A Tale of two survivors
Chapter 2- Others?
I awakened from my sleep to a loud bang from outside, feeling completely disoriented and confused I sat bolt upright on the bed and placed my hand to my head, it was painful but at least the bleeding had stopped. The room that I was in now was very different from the one I fell asleep in. I wondered if someone had carried me there, I'm pretty sure I'd got out of my sleepwalking habit when I was 8, so I doubt it was that.
I repositioned myself so that I was leant against the wall and studied the room. The last one was dark with horrible grey walls and a plain desk that was more like a shelf. However, this one had a blue, curtain-like piece of fabric hanging in the doorway and a desk with a pretty cool spinny chair. Suddenly I remembered that I had lost my bag and stood up to search my room. Nothing. That bag had been my life for the past however many months since the outbreak had started, it's the reason I was still alive and without it I had nothing.
Forgetting the bag and remembering the loud bang that had woke me up, I made my way over to the curtain and pulled it back to find a large hallway. I noticed a guy about my age standing at the end, he was neither Daryl nor Rick. Wait, so there are others? I was kinda hoping that they would have told me that when I met them, I mean you can't be too careful now a days, right? I stepped back into the doorway hoping that he hadn't spotted me but when I saw him walking in my direction it was obvious that he had.
"Hey, you're the new girl right?" The guy asked before a moment of silence arose, I presumed he expected me to answer but I just stood there staring at him awkwardly.
"Not much of a talker, huh? Well I'm going out for a run into town in about an hour, I guess I've kinda been nominated for errand boy so if you need anything, make sure to give me a shout, okay?"
He seemed nice enough, I didn't trust him yet but from what I could see he was harmless.
"Uh, I'm good I think, did you see anyone bring in a back pack yesterday? I can't seem to find it anywhere." He seemed to be thinking quite hard for a second before replying.
"I'd check with Daryl, after all he's the one that saved you. Oh, and I'm Glenn by the way, you're Louise right?" Louise? Are you freaking kidding me? The kids in my year when I was at school used to call me that to wind me up.
"Eloise." I replied bluntly. Probably too bluntly, it's not his fault I guess, it's not as though he was trying to be a dick.
"Yeah.. I'm gonna call you Louise" He shot me an innocent but big grin before extending his hand out to me. I shook it politely before huffing and rapidly pulling it back down to my side.
"Just tell me where I can find Daryl"
"He'll be down sharpening his arrows, let me take you there."
I couldn't help but notice the way his smile seemed to light up the room, he was quite attractive but then I figured I only thought that because he was the first human being I had come across in a long while that wasn't family or trying to kill me.
As promised, Glenn lead me outside to find Daryl sitting on the grass playing with his crossbow.
I reluctantly walked over to him and noticed that he didn't even look up, even when my shadow blacked the sunlight from getting to him.
"Hey-" I tried, but was rudely interrupted.
"Save it, kid. I ain't nobody's little chum buddy round here and I sure as hell ain't gonna be yours."
What the hell is his problem? I'm clearly not a kid and he's clearly not the same caring man who helped me last night. Someone has a serious case of bad mood swings.
"I er, I came to thank you actually." Was he really going to be this difficult?
"Well there you go, you said what you had to, now piss off and leave me be."
What?! Who does he think he is?
At this point I noticed Glenn turn on his heels and walk in the opposite direction, I was left alone with this... this.. I don't know what, you could hardly call him a man.
Daryl looked up at me from the floor, squinting his eyes and using one of hands to shield them from the sun.
"What do you think yer doing 'ere? Yer gonna make a hell of a lot of enemies if you keep ignoring people darlin'."
Pfft, I'm pretty sure i'm not the one making enemies here, it wouldn't hurt him to be more polite.
"Well thanks for making me feel welcome.." I muttered under my breath, expecting him not to hear it.
"Welcome? Welcome? Stupid bitch. I saved you, got you cleaned up and even took you to a comfier bed after you fell asleep, yer the one who's being ungrateful."
"All I did was come to thank you, why do you have to be such a jerk?" He was really making me angry now. How was I being ungrateful? I really couldn't be bothered with this.
"Alright, look ere', i'm not gonna be yer li'l pal but if yer not gon' leave me be and quit bugging me, at least give me a hand."
Help him? That had to be a joke. If he thought I was going to do anything for him he had anot-
Actually, wait. He had a point, he had saved me and helped me, I could at least show a bit of gratitude.
"Fine, but i'm just returning the favour." I'm not sure what he thought about that because he grinned to himself then turning to face me, a smile still on his lips.
"Trust me, yer not even close to repaying me yet sweetheart."
What did he mean by that? I smiled back and in that moment, it was like the angry Daryl had vanished and his old self was there. Daryl handed me an arrow and a piece of scraggly old cloth, so I mimicked his actions, closely paying attention to every little detail. Daryl hands looked really rough and unloved. He had a cut going from his middle finger to his wrist on the back of his left hand.
"Hey, I have some cream for that." I said nervously, in an attempt to not give Daryl an excuse to snap again.
"Nah, it'll be alright, how do you expect to give me cream when it's in your bag and you don't know where that is?" Daryl was smiling again. This was good news though! It meant he had picked my bag up, but it also meant he had gone through it..
An old-looking woman appeared from the prison and started heading in our direction. She was fairly tall and wearing a black and white chequered apron, I don't think she liked me as her smile faded when she saw me sitting next to Daryl.
"Pookie, breakfast is ready." The woman called before walking right up to Daryl and hugging him, she squeezed him tightly but I thought he looked awkward more than anything.
"You're welcome to join us too." The woman said to me before smiling then heading back up to the prison.
I couldn't control my laughter. I was almost on the floor in an uncontrollable laughing fit.
"P-Po-Pookie?" I managed out, each syllable had a pause between because of my laughter.
"Shut up, I don't even know why she calls me that okay. I didn't fucking ask her to." Uh-oh. He seemed pissed off again.
"So she's your woman, huh?"
Daryl gave me a glance which suggested I shouldn't have asked that.
"What the fuck you on? I don't need no one, I don't have girlfriends or dates or anything, so nah, she ain't my woman, and she needs to get that in 'er head and yew'll do well to remember it."
I didn't reply, I just stared at Daryl for a short while before following him up to the prison.
Breakfast was really awkward. I felt alone in a room full of about 15 people, I didn't realise there was so many of them. As soon as I walked in, Rick stood up and caught everyone's attention.
"Everyone, this is Eloise, we found her in the forest a short while down the road, she's gonna be staying with us for a while, I want you all to make her feel welcome."
A girl named Beth offered the seat next her to me so I smiled and sat down to eat my breakfast of porridge outs and carrots. It was weird but nice to eat something proper for once. Only then did I realised that I hadn't eaten anything for about 5 days.
"So how old are you?" I heard a voice from across the table which broke my stare away from Daryl.
It was Glenn. Suddenly everyone's eyes were on me as they waited in anticipation for an answer.
"Uh.. Either 19 or 20, I'm not really sure, I lost track of the dates a while ago."
Rick looked over at me and smiled before announcing everyone's tasks for that day.
"Okay, Beth, Maggie and Carl, I want you three on duty for a couple of hours. I need you to patrol the fences, making sure no walkers get in. Glenn are you still making a run to the store?"
Glenn nodded before Rick continued.
"Okay good, I'll be coming with you, Judith needs more formula."
Formula? As in baby formula? I didn't see any babies around..
"Daryl, I need you to take Eloise down to the range so she can get some practise, we need to see how good her shooting is before we let her do anything."
"I ain't doing nuffin, she can learn herself." His words caused my head to snap in his direction where I was greeted with a blank look, I guess he was serious.
"Daryl, This ain't up for negotiation, it's just for a couple hours."
Daryl paused before letting out a low, quiet "Fine."
After breakfast I was sitting in my room sorting through my back pack that Daryl had just returned to me.
"Don't worry I aint nicked nuffin" Daryl explained as he invited himself into my room.
"I know, I checked." I smiled at him and he looked at me before returning the smile and helping me re-pack my bag."
"Hey, maybe now that we're gonna be spending some time together, I guess we could be friends after all?" An even wider smile on my face now/
"We'll see about that, kid."
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Okay so i'm gonna make sure something interesting happens in the next chapter! Thanks for reading and don't forget to reply :)