Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any related rights, merchandise or awesomeness. That belongs to Robert Kirkman and AMC… lucky devils.
Chapter 30:
Nesting
Jamie walked through the entrance to one of the tents, day 1 of their new camp was busy, everyone had a job to do. Jamie, Sophia and Carl were given the simple task of gathering all the clothes together that were in the abandoned tents, of which there were a lot.
Despite knowing these were the clothes of dead people Jamie still couldn't help eyeing some of the prettier pieces of clothing.
"You think this will fit me?" Jamie asked, showing Sophia a particularly soft feeling red pull-over that looked her size, Sophia tilted her head and squinted.
"Maybe, but I think the red will clash with your hair." She said before shoving another handful into the already growing bags they had accumulated from the first 10 tents they had scoured.
"Really? I think it'll look fine." Carl said beside her, Jamie looked at him then at the material and frowned.
"No, Sophia's right. It's a bit much." She sighed before shoving into her bag, she felt slightly unsettled going through people's things. She sighed and pulled a Hawaiian shirt off the ground, something underneath it went thud and Jamie threw the shirt aside to see what it was.
It looked like a large book, leather bound, she bent to pick it up and opened it, inside were photographs.
It was a photo album.
"Jamie, what's that?" Sophia asked beside her before looking.
"Photo album." Jamie stated simply, mesmerised by the images. It was a family album, mostly to do with a middle aged man and his African-American wife. There were several photos of the couple kissing in various effects, some in no-colour and others in sepia… Then there were photos of what could be friends or family at parties or barbeques.
"Wow…" Carl said as Jamie flicked through the photos, they were in a trance at the photos of normal life. It shouldn't be that foreign to them but amidst all the running, hiding and walker killing they started to forget about simple life. Jamie felt tranquil looking at the photos, they were almost therapeutic.
"Carl?" Rick asked aloud outside, Jamie was brought out of the trance as Carl looked outside.
"Be back in a minute." He said before walking out the tent, Jamie checked he was properly gone before talking quietly to Sophia.
"So… how was your cute little date by the sunset yesterday?" she asked, Sophia went a bright shade of red very quickly and became much more interested in the photo album.
"I don't know what you're talking about…" she said quietly which made Jamie smile childishly.
"Of course you do, I saw you and Carl holding hands outside the RV yesterday." She teased, Sophia grew more red which was turning her into a tomato slowly. She looked up at Jamie with an annoyed expression.
"You were asleep!" she protested but Jamie laughed.
"I was faking it! I knew you guys would get together…"
"Jamie!" Sophia whined and Jamie let it go, although she still smirked as she spoke.
"Sorry, but you gotta admit I was right about this one." Jamie said in an I-told-you-so voice. Sophia avoiding looking her in the eyes as they stuffed the last piece of clothing into the already full bags, Jamie tucked the photo album under one arm as she hoisted the bag over her shoulder, getting rid of such memories, albeit someone else's, would be… cruel.
"I think that might have been one of the last ones." Sophia said as they dropped their bags near the ironing board that had been found in one of the tents. The camp was a goldmine since there were all sorts in these tents that the last group had deemed 'unnecessary'.
Carol was manning the ironing board, she had also found an iron to accompany it and looked almost happy to be ironing the group's old clothes, Jamie herself was happy to see her battered, purple sweater folded neatly. She took the photo album and placed it on the slowly accumulating pile of 'miscellaneous' finds.
"Good work, kids." Lori complimented, walking up to them patting both on the back, Carol smiled at them, happy to see more clothes.
"You forget how much you value clean clothes." She said simply, what Jamie wasn't looking forward to was the inevitable situation where she would be helping clean the last group's clothes.
"You guys wanna find Carl and finish up collecting clothes? There are a few more tents down that slope, Paula is going through them but she isn't taking clothes." Lori told both girls pointing down the slope which led out into the woods.
"Sure." Jamie said, she motioned to Sophia who followed her, Jamie looked for Carl and saw him talking to Rick by the campfire. It looked like a somewhat serious chat so Jamie decided to go ahead without him.
"Hey, once we finish finding clothes do you want to ask if we can do watch duty?" Sophia asked, Jamie turned to her since it sounded bizarre.
"Watch duty?"
"Yeah, I think it will be cool." Sophia said, Jamie shrugged since she didn't know if they would even be allowed to do watch duty.
"Might give it a try, it would mean we would stop doing stupid chores." Jamie said before reaching one of the larger blue tents.
"Hi." Jamie said to Paula who was looking under a sleeping bag on the ground. The woman looked up quickly and smiled.
"Hey girls, you on clothes duty?" she asked, Jamie nodded and saw that this tent had little in the way of clothes inside it, a few stray tops and one pair of jeans.
"There aren't many in the few tents here, I'm just gathering anything I can find but I'm aiming for some good toiletries, you girls need anything in particular?" Paula asked, Jamie didn't understand the implicit meaning until Sophia questioned her.
"Like what?" she simply asked Paula, Paula sighed and stood up straight.
"Anything… lady-like?" she asked, Jamie felt herself flush slightly… it was a subject she wasn't particularly comfortable with.
"Um… no, I haven't… no I'm… good…" Jamie tried to say smoothly but her mouth betrayed her and jumbled the words together, next to her Sophia remained clueless and just shrugged.
"Nope, Mom's got a load of those things already." She said simply before walking over to the shirts on the floor, Jamie just stood on the spot, not making a sound as she willed Paula to walk away, she saw something knowing in the woman's eyes as she walked outside.
"Okay… stay safe now." She advised before walking out of the tent, Jamie turned on the spot and fought for her composure to come back.
That was embarrassing… Jamie hadn't come to … that point in her life yet. Her mother had told her it was perfectly normal but she really… really… didn't like talking about it.
Jamie sighed and began to help Sophia with sorting the clothes, willing to God that no-one talked to her until her face, which she was sure was a bright red, returned to normal.
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Lori still felt all eyes were on her, after Carl's slip up he hasn't spoken to her… nor had anyone else.
They all acted like nothing was wrong but she saw the sideways glances, even from her position by the fire she saw Hannah looking over her shoulder at her, she smiled slightly and returned to the task of sorting through the items collected from the tents.
Lori walked solemnly through the camp, she didn't know if everyone had understood what Carl had threatened her with, certainly it seemed that people had their suspicions but Lori was working hard to act normal, even though every minute of the day was threatening to break through to her mind and cause a collapse.
After what Paula had said to her she had tried to actively avoid the woman… the piercing stares she was giving her were starting to her to Lori.
"Lori." Rick's voice said behind her, she turned on the spot and saw Carl next to him, she looked at him but he didn't look directly into her eyes but down to his shoes. Rick's face was unreadable and Lori feared the worst…
"Yes?" she asked, her voice straining to maintain normality.
"Me and some others are going to do a sweep of the area, it's mostly the men but Shane's leaving Morgan on lookout. How is he holding up?" Rick asked, the relief spread through Lori however she concealed it.
"I don't know… he hasn't really talked to anyone since… you know…" Lori said, her eyes darting to Carl next to her husband, the boy sighed and walked away almost automatically, the topic of Duane still a stale threat to conversation.
"Is he okay?" Rick asked as he watched his son walk away, not truly knowing the full extent of the boys knowledge.
"He'll come around, I hope." Lori muttered, Rick smiled and the two hugged, emotion welled once more in Lori as she enjoyed the simple presence of Rick after his absence. Her eyes opened over his shoulder and she saw Shane standing by one of the tents, his eyes staring directly into hers… penetrating every emotional layer Lori had constructed carefully the night before.
She withdrew from Rick and looked into his eyes, his beautiful blue eyes a beautiful contrast to Shane's harsher ones, she smiled and stroked his face and he grinned slightly and turned away. He motioned to Shane and Leon, who was next to him, and they retreated into the forest, not before Shane threw another glance Lori's way.
Lori stood for a second before looking to her left to see Paula looking directly at her, the two women held their glare for a few seconds before Paula dropped it and walked away, but not before Lori saw more glances from Carol and Hannah.
Lori turned away and walked towards the station wagon which still needed to be sorted through, she needed five minutes where people weren't looking at her.
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Daryl was relishing the moments he was away from Merle, they had only been in the forest for 20 minutes following deer tracks before Merle had given up and decided to head back to camp. Daryl had let him go, maybe not the best decision but if he had to listen to the man continue to compliment the shape of the blonde's body for another minute he would have taken one of his more preferred arrows and physically driven it through his brother's head.
A snap of a twig behind him caught his attention, he whirled on the spot and saw a flash of movement, he raised the crossbow and remained perfectly still.
A small squirrel tentatively stepped out on a branch, holding a nut like that squirrel from Ice Age. Daryl smiled to himself before firing immediately, the arrow hit the squirrel and pinned it to the trunk of the tree it was hiding behind.
As much as he enjoyed a good hunt, Daryl still felt a small touch of sympathy for the squirrel… steps out for one minute to get some food for himself and gets done in with an arrow.
Daryl ripped the arrow and squirrel from the tree and looped the squirrel through the rope he had slung around his shoulder.
"Tough luck, bud…" Daryl muttered to himself, he looked around and saw no other movement so he concluded it was the squirrel that had made the noise that had alerted him. Daryl now had two squirrels but maintained his goal of at least five before calling it quits and going back to camp.
He didn't mind the group they were with, compared to the last group they weren't as pathetic. However the amount of drama that Daryl could sense in the group was enough for an entire episode of The Bold and the Beautiful. Even without listening to them talk to each other the feeling of bitchiness and emotional to-and-fro in the group was wearing on the mind.
The only ones Daryl could stand to talk to were the Sheriff, Morgan and Carol. Rick was a reasonable guy who didn't treat him like trash, Morgan got straight to the point, no messing around and Carol… there was a sort of fragility to the woman that Daryl saw as almost personable… the woman didn't go around being bitchy like the other women and she seemed to care about everyone, a bit nosy but likeable.
Likin' what you see, boy?
Merle's voice forced its way into Daryl's head fast, of course even the thought of Merle would go straight to that.
"Not a chance, she got a kid… I ain't too good with them." Daryl argued to himself, however the voice of Merle wasn't going to let him off that well
Didn't realise it was the kid you was interested in.
"Shut up." Daryl blurted before he could contain himself.
It couldn't be healthy to be arguing with yourself out loud.
Says a lot about yourself, eh?
"Shut the fuck up." Daryl thought, although he didn't say this one out loud it didn't make him feel all the better.
Daryl sighed and continued further into the wilderness, still keeping his eyes and ears sharp for the sound of anything unfortunate enough to come across him.
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Hannah watched as Rick and Shane walked towards the forest, Leon was right behind them, he looked directly at her and nodded, Hannah attempted a smile back as she nodded. She thought she saw a slight smile grace Leon's face before he turned away to join the other men in their sweep of the area.
Hannah sighed in frustration at the lack of emotion she was getting from Leon, she knew that she liked him and he perhaps liked her but judging from his actions he wasn't that interested. The banter at the station had been what started it but now…
Maybe it was something to do with Rosie? That had been when he had changed…
Hannah dismissed the thought from her head, she had actually managed to talk to him about that and he said she was a brave woman who would have done anything for anyone, regardless of her own life. Apparently Rosie had told him that she didn't mind dying and that if it saved someone she was willing to pay the price.
She sighed again and looked towards the RV, in her field of vision was Lori and Paula, the two seemed to be having a small staring contest until Paula suddenly walked off.
Seems like Paula shared Hannah's feelings.
Hannah didn't judge Lori heavily, but she knew exactly what Carl meant when he shouted at her the other day. Hannah was only minutes away from confronting Lori about the problem in a friendly way but it seemed that Paula might have beaten her to it. Hannah didn't hold Lori in high regard… but she had a family to protect and it seemed she had been trying her best.
Lori turned and saw her looking at her, again. She had caught her looking minutes before by accident and, judging by the look on the woman's face, she wasn't happy. She walked away over to the lone station wagon and started looking through it, most likely as an excuse to not be gawped at. Hannah turned her attention back to the RV, atop it was Morgan, once more on watch duty.
She dropped the heavy book she was going to flick through and walked over to the RV, she hadn't talked to Morgan since the hospital incident and, guessing from his attitude, no-one else had.
"Hey, Morgan." She said as she climbed the ladder that led to the top, he turned and gave a half-hearted smile.
"Hey." He said simply before sinking back into one of the two deck chairs they had placed there. Hannah sat in the other chair and looked out over the quarry down below with her friend.
"How are you holding up?" she asked, Morgan sighed and spoke in a dull voice.
"As fine as can be expected really." He said simply, still not looking at Hannah.
"Really? It's just that I ain't seen you talking to anyone recently." She expressed, Morgan turned to face her but his eyes seemed faraway in some way.
"Don't wanna talk, leave that to the boys in uniform." He continued.
"You shouldn't close yourself off, Morgan." Hannah said, Morgan didn't respond but simply continued to look over the water before Hannah carried on.
"You can't just… not talk to anyone. It'll be the end of you and God knows no-one wants that." Hannah said but Morgan spoke over her as she finished.
"Really? I get the feeling that half the people 'round here don't give two shits."
"That's wrong, Morgan. Everyone cares."
"I don't think so."
"Well I care." Hannah said, Morgan looked her in the eye once more and the closed slowly as he rubbed them in frustration.
"I know… I'm sorry. I'm just tired, doesn't help that everyone keeps looking at me with the 'poor Morgan' eyes." He complained, Hannah nodded and put a reassuring hand on Morgan's should and rubbed it.
"It's okay, how about you go into the RV and try and catch a few hours? I'll keep watch." Hannah offered but the man shook his head.
"No thanks I… I just want to be alone for a little longer." He almost asked, Hannah nodded and stood up, as she climbed down the ladder she was approached by her daughter and Sophia.
"Hey Mom, can we go on watch?" Jamie asked, Hannah looked at her sceptically.
"Why?" she asked.
"We just want to keep the camp safe." Jamie said, Hannah raised an eyebrow and a small smile broke out on Jamie's face.
"You sure?" Hannah asked, the smile on her face breaking both her daughter and Sophia's attempts at being serious.
"Yes!" Jamie said whilst restraining laughter, Hannah shook her head but thought about Morgan atop the RV.
"Sorry kids, you ain't getting out of work that easy. Maybe tomorrow." She said, both kids said 'Aw!' in unison and walked away to go back to the job they were tasked with, Hannah was glad that he daughter was smiling again. Whatever attitude she was taking at the moment was the one Hannah wanted her to keep.
So long as her kid was smiling.
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Just some more snippets as the group sets up camp, it'll start coming alive soon enough
P.S If anybody has any suggestions or criticisms then feel free to review.