In the Shallows

If it weren't for Lori's growing stomach, I couldn't begin to tell anyone how much time had passed since the farm had gotten over run. We were constantly on the move, it was hard to hold out hope in this kind of situation. Granted, it was hard before but now? Hope was limited and the furthest from our mind. We had been in and out of houses like there was no tomorrow, Rick relied on Daryl and I to sweep each house clean of walkers. Which we did quickly and effortlessly, it had been months upon months of doing the same thing over and over. Only staying in one house for no longer than two days. It was getting tiresome, I could feel the constant burn of hunger and the constant ache of all my muscles, but we had to press on. Every single day was a battle, not from the walkers but from our tired bodies.

A little while back we had raided a broken and abandoned police station, scrounging some more weapons and ammo. We had silencers for every handgun and that made for much easy sweepings, I had even found a pair of nifty throwing knives at an old cabin we had stayed in. They were quite useful and I had perfected the skill in no time.

Rick kicked open the door to a lone house in a back corner of a neighborhood, it was shielded through junk and a thick blanket of trees, an ideal place to stay for the night. Although, none of us really did much sleeping. I wrinkled my nose in disgust as three geeks were slowly turning around, quicker than they could raise their weapons or barge in, I threw a heavy and thick hunting knife. Shivering as I heard contact and the one hit the floor. Rick gave me a nod while Daryl gave me a smirk, they both went in before me, taking down the other two. I took my knife from it's head and wiped it off on my thigh, shoving it in my boot, I walked around with my gun aimed.

It took only but a few moments for us to clear it out completely. I walked around, studying the people who used to live here. It was a normal looking family and it was sad to know that they probably weren't alive. I found myself in the bathroom, looking at my reflection, I winced. My eyes were sunken in from lack of sleep, my facial features really accented by the dirt and sweat. I was fairly tiny to begin with before this zombie infested world and now? I looked too thin and my long hair didn't make it any better.

I rummaged through the cabinets, finding a pair of scissors I started to cut at my honey locks. It was silly to be worrying about how I looked but it wasn't that. My thick hair clung to me and to be honest I was due for a haircut long ago before the world, I was just too lazy to cut it. After a few minutes, my long longs that reached just below my breasts now barely rested on my shoulders. It felt nice, refreshing and less hot. Stepping out of the bathroom and into the living room, I had made it just in time to see Rick angrily throw a dog food can near me. I jumped out of the way, his eyes scanning me over with confused eyes but he quickly adverted and looked in a different direction.

We all were, we were exhausted and there was no way to be sure that this place was going to keep us safe. It was like these walkers smelled the living, they'd show up everywhere. It was crazy how much everyone had changed since I had first met them. It almost blew my mind how differently they would look if all the dirt and grim was wiped off their faces, they'd almost look real.

T-Dog gritted his teeth as he sat by the window, his head nodded towards it, "Psst." I looked and bit my lip as a unnecessary group started headed out way, we all quickly gathered our things and headed for cars. We had picked up another good sized truck along the way, we needed more space and eventually when it ran out of gas and we couldn't find any more, we'd leave it. It wasn't necessary but it was nice to have the room.

I had sucked up my fear of riding on Daryl's bike and hopped on behind him, I heard him grunt, "Why cut ya hair? I liked it better long."

I smirked, as my arms wrapped around his waist, "It'll grow." We still had an unnamed relationship, some nights we'd be together and other nights we'd be scattered. I wasn't complaining, it was just how it was but with kisses and much needed tension reliefs. But nothing was more dangerous than trying to have sex in a zombie apocalypse, so we kept it pretty PG. On occasion when we were alone he'd get a little handsy but Daryl was a respective kind of man, he knew when to touch and when not too.

We had pulled over on a long stretch of road to map out the different herds we saw, climbing off the bike, I walked towards the hood of Maggie and Glenn's car, T-Dog opened the map and frowned, "We got no place left to go."

Maggie agreed pointing fingers, "When this herd meets up with this one, we'll be cut off, we'll never make it south."

We all stared intently at the map as if it was going to show us a different point of access, all the others started walking towards, glancing down at the map. Daryl pulled up to my side, his eyes looking towards everyone, "What you say? That was 'bout 150 head?"

I sighed, looking over at him, "That was last week, it could be double by now." I looked behind everyone, making sure Beth and Carl were okay on lookout. Turning my attention back towards Hershel who made the point about the river possible slowing down the huge herds that were closing in on us.

"If we move fast, we might have a shot to tear right through there."

I shook my head, pointing towards the blue and red marks sprawled out all over the map, "True, but if this group joins with that one, they could spill out this way."

Maggie sounded defeated, "So we're blocked."

Rick sighed, pointing, "Only thing to do is double back at 27 and swing towards Greenville." His hand motions were making me dizzy, my eyes tore off his motions and towards T-Dog who mentioned that we had already gone through Greenville. Rick started to get agitated, "Yeah I know, I know we've been going in circles."

I piped up, shrugging, "If we get to Newnan we can push west, haven't been through there yet."

Rick nodded, "We can't keep going house to house, need to find someplace to hole up for a few weeks," his trailed over towards Lori, it was slowly killing him that he was running out of time to find a place to safely have this baby. It was worrying even myself, I was terrified for them.

T-Dog sighed, "All right, it cool if we get to the creek before we head out? Won't take long, we got to fill up on water, we can boil it later."

Rick shrugged, "Knock yourself out." I overheard Hershel whisper something about Lori to Rick and it only confirmed my worries. I was snapped out of my trance when I heard Daryl speak up.

"Hey," he whistled to get my attention, he glanced from Rick and I, "while the others wash their panties," he paused to load his bow, "let's go hunt. That owl didn't exactly hit the spot."

I playfully rolled my eyes as I followed Rick past Daryl, I felt his warm hand snake his way up my back, giving him a slight dirty look, he backed off with that stupid little smirk on his face. We walked a few minutes on a rail road track, listening to nature do it's thing. The birds chirping, the leaves crunching underneath our feet, and the chatter between squirrels and other rodents. My eyes caught onto a prison a little ways across the lake that separated us and the jail, Daryl saying, "What a shame."

My eyes wandered towards Rick, his facial expression reading nothing but pure joy. He had to be out his mind if he thought this prison was the answer to our problems. I bit my tongue though, I had learned to trust his instincts and even though I didn't agree with this one, it was definitely better than four walls that could fall down at the hands of twenty something walkers. I saw that half smile spread across his lips and I knew, I knew we were going to have to clear out those geeks that wandered aimlessly around.

Boy wasn't this going to be even more fun.