I'm with You

And this wasn't going to be the way I died. I had dropped my weapons when I fell. I had my right hand against the walker, pushing it back off of me as far as I could. My left hand was searching for the gun that was somewhere in the water. Hearing the walker trying to take a bite out of me was causing me to panic. I couldn't get bitten, and was not going to be it's dinner. At least it wasn't trying to scratch at me.

All the smells around me began to make me gag again. It didn't help that an alive rotting corpse was on top of me. Somehow, it smelt worse than the lady who took her life. Maybe it had to do with it being dead and alive at the same time, or maybe it's because it reeked of whatever it's last dinner was. Probably human flesh and guts.

The filthy water began seeping in around my jacket while I was laying on my back, soaking the back of my shirts and bra. The bottom of my jeans were already soaking wet. The top of my body was already wet from falling down and splashing water up. I could feel some of the disgusting drops of the substance trail down my cheek. Whatever was falling from the walker's mouth was also landing of my face.

A bright light came into the room with a few more behind it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the gun. I quickly grabbed it before trying to shoot the walker. My gun had jammed. Lucky for me, an arrow flew past my head and into the walker's head. Blood began dripping down onto the lower part of my face causing me to turn my head some. The walker was pulled off of me and I was helped up. I saw my knife and picked it up before following the others outside.

When I got outside, I threw the gun and knife down to the muddy ground. I took the dead flashlight that was still in my pocket and threw it down too. I went away from everyone and began throwing up. I needed a shower badly, and not in those damn showers either. I smelled of sewage, blood, and rotting corpse. Just the thought of what I was just in, made me puke even more. After I stopped, I began to wipe my mouth with my hand until I saw my hand.

"Do we have anything for me to wash with?" I asked the group since they were all standing around watching me. They were all a bit disgusted, but it wasn't my fault. Not like I planned on falling into that disgusting water and have a walker on top of me.

"I'll see what we have." Carol said before walking away with Lori.

"There's some soap in one of my bags. Bring me some clothes too!" I called after them.

I kicked my boots off before taking off my leather jacket. I took my drenched shirt off, leaving me with my soaked bra, long sleeve shirt, underwear, and jeans on. I began shivering when the cold wind hit me. I felt for my necklace, before taking it off. I walked barefoot in the cold mud over to Daryl and handing it to him. Him and Rick were the only two left by me. The others had followed Carol and Lori shortly after they left.

"Hold this, please." He took it and I walked back over to the clothing I took off.

Carol came back ten minutes later with some plastic bags, one of my bags, and a few bottles of water. I knew she had my bag filled with clothing from the house, and probably put the soap in it.

"This is all we have. Here's some plastic bags for your clothes. I know you will want to wash your boots and jacket before wearing them." Carol told me as she handed me the stuff.

"I can't use the drinking water." I frowned, before handing back to her. "I need more water than that anyway. Is there a river or lake nearby?" I was looking over at Rick. "I seriously can't stand how I smell and need to get clean as soon as possible."

"I'll go look at the map." Rick told me before walking away.

"Are you sure? That could be miles." Carol asked, making sure I didn't want to use what little water we had.

"Yeah, I'll just ride in the back of the truck until we get there. Or walk if it's close enough." I shrugged a little. She nodded before walking back to everyone else.

"Ya gonna get changed?" Daryl asked, nodding to the bags in my hands.

"No, I don't want to put clean clothes on over my dirty body." I told him before placing my boots, jacket, and shirt into the plastic bags.

"Ya gonna freeze," He told me before looking at my shivering body.

"No, I won't." I stated.

I took the bags and went over to him. I handed him the bag that had the clean clothes.

"Take that for me please. And don't lose that necklace!" I wasn't even sure why I trusted him with my stuff.

I began walking back towards the group hoping that Rick found somewhere with water. The bottom of my jeans were getting muddier since they were being stepped on when I took steps. I stopped about ten feet from the group, not wanting to make them sick with the way I smelled.

"Find anywhere?" I asked Rick, sounding a little too hopeful.

"'Bout ten miles from here is a small river." Rick told me, causing me to smile.

"Alright, I will walk there. Which way?" I asked, ready to leave and get this smell off of me.

"You're not going to walk there." Rick told me, confused to why I was planning on walking.

"It'd be dark by the time you got there." Lori spoke.

I began thinking over my plan. If I began walking now, I would get there in a few hours. It would be early in the evening, but then again it would be dark since there is less daylight during the winter months. It also didn't count how many walkers I ran into and had to kill.

"Fine, what do you suggest? I don't plan on getting in any car and I want to smell better by tonight. I also have my clothes to wash, mostly my boots and jacket." I was determined to get my way somehow.

"You go in the back of the truck." Maggie suggested.

"We'll empty the back of the truck and keep those supplies here. A few of us go with you in case of walkers. The rest stay here." Rick spoke, after taking in Maggie's consideration.

While they were deciding on who was going and taking stuff out of the truck, I asked Carol to get my clothes I was originally wearing from my other bag. If I was going to wash these, I may as well wash the others too. She came back moments later with them and I put them in a separate plastic bag from the smelly ones. I thanked her before getting into the now empty truck bed.

"Anyone else want me to wash their clothing?" I asked, since it was be the helpful thing to do.

"We'll stop tomorrow and wash them when it's daylight." Lori gave me a small smile.

Glenn was driving the truck and Maggie was inside next to him. Daryl was leading the way since he knew where we were going. He also had my bag of clean clothes and necklace with him. I leaned back and smiled at everyone as we left the truck stop.