I numbly walked over to the tent that I shared with Ren, grabbing my gear and backpack before walking out to see the camp bustling again.

"Hey, smartchick!" someone hollered with an accent. I whirled around to see the new guy addressing me in front of Glenn, Rick, T-dog, and Shane. "Yeah, you, the only one who's smart out of all these shitheads."

I sighed, shouldering my pack before walking over to him.

"What," I deadpanned, giving him my very best 'I've had enough shit to deal with' face.

"You fast?" He demanded.

"What he means is, we're going to Atlanta to save his brother, Merle, and to pick up a bag of guns," Rick intervened, staring at me with an understanding and soft look he always carried. "Wanna come with?"

I hesitated. My initial plan was to just disappear for a few days, release the anger and grief, look for clues of my older brother. And yes, without Rennie.

"You look like you could use some distraction," Rick muttered to me kindly. I glanced up at him again, before nodding.

"No," a voice interrupted from behind me as Shane sighed in utter disbelief. "She's not going without me."

Ben stood there firmly in a new jacket he'd found, his strange visor still sitting on his head. He glared at me and then proceeded to use my health as an excuse. "She has a twisted wrist, a possible concussion-"

"Oh my god, I'm so gonna die from a cut on my forehead and a bruised wrist, oh woe is me," I sighed dramatically putting my right hand on my forehead before sagging a bit.

"Arlynn," Ben scolded, frowning worriedly. "If you're going, I'll come with."

"Hell to the fuck to the no," I gave him a bright smile, tilting my head a bit. "Sorry kiddo, looks like you're gonna have to babysit."

"I'm older than you," he reminded me.

"Welcome to America 2.0," the situation was bothering me so much that I just wanted to get this over with. "Where age doesn't matter."

"You can't go," Ben insisted before hesitating a bit. "At least, not without talking to little R."

I felt a chill run down my spine, my heart clenching at the thought of him. "Which is why you're going to take care of him and take care of the camp."

"Arl-"

"She's right," Shane suddenly piped up, turning to Rick. "It's not just five you're taking. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that Walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp. "

"Arlynn, please," Ben practically begged by now, grabbing my wrist. "You can't leave him like that. He's your brother."

I stiffened, my heart shattering even more. "I have no brother. He's dead."

And with that, I yanked my arm out of his grasp, loading the items on a truck that we were going to take into the city. Footsteps crunched the grassy and wood-filled ground behind me.

"I'm done talking to you. Just take care of him for me, he loves you more than me anyways," I snapped without turning around, focusing on making sure I had everything in the pack even though I knew I always did.

"No he doesn't," a voice that was definitely not Ben replied. I whirled around to see Dale standing behind me, a gentle smile on his face before it dropped at my expression. I tried to control the bewilderment and the tears rising, pushing down the lump in my throat. "He loves you the most."

"Sorry," I sniffled, avoiding looking at the man.

He simply sighed, patting my shoulder in a fatherly way, making the lump rise higher up my throat. "You're doing amazing, Arlynn. It's not easy to try and take care of a young boy in this world, especially one so young."

I laughed bitterly, raw emotion breaking through. "Me? Doing amazing? You heard him, I'm doing horribly. If it was our older brother… I can't protect anyone, Dale."

"He's not dead," Dale pointed out the obvious. "If you were a bad guardian, he'd be skinny as a stick, barely alive, or dead already."

"Being alive doesn't mean he's really alive," I brushed my loose hair back behind my left ear, still staring at the ground.

"Hey," Dale lifted my chin up, making me look at his kindly eyes instead of the dull ground. "You don't always have to sacrifice everything for him. He's just hitting his teenage years soon and that's why he's acting out. It's nature, kid."

I cried out a little, genuinely touched at this man who was quickly becoming my new father figure. He awkwardly cleared his throat, trying to comfort me. Eventually, I gained better control of myself again, trying to harden myself completely.

"You're gonna be okay?" Dale asked in his gruff voice.

"Yeah," I nodded, clearing my throat and wiping my face to remove any signs of my minor tear session.

"You're a big girl, but don't forget," Dale withdrew from me, adjusting his hat and moving away from me back to his RV. "You're still just a kid."

And I stood there, feeling something crack further from within me as I felt the sun's warm rays shining down on me with the slight gentle breeze of the wind sweeping through the mountain.