Living Like You're Dead

Rick gave them the simplest look of displeasure when they returned at sundown. The guys had spent they day digging to install the fences – and now they had no fences to work with. Rick didn’t hold his disappointment long because he noticed that Addie was smiling for the first time in weeks. So maybe there was an improvement at least somewhere.

Dinner seemed to be more normal as well. People were back to talking. They didn’t like this house much, it smelled old, and it was smaller. They had it in their minds that once they were able maybe they’d find somewhere better, an island, a mansion, a mall they all joked. Which lead to them talking about grueling zombie movies where they all knew that malls were teaming with dead, mansions were probably already inhabited, and islands… well they had all seen the credits of Dawn of the Dead. They wanted to be somewhere safe, and somewhere they could all fit as well as other survivors. So talk began of making a camp – a camp for survivors. They thought it would be a dream to meet other families and begin a town, then a city – basically restarting the whole generation of human life. Someone had to sometime.

They felt typically safe here even without the fence. With these areas being very under populated walkers were scarce and that was the way they liked it.

They finally came to the topic of the dead when the children had gone to bed. Rick told everyone that Shane was in fact alive when they had dug him up, and everyone now questions what this disease really was. The files from Addie’s grandfather had burnt up with the rest of the house – they knew nothing except for what they learned at the CDC and what Addie could remember from memory.

The conversation ended with Rick saying he was going to protect his family for as long as he lived, and that one day he would take them somewhere bigger, and somewhere far from all this death where everyone could come to safety.
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Daryl stood in the frame of the window that was in his bedroom. It cast a view of what was around him. The home was surrounded by trees, which made the home concealed from view. But as a hunter Daryl knew when something was off. He wasn’t the smartest man, but he knew things that normal smart people would know. Like the way the ground looks when someone had been standing there for a long period of time. The way that tall grass looked when someone had been walking through it. He knew it couldn’t have been someone with them, because the tracks indicated that someone had come and gone.

The strong suspicion he felt was growing inside him. He almost didn’t want to turn to Adeline and tell her what he thought. When he did he found her asleep, exhausted from their second helping of “dessert.”

Daryl left the room and found Merle. He was alone drinking in the kitchen.

“Thought we didn’t bring much beer with us?”

“You didn’t. I did.”

“Ah I see.”

“I can’t stand being around them without it. They’re always looking at me, accusing looks.”

“Yeah I know brother. I never did thank you though.”

“Don’t you dare thank me.”

Silence befell Daryl; he shouldn’t thank him. He knew that. He lifted his head once more.

“Wanna help?”

“With what?”

“Well if you’re not too drunk I want to have a look outside. Noticed some things.”

“Yeah yeah, I’m not too drunk. I’ll come.”
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“Did they come this way?” a woman’s voice asked another.

He chuckled before answering. “Yes they did.”

“Well did they want?”

“Apparently privacy. They fucked each other’s brains out in the front yard.”

“Sick and you watched; you’re fucking perverted.”

“Oh and took a bit of the fence with them.”

“That explains the digging at the other place.”

“What’d you find?” he asked.

“Nothing out of the ordinary.” She answered.

“Well looks like I got the best show.” He said.
The shadowed figures then retreated back into their tent. The light embers in the fire soon went black and then hardly any features were visible. Whoever they were, they had been watching the others, and for a while.
___________________________________________________________

Daryl noticed the trail immediately; his eyes had not failed him even at a distant. Even Merle concurred with his assumption. It troubled both of them. How long had they been watched? All week? One night? The trails looked like it could mean either, but they now knew that they were not safe. They had never been safe here, only stalked, as if they were being hunted.