Choices

"I'm not getting anything." Carl muttered. He had been enlisted by Shane to catch frogs and now with them trying to incorporate me into the camp I was dragged along too. Rick and the others had already left to go free Merle from the rooftop. Though I knew he wasn't likely to be there anymore.

I didn't meet Merle for long, but I feel I got a pretty good read on him. I'm sure he's already broke the link on them cuffs and started moving. The question is where he was gonna go.

"Yeah. Being all wily, staying submerged. Little sucker, they know something's up." Shane seemed to come out of his own thoughts as he responded to Carl. Like Lori he didn't like that Rick was going back into the city, especially not for someone like Merle Dixon. But they know Rick, and so do I, he was never going to leave Merle on that roof. Plus they needed to get the cop car that had mine and Rick's stuff in it, that we had left by the trains.

"Just going to have to do this the old fashioned way." Shane said while wading into the water with a bucket. I watched from my spot on the rocks, chin propped up in hand. I knew there were no frogs in this lake, even if there were you wouldn't be likely to catch them the way he was trying to get Carl to.

"All right, little man, look. You are the- you are the key in all this, okay? All I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go after one of them, alright, scare the rest of them off. They're all gonna scatter. I'm gonna drive'em your way. Okay?" Shane instructed.

"All right." Carl responded getting his netted pole ready.

I had thought about it a lot while in the Lab, what other kids were like, that is. I didn't grow up with anybody my age as I was the only one to make it passed the infancy period. Of course I'd seen them in movies and other media, and Father had taught me a lot about them as well. Keying in on the point that children can learn new things much easier than adults, they just don't have the discipline. Discipline is all I've ever known. Priortizing things of importance rather than desire.

It's why now, even though I'm no longer in that Lab, that I'm struggling with choices I never had to make before. And I couldn't understand why these 2 would be playing during such a moment. I mean we just had a walker nearly make it into camp not even a couple hours ago. They aren't building more alarms, like cans on string. They only have one person on watch that is the farthest from the treeline.

As I watched the leader of this group splash in the water in the effort of 'catching frogs' that didn't exist, I could think of at least half a dozen things that would be a better use of their time. Even over the splashes I could hear the complaints of the women who were washing clothes.

"Can someone explain to me how the women wound up doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?" Jacqui said, referencing the role she played as a house servant from Gone with the Wind.

This was always how things went though, division of labor is never going to make everyone happy. Especially when people are having to do it for survival, everyone going to see the other person having it better. I'm sure as time goes on this dynamic is going to blur. Soon just like how you can't worry about race anymore, divisiveness over gender will hinder the survival of the groups as well.

"Hey, Carl, what did I tell you about not leaving Dale's sight?" Came Lori's voice as she walked up to us, Carl and Shane now drying off on the rocks.

"But Shane said we could catch frogs, remember?" He replied confused.

"It doesn't matter what Shane says. It matters what I say. Go on back to camp. I'll be right behind you." She said as Carl sighed. I stayed leaning back against my rock letting the sun hit my skin, when I felt their eyes on me.

"You too, Adam." Lori spoke again, and I met their gazes as I looked down towards them.

"No offense, but you're not my mom. I think I'll stay here a little longer." I said and was inwardly amused at her mouth opening in apparent surprise.

"I may not be your Mother, but I'm still an adult and you will obey me." She replied after gathering herself.

"Or what?" I asked, closing my eyes as I leaned back again.

"There is no 'or what'. But with Rick gone, your safety lies with us, along with your supervision." Lori said, getting annoyed.

"Haaa. Look, Lori, I don't know you people. I don't know if I can trust you people. I can't really know if you have my best interest in mind. What I do know is that there is obviously something between you two." I sighed as I stood looking down at them.

"You don't know what you're talking about." Shane said narrowing his eyes at me.

"Haha! If you say so. Well since I can't relax here anymore, I guess you get your wish Lori. I'll be heading back up to camp, you two have your little chat."

I could feel there gazes on me as I began walking back up, and when they thought I was out of earshot Lori whispered to Shane.

"There's something off about that kid. How old did Rick say he was?" She whispered.

"He didn't, said he hadn't asked the kid much and the kid didn't share much either. By looks of him I would say he was around 13 or 14, but how he talks and his mannerism, you could tell me he was 16 and I could believe it." Shane replied.

"Ya, he's a head taller than Carl and hes 12. So Adam must be older. Still, where in the world did Rick find that kid?" Lori said.

I would rather be treated as weird or an anomaly than babied like some child. Maybe this means they'll leave me alone more now. I had decided that I was going to circle the campground again, going a little deeper into the woods when I was caught by Amy and Andrea. I was really going to have to start sneaking around the camp with all these people looking for me all the time.

"Hey, Adam! Want to come fishing with us?" Amy called as she shook a fishing rod in her hand while smiling at me. I smiled back trying to be friendly but shook my head.

"Ah, no thanks. I'm not much of a fisher." I said, lying as fishing was one of the many survival skills I was trained on.

"Come on, it'll give you something to do. Besides we can teach you." Andrea said reaching out to pull me along. I just sighed as I relented, and followed the 2 women back down to the lake.

"Ladies… because of you my children will eat tonight." Morales said as Andrea passed off a chain carrying her haul of fish.

"And Adam." Amy spoke up as she passed hers to him as well.

"Ya, Adam ended up catching the most out of all of us." Andrea said and everyone's eyes went to me.

"Thank Dale, it's his canoe and gear. Plus I had a couple of pretty good teachers." I said waving the camp's thanks off. I was crashed into by Amy with a hug.

"It was his first time fishing, either we're great teachers or he's a natural." She said before letting go.

"Hey Dale, when was the last time you oiled those line reels? They are a disgrace." Andrea joked as Dale walked into the camp, but he ignored the comment.

"I- I don't want to alarm anyone, but we may have a bit of a problem." He said turning to point up a hill where he had come from. I could see the mechanic, named Jim, up there looking like he was digging something.

The group followed Dale and Shane up to where he was to find him digging grave sized holes. Of course they weren't 6 foot deep like one might think, but truthfully graves are rarely dug 6 foot deep. Most are actually only 4 foot deep, and the depths vary state to state, some only requiring that 24 inches separate the top of the casket from the level of the ground. But that's besides the point, as these graves would barely cover the bodies. Likely leaving little mounds rather than flat displaced dirt.

The entire time I watched him dig it reminded me of something Mother had said about instincts. I'm sure she wasn't the first, but it had to do with trusting them over anything else. People that do things in stressful situations are usually doing what their instincts are telling them to. People that think they saw some kind of vision of the future are usually just mistaking that for their instinct ls telling them that something is wrong.

That made me wonder what could be making this seemingly normal man just start building grave after grave. There has to be at least 20 graves already.

With everyone distracted it seemed like the perfect time to sneak off and scout the area like I wanted to. Easing back I stepped into the brush and began from here, instead of going all the way back to the camp. I had my knife and my pistol still, so I wasn't worried. Of course it would be nice to have a longer melee weapon, but I wasn't planning on just fighting everything I saw.

I made a short sweep first, just passed what I had looked at last time. Ending up where we had killed that walker I decided to follow its footsteps. If it could make it all the way up here then so could others. The stumbling steps of a walker made the trail almost annoyingly easy to follow. I was getting bored of having the skill set that I had and seemingly not even needing them.

As I followed the trail I was surprised at how quiet the forest was. It was one thing when I was walking through the town, or even the city for that matter, but here? The forest should still be crawling with animals… unless they are moving away from something.

I picked up my pace to a jog, eventually coming across a small clearing with a cabin. There was a truck parked out front and the door to the cabin wide open. I looked and listened, but nothing seemed out of order, just abandoned. I went to the truck first, not finding much but trash and a few crumpled dollars I moved to the house.

Going through my routine I noticed that this seemed to be the house of the walker I had killed earlier today. He had the heads of deer and the bodies of smaller game taxidermied and hung up on the wall, each with a picture of him next to the dead body hung just beneath it. Each had a date inscribed on the mount.

"Patrick Fairley

September 22, 2002"

Was under the biggest buck. He must not have kept his guns here because there was no gun cabinet and the only gun I found was an antique one that was mounted just like his kills. All in all the cabin was pretty bare, likely left empty for many months at the time and only restocked when he planned to stay. I did end up finding his wallet in a pair of clawed and bit through pants that were covered in blood.

Looks like he had gotten bit, escaped out here and eventually died before turning and then traveling towards our camp. Likely hearing the alarm from the car Glenn had brought to camp.

In his wallet was the ID that confirmed this was Patrick Fairley, and it also included his address. Sadly it was deep inside Atlanta and even I couldn't make it into Atlanta and back before the people at the camp realized I was missing.

Would that be such a bad thing though? Like I told Lori early, I don't know these people and i definitely don't trust them. I doubted I wanted to be completely alone though. Despite my not trusting them, this has been the most fun I've had in my life. People not analyzing and criticizing my every move. Not being stuffed with as much information as I can bear, no more training sessions.

I shook the thoughts from my head and exited the cabin. I was about to turn back to camp when I heard the faintest bit of noise, further away. I followed the noise, getting more sure of the source with each step. Growls and groans became more and more audible until I reached the edge of the forest and it over looked into the city.

A truck i recognized was driving out, but even from this distance I knew it wasnt a good thing. I could see Merle in the driver seat, handcuff still around his wrist.

Damn that means that Rick and the others are going to be chasing after a ghost in that city. Rick knows where the car is, so that's good at least. But who knows how long they'll look for them, I need to go in there and bring them out. I know he'll be angry, but there's no reason to risk his life for a guy that's gone.

However before I took the first step out of the treeline, I finally looked over to where I had been hearing the growls and snarls. Hundreds of walkers were on the road, most sticking to the highway, a good group got separated by an 18 wheeler that had crashed into the treeline. This group was heading in the direction of the camp.

I was stuck between two choices. Go and get Rick and the others out of Atlanta, trying to beat the walkers to the camp. Or rush back to the camp and hope they make it back on their own.

"Damn it." I cursed as I took off running.