I'm with You

Hardly anyone got sleep last night due to the fact we had to sleep outside with walkers close by. Rick wasn't letting anyone go anywhere either. He actually got pretty mad last night saying that he had to kill his best friend for the group and that he never asked to be in charge. He gave the chance for any of us to leave, but nobody had moved. It had been pretty silent after that besides the sounds coming from the surrounding woods.

We were currently waiting for Maggie and Glenn to come back from getting gasoline and any other supplies they could find. I had learned everyone's name in the past hour only because Rick was calling out orders for everyone. Since I was new to the group, I got to stay with Lori, Carl, and Beth by the campfire. Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog went to see if there was anything nearby in the forest while Carol and Hershel were keeping watch for walkers.

"I win." I grinned at Carl. We were playing tic-tac-toe and this was the tenth time I had beaten him in a row. Lori chuckled at the disappointment in Carl's eyes as he used his hand to clear the dirt of our game.

"You cheated," he mumbled causing me to laugh. He was starting to seem like a brother to me.

"Why don't you go first this time." I told him.

Carl put an 'x' in the middle. I played along, so it didn't seem like I was going to let him win. I placed an 'o' to the right of the 'x'. He then put an 'o' right above the 'x' I put. Smiling, I blocked his way to win as I put the 'o' in the bottom left corner. I watched him as he thought about his next move. I saw a way for him to win, it was how I was beating him. He grinned before placing an 'x' above the one in the middle. I smirked before putting an 'o' under the 'x' in the middle. He put the winning 'x' in the top, left corner before putting a line through his three x's in a row.

"Looks like you won," I faked a frown. He was grinning from ear to ear.

We heard rustling from behind us, causing us all to turn in that direction. I had my gun nearby, so if anything happened. We all let out a sigh of relief when we saw Rick come out of the woods with the other two following.

"We didn't find anything," He answered before anyone got a chance to speak.

Carl got up and ran over to his dad telling him how he beat me in tic-tac-toe. I felt bad when Rick didn't seem interested in what Carl was saying.

Carol came over and sat next to me since the men were now on watch. She smiled as she watch me draw squiggly lines in the dirt with the stick in my hand. I was pretty bored with just sitting here. There really wasn't much for me to do at the moment. I knew once Maggie and Glenn were back that we would all be in cars, or in Daryl's case on a motorcycle, searching for someplace to stay.

Another hour passed before Maggie and Glenn came back. They had gotten the gas we needed, but not much food or ammo. While Rick and Hershel filled the cars up with gas, the rest of us were getting ready to leave. The few items around the campfire were placed into the backs of the cars. Some of us stretched and walked around, not knowing how long we would be sitting in the car. A few others were looking at a map, trying to figure out where to go next.

Rick told us it was time to go and we all got in the vehicles. Daryl led everyone on his motorcycle. Following him in the car behind was Rick, Lori, Carl and Carol. T-Dog and I were in the truck behind them. Behind us was Maggie, Glenn, Hershel and Beth.

We drove for a few miles before coming into a small town. The town had quite a few old buildings which had been vandalized. Graffiti on one building said, 'Fuck this world and it's zombies too!' It was pretty obvious that this town had everything useful taken from it. We kept driving until we saw a few houses on the outskirts of the town. None looked like that had been broken into, and they were in pretty good shape. Daryl, Rick, and T-Dog went to check out the first house while the rest of us stayed in the cars.

The house they were checking out was a one story house. The siding was a beige color with a dark blue roof. It was small, so I knew we wouldn't be staying in it. Last thing any of us wanted was to be crowded into a small house.

Rick came back to the door and motioned us to come inside since it was safe. I didn't really know what to do, so I slowly got out of the truck and waited for the others. They didn't take anything with them, so I followed them inside. I was by Beth looking around the house. Beth picked up a picture frame on the floor and we both looked at it without saying a word. The photo was of a young, happy couple with two small, adorable daughters. All four of them had bright, blue eyes that stood out. The daughters had their mother's blonde, wavy hair. The picture made me wonder where this family was now. If they weren't alive, I was hoping they were in a much better place and not a zombie.

Beth hung the picture frame back on the wall where it once hung before being knocked down. We followed the others back to the vehicles with the few items they managed to scavenge. We got back into the cars and drove until we got to the next house. The three men went to check this house out while we stayed inside the cars once again.

As we waited, I took in the view of this house. It was similar to the first, the only different was the color of the siding. It was more of a yellowish color. It reminded me of dirty mustard in a way. I had no idea why someone would want their house that color.

The guys came back out and got into the cars. T-Dog told me that the house was pretty much empty as he drove away.

"No kidding." I muttered under my breath.

We were going to stop at the third house until a bunch of walkers came out from behind the house. We kept driving, not even thinking about stopping at the other houses. We were soon far from those houses and stopping somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It was around four in the afternoon or that's what it seemed like to me.

We all got out of our cars and huddled around Rick and Daryl who were looking at the map. I read at the top that it was Georgia.

"We are in Georgia?" I blurted out without meaning to, causing everyone to look at me. They either seemed confused or thought I was stupid.

"Yeah, didn't ya know that?" Daryl questioned. He seemed pretty amused with my question. I realized this was the first time I actually heard him speak. It quickly hit me that he had been the one who stopped me from running away from the group. He also was the one who had hurt me by doing so.

"No, I didn't know." I muttered. "Last I knew, I was in Alabama, that's where I'm from."

"Really?" Glenn asked. I nodded my head yes.

"Wow, you made it far. What part of Alabama?" Carol asked as Rick and Daryl went back to looking at the map.

"Birmingham." I smiled as we walked away from the group.

"So, that's where you were born and raised?" Glenn asked as he and Maggie joined us.

"No, I was actually born in Austin, Texas. My mom moved us out to Alabama when I was a few years old. I never knew why we moved." I shrugged as if it was no big deal because it really wasn't.

"I always thought you were from Georgia." Glenn admitted and let out an awkward laugh.

I was getting ready to speak when Rick came over and talked to us. We were running low on gas once again and had to stay the night where we were. None of us said a word as he walked away.

"We really need a place to stay. Especially since it's getting cooler. Winter is only a couple months away." Carol spoke.

"Wait, are you saying it's autumn right now?" I asked. They could clearly tell that I was confused.

"Yeah, that would be why it's getting cooler." Glenn answered.

"I thought it was late July or at least early August." I admitted feeling a bit stupid. I glanced to a nearby tree and looked at it's leaves. Some of them were beginning to change.

"No, it should be at least September, maybe early October." Maggie confirmed.

"Hell if I know." I sighed. "I guess the lack of food, water, and sleep the last few weeks have really gotten to me." The three of them chuckled.

"Or maybe you hit your head too hard." Glenn joked which led to Maggie playfully hitting him in the chest.

I laughed. "Speaking of which, can someone take those stitches out." I almost forgot all about the stitches in the back of my head.

Maggie agreed and led me over to Hershel before telling him about the stitches. I sat down on a nearby boulder, so Hershel could see my head. It took him a few minutes and I thanked him once he finished. I rubbed the back of my head, feeling where a scar would now be.

It was a bit safer where we were tonight than it was last night. We were all scattered around the side of the road around a small campfire with Rick on lookout. He still wasn't letting anyone out of his sight, but it didn't really bother anyone. It made me feel safer knowing where everyone was too. I knew that Rick felt the same way.

I yawned as I watched the flames flicker from the fire. I knew that almost everyone was asleep. Only people that I knew were still awake were Daryl, Rick, and I. I wanted to sleep, but couldn't get comfortable, so I had sat up and started watching the fire. I heard movement from beside me, causing me to glance over from the fire to where it came from. Daryl was walking over to where the fire was. He had been talking to Rick.

"Ya ain't asleep?" he asked as he sat down near the fire across from me.

I stared, well more like glared, at him through the flames. It pissed me off that he never apologized for hurting me. If everyone else knew about me getting hurt, then he had to too. He had to be able to tell that I was in pain when he was pulling me back. I would say he was heartless bastard who didn't care, but he was the one who stopped me from running, so what was his problem?

I finally shook my head no even though I wanted to have a sarcastic response to his stupid question.

I reached for my necklace before playing with the moon pendant. I brought it to my lips before kissing it and letting it fall back onto my upper chest. I laid down and turned so my back was facing the fire. I didn't really care to talk to Daryl and I needed the sleep. I knew we had another long day ahead of us.