Desire to Survive

We all raised our hands in fear of the big shotgun, which was pointed straight towards our group. TJ’s son, who still had tears streaming down his face for his dead father, fell to the ground unconscious at the sight. Sammy kneeled, gathering the boy in her arms. No doubt Adam was traumatized by the day’s events.

“Rick!” Screamed the buff man, finger inching towards the trigger. Rick too raised his hands and stood in front of our group.

“Shane, brother. Listen,” Rick said, calm as ever. The men and women who were working around the camp had taken notice by now, standing and gathering to watch behind the man named Shane.

“Who the hell are they?” Shane barked.

“They saved our lives, Shane. Another group that was travelling. We were trapped inside the general store and they saved us.”

“But why are they here?” He asked still heated, but lowered his gun an inch or two.

“They have food and supplies, I invited them to stay.” Rick said, lowering his arms. I looked cautiously between the two men.

“You – you what?” Shane asked, and then made a sort of half snort, half chuckling sound that seemed to stop just before it reached his lips. “Rick, you invited them to stay?”

“Yes. They have food, Shane! We only have three more cans in the stockpile! Three! They have food,” Rick pleaded, stepping towards Shane. The man lowered his shotgun and looked us all up and down.

“How much food?”

“Everything you could imagine, canned wise. Plus, we could hunt.” Kaden spoke up, stepping forward. Shane raised his gun again, making Kaden raise his arms. “We mean no harm, we’re just looking for a place to bunker down.”

“Shane, they’ve lost some. The little boy lost his father today. They have children. I don’t think they’re like some of the others we’ve come across.” Rick explained.

The two groups studied each other quietly. The tension was tangible. Glenn and Daryl stayed on our side, nodding quietly to what Rick was saying. Daryl stepped forward, resting his crossbow against his leg.

“The girl with the bow is a good shot. We could bring in twice as much fresh meat.” He told Shane, glancing to me. I felt embarrassed being singled out, but nodded to the man with the shotgun.

“They’d be essential to the group. They also have a doctor.” Glenn stammered and stepped forward.

Shane looked around, from their group to ours. He bit and tugged on his lip silently, in deep thought. Seeing how everyone but him seemed to be ok with the idea, he nodded quickly. There was one collective exhale from our people and we lowered our hands.

With that, Shane turned and stormed off into his tent. Rick looked at us with a smile.

“We’ll help you guys set up tents and make food for tonight. I want to thank you all again for helping us.”

“No problem, Rick.” Kaden smiled back.

In a few hours, our tents were set up and we had a feast of canned corn, beans, and peas on the fire. Their group eyed the food hungrily so we decided to serve them first when it got dark. We all mingled for a few hours, getting to know each other before it was time to sleep.

As I was walking towards my tent I shared with Adam, I saw Shane walking towards me in a quick pace. It made my heart leap into my throat. I was so scared of that man.

“You, kid.” He grunted as he approached me.

“Oakley.” I corrected him. He nodded and looked into the dark forest beyond.

“How are you with weapons?” He asked me, shoving his hands in his pockets and rocking back and forth on his heels. I didn’t like how twitchy and uneasy he seemed.

“Well, uhm.” I stammered, caught off guard. “I use my bow and I know a lot about guns.”

“You keep one on you at all times?”

“No, not always. I always have my knife though. Why?”

“You’re taking night watch with Dale and Daryl tonight. These woods have been unsafe these past weeks.” Shane told me. I looked around, suddenly on edge.

“Walkers?”

“I’ve seen three these past two weeks. Rick doesn’t want to move the camp. You up for it?”

I thought about it for a moment, running my fingers along the wood of my bow slung over my back. I wasn’t really tired; I couldn’t really sleep much at all these days. Flesh eating monsters tended to fill my dreams.

“Yeah, I’ll go. How long will I be out for?” I asked.

“Just a few hours. Then we’ll have Glenn and T-Dog take the second shift. If you’re going, take this.” He explained, taking a handgun from his waistband and giving it over. “Try not to shoot it unless absolutely necessary.” He explained.

“Thanks.” I nodded, holstering the weapon in my own belt.

“Just walk the perimeter. Good night miss.” He grunted and walked off in that same, fast pace.

For almost an hour, I paced all around the outside perimeter of the camp with Dale, careful not to touch the tin can noisemakers. We talked about our pasts and our experiences while searching the dark trees for signs of undead. With every rustle of the bushes, we raised our weapons, ready to kill, but the source of the noise always turned out to be some form of wildlife.

Eventually, I broke off from Dale’s company, telling him I needed to be alone to think. It was the truth, I was still thinking about TJ and Eddie’s deaths. I didn’t really know either of them but it was painful to lose one of the living. It felt like with each death we experienced, the chance of surviving as a whole faded more and more.

When I walked around the backside of the campground, I began to hear feverish whispering near one of the tents. It sounded like Rick and Shane. Interested, I snuck under the noisemakers and behind a tree that stood right behind the tent to listen. It did turn out to be Rick and Shane, and they were in a heated argument inside the tent.

“God man,” Came Shane’s southern twang. “I just don’t understand you! How could you?”

“What do you mean?” Rick’s smooth voice whispered through the night. I strained to hear better.

“Letting them stay! It’s a bad idea!”

“Nonsense. C’mon Shane.”

“Rick, we can’t trust them! Where did they come from? What intentions do they have? We don’t know.” Shane seethed. I froze, listening hard.

“They are good people, can’t you see that? They saved our lives! They fed us. Have a little respect.” Rick retorted.

“Respect,” Shane said with that little snort-chuckle of his. “Is that what this is about? I know you’re trying to be the good guy here but we can’t let them in.”

“A little respect goes a long way, especially during a time like this. You expect me to throw them out after everything they’ve done?”

“We have enough people in our group.” Shane said. “There’s too many.”

“Bull shit. Camp is big enough. Protection, brother! There’s strength in numbers! Right now - right now you got the girl out there protecting camp. Oakley. She knows what she’s doing.” Rick told Shane, raising his voice an octave.

Another snort-chuckle. “We don’t need another Daryl Dixon.”

“Man, shut up. Don’t judge just because she prefers a bow to a gun. In some ways it’s more effective. She is just a kid! We can’t throw them out.”

“Fine, alright. But this past two weeks I’ve seen three walkers up here. Rick, they know we’re here. They can smell us or something. More people would attract more walkers.”

Rick was silent for a moment. I bit my knuckle, hoping Rick wasn’t defeated in the argument. Our group needed a camp to stay in.

“Shane, if it gets bad enough we can move the camp. But what it comes down to is they need us and we need them. They stay, for now. That’s final.” Rick said fiercely. I heard a long sigh but I wasn’t sure whom it came from.

Just then, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jumped and whirled around, bending to snatch the survival knife I kept hidden in my boot, but another strong hand caught me and covered my mouth. My cry was muffled and suddenly I was looking into the dangerous eyes of Daryl.

He glared at me angrily for a moment then released me. I held in the gasp of breath that was aching to slip out in fear of being caught by the men in the tent. Daryl nodded is head towards our position outside the camp perimeter and began to silently walk. Embarrassed by getting caught, I followed him until we were out of earshot from the tent where Shane and Rick were.

“Girl, the hell are you doing?” The man whispered to me. I squeezed my fists together to crack my knuckles, a nervous habit.

“I – I heard them arguing about our group.” I stammered, looking up to him. He furrowed his brow.

“What’d they say?”

“We might have to leave.” I whispered, looking down. Daryl grunted loudly.

“Get back to your post, and keep your nose out of other people’s business.” He told me and turned around, grabbing his crossbow from his back. I watched as he walked off into the darkness.

The next morning, I sleepily walked out of my tent to find a small group gathered around one of the trucks kept just outside the campground. Wondering what was wrong, I jogged to the scene.

When I got there, I witnessed Shane and the pretty blonde girl named Andrea throwing stuffed duffel bags into the back of a tan colored truck. I went immediately to Shane.

“What’s going on?” I asked calmly. Rick appeared beside me, a worried look on his face. His wife Lori came too, grabbing her husband’s shoulder.

“Rick, you obviously don’t know what you’re doing here. Face it, man. We’re leaving.