A/N: Thank you the follows and the favorites and for continuing to read.

Three thank yous to Hongo En, specialsmiley1315, and Guest for reviewing. I'm always excited to see what you have to say.

Chapter Nineteen

Marianne woke in a cold sweat. Was it the same dream again? She tried to remember.

She stood in a forest. Everything was still. Even the trees held their breaths. She blinked and a deer appeared in the distance. She had a clear shot so she drew her bow but the arrow broke and the pieces fell to the ground. She grabbed another but this one was broken too. And so was the one after that and the one after that. There were no more arrows left. The deer was gone. She looked for it and the trees started to disappear. Night fell and everything was black except for the stars. One by one they flickered and blinked out of existence until there was only one left. It flickered too but then the dream was over.

Marianne sat up in bed rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. The memory of the dream slipped through her fingers until all she was left with was an empty feeling that gutted her. She wouldn't be eating breakfast again.

Despite the respite from the blazing Georgia sun it gave, Marianne had always hated winter. She had never thrived in the cold so she really didn't want to leave the warmth of the sleeping bag and shivered as she did even though she was already wearing her jacket.

There were only embers left but she coaxed the fire back to life and sat in its warmth as she fully woke up. She looked at the forest around her, planning on what she would do for the day.

Marianne had found a camping ground that she decided to stay at for a couple of days. It was peaceful and there weren't any walkers around yet but that didn't mean she let her guard down.

She didn't always have the chance to hunt when she stayed in towns so she would definitely be doing that today. Before moving on she wanted to eat as much meat as possible to stave off the inevitable weight loss and to conserve her non perishable food supply. With no one else around it could potentially last her most of the winter.

Marianne grabbed her bow and the backpack she had gotten into the habit of taking with her when she hunted. She double checked she was carrying her knives and that her gun was where it always was. Most of her knives had been left behind with Will but she had lucked out when she found a mini arsenal in the truck's pile of supplies. There was enough to keep five people well armed. Leave it to the scum of the Earth to be so prepared to kill.

Marianne headed south of the camp to an area she hadn't explored. She slowly walked through the woods, keeping an eye out for tracks and any movement in the trees that wasn't the wind. Hunting was as natural to her as breathing and the only problem with it is that it gave her time to think, unlike most of the other chores she did to keep busy.

It had been twenty seven days since the farm fell and two whole weeks since Jimmy was murdered. Two whole weeks since she had massacred those men. She'd already forgotten what they looked like and sometimes all she could remember about Jimmy was his walker face. It wasn't the Jimmy she wanted to picture.

It surprised her when no nightmares of that day had come but for days after tears would sneak up on her and she'd have to stop what she was doing to wipe them away.

She was getting used to being alone and to the heartache that accompanied it. She'd adapt to survive like she'd done since she was a girl. Pain and sorrow were old news. The only new thing was that she didn't have her brother to turn to.

Marianne wondered what Daryl was doing right that very moment. Was he hunting like she was? Maybe in the very same woods? She shook her head. It wouldn't do to get her hopes up.

Daryl had been drowning in guilt since they found her message. Self loathing had a firm place inside of him and mixed in was a happiness he hadn't felt in years. Daryl was almost overwhelmed by this tangled mess of emotions and he was having a hard time thinking straight. The only thing that kept him functioning was the idea that Marianne was out there somewhere looking for them and that somewhere could be close.

He knew he shouldn't be mad at Lori and T-Dog as much as he was. They were the ones that said Marianne was dead and he had believed them when he didn't have to.

"I didn't know, man, that she survived. Her and Jimmy were makin' a run for it and walkers swarmed them right next to the car. I saw her head and then she was just gone. Must be a damn miracle to get out of that alive."

Daryl could at least grudgingly accept T-Dog's apology but he was outright pissed at Rick. In the end it was Rick who convinced him not to go back, that Marianne was gone and there was nothing they could do for her.

One of the only things that kept Daryl from beating him to a pulp was the extra time he spent away from the group. Technically he was hunting, which he was still doing, but the extra time wasn't spent that way. He'd climb a tree and sit there thinking about nothing or at least he tried to.

That was where he was now. Up in a tree picking at some loose bark and watching two birds huddled together in the next tree over completely ignoring him.

There was a dead walker with an arrow sticking out of its head a few yards away. He really should be getting back to the house. The squirrels wouldn't be ready in time for dinner if he didn't leave now but he didn't care. Let them wait. They could use the practice.

Marianne waited. The squirrel's tail twitched. That's all she could see of it at the moment. All it needed to do was move around the tree again, so she waited, and that was exactly what the squirrel did. She released her arrow. The squirrel had no chance of living through the winter. It was a perfect head shot, just the way she liked it. Instead of falling to the ground her dinner was pinned to the tree. Marianne would have to climb to retrieve it but she didn't mind, not when she'd be eating well that night.

She took her backpack off and set it on the ground, placing her bow next to it. The tree was an easy climb with plenty of branches to choose from and Marianne gracefully hoisted herself onto a low hanging one. She reached the squirrel in no time and pulled the arrow out of the tree. She dropped it, along with the squirrel, to the ground and started climbing down.

Marianne deftly maneuvered herself to a lower branch. There was a loud crack and before she could grab onto anything she was falling.

Pain ripped through her abdomen. It was worse than the cut on her cheek had ever been. She didn't know how long she lay there trying to catch her breath and feeling her blood leave her body. She wasn't going to die. This was no big deal. She just needed to stand up and she'd be fine, but standing proved harder than she anticipated. It felt like someone was stabbing her over and over, taking vindictive pleasure in it. Marianne had to lean against the tree she'd fallen from. She looked up and shuddered when she saw her blood smeared on the bark.

She couldn't bend over to grab her things and had to squat instead. Her body protested at every movement. She could feel the bruises forming on her back and knew she'd be sore all over tomorrow but she needed to push through it to get back to camp as soon as possible.

The journey was walker free. What should have been a fifteen minute walk turned into half an hour. Her body was screaming at her to stop moving but she needed to clean and bandage her wound so she grabbed her medical supplies and water before going into her tent.

She shrugged her jacket off and cut her shirt to take it off too. Her injury looked as bad as it felt and it covered the right side of her stomach, reaching just under her chest down to her hip. Her skin was shredded and so was her shirt. It looked like she'd been mauled by a wild animal or a walker. She was glad it hadn't been a walker but a wild animal was another story. She couldn't exactly kill a tree in revenge and eat it.

There was debris embedded in her and she began picking it out. It was a painful and slow process but she knew the worst was yet to come. She scooted out of the tent with a huge bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a canteen of water in hand. Her body flinched as she continued to clean the wound with water.

Marianne held her breath as she poured the hydrogen peroxide onto her. She gave a loud hiss. Black speckles danced at the edge of her vision and she quickly set the bottle on the ground so she wouldn't spill it before lying down. The blackness receded but she continued to lie there, trying to calm her ragged breath.

She struggled to sit up and went back into the tent. It was time for the bandages. Marianne didn't have nearly enough ointment to cover her wound so she went without it for now. She had Hershel's antibiotics which would hopefully be enough to prevent any infection.

Stitches would be useless. There wasn't enough skin left to stitch together so she gingerly wrapped herself, using as little bandages as possible. She only had enough to change them two more times and would need to figure something out soon.

The pain hadn't taken away her hunger. In fact, she was starving and she was determined to have roasted squirrel for dinner with a side of green beans. It took her longer to do everything and she had to pause every once in awhile to wait for a wave of intense pain to recede.

After eating it was time for bed even though the sun hadn't begun to set. Marianne put the fire out. Its warmth wasn't worth the attention it might attract during the night.

Despite the trying day she'd had Marianne couldn't fall asleep. She stayed as still as possible and stubbornly kept her eyes closed but she finally opened them and found that it was now dark.

A twig snapped in the distance. All thoughts of sleep were pushed from her mind as she focused her complete attention on listening for more noises. Another twig snapped and this time it was closer. Soon she could hear the faint rustling of someone or something moving through the woods and as the seconds passed it was getting louder.

There were more snapping twigs and then she heard it, the collective moaning of a group of walkers and they were headed directly towards her.

Marianne didn't move a muscle as she waited for the first one to walk past her tent. Its shadow loomed over her, making it seem bigger than it actually was. More and more filtered out of the woods and soon she was surrounded. It was hard to estimate how many there were but the exact number didn't matter. There were too many.

Her hand crept towards the knife she kept at her side and she took hold of it, prepared to fight if she had to but hoping it wouldn't come to that.

It was the highway all over again but this time she had more disadvantages. She was alone, injured, and tired. If the walkers caught on to her presence the only hope for her survival was to make it to the truck.

A walker brushed against her tent and Marianne stopped breathing. Her whole body tensed and the grip on her knife tightened. She didn't think they could smell her through her tent and sleeping bag but there were so many unknowns about walkers she couldn't be sure. What she was really worried about was her bloody shirt crumpled right outside her tent. Would they smell it and investigate?

Two hours must have passed as she waited for the walkers to shuffle through and away from her camp but it wasn't until morning that she dared to crawl out of her tent and take a look around. There were footprints everywhere. Marianne estimated that there easily could have been over a hundred walkers.

She began packing up as fast as she could move. Marianne was beyond exhausted and resigned to the fact that a second wind wouldn't be coming. Driving in her state wasn't the greatest idea but she needed to find a safer place to stay while she healed. She didn't know how long it would take until she was in good enough shape to travel and deal with the risks that went along with it.

Marianne grunted as she pulled the gate closed. She'd found a tiny, one street neighborhood surrounded by a tall fence. There were twelve houses on one side of the curvy street and sixteen on the other. Most of them were in various stages of being built. Some were only frames with a roof and a few were only partially bricked. About halfway down the street was a finished house that someone had moved into.

She parked the truck in the garage and went into the house. There were boxes everywhere. Whoever had briefly lived there hadn't finished unpacking but all the furniture seemed to be around.

Marianne chose an upstairs bedroom to settle into and carried everything she could possibly need to the room. She planned on staying for awhile. Despite wanting to explore the place a little more she got into bed after securing the house. Sleep came easier this time.

When she woke up it was evening. Her injury burned and the bandages were making her itch. She stiffly got out of bed to grab some new bandages and set to work. Marianne found that taking them off was at least twice as worse as putting them on. Some of the loose skin had stuck to them and she had to carefully peel it off to set it back in place.

After that ordeal and before the light went away, Marianne took a better look around the house. She had an idea about her bandage shortage and it would require a lot of sheets. It didn't take her long to find them. She opened a hallway closet near the upstairs bathroom to find it full of bedding and towels.

She grabbed a stack of sheets. They were nicer than any she'd owned in her entire life but she had no problem cutting them into strips. As she cut them she wondered if she needed to sterilize them, which would require a fire and she didn't think she was up to collecting firewood.

When she began rolling up the makeshift bandages she decided they were as clean as they were going to get for now but when she ran out again she'd have to go through with cleaning them and hopefully she would be well enough by then.

For the next six days Marianne fell into a routine that largely included staying in bed and not moving. It drove her a little crazy but she found a few boxes filled with books that helped her pass the time.

She was sitting up in bed, leaning against a mound of pillows, reading a book when she heard something downstairs. It sounded like glass breaking. Marianne set the book down and looked at the closed door. She got out of bed, shivering after leaving the cocoon of blankets she'd been wrapped up in, and walked to the door to crack it open.

A door closed. There was someone in the house.

A/N: Hurray! I finished in time! My mini break was nice and much needed. My brain thanks me for it. I think I'll try sticking to a once a week update for now but when I write faster I'll post things more often.

There's a list of things I want to do before they reach the prison and it's a little unorganized at the moment. I need to hammer out a final timeline and the order of certain events so character development makes sense. Marianne and the group will definitely not be having an uneventful winter. Feel free to make suggestions about what you want to see, like more interactions between certain people or certain types of scenes. I can't make any promises but I'll see what I can do.