Note: Studying is finished so now I get to spend more time writing...I've had a shitty day so you get 2 chapters...Enjoy! (p.s. I'm not good at writing an accent like Daryl's so there isn't much of that, plus it's a bit easier to read when it's not all redneck-y...)
I kicked the door shut and strutted my way back humming a tune. The sky was getting dark with clouds, threatening to rain. We should put out barrels or pots or something and collect the rain water. While it wasn't 100% safe to drink at first, we could boil it or use it to clean clothes. I hurried into a jog to share my idea with the others.
"It's going to rain. If we can get a container of some sort, I can sit outside and wash clothes. I know the few clothes I have need to be scrubbed with some soap. What about you guys?" I cried as I came around the corner.
Glenn, Dix, T-Dog were dragging bodies into a pile against the inner fence. Glenn looked torn up, probably because of Hershel and the fact that he hadn't removed the blood soaked shirt he was wearing. I planted my hands on my hips and stared at the man.
"You need to stop that. They're not going anywhere. You need to go back in there, remove that top, and put something else on. You're going to tell the others that I'm doing clothes. I'm sure there's soap somewhere in this prison and it doesn't have to be the kind on a rope."
The three of them stared at me so I stared right back. The sky let out a clap of thunder and I clapped my hands.
"Perfect. Let's go get the clothes."
I ran through the open door and called for Carl to unlock the cell block. I grabbed the small armful of clothes from my backpack and went to where the others were congregated. Carol looked at my clothes in question.
"It's going to rain so I'm going to do laundry. Do you have any extra soap or something that I could collect rain water in so that I have something to dunk the clothes into? If there was enough time, I'd suggest trying to hit up the kitchen for something non-metal but then we'd have to go through the inmates and they could still be mad at me for killing their buddy."
"We have a couple bins in the back of the SUV. We could use those and I think there's soap in there too," Lori replied.
"Great. Gather up your dirty clothes and bring them out to the courtyard. I'm gonna set up there."
The raindrops were just beginning to fall when the bins and soap was brought out to me. Carol and Beth brought out the clothes and offered to help. I told Beth she should be with Hershel but didn't decline Carol's help. We laid out the clothes on the tables to get wet before we started scrubbing them down.
"We didn't mean to overhear you and Daryl yesterday but I'm sorry to hear about your son. My little girl, Sophia, became a walker and Rick had to shoot her."
"No parent should ever outlive their child. I've had time to overthink everything that happened and the what ifs. Life now is not what it was like 2years ago and I bet it'll never go back to that. We don't have to go to work, worry about bills, or what our kids might want for Christmas. Our only responsibility is to survive and protect those we know and love. I tried to protect Travis but in the end, it came down to my survival after he died. I could have just left him there but then he would have been one of those. I couldn't do that to him."
"Daryl understands what you had to do. He killed one of our group members last fall after he was bitten," she said as she worked on someone's pants.
"The survivalist part of him understands. Being a hunter makes you aware of the dangers in the wild and such. While he didn't know he had a son, the father part of him hates me. I hate myself at times."
I moved off to another table and started on those clothes. We worked in silence, scrubbing and dunking the clothes in the collected rainwater. Once everything was clean, I took my soap to the clothes I was wearing and then stripped them off to rinse them in the bins. I squeezed them out and left them on the table. When the sun comes back out, it wouldn't take long for the clothes to dry and plus there wasn't space to hang everything up inside to dry out.
"AJ, what are you doing?" Carol asked.
"I'm going to shower."
I washed my hair with the soap first and then tried to get the dirt off my skin. It would have been so much better if I could take off my bra and underwear and get everywhere but knowing my luck, Rick or Glenn would come out and spot me. The rain was clearing some of the soap off my skin but it wasn't enough so I picked up the smaller bin and dumped it over my head.
"Now that felt good. Cold but good. Did you want to get cleaned up? I could keep watch for ya."
Carol thought about it a moment before nodding. I turned my back and watched the doorway. I ran my fingers through my hair and after getting tangled, I decided it was time to cut it. It was getting too long and bulky. I'd get someone to cut it off for me once we headed back inside. Carol tapped me on the shoulder, telling me she was done.
"You either stripped down, got clean, and redressed or you showered in your clothes."
"I'm still cleaner than before."
"Whatever. Maybe it's just me but when I get clean, I need to wash everything."
"Not all of us look like you, AJ."
"I'm not perfect, Carol. Besides you've got a decent body. I'm going to head in and snag a sheet or something to make a toga. Doubt Rick or Lori want Carl to see me walking around in my underwear."
The rain didn't last much longer after that. Since the sun wasn't beating down on the clothes directly, it took a while before they were dry. Dinnertime was nearing and Rick mentioned about checking out the kitchen. We would see what was there and then do the splitting up once the inmates had a cleared cell block to call their own.
I couldn't fall asleep that night so I pulled out the worn deck of cards out of my backpack and played a few hands of Solitaire. Times like this I wished I had electricity and my laptop. I didn't have to spend my time surfing the 'Net but having my music and something to busy my fingers with was quiet and perfect.
"Ya never did sleep much when we were younger," Dix whispered as he sat down beside me outside of my cell.
"Not unless you drove me into the ground. Tell me how you became part of the group."
Dix took a second and rehashed what happened to him since this all started. He told me about Merle and only finding his hand later. As he told me about the visit he had with Merle in the woods, I knew that he hadn't shared this with anyone. I could tell that Dix felt connected to Sophia while he tried searching for her and that he cared about the little girl.
"What about ya, AJ?"
"I was visiting friends in Savannah when the shit hit the fan. Because of my experience in survival, hunting and being outdoors, they brought their friends in. At first there was a group of nearly 30 people, mostly people in their 20s or 30s. Travis was the only kid and everyone kept their eyes on him but he was better than some with what weapons we had. We stuck around Savannah for a few weeks, celebrated Travis' birthday, but the city was getting overwhelmed. We heard about Fort Benning and thought it was a good idea.
"We lost a few on the way towards Fort Bening including my best friend. The group made it to Macon and found somewhere to hole up when Travis was scratched. Afterwards I couldn't stick around the city so we moved along. We made it to Fort Benning but it was gone. We just kept moving. We spent the winter in one place, lost one to illness but the walkers didn't give us any trouble.
"Last week we moved on and were overrun southeast of here. A few weren't on guard and were taken out pretty quick. We fought back but it wasn't helping. I was shot by my best friend's brother and rather than sticking around, I took off. "
"What about the armoury ya said ya group ransacked?"
"That was at Fort Benning. I don't think it was the main one because it seemed so small. The door was locked by an electronic punch keypad and someone had an idea about going through the ceiling since we couldn't get through the door. One of our smaller women was lifted up and she worked her way over. She was able to open the door from inside and we took whatever we could carry."
"Ya one of us now. Ya don't have to leave."
"Are you sure Rick would agree with that statement? I don't want to step on anyone's toes, Dix, and obviously Rick doesn't easily trust others."
"I wouldn't either if my best friend fucked my wife after telling her that I was dead and have him second guessing my choices. Shane completely lost it and killed a kid. Rick had to kill him, well Carl did the final blow since he only turned after Rick killed him."
"What do you mean? Rick killed him so he should have stayed dead."
"When we were at the CDC, Rick learned something and Shane's walker ass proved it. Everyone is infected already. When the body dies for whatever reason, ya'll turn into a walker. Ya don't have to be bitten or scratched. A heart attack could turn ya into a walker. If anyone dies, ya take them out permanently."
"Fuck me! That's why you shot the creep after I stabbed him."
"He would have turned."
"Good to know. Thanks, Dix, for telling me. I think it's late enough to try for a few hours of sleep."
Dix left and I climbed up into bed but I still couldn't sleep. To know that anyone who died would become a walker had my mind racing. I thought of anyone I knew who died from various reasons and I pictured them as walkers. I shuddered when I thought of my father who had died a couple years after Travis was born. Would those already dead be affected or just the newly dead?
"Did you sleep at all?" Lori asked from the doorway.
"No. Dix said you learned about the infection from the CDC. Did they tell you about those who were already dead? Could each coffin be filled with a walker trying to get out?" I asked as I sat up.
"I believe the person had to be alive at one point to get infected and then they can turn so those already dead shouldn't be affected."
"Great. I was worried that I was gonna see my dad dragging his limp ass around."
