Wake the Dead

It had been a few weeks since I met the group of military men. They told me to at least stay until it gets warmer and then I can head out. I warmed up to a few of them, but I still kept to myself most of the time. I helped them out on a few runs and started to hunt when the snow melted. I knew that I should be leaving soon, but every time I tried to bring it up they all told me to stay for at least a little longer.

They where all good military men, well except for a few that where hot heads, but it was nothing I wasn't used to. My emotions had shut down and now all I am is another person who is just doing everything they can to survive.

I got up out of the bed in V's tent that he let me use because he had the night shift for watch. I changed into a new pair of jeans and a shirt, thankful that some of the guys managed to pick me up some new clothes. I walked out of the tent and went over to the small fire pit, giving nods and small good mornings' to a few people as I passed.

I sat down on one of the logs and started to eat out of the can of food that they handed to me. I noticed that a truck was missing, along with a few guys; they must have gone out for a quick run. I let out a sigh after I finished eating and went to walk around the perimeter, helping with watch. They told me I didn't have to, but I wasn't going to sit around all day as I watched them work. They gave me one of their machine guns, which I loved with all the emotion I had left inside me.

I had trouble shooting with it a little bit though, my arm had never fully healed. Of course I told the doc that it was fine, but something always felt off and painful about it. I just shrugged it off and got over it, not wanting to complain to anyone.

As days passed with this group I felt my strength start to go up again. V even helped me learn some good hand to hand combat. My strength mentally was questionable.. When I turned everything off and just became another person with a damn good survival instinct, I was fine, but I wasn't feeling anything. But, when I did feel something, like when something reminded me of Daryl or the group, I could literally feel the sadness eat me alive. So, for now, I am nothing but a mindless survivor like always.

"Hey where's the firecracker at?" I heard someone call in the distance. Fire cracker... My great nickname that they came up with. I somehow earned that nickname through the past weeks, pretty much just being the bitchy me. I heard footsteps run up and saw it was V. "Hey Fiona! We got some cool stuff on the run, come check it out!" He called over.

V and I had gotten closer these few weeks. He understood me and I didn't even have to tell him anything for him to know what happened to me. He told me about his family and that he had a wife and daughter, but never knew if they made it out. V had become like a brother to me and I knew it was going to be hard to leave him, but I had to.. I had to find Daryl.

I sighed and walked to the table that they had unloaded the stuff on to. I looked around, seeing some cool stuff, but excitedly grabbed the machete I saw lying on the table and admired it. A few of the boys chuckled at me, but I ignored it. "Pretty nice, eh?" V said, I gave him a nod. "Got somethin else you might like." He said and then held out his hand. He opened it up and inside was a bag a gummy worms. "Fuckin hell!" I squealed as I snatched the gummies from him. The boys started to roar in laughter as I immediately opened the bag and ate some.

"So. Damn. Good." I moaned out, causing there laughter to continue. "Thank you!" I called out to them and received nods. The laughter stopped when the door to the truck slammed and Mark stormed out. Mark was the hot head of the group that had anger problems, a lot like mine. I never talked to him much because we would just end up pissing each other off.

"What's got your panties in a bunch, Mark?" Stew, one of the guys, called out. "Oh shut it, dick wad." Mark called out and went to sit on a log. I found his anger at times hilarious. "Ran into some dumb shit on the run today." Mark spit out before he took a drink of his water.

I put my hand on V's shoulder, giving him another silent thank you for the gummies and then started to walk back to where I was before. "Some dumb hick shoving his crossbow up my ass thinks that he can take my supplies!" Mark complained, causing me to stop dead in my tracks.

"What did you just say!?" I said as I spun around to look at him.

"What? Some dumb redneck trash tried takin my shit. My shit that I-"

"Give it a rest, Mark." I cut him off and then walked over to him. "This redneck, did he have dark hair, blue eyes, and was wearin a sleeveless shirt?" I asked, getting up near him.

"What? Why the hell-"

"Answer the damn question!" I shouted at Mark, causing every ones eyes to widen and then furrow in confusion.

"I wasn't gazin off into his eyes while he had his crossbow in mine!" Mark snapped. "But, he does kinda seem like he fit that description. What the hell is it to you?"

I put my hand over my mouth and almost fell over. Could it really be Daryl? I mean what are the chances another redneck with a crossbow fit his description? "Fiona?" I heard V ask.

"Where? Where did this happen?" I asked, looking back down to Mark. "You gotta tell me where."

He just looked at me very confused. "Uh down at that big ass Walmart that we always go to."

I backed up with my hand over my mouth again and then ran into my tent. I quickly started to get all my shit together, but then I heard someone else come in the tent. "What's going on?" I recognized the voice, it was V.

"I have to find him." I said as I looked around for a bag I could use.

"You know him?" V asked, confused.

I continued to search around. "He was part of my group."

"I thought you said you didn't have a group."

"I don't, well I did, but we got separated before winter." I said, finding a empty backpack. I started to jam all my shit into it, but I felt V step closer. "So your just gona leave like that?" He had a little bit of hurt in his voice. I felt sadness seep into me from it so I quickly spun and looked at him. "I have to!!" I shouted.

"WHY?" He shouted back at me.

"BECAUSE I LOVE HIM." I said and then felt emotion run up into my mind. Shit, keep it together.

"You cant just leave..." V said.

I didn't want to leave these guys, they where great, but I had to. "I told you that I was going to leave when it got warmer anyways, but we just kept pushing it off. You told me about your family, well this is mine.. I need to find them."

His eyes softened. "I'll come with you."

I stopped packing my stuff and looked up to him. "What?"

"I'm not letting you go out there alone."

"But, what about the guys here? You can just leave them?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"They are men I have served with. Yes I have became buddies with some of them, but I have also with you." His voice softened. "Who knows maybe I will run across my family out there, but for now the closest thing I have to that is you."

I felt selfish for making him leave the guys and protection here, but I was also glad that I wouldn't have to leave him. "Alright." I said, receiving a weak smile. He then unexpectedly wrapped his arm around me, giving me a hug. I hesitated, not used to the contact, but gave in. It was those types of sisterly-brotherly hugs that made you feel loved.

The emotions that I had felt recently where starting to make my head hurt, so I quickly shut them down when he broke away. He gave me a nod and then went to go get his stuff ready. I finished packing up the extra clothes, weapons, and food I had, then walked out of the tent. I saw that V was going around and giving manly hugs to everyone. Once he had finished hugging everyone I walked over to his side.

"Gona miss our little firecracker 'round here." Stew said as he handed me the machete I was admiring earlier.
I took it and shoved it into my backpack. "Shut up with the mushy gushy stuff, I thought you were a man." I joked at him, causing everyone to laugh a little. V and I said goodbyes to all of them and thanked them, then headed off into the woods.

"You sure about this? Now is the time to turn back." I told V as we walked along.

"I'm sure. The guys, they understand. It's cool." He said. I just nodded at him and continued through the woods, heading towards the walmart.

We had walked for a little while, but still had enough day light when we got to the walmart. I just stood and looked at it for a moment, what if they are in there? I felt emotions try to sneak up again, but I quickly pushed them down as we walked through the parking lot.

Walkers lied dead everywhere, either killed by Mark or Daryl.. Who ever it was was too stupid to lock the doors back up, so we got inside easily. We quietly stepped around the store, looking for any signs of people, but got nothing. They weren't here. My heart dropped a little, but I quickly picked it back up.

I let out a defeated sigh and walked back into the parking lot. I saw some tire marks on the road. "We can follow these. They look like they went left so it wasn't Mark's truck." I said as I looked down the road.

"Yeah, but it looks like we are gona be losin day light soon. We should stay here for the night." V said as he followed my gaze.

I hesitated, wanting to just go and find them, but I gave in and we started to walk back inside. We wrapped a chain around the doors and locked it after we went inside. We decided that V would stay up on watch for the first half of the night, and I would take the other.

But, right now we where both sitting on the ground, snacking on some food that was lying around. "So.. This group of yours?" V started. I raised my eyebrows at him and he continued. "They cool?"

I snorted a fake laugh at him. "Yeah, cool... They're good people." I said, trying to stay calm talking about them.

He nodded and looked down at his food. "And this guy you love... He your husband?"

"No... Jus' old friends." I said, not looking up from my food. I saw him raise an eyebrow at me out of the corner of his eye, he saw right through me. "Friends that sleep together?" He said in a joking tone. I threw my empty food wrapper at him, busted. He let out a laugh.

"Shut it." I said to him, only causing him to laugh more. I gave up and laid back with a sigh. He gained his composure and then stood up. "Okay.. sorry. Get some sleep." He said with a small smile as he started to look around.

I shut my eyes, but I wasn't able to fall asleep much. The though of Daryl, Rick, Glenn, Maggie, hell even Lori being out there was bombarding my mind. If I did find them I don't know what it would be like. Would they even accept me again? I was completely different now and I could tell. Would they accept V? They better because he left his group for them.

I was glad V came with me, even though I would never admit that to him. He seemed to already know it though.. He knew that I looked at him like a brother and he looked at me as a sister. He provided me comfort. I knew that wouldn't go down easy with Daryl because he is an attractive man, but Daryl will get over it.

Daryl.. I needed Daryl

Hands shaking me up, made me snap my eyes open. I rubbed them and then grabbed my machine gun as V laid down and I took over watch. Nothin unordinary happened all night and it the sun started to come up. Not being able to wait any longer I shook V up with my foot. "Vic get your ass up." I had multiple nicknames for him, and I randomly used them all.

He let out a grunt and slowly sat up. "Sometimes I hate how you're an early riser." He groaned out.

"Yeah well we need to get goin, don't want them runnin any farther away." I said, looking out of the glass doors.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He said as he got up and started to pack more food into our bags from the store. We threw our bags on our shoulders and then headed off, following the tire tracks. They didn't last very long, and I let out a defeated sigh. "We should comb through the woods, see if maybe they pulled over and found a house in there." I said.

V just nodded and we started to walk around in the forest again. Walking... All we did all day. My legs where starting to get tired and my bad ankle was screaming at me. "Break time?" I said as I plopped down on a fallen tree. "Thank god." V said as he sat on one across from me.

We both pulled out some water and sipped at it. "You stay here, I'm gona go see if I can get my hands on a squirrel or somethin." I said as I got up, pulling out my hunting knife.

"Ya know guys are normally supposed to be the ones providing for the women." V called over to me jokingly. I snorted a laugh at him and then started to follow an animals trail. I ended up catching two squirrels for V and I.

I got back to the fallen trees and saw he was making some type of spear out of a stick with his knife. "Ah, good, you're back. I made ya somethin." He said and then threw a very sharp looking stick at me. It looked like he had a lot of practice at making these and it actually seemed like a pretty decent weapon. "Thanks." I mumbled and then threw him a squirrel.

We started to eat in peaceful silence and then decided to take the same watch shifts as last night. I hoisted my self high up in a tree and V stayed down and circled it. I let out a sigh and tried to get some sleep, but like always my mind wandered to the group.

"Fiona! Wake up!" I heard V shouting at me. "We gotta go!"
I quickly crawled down from my branch and put my backpack around my shoulders. I pulled out my machete and we started running from the horde of walkers that was chasing us without hesitation. It wasn't that big, probably only 20 or so, but it was enough to take us down. They where very close to us and we where starting to get winded. "Vic I think we are gona have to fight em!" I called out over to him.

"Take out as many as you can with you machete, don't waste your bullets!" He called out. I nodded and then spun around so I was facing them. V pulled out his knife and we both started to take out all the walkers one at a time. I tapped into the survival zone and started to take out the walkers around me. The hand to hand combat that V had trained me with was coming in handy; I was able to dodge and fight off all the walkers easily.

It seemed like at least 20 minutes later we finally had taken them all down. We both where panting now and I could feel the splattered blood cake on my face. I looked over at V and he looked just as bad as I felt. He let out a breathy laugh and I couldn't help, but laugh with him. My laugh was more sadistic though.

"You're fuckin awesome girl." He said to me as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Ain't so bad yourself." I said and pulled some water out from my bag.

"We make a pretty damn good team." He said with a smirk on his face. I rolled my eyes at him and took a long drink of my water. "Maybe we can find a creek or somethin? I feel gross." I said as I put my water away.

He nodded, but then held up a finger, motioning for me to wait. He ran off and then came back a minute late with our spear/stick things. I rolled my eyes again and took mine from him.

We both had too much adrenaline in our veins to sleep, so we just started to walk more. The sky was a weird color; it wasn't dark, but it wasn't light out either. I let out a sigh and used my stick to help me walk along.

"Do you hear that?" V said, causing me to stop dead in my tracks. I listened harder and heard the sound of water splashing. I looked up at V who had a smirk on his face and then we hurried over in the direction of the sound. We got there and we where greeted by a small little creek. I let out a relieved breath, but then saw the walker stumbling around.

I quickly walked over to the ugly bastard. I decided to test out my spear that V made me, so as the walker started coming over to me, I shoved it through its head. The spear was long enough that its hands couldn't even reach me. I yanked it out of its head and made my way back to V who had a proud smirk on his face because his weapon worked.

I rolled my eyes at him for what felt like the thousandth time and then turned my attention to the creek with a sigh. Maybe the group came here?