GLENN'S POV:

"Where's Daryl?" Rick asked, pocketing his snub-nose pistol.

"Out looking for some girl," I told him, following behind him as we walked out onto the prison yard.

"Some girl?" Rick asked, turning back to me with narrowed eyes.

I nodded. "When we went out on that supply run last week, some girl with a bow and arrow pegged a walker that almost got me. Then she climbed up this huge building in eight seconds flat, and when Daryl came up after her, there was kind of an... altercation."

"A fight?" Rick asked, astounded. "I don't think Daryl would fight a girl."

I shook my head. "He was trying to get her to come back from the edge of the roof and when he reached for her, she kinda threw him down onto the rooftop. It wasn't much of a fight."

Rick stood in shocked silence for a few moments. "A girl threw Daryl Dixon down and got away from him?"

I nodded. "A young girl, too. Couldn't have been older than twenty."

Rick nodded. "I can see why he's looking for her."

DARYL'S POV:

"So this is where you've been staying?" I asked, entering the apartment with the number 48 on the door.

She nodded. "Yep. Home sweet home."

The place was actually pretty nice, all things considered. The couch against the wall was threadbare, but looked comfortable enough. A TV that hadn't been used in a long while sat across the room, DVDs and video games piled atop it.

"So, Daryl," she spoke slowly, turning to me. "Why did you come to find me again?"

I watched her carefully. She was dangerous, despite her appearance. She might be young, but she was wily and quick on her feet. I had to remember that. She was obviously good enough at laying low to watch me looking for her without my notice.

"We have a group," I started in a low voice as she lowered herself into a seat on the couch. "Me and the people that were with me last week."

"At the prison?" she asked. When shock skirted across my features, she grinned. "Oh, I know all about the prison. I make a point to get familiar with my surroundings and just happened to stumble on the prison when I was scouting one day when I saw some of what must be your group."

I ignored the creepy chill I got from knowing we had been being watched and stepped forward. "Look, we could use someone like you. You'd be safe. Ya know, strength in numbers and all that."

Her smile broke, giving way to a speculative frown. "There's a reason I'm alone."

"Why?"

Her hazel eyes, boring into the coffee table in front of her, shot up to me. "Because I get people killed."

I wasn't sure that I had any more words for her response. I watched as she stood from the couch and walked out of the room, a faraway look on her face. "What do ya mean?" I asked, following after her when I finally regained my voice.

She stopped in a small kitchen, leaning back against the counter. "You don't want me in your group, Daryl. Just turn around and go back to the prison. And do me a favor?" she scooped up her bow and arrows where they were leaning against the wall and breezed past me, glancing back over her shoulder. "Don't come looking for me again." Before I could say anything else, she had thrown open one of the windows in the living room and smoothly slid out.

Oo0oO

It was late in the evening when I returned to the prison. Rick met me at the gate, opening it up as my motorcycle rolled noisily up the gravel path. "So, did you find her?" he asked when I had shut the bike's engine off.

I glanced up at him. "Glenn told you?"

He nodded.

I sighed, "Well, I found her finally. But she's dead-set on bein' on her own."

"Glenn mentioned she was a good shot. And apparently she's excellent at climbing, too."

"Yeah, she got a walker straight through the temple from all the way across the street, climbed an entire building in a few minutes, jumped across a few rooftops to get away from me."

"She's skilled. We may need her."

As we approached the doors of our cell block, I lowered my voice. "Well, she doesn't wanna be part of any group. Told me not to go lookin' for her again."

Rick watched me knowingly. "And were you planning on listening to her?"

I contemplated his question for a moment before shaking my head. "Nah."

LAILA'S POV:

The wind blew my hood backwards, exposing my mane of thick black hair. I sighed into the breeze, giving my surrounding area a good once-over from my vantage point on top of my apartment building.

A few corpses had shambled into my section of town, three or four at the most, stinking the place up with the stench of rotted flesh. I turned away from the scene with a sense of emptiness.

It was like this every day. Scavenge across what little of the city I could and slowly work my way outward, always coming back to my empty apartment at the end of the day. It was a lonely life when you lived in a wasteland like this.

You could go to the prison. Daryl already said they had a group, living people, and he already tried to get you to go with him. They wouldn't turn you away. I shook my head, attempting to do away with thoughts like that. No, I would only hurt them.

What I had told Daryl was the truth. I did get people killed. My own parents, my brother, my sister, and every stray survivor that I had tried to help… dead. Because I was either too slow or too weak to stop what I had seen coming. At the beginning of the outbreak, I had minimal skill with a bow, and absolutely none of the litheness I had since attained.

This is why everyone I loved died. Because they had been trying to protect me, something I should have done for them. Sure I was better now, I could handle my weapon and I knew the extent to which I could push my own body, giving me a better range for physical movement.

But, I still wasn't sure I trusted myself around people anymore. If anyone else around me died, I wouldn't be able to stop blaming myself all over again.

I was just about to hop across the gap between the buildings' roofs when I caught sight of them. A fairly big group... and more coming with them. "Herd," I growled to myself, rushing in the direction of my apartment.

I really hope you guys are enjoying this so far. As I'm sure you've noticed, it's slightly AU, but when one writes fanfiction, it's hard not to bend the universe the way you want to. I really don't mean to; it just kind of happens :P Hopefully you guys won't blame me for that. Thanks for reading! Leave a review pretty please! :)