I take no claims for Walking Dead characters or themes.
Hey everyone. Here's the next chapter. I had started it on Saturday, but after Sunday's episode I knew I had to start over. This chapter follows the last episode to a minor extent, but I had to follow the plot a little or else nothing would make sense. So sorry if this one is a little boring. I tried to add in Eve and have some more tension/lust between her and Daryl towards the end when the shit hit the fan hahaha. It'll be better next time I hope! Thanks for the reviews! They mean a lot to me! Let me know what you think please :)
Eve Bishop sat at the picnic table with her arms around her thin waist, almost giving herself a hug for comfort. With Daryl gone for a short while Eve felt alone here even though she was surrounded by people. They were people she didn't know at the end of the day, and she didn't know what to do with herself. She watched Daryl's strong back as he walked away from the camp slowly, crossbow in hand as usual.
Right before everyone split up, Glenn stood up and made an announcement. It took him a few moments to gather the courage, but eventually he was able to make his voice heard, "Hey everybody…" His hands were awkwardly clasped by his sides. "There are walkers in the barn."
A simultaneous gasp sounded from the entire camp. Daryl's body froze from across the field and he turned around slowly with a look of shock. Eve's pale blue eyes went wide and she immediately held herself tighter, looking off into the direction of the barn, squinting at its distant form. Her first thought was that it hardly looked secure, but looks had deceived her in the past.
While she was boarded into the fishing shed by the stream she could hear walkers from time to time, but she was never able to see them. They would scramble by the shack, moaning and growling. There had been one occasion when a walker had gotten close enough to the shack that it heard her barely move inside. Immediately Eve noticed the change in its gait; it became quicker and more sporadic as it ambled to get closer to the shed. Once there, its mangled hands scratched at the sides for hours, trying to break through the rotting wood in order to climb inside and devour her. Eve sat in the opposite corner, holding herself and silently crying, her frail body shaking from the panic bubbling inside her. She knew the walls were frail and that they wouldn't hold for long. Despite her belief, they did hold long enough for the walker to get distracted by some distant sound and wander off.
Eve always could hear them better than she could see them. Their movements were so distinct; she thought it was hard to miss them. Other people didn't agree, and they believed she had a gift. Perhaps since her vision was failing it gave the rest of her senses the room to improve. She recalled when Daryl had first found her yesterday and how she had heard the walker before him. At that point she was so desperate to get away from the creature that she ended up back in the same corner, holding herself in fright.
She felt the same fright when she gazed over at the aged wooden barn, standing in all its frail glory off in the distance of the wheat field.
By the time she snapped out of her thoughts most of the people around her had dispersed. She could tell the camp was tense. Rick had gone off to talk to Hershel before he and the boys were going out to look for Sophia. Glenn and Dale were hanging out by the camper talking quietly amongst themselves. Andrea had finished polishing her gun and had stuffed it into the waist of her tight blue jeans. She was currently making her way across the wispy wheat fields to take watch of the barn. Eve had no clue where Daryl and Carol had gone. The only people left were Lori and Carl.
Lori, the strong and brave woman that she was, was holding her quietly crying son in her arms. Carl was worried and upset. The medical stress from the gunshot, the entire situation, the tenseness between his parent, and the loss of his only young friend at the moment obviously was taking its toll, and now with the added danger of walkers being so close to the place they were calling home for the moment, Carl was now having a bit of a breakdown. His mother whispered into his ear softly while she rubbed his back in comfort.
The two women watched as Shane angrily stomped across camp and into the trailer. Sounds of crashing and movement came from inside. They brushed it off as Shane being Shane then ignored his odd behavior and looked to each other.
Lori broke the ice, "So Eve. How are you today?" It was obvious she was trying to break the tension they all felt. Lori figured that maybe if she started a small conversation with Eve it would distract Carl enough for him to calm down.
Eve nodded softly, "I'm doing alright, I think. Thank you for asking."
Lori nodded back, a little more precisely. "Good. That's great to hear. And your ankle?"
Eve looked down at her injured foot. It was throbbing from when she had been running on it previously. She noticed how everyone ignored that incident from earlier and was thankful for it. The last thing she wanted to do was alarm anyone else about her condition. They may be less forgiving than Daryl was.
Despite the pain than was coming off, she spoke to the contrary, "It's doing okay…" Eve reached up and ran her fingers down the long length of her auburn hair. It twirled around her finger on the ends before she pulled softly and straightened out the curls. When she let go the curls bounced back to life and peacefully fell back to place near the small of her back.
Carl started calming down. His face was no longer scrunched in sobbing fear. He sat on his mother's lap and quietly sniffled, peaking up at the girl across the table from him and his mother.
"How'd you manage to grow your hair out that long? Mine is getting long enough, I'll have to ask Rick for a trim. I cut Carl's hair about a week ago and it's already growing back!" She laughed slightly and ran her fingers over his head.
Eve smiled at the boy who grimaced when his mother mentioned cutting his hair. "I remember getting haircuts from my mother. They were so bad I started avoiding them altogether," Eve laughed at the memory. Carl laughed as well and made a face while discreetly pointing up to Lori. Eve chuckled and continued, "So eventually it just grew out this long. I cut the ends sometimes, but not too often. I had a hair appointment…but…" Eve trailed off awkwardly once she realized what she was saying. That life was dead now, and constantly reminding themselves of the loss they had endured was too painful to deal with. Everyone figured it was best to leave that life behind and continue forward with hope.
Lori bit her lip and Carl stopped laughing. Quickly trying to stay on the good track, Lori asked, "So what do you do for a living?"
"Oh, I was a hospital pharmacist. Not too special, but it was quiet, just like I like it."
Lori's eyes glazed over for a moment while she thought back to the awful mistake she had almost made involving her newfound pregnancy. Eve could have helped her figure out what kinds of prescriptions would have worked. Or if any prescriptions would have worked. Did Lori even want anything to work? The argument with Rick was bouncing around in her head.
Eve noticed she was out of it, but quietly waited for her to reflect and come back to reality. She was not a pushy person, nor was she loud or intrusive. Eve liked to keep to herself mostly. She was quiet in conversation, reserved sometimes. Said just enough to get her through. She was raised to be polite; to say thank you, to stay in her place. It's just who she was.
Lori blinked and discreetly shook her head. "That's a pretty important job. Could be useful for us out here."
Eve looked at her with subdued wonder, trying to figure out how her profession could possibly help them survive in the wilderness or kill zombies. She was doubtful.
"Dales been collecting pills from abandoned cars, and Daryl's got a bag full of random prescriptions from his hopped up brother. None of us really know how to use them properly though. Unfortunately prescription bottles don't say what the medication treats, so we've been winging it so far. We could use your help." Lori smiled encouragingly.
"Oh, I think I could help with that." Eve was confident in her abilities, but she didn't want to brag. Especially if there was something they had that she wasn't familiar with. If she bragged but then couldn't help she would feel mortified.
In reality she was practically a human encyclopedia of pharmaceuticals. She organized the shelves at the hospital daily and cherished the moments when new deliveries came in so she could label bottles and place them in their appropriate places. With her sleek glasses perched on her tiny nose she held the bottles close to her face in order to read the fine print properly, tracing the ingredients list with her finger while she read. There was never a medication that came in that she was unfamiliar with.
Lori smiled, "That would be really great. Thanks."
"You're welcome ma'am."
Lori raised an eyebrow at the title she was given, but nodded softly.
Eve smiled in return and wrung her hand in her lap. She turned so that her back was to the end of the bench of the picnic table. Lifting her legs up so that they were resting on the bench, she winced when her ankle hit the coarse wood. Eve gently fingered the cloth bandages around her foot. It was definitely still swollen, but not even close to how bad it was a few days ago. The few scrapes on her shins and arms had been patched up with bandaids to prevent any infection. While she was out cold they had looked over her well, she couldn't deny that.
During the time that she was looking down at her ankle Shane and Rick had reentered the camp, both with very different packages in their arms. Shane held the large black bag of guns Rick had recovered from the police department they had worked at previously. Rick held a walker at arm's length, its mutilated neck entwined with a rope attached to a stick, similar to the ones dog catchers used. The walker was grey and rotting, yelling with its arms trying to grab at anything it could grasp. It was followed by a female walker who was held by one of the Greene boys, Hershel following closely behind. As soon as Shane spotted Rick's form in the distance, he went berserk. And that's when everyone started paying attention.
Darting towards him with a murderous look in his eyes, Shane ran across the fields bellowing at them with rage. Eve jumped up from the bench and stood there in awe. Andrea, T-Dog and Glenn followed closely behind him while they made their way over to the barn filled with walkers. Out from the stables came Daryl and Carol, also running towards the scene.
Lori grabbed Carl and looked up to Eve, "Can you make it on your own?"
Eve nodded and followed Lori as quickly as she could on her injured foot. By the time they got there Shane was shooting the female walker while loudly making a point, "Heart!" Another shot went off. "Lungs!" Another shot. "She just don't quit!"
Hershel sat on the ground, his eyes in blank horror, watching the person he knew getting repeatedly shot but not being affected at all. It continued to scream and growl at the crowd of people, doing anything in its power to attack the people around it.
Daryl turned around, his eyes searching for Eve. Quickly patting Carol on the back, he ambled over to the girl with the glorious auburn hair and hauntingly blue eyes. Daryl quietly spoke a few words to her, "You alright?"
"Take it! HERSHEL! Take the stick!" Rick screamed at the old doctor, trying to get him to take control of the walker in his hands. His pleads made Eve's stomach ill. She focused on the scene unraveling in front of her, not even noticing that her body had started to shake and tears had started to drip from her clear eyes.
Daryl snapped his fingers in front of her face to gain her attention again, "Hey! Look at me, Eve," he pointed up to his face and took her by the shoulders to turn her back to the stress and drama of Rick's desperate pleas. Daryl spoke again, "I need you to focus, doll. Ya' hear me?"
She nodded silently.
"Okay, good. Now, are ya' okay?" Daryl asked like he was talking to an upset little girl, which is exactly what she was at that moment.
Eve had a few tears in her eyes from the pressure on her ankle. It was throbbing more than her heart was beating. She shakily moved her head to indicate that, no, she was not okay.
Daryl knelt next to her and took her hand, "Okay, I'll get you off that foot soon. I need you to stay back here, ya' hear? Shane's goin' fuckin' crazy, but we need to kill those walkers. They're dangerous. I don't want anybody gettin' hurt." He finished this statement by looking straight into her eyes, like she was the one he was really concerned about. It gave Eve a sense of comfort and she replayed his words over and over in her mind in order to fully feel the emotion that it brought her.
Seconds later Shane finished the female walker off with a single gunshot into its brain. The piercing sound reverberated around the farm for miles. Eve jumped when she heard it and sobbed.
"Eve?" Daryl grabbed her face and made her look at him directly.
She looked at him with worried eyes, "Yeah."
Shane quickly passed out guns to all those who were willing and moved to the barn door. He started ripping it open, crunching through the wooden doors and locks while ranting and raving. It was frightening to watch.
Daryl looked into her eyes and waited for a sign of recognition. She nodded and he continued, "Stay behind my back. Don't move for nothin'." Daryl stood in front of the frail girl and aimed his gun just in time for the barn doors to be completely chopped open. Before the gunshots started, Daryl turned his head slightly so that she would hear him speak, "I've got you, Evie. Yer' safe." And with that he faced forward and started shooting the walkers running out from the barn, hungry after weeks of being stuck inside the structure with minimal food.
Eve hid her head into his broad and muscled back and lightly placed her shaking hands on his waist. She tried to balance on one foot so they other wouldn't become any more injured than it already was. The pressure was alleviated but the pain throbbed on. With everything else going on though it was not a major concern in her mind at the moment.
The sounds coming from in front of Daryl were terrifying. Gunshot after gun shot. The sound of skulls being crunched and shattered. The final cries of the monsters before their flaccid bodies hit the ground with a limp smack. Eve shut her eyes and squeezed onto Daryl Dixon's waist, feeling each recoil from the bullets he shot into the heads of the moaning horde of dead family members and neighbors. It felt like it went on for an eternity. The firing squad, comprised of Andrea, Shane, Daryl, T-Dog and Glenn, shot down each zombie with precision, their decaying bodies piling on the ground like a mountain of dead flesh.
Eventually the bullets stopped.
A sickening silence fell among the field.
And everyone stood there in horrified awe.
In a few moments a sound disturbed the silence. A soft and ragged breathing came forth from the barn. Carol's pained screech cried out as she fell to the ground in angst.
Popping her head over Daryl's shoulder, Eve peaked out to see what had happened. Carol sat sobbing on the ground, her arms extended towards the barn. A slight little girl sloppily walked forward from the chopped doors, her flesh a cold grey. It was a walker now. The realization of who this was made Eve's stomach drop.
They had found Sophia. Just not in the manner they had hoped.
The group looked at each other, silently deciding what to do. Rick Grimes, unofficial camp leader, walked forward with his head facing the ground in emotional pain. He looked up at the dead girl, running his hand over his jaw and chin, then lifted his gun, aimed, and shot. The girl fell into the pile of bleeding walkers, cold and dead and found.