3 Chapter 3

The camp is starting to run out supplies so Glenn decided to take five people along with him into Atlanta to scavenge anything they could find. Andrea, T-Dog, Jacqui, Morales and no other then Merle fucking Dixon volunteered to go along. Daryl went out on a hunting trip a couple days ago to see what he could kick up. Leaving the rest of you to stay and do everything else that needed done.

Currently you were out in the woods with Amy gathering up mushrooms not knowing if they were okay to eat or not. Hopefully Shane or someone would know if it was safe to eat them. After you were done you headed back to camp. "Any luck?" Lori asked. Amy handed Lori the bucket of mushrooms you had gathered. "How do we tell if their poison?" Amy asked "Uh, there's only one sure way I know of." Lori said "Ask Shane when he gets back?" You said "Yeah, you've got it." Lori replied "Thank You." You said as you and Amy walked off to find something else to do.

While playing with Carl and Sophia you noticed Shane come out of the woods shortly followed by Lori. You knew something was going on between them. You wanted to judge Lori for moving on so quick and Shane for going after his best friends wife but you couldn't after the story they told everyone about Loris husband being shot before the virus happened and how Shane tried getting him out but the hospital was bombed and he went to listen for a heart beat and check for a pulse but got nothing. You couldn't imagine how hard that must have been. So in a way you kinda understood why they found comfort in each other. So you just looked away and went about playing tag with the kids.

You were talking to carol when you heard a car alarm in the distance. "Talk to me Dale!" Shane yelled up to Dale who was up on top of the RV. "I can't tell yet." Dale said back. "Is it them? are they back?" Amy asked." " I'll be damned." Dale said "what is it?" Amy asked impatiently. "Stolen car is my guess." Dale said. Then you seen it a red car flying up the dirty path coming to a stop. Gleen stepped out saying hello. "Holy crap. Turn that damn thing off!" Dale hollered. "I don't know how." Gleen yelled over the blaring. "Pop the hood please. Pop the damn hood please." Shane yelled to Gleen. While Gleen was trying to pop the hood Amy was asking about Andrea and if she was okay and Shane was yelling for him to pop the hood. He popped the hood saying "Yeah, yeah, fine. Everybody is. Well, Merle not so much." After the hood was popped Jim disconnected the alarm and the blaring stopped.

Shortly after a box truck pulled up with Andrea jumping out running to her sister followed by T-Dog, Jacqui and Morales. You noticed how Lori crouched down in front of a sad looking Carl it broke your heart to see him so upset. "How'd y'all get out of there?" You heard Shane ask. "New guy... He got us out." Gleen said. "New guy?" Shane said confused. "Yeah, crazy Vato just got into town. Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello." Morales said. You seen a man in a sheriffs uniform step out of the drive side of the van. "Guys a cop like you." Morales said to Shane. The next thing you know Carl was running passed you into the arms of the man them falling to the ground and him picking Carl up walking over to hug Lori. You didn't miss the look in Shane eyes the regret but also the pissed off look that his best friend was alive and now he could no longer have Lori.

We were all shit around the fire except for Carol, Sophia and Carols abusive husband Ed. They were by their tent around their own fire. We all listened to Rick Loris long lost husband. "Disoriented. I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion… all those things but… Disoriented comes closest." Rick explained to the group of how he felt after waking up from his coma in the hospital to find no one around. "Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short." Dale commented. "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 continued. "Mom said you died." Carl said looking up at his father. Rick looked down at him saying "She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it." "When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." Lori said looking down. "Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell." Rick told her. "Yeah." Lori whispered. " And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun." Rick said "Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?" Shane said."I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it." Rick told him. Everyone sat around the fire a little while longer before heading to their tents and going to bed.

The next morning you were up helping Carol with the laundry when Rick came walking out of the tent he shared with Lori and Carl. He walked over to Lori and started talking about going back to the city to get Merle. When all of sudden we heard the kids scream. Rick, Dale, Gleen, Shane, Jim and Morales and yourself grab a weapon and started running after Lori, Carol, Amy and Andrea. Unlike the rest of the women you knew how to properly protect yourself. Knew how to properly hold a knife and how to use a gun. You had a gun in a holster on you thigh, knife on you left hip and a machete on your right hip on your belt. You also knew how to throw a punch. You took fighting classes and took a gun course before the world ended. You didn't want to be vulnerable and defenseless while working in the city.

Once you got to where everyone was gathered you could see a deer lying on the ground with a walker on top of it chewing on its neck. The men started beating on it until Dale finally chopped it's head off with an axe. You just stood there rolling your eyes. When you heard a twig snap Shane raised his shotgun up and pointed it towards the noise. When no other then Daryl Dixon comes out. You couldn't help the butterflies that erupted in your stomach. He made you feel like a teenage girl trying to talk to her crush.

"Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this… filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy basterd!" Daryl said while kicking the walker. "Calm down son. That's not helping." Dale tells Daryl. "What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to "on golden pond"? I've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" Daryl said. "I would not risk that." You responded. Daryl sighed saying "That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel… about a dozen or so. That'll have to do." The walkers head snapped, Amy and Andrea looked at it disgusted and walking back to camp. "Come on, people. What the hell?" Daryl said shooting the walkers head with one of his arrows. "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" He grumbles out. Then started to walk back to camp with the rest of us following behind.