(1) Wolf in Me (D. Dixon)

Chapter Two

Deep in the trees, Diana crouches among some bushes and pulls a few of the mushrooms out of the ground, setting them into the bucket that is slowly filling up. She is taking her time so she doesn't end up giving Shane dirty looks for the rest of the day. She supposes she does have to give him some credit for allowing her to do even this. A teeny tiny amount of credit. She's a badass powerful werewolf and she is picking berries. 

All the strength she has and this is what she is doing. She is so close to telling Shane where to shove it where the sun doesn't shine. She is fine when she gets orders from an alpha, because it is an alpha, but taking orders from a human is something new. And it turns out, she is not very good at it. At least with a pack, she doesn't have to worry about blatant sexism among the ranks. A female beta is just as respected and trusted as a male beta. Female alphas are just as respected as male ones. The only thing that changes how they are viewed are rank and sometimes age. An older beta will have more experience behind them than a younger one, but it's not a huge aspect of them. She's seen more sexism with this group than she ever saw in Beacon Hills. Women are gatherers. Women do the laundry. Women do the cooking. Women do everything around the camp whilst the men stand looking big and watching for walkers who haven't even come up this far from the city. They are more at risk from coyotes up here than anything else and there are a lot of men in this camp. One or two would be enough to man the borders, but no, it's all of them. Standing around doing nothing whilst the women do all of the work. The world ends and social hierarchy devolves 100 years, hell even just 50 years. It's crazy that a 'savage beastly' race like the werewolves are far more evolved socially at this point. Perhaps her people will be fine. As long as they don't start learning and inheriting behaviour from the humans.

.......

Some hours later, Diana returns to camp with a good amount of forage. She might have gone further than the invisible camp border set out by Shane. It's basically a limit on how far they can go before they won't be heard or seen from the main camp and it's far enough that someone running will reach them in time to help. But she's not a human, so her wandering away isn't that big of a deal. She just has to be quiet about it. And it helps that Shane has been distracted by ass. He's a disgrace. And it doesn't make her feel good about being related to him. But she's trying because she does not have so much family left that she can't just ignore him. After everything that she's been through, that family side of her is currently winning out. Currently. It's approaching that line though. With every single day that Shane pushes at something she can feel the line coming and she might be more than willing to dive over it. She knows bad leaders and she knows good leaders and everything that Shane puts out there is technically fine, they are here and they are alive, but there is just something about his leadership skills that doesn't sit right with her. And everything he does just makes that feeling worse. Maybe she is being slightly biased because of the way he is with her and because these are humans and not werewolves. Perhaps werewolves just have higher standards when it comes to leadership. Diana sets the bucket next to Amy who smiles up at her in thanks. She was struggling to ration everything they had off to feed them all but with even half a bucket full of foraged goodies then it will help her pad out the tinned goods. It's not exactly going to taste like gourmet stuff, but it will keep them alive.

"Do you need any more?" Diana asks her. Amy shakes her head.

"No" She answers. "No, I can do loads with this, thanks, Diana" Diana hums in acknowledgement of the thanks before she moves on to find something else to do. To fill in the time before dinner. Diana runs her fingers through her hair as she pulls it down as her eyes scan the camp. Shane and Lori are still missing from camp. She snorts and rolls her eyes. For all he tells her to stay put and to be safe, he goes off with her to tumble through the leaves together. Shane is, probably, the best shot besides her and likely Daryl. Daryl has gone off into the trees, she was off foraging so Shane leaving camp was a bad move for their safety. It just keeps piling up.

......

At her own little camp, Diana grabs her pack from her tent and drops down onto the floor in front of a bucket of warm but cooling water she'd carried from the main camp to use after boiling it to rid it of anything that might be in it. She needs to scrub the grime off of her skin. She needs to put a layer of fresh fragrance beneath her nose. Even if that only comes from a cheap bar of soap she has tucked away and a semi-fresh change of clothing. Because of course, there are no washing machines when the world ends or out in the mountains. She might have to steal some clothing whenever she gets the chance. Though she is not sure that it counts as stealing if the world has gone to shit. It's taking for necessity, right? Food, clothing, medical supplies, etc, it all has to count as needed at this point. Law enforcement has to have fallen apart just like everything else. Which might end up being a problem for certain aspects of justice and crime. Who is going to fight for justice for the rape or murder victim? 

Diana takes a deep breath and shakes her head. She can't dwell on that. If she does, she literally doesn't know how she will feel or act or what she will do. She can't delve too deeply into how far the human race might fall without proper measures in place. Diana's ears catch the sound of an alarm some distance off. It's not all that alarming, every now and then walkers bump into a car or van and sets an alarm off on some abandoned vehicle. But this does sound slightly different. It's moving for one. That's new. And it is moving at some speed. Diana pushes herself up to her feet and turns to look through the trees, trying to pinpoint where it could be coming from. It's hard to tell out here. But it does set of warning bells in her head. If it is a threat, she needs to get back to the main camp. Just in case.