You think he's infected?"
The stories on the internet had been sensational and Charlotte could not even make herself believe half of them. The images on the news, caused b the disease grossly graphic.
"Yeah. Or still drunk after a really, really bad night." Christine said over the phone, "I went to grab something and saw him led in there, but he's covered in blood and stuff and I think he's one of them."
"Okay." Charlotte started the truck with a roar and pulled onto the dirt road. "Just don't go near him 'til I get there."
"Hurry up."
"I am hurryin'!" She said, "I'm driving two minutes up the road that's how much I am hurryin'! I can see yours right now."
"Yeah I can hear that contraption your dad calls a truck." Charlotte laughed, as she parked sloppily in the drive. She left the cars in the ignition, it was unlikely someone would take her car, it was a few miles into the main town anyway and it seemed unlikely that someone would walk so far on the small chance that there would be a car readily available.
Charlotte pressed the end call button and moved around the side of the house, she pushed open the gate that Christine never locked and moved round the house, in much better shape than her own family home into the back garden.
Christine had inherited the house not two months ago after her last living parent had passed away to old age, late starters in life they had birthed Christine in their late forties and Charlotte had always felt sorry for Christine. At least Charlotte had, for however little time, had a healthy mother.
The garden was overgrown and browned by the heat, gardening or anything involving nature not Christine's speciality.
"Chrissy?" Charlotte called.
Three big wooden sheds lined, one behind the other, against the right hand side of the garden, all of which had belonged to Christine's father, full of tools and equipment she assumed.
"Second shed." Christine called.
Charlotte moved over towards the grassy area, grimacing as the brown grass scratched uncomfortably against her ankles, somehow gaining access under her jeans.
Her friend stood by the closed shed, wrapped in a bathrobe and slippers, blonde hair pulled into a messy bun atop her head, phone held tightly in her hand. She looked more scared than worried.
"What happened?" Charlotte asked, moving towards the shed and cupping her eyes against the already glaring morning sun. She glanced through the dirty window and groaned, definitely seeing an unmoving form.
"I came down to grab a screwdriver, one of the posts on my bed are loose and if I didn't do it now I'd forget altogether. I just saw him in there when I opened the door." she explained.
"One of the posts on your bed are loose? Too much action Christine." Charlotte laughed realizing just how inappropriate it was to joke in this situation even as she did so.
"You should have seen him Charlotte-"
"Body builder?" She asked distractedly, peering through the window again.
"Substitute teacher. P.E." Christine replied.
"We should see if he's alive." Charlotte said, "Or we should call the police.. Jamie's P.E substitute?"
"Yeah. I'll call the police. He was cute."
Charlotte frowned, "The body?" She shook her head, "Wait. No shut up. Priorities. Tell me about your latest conquest after we've sorted out the whole possibly dead man in your shed problem."
Christine moved to enter the numbers, "Wait. He's moving." Charlotte gasped, moving to the door. She unbolted the lock and pulled the door open. Christine moved closer behind her attempting to glance over Charlottes shoulder, "Ambulance?" she asked.
"Yeah." Charlotte said from the door way, "Yeah call an ambulance."
She stared at the moving man in abject horror, his dark suit was ripped and tattered as if he had been dragged through thorns, his right arm was bent at a strange angle and blood covered almost every inch of his skin both exposed and she guessed under the destroyed fabric. His face was so covered in dirt blood and other residues that she might not have recognised him had he been her own father.
"They're busy, sending someone as soon as they can." Christine said glancing over her shoulder again at the groaning figure, "Oh my God."
…..
Present day…
"Get up!" A loud, unwanted voice shouted, followed by hard banging on the fabric of her tent, a hollow noise that aggravated her headache. "Get up!"
Charlotte groaned, a hand coming up to Jamie's cot, "Jamie. Come on." her hand found no child, "Jamie?" she asked.
She shot from her bed and out of the tent, "Jamie!" She cried.
"Shut up!" Andrew said from the side of her tent, "The brat slept with the old witch after you ran off last night."
Charlotte stared at him with disgust, the memory of his cold blooded murder still vivid in her mind.
"Grab your wash things we're headin' to the river. Takin' some of the broads from over there." He indicated the new camp "Your dads reckons they'll feel less intimidated if you 'n' the brats are there."
"I don't want to." Charlotte spat.
"You probably should." Andrew smirked, "You got Tobey's blood all over you."
Charlotte gasped and a hand shot to her face, she could feel the flaking, freshly dried blood on her cheek and neck. She shivered, wishing she hadn't slept in the damn stuff.
"Get your stuff, five minutes."
Charlotte dove back into her tent without any hesitation, scrabbling around for her things. As much as she hated to accompany Andrew anywhere she would, pride be damned when she was covered in blood. She pulled her dirty jeans off over her boots and pulled her baggy swim shorts, most likely males on in their place.
She grabbed Jamie's small bag of things that would soon need replenishing and exited the tent eyes landing on her brother immediately.
"Jamie." She called, throwing the supplies to the boy.
The children joined her, Emma with her pink My little pony wash bag that made Charlotte yearn for the simpler days of children's television, sweets, happiness and innocence. It was the little things that broke your heart in this day and age.
"You guys sleep okay?" She asked, unsure of how much they had seen the night before, she had no doubt they had heard everything though as they headed towards the smaller camp where Andrew stood.
"Emma was sad." Jamie said.
"I liked Tobey." Emma confirmed, "He was nice to me, but I'm glad he wasn't hurt by one of the bad people." Emma meant the dead and Charlotte fought the urge to tell the child that almost everyone in this camp was a bad person. Why take the child's hope too?
"Yeah. That's true." she said, instead.
"I was squashed with Betty and Emma." Jamie said, "But Betty said we had to leave you alone. That you were sad."
"I was sad." Charlotte said, "I felt a little sick too. We're going with some of the ladies from the smaller camp, that okay with you guys?"
"Ugh more girls." Jamie sighed and Charlotte gave a snort of laughter.
"He ain't comin'" Andrews voice interrupted her laughter. She glanced at the man, who stood glaring towards the other camp.
"None of them are goin' with your men alone." Rick replied, hands on his hips, standing his ground despite the sizeable weight and height difference, "He goes."
Charlotte noticed that Daryl stood beside the blonde, the sad lady and the young woman she remembered to be Hershel's daughter, Maggie. "Not after what you did last night."
"Then you come. I ain't takin' that redneck."
In the past Charlotte would have made a comment about hypocrisy considering Andrews upbringing but instead she stayed silent a comforting hand on her brothers small shoulder.
"I'm not leaving my wife or child's side." Rick replied, "Daryl goes."
"Y'know!" Andrew cried, "We're letting' you wash as a courtesy! If I had my way you would've all be dead by now!"
Rick stood his ground, expression unwavering.
"Lawrence thinks your useful. I can't see why the hell he would." Andrew said, "And we're supposed to treat you like members of our own camp."
Surrounded by guns to prevent escape? Yeah, Charlotte thought, they were definitely members of the camp.
"So we're letting' you wash and eat." Andrew continued, "Fine. The redneck comes."
Charlotte thought Andrew looked more likely to kill them all than to treat them well and she doubted Daryl would be much protection in any case, she didn't doubt he could put up a fight but no one was immune to bullets and they had those in excess in this camp.
Rick nodded, turning back to his family.
"Lets go." Andrew growled, Charlotte waited until the women and Daryl had gone ahead before she ushered Jamie and Emma forward.
"Stay close to me." She told the kids eyeing the people walking ahead of her, she didn't know any of them from Eve and trusted them even less, given the chance even the nicest of person with the highest of morals, when kept prisoner, will lash out.
They made it to the river slower than usual, the newcomers getting a feel for the uneven ground. Up ahead Charlotte watched Maggie fall and Daryl help her up, seemingly unconsciously. There was an easy unison and unconscious communication between the group she had observed over the time they had been here. They worked fluidly and stood up for each other, something Charlotte had never known in this camp. She wondered were there any more survivors, anyone else out there that worked this way.
The river clearing came into view and Jamie, like he always did catapulted towards the river, ignoring the stationed guards as they glared his way. The water splashed as he jumped in, the river, more of a large lake really that cut off just left of the clearing and ran through the woods past the camp and further on. The river was regularly checked as far as they could go to make sure that no stray dead people waded up stream and to ensure nothing contaminated it. Though it was unlikely anything could come upstream it was always prudent to make sure.
"Careful Jamie." Charlotte said, fruitlessly, the boy already dunking his head into the stream, a welcome release from the heat.
Emma followed in with her things but no one else made a move to follow, Charlotte stood with the others along the bank.
"Get to it then!" Andrew growled with a harsh nudge to Charlotte's back, "Be a good example." he murmured into her ear.
Charlotte slowly removed her boots and socks and stepped toward the edge. "Do what you usually do." Charlotte sighed and snapped her eyes closed.
"Andrew.." Charlotte said glancing at the assorted strangers, "It's not exactly appropriate."
She received no reply and ground her teeth together hands moving to the hem of her flimsy vest, she hesitated only a second before pulling it over her head, leaving herself in her bra and water shorts. She missed bathing naked, the cleanliness after, but with armed guards with roving eyes and being the only female of age other than the elderly Betty that was not an option here.
She nodded resolutely and climbed down into the water, cold on her skin, the first time she had done this she had been shocked at the sheer drop from ledge to bottom of the water. She looked towards the blonde and nodded almost imperceptibly. Slowly the other women followed suit, clothes falling into a pile on the ground besides their clean change. Neither of the three stripped naked all fully aware of their armed audience.
Andrew leered and moved to a respectable distance though Charlotte knew with certainty he was still watching. Daryl stood stiffly at the side watching the armed guards and Andrew, not sparing a glance for the women. Charlotte smiled, she hadn't believed that Daryl would have been the more respectable of the all present.
The three other men at the perimeter however, had no qualms about watching and were very obvious about it.
"They always stare like this?" The blonde asked Charlotte as she bent so the water covered her shoulders.
Charlotte started at being addressed and nodded. Maggie moved beside her, head sopping, obviously thankful for the cold water in the heat. Charlotte could see Jamie and Emma slashing around, the sad eyed woman near them, possibly smiling.
"It's creepy." the blonde said, "I'm Andrea by the way."
"Charlotte." she replied, "And you're Maggie, Hershel's daughter?"
Maggie nodded and fumbled along the edge for her wash things.
"I'm sorry for what they did last night, you're dad didn't have to be near that." Charlotte whispered.
"They killed that man." Maggie whispered in reply, "Dad said there was nothing wrong apart from his leg."
"There wasn't." Charlotte agreed, pulling her soap from her own bag, "Tobey was a good guy. One of the few we have here."
"He just killed him." Maggie whispered, eyes on Andrews foreboding form.
Charlotte nodded, and began to wash herself thoroughly.
"Why are you here?" Andrea asked, "With these people?"
"My dad-" Charlotte stopped, hearing Jamie laugh. She looked over to the boy who was laughing at Emma and the short haired lady who was making her laugh.
"That's Carol." Maggie said, possibly noticing the tense of Charlotte's shoulder, "She wont hurt them."
"It's not that." Charlotte said sadly, "I haven't seen Jamie laugh in a while. At least not properly laugh."
"It's the same with Carol." Andrea said, "She's lost a lot. I think her loss was harder than most too, Sophia her daughter. They survived so long but-"
"Sophia ran, before I met them, and the whole time they stayed on my families farm they searched for her." Maggie continued, "She was found, a walker. Rick had to kill her."
"That's horrible." Charlotte said.
"Yeah, the kid-"
"Emma."
"Emma-" Andrea continued, "Looks a lot like Sophia, her hairs longer and lighter and her eyes are a different colour but their around the same age and the similarity is there. Carol is smiling, it must be doing her some good."
"Yeah." Maggie said staring into space as if remembering something.
"I guess we all lost a lot. " Andrea sighed.
Charlotte nodded, feeling a connection to these women, they were all prisoners here. She looked towards the children and Carols sad eyes as she appraised the girl and felt overwhelming sadness tugging at her gut. These people didn't deserve this, they were good, innocent people whose lives had been ripped apart and they deserved to be free from here.
"Alright. Out." Andrews voice broke her from her thoughts. Gun waving around as he gestured away from the river, "I'm sure you're all sparkling' clean."
"You wanna watch where you're waving' that thing." Daryl growled as Andrews gun moved again with his gesture.
"It's best to go up over there." Charlotte pointed towards the corner, unfortunately near one of the guard bases where the water was more shallow. "There's a kind of indentation that works like a foothold."
Maggie moved forward first and climbed gracefully over the ledge onto dry ground. Charlotte watched in mild shock, "She grew up on a farm." Andrea said by way of explanation.
"Right." Charlotte nodded as Jamie waded up behind them, "Go ahead Jamie."
The boy climbed up as Maggie moved quickly towards her clothes and towel, glaring at the gawping guards.
Emma followed behind and climbed onto the foothold, Daryl reached forward, grabbed her hand and pulled her out. Charlotte let Carol follow behind and moved to let Andrea out next, Andrea, also using Daryl to lean on pulled herself out of the water.
Used to the relatively high bank of the river Charlotte moved forward, back still hurting from the other night straining against the movement, she pushed her toes into the indentation and grabbed a hold of the edge. She lifted her body weight and groaned as she pulled herself up, a hand appeared in front of her face and she hesitated only slightly before allowing it to hoist her out fully.
She glanced up to see Daryl stood before her and pulled her hand away just as Andrew stalked up behind them, the butt of his gun scraping harshly against the back of Daryl's head.
The change was almost immediate, the mild mannered, dare she say it, gentleman before her turned immediately into a snarling, angry beast. His stubbled face distorted in rage.
"I said watch it!" He cried, jumping towards Andrew, fists raised. Charlotte winced as she heard a loud crack as Daryl's fist collided with the other mans face. She sprang into action the moment she saw one of the armed guards cock their gun towards the commotion.
"Stop it!" She cried, running into the middle noting that Andrea moved right beside her, the blonde stepped into the middle and pushed against Andrews chest. "Daryl. Stop it." Charlotte heard Carol say from where she stood with Maggie and the children.
Charlotte pushed hard against Daryl's chest and shook her head, "They will shoot you!" she hissed.
Daryl growled, eyes still on Andrews form. Charlotte didn't need to look, she could hear Andrea requesting help from one of the armed guards, fearing Lawrence's wrath they would obey.
"Stop it." Charlotte said again, "You got him. You got him really good actually." Daryl's eyes moved to her, an eyebrow raised and she breathed out a laugh, "I dream about hittin' him like that."
She felt the man slowly calm from where she held tightly to his forearm and nodded, slowly letting go, "I'm sorry about him." she said, "I can't even describe how much of an asshole he is."
Daryl grunted and stepped away eyes flicking quickly downwards then moving to something over her shoulder. Charlotte's eyes widened as she realised she still only wore underwear with her shorts. Moving towards her things quickly, Charlotte saw that Andrew too had calmed but the other guard from which Andrea had requested help would be escorting them back to camp. Charlotte was thankful.
She dutifully ignored Andrews glowering as she redressed and packed her things away.
"Shouldn't let him treat ya so bad." She heard Daryl say as she straightened up, pulling her wet hair into a ponytail.
She smiled sadly, "Don't have much of a choice here."
Daryl said nothing more as the guard began to lead them back to camp and Charlotte followed behind Andrea resolutely. Tonight she would talk to her father about setting these people free. It was the least she could do.
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What does everyone think? This one is a bit longer!