Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.

Lost Hope: The Beginning

Chapter Seven

The man with the crossbow began to mutter something about how that was his deer the walker had been eating and how he wasn't happy about it. I noticed he looked familiar in a way. He started kicking the walker several times until Dale told him that it wasn't helping anything.

"What do you know about it, old man?" The man said angrily and muttered a bit more as he pulled arrows that he had apparently shot in the deer. The man actually looked a little like my dad. I continued to stare at him after noticing the resemblance. "Who the heck is this?" the man asked the others pointing his arrow at me.

"I'm Erin." I told him not looking away.

"Well, Erin, why don't you take a picture; it'll last longer. Either that or mind your own business." The man told me then he turned back towards the others. "I got some squirrel; 'bout a dozen of 'em. Not much but it will do."

Then I looked down and saw the head of the walker begin to move.

"Guys." I cringed and took a step back

"Come on people, what the heck?" the man said noticing that they hadn't completely killed the walker. He took his crossbow and shot it in the head. "That's not his brain, don't you people know anything?" He yanked out his bow and began to walk back towards camp with the others following.

"That's Daryl, Merle's brother." Glenn whispered to me.

"Merle has a brother?" I asked. Glenn nodded. "I guess I'm not surprised. I can see the resemblance in the attitude."

"Merle!" Daryl called for his brother. "Merle, get out here; I got us some squirrel."

Crud, someone was going to have to tell Daryl that we left him on the roof of the department building. I headed into the R.V. not wanting to be there to see his reaction. I realized that it's been three days since the last time I bathed and felt a little grossed out. I had to get clean. I hate the feeling of being dirty. Maybe Andrea and Amy will have some shampoo and conditioner I can borrow. I walked out of the R.V. and walked over to Amy and Andrea.

"Hey, I was wondering if you had any shampoo and conditioner I can borrow…I hadn't got to bathe for three days." I said cringing a little.

"Of course." Amy said smiling. "In fact we were both about to go down to the cove to clean up ourselves. Why don't you join us?"

"Sure." I replied smiling. Amy grabbed shampoo, conditioner, and a few towels and we began heading down to the cove.

"Wow the water's so blue." I said in awe when we reached the cove.

"I know it's beautiful." Amy replied.

"Let's wash up behind those rocks over there." Andrea suggested. "That way we won't have any peeping toms to worry about."

Amy and I laughed and we made our way over behind the rocks. We stripped our clothes off and Andrea and Amy began wading in the water.

I made my way towards the water. I stuck my foot in and immediately jumped back. "Oh my gosh, the water's freezing!" I yelled to them. "How are you two able to get in that easy?"

"We have gotten used to cold baths." Andrea said laughing at my reaction. They were already completely in. I stared at them shocked. I stepped back into the water and began walking deeper. I cringed at each step and made a girlish squeal every once in a while. I finally got the courage to submerge my head completely in the water. When I emerged I was left shivering. I was freezing.

"I don't think I can ever get use to this." I told them as I walked over to them. Amy laughed at me and swam back towards shore to get the shampoo and conditioner. After putting shampoo into her hair she tossed the bottle to me and I began to scrub shampoo into my hair. It felt good to be getting clean. I washed the shampoo out and swam over and got the conditioner from Amy. When I felt clean enough I swam out and wrapped myself in one of the towels. Soon Amy and Andrea came out and grabbed their own towels. I sat on the ground and shivered more.

Amy and Andrea looked at me funny and laughed. "I get cold easy." I said in response.

"Obviously. I mean why else would you steal Carl's jacket last night." Amy said smirking.

I blushed. "He let me use it." I replied.

"Aww, that's sweet." Andrea said laughing.

I turned away embarrassed and got up to put my clothes on. Andrea and Amy did the same and then we headed back up to camp. I was met by Carl when I reached the top. He looked a little bit sad and worried.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked him concerned then I realized a lack of people. "Where're Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl?"

"They went back to get Merle and more guns." Carl replied as he sat down on the ground.

"Oh." I said sitting down next to him. I put my hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about your dad, I mean the guy's amazing. He's survived so much. He even found you guys."

"But now he is leaving again. I had already thought I lost him once, I can't do that again if he doesn't come back." Carl said shakily. I could tell he was about to cry, but was fighting not to.

"He'll come back." I assured him, but tears began to fall down his face. I put my arms around him and pull him into a hug. "It will be alright. He will be back. I know it." I tried to comfort him.

He leaned his head into me as I continued trying to comfort him.

"Thanks Erin." He told me after several minutes and he got up and walked to his tent.

(Carl's Pov.)

I felt better after being comforted by Erin. I didn't feel worried anymore. I lay down on my cot, facing the side of the tent. It wasn't long after that I heard my mom walk in.

"Hey, you know I bet they will be just fine." She told me taking a seat next to my cot.

"I'm not worried." I told her. "Are you?" I asked facing her and propping my head up with my hand.

"Yeah, a little." She replied.

"Don't be." I told her.

"Why?" she asked.

"Think about it, Mom. Everything that's happened to him so far; nothing has killed him." I told her, saying something similar to what Erin had told me. She smiled and held my hand.

"So what do you think about this new Erin girl?" My mom asked smiling knowingly.

"What do you mean?" I asked her my face heating up a little.

"I mean, what's she like?" my mom asked me.

"She's nice." I replied a bit too quickly.

"Nice, huh?" my mom laughed a little.

"She's been a good friend." I told her. "She is also fun to be around."

"Are you happy she showed up here?" My mom asked me.

"Yeah, she's cool." I replied. I knew I had a small crush on the new girl, but I would never admit that to anyone, at least not yet.

(Erin's Pov.)

"If you have any extra clothes with you, I can wash the ones you have on now." I turned to see Carol, Sophia's mom, standing beside me.

"Oh thank you." I got up and changed out of my old clothes and put on some of the new ones I had gotten from the department store. Of course the clothes were too big as I had expected them to be, but there were doable. I walked back out to Carol and handed her my old clothes. She smiled and went down to the cove to clean them along with Andrea, Amy, and Jacqui.

"Hey Erin, want to come down to the cove with Shane and I and go frog hunting?" Carl asked me excitedly.

"Frog hunting?" I asked. Carl nodded quickly and smiled. "Sure." I said smiling back. The three of us headed down to the cove. When we got down there Shane had Carl and I each hold a net while he tried to scare frogs into it. He stood there for what seemed like a long time.

"We're not catching anything." Carl told Shane.

"Yeah, they probably know something's up." He replied referring to the frogs. Shane waded into the water with a bucket. "Let's do it the old fashion way, but you two may get a little wet. I'm going to go after one of them while scaring all the rest towards you two."

"Alright." We said in unison.

"It's time to be bad boys!" Shane yelled. "Well bad boys and bad girl." Carl and I laughed at him. "Now let me see your game faces!" He yelled and made a low growling noise. Carl and I tried to copy his growling noises and put on our "gaming faces". "Okay, are you guys ready?"

"Yeah!" we shouted in unison.

Shane then got really quiet. Then he took the bucket and scooped it in the water a bit more dramatically than needed, causing him to fall over and go under that water. Carl and I started laughing as he began making noises and splashing water towards the net.

"What do you got bad boy, bad girl?" Shane asked as we pulled up our nets.

"Dirt." Carl replied shaking his net out.

"Rocks."I told them holding up my net.

"Oh boy. Now we got to start over." Shane said getting down into the water again. Carl and I laughed at him as he repeated his slashing method like he did earlier.

"Oh, I think I caught one!" I said pulling up my net and sure enough there was a little green frog in it.

"Oh, sweet let me see!" Carl said walking over to me. I pulled out the frog and held it up for Carl to see, but careful not to let it slip out of my hands. "Can I hold it?" He asked.

"Sure." I told him putting the frog into his hands.

"Nice, bad girl caught herself a frog." Shane said clapping his hands. "Way to go."

Carl was handing me back the frog but before he was able to get it back into my hands it jumped out and we lunged for it. Carl ended up tripping on a rock and fell towards me causing us both to fall down into the water. When we emerged we sat in the water stunned at what just happened.

Shane just stood there laughing.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to…." Carl started apologizing for knocking me into the water with him but I stopped him.

"No." I said starting to laugh. "This is great." I splashed water at Carl who responded by splashing me back and all three of us got into a huge splashing war. Carl ran and tackled me to the water. I was about to get back at him by flinging mud onto his back, but I was interrupted by the sound of Lori.

"Carl, what did I tell you about not leaving Dale's sight?" she asked him.

"But, Shane said that we can catch frogs and we are having a lot of fun." Carl responded.

"It doesn't matter what Shane says, it matters what I say. Now come on, let's go get you two dried off." Lori urged Carl and I ahead of her and back towards the camp. "I'll be right behind you." She told us staying behind to talk to Shane.

"That was fun." Carl said beaming.

"Yes, that's the most fun I had in days." I replied smiling back.

"You know, out of all the people here, you became my best friend." Carl told me turning towards me.

"I think you're my best friend too." I said in return. I now felt like I fit in. The group had taken me in as one of their own, and they have treated me like family. I was very happy. Before I knew what I was doing I threw my arms around Carl's neck and hugged him. He was surprised but I soon felt him hugging me back. "Thanks, Carl."