" So where are we going?" I asked as I was looking out the window, while Glenn was driving down the road.
" I'm taking you to our camp that is on the overlook of the quarry. There's more people there, then who you met in town." Glenn said as he kept his focus on the road.
" That's good and all but don't you have any questions for me and Rick, like are we crazy or something?" I asked as I looked from the window to him.
I noticed the corner of Glenn's mouth twitch a little bit, " You guys aren't right?" Glenn asked as he looked over at me and then looked back on the road.
A laugh slipped from my lips and I shook my head no to him to reassure him, then I saw him sigh in relief, which put a smile on my face as I turned back to look out the window again. There was silence between us except for the alarm that was still blaring, I cleared my throat getting his attention, " You want me to turn off the alarm? It's starting to get annoying?" I asked him as I looked at where I could see the wires.
" Just try to ignore it, we are almost there?" Glenn said truthfully as he focused on the road. I nodded my head as the long drive continued, as Glenn focused on the freeway til he turned to the left and onto a dusty road that led up to the mountains.
" You weren't joking, were you?" I asked as I was looking at the surroundings.
" We didn't want to take any chances." Glenn insisted nonchalantly. I looked behind us to see the van slowly catching up to us, which made me smile, ' Good, I'm glad that they're okay.' I thought as I turned back in my seat.
" I have a question for you if you don't mind me asking." Glenn asked me as he looked over at me and then back on the dirty road.
" Sure, what is it?" I asked as I turned my head over to him.
" When this started, did you have any family surviving?" Glenn asked me.
I froze for a moment until I realized a little bit, " Almost all my family is dead except for two, which I hope he is dead right now." I said as I looked down at my hand which was clenched up so tight. So I unclenched them and I felt eyes on me til I felt them go away and returned to look at the road.
" And who is this person you hope is dead?" Glenn asked and all I did was shake my head letting him know that I didn't want to talk about it, " Okay, what about the other person?" Glenn asked.
" I think he's alive somewhere. Before this happened we loved to play video games that involved zombies. But this is a whole new level of reality, he's my cousin but he is like a brother to me. I hope he's okay." I said as I looked over to the window.
" I'm sorry." Glenn apologized as he had a sad expression on his face while looking back to the road.
" It's okay, you don't have to be sad for me, you didn't know." I muttered as I kept my eyes looking out the window.
" Don't worry, you're not the only one who lost family. My sisters and my parents are gone." Glenn said as I turned to look towards him with my sadness in my eyes.
" So, we're really alone in this world aren't we?" I asked as I looked back out the window.
" If you ever want a friend. I'm here for you." Glenn said with a smile on his face.
I looked back over at him with a smile on my face, " Thank you, Glenn." I said.
" Anytime, if you need anything or if you want someone to talk to, you can come talk to me okay." Glenn said as I smiled at him and nodded my head to him. Moments later, we were pulling up into a clearing and I could see different color tents in the distance, then I saw several people running towards the car as Glenn parked the car and got out of it. The people that ran to the car weren't very happy and by the way they looked panicked, they were covering their ears from the blaring noise from the car alarm. I could also hear shouting through the noise, the people were screaming at Glenn and he was shouting right back to them.
I took my eyes off Glenn and the group of people that was in the front of the car and I looked at the camp that was behind them. I saw men, women and even children, my first thought was how they were taking in everything that had happened and I was wondering how they were feeling scared, afraid, worried, heck I would be too if I was in their shoes. But then I noticed that one of the kids stops walking to look over at my direction. He had dark hair and light blue eyes and he was standing right next to his mother,who was walking towards Glenn and the other people that was in front of the car and for somewhere she looked familiar to me, but I couldn't put my finger on it since I really couldn't see her face.
Out of nowhere, an old man came over, wearing a fishing hat with a rifle over his shoulder with a strap, " Turn that thing off!" He yelled at Glenn as he looked over at him.
" I don't know how!" Glenn said defensively, while looking at the others around him.
Glenn was shoved harshly out of the way by a very buff man with dark hair, who was in my line of view and I knew who he was immediately, it was Shane and I never liked the way he would look at me as I was growing up. He threw the hood up from the car and started to dig around inside till the alarm stopped. I was very happy that the alarm was off and that it was finally quiet.
I saw Shane look at the hood of the car again and then he tossed whatever was making the sound for the alarm to the old man and then Shane turned back to Glenn, " What kind of idiot are you?" Shane asked him as he got close to his face.
" I'm sorry. I got a cool car though, right?" Glenn said with a grin on his face and I was happy that he wasn't letting Shane's mood get to his mood.
" There's someone else in the passenger seat, is that my sister?" A girl with blonde hair said as she came over to my door, which made everyone else look at me along with Glenn. As she got closer to see me in the seat, her happy smile turned to a frown, " It's not her." She muttered as she walked away.
" Glenn, who the hell is that in the car?" Shane asked angry, but I bet he wouldn't be angry if he knew it was me, which I'm hoping he forgotten all about me but I wasn't going to hold my breath.
" Shane, calm down please. She helped me and the others get out of the city along with a friend of hers." Glenn reassured him.
" We can't keep taking people that are in trouble all the time." Shane protested as he shook his head to Glenn.
" Shane, what are you talking about? We have better chances in bigger numbers, that what you told me before, what's the difference now?" The woman said with the little boy standing right next to her. I gasped for a little bit when I got a better look at the boy.
' T...There's no way! That can't be?' I thought as I stared at the little boy and then back at the woman to realize who she really was.
" Lori...I know I said this before but-" Shane tried to say to her.
' I was right, it's Lori Rick's wife and the little boy right next to her is Carl. Oh my god, look how big he's gotten. I've missed a lot.' I thought as I watched them fight a little bit about me staying.
" We are not sending her back, she's staying here. Let's go, Carl." Lori finally says as she starts to leave with Carl grabbing her hand and walks away from the car, leaving Shane there watching her leave.
I just kept my eyes on Shane as he stood there for a bit til he walked over to my door and opened the door, which I was grateful that it was dark in the car to where he couldn't tell who I was, " Come on, you don't have to be afraid." Shane said in a soothingly tone voice. I didn't want to get out of the car at first, but I knew that if I didn't it would just piss off Shane, so I slowly started to climb out of the car while grabbing my crossbow and bag, when I was fully out of the car I heard a gasp and I looked up at him to see him back away from me a little bit. I looked over to where Glenn was standing and I felt the others eyes on me, which made me look down to the ground.
" Samantha?" Shane asked me which made me look back up at him and I nodded my head slowly to him. Then the old man came over to me with a smile on his face.
" It's a pleasure to have you here. My name is Dale." He said to me as I nodded my head to him and he started to walk ahead of me and I followed right behind him to the camp. I noticed that everyone was doing their part till I heard a van approaching from behind us and I turned to look as it came to a stop and everyone from inside opened the back door and started to get out and ran over to their loved ones. The blonde hair girl ran towards Andrea, which I found out the girl's name was Amy, I smiled that they were able to be together again.
" Dad!" I heard Carl yell as I looked over to see Lori and Carl running over towards Rick, I smiled as I ran over to them, which made Lori look over to me and started to cry and pull me into a hug and I hugged her back and Rick let go of his son and Lori let go of me as Carl ran over to me and hugged as well while Rick came over to me and hugged me in his arms.
" See, I told you that you would find your family." I said as I let him go from the hug and looked at him with a big smile on my face.
" It was thanks to you and your help that I was able to find my family again. Thank you." Rick said as he placed his hand on my shoulder.
After everyone's introduction was out of the way, me and Rick changed clothes and then we gathered around the fire and Rick was holding Carl in his arms and Lori saw sitting right next to him, " Disoriented. I guess that comes closest. Disoriented, fear, confusion, all those things but disoriented come closet." Rick said as he played with Carl's hair while looking at everyone.
Thunder rumbled up above which made me jump a little bit and then it added the eerie to Rick's tale. I sat right next to Rick and his family and I was looking down at the ground after hearing everything that happened to Rick. I would never want to imagine that for anyone, waking up and not knowing where you are and what's going on and being so confused on what's going on.
" Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short." Dale said to Rick as he nodded his head in agreement.
" I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else, for a while, I thought I was trapped in some coma dream. Something I might not wake up from, ever." Rick said as he summed up how he was feeling.
" Mom said you died." Carl said as he looked up at his father while he was in his arms.
I looked over and noticed the look on Lori's face and something told me deep down that she was hiding something but I couldn't put my finger on it, " She had every reason to believe that. Don't ever doubt it." Rick said as he looked down at Carl. Dale then looked over towards me.
" Hey Samantha, why don't you tell us more about yourself?" Dale asked which made everyone look over at me except for Rick and his family along with Shane. I really didn't know how to start, for one I was worried about what to say. I could tell that everyone was waiting for me to start talking.
" What is your story, Sam?" Glenn asked me as he looked over at me.
" Well, my name is Samantha Ross but you can call me Sam for short and I'm from Cynthiana, Kentucky like Rick and his family." I said as I looked at everyone.
" How did you meet them?" Andrea asked as she looked at me.
" Well, let's just say that something bad happened to me when I was younger and Rick and Shane took me out of the situation, that I really don't want to talk about. It's a very touchy subject. Anyway Rick and his family took me in till I was able to be with my aunt and live with her, but I never lost contact with him and his family till everything started to go to hell. I started to live on my own trying to prove to my mother that I could do things without her help, and that was when I saw things go wrong. I was walking down the street to head to the store, just to get something for dinner when I saw something from the corner of my eye and I looked over and I saw a man attacking a woman. I ran over to try to get him off her but as I got closer I stopped in my tracks to notice something wasn't right, then the man looked over at me and that was when I noticed the rotten skin, that was when I ran as fast as I could back to my house. Once I got home I locked my door and I tried to call Rick and his family and I didn't get an answer and that started to worry me. Then I started to call my aunt and my other family and I couldn't get a hold of them either, I started to tremble, I was so scared, I was alone. I didn't know what to do." I said as I lowered my head into my hands and I started to cry. I could feel everyone's eyes on me and then I felt someone sit down right next to me and I removed my hands from my face and I looked over to see it was Carl right next to me and he started to hug me, I wrapped my arms around him as he held me and I felt a hand on my shoulder and then I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up and it was Rick's hand.
" I'm sorry about what happened to you." Rick said as he looked at me as I started to whip my tears with the back of my hand and I had a sad smile on my face.
" It's okay. I'm just glad that you and your family are alive at least. But I have a feeling that one of my cousin's is still alive, but I just don't know where he is. I just hope that he is okay." I said as I looked down to the ground.
" What was your cousin's name?" Glenn asked me as he was looking at me.
" His name was Christian, but I called him Chris for short and him and I was very close. He was like a brother that I never had, we would always talk about what we would do if everything went to hell, and here we are, everything gone to shit. Hehe. This is very funny indeed, and I have this feeling that he's alive out there somewhere. I just don't know where." I said as I looked at the campfire while placing my hand over my heart, while Carl leaned against my side.
" I'm sorry about what happened to your aunt and your family and I hope that you find your cousin alive and well." Lori said as she looked over to me apologetically.
" It's okay, and thank you for saying that Lori, I just really hope that he is okay and that I get to see him someday." I said as I looked at the fire.
" Do you still miss him?" Carol's daughter, Sophia asked me as I looked over towards her when she asked that to me.
Carol looked down to her daughter and told her to hush, but it didn't bother me, but that told me that Sophia does understand what I was trying to say. I smiled at her, " Yes everyday."
" So, there isn't anyone else out there that is maybe looking for you." Carol asked me as she looked over towards me.
" There's no one else. I'm by myself." I said as I looked back down to the fire.
" Well, as of right now, you're not alone anymore." T-Dog says as he got up and walked over to me and placed his hand on my shoulder as I looked up at him, " You're a part of the family now." T-dog said as I placed my hand on his hand with a small smile on my face and I started to believe what he said to me. I mean, I was back with Rick and his family again, I'm just hoping that a certain person, who has been haunting my dreams, is dead in prison.
" By the way, what happened out there Andrea? We heard on the radio that you guys were trapped." Amy asked as she looked over to the others and the back to her sister.
" We were stuck at the store for a while thanks to Rick and Sam here, but we also wouldn't haven't gotten out of there if it wasn't for them. Glenn, Rick and Samantha took some risky moves, then they led us to safety. The only problem was...we had to leave Merle behind." Andrea said as she slowly looked back at the others.
" You left him behind? What will Daryl think of that?" Dale asked while he was looking over at Andrea with a shocked look on his face.
I was starting to get confused on who this Daryl person was. I knew who was Merle, who was a total asshole, " Who is Daryl?" I asked as I looked over at everyone around me.
" Merle and Daryl Dixon, they're brothers. Daryl's out hunting right now but when he gets back, things are going to be very bad once he finds out." Glenn said as he looked over at me.
" I agree, but here's the thing, they're both annoying, at least now we only have to worry about one of them." Andrea said as she looked at the others and then back at her sister.
" So, who is going to be telling Daryl what happened?" I asked everyone as I looked at the others.
" It's my fault. I dropped the damn key." T-Dog insisted, I started to feel bad for him.
" He's in this position because of me, even though I handcuffed him to the roof. I'll tell Daryl." Rick argued as he looked at T-Dog.
" It's not either of your faults. Rick, if you hadn't stopped Merle, someone else would've been hurt, along with myself." I said as I placed my hand on my neck while I was looking over at Rick. It was still sore after Merle placed his knee on my neck, I wouldn't be surprised if was bruised already.
" Guys, I'm not trying to be rude of anything but T-Dog, you know what Daryl is like, I'm not trying to bring race into this but maybe this would sound better coming from Rick or even Sam." Glenn said quietly, avoiding eye contact from T-Dog.
" It's my fault, I have to face my mistakes I made." T-Dog declared firmly, having the final say about what happened.
" We could lie." Amy offered looking at Andrea, with hope in her eyes.
" No, we have to tell the truth, Merle was out of control and he almost killed Sam and he had what was coming to him. He was a danger to the group and something had to be done. This is only Merle's fault." Andrea said as she shook her head.
" I just don't know how we're going to tell Daryl. He's not going to be happy at all." Andrea said as she sighed and looked back at the fire.
" I locked the door tight, he's alive." T-Dog said quietly as he looked at everyone.
I looked down at the fire and I started to think about everything that happened, even after what Merle did to me but deep down something was telling me to go and save him. I looked back up to the others, " I think we need to go back there and help him." I said.
Everyone was looking at each other nervously, which gave me my answer, then I looked over at Shane as he was getting up to his feet, " I think we should call it a night." Shane said as he started to put out the fire.
Dale got up and said that he was going to take the first watch, as everyone was leaving to go to sleep, I felt like it was my fault for making everyone leave after what I said about Merle. I sat back down on the ground and I grabbed my bag and pulled out my blanket and I wrapped it around me while I moved my bag to the log and I laid down on it with my crossbow right next to me. I was looking up at the stars, my eyes started to get very heavy, I took a deep breath and I had a small smile on my face as I finally drifted to sleep.
End Of Chapter Three
I hope you like this chapter, don't worry, next chapter we will get
get to see Daryl. See you later guys.