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Full Time Job

"I'm With Rick..."

The next morning, Daryl was walking the perimeter while Lori, Carol, and I washed the laundry. Rick had gone out to search for a better shelter, but work continued to pile up around camp. My body was stiff and sore from Troy’s attack, but I didn’t stop pulling my weight around camp. Vinny was playing with his toy gun nearby as Carl sulked in the Grimes’ tent. Lori had been making him read… attempting to somewhat continue his education, and Carl wasn’t too happy about it.

I finished washing the basket I was working on and asked Carol to keep an eye on Vinny while I hung them to dry on the other side of camp. I drug the heavy basket full of water-logged clothes to the clothesline set up between two trees. I stood up dizzily, waited for my vision to center itself, and began hanging the wet clothes onto the line. I was about half way through the basket when three walkers emerged from the woods a few yards away. Their snarling hisses sent shivers down my spine.

“Carol! Put Vinny in the truck and lock the door!” I screamed, pulling the long hunting knife Daryl insisted on me wearing from its black leather sheath that hung from my belt. They were stumbling closer and closer to me, and I swung the knife hard into the forehead of the female that was lunging towards me. She fell instantly to the ground. I held the knife shakily as the two males behind her converged on me, and I swung towards the smaller one, lost my balance, and slipped backwards to the ground. Pain rang through my head as I landed; I looked up and saw the disgusting, decaying walker directly above me as it lurched forward. I found myself flat on my back, pushing the dead creature away from me as its black teeth chomped menacingly towards my face.

I reached for the hunting knife that I had dropped when I stumbled to the ground and the creature suddenly went limp, its dead weight crushed into my body. The tip of an arrow protruded from its skull, causing the head to slightly explode on impact, covering me with blood and walker brains. I heard the other walker crumple to the ground as Daryl shot it. I whined loudly and tried to shrug the heavy walker from the top of me until it was pulled completely off and I looked up and saw Daryl looking down at me seriously.

“Did he bite ya?” he asked as he pulled his arrows back out of each walker’s destroyed skulls.

“No,” I said, slowly making myself to my feet. Disgust must have been apparent on my face because Daryl chuckled as he stood next to me. I tried to fling the liquid blood and tissue off my hands and arms. I could feel the sticky wetness on my chest and face also.

“It’s just a little blood, princess,” he said, laughing harder when I made an angrier face at him.

“…c’mon, let’s get ya cleaned up,” he said wearily and we walked together towards Lori and Carol, who were watching us on the other side of camp.

“Are you alright?” Lori asked, walking quickly towards us as Carol and Vinny hopped down from the truck that was parked nearby.

“Yeah, just, ya know, covered in blood again,” I complained and Lori chuckled loudly. Vinny ran up to me, but Daryl scooped him up before he could reach me. He ruffled his curly dark hair and Vinny looked curiously at me.

“Are you hurt?” he asked quietly, sadness flashed across his eyes.

“No, baby, I’m fine, just really messy,” the tension in his brow relaxed and Daryl placed Vinny into Carol’s arms.

“Lori, I was going to go take Gianna to the small creek that’s just inside the woods to clean up. Do you think you and Carol can keep an eye on Vinny for me?” Daryl asked them. Carol looked at my blood covered appearance with wide eyes.

“Sure, dear… I saw you take one of them out Gia, nice job…” Carol answered and I smiled proudly at her. Daryl took my hand and we walked to the small creek about one hundred yards into the woods. The creek was surrounded by trees. The plants were beginning to sprout green leaves, and the sun warmed us a little longer each day. We had survived the winter. Daryl gently set down his crossbow and pulled a wash cloth from his pack, and soaked in the clear creek water. He sat on a large rock next to the creek and patted his thigh, motioning for me to sit there. I walked over to him and gently sat down, watching him as he light started to blot the blood from my face. He was careful not to press too hard on the bruised areas.

“Your lip’s almost healed,” he said roughly, dabbing the washcloth on my forehead. The water was cold against my skin. I nodded and watched his face as he continued to cautiously clean the walker blood from my face. He always carried an aura of intensity around him and I hadn’t quite gotten all the way used to it. I looked down at the blood-stained V-neck fitted top I was wearing and sighed loudly as Daryl was leaned over, rinsing the wash cloth off in the water. Trails of bright red colored the water as it lightly floated downstream in the current.

“This shirt is ruined,” I complained, and Daryl sat back up, looked down at my chest, and raised an eyebrow. He finished wiping of my face and neck before he cracked a grin.

“What?” I asked, returning his infectious smile.

“I was just thinking about what you look like without your shirt on…” he teased. I laughed while he scrubbed my collarbone.

“You missed a spot, right here,” I said, pointing towards the small amount of cleavage I had. He cleared his throat and he lightly cleaned it off, the cool water made my skin sprout goosebumps. His fingertips lingered over the top of my breast and lightly brushed my collar bone. I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his, and when he started to move away I grasped the back of his neck and pulled his face closer to me. Our lips met and I felt his tongue softly run across my top lip. I lightly sucked in his bottom lip, and his beard stubble slightly tickled my face. I bit down softly, mid-kiss, and he groaned and pulled my leg around him so that I was straddling his lap, his strong hands were squeezing my butt, pushing me closer to him. I moaned softly into his lips and he slowly backed away.

“You’re making it really hard for me to take things slow,” he said, pressing his forehead against mine. I giggled, pressed my lips against his once more, and slid off of his lap. I pulled the wash cloth he was holding and bent over to rinse it in the water.

“…really hard,” he muttered as I felt his hand lightly tap my behind and I stood back up. He wrapped an arm around my waist from behind me and pulled me back to him. I could feel the warmth from his body on my back as he kissed my neck softly. I leaned my neck to one side and turned to face him, lightly kissed his cheek, and put the cleaned washcloth in his free hand. The other hand slid to the small of my back as I turned.

“Be good,” I teased, and we walked slowly back to our camp. When we had made it back, Vinny, Carol, Lori, Beth, and Carol were playing Uno, seated around the plastic folding table that we had lugged from Daryl’s granddad’s shed. I smiled and Daryl waved as we walked by them. I made a beeline for our tent, climbed in and changed shirts, and joined the game around the table. Daryl went on another walk around the perimeter. I did notice that wherever he did walk, he made sure that he could always see our group from where he was standing. He would glance over and wink at me from across camp whenever our eyes met, and I would shake my head and return focus to the people around me at the table.

Not long before night fell, we heard Rick’s truck rumbling towards us on the highway. We sat around the fire, our stomachs rumbling from hunger. I had given Vinny the last granola bar for dinner. Daryl looked around the group guiltily. I knew he felt bad for not hunting today, but he wasn’t willing to leave me alone at camp, despite my protests. Not one person in our group blamed him, though.
He sat next to me, leaned back in his chair, idly playing with my fingers and hand that rested in his lap. Rick approached the group, kissed Carl on the head, and sat next to Lori. We all waited patiently for him to speak.

“I found a prison. It’s just about thirty miles away…” he started, and Daryl leaned forward in his chair. I glanced around the group, all eyes focused on Rick.

“This place is surrounded by fences. It’s designed to be secure… And with commissary, and a cafeteria, I’d bet there is food, too.” Rick said, looking at everyone seated around the fire.

“How do you know someone else hasn’t already taken it? Did you go inside?” Hershel asked. Daryl kept fidgeting with my hand, his eyes glancing from Hershel to Rick and back to Hershel again. Rick’s face fell slightly.

“It was surrounded by walkers…” he said slowly and the group groaned or scoffed lightly.

“We can take them… I have a plan…” Rick finished and the group went silent again.

“We need to do this to survive. I’m going to get everyone of you into that prison safely. And we build from there. We will thrive.” His voice was powerful. I glanced over at Daryl and he nodded at me, lightly squeezing my hand that he was still holding.

We stayed around the fire, discussing Rick’s plans to take the prison. I yawned, and whispered to Daryl that I was ready for bed. He tore his gaze from the men’s strategy meeting, and stood up to walk me and Vinny to our tent. Vinny had already fallen asleep and was snuggling into my shoulder. After climbing inside the small domed tent, I tucked Vinny under his blankets and laid back on to the small pallet that Daryl and I had been sleeping on. He sat next to me, and leaned down and lightly kissed my forehead.

“What do you think?” I asked him, and yawned. My eye lids were heavy.

“I think you’d be safer in the prison. I’m with Rick…” he mused. I nodded and rolled on my side. He lightly patted my thigh and said, “I’ll be back in later, I’m going to go back out and talk with them some more…we need to be ready…,” he said and wished me goodnight before exiting the tent.
I quickly fell into a restless sleep, anxious about this plan that Rick had to move again. It seemed that whenever Rick made plans, someone usually gets lost or killed. I prayed that that wouldn’t happen this time.