Jinx || Daryl Dixon || The Walking Dead Fanfic

-3-

Moving back closer to the water, Jinx found a relatively smooth rock close enough to the water's edge that she could dip her toes in, but still hidden enough that the others wouldn't see her in her underwear. She lowered herself onto the rock, surprised by the soreness in her weak muscles from defending herself the previous day. She dipped her toes in the water, finally relaxing slightly as she felt the cool liquid against her skin and wrapped her arms around herself as if trying to keep all the emotions the past twenty-four hours had stirred up from spilling out.

She didn't know how long she sat there before she noticed Rick making his way towards the camp holding a walkie talkie of some kind in his hand. She almost didn't recognise him without his hat or sheriff's uniform on. He must have walked that way when she was washing her clothes, or she would've noticed him before. His eyes briefly met hers and he courteously looked away before she even had a chance to blush about her lack of clothing.

As time continued to pass, Jinx tried to lose herself in happier memories, but the faces of everyone she loved quickly began to decompose in her mind's eye, becoming the same as the monsters that now haunted the real world and she wrapped her arms tighter around her small body in a poor attempt to comfort herself.

She heard a gentle rustling sound, much closer to her than she liked and quickly spun around, about to grab the bloody crowbar, before realising she'd left it behind. The woman Rick had been holding the night before stood there she held one hand up sheepishly "Sorry, Rick mentioned you might need some clothes" and Jinx noticed the other hand was holding a small pile of fabric. She racked her mind for a name, sure Glenn had told it to her, but it escaped her now. As if she could read her mind, the woman smiled gently, but still managing to look away and give Jinx her privacy "I'm Lori, Rick's wife".

As Lori handed her the clothes, Jinx quietly thanked her and introduced herself, this time not bothering with her full name as she decided that the unfortunate nickname most definitely still seemed appropriate. Lori seemed kind and Jinx watched her walk away for a second before she unfolded the clothes.

Lori was taller than her and the clothes were a little big on her emaciated frame, but with a lack of other options Jinx was just grateful to have something clean and dry to wear. She sat back down on a rock further from the water, giving her feet a chance to dry in the sun before sliding them back into her bloody trainers. Damp clothes she could have handled, but there was no way she was going to try and wash the shoes and risk having to walk around in wet shoes, they would just have to continue to remind her of the previous night, not that the state of everything else around them didn't already do that.

After a little longer staring into the refreshing water, Jinx realised it was time she head back to the group, she couldn't hide forever, the only options she had were to introduce herself or run and it seemed rude to run after the few people she did know had been so kind to her.

Walking to where the group gradually seemed to be congregating, a few metres from the RV she could hear Daryl and Rick arguing again as the former frustratedly called a dead girl a time bomb. As she got closer, she could see what the argument was about, Andrea was still crouched beside her sister's body.

Jinx stayed back, she didn't know these people well enough to expect them to want her opinion and she didn't feel like she could add anything to what was already being said anyway. She was always good at being objective and this was no different, she could see both sides, but she mostly agreed with Daryl, Amy was a risk to everyone else, especially Andrea if someone didn't do something.

Once Daryl stormed off and Andrea had pointed her gun at Rick for attempting to speak to her, Jinx finally moved closer and sat beside Lori on what seemed to be a pair of car seats on the ground. She thanked her for the clothes and in turn Lori introduced her to a few other people including Shane, Rick's partner, and Dale, the older man who seemed to own the RV and always wore a fishing hat.

Jinx wasn't sure about Shane, he seemed like he could be as much of a loose cannon as Daryl, maybe more so, but Dale seemed kind and she instantly took a liking to him.

It didn't take long until Jinx found herself exhausted by the small talk, she hadn't been the most sociable person prior to all this and after spending so long alone in a basement, she discovered people were even more tiring to her than before. She picked herself up, tracked down her crowbar, still lying a little away from the group and wandered over to where Daryl and a couple of others were stabbing the dead in their heads to stop them from coming back as monsters.

Before she could be of any help though, a woman with short grey hair spoke to Daryl, taking the pickaxe from him, telling them that one of the men on the ground was her husband and she would do it. From Glenn's description Jinx was able to guess this was Carol and that meant the dead man must be Ed, the man Glenn had warned her to stay away from.

Her eyes met Daryl's for a second as Carol hesitated, but then the woman brought the pickaxe down on her late husband's head. Once. Twice. Over and over several more times after that. Jinx could only begin to guess the misery this man had caused her. Neither her nor Daryl said anything as Carol thanked him and handed the pickaxe back before turning and going back the way Jinx had come.

She didn't manage to help for long as her muscles were so weak from disuse and defending herself the previous day that they quickly felt as though they turned to jelly. She apologised so quietly it was unlikely that anyone heard her and moved away to once again sit slightly removed from the group.

As she sat and watched she observed more arguing, there was a lot of tension in the group, but she didn't believe it was all caused by the chaos of the night before. In time she was sure she'd figure out the dynamics of the group, but for now she decided to stick to the side-lines.

It turned out some of the arguing had been about where to go next, it was obvious they could no longer stay this close to the city. Everyone was sitting around the fire when Shane sat down and gave a speech supporting Rick's plan to move on to the CDC and it was decided they would move on the next morning.

Over the course of the day, Jinx collected her now dry clothes and ate a small amount of food, feeling guilty that she had contributed so little to this group and yet they were being so kind to her.

Carol offered for her to share a tent with her and her little girl Sophia, but Jinx decided to stay out beside the fire. She said it was to keep watch, but truthfully, she just couldn't stand the idea of another enclosed space and knew she wouldn't sleep anyway.

The next morning came and everyone packed up ready to leave. Part of the group, a family with two young children decided to go their separate way, they had family elsewhere and they decided to go look for them instead. Jinx was sad to see the kids go, she found the children made the world seem a little less awful and were easier to be around, but she understood. If she could've gone to look for her family too she would, but she knew there weren't going to be any planes back to England any time soon.

There was no space for Jinx in the RV or any of the cars, so Rick suggested she ride in Daryl's truck. Neither of them were too pleased by the idea, but Jinx thanked them both and Daryl gave a grunt of acknowledgement as she got in.