I don't own walking dead and yes this story now follows with the current issues, but look at my publishing date I started this quite a while ago damn it. Chapter 5 here ya go.

He was thinner then they remembered and so pale. The three men all stood around the bed looking down at Daryl as he slept. They didn't really know what to except when they realized they found him. They were ecstatic and over whelmed with the triumph of finding him. But now the reality of Daryl's condition weighed heavily upon them. They realized looking at him that finding him was the easy part, getting him healthy and able to travel was going to be the real problem.

"How has his condition been since you brought him here?" Rick asked the young women, "And how long has he been with you? Has anything changed or gotten worse?"

"Whoa wait up now," she said raising her hands and taking a step back, "One question at a time. I'll tell you my name first but after that I want answers too. My name is Ahhme….I want to know about you guys. Who are you for starters, do you have more people, where they are, and tell me about him. Then I'll answer your first question and maybe others depending on if I like your answers. Let's get out of the room here and talk downstairs, we need to let him sleep". They left the room and gathered down in the living room area.

Rick started off as T-Dog and Glenn took seats,

"My name is Rick. I guess I lead us; we aren't a big group at all. This is Glen and T- Dog. We have a few others back at our vehicles; I'm not overly sure where from here. Glen could probably tell ya, he is our guy for getting around. We have six others in our group. That upstairs is Daryl." He walked slowly around the living room, " Daryl… he is the strongest member of our group, he doesn't really need us, but we sure as hell need him. He's got an older brother, Merle." She noticed the sound of disgust that came from Rick's mouth when he said the man's name.

"I take it Daryl is the good brother?" She asked hesitantly.

"He didn't use to be, followed everything is older brother did or wanted him to do. They weren't a good pair to have around." T-Dog interjected," But a while back a group of us went into Atlanta, before we knew how it really was. We got stuck out there and Merle, well he wasn't making things good. We made some decisions, that at the moment were for the good of the group and Merle got left behind, handcuffed to the top of a roof." He turned away and Glen picked up the end of the story.

"We went back to our base camp, we had to tell Daryl what happened. He was pissed and wanted to go back for his brother. So we did, but he was already gone when we got back."

"Did the zombies get him?" she asked. Glen shook his head and continued.

"No, he… We found his hand, just his hand when we got up to the roof. He sawed off his own hand to escape. He got out of the city ahead of us and took our truck and we haven't seen him since."

"Wow, that's pretty fucked up. I'm surprised he stayed with you after what you did to his brother" Ahhme said.

"Well just as we were returning to our camp it was attacked by a group of walkers, a lot of people died and we had to move on" Rick said "Daryl just kinda came with us. We headed to the CDC, hoping to find shelter and answers. We got both at a price. We were forced to leave, but almost didn't get the chance." Ahhme looked at him confused by his statement. Rick saw and waved it off.

"Complicated and not overly important anymore. We kept traveling but again a group of walkers came upon us. A huge herd caught us out in the open when we were searching cars. We all hid, Daryl saved T-Dogs life, hiding him from walkers. But near the tail end, a little girl named Sophia came out of hiding to early and got chased off into the woods. We all searched for days and days. We stumbled across a seclude farm, when my son was shot. While we were there Daryl kept searching for the little girl. He got injured real bad doing it. Her mother is very grateful to Daryl for putting everything he had into finding her."

"He actually found her?" Ahhme asked

All three men dropped their heads and Rick continued on sadly,

"No, not alive anyway. She was a walker by the time we found her. Her mother Carol withdrew from the group for a while. Daryl also isolated himself for quite a while. He didn't even camp with us anymore. We thought though that we could stay at that farm forever, but again the walkers couldn't just let it be that way. An enormous herd spilt our group and destroyed the farm. We have been on the road ever since."

Ahhme leaned back in her chair and took in everything Rick had just told her.

"That's so intense, I mean, I don't even know what to really say. How long ago was that? How long have you been on the run without permanent shelter?"

"I don't know" Rick said huskily, he had stopped trying to keep track of the days since the farm. Glenn chimed in.

"Three months Rick, it's been three months since the farm." Rick just started at him in disbelief at the time that has passed. He didn't realize how long it had been.

"So" T-dog asked, "We answered your questions, who are you, where is your group?"

"And we need to know how Daryl has been?" Rick added. Ahhme sighed made a distinct clicking sound. From an above loft area a flurry of black feathers came down and landed upon her out stretched arm. She stroked the large black raven's feathers talking softly to it before answering.

"I'm alone. I have no group. It's just me and my animals here. I raise chickens and goats outside, along with guinea pigs, rabbit, and rats out in the shed. This is my Raven, Riddick. He is kind of an alarm system. He alerts me to walkers or people that he doesn't recognize. I have three other animals too, but…." She paused, and rick saw her gaze fall behind him. He slowly turned as he heard something approaching from behind. From the hallway three shapes lumbered and shuffled forward. A heavy stench hung in the air, and as the forms came into the light Rick jumped up and back shouting to Glenn and T-Dog. They turned and were also terrified at what they saw coming towards them. Three dogs, canine cadavers, were slowly making their way towards the group. Ahhme jumped up as she saw Rick's hand go towards his gun holster.

"No, wait…" She knelt down in-between the three dogs," They aren't what you think, it's not like what's out there. She greeted each creature and petted each one in turn. The men looked on, stunned at what they were witnessing. They thought they had a grasp on what was now reality, but they didn't know how to process what they were now seeing.

Ahhme started to introduce the dogs to them, hoping to ease the tension.

"This is Furya, she is the only girl and she is very sweet. She is a tiny little akita, but she is the boss of the three". The medium size Akita wagged her tail and slightly lowered her ears. She was stick thin, and rick could make out every bone that remained in her body. Almost all her fur was gone, what remained was on her ears and tail. Ahhme continued on to the smallest dog. From what Glenn could tell it probably was ugly when it was alive. She picked up the little black dog and hugged him tightly. He wagged his tail once after she set him down.

"That is Ripper, he is my monster dog. I called him that when he was alive. He is the little scout mostly. He lets me know when everything is ok, but he is also the guard dog. He protects the house and me. Of all the three he is the one to not mess with." As she was explaining Rick could hear low growling coming from the furry little tank. He had a massive under bite to his jaw and a huge black Mohawk running down his back. His back legs were all exposed muscles and bone and his nails were grown out and gnawed into daggers. Rick kept an eye on him as Ahhme went to explain the last dog. She walked over to the enormous dog, he had to be over 100 pounds. The dog only had three legs and Rick couldn't tell if he was like that alive or if it happened after.

"This is Stumble" Ahhme exclaimed happily, "He watches the entire perimeter every day, nothing gets past him." She roughly rubbed his huge head and the big dog suddenly dropped to the ground and rolled onto his back , exposing literally his belly. The dog's innards were spilling out of him as he rolled around on his back. Glenn tried to not hurl watching the spectacle.

Ahhme laughed," He loves having his belly rubbed, or well he used to while he was alive. I don't really do it now. It's kinda icky." He rolled back over and stood up hopping over to the door. She got up and let the three dogs outside.

"They like to keep watch" She said simply. She sat back down and Riddick hopped to her shoulder. She reached up to stroke his feather and met Rick gaze as he stood dumbfounded by all he had just witness.

"How…How did this… how did they happen?" He finally asked.

Ahhme looked away, a sad look in her eyes. Glen saw a single tear slide down her cheek. She composed herself and made a quick motion upward. Riddick quickly flew off her shoulder and back up to the loft area from where he had come from earlier. She then got up and walked to each of the windows on the ground level and checked them each slowly, one at a time. When she was finished she returned to her seat and hesitated to begin. Rick sensing her reluctance spoke up.

"You don't have to tell us, we have just never seen… well we didn't believe what was happening when it all started in the first place, but now to see what we just saw… I can't believe.." Ahhme cut him off quickly.

"I understand, it's just, it's the first time…. Well you are the first people I have talked to since they have changed and since I have been here alone." She took a deep breath and began.

" I was alone when the dogs turned. It was horrible watching them suffer but I didn't know what to do to help them and they didn't just give up and die. They didn't gedt bit or attacked .I still don't understand why they are the way they are. When they were alive they would eat "dead" zombies that they would come across. I guess it kinda caught up with them". She stopped and starte at the ground wringing her hands together nervously.

"What about when you weren't alone?" Rick asked gently. "when you were part of a group? What happened?"

She took a deep breath and wiped away a few stray tears before starting again.

"I wasn't in a group…it was just the two of us."

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