Okay, so I was supposed to be reviewing and doing work for my exams when I got the urge to write and this started. In my other Daryl Fic - Between Walkers, Brothers and Guns – I started before the beginning so I had more time to 'establish' a relationship, I think I will delay the movement of the group to the CDC somehow, anyway, enjoy!
Atlanta, refuge from the infection or so it was supposed to be. With the quick demise of the military, the infection got to Atlanta and its people turning the survivors into what they had feared so. Ava Summers glared from behind the curtains of the apartment out to the city. When the infection came and claimed Atlanta there was no hope of her getting out alive or intact, especially with her nephew to care for, so she had simply barricaded a flat, going out when and if they needed supply's always armed and always returning to the small boy who hid in the bathtub while she left.
Ava sighed and turned away from window, pulling the curtain back to hide their existence, the world had known was gone, there was nothing she could to but survive and pray that something would save at least her nephew if not both of them.
She slightly walked into her room, smiling softly at the boy sleeping in a circle in the middle of the bed. Quietly, as if not to wake him, Ava approached the bed and sat on the edge, leaning over to stroke the boys blond hair, a trait that he had inherited from both his father and Ava's side of the family. She scowled slightly, not liking how his dirty worn cloths hung around the eight-year-olds frame, he was losing too much weight without sweets, and Ava made a mental note to get him some sweets on her next raid even though she hated leaving him without the certainty of returning to him.
"Aunt Ava?" the young voice croaked as he rolled over, his small face covered in freckles and he rubbed his tired sore eyes.
"Yeah sweetie?" she smiled pushing his hair again.
"I'm hungry, when can we have dinner?" he asked yawning.
"We can have it now," she smiled at him before standing and leaving the boy to roll around in the blankets.
Ava glared at the empty kitchen. They had run out of supplies. Again. The boy watched from the doorway as his Aunt strode over to the coffee table in the middle of the room, the one that he wasn't allowed near, and started to play with all her sharp objects.
Ava arranged her knifes and gun, making sure she had enough weapons but enough agility still to survive.
"Are you leaving again?" Ava's head snapped up at the frightened voice from the doorway.
"Come here, Kyle," She smiled as the boy shuffled over to her.
"I'll be back soon, I promise." She smiled as he knelt next to her in front of the coffee table. Kyle looked unconvinced.
She leaned over and kissed her nephew's head, "You know the drill, I'll see you soon."
Watching Kyle sadly shuffle into the bathroom, Ava smiled sadly, she hated to upset him but she had to if they wanted to eat.
/
She had been on her way to of the kitchens in the building, gun ready, when she had first heard the psychotic raving from the roof. Biting out a curse, Ava knew she had to think fast if she wanted to live to see Kyle again, the shouts would attract any walkers she hadn't killed in the building to them, that's if they weren't looters. Wincing at the memory of the last looters, a group of violent men who she had managed to wrestle of the window to save herself and Kyle, Ava did not want to deal with that trauma again.
The rancid smell of searing flesh invaded her senses, clogging her nose and clinging to the roof of her mouth making Ava gag. She stopped, hearing voices arguing ahead of her, they seemed to be all men, arguing over someone who was apparently responsible for the god awful smell.
"Guys you hear that?" A timid voice came from the kitchen.
Ava's breath hitched in her throat pushing her back against the wall.
"Shurrup Chink," A deeper, angry voice snapped, "We don need yo paranoia, we got more important issues!"
While they argued amongst themselves, Ava decided that coming back later for food, when these men had gone would be more beneficial. Taking a step away from the wall, she winced as some stray glass crunched beneath her boot.
"You heard that?" The timid voice hissed. Ava held still, her hand twitching beside her gun. She could kill these men without remorse easily, it had been her job after all before the world when to hell as English military personal, the only things she regretted was that Kyle had seen this side of her.
Listening closely, Ava heard one of the men advancing to her position, the others quieted as though they expected something dramatic to happen.
Ava watched, gun now in hand, as a man slowly advanced around the corner, his own gun stretched out in front of him. The woman titled her head in confusion when she saw his sheriff uniform, she had been sure they were all dead. The man turned in her direction and froze, his eyes wide at finding someone seemingly alive in the waste of Atlanta.
"Miss?" He called out, probably unsure of whether he was hallucinating or not and Ava resisted the urge to snigger as she said nothing. Angry stomps echoed around the corner before a lean young blonde man with a crossbow emerged.
"The fuck you playing at?" The blonde man snapped at the sheriff, seemingly oblivious to Ava for the moment. The sheriff nodded his head towards Ava, who was still stood still and silent, and the blonde man swung his head around to stare at what had been distracting the officer. Biting out a curse the blonde man raised his cross bow at Ava, ready to shoot.
Ava's gun hand swung up, aiming between the vest-clad man's chest.
"Daryl don't!" The Sherriff snapped, pushing down on the crossbow so it aimed at the floor. The man, who appeared to be named Daryl, quickly raised his weapon once more, disreguarding what the officer had told him in favour of protecting himself. If she had a weapon aimed at him, why not him at her?
"Daryl." The officer hissed in warning as two more men joined them from the other room. A tall, thick armed black man and a smaller, nervous looking Asian man with a cap. Ava cursed inwardly, the situation was not working in her favour, and yes she could probably take three of them down in hand-to-hand combat but the blonde's crossbow made the equation difficult. All men seem surprised by her presence.
"Mam, are you hurt?" The officer asked her. Ava shook her head but made no move to lower her weapon.
"You see a guy run through here?" Daryl asked, glaring at her accusingly from behind his crossbow, "He's my brother we're looking for him."
"You are the first living people I have seen come through here in a while." Ava spoke eventually, both her and Daryl's weapons still raised.
"In a while?" The young Asian masked asked, "There were more?"
Ava nodded to them, "Were."
The expressions of the men darkened knowing it meant they people were most likely dead.
"Don' care bout no other dead fuckers," Daryl snapped, "Where's ma brother?"
"How should I know? I haven't seen him." Ava spoke calmly. Daryl growled at her as the all black man, and Ava realised she only knew one of their names, cleared his throat.
"How are you alive? Are you alone?" The man asked her.
"I'm alive because I was trained to survive and I fail to see how any other potential survivors would be of interest to you." Ava spoke calmly once more, not wanting to overly annoy the Cross-bow baring man.
The sheriff opened his mouth to say something when the Asian man jumped in.
"You're English aren't you?" He asked, as through trying to calm the conversation so they could speak rationally.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Both weapon wielders snapped at him making the man shift his cap and mumble about him simply making an observation.
"Mam," The officer said, catching Ava's attention, "We're just passing through, looking for a friend of ours, we don't want any trouble. Are you alone? We have a camp; you could come back with us."
This perked her interest.
"Really? Is it secure?" Ava asked, her weapon lowering slightly.
Daryl glared at the Sherriff, obviously not trusting the woman.
"Yes it is, I'm Rick Grimes," He introduced, extending his hand.
Ava put her gun in her back waistband before shaking his hand, "Ava Summers."
"This is Glenn," Rick said gesturing to the Asian man, who smiled nervously, "And this is T-Dog." Rick gestured to the black man, who nodded his greeting.
Daryl slowly lowered his bow, not trusting the woman entirely but not feeling the need to have the weapon point at her.
"So this friend of yours, he's running around one handed?" Ava asked.
"Thought you said you ain't seen him?" Daryl snapped, taking a step towards her.
"I haven't," Ava told him flatly, "I heard your conversation and can smell burnt flesh."
"Yeah, we need to find him, but we need our guns first." T-Dog told them, "And there stuck in walker central."
"We're all stuck in walker central," Ava corrected him, "there's someone I want you to take back to your camp."
"There's another survivor?" Rick asked, obviously stunned.
"Yes and he's hungry, so if you don't mind helping me take some food to my flat, you can use that to plot your gun route." Ava strode past them and into the kitchen. The men exchanged glanced before silently agreeing they should follow her, if she became a danger they were confident the four of them could handle her.
The walk to back to the flat was silent and uneventful, Ava and the boys all keeping on high alert for walker activity. Quietly opening the door to the flat, Ava felt the front of her pocket, checking for her pen knife in case any of the men turned hostile.
"Kyle," Ava called out as she dropped some of the dry food packages on the counter, "Come out, I'm back." She dug around in the packages hoping to find some sweets for her nephew but simply frowned when she found none. The men stood awkwardly in the flat, glancing around and at each other, wondering who 'Kyle' was.
Rick's eyes softened, like the emotional sap he was, when he saw the young boy run out from one of the adjoining rooms and throw his arms around Ava's hips. The boy looked up and for the first time noticed the strange men in the apart and without removing himself from his Aunt; he slipped around her so he was stood behind her, his face buried in the small of her back.
"Kyle," Ava smiled as she pulled him away just enough to crouch beside him, where he put him arms around her again, "These are some of my friends; Rick, Glenn, T-Dog and Daryl." Ava told the boy as she gestured to each man who stood there awkwardly, "Everyone this is my nephew Kyle."
Rick smiled, "You're holding on to your Aunt awful tight, you don't have to be scared we're not going to hurt you."
"I'm not scared of you," Kyle protested, "I'm just making sure you keep your hands of my Auntie."
Ava and Daryl laughed loudly at Rick's embarrassed expression, seeing as he had just been told off by an eight-year-old.
"Would you believe he gets his lip from my side of the family?" Ava laughed as she stood up and stroked her nephew's hair affectionately before digging out some crackers form the food packages.
"I can believe it," Daryl snorted as he advanced towards the coffee table chewing on his thumb nail, "Lot ah weapons for one lady." He commented as he lifted up a jagged hunting knife, swung it around slightly before sliding it into the holster on his leg.
Ava, who saw him messing about with the knife before attempting to sneakily take it, rolled her eyes at him before smiling at her nephew who had engaged a nervous Glenn in a staring contest.
"Perks of the job." Ava smiled as she poured the dry food substances onto plates.
"You a cop?" Daryl asked as he scanned the various melee weapons on the table and hoping that he wasn't going to be trapped with two cops, a chick, a kid and the douche that trapped his brother.
"No, not a cop," Ava told them, "I worked for the Army, in England obviously, and was on leave when my brother asked me to fly out and take Kyle back to England but I never got that far, obviously."
"Isn't the infection there?" Glenn asked, breaking from his competition with Kyle to stare at Ava with excitement? Hope? Ava wasn't too sure what it was but she knew she had to crush it.
"It wasn't, not at first anyway," Ava began to explain, "that's why I was able to fly out, if it was a problem I would have been on the front lines wouldn't I?"
"So what happened?" T-Dog asked and Ava's eyebrow twitched in annoyance when she felt all their gazes on her, she had always hated being the centre of attention.
"Kyle go wash up for dinner," Ava told her nephew and the boy ran of dutifully to use the some of the packages wet-wipes to wash his face and hand in the other room, his Aunt felt no need for him to relive this.
Once she was sure Kyle was out of earshot Ava continued, quietly, "I got out here and everything seemed okay until I got to Jonathan's house, my brother and Kyle's father."
"Weren't they there or somethink?" Daryl asked, feigning disinterest.
"He was there alright," Ava sighed, "Hanging by his jugular out my sister-in-laws mouth," They collectively ignored Glenn's involuntary whimper of disgust, "I shot her, right between the eyes, ran to Kyle's room, he'd barricaded himself in, chucked his things in his bag and had to shoot my re-animated brother on the way out."
Ava closed her eyes and willed back the moisture from her eyes. The men were silent all feeling a great empathy for her, even Daryl who wished he hadn't opened his trap and asked anything.
"I managed to safe Kyle's next door neighbour from her parents, we came to Atlanta because it was safe, safe my ass! The girl was only four years old, I tried, I did, I tried so hard but by the time I got to her she was already infected if not dead…I saved from her parents just to bring her to her death."
Silence hung heavy and for a while they all suspected they would choke on the tension and desperation that circled within it until Kyle emerged from the other room, stood in front of his Aunt and presented his clean face and outstretched hands to her.
Ava smiled at his, the previous agony on her face gone within a moment, painted over with fake happiness. Daryl watched from his position near the coffee table, he respected this woman a lot it was obvious she'd had to fight walkers and humans alike, including her own family, watched a small girl die and thought it was her fault and she hadn't been afraid of having a cross bow in her face all for the sake of her nephew.
"So you guys are going to brave walker central for some guns?" Ava asked as she sat down cross legged on her sofa, her nephew stopping his staring assault on Glenn for the moment so he come and sit next to her. Glenn and T-Dog each took a chair and Rick sat on the end of the sofa next to Kyle, Daryl stood between the two chairs T-Dog and Glenn occupied, opposite to Ava.
"Or you could just gi' us yours." Daryl smirked.
Ava smirked back, "Sorry mine stays with us." She told them as she leaned forward and took a cracker off one of the plates of food that were now on the coffee table.
"That's not vera carin' an' sharin' of ya," Daryl commented.
"Well I'm not going to use the only two bullets I have in case I need them." Ava told them.
The men hushed, realising that the young women meant she was saving them in case there was no escape for her and her nephew and she had to end their lives in a less painful manner.
"You're welcome to stay here for the night; it's safer for you to get your guns in the day." Ava told them when she felt her nephew slump against her side asleep.
Rick thanked her and the other nodded in agreement. Ava stood, leaving Kyle on the sofa for the moment as she went into the other room to find some blankets for her guest. She hummed as she tugged the blankets out of the cupboard, she knew she was taking a risk by trusting these guys but if it meant she could get her nephew somewhere safe she would do whatever it took. She scoffed at her own thoughts, safe was an obsolete term.
The ex-military woman's head snapped around when the bedroom door opened.
"I hope you don't mind," Rick said as he entered with Kyle asleep in his arms, "I just thought I could bring him in to help you."
"Thank you," Ava told him simply as she gathered the extra blankets in her arms.
"I have a son," Rick told her as he gently placed Kyle on the bed, "Carl, I'd do anything for him, like I know you'd do anything for Kyle."
"If you have a point, get to it." Ava told him before shooting him a small smile so he would not think of her as rude, she was, and always had been a very direct individual.
"My point is," Rick continued as he pulled some cover up over Kyle the same way he would to Carl, "It's somewhere safe for you and him. You'll be okay."
It warmed Ava's heart to know that there were still people left like Rick in the world, no matter how broken the world was, but having been trained to not show fear nor weakness, Ava simply nodded in response to him but Rick knew his words had filtered through.
Throwing the plain black blankets at T-Dog, Glenn and Rick, who had followed Ava back into the main room of the flat, Ava turned to Daryl with a dangerous smirk.
The blonde man raised an eyebrow both at her, which made Ava scold herself to stop from drooling, she wasn't supposed to find strangers sexually appealing!
Smiling, she pulled the last spare blanket out from behind her back. A bright pink child's blanket featuring Dora the Explorer.
Glenn and T-Dog bit their lips to capture their laughter, Rick smirked and Daryl scowled opening his mouth to protest but not being able to do so when Ava threw the blanket at him and hurried her goodnights as she fled to her and Kyle's bedroom, shutting the door behind her, leaving the men to debate the use of the pink blanket because she knew Daryl wouldn't use it.
With a sigh Aurora slipping into the free side of the bed, gently stroking her sleeping nephew's face as she dared to let her mind wonder to thoughts of this 'camp' the men talked about and Kyle being safe.
Review please!