Ava rubbed her eyes while stifling a quiet moan. Looking up she found a pair of dark brown eyes staring at her expectantly. She shook her head slightly trying to get back into the real world. Sleep had eluded her the past night, and in her dazed mind she realized she must have dozed of.
'What did you say again Sam?' Ava asked the young boy sitting at the table in front of her.
The boy groaned dramatically. 'I said why do we have to do this?' He gestured towards the open notebook in front of him, containing half scribbled equations. Ava sighed and looked to the kids sitting next to him. They were five in total, two boys and two girls in addition to Sam and they were all looking at her, waiting for an answer.
Ava wanted to slam her head into the wall of the garage that housed their makeshift school. She'd never realized that half the job of teaching would be convincing kids that they would actually need what was taught them. A job made increasingly difficult by a post apocalyptic world, where the dead walked outside their walls.
She pinched her nose, eyes closed, and prepared a mental speech about the importance of mathematics when she heard the distant sounds of cars approaching. Finally, she thought. She looked over to the kids and smiled.
'You know what? I think you guys have deserved an early day today, don't you?' Five bright grins flashed towards her in return. 'Class dismissed.' Ava said with a small laugh when none of the children moved to get up. She waved them off absentmindedly as she collected her things to the sound of scraping chairs and eager goodbyes.
Her jaw had set in a stern grimace as she hurried her way down towards the gate. Aaron and Eric had been gone on their recruiting trip far too long which could only mean two things, either they had found other survivors or they had gotten hurt. Or worse. Ava bit down on the inside of her cheek. She hated this part.
As she rounded the corner of the last house she slowed to a halt. She watched as Aaron and Eric came through the gate and filled with dread when she noticed Eric limping, his arm secured around Aaron's shoulders. Relief ran through her when she realized it couldn't be that serious when Aaron let him go as soon as they'd entered. Ava moved with the intention of following Eric directly to the infirmary, but remained transfixed as her eyes shifted to the group walking in behind them. Boy, where they a sight to behold.
She counted 14 heads before her breath hitched when she noticed one of them holding a baby. It had been a long time since she'd last seen a baby. Squinting, she tried to make out the rest of the group. Armed to their teeth and covered in grime they certainly looked the part of apocalyptic survivors, eyes darting back and forth trying to assess their surroundings. A small smile ran across her lips when she spotted one of them carrying a dead possum by its tail.
She lingered for another second, giving them all one last once over and suddenly realized that this must have been what she looked like at a time. They were obviously nervous and Ava wondered what they had been through before Aaron had found them. Grinding her teeth, her stomach churned. She could imagine it all too well.
Watching their darting looks Ava remembered how she'd felt when she stood next to Aaron at the same gate almost six months ago. Having the same questions she reckoned they were having now. What was this place? Who were these people? Was it safe?
They were tough, she could see as much. She wouldn't have expected otherwise from a group that had survived out there all this time. Considering they were standing inside their gates, Aaron must have deemed them to be good people. Ava trusted Aaron with her life and she had agreed with him when he'd approached Deanna about searching for larger groups, more capable survivors to improve their community.
But when she looked at them now a small streak of doubt formed in the back of her mind. What if he was wrong? Ava had seen a lot of different groups in the time she had spent outside their walls. A lot of them hadn't survived. And a lot of those who had Ava had come to wish hadn't.
Her eyes went blank as old memories flooded her mind. A little over two years had passed since she'd happily embarked on a post graduation road trip through America with her best friend to celebrate the end of eight years at the university and her Ph.D. Now, she was all that remained of her old life. And most days she wasn't even sure if that was true anymore.
Ava quelled the treacherous coil in her gut that always emerged whenever she though of her old life, of her friends and family back home across the Atlantic. They were most likely dead; the last thing she'd heard before communication went down was that the outbreaks had reached London.
Deciding she'd seen enough she turned and headed for the infirmary, making a mental note to learn everything she could about the new arrivals from Eric.
When Ava walked in the door at the infirmary she found Pete already bent over Eric's leg, rotating his ankle while Eric winced in obvious discomfort. She immediately strode over to the bed he was laying in.
'Hey.' She said softly. 'I came as soon as I could.'
She turned to Pete, who'd finished with the ankle now. 'What's the damage doc?'
'Seems like a pretty clean fracture. With some splinters and some rest you should be fine in a couple of weeks' Pete answered and patted Eric on his bad leg, resulting in another pained wince form Eric and a icy glare from Ava.
Seemingly unaware of his blunder Pete turned around to leave. 'Give me a second while I find something we can use for splinters.' He muttered.
As soon as he'd left the room Ava pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat down.
'What happened?' she demanded, a worried frown spread across her brow.
'Not you too' Eric laughed. 'It was just a stupid accident. I got surrounded by roamers while looking for Aaron and one of them managed to run a tire over my leg. It's nothing but embarrassing really.' He grabbed her hand when her frown deepened.
'Hey, don't you put this on you now. It's my own clumsiness whose to blame.' He continued in a mock stern voice. 'You know I do stupid things when I'm worried.'
Ava met his eyes and felt her own tear up. She quickly looked away, blinking rapidly while she cursed her treacherous emotions. Forcing a smile she looked back at him.
'I'm not. I've got enough with my own two left feet, so you can keep your clumsiness to yourself.'
Eric chuckled slightly at her response.
'Besides' she continued, 'who would teach the children of Alexandria the lifesaving skillset of algebra if I had continued to recruit with Aaron, huh?'
'Ah yes, any newcomers we'd find would flee as soon as they saw our illiterate children.' Eric said dramatically and soon they where both laughing.
They both turned at the sound of Aaron entering through the door, their laughter fading.
'How bad is it?' he asked, worry evident across his face.
'Nothing to worry about, just a sprained ankle as suspected' Eric smiled as Aaron placed a light kiss on his forehead.
'What happened to you?' Ava blurted out in surprise when she noticed the forming bruise on Aarons chin.
'Rick happened. Their leader. Knocked me out cold right after I'd approached them.' He stopped to push her hand down after she'd come around the bed to get a closer look. 'I'm fine, really. I get why he did it - they had to be careful. So were you, remember?'
'I guess.' Ava conceded, but she still felt a flare of anger towards the man who'd hit him. 'So what do we think about these people? Do you think it's going to work out?'
Aaron sighed. 'I hope so. They seem like good people. Hopefully Deanna will see what I've seen.'
'Ok, you know I trust you.' Ava sat down again next to the bed, satisfied now that she knew they where both going to be all right. The weight that had been sitting on her shoulders for the past weeks they'd been gone disappeared and she looked between the two, grinning.
'So, tell me everything that's happened and don't you dare leave anything out.'
Four firm knocks at the door interrupted Ava whilst reading the next morning. 'Just a minute' she called and the marked the page she was at before putting the book down on the kitchen counter. When she opened the door it was Deanna that greeted her.
Looking down at Ava's steaming mug of coffee she offered an apologetic smile. 'I'm sorry if I'm disturbing your breakfast honey, I was just wondering if you would do me a favour later today?' she asked in that hard, demanding tone she so often used.
'Sure, what do you need?' Ava replied, aware that declining wasn't an option.
'I need you to check in on our new arrivals, make sure they have everything they need and welcome them to the community.' Deanna said, still smiling.
Ava's brows came together in confusion 'I thought you sent Jessie to do that yesterday?' she asked as she wondered about Deanna's motives for choosing her for this. Though she was generally well liked in the community, she had few real connections among them.
'That's true, but I want you to go as well. Next to Enid you were the last person to join us, and I think it might be good for them to meet someone who's been out there for a while. Also, you can inform Rick and Carl about the afternoon school for the older kids. I want this group integrated in our community as soon as possible' Deanna spoke, ever the politician.
Ava nodded reluctantly. 'Wonderful. I knew I could count on you.' Deanna smiled and squeezed her shoulder before departing.
Deep in though Ava walked back inside her house to finish her morning coffee, trying to figure out how she would convince yet another post apocalypse teen about the importance of education.
The rest of the morning passed in a blur and Ava found herself repeating the names of the new arrivals as she approached their houses after finishing today's class with the younger kids. Rick – Carl – Judith – Michonne... A sense of nervousness crept up on her. She'd always been rubbish at first meetings and small talk.
Before the world went to shit Ava had just finished her Ph.D. in history and was looking forward to a bright academic career. When the outbreak happened she quickly realized that all her hard work proved pretty useless when dealing with a dead corpse trying to eat you.
Deanna had thought otherwise and gave her a job in the provincial school they had in Alexandria soon after she arrived. Ava had declined it at first, not ready to slide back into old habits after nearly a year and a half on her own, opting to rather follow Aaron on his recruiting trips. It had been the perfect arrangement for a while, until it wasn't anymore. Once again she wondered about Deanna's motives for choosing her for this task.
Ava walked up to the first house, knocked three times and waited. When no one answered she bent down next to the door trying to peek through one of the windows to see if someone was home.
'Hey, what are ya doing?' A sudden shout caught her attention.
Ava turned to her left to find the guy with the dead possum from the day before standing on the neighboring porch, holding his crossbow stiffly beside him. Seeing his menacing stance her mind went temporarily blank.
'Ya spying on us or something?' the man growled, demanding an answer.
'What? No!' she uttered in confusion.
Shaking her head she recovered slightly and remembered that Aaron had told her his name – Daryl. 'I'm looking for you actually.' She muttered to herself as she got up. She plastered a smile on her face and quickly made her way over to join him at the other porch.
'Hi, Daryl was it? I'm Ava.' Ava offered her hand in greeting and found her smile faltering when Daryl chose to ignore it, opting to keep his icy stare and firm grip on his crossbow.
'Okay.' Ava lowered her hand. 'Uhm, Deanna sent me to check in on you guys. I was actually looking for Rick and Carl specifically, are they here?
'Nah, they left a while ago.' Daryl said, still staring.
'Oh, do you know where they went?' Ava ran a hand through her hair, biting her lip slightly.
'Dunno. Out exploring with the rest I guess'. Daryl mumbled and finally dropped his stare. He picked up an old rag and perched himself on the railing before starting to clean his crossbow. Or at least that was what she assumed he was doing. Truth be told, this was the first time she'd seen one up close.
'Oh, I see. I just wanted to talk to him about maybe coming to school. I mean it's not actually a school, it's just some tables in a garage, and he'll probably won't even want to go, but the rest of the kids seem to like it, so.' She rambled, unsure if he was even listening to her at this point.
'Anyway, I'm kind of the teacher, well not that I'm a teacher per say, I just spent a lot of years at the university, so Deanna gave me the job when I got here and I said yes. I guess that's why she asked me so that's why I'm here. At your house I mean. Looking for Rick and Carl.'
Ava looked at him desperately, wishing for him to provide her with any sort of response to end her misery. Daryl shot her an annoyed glance through the ragged bangs covering his face, but kept his silence.
'Also I lived out there for a while' Ava gestured to walls surrounding the houses, 'So Deanna thought maybe it would be good for me to welcome you as well since I'm kind of the last newcomer next to you guys. So… Welcome I guess?' She threw her hands out in an awkward welcoming gesture while dying a little on the inside. She couldn't remember the last time she had unravelled with such speed in front a stranger.
Daryl gave her a thorough once over before muttering a response. 'Like I told ya, they ain't here.'
Ava cleared her throat. 'Right. Do you have any idea when they might be back?'
'How the hell should I know, I ain't their keeper. Can't ya see I'm busy?' Daryl barked at her.
Ava clenched her fists. She was getting real tired of his attitude and felt the feelings of embarrassment giving way for her anger. There was no need for him to bite her head of, she hadn't wanted a part in this conversation anymore than he had.
'Yeah, I can see that. Real busy.' She replied sarcastically, nodding her head to the rag in his hand. 'Between this and practicing your glare I can see why you wouldn't find the time for anything else, much less learning any manners I suppose.'
'Listen lady, I don't give a shit about your school or whatever the hell you do. Now I told ya they ain't here. This place has two goddamn streets, find them yourself if it's so important.' Daryl snarled at her.
Ava opened her mouth to retort, but decided against it and instead threw her arms up in defeat, backing away. 'Fine, just tell them I came by.' She said flatly.
She gave him one last angry stare and turned to leave, muttering 'Asshole' under her breath loud enough for him to hear.
Feeling his angry glare at her back as she retreated from the house she groaned, rubbing her face with her hand. Yeah, that most certainly could have gone better, she thought to herself and decided to try to avoid the bowman from now on.