Zayla was out hunting with Daryl that morning, both of them noting how scarce the deer activity had become over the past few weeks and that when they came back from this one, they'd likely have to start expanding their hunting grounds. The thought of an overnight trip with Daryl made Zayla smile and she almost lost her focus on the buck she's been following for the past seven minutes, having been lured under her tree by the doe urine she used on the bush. She lost Daryl about 20 minutes ago, but she'd find him after this kill. She lunged from the high branch and sunk her knife into the buck's neck, helping it to the ground as it fell. She had rope in her side pocket and used it to tie the buck's legs together before slinging its carcass over her shoulder. She whistled the song of a Carolina Chickadee three times before she got an answer and Daryl appeared from the east. He offered to carry the animal and she grabbed his crossbow as she led them back to the Quarry.
….
When Daryl and Zayla were a few minutes from home, they heard a bit of commotion and followed it in just in time to see Shane killing a Walker with a few of the men from camp trailing behind him. There was a new face to the group that caught Zayla's eye and it was a tall man wearing a Sherrif Deputy's uniform with short waves of brown hair and russet eyes. He looked like he just walked out of a luxurious hotel or commercial due to how clean he was, how his uniform was in pristine condition without a rip or drop of blood to be seen anywhere.
"Excuse me, sir." She politely called out to Rick with a wave, making Shane laugh because it sounded like she dropped all her accents and sounded like an American for once. "Shane lured you here under false pretenses. I hope you didn't get comfortable 'cause we ain't takin' any new tenants, we ain't got no vacancies and you gotta go."
"We're not turning him away." He told her with a smile.
"I don't like him, Shane." She mocked his tone.
"You don't even know him, Zayla." Was his argument and she scoffed at it. "What's so distrustful about Rick? He looks like a nice guy to me."
"He's too clean." She hissed and Shane chuckled, but Zayla was dead serious. With the lack of running water, nobody should be as clean as the newbie was. He smelled like he bathed in hand sanitizer for God's sake. How was she supposed to trust somebody like that?
"I don't think Lori's gonna be too happy to hear that her husband can't stay with us." Morales chuckled as he passed Zayla, he and Jim volunteering to carry her deer back to camp.
Zayla raised her brows at that comment, truly surprised. All this time, she was under the impression that Shane was married to Lori and Carl was their son. She's spotted a bird tattoo on Lori's stomach when they were washing and she's seen 'Lil Bird' inked on Shane's chest, so she had reason to believe that they were married or, at the least, together before the world ended because Shane didn't wear a wedding band, but Lori had two bands on her necklace. She's also caught them fooling around on more than one occasion, Jacqui and Amy have too, so she thought they were one happy family. She wondered what was going to happen now that Lori's real husband was around.
Zayla suddenly got a burning itch to find Carol to see what she knew about Rick and Lori and went to camp in search of the jade-eyed woman. She found Carol watching the kids play with some of their new toys in front of Sophie's tent and smiled when the ginger approached. Zayla didn't even get the chance to greet the woman because she heard Daryl yelling and that caught her attention.
"I leave you boys alone for two minutes and you're already fightin' over me." She announced to the men, stopping all the commotion. Daryl had just stopped shouting at Shane and was looking at her like she was about to pounce on someone, so she cocked a brow at it. "Did I miss somethin' here?"
"That's his sister, the one who's good side you were supposed to stay on and your last hope." Shane told Rick as he pointed to Zayla. "Don't you have somethin' to tell Satan's wife, Rick?"
"Actually, he and I aren't together anymore." Zayla happily informed Shane of her recent change in marital status. "I'm Carol's wife now and we are very happy together."
"Maybe you should talk to her." Rick suggested in a low tone.
Shane snorted. "Oh, that's cute."
"Shane, please." He tried.
"Hell no." Shane refused with a shake of his head, knowing much better than to get himself involved in the mess that was about to happen all due to Rick showing up. "You best ask Dale or Glenn 'cause I ain't sayin' a damn word. She's not gonna snatch my goddamn soul outta me. You on your own, Rick."
Rick took one look at the ginger woman, Zayla, and knew that she meant business. He had a bad feeling that she wouldn't be in a good mood upon hearing the news he had to bring from the city, so he turned to Dale and quietly asked him to break it to her.
"Zayla, sweetheart, I want you to really listen to me, alright?"
"I'm listenin', but you ain't sayin' much, Dale."
"You know Glenn just came back with a group from a supply run, right?" She nodded at his words, but her eyes were on Rick. "While they were in the city, they got stuck on a roof and Rick helped them get back here. He said he dropped a bag of guns on the street that he's willing to go get for us."
"That's just peachy, Dale. Skip the previews and get to the feature presentation."
"I wanna remind you that Merle has a drug problem and he sometimes gets high when he's out there."
"Dale…" She warned.
"Merle was high when Rick got on the roof. He was shooting at the Geeks on the street and attracting them to the building, then he assaulted T-Dog. Rick intervened and used his authority as a County Sheriff to get a grip on the situation before anyone else got hurt."
She was debating on if she should continue being a Fox, since she just came back from hunting, or if now was the time to change into a Lioness. It may be surprising, but Zayla actually preferred being a Fox in most situations. She wasn't fond of unneeded attention and she didn't want people to be frightened of her all the time. When she was a Fox, she was sociable, playful and maybe even cuddly. When she was a Lioness, she was dominant and fierce...maybe even mildly terrifying.
"Did you shoot my brother?" She demanded an answer from Rick, but he just gave Shane another helpless look as if the Deputy would swoop in to help, but Shane didn't even make eye contact. "Hello? I'm talkin' to you. Do I need to speak pig Latin?"
"No."
"Answer my damn question then. Did you or did you not shoot my brother?"
"Zayla-" Shane tried, having a good idea where the redhead was going with her questioning because she was inching closer to Rick.
She blindly held a finger up to the Deputy. "Not a word, Shane. You had your chance."
"No, I didn't shoot him." Rick finally answered.
"Then what exactly did you do to him, Mr. County Sheriff?"
"I restrained him, so he'd cool down and think rationally."
"In my experience- and I've had heaps of exposure to you boot-lickin' bitches- when a cop says 'restrain', that means 'handcuffs'." She glanced at his belt and saw that, of course, there were no restraints to be found. "You're missin' yours, Sheriff, and I haven't seen Merle at all today. If you tried to do that to him, your jaw would be dislocated and you would not be standing before me, but Dale said he was high and that must've given you a fightin' chance. So I ask again, where is my brother?"
"Restrained."
"Zayla-" Shane tried again.
"Shut your fucking hole, Shane." Knowing he'd been dismissed, Shane threw his hands in the air and took a few paces backwards, which landed him right next to Lori. She looked at him like he was crazy for a split second, likely long enough for Shane to get the message because he stalked off. "Restrained where? Gimme the exact coordinates."
"Restrained to a pipe on the roof of the building that Glenn and the others were stuck on."
"You mean, restrained to a pipe on the roof of a building in Atlanta where the Geeks are overrunnin' the place." Rick looked to Dale for help this time, but the other man didn't even try to get in Zayla's way. Rick nodded and as soon as he did, Zayla slugged him hard in the face and knocked him on his ass. Lori ran over to her husband while Zayla turned her back on them and made her way to the cars. "Glenn, let's go!"