Full Time Job

My eyes flew open as I heard the RV door wrench open. Dale exited the camper and I sat up and stretched, looking around me. Vinny was beginning to stir and I quietly stepped out of our make-shift bed, pulled my jeans back on, and pulled a clean red tank top out of my back pack and quickly changed shirts. I glanced over towards Sophia and Carol, who were still fast asleep and pulled Vinny’s clothes from our bag and picked him up out of bed and held him as he looked sleepily at me. I carried him out of the door and shut it quietly behind me. I turned and abruptly ran into a hard chest that was standing right behind me and stumbled backwards and steadied myself against the RV. I looked up to see Daryl sneering at me behind intense light colored eyes.

“Can ya watch where you’re goin’?” He spat angrily and I stepped around him, quickly apologizing. He shook his head angrily and yanked open the door to the RV and stepped inside. I sat down on a nearby lawn chair and pulled Vinny on my lap, confused... was that the same guy from yesterday? Vinny began fussing when I started to dress him and Glenn walked up and sat in the vacant chair next to us.

“Don’t worry about Daryl,” he said quietly, “He’s lost his brother, and well, even before that he wasn’t the nicest guy to get along with…” I nodded and placed some fruit snacks in Vinny’s hands as he sat quietly on my lap and ate. I merely shrugged my shoulders.

“Well, how can I help today?” I asked shyly, and Glenn looked around and said, “Well, we’re just looking through the cars for supplies, the guys are trying to fix the RV so we can continue the drive to Fort Benning…” I nodded and Glenn stood up and walked over to Dale who had called for him. After Vinny had finished eating, I walked over to a car nearby, holding Vinny’s hand, as we started to search for supplies. We were chatting lightly… a two year old has a lot of questions.

I was finding many useful things, like medicines, clothing, and here or there I would find some groceries. Vinny stayed obediently by my side as I searched. After clearing another car, I looked up and around me, T-Dogg was looking in cars a few yards ahead and Daryl was also searching to my right. I stared down the highway at the maze of abandoned vehicles. It was unreal, reminding me of a scene from a horror movie. I shook my thoughts away, grabbed Vinny’s hand and moved to the next car.

I was going through a duffel bag in an abandoned trunk when I abruptly felt a strong grasp quickly take me at the waist to the ground and I heard Vinny cry out. I was dazed and realized that I was thrown under one of the cars on the highway. Daryl was crouched over me, pushing Vinny towards me as he snarled, “Shut him up! He’s gon’ get ‘s killed!” in a hushed angry voice. I pulled Vinny tightly against me and whispered, “Vinny, honey, it’s time to be quiet…” He whimpered softly but ultimately became quiet. He had learned to be silent and I had been astonished at how many times we were in this situation and he was perfectly quiet... which is rare for a two year old child.

I heard the uneven footsteps of walkers approaching and Daryl abruptly rolled over to the space underneath the car next to us. I watched, holding Vinny protectively, as he crouched underneath the car across from us. We could see the bloody, tattered legs of a herd of walkers moving all around us, the groans of the undead filling the air. Daryl was staring intently into my eyes, and his intent focus kept me from whimpering myself. I had never seen this many walkers in a group before. We heard T-Dogg groan loudly in pain, and I heard him stumble on the pavement. I was praying that he didn't get bit or scratched from one of the many walkers that surrounded us and I closed my eyes in fear. When I opened them, Daryl was gone. I looked all around me and saw him and T-dogg’s legs stumbling together on the side of the car Vinny and I were under. T-dogg roughly fell next to me and I saw that Daryl must have thrown one of the corpses from the cars on top of him. He hit the ground shortly after and pulled another corpse on top of his own body.

He stared intently again towards me as I watched in horror as walkers continued to sporadically walk by. After what seemed like forever, he finally rolled to the side, shrugged the dead off of him, and helped T-Dogg to his feet.

“It’s okay, Vin,” I said softly and relaxed my grip on him. He slowly crawled out from underneath the car we were under and I followed him. I looked over at T-Dogg, who had a bleeding cut on his arm, who gasped out, “I wasn’t bitten, I just got jammed up on that wrecked door back there,” he stumbled forward and steadied himself on the car next to him. Daryl looked down at Vinny, and I followed his eyes as they glanced towards my face, to which his eyebrows were knitted together angrily. He placed an arm around T-Dogg and helped him back towards the RV. Why did he always look so angry?

I stood in silence for a moment, until Vinny asked in a sweet voice, “Zia, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, baby,” I answered, mentally shook my thoughts, grabbed his hand and walked back towards our camp on the abandoned highway.

Daryl’s angry sneer kept replaying over and over in my mind, and I couldn’t shake the mental image of hatred that he had for me. I thought about what Glenn had said earlier, that he wasn’t an easy guy to get along with, but if he had hated me already so much, why had he shoved Vinny and me under that car? He couldn’t really hate me as much as he let on. He had to have cared.

Vinny and I had approached the RV, and Carol and Sophia were sitting on the step, scared looks on their faces and Andrea was covered in blood. I’d gathered that she had killed a walker inside the RV, to which Dale and Glenn were cleaning out the bloody mess. Vinny and Sophia began playing together with Carl outside of the RV in the middle of the paved camp as I began to sort through the supplies we found that day, slowly coming down from the terror that had just overcome me. I watched as Daryl sat down on a cooler nearby and began to clean his arrows in silence. He still looked grumpy.

I swallowed bravely and crept over towards him. He didn’t look over at me as I approached.
“D’ya need something?” he asked, still staring at the arrows in front of him.

“Uhm,” I started nervously, “I just wanted to say thank you for earlier, you kind of saved Vinny and me…” He nodded, but continued to focus on his arrow cleaning. He said nothing in response. I stood there for a moment, confused, and awkwardly said again, “Well, thanks,” and began to walk away.

“I heard ya the first time,” I heard him grumble behind me and I rolled my eyes. Whatever.

I turned and froze in horror at the scene that unfolded in front of me. Two walkers were stumbling a few feet away from Vinny, Carl and Sophia on the shoulder of the highway that they were playing on. In a flash, I saw Daryl lunge pass me and shoot the male walker in the eye with his crossbow that had just swung towards my shrieking nephew. I sprinted forward and scooped him up and ran towards the tents that we had set up. I was rocking him gently as he sobbed into my shoulder, and I watched as Rick, Daryl, and Shane had ran into the nearby woods, chasing Sophia, who had took off running towards the woods in fear. Carol was shrieking and wailing as Dale held on to her at the side of the highway.

As Vinny started to calm down, so did Carol, and her, Dale, and Glenn had joined me and Vinny, sitting in a lawn chair beside the RV. I was still rocking him gently as he rested his head on my shoulder. We sat in silence for a few minutes and I looked over to Carol, who was still fighting back tears. I took her hand and said, “She’s going to be fine, Carol, I’m sure the boys will bring her back any minute.” She nodded silently and we waited quietly as the minutes ticked by. Vinny had fallen asleep, I cradled him against me and had dozed off myself, waking when Dale had greeted the returning men who had not yet recovered Sophia. It was dusk.
Lori and Andrea had cooked a pot of canned chili for everyone, and we all sat around the fire and ate quietly. After we had finished, Rick addressed the group.

“Tonight, we will rest up and the search for Sophia begins again at dawn.” I shifted Vinny in my lap, who had fallen asleep again. It had been a long day.

“We’re going to keep a watch duty again, all night. Daryl, Dale, since you two took last night, Shane and I will take tonight. Glenn and TDogg, it’d be best if you two slept in the tents with Lori, Carl, and Andrea. Daryl, Dale, You guys can take the RV with Carol, Gianna and Vinny. This way we have two guns in every place. Get some rest, we have a long day tomorrow.” Rick finished, and we all turned as Daryl angrily spoke, “I ain’t sleepin’ with no babysitter’s club.”

“Daryl, it’s just for tonight, when we find Sophia tomorrow you can be back on your own again…” Rick answered authoritatively. Daryl scoffed. I looked uneasily over towards Carol, who shrugged, and rolled her red, tear stained eyes.

After Rick’s small meeting, Carol came over and asked quietly if I was ready for bed. Vinny was still asleep, and I answered, “I’m not tired really, yet, but if you want to take Vinny in with you, he’s a great snuggler.” I smiled warmly at her. She returned my smile as I carefully handed her my sleeping nephew. After all she had gone through, I felt terrible for her and I knew that I could trust her. I had a longing to comfort her.

I watched as she carefully carried Vinny into the RV and a few minutes later, the lights inside had shut off. Glenn, Daryl, and I were the only ones left sitting around the fire. Rick was posted up on top of the RV, watching over everyone.

“So what’s your story, Gianna?” Glenn asked, looking towards me.

“You can call me Gia, if you want,” I answered shyly and he nodded.

“Okay, Gia then… How did you end up here?” He repeated
.
“Well,” I started, “My sister and brother in law were on vacation in Florida and I was watching Vinny. He’s my nephew… and flights were grounded out of Florida. The last that I had heard of my sister, she had rented a car and they were going to drive back.”

“Back where?” Glenn probed.

“St. Louis. That’s where we’re from…” I answered and Glenn nodded.

“I’m from Macon,” Glenn added quietly and I nodded.

I heard Daryl scoff from across the fire. “St. Louis? …I should have known you were a city girl.” I chuckled lightly.

“Have you ever been to St. Louis?” I asked, exasperated. He stayed silent, so I continued, “Why, most of us up there are country folk just like you are…” I said, mocking his southern accent. His eyebrows relaxed a little and Glenn and I had both chuckled.

“You, princess, are NOT country,” Daryl rebutted and I rolled my eyes.

“What’s St. Louis like?” Glenn asked quickly, hoping I wouldn’t respond to Daryl’s taunts.

I smiled to myself. “St. Louis is a magical place.” I frowned slightly. “Well, I’m sure it’s not anymore… But… There's so much history there, and there's so many things to do. I love it because it’s between two rivers, and I grew up close enough to the city,” I said, eyeing Daryl, before continuing, “But, we’re also close to the ‘country’ too… I grew up fishing for crappie, floating on the rivers, target shooting, and running around the woods on four-wheelers.”

Daryl’s eyebrows raised slightly. I pretended not to notice and immediately caught myself off guard. Why was I trying to impress this guy?

“That’s cool,” Glenn said.

“Crappie fishin’?” Daryl asked incredulously, “I’m sure your daddy hate to bait your hook and clean the fish for you.” I shook my head sarcastically and ignored his gaze from across the fire.
Glenn began talking about his background and family and what his life was like before the dead took over. After awhile, conversation between the three of us became sparse, and I yawned and stood up slowly.

“Well, I guess I’m going to go to bed,” I said, yawning again.

“Me too,” Glenn said, standing up also. Daryl stayed seated at the fire and I could feel his eyes on my body as I stretched again. I self-consciously lowered my tank top that had slightly exposed my midriff as I stretched and avoided his intense glare. The same vision of his focus on me earlier when we were hiding from the walkers under the cars on the highway flashed through my mind. What was up with this guy and why couldn’t I escape his intensity? I quietly said goodnight, completely aware that Daryl was still silent.

I crept back to the RV and quietly snuck inside. I squinted in the darkness and noticed that Carol and Vinny were sprawled across the larger bed in the camper. I smiled to myself, and slid down to the floor next to them. There wasn’t enough room for me, as I had expected. Dale was snoring on the couch that Vinny and I had slept in the night prior. The only bed left in the RV I figured I would give to Daryl. I shrugged in the darkness, and thought to myself that maybe this gesture of good will might soften the hatred he radiated towards me. I curled up on the floor and rested my head on my arm, lying on my side and slowly fell asleep on the flat RV floor.

I was later awakened when I felt someone had lifted me off the floor. I struggled slightly and gasped as I felt a rough hand cover my mouth.

“ ‘S ok, princess, It’s just me, Daryl… You’re going to wake e’ryone up!” He whispered roughly. I relaxed from struggling and abruptly felt the padded mattress of the bed underneath me. It was pitch black in the camper, save a small glow from the moonlight creeping in the window by the sink.

“Are you sure you don’t want to sleep on the bed?” I asked, mirroring his whispered tone. I heard his familiar scoff in the darkness and jumped slightly when I felt a blanket that he had tossed at me land on my legs.

“Thanks,” I whispered again, and pulled the blanket over me. I listened as he laid down on the floor in between the beds that me and Carol and Vinny were sleeping on.

“Hush up and sleep,” he ordered and I rolled on my side. I closed my eyes and slept as comfortably as I had the night before.