I take no claim for any of the Walking Dead themes or characters.
Chapter Three, here we go! I've decided to put little updates on my profile when I can, just letting you know where I am with the next chapter. If you're ever curious to see how much longer it will probably be, go ahead an check to see if I put an update up, or just send over a message and I'll get back to it as soon as I can. Again, thank you to all those who added this to story alert, favorited and especially reviewed. Reviews mean a lot to me :) Please let me know what you think! Do all the characters act like they should? Opinions? Enjoy!
In the hours of the early morning, Dr. Hershel Greene walked into the bedroom the group had recently been using for the abundance of patients who had needed medical attention from him as of late. At the moment the room held the mysterious young girl who had been the talk of the camp yesterday, as well as the young man who had been watching over her all night long. Hershel saw that Daryl Dixon had been sitting there for the duration of the evening in the chair next to the bed of the slumbering girl. Wanting to speak with him, he stood in the doorway and waved him over silently.
Daryl looked up at the doctor when he spotted him at the door, then glanced down at Eve for a moment before softly exiting the room and closing the door behind them. Hershel led Daryl into the kitchen.
"Well, young man, I figured I should give you a rundown of what I found last night. It seems that you have taken the job of caring for her, so I thought the information would be best in your hands." Hershel Greene sternly watched the emotionless face of Daryl Dixon. His white, bushy eyebrows were raised in expression, seeking some kind of recognition from the boy.
"Yeah," Daryl replied simply.
Folding his arms across his chest, Hershel leaned against one of the wallpapered walls of the kitchen. "Well, it looked as though her ankle was severely injured, as I am sure you already knew. I was thinking she may have tripped while running through the woods, maybe, and scrapped her knees and legs up in the process. It looks as though it happened several days to a week ago."
Daryl rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I knew all that already."
Shaking his head at the naïve man, Hershel continued, "Right. Then you also already know that she's going blind."
Daryl's jaw dropped. A look of confusion crossed over his face, "What tha' fuck you talkin' about, Greene?"
"I've seen something similar in horses before. Not the same of course, but similar. While she was unconscious I checked her eyes for a concussion, but found something different. The name of it is retinitis pigmentosa. Most patients go fully blind by age fifty. Based on her actions so far I would assume she is nowhere close to that point, but it will definitely show more with time."
Daryl shook his head, "Yer lyin', Doc. She sees me just fine!"
Hershel sighed, "This isn't any sort of personal attack. I'm just trying to tell you the facts so you can make up your own mind. I don't know much about it, but some of it is obvious. Have you ever noticed the color of her eyes, Daryl? Unusual, right? Beautiful, even. It is a terrible affliction. Tragic. Extremely hard to deal with once it starts, especially at night or in the dark. Maybe terrible enough to get her lost in the woods? Terrible enough for someone to leave her behind?"
Daryl's blood started to race. He felt the anger starting to rise. Not even knowing the full story about what had happened to the girl, just the notion of someone leaving her behind and boarding her into a shack with a few cans of food for survival made him go crazy. His fists clenched by his sides and he briskly stomped away from the doctor, back into the room where Eve slept.
Eve was awoken by the heavy footsteps on the ground, and even more so by the sudden weight on her bed. Opening her ice blue eyes, Eve gasped when she suddenly spotted Daryl sitting on the bed right next to her, his face inches away from hers. His own cerulean blue eyes gazed into hers. Her heart started to race.
A thought jumped through her mind. He was examining her. Like a bug under a microscope. He knew.
Eve jumped away from him and fell off the opposite side of the bed, blankets billowing with her since they were tangled around her feet. The yank on her ankle from the bed sheets made her gasp in pain loudly. She closed her eyes tightly and scooted back into the corner of the room on her butt, dragging the blankets with her. In another second's time she wrapped her small body in the sheet and then clumsily jumped over the bed and out the door.
Daryl was speechless at her sudden escape. He jumped off the bed and followed suit out the door. By the time he was in the hall, he saw her limping figure run out the screen door and onto the porch into the light of the dawn.
"Eve!" Daryl yelled after her, quickening his pace so that he too was outside following her closely.
She let go of the stark white sheet so it flowed behind her like angel wings. It caught on Daryl's front and he grabbed a section of it and shoved it behind him. All eyes of the camp were on them. It took second for Daryl to reach out and grab Eve around the middle, picking her up off the ground so she couldn't hurt her ankle any more than she just did.
"Where tha' hell you think yer goin'!" Daryl yelled at her.
She struggled, trying to get away.
"Stop actin' like a damn fool! What is wrong with you, woman?"
Eve froze in his arms and laid limply against his chest, her feet dangling right above the grass. "I'm leaving before you abandon me too." Her quiet voice broke the silence.
The sentence hung on the air like a choking fog. They both let it sink in for a moment.
For the first time, even when he barely knew this girl, he felt like he could barely breathe. Daryl felt his heart ache.
She continued, "I wouldn't blame you, you know, if you left me behind. My own step father did it. Why shouldn't a complete stranger leave me behind? In times like these I am a burden. I lost my glasses a while back and I can barely see ten feet in front of me. Who am I kidding? Who wears glasses in a zombie apocalypse anyways? I am useless."
At the end of her rant, Daryl could feel her sniffling in his muscled arms. He knelt on the grassy ground, one knee underneath him and one propped up. Sitting the girl on his knee, he looked her in the eyes, "I wasn't goin' to abandon you, Eve."
Surprised and skeptical, Eve countered, "Then why were you staring at me like I was a freak?"
He sighed, "I just wanted to see it for myself. You don't act blind at all."
Angrily, Eve spat, "I'm not blind, Daryl. I can see you just fine. It's degenerative. All that's wrong with me is that without my glasses, I have to squint quite a bit to get a clear picture of what I'm looking at."
"Then why would someone board you up by the river? Why'd they leave you behind?"
Looking down at her hands, Eve sniffled as the tears started to build up. She was quiet for a bit before she answered, "Cause I got my momma killed."
"Is everything alright here?"
The sudden intrusion made the pair look up. Shane Walsh stood with his rifle by his side, pointed towards the ground. He stared down at the two curiously, but also eyed Daryl Dixon with distrust.
"Fuck off, Walsh," Daryl glared right back. Something had been wrong with Shane for the last few weeks. Daryl couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he had been watching him carefully for a while now just in case. He was acting strangely, suspiciously almost. Whatever his deal was, Daryl just wanted Shane to get fucking bit so he could shoot him in the head already.
Eve froze in place as soon as she heard the foreign voice. She watched Daryl look up over her shoulder at the man and listened to them argue.
"Woah there, Dixon. That isn't any way to speak in front of a lady, isn't that right?" Shane Walsh stepped around in order to face Eve, then bent down and offered her a hand, "Office Shane Walsh. Might I ask what your name is?"
Looking down at his hand for a moment, Eve eventually took it after wiping the back of her hand over a stray tear that had started making its way down her rosy cheek, "Dr. Eve Bishop. Hospital Pharmacist." She looked up at the man with the buzz cut and scar on his scalp. He wore a tight black tee shirt and tan cargo pants, with ammo probably in all the pockets.
As soon as Eve introduced herself, Shane's eyebrows rose in surprise, a sneaky smile on his lips, "Well, well, well. Isn't that something?" He let go of her hand and turned to Daryl, "Why're you keeping this girl all by herself here? You should let her meet the rest of the group if she's going to be staying with us." He gave a friendly smile, but Daryl knew it was fake. Shane was up to something, he could tell. Daryl almost snarled. Shane saw it and gave him a look, but continued to smile for Eve's sake.
"Shouldn't you be like, playin' GI Joe and roamin' around the camp lookin' for geeks? I thought I heard Lori was lookin' for ya'. Oh wait, no she wasn't. I lied." Daryl gave a one sided grin.
Shane's smile immediately dissipated into a cold glare. Daryl laughed and stood up, picking up Eve simultaneously. He gathered the girl up so his left arm was under her knees and his right was behind her back.
As Daryl started walking towards the camp, Eve turned back to Shane, "It was nice meeting you, officer."
Hearing the girl's polite words, Shane's intimidating glare softened and he nodded at her in return. He then lifted up his rifle and stalked away towards the edges of the property, resuming his watch for any stray walkers.
While slowly wandering across the grassy front lawn towards the side where his group had taken up camp, Daryl and Eve travelled in silence, both of them thinking about what Eve had just admitted to a few moments before. It continued for a few moments before Daryl spoke up, ignoring the bigger issue at hand for now, "So yer' a pharmacist?"
Eve nodded, "Yeah. It took a lot of schooling, but I was able to get through it quicker than most people. It's a quiet job mostly, which is why I chose it. I'd rather work inside where I'm safe than anywhere else I think."
Nodding curtly, Daryl responded, "I respect that. Outside work is men's work. If I had to be stuck in some lab for too long I'd prolly' want to axe everythin' apart. Oh, wait." Daryl snorted at some past memory which was unknown to Eve, but she smiled anyways.
Almost there, the two observed what was going on around them. The sun was now fully up and it was time for morning chores among the camp. Carol sat by the fire and was stirring something in a pot lifted over the flames. A couple of the Greene girls were out in the fields taking care of the farm work; feeding the chickens, pulling weeds, things of the like. Andrea sat at the picnic table cleaning her beloved gun, her light blonde hair sparkling in the sun, with the Grimes boy, Carl, raptly observing from her left. Rick was talking to T-Dog and Glenn off to the side in hushed voices and big gestures. Daryl could tell something was going on.
Daryl set Eve on one of the seats at the picnic table, "You sit here. I'll be back." He then quickly grabbed the crossbow off his back and hurried over to Rick and the other men.
Eve immediately was instilled with a feeling of loneliness. She was surrounded by people, but they were people she didn't know. It confused her because she barely knew Daryl but she already felt comfortable around him, like they knew each other for so long or something. She guessed that's what happens when someone saves you. They just kind of meshed all the sudden. Daryl was her polar opposite in many ways, she automatically knew that. And it thrilled her.
"Hi there. My name's Andrea. I heard you came in last night." The woman with the glistening blonde hair in front of her introduced herself, the silver gun she held was placed on the table by itself for the moment.
"You have beautiful hair," Eve commented.
Taken aback, Andrea placed a hand over her chest and smiled, "Well aren't you lovely?"
"Eve Bishop. Pleasured to make your acquaintance, ma'am."
Andrea's light eyebrows rose, "'Ma'am'? Aw man, all this bullshit must really be getting to me if I already look like a 'ma'am.'"
A light laugh sounded from Andrea's left.
"You think that's funny, Carl?" Andrea teased the young boy. She turned to Eve and introduced him, "This is Carl, Rick and Lori's son. He's a strong one, alright. Just back on his feet after being injured pretty badly." Andrea ruffled his hair, "Isn't that right, Carl?"
The boy laughed embarrassedly and shoved Andrea's hand off his head, then carefully smoothed out his hair and playfully glared at her.
Eve turned back to see what the men were doing. Rick, Daryl and a few others she hadn't been introduced to yet were all gathered around the hood of a car, examining a map. Rick was pointing to different places on the sheet of paper while the others deliberated. Daryl stood and observed quietly, then pointed to an area on the map and said something she couldn't hear. The men simultaneously looked up and glanced at Eve, to which she promptly turned away and ignored the stares.
"Ooh darling! What happened there?" A new voice popped into the conversation, coming from a slight, older woman with short, grey, choppy hair. In her hands she held a pot of some steaming food. She was worriedly looking down at the bandaged ankle that Eve possessed.
Eve then noticed that some mismatched plates had been placed around the picnic table. The woman started serving the food. Eve decided it was some kind of stew. Her stomach started rumbling loudly when the steam rose up from her plate and entered her petite nose. Whatever it was, it smelled good. Or, it smelled like food, and Eve was starving. There's a point when a person is so hungry that they almost forget how hungry they are, and Eve decided she had hit that point sometime after her last can of food in the shack.
Brushing off the memories, Eve returned to the conversation, "Oh, just sprained my ankle. Nothing too bad."
Finishing off serving the pot, the woman sat down in front of her own dish. Carl had already started eating his.
"Breakfast's ready, numbskulls!" Andrea yelled over to the men on the side of the camp, and then laughed quietly amongst the women.
"Well if you need anything, dear, just give me a holler. My name is Carol."
The boys all came up and sat down either around the table or around the fire, jumping into their food.
"Thank you, Carol. That's very kind of you." Eve gave a polite smile before she jumped when a hand rested on her shoulder.
Carol exchanged glances with Andrea. Andrea laughed, "I know. Isn't she so polite? She called me ma'am before. Imagine that? Manners." Andrea rolled her eyes towards the men shoveling food in their faces, making various slurping noises and burping here and there.
Eve's attention went back to the hand on her shoulder. She looked up to her right and saw Daryl standing next to her. He bent down and whispered in her ear, "Eat all that up, doll. Ya' need it to get better."
Agreeing, Eve picked up a fork and started slowly eating the food in front of her.
"We should thank Daryl for catching those rabbits. We'd be stuck eating potato chips and stale beef jerky if it wasn't for him," Carol smiled. A few of the people around the group nodded.
Carol was pretty much the only one that gave Daryl any appreciation. Probably because he was the main one looking for her little girl. Daryl and the rest of the men were looking for new places to search for Sophia on that map. Yesterday when Rick went out looking, apparently he had found a few clues just down the river from where Daryl had searched yesterday. The group had divided up into pairs, besides Daryl who preferred to look alone, and chose new places to search today. Shane was going to stay behind with Dale and guard the camp and farmhouse.
When Rick finished his plate he walked over to Eve, nodding at Daryl before kneeling down beside her. "How are you doing today, Eve?"
Eve finished chewing the bite she had in her mouth before replying, "Very well, thank you."
Rick smiled gently and turned to the rest of the group, "If you haven't noticed already, we've got a new addition here. This is Eve. Daryl brought her in yesterday." Rick pointed to a slim brunette in a flowy tank top with a perpetually worried look, "This is my wife Lori. And if you haven't already met him, this is our son, Carl." He pointed to the young boy across the table that she had already been introduced to, who swiftly waved. Eve nodded to both before Rick continued, "Over there, that's T-Dog, that crazy kid over there is Glenn, the man who won't leave a ten foot radius of the camper is Dale, and Shane is in the woods on lookout. I'm sure you'll be able to meet him later."
Daryl snorted. Rick cast him a look, but then continued while looking over the people around them, "Please be sure to make her feel welcomed. Okay, we're all going to set out to look for Sophia in a few minutes. We've got a few leads to follow out and see where they take us." Rick turned to Carl, "Be good for your mother, Carl. If I hear anything bad you'll be cleaning the dishes for everybody tonight."
Carl rolled his eyes, "Yes dad."
Lori laughed from a few feet away.
Eve noticed how meek Carol started to look once Rick started talking about their plans for today. She wondered what was going on.
The group started to break up once they finished their food. Daryl squatted back down by Eve and whispered in her ear quiet enough so no one could hear, "Sophia is Carol's girl. We lost her about a week back. I was out lookin' for her when I came across you."
"Oh."
"I'll be back later tonight. You need anythin', go to Lori. Hear me?" Daryl looked up at her expectantly, staring into her pale blue eyes.
Eve nodded.
Without another word, Daryl stood up, took out his crossbow, and walked to the edges of the camp to start his searching for the day.