Lucy Wilson-Greene
Besides Ma, I miss my bed and stuffed animals the most. Daddy told me we couldn't go home again, so sometimes I catch myself wondering if was still in his spot. He sits on my quilt, front and center. Like every morning, the first thing I do is straighten up the tent; that's my big chore. Our tent is small and green and has become my new home over the last few weeks. I have a blue sleeping bag on the far side of the tent, and Daddy has a thin, inflatable bed on the other side. Most nights, though, I sleep there with him. The sleeping bag is more for when I want to read alone.
I use the small cracked mirror to tie my hair in two pigtails. I frown when they sit unevenly; maybe Amy can fix it for me. I slip on my rain boots, grab my sunglasses, and leave the tent, ensuring it's zipped behind me. The heart sunglasses have stuck with me from the start. I told Daddy it makes me think of Hannah from the gas station.
Seven adults, including Daddy, left yesterday morning for a run in the city. The sun starts peering over the trees, and my ladybug watch reads 7:45 a.m. We had school time at 8:30. It wasn't a real school, but and had us study some books to practice reading or writing in old notebooks. I started toward the RV to see if I could find Amy. She sat on the top steps of the RV, fanning herself with a piece of paper.
"Hey, fashion star," she greets me with a smile. She started calling me that when we first met, and I think it was because of my sunglasses and boots. They're both pink and have hearts.
I feel more at ease with Amy, especially when Daddy is not around. "Hi." My voice is quiet, and I look around. and are tinkering with the front of the RV. Daddy said was friendly but told me not to talk to alone. He lost his family early on and called him a 'loose cannon' when we first met everyone. I'm not entirely sure what he means by that, but I know I should be cautious around him.
"Can you fix my hair?" I ask, and she smiles and motions me over. "I don't know how to braid, do you?"
"Sure thing! Do you want two braids or one? What do you think about French braids?" Amy chattered away to me, with me sitting on the bottom steps between her knees.
"Can I please have two French braids?" She agreed and started twisting my hair into the requested style. She let me check my reflection in the RV bathroom, and I thanked her with a quick hug before leaving.
Amy is probably my favorite person at camp besides Daddy. She reminds me of my Aunt Beth from before. I see the other kids gathering near the folding table, so I make my way over and climb up into a folding lawn chair. Lori gives me a small smile and greets me. I just nod. I don't feel like talking much today, especially with Carl and Sophia around. They always make me feel like I'm too young to be part of their group.
Carl and Sophia chatted while they shared a copy of The Giver that Dale had lent to the 'school'. I peered over the table and tried to look at the book with them, but Carl pulled it away.
"This book is for the big kids," he says matter-of-factly. They're only two years older than me, but Carl has never let me forget that. "Why don't you go down there and listen to Miranda do storytime." I glance at the other table where reads to her kids who are my age and younger. Luckily, swoops in with another book.
"Here you go, hon; why don't you take this one for silent reading." She hands me a book, and I frown as I open the first page. There are pictures. I don't have the heart to tell her I read this three years ago and instead fall back in the lawn chair, propping the book up on my knees. The Moralez kids are too young, and Carl and Sophia are too old. I feel a pang of loneliness. The only thing I can do is pass the time until Daddy's back from the run.
Victor Snellings used to tell me to kick rocks. Maybe he was on to something. I passed the time by kicking over stones and seeing what crawled out from under. The supply run group should have been back by now, and I was desperate for anything to keep my thoughts at bay. Amy had been worried about and let me sleep in her tent the previous night after I told her the thunder was scary. We spent most of the night with her teaching me how to braid hair.
My attention was on a small blue salamander crawling out from a brown rock when I heard the alarm. It was blaring its way up the road that led to the quarry.
"Hey, Dale, can you see what that is?" asks from where he stands near and Carl."Talk to me, Dale!"
"I can't tell yet." The man yells back down, his eyes glued to his binoculars.
"I'll be damned," Mr. Dale swore, lowering the binoculars. Amy now stands anxiously, making her way to stand next to me and looking down the hill.
"Is it them? Are they back?" she asks, her voice trembling with anticipation. "What is it?"
Amy now has one hand on my shoulder; her foot is tapping in anticipation."A stolen car is my guess." starts climbing down the RV to join the rest of the group. We all stand around watching. As the red sports car pulls in, I cover my ears, trying to block out some of the noise. Glenn climbs out of the driver's seat, and goes to him, yelling something. is not far behind. Amy moves away from me as well.
rips something from under the hood, and the alarm stopped. My hands lowered, and I listened to the adults talk for a few more seconds. "Is she coming back?" Amy asked again.
"Yes!" Glenn exclaimed, trying to move away from the frantic young woman.
"Why isn't she with you? Where is she? She's okay?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yes! Yeah, fine. Everybody is. Well, Merle, not so much." I frowned at that. Sometimes, the adults forget I'm there and don't think I take in what they say. Merle was another one of the camp members I wasn't supposed to talk to. I called him at first since Ma said I should always use proper names with adults, but he spat on my boots and told me not to.
"Are you crazy, driving this wailing bastard up here? Are you trying to draw every Walker for miles?" Shane pointed angrily to the young man.
cut in, trying to calm him down. "I think we're okay."
"You call being stupid, okay?" I frown deeper and look away. was usually friendly, but he slipped every now and again, and pure anger came out.
"Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source. I'm not arguing. I'm just saying. It wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?" conceded to both of the other men.
Glenn shrugged. "Sorry. Got a cool car."
Another truck pulls up—a big moving van. I feel my heartbeat speed up as I try to make out the driver, but the sun glares off the windshield too bright. They left in Daddy's truck, so why are they in this one? I heard them say they were in a tough spot over the CB last night, but I hope nothing happened to Daddy.
Ms. Andrea rounds the truck first, running to her sister. "Amy!"
"Andrea!" Andrea runs up to Amy, and the two sisters hug.
I don't wait to hear what else they say when I see Daddy next. I run up to him and jump when I see his arms open. He lifts me up and continues walking towards camp, my head buried in his shoulder. "You scared me," I whisper, and I feel him run a hand over the back of my head. I don't even care if my braids are getting messed up.
"Sorry, Bug. We had a tough run." He sets me down once we are closer to the RV.
"You are a welcome sight." Mr. Dale says, hugging Daddy, then , and they all share a laugh. "I thought we had lost you folks for sure."
"How'd y'all get out of there anyway?" asks, hands on hips.
"New guy… he got us out," Glenn answers for the group.
"New guy?" looks puzzled.
piped in."Yeah, crazy. Vato just got into town. Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello." A man steps out from the truck and walks up to the group. The man is wearing a police uniform and cautiously approaches the group.
"The guy's a cop like you," Daddy says to , but he's not looking at him. Instead, he seems…scared, like this stranger is a ghost.
"Oh my god…" The man whispers, bringing a hand to his face. I trace my gaze to the other side of the camp, where Carl is bolting from where they stood previously. is only a few feet behind him, her face pale and as shocked as Mr. Shanes's.
"Dad! Dad!" The boy flings himself into the man's waiting arms, and they fall to the gravel, holding eachother. I hear Daddy take a long breath behind me, and I look up at him. It seems like everyone in the camp has the same reaction.
The stranger, , I assume, is crying now. "Carl, oh…" he kisses his son on the cheek. He stands, his son still in his embrace, and tightly wraps his other arm around his wife. I can tell everyone around camp is watching the family reunion, but my eyes are only on , who looks like some of that anger wants to leak out again.
The edges of the woods remind me of home and the trees surrounding the farm. Daddy was sleeping in, so I decided to explore the edges of camp a little to see if I could find any flowers. Amy offered to braid them into my hair tonight, and I was excited to have a new style.
A rustling sound catches my attention, and I move further into the woods. I've seen a few bunnies and squirrels this close to camp.
But it's not a squirrel or a bunny. Instead, I see the back of a walker hunched over a deer. My hand comes to my mouth, and I try to stay quiet, moving backward and away from the monster. I haven't seen one in a long time—not since the highway.
As I move backward, my rainboot hits a branch. Crunch.
The walker looks back at me with hungry eyes. His teeth are exposed, and he chomps at the air like it has already tasted me. I let a panicky whimper and watch the blood drip down its chin into the grass. In my attempt to move further back, I fell on my rear.
"Daddy!" I scream out, pushing my feet frantically in the leaves, trying to get as far away as possible. The sound of rallying adults comes in quickly, and it seems like half the camp is on its way.
"Bug?!" He calls out, but he's still too far. I can feel hot tears welling in my eyes as the walker pulls itself closer to me. I let out another cry, letting all the tears fall, my chest rising and falling rapidly in fear.
Two arms wrap around me and pull me back as Daddy approaches me. Amy holds me as some of the men in the group beat the Walker back. I look away as takes an axe to its neck. Amy sets me down, but I'm still sniffling. Daddy turned to me with worried eyes and crouched.
"You okay, Bug? Did it get you?" He grabs my arms and turns them over, searching me up and down. "Any bites or scratches?" I don't think I can talk yet, so I shake my head. He pulls me into a hug, saying a quick thank you to Amy for grabbing me.
sighs. "It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain."
"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what." answers, and I hear Daddy hum in agreement.
I hear a branch snap and look to see come out of the woods. He's a lot quieter than his brother, but he definitely shares his vocabulary.
"Sunnava' bitch, that's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this… filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!" He starts kicking the body with each word.
"Calm down, son. That's not helping." frowns.
"Wha'da you know about it, old man? Why don' you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond?" He flings his arm in annoyance. "'ve been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp and cook us up some venison. Wha'da think? Do ya' think we can cut around this chewed-up part right here?" I scrunch my nose at the thought.
"I would not risk that." Daddy answers.
sighed and glanced at me blankly, looking at the whole scene.
"That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel… about a dozen or so. That'll have'ta do." He held up a string full of dead squirrels.
Suddenly, the head of the Walker started to move its teeth again, and I let out another squeal, turning to look away.
"Oh god," Amy says from behind me.
"Come on, people. What tha' hell?" shoots it with one of his arrows. "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?"
I follow Daddy back to camp with everyone else, holding his hand tightly.
starts shouting for his brother. "Merle! Merle! Get yer ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up."
"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you." says, coming up behind him. Daddy places his other hand on my shoulder and only watches.
"'bout what?"
has his bossy voice on. "About Merle. There was a… There was a problem in Atlanta."
"He dead?" looks scared for a split second before glaring at the cop.
"We're not sure."
"He either is or he ain't!" scoffs.
Mr. Rick steps up now. He has the same bossy voice that Shane does, but he almost seems sincere. "No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it."
"Wh're you?" Mr. Daryl's eyes shine like he wants to cry. Daddy told me to avoid the Dixons, but I'm starting to think Merle was the real threat.
"Rick Grimes."
"Aight', Rick Grimes," his voice is taunting. "Ya' got something you wan' to tell me?"
"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof— hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Daddy explained the whole situation in Atlanta to me last night. He said he felt guilty for leaving him behind, but I begged him not to leave me again. Some other camp members wanted to go look for him today. He agreed to stay behind.
"Hol' on, lemme process this. Yer saying ya handcuffed my brother to a roof, and ya left him there?!"
"Yeah."
tosses the squirrels to the side and throws a long jab towards the man.
"Hey! Watch the knife!" T-Dog warns, and ducks in time to avoid the slash.
comes over and grabs the man, putting him in a headlock. I pull on Daddy's hand and whisper to him.
"Why are they hurting him? He just misses his brother." Daddy squats and watches with me.
"I know Bug, but he's real angry right now. Daryl may hurt someone." I frown but nod, wiping the last tears from my face.
"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" Rick asks after a few moments. They end up getting a group together to go back into the city and retrieve Merle.
walks over and gives me a grin. "How are you doing, Miss Lucy?" He found it sweet that I called everyone Mr and Ms, so he started calling me Miss Lucy last night.
I shrug and look away. "'m fine…I was just scared. got the walker, though."
"Yes, he did. Do you mind if I talk to your dad real quick?" I nod and give Daddy one last pleading look before walking away.
I watched the two of them converse briefly, and I could tell Rick was asking him to return to the city with them. He shakes his head and motions to me, so I look away. Maybe I'm selfish keeping him here when Mr. Daryl's brother is out there hurt. Daddy is my own family, the same way Merle is . If it were the other way around, I would think he would help. I make my way back to the two of them.
" ?" He looks at me with a smile, but I can tell behind that smile is a tired, conflicted man. "If you need him to go, I understand. Merle isn't nice, but he is a part of our group." Daddy laughs and shrugs.
"Well, you heard the little lady, Rick—look like I'm joining you."