Author's note: Yes this is an updated and edited chapter, basically I changed the ending so I can hopefully write the next chapter. On another note anyone interested in being my beta-reader? I could really use someone right now. Anyway if interested just PM, me.
~Cassandra
Disclaimer: While I don't own The Walking Dead, I would gladly accept the rights of owning it for an early birthday present-anyone?
""I'm surprised you're not riding with Evel Knievel out there." Shane mentioned, watching dark haired woman on the floor.
Mara rolled her eyes, attempting to pull apart the hand guards. It was one thing she never quite got the hang of when cleaning her rifle. With a bored expression she looked up at Shane who sat at the table above her, cleaning as well. "Evel Knievel? Seriously Shane? That's the best you can come up with?" Mara snorted, though there was no malice behind her words. "What part of Daryl spells out Evel Knievel to you? Besides, Daryl rejected the idea the minute he heard I never rode a bike before. Something about not coming back for my ass after I fell."
Shane chortled, gently grabbing Kindness from Mara's hands. She blinked staring at him more in surprise than annoyance. Since the destruction of the CDC, the two of them had strangely been on friendly terms. A fact that was so bizarre for Mara, she could barely keep her mind from going into shock at each friendly gesture or conversation they had together. It almost made hating Shane hard. Which was bad seeing how he'd later try and kill Rick, from what her brothers said. But then again, there still the possibility Shane wouldn't attempt to kill Rick. After all, Mara did intercede with him trying to rape Lori, before Lori could even stick her claws into him. "You trying to get these off?" Shane asked, staring at the hand guards.
"Yeah. It's supposed to be real easy, seeing how all you have to do is push down and pull. But I guess you need to have some muscle to do it."Mara explained.
He nodded before pushing down on the black metal hand guards. Easily he took apart the two pieces before handing Kindness back to her. Mara blinked, unsure what to make of his gesture. "Thanks."
"No problem. Luckily for you, I have a lot of muscle." Shane bragged.
"Makes sense. You need something to compensate for your lack of brain power." Mara accidentally insulted. She cringed hearing the words coming out of her mouth. Insulting Shane seemed to be second nature to her now. Subconscious whether Mara meant it to be or not.
Thankfully though Shane took it as a joke and chuckled. "You must hanging around Rick too much. You're beginning to sound like him."
Mara looked down ignoring the panging feeling inside her. Neither Rick nor her really talked to each other since he comforted her in the gun room of the CDC. Not even when she stood by him as he bid Morgan a farewell over the CV radio. It was almost as if she weren't even visible anymore to her friend. A hard lump formed in her throat as she tried to push away the thought with cleaning Kindness. However after the seventh swipe at the gas tube, Mara knew her problem would not be so easily solved.
"Looks complicated." Andrea commented, her eyes switching over from Mara to Shane.
"The trick is getting all these back together the same way." Shane murmured. "I could clean yours, show you how."
He reached down into the pile of guns between Mara and him to pick up Andrea hand gun. Mara watched from the corner of her eye as Shane admired it. The gun was lovely, but totally not Mara's thing. Then again, Mara didn't have any real experience with a hand gun either. "Oh yeah. It's a sweet piece." Shane complimented.
Andrea smiled gazing at it. "It was a gift….from my father. He gave it to me before Amy and I took off on our road trip. He said two girls on their should be able to defend of themselves."
"Smart man, your father. " Shane nodded. "Look it's a-it's a limited capacity. See? Unlike Mara's semi-automatic assault rifle with its capacity of thirty rounds thanks to her magazines, this can only hold seven rounds."
Suddenly Dale muttered an 'oh jeez,' causing Mara to look up. She snapped the hand guards back into place, ignoring her surprise at the quickness of it. Carefully slinging it on her back, Mara made her way up front to see a large flipped over semi blocking their path. Shane stood up peering over her shoulder as did Andrea. In front of her, Glenn sighed exhaustedly as he thumbled through the map on his lap. Not too far ahead the roar of Daryl's bike could be heard causing Mara to smile uncontrollably as she caught sight of him. A part of her childishly wanted to push Dale aside and say hello, but the better half won her over. It was only recently Mara was maturing. And while she wasn't sure whether she liked it or not, Mara could tell her slight sanity was things better for the group. "See a way through?" Dale asked.
Daryl looked back before cocking his head signaling to follow him. Mara scoffed. "Really? A head nod? He not know how to talk or something?"
Dale couldn't help but smile a little. Shaking his head slightly. However his smile soon vanished as Glenn mentioned trying for an interstate bypass. "We can't spare the fuel." Dale interrupted, regaining his composure.
"We might have to, if Daryl can't find a way through." Mara voiced, still leaning over Dale's shoulder. She knew it wasn't an idea any of them wanted to entertain, but they had to think wisely and realistically. Which meant having a backup plan; even if that backup plan meant doing something less desirable.
"We'll cross that bridge when we need to." Shane said, from behind, "Until then we have to trust that Daryl can get us through."
"If there's anyone who can do it, it's him." Dale agreed.
"True." Mara admitted biting her bottom lip. Her dark brown eyes followed Daryl's form. She had no doubt Daryl could find them a path if necessary. However the fact did nothing to reassure Mara of one simple reality…the group never made it to Fort Benning. They ended up on some farm in the middle of nowhere-and not for long either. It was only a matter of time and horror before everyone ended up in the main set of season three, the prison. These were all certainties Mara knew. What she didn't know though, was how soon and through what events everyone would have to go through until these certainties were achieved. Mara sighed, she was really beginning to wish, she had watched along with her brothers like asked.
A loud clanging shot of steam erupted from the RV causing Mara to jumped back accidentally into Shane. He steadied her, his large hands gripping Mara's arms firmly. She blushed embarrassed. Out of everyone in the group Shane was last person Mara wanted to appear weak in front of. Sure, he was playing nice with her, but she heard enough war stories to know that nice was always with reason. "Thanks." Mara mumbled, brushing him off.
Shane gave her a small nod. "No problem."
Pushing back the conflicting thoughts running through her head, Mara followed Dale out the RV. Quickly she unslung Kindness from her back as her feet met pavement. By the looks of it, the highway appeared to be safe. But then again, that was just by looks. Who knew whether the area was safe or not without a few patrols. After all, as Atlanta had taught them…corpses were not to be trusted. "I said it. Didn't I say it?" Dale started to complain. "A thousand times, dead in the water."
"Problem Dale?" Shane asked sarcastically.
Unfortunately, his sarcasm appeared to be missed thanks to Dale's irritation. "Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" Dale paused, his eyes going towards the millions of cars abandoned. "Okay that was dumb."
Mara shrugged. "No, I've seen dumb and unfortunately it's related to me. Luckily for you guys though, dumb, dumber, and dumbest aren't with me right now."
Rick cracked a small smile at her words. It would be a lie if Rick said he wasn't happy to see Mara back to her old joking self. The last few days tolled on everybody's consciences, especially his young friend.
"While, that's all good and dandy. I have even better news." Shane said, but not harshly. He turned towards Daryl who was already ransacking a car. "I'm pretty sure we can find a radiator hose here, if not-"
"There's a whole bunch stuff we can find." Daryl finished for Shane.
"I can siphon more fuel from the cars for a start." T-Dog replied, leaping into action.
Mara couldn't help but grin at the excitement. She felt like a kid about to embark on a treasure hunting experience. "Sounds good to me. I'm go grab my ruck. We can fill it up rather than move back and forth whenever we find something useful." Mara offered.
"Sounds like a plan." Shane agreed.
With that said, Mara pushed her way passed everyone back into the RV. She grabbed her ruck that laid barren under the large bed in the RV. Since the discovery of extra provisions back at the CDC, Mara had been forced to handover any noteworthy item there was in her ruck. Thus making her ruck incredibly lighter than usual.
"This is a graveyard." Mara heard Lori say, as she rejoined the group. "I don't know how I feel about this…"
"It doesn't matter, there's no way we can pass up this opportunity to restock." Mara spoke drawing everyone's attention.
"She's right. We can't." Rick settled.
Lori gave her husband a slightly surprised look, but said nothing. It was silent for a few seconds more as everyone contemplated what they were about to do. Daryl was the first to move, reaching back into the busted out trunk for another can. His one move was all that was needed to move the others along. "Alright. Alright, everybody look around and gather what you can." Shane ordered.
They scattered like flies. Every one of them heading off to some nearby car. Mara walked out as far as she could while staying within the sight of Dale and Rick who took up watch. A small rueful smile made its way across her lips as she entered the back of an abandoned car. This was the first time in a long time since she was all by herself with neither Daryl or Rick watching over her. It felt rather nice actually; having a little time to herself to think over the last few days. It was a privilege Mara rarely got nowadays.
A sigh escaped her as she fitted the final can into her ruck. Vaguely Mara wondered if she should feel slightly perturbed by how undisturbed she was. Sights like this shouldn't be normal to her-they shouldn't be normal to anyone in the group. She pursed her lips, but pushed the thought out of her head. Nothing about this was normal. Zombies weren't suppose to exist and television wasn't supposed to be reality. Therefore dwelling on the idea was pointless. Another sigh escaped her as Mara situated the ruck more uncomfortably on her back. Well that was one ruck down. Hopefully it wouldn't be the last.
She turned back towards the caravan, but froze in her steps. There only a few feet away from her was a massive hoard of walkers. Suddenly a pair of strong arms grabbed her from behind and pulled her under the nearest car. Mara let out a sharp gasp as bare skin met pavement. Luckily though the scrapes barely broke skin so there was no need to worry about walkers smelling blood. So instead Mara turned to look at who ever her savior was. Although it would be a lie to she didn't know already. There was only one man Mara knew with arms like that…Daryl Dixon. She gave him a small smile of thanks to which he ignored, choosing to instead place a finger to his lips indicating to be quiet. To which Mara replied 'no shit' only for him to whack her before rolling out from under the car.
Mara felt her eyes go wide as she watched his retreating form. Where the hell was he going? She peeked out slightly from under the truck to see Daryl crouching his way over to a bleeding T-Dog. Subconsciously she bit her lips as fear overwhelmed her. If the walkers smelt that blood, both men were as good as dead. Clenching her fists tightly, Mara watched anxiously as Daryl took down a walker, before camouflaging him and T-Dog up with nearby bodies. Silently she murmured a brief pray of thanks to whatever deity there was in this world. The pray didn't last long though as a small cry was sounded.
Instantly Mara's head snapped up. That cry sounded awfully like Sophia-but that was impossible. Sophia was safe with Carol and Lori. The cries continued though more frantic and scared. Someone was in danger, and Mara would be damned if she just sat around doing nothing. Quickly rolling out from under the car, Mara got up just in time to see Rick chasing after two walkers. A string of curse words escaped her as she jumped over the metal fence. What the fuck was going on?