This chapter is a little longer than usual! I do not own any of The Walking Dead, just the OC's! Thanks so much, review, and enjoy!

Chapter 6

Blake and Tanyon found a small spot in a Forest Ranger's cabin to stash their big belongings. She would have gone inside, but it seemed that the Forest Ranger and his friends didn't made it out of the shack. With a gag Tanyon turned around and advised that she give him anything she wanted away. There was no reason for him to be carrying their huge overnight pack, possibly making noise while they were checking out this group. With the tents and sheets and the newly hunted rabbits stashed for later usage, Tanyon grabbed Blake's pack leaving her with her bow and arrows, a hunting knife, and the switch blade she hid in her boots.

"Okay. Go over this map with me again," Tanyon said as he pulled out the map Blake used yesterday from his back pocket.

"Okay, yesterday I was here at this end of the quarry and the women and children were on the other side, I was looking down from the top," Blake started as she pointed to the spots on the map. "Here was where that one guy came from before he started clockin' the wife-beater but before all that occurred the children were escorted up the hill, which I'm assuming is here," Blake pointed to another spot, "by a skinny brunette woman."

"Okay. So do you agree that it's safe to assume that she led the kids back to a camp that's probably at the top of that hill?," Tanyon asked.

"It's worth a shot. I wouldn't want to bring children with me too far away from a campsite. They looked really young," Blake said as she started off into the trees with her pack. "Might as well check it out. We'll stay on this side of the quarry and make our way closer."

Tanyon nodded and followed her as they made their way through the woods till they finally approached the quarry. There definitely weren't as many people as yesterday. Looking down at the clear water Tanyon and Blake saw two blonde women in a canoe fishing. "I recognize them. They were out here yesterday doing laundry. I think that one woman was trying to stand up to the wife-beater," Blake said as she peered down. Blake was about to continue walking when Tanyon grabbed Blake over her mouth and pulled her away to a tree and put up his hand for her to stay there.

Maybe more walkers, she thought as she unsheathed her hunting knife. Tanyon was a few trees over, waiting to see what was coming.

"No. This can't happen anymore, Shane. Rick is back. He came back! What happened between us….we can't talk about it or think about it. It's over."

"How can you say you didn't feel something too? We had a connection, we were doin' gre-"

"My husband is back" snarled a woman's voice. Blake peered around the tree and saw a man and a woman, obviously in a heated argument. "And even if I felt the same way, what would you expect me to do about it now? My husband is back, Carl has his father back, what do you expect me to do? Just walk away from what I have with Rick?"

Blake's heart began to slow down a bit as she realized that the two survivors weren't paying much attention to their surroundings. Blake peered a little bit and was able to catch the face of the man who knocked out the wife-beater. He was running his hand through his dark hair and looking at the ground. Right in front of him was the brunette woman, the leader of the children. Blake looked over at her brother who put his finger up to his lip.

The woman spoke again. "That's what I thought. This ends here and now," the woman said as she spun on her heels and headed back where they came. The man continued to stand there for a few moments and then Blake turned around again to stand behind the tree; shielding herself from his searching eyes. She stared straight ahead and tried to hold her breath and not move a muscle. Tanyon peered around the tree himself. He gave Blake the ok. Clear. Blake sent him a thumbs up as they made our way back into the open.

"You always had better ears than me, bro. I would've walked right into that little argument," Blake laughed as she approached her sibling.

"Yeah. You were always the one talking when we were younger, you never listened to nothin'," Tanyon teased as they sheathed their hunting knives. Blake punched him in the arm. Before she could react the butt of a gun cracked Tanyon on the back of the head. She grabbed her bow and aimed an arrow.

"Don't even think about it, Miss"

"Put your weapon down," the voice calmly, but sternly said.

"I'm not puttin' down nothin'," she said, stealing a glance at her brother and seeing he was still breathing

"Why are you watching us? Don't think I didn't see you milling around here yesterday," the man said as he continued pointing his gun at her, inching a bit closer. Blake took a step back, arrow locked in between his eyes.

"We didn't come to cause your group harm," Blake started, "I see you have women and children. We were checking you guys out, wanted to see you before you saw us," she answered honestly.

"I'm willing to have a calm discussion with you if you put the bow down," the man started to say.

"There is nothing calm about you comin' and knocking my brother the fuck out," Blake gritted through her teeth. Was this guy serious?

"Listen, instead of killin' eachother we can change the course of this conversation. I have people. They can check out your brother, but I'm going to need your full cooperation. You're the one watchin' us. You're on my camps turf, I'm not afraid to put you down if I feel you're a threat," the dark haired man said as he eyed her and the bow, slowly lowering his gun. Very slowly.

Blake had to think. This was the man from yesterday's incident. He seemed good around the kids and didn't cause harm to the woman he was just talking too. Either way, killing each other wasn't going to fix this. He was right. God dammit, she thought. If this didn't end up well Tanyon was going to be pissed…he was already going to be in a whole world of hurt when he woke up.

The man continued to stare Blake down when through the tree's she started to see the branches move signaling an approaching threat. Coming up behind the dark haired man came a walker and without thinking twice she turned slightly and let the arrow fly, killing the walker. The man turned quickly and watched as the walker slid down the tree. He quickly turned back to Blake who was already prepped with another arrow in her bow.

"Get someone to help my brother, please. Now." She said her emotions almost getting the best of her.

"Alright. Take it easy. How many people are with you?," the man asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know? " Blake questioned, "Get help for my brother before the rest of your camp finds out how many I got." She prayed he didn't call her bluff.

"Okay. Relax, I will get somebody to help your brother," the man unhappily shoved his gun back into his holster and put his hands up slowly making his way to the edge of the cliff. "Andrea! Amy! Need a little help over here, do you mind?" he called out to the two blondes still fishing. Immediately, the two started canoeing over to the shore and got out. An extremely tense and stressful five minutes later that blondes showed up, halting immediately when they saw Blake and then her unconscious brother.

"Shane? What's going on?" the older blonde piped up.

"This young lady and her brother were wandering around and I knocked him out. She would like that he got some medical attention of some sort, get him some advil for the headache that will come when he wakes up. We can put him in the RV till then," he said to them, "Amy, please take the head start to camp to let Dale know he's having company and Andrea, if you don't mind staying behind and escorting me and Miss here up to camp," he said. Shane. I have to remember that. As the younger blonde started making her way back to the camp, Shane also yelled, "Can you send Morales? I'm going to need help carrying this guy, he's not small," he said to her looking down at Tanyon.

"I can help you," Blake said, making her seriousness clear, "He's my brother," she added.

"Ok. Fine, well grab him under his other arm and lets get him up," Shane said.

After getting Tanyon up the hill, a large Spanish man came over and helped carry him to an RV. Blake took in her surroundings. There were quite a few people at this campsite. The kids were there, plus some, and a lot more men and women then she had seen yesterday. This was a fairly large camp. By the time they had reached the RV, Shane had given up his position to an older looking fellow with a fishing hat. Patting him on the shoulder and giving him a nod, Shane walked over to Blake. He put his hands on his hips and looked at the ground, then up at her. "Before we let you see your brother, I'd like to ask some questions. If you don't do anything stupid there shouldn't be any reason for us to hurt you. We just need your full cooperation."

Blake looked him in the eyes and safely assumed that there wasn't any malicious intent present in his eyes or his voice. "Ok," she agreed, "but after I want to see my brother. No questions asked."

"You got it, Miss…."

"Blake…Carter," she said looking at the man.

"Miss Carter, my name is Shane," he said sticking out his hand. She shook it reluctantly and quickly moved her hands back to her sides.

"Listen, see that young woman over there?," he asked pointing to the same thin brunette from earlier as she cut the hair of a young boy, maybe 10 years old. "She'll help you get cleaned up if you want. It looks like you ran into a bit of trouble out there," he commented, eyeing her bloodied shirt and face.

"Alright," Blake said as the two started to walk over to the pretty woman.

"Lori," Shane began, the woman snapped her head back and eyed him but immediately focused her attention on Blake. With a questioning look in her eye Shane answered her unspoken questions, "This is Blake. Blake this is Lori. I found her and her brother out in the woods. Do you mind helping her clean up a bit while I ask her a few questions?" he asked her. She nodded and looked up at Blake and smiled, "Nice to meet you Blake. I'll be back in a minute with a wet rag," and she stood up. Squeezing the shoulder of the young boy, he and her walked to the other side of camp.

"Alright Miss. Carter," Shane began, "Listen, to be honest, you should be happy you got this far. I saw you yesterday but couldn't track you down, I've been keeping my eye out for you because I need to keep these women and children safe. Now, would you mind telling me why you have been watching us?" he asked.

Blake looked up at him and wondered if she should tell the truth. She thought of her brother by himself in the strangers RV, and thought it best that she choose her words wisely.

"My brother and I wanted to scout ahead, see who our neighbors were. I had met two men a while back, but haven't seen them since. They could be dead for all I know. We wanted to see if there were any survivors, we barely made it out of Atlanta before they napalmed the whole fucking city," Blake said as she finally looked into Shane's eyes. "Listen, we are like you, we have no intent to harm unless you're a threat to us. Otherwise, we shouldn't have a problem here either," she finished.

"Are you and your brother on your own?," Shane asked, stepping a bit closer to her very eager for her to give an answer.

"I'm not comfortable with answering that question now, but be assured that who we are with will not cause any harm to your group either. We are good people, we don't hurt women and children," Blake bit.

"Well, what about the men," Shane pushed.

"Don't fuck with us, we don't fuck with you," Blake said. She was done with this conversation for now. Lori had finally made her way back over with a small pail and a wash rag before sitting down next to her.

"It's ok, sweetheart. I'm not going to hurt you, you have a bit of blood on your face. We try to have the kids not see too much as hard as it is. But, I'm sure you wouldn't want to see yourself right now either," she said, dipping the rag in the water with a smile. Blake scoffed a little and smirked. Yeah, I probably look like I should be in a beauty pageant. Blake took a liking to Lori due to her calm and kind words. She was very motherly.

"Alright," Shane said, obviously very stressed by Blake and Tanyon's unwelcomed appearance. After releasing a deep sigh Shane looked at Blake again. "Thank you, by the way. Didn't get a chance to tell ya," he said. "I was focusing on you…I could've got myself bit. Stupid," he said as he kicked the dirt under his booted feet.

"You're welcome. I can't watch anybody get torn apart," Blake replied, memories flashing in her mind. Shane seemed to have notice the change in her eyes and put a hand on her shoulder knocking her out of her thoughts. She jumped a bit from his touch.

"Sorry, but it's ok, I understand. Nobody wants that here either," Shane replied, the look in his eyes seeming as genuine as his voice. If Blake knew any better she would have thought this guy was really cute, but so far he wasn't making the cut since he knocked out her brother. Fuck….Tanyon.

"I would like to see my brother now if we're done here," Blake pushed as Lori finally finished wiping the blood off her face.

"Listen, Miss Carter, you've already saved my life," Shane began, "I want to talk to your brother too and if you're willing to share with us who you're with, I'm sure the camp wouldn't mind adding more survivors to our numbers," he said. Lori looked at Shane then at Blake.

Blake nodded at him and unknowingly showed a slight smile. Shane smiled at her and touched her shoulder once more, she didn't flinch.

"Let's go see if your brothers awake," and Blake, Shane, and Lori made their way to the RV.