Living Like You're Dead

That night even Addie took a shift of being on watch. She was glad she hadn’t needed to kill any walkers. The sight of blood gushing from any being made her feel slightly sick. Daryl and Merle had done quite a bit of killing that night, the walkers came sporadically though, and it was easy to keep them under control.

They were back in the truck by dawn with all their belongings packed. And once again they made their way west – looking for the others.

“How many times do I have to tell you? Keep that window rolled down!”

“Hey, I’m doing the shooting. I’ll do what I want.”

“Every time you roll it up I you have to roll it back down five seconds later, do you have any idea how annoying that screeching sound is?!”

“Merle Shut up, yer only good fer driving anyway.”

“Well if that dick sheriff hadn’t handcuffed-“

“Yeah yeah we know.” Addie and Daryl said in unison.

Addie rolled her eyes, it’s only a matter of time before she got dragged into the bickering conversation that the two men on either side of her always seemed to be into. She found it hilarious when she realized that Daryl was the cutest little kid who followed Merle around like a lost puppy. He was a boy who looked up to his older brother, and even though his brother had hurt him more than anyone he knew – he was still his brother. Addie was proud of herself for showing him mercy even after what he did. After all, she couldn’t blame not being pregnant on Merle. She very well could have been wrong, tests can be false, things like that happen.

Addie was aware that she had made the right decision about Merle, Daryl was obviously grateful – and she could tell Merle was apologetic because he hadn’t touched a beer since they’d let him back into their lives. He was sober now, almost every day. Daryl wasn’t even used to it – Merle started sober but ended the day completely drunk and to still have a conversation with him after sundown was odd to Daryl.

But all n’ all they were a new dysfunctional family. Even though Addie couldn’t forget what happened between them, she couldn’t help but try when she saw Daryl’s gratitude on his face. And the same went for Daryl – he would never be able to let go of the betrayal that night, it’d be a part of him for the rest of his life, but Addie had somehow been able to look past it, so Daryl tried to too. Merle was the only family left, he was real, he was tangible, and he loved Daryl. Daryl felt lucky.
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The amount of time it took for them to get across the Alabama border was insane. They’d run into several block roads and had to maneuver through empty back roads to get to their destination. All while stopping for supplies and resting for the night.

It was over a week before they entered the Cherokee County of Alabama. They were looking for Cedar Bluff. Somewhere they found a sign that told them there was only twenty more miles to go.

Those miles were spent loading weapons and packing bags with provisions. They would have to scour the town looking for the hiding spot of the others, They’d start with high risers, town homes, condos, malls. They’d save the public places for last. Even if Addie seemed to have super healing, and Daryl could shoot and hit any target – they still weren’t big risk takers.
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Addie cracked the skull of a walker that stood only a few feet from herself. She was stuffing her bag full of water, a broken vending machine had spit several bottles out, and she was claiming them as hers. She had silently snuck away from the brothers because yet again, they were arguing. Something about an old redskins game and how Daryl had never paid Merle the fifty dollars they’d wagered against.

Addie had no idea was a redskin was.

She hadn’t gone far from them, she knew that Daryl would be mad at her but she hurried to collect the sealed bottles of water. She used the but of the axe to smash the glass of the machine next to it. She pretended to be disgusted that there was so much chocolate inside the machine when she secretly did a leap of joy on the inside. She had been craving sweets for days now.

She spent maybe a total of ten minutes away from the boys, but it only took ten minutes for them to get too far to hear the noises she heard. She looked over her shoulder… she found nothing.

She zipped the bag shut. And raised the axe above her shoulder ready to swing at anything. Not another sound came from behind her. She contemplated with herself, had she made the noise? Or had something else?

She swallowed hard, she reached for her canteen: The only sound she heard was the metal cap grinding against the grooves. She took a large gulp to quench the thirst that had so eagerly built up within her throat since she’d been standing there.

Howver the next moment was odd to her, she felt the canteen hit her stomach as the strap kept it from falling to the floor – when she was thrown backwards the water went all over her shirt and she quickly realized once everything started to go black that she had hit her head on something hard – or something had hit her.