A/N: I'm so sorry if the characters used don't seem right, or seem OC-ish. I tried to make them as believable as possible, but my memory of characters are terrible.
Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead or any of its characters.

Chapter Two.

"Is…she alive?" The words rang through her head, as her eyes fluttered open. Where…was she? Her eyes took awhile to focus. The room was dark; her hands moved to her body. She was crudely clothed, in a massive t-shirt that clearly belonged to a bigger man. Her eyes still hadn't focused properly. She tried to sit up, to get a better look around the room but she had to steady herself; to stop herself from fainting. She groaned in pain. Well, at least she knew she wasn't dead. Or…was she? Was this heaven? If so, why was she in so much fucking pain? How long had she been out? Was this just a dream? She didn't know. She started to cough, holding her hand to her face. "Do you…want some water?" A small Korean boy stuck his head around the door, checking whether or not she was awake. He stepped forward. Valentine nodded her head slightly, coughing again. The Korean boy sat on the edge of the bed. "I'm, uh, Glenn," He took his hat off and ruffled his grease smothered hair. "I'm…the person that found you," He put the glass to Valentine's lips, and she took a sip, glad that he had done this for her without her asking. "Herschel says that you might have some trouble…walking," He muttered, avoiding eye contact. She paused, remembering what happened to her before she had passed out. The days, weeks, months that, that…thing had happened. "You've been out for a week, Carol and I have been watching you," Valentine didn't even know who Carol was, and didn't feel safe at all. "I have to go, I'll tell Rick that you're awake…" He avoided eye contact with her throughout the whole conversation. Did she look that bad? She didn't feel that bad…well, maybe she did, but she didn't want to admit that to herself. He then fled the room, shutting the door behind him almost silently.

Her eyes checked the room, fluttering around with sudden movements. Where was she? Was she safe? These people had fixed her up, and looked after her the week she was out; they couldn't be that bad, right? Plus, they had a house. A house that could be used her for own will, she wasn't going to stay with the people that he mentioned. She had to get away from this place as soon as she could. She turned to get out of bed, and gasped in pain, her hands flying to her side. "Shit," She muttered, wincing, her voice cracking. She placed her feet on the ground and hoped she could stand; she could. She took one step forward, and almost screamed in pain. Her foot hardly being able to take her weight. She needed to get out of here, but could she even make it outside of the house with this limp. She looked down at her foot, to see the majority of her left leg bruised from ankle to knee. She winced at the site, but tried to focus on moving forward. "Right," she whispered to herself, limping slowly to the door, making sure not to put too much pressure onto her left leg.

She clasped her hands on the door knob and turned it, slowly, making sure not to make any noise. She stuck her head out the doorway slowly, her eyes looking for anybody that could possibly get in her way. There was nobody there. She hobbled forward checking the hallway for anybody that could interrupt her escape, especially this 'Rick' who the Korean boy talked about. He had to be the leader. If he wasn't the leader, who would he be? Was he going to be like Thomas? Violent, ill-tempered and a rapist? She hoped not, but what difference would it make if she was planning on escaping? She had to do it now, before she got attached. Knowing the Korean boy's name was already enough for her to feel sick about leaving. She had to ignore it, so that is what she did.

She imagined she had woken up, on the floor in the living room, as she hobbled through it, almost silently. She stopped, looking for the easiest exit. She looked at the kitchen, but ignored it. She had better things to worry about than feeding herself, but then, at the mention of food, she became well aware of the fact she was a girl; and that she was naked, with just a long shirt on, hardly covering her bruised and bandaged thighs. She winced but she had to keep on moving. She had to. What if they found her here. She would not only be putting herself in danger, but this group. This group she didn't know. The house was big, she noted, definitely a farm house. And that meant there was a 50% chance that this was walker infested and that she had only dreamed up Glenn- the Korean boy. Yet, this also meant that there was a 25% chance that this was run by people. Why 25%? Because it could also be run by bad people, which were the type of people, in her state, she didn't want to come across. She knew there were at least four people here. "Carol, Glenn, Rick and Herschel," she murmured to herself, looking around almost wildly. Yet something struck her as odd. If there was four people here, why weren't they in the house?

As if on cue, a tall, slender man walked into the living room, and almost jumped out of his skin. He reached for his gun quickly, but stopped when her saw that it was the girl that Glenn had found. He moved his hand off of the gun, and raised them cautiously, as if to show he meant no harm. He was unshaven and dirty, the type of man Valentine would stay well clear of naturally, yet he had a strange softness in his features when he saw the look on the girl's face. A look of pure confusion. She didn't understand why he had moved his hands away from his gun. She could be dangerous. She wasn't, but she could have been. In fact, if he had met her before she probably would have begged to go with him, and wouldn't be a harm at all. Even in her broken state, she didn't want to hurt the man that saved her. She didn't want to hurt Thomas when he saved her, and mistook her for a guy, but this man was different. He didn't have the murderous look on his face. He looked, well, friendly, and he even sounded that way when he spoke. "Ma'am, I am going to ask you to go back to bed," He told her, his arms still out. "We will then discuss your needs and how long you wish to stay with the group, are you okay with this?" That was not a request, that was an order. Valentine knew that this man was definitely a man of the law. She could easily see it. She could see the authority, yet the softness in his face. She nodded once; her escape had been put to a halt, for now. "Would you like any help?" he asked walking at her side as she hobbled through the rooms. She ignored him, staying silent.

When they got to the room, he held the door open as she walked through and sat on the bed. "I hope you are feeling a lot better…" He looked at her, waiting for her name.
"Vin- Val." She told him, staring intently at him, trying to work out his character. He intentions did not seem ill-mannered, but maybe he was just a good actor, he could have been a lawyer. Maybe she could actually trust this group. "Val," he added to the end of his sentence. "I'm going to have to question you about a few things if you wish to stay, Val, I hope you don't mind," he muttered; she could sense him wanting to look away, but he held eye contact with her. "I'm going to have to ask you what got you into the mess you are in now," Valentine nodded knowingly. "I was in a group. It was led by somebody called Thomas," She spat his name out in disgust, and the man she assumed was Rick must have noticed, as he seemed to wince slightly. "There were six…men, but now five," she told him, sighing. "I was one of the men, even though I am clearly a girl," she paused, not wanting to tell her story. "They picked me up, it was just a few weeks after the dead started arising. I had cut off most of my hair and I had lost a lot of weight. They mistook me for a boy; a male," She sighed shakily. "It was a month into my stay with them I realised that they were…bad people," Rick looked at her, again, in the eyes, almost pressuring her to continue. He opened his mouth to say something but she cut in. "We were a large group, around 24 men, and 17 women, but then the horde came; it got rid of a lot of the bastards, but there was still 6 men and 8 women," she paused, catching her breath. "I went out for them, the day after, taking what I could find to keep up safe. I walked in on what they were doing to a family they had found," she grimaced. "They killed the father, and raped the girl, who took her own life later that month," she winced. "This happened for the next 7 months, the women getting treated like fuck bags, men getting shot. A few of the girls got knocked up, but they killed 'em, too many mouths to feed, they said," Valentine shrugged. "I never touched anybody though, couldn't have them find out I was a woman, even though I think they knew. One day, Thomas snapped and raped me before dumping me on a road. Glenn found me, and here we are now," Rick was staring at her, she then realised her body was shaking with terror and she was holding back tears.

Rick never introduced himself that night, he had walked out after Valentine's story, without even saying goodbye. He was disgusted that anybody would do that to an innocent girl. He came up later though, and apologised for his behaviour earlier. He told her she was safe here, for as long as she needed to be. He told her that she could stick around for as long as she wanted and didn't even have to leave. He left some food, which she barely touched and some clean, fitting clothes for when she wanted to come downstairs. The clothes were a pair of shorts and a checkered top. She didn't care. They were just clothes to her, but at the moment, she supposed she'd need them. She felt like she was taking too much from this group, and maybe that was for the worse. She got stood up silently and moved to what looked to be a bathroom. She filled up the sink with cold water and washed her body with it, then she washed her hair with the soap and the dirty water, not really caring, as it was her own germs. Hell maybe it would kill her quicker. She finished quickly and put her clean clothes on. Suddenly there was a quick knock on the door, as a short haired woman entered. "D-d-inner is ready, if you wish to eat with us." Valentine followed after her.