Daryl Effing Dixon

I awoke to myself moving.

How? Was I dead? My feet weren't moving, in fact my body felt limp. I felt...arms? Underneath me?

I was being carried by someone. I attempted to open my eyes, but it was too bright, the smell of sweat, smoke and an almost musky scent filled my nostrils. At least they didn't smell dead. I groaned as I felt a sharp pain shoot through my head, then I heard a rough voice.

"Good, 'yer not dead." his voice had a thick Georgian accent, I hadn't heard one in weeks.

"-What-.."

Nope. I couldn't form even a single sentence.

My mouth was dry, my head throbbed and I could feel myself shaking. The man carrying me spoke again, I just listened this time,

"The hell you doin' out here anyhow? Stupid girl almost killed yerself tryn'a run."

I couldn't answer, my mouth couldn't articulate any understandable words or sentences. I heard the man snort, probably in frustration- then everything returned to black.

I awoke again, this time I wasn't moving. My body ached horribly and stung where I guessed cuts and small lacerations would be from my attempted escape.

Escape..

I had been running from something, someone? I felt panic twist my stomach as my eyes shot open, everything was blurry at first. After a few seconds of blinking my eyes I heard a woman's voice from beside me, I nearly jumped out of my own skin.

"Hey- shhh shh it's okay, you're alright. You're safe.."

Safe? It felt like a foreign word.

I forced myself to sit up slightly, using my elbow to perch myself up. I felt a small hand on my shoulder, I looked up, still squinting my eyes slightly as I focused on a face. She was a decent looking woman. Her face framed by long dark brown hair was slightly un kept, but then again I'm sure mine looked a million times worse; Her eyes were wide and she looked frail but she didn't look dangerous. Everything was orange, it seemed we were in a tent. She spoke again, cocking her head to the side to look into my eyes, as if to gauge my reaction.

"Sweety, can you hear me?" I met her gaze, my deep blue hues meeting her dark brown. I managed a nod, she replied with a small smile.

"Good, I want you to know you're in a safe place. No one is going to hurt you... Can you tell me your name?" She looked hopeful. But I couldn't reply, I felt as if I'd forgotten how to speak. The dark haired woman smiled sympathetically and nodded,

"Well you take as long as you need....you've been through a lot from the looks of it. I reckon you've probably got some heat stroke, best if you rest for awhile...if you need anything, just whistle. I'm Lori."

I nodded to display my understanding. She handed me a canteen and I desperately pulled it to my lips and drank, water never tasted so fucking good. After several gulps and a choke or so later she pried the container away and put the lid back on and set it beside me,

"-Careful, we don't want you getting sick. Small sips." She smiled one last time and pushed herself up from the ground beside me. -" Need anything at all just let one of us know." and with that she ducked out of the tent.

Was I dreaming? My pain was real, and that woman and her amazing water seemed real too. I looked around the small tent, it wasn't much, but it was enough to shelter. I had been laid on a sleeping bag, it was decently comfortable, better then anything I'd slept on in weeks. I sat up further and looked down at my legs, my knees had been cleaned and bandaged. White gauze shown through the giant holes in the knees of the pants framed by old blood.

That was an attractive look.

I remembered my ankle, I bit my lip in anticipation of pain and slowly wiggled my foot, where I had been expecting horrible pain I only got a slight soreness. I pulled up my pant leg to see a gnarly purple and red bruise across the top of my ankle. That stupid fucking tree root. I drew in a breath and let it out quickly in relief and rolled my pant leg back down over the newly acquired beauty mark. My pants were way too long for me, they just about engulfed my shoes. Of course being all of 5 foot 5 and a half didn't help.
I laid back on the sleeping back and closed my eyes, covering them with one of my arms.
Sleep came quickly.

It must have been out for hours, when I opened my eyes it was dark. I heard crackling and talking, it smelled like a campfire. I sat up and stretched, feeling my sore muscles expand and stretch then shake as they retracted back into place. It felt good to stretch, from the looks of it I hadn't moved at all in my sleep. I rolled over onto my knees and sat back on my feet, feeling my bruise scream at me, I quickly shifted to avoid pressure on it. I reached up and could feel the rats nest my hair had become. I sighed and fished for the elastic band and pulled it out, I used my fingers to comb through the raven locks. It had cooled down considerably so I rolled the band back onto my wrist and let my hair hang freely around my shoulders. I adjusted my clothing, my brown t-shirt had crinkled up a little and my bra had squished my boobs, had to adjust tem too. I stood up slowly and stretched my legs, noticing in the dim light the canteen the woman, Lori had set beside me earlier, I hastily grabbed it and took a few well-appreciated sips. I replaced the cap and set it back down, I turned to the tent door and pushed the flap open slowly, seeing a small group of people gathered around on the hill a little ways from me. They had a fire going and were sitting around talking amongst each other. I drew in a deep breath and slowly stepped out of the tent. Stepping on a twig, several of the people turned around to see me standing there like an idiot. Had they done that on purpose? Or was I really just that Ninja-retarded? The woman from earlier stood up and waved at me, I felt stupid. Should I wave back? What was the etiquette on post-zombie apocalypse?

Lori made her way down a small dirt path to where I was standing, She looked me over and smiled.

"Well you look better already. You sure you're okay to be on your feet?"

I nodded.

Several others were making their way down to us, I gulped. I hated being the center of attention. It was like high school all over again, you walk into class late and everyone stares at you like you just gutted a chicken in front of them. Except this wasn't high school, these weren't my class mates and I probably looked like the gutted chicken.

Lori hugged me around the shoulders with one arm and gave me a reassuring squeeze as the few stragglers approached. One was an old looking man, He had a crazy kind of hat on. I couldn't decide what it was. But he flashed me a toothy smile beneath his beard and tipped his hat at me,

"Well hello new comer. The name's Dale, pleasure to meet you kiddo!" He reached his hand forward and I stood there for a moment before realizing he had initiated a handshake. I dumbly reached out and took his hand, it was soft but was the hand of a hard working man. It kind of reminded me of my grandpa. He shook my hand and patted the top of my hand with his other. I couldn't help but smile a little. He was a sweet old man.

The next person who approached had been a kid named Glenn, he made sure I knew he was Korean and that he could defend the camp...and that he had a thing for sports cars.

The last person to approach me had been a tall broad-shouldered man. A mop of dark hair covered his head, He towered over me and extended his arm to me as well. I took it shyly and gulped. This man was intimidating even when he smiled.

"The name's Shane, nice to meet you. I'm kind of the coordinator of the group. You got a name there sweetheart?"

I stared like a deer caught in headlights, I opened my mouth slightly to speak but nothing came out. I felt Lori squeeze my shoulders gently as she spoke.

"She had a little bit of heat sickness, she may be without a voice for a little bit."

"Yyyikes, " Glenn sounded, he looked sympathetic "Sorry man, that shit sucks..."

The man named Shane nodded his head and put his hands on his hips, as if to accept the situation. He shot Lori a quick glance and jerked his head in the direction behind him,

"Well just because you can't talk doesn't mean you're probably not hungry. C'mon l
I'm sure you're starving."

Glenn smiled and took my elbow gently and started dragging me up the small dirt hill.

"Yeah come on! Come meet the gang!"