Lone Survivors

“Mandy,” Rick said as he strode purposefully towards me. I looked at him, my eyes leaving the serene view. “We’ve decided that you can stay with us.” I breathed out a breath that I didn’t realise I was holding. Oh thank God…

“Thank you so much,” I told him and he smiled at me. He seemed to hesitate and my smile left.

“We wanna keep you under surveillance for a while, though, to ensure that you’re not dangerous to the group,” Rick informed me and I nodded. That was fair enough. “It’s also a chance for you to prove you’re helpful and nice, so the people who don’t want you here change their minds.”

“I’ll do that, I promise,” I reassured him.

“We’ve assigned T-Dog to watch you. You’ll be restrained when not in his view and during the night. Women will be with you when you need to use a bathroom,” he continued. “There are guns on the property, but they are hidden. Do not attempt to locate them, or your own weapons. If we are attacked, we will handle it ourselves. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I replied simply and Rick leant down with a key. He freed me and I rubbed my wrists, glad that the metal wasn’t digging into me anymore. I stood and straightened my small grey dress, not wanting to flash him. Rick then took the handcuffs and headed towards a dark-skinned man who was staring at me, putting the cuffs in his hands.

“She’s all yours,” Rick said, and that began the adjusting to my new environment.

T-Dog was rather quiet, but I still forced conversations between us in a desperate attempt to get him to like me so I’d have another vote for keeping me alive. We ended up getting along quite well. Andrea was my next ‘friend’. She was rough on the edges and seemed cautious about my presence, but she too appeared to give in to my charm once we spent womanly time together. I bonded with the other woman whenever I was allowed to help out with the cooking or cleaning, and I always did my tasks to the best of my ability to show them that I could be handy.

Shane appeared to avoid me at all costs, and whenever I saw him he wasn’t without a glare of hatred, so it was clear he had voted against me. Dale and Hershel were especially kind to me, similar to all of the other men on the farm, except for Daryl. He was the one with the crossbow from the first meeting, the one who had apparently seen me approaching the group and warned them. I didn’t have a problem with him, but he wasn’t exactly friendly towards me. He kept his distance and spent most of his time searching for the lost girl, Sophia, and seemed impartial to my presence overall. But I didn’t care that I didn’t have wonderful relationships with all of them. This wasn’t a contest for me to see how many friends I could get; it was just mere survival.