Civilian

“How’d you find ‘er, anyways?” The man mumbled, not really in a conversational way. His glare constantly following me as we advanced through the woods in the supposed direction of his groups’ camp.

“She actually invaded my camp.” I say, stepping over a ribbon creek, offering my hand, but he swatted it away and made his own way across, while awkwardly gripping his torso. “Heard some thumpin’ on the second floor of the house, found her hid out, hiding from a roamer.”

“House?” His eyes narrowed further in suspicion, “That old shack out in the woods? By the creek?”

I hesitated, but eventually nodded. If he didn’t know, he’d assume and just pay a visit later, anyways.

“Well shit, that’s a clear shot to our camp. Half a mile, maybe.”

“Hmm, so we were always closer than we thought. I’ll bet Sophia will be happy to be home. She said she had her mother waiting for her?”

“Yeah, that’d be Carol.” he replied, watching the woods around us sharply. “Lost her husband a few weeks back.”

“Sophia mentioned that.”

He stopped walking and looked at me with curiousity in his expression. “If you can clearly tell she belongs with us, why the hell are we making this exchange trip?”

“I want to meet them first.” I replied, and began walking again.

“Why? You want gratitude or some shit? Look, they’ll be happy to have ‘er back, but they won’t shower you with roses, if that’s what yer’ thinkin’.”

“I don’t even want a thank you.” I say, noticing a clearing in the branches ahead, “It’s been ages since I’ve seen other people... Sane, alive people. The last group we really interacted with, well, they killed my whole damn family, so needless to say, we’ve been covering our tracks pretty well since then.”

He didn’t reply, but I could hear the brooding shuffle of his feet through the leaves and bracken of the forest floor.

“I’m just praying you’re not a bunch of psychos.”

“Some of us are.” He shrugged a little, “That asshole, Shane, definitely.”

“Great.” I replied unenthusiastically, paying close attention to my surroundings.

“Here we are.” He grumbled, pushing past me towards the opening in the branches. I paused, my hand hovering above the handgun on my thigh, and I read my surroundings, looking behind myself, things froze, and in an instant, I was throwing myself to the ground.

Ka-checa!

I flattened myself against the damp soil, mind racing a million miles an hour, the gunshot fading from my ringing ears. Yelling ensued, but after a few moments, I realized it wasn’t directed at me. It was woman’s screams coming from just beyond the treeline.

I scrambled to my feet, pulling out my hand gun as I made my way to the edge of the woods. There were four men standing around a crumpled mound on the ground, and my heartrate spead up, and I raised my gun on them.

“Whoa! Whoa, don’t shoot!” A tall, olive skinned man raised his hands up in defense and the other men looked up in surprise. I trained the gun on each of them in turn, sizing them up.

“Who are you?” I demanded urgently, and the men raised their bloody hands from the ground, holding them above their heads. My eyes darted to what they were hovering over, and I recognized the man’s worn redneck dungarees.

“I- I’m Rick. Shane, T-Dog and that’s Glenn.” The man on the right side gestured to each person nervously. I looked behind them, in the field a few people hesitated. A woman with long curly blonde hair, a woman with long dark brown hair, and an older man with a fishing cap and Hawaiian print shirt on.

“Why’d you kill him?” I demanded, becoming more and more confused.

“Kill him?- We didn’t kill him!” The man spoke again, this time in relief. “It was an accident, our guard thought he was a walker.”

“A walker?” I echoed skeptically, keeping my gun trained on him. “So you’re telling me you meant this man no harm?”

“Absolutely not.” He shook his head fiercely.

“How the hell do you know Daryl?” The man who had been pointed out as Shane piped up, stepping out of line. His tone was smartass and testing the waters.

“Found him in the woods looking for that girl of yours.” I muttered, “You people couldn’t find your ass with both hands.”

The man, Shane, charged me then, and I fixed my gun on his forehead.

“Hey, now!” Rick shouted, leaping up from the ground, and grabbing the back of Shane’s shirt, yanking him backwards to slow him down, but my gun remained trained on him, gauging his reaction, figuring out the best place to wound him.

“Girl?!” Rick demanded urgently, “Sophia? You know where she is? She’s alive?”

“Yeah...” I muttered, lowering my gun and turning to face him. “She’s safe. This guy was bringing me here to meet with you people about her.”

“An exchange?” The man named Glenn piped up in confusion.

“No.” I replied, not looking away from Rick, “I just wanted to be sure I wasn’t handing her off to some freak of the woods.” I glanced at Shane, who was breathing heavily, visibly shaking in anger. “Daryl mentioned you were the psycho.” I narrowed my eyes at him, stepping out of the way when he stomped forward, Rick planting himself between us, shooting me a brief glare telling me to knock it off.

“But we really have nothing to discuss since he’s dead.” I gestured towards Daryl, a mess lying in the grass. “Kill your own.”

“I told you already! It was an accident.”

“Hey, he’s waking up!” Glenn cried out, pointing.

Daryl was mumbling, groaning and flailing slightly, appearing as hazy as a drunk stumbling out of a bar at two in the morning. I kept my attention on Shane, though. He watched me, too, with narrowed, annoyed brown eyes.

“I was kiddin’...” Daryl mumbled in the background, while Rick hauled him off the ground, growling at Shane to knock it off and help him. Another moment passed before Shane shifted on his feet to grab the redneck’s other arm, draping it over his shoulders, they turned and headed towards the farmhouse.

“Guys...”

I looked over at T-Dog, who crouched hesitantly in the grass behind them. They pasued to see what was the matter. “Isn’t this Sophia’s?”

“I’ll take it back to her.” I offered, but Rick snatched it from T-Dog’s hands, watching me warily with sharp blue eyes. “I think we’ll hang onto it for now... Come on up to the house so we can talk things through, right after we get Daryl patched up.”

I lowered my gun, shifting on my feet to holster it, I nodded. “Lay on.”