Fighting for Survival

Chapter 3

"I got it," Daryl says, moving towards the trees.

"No, I got it. It's my home, I can clear it." I push past him, toward the sound of the dead.

Two walkers are by my sound wire. With one swing of my machete and both heads are off.

"Damn," Daryl says from behind me. I whirl around to face him.

"See, I can handle myself." I smirk and stalk past him. We go back to my clearing, to wait for the rest of the group. I hope I didn't make a mistake letting them stay here.

It isn't long before I hear the cooing of a baby.

"Judith, shh," a young guy's voice whispers fiercely.

"She's fine, Carl, it's just ahead." Ricks voice floats over.

The sound wire jingles. One by one, people walk into the clearing. My eyes immediately land on a boy, about fifteen, carrying a baby. Her clothes are the cleanest of the whole group.

Rick comes up after the kids, followed by a pretty black woman, her hair is in dreads and she is carrying a katana. A woman is behind them, her hair is short brown and pulled back.

A cute Asian guy walks into the clearing, hand in hand with a pretty brunette woman. They are tailed by a petite blonde girl about 19; not much younger than me. She's next to a skinny black guy, who is limping.

Then a woman with very short hair walks up. With her is a buff black man and a short black woman with poofy hair.

Lastly is a buff white guy with red hair. A hispanic chick with long legs and a hat over her long black hair. And a short chubby guy with a mullet. He's a sight to see.

"This is my group." Rick gestures to the people around him. "We have no tricks up our sleeves, we just need a place to crash till we can get back on our feet." Rick explains.

"My name's Chelsey," I introduce. May as well be polite until I know I can't trust them.

"I'm Carl, this is my baby sister, Judith." The teen kid smiles. Everyone else goes on with their introductions.

"I'm Michone," thats the dread chick.

"Tara," chick with short brown hair.

"I'm Glenn, this is my wife, Maggie." The Asian and the woman holding his hand.

"Beth," the petite blonde.

"Noah," the skinny black kid.

"Carol," the woman with the super short gray hair.

"Tyrese," the buff black guy. "This is Sasha," he points to the poofy haired black girl.

"I'm Abraham, this here is Rosita, and Eugene," the red head introduces himself, the Hispanic girl, and mullet guy.

"And you know me and Daryl," Rick nods.

"Yeah, so uh, welcome to my clearing. It's getting dark soon, so I suggest you hurry up and get your shit out." I salute them all and turn. I climb up into my treehouse. I listen to them talking.

"She seems lovely." Michone snickers.

"Did you ask her?" Rick goes over to Daryl.

"Yeah, she passed." Daryl nods.

"You think we can trust her?" Glenn walks up to them. I guess they are like the top players of the group.

"She seems trustable." Daryl nods. "I don't think she will kill or rob us in our sleep." How sweet that he thinks so highly of me.

"Yeah, but we've misjudged before." Michone points out.

"Nah, she's good, I can tell." Daryl says, he sound sure of himself.

"Aw, sounds like Daryl's got a bit of a crush." Michone raises her eyebrows.

"No I don't," Daryl growls.

Wow, I'm pretty flattered. I mean I sure wouldn't mind having a little male attention. Especially from a man as attractive as him.

"I'll take first watch." Daryl grumbles and stalks under my tree towards the tree line.

I can hear the baby starting to fuss.

"Dad, she needs more cushioning." Carl calls. I look back at my mattress on the floor, piled with a dozen blankets. I really like blankets.

I grab a couple and my pillow. Then I hop down to the ground. It's dark now, though Rick's people have a small fire started in my usual fire place.

"Rick," I call. He turns to me.

"The kids can sleep up there. I have a mattress and plenty of blankets." I offer to them.

"I wouldn't want to move you out of your bed." Rick is hesitant to accept.

"I insist, if anyone should be sleeping decently, it should be them." I smile politely. "I'm perfectly fine with sleeping on the ground." I let my blankets and pillow fall to the ground.

"Thank you," Carl picks up his sister.

"No problem," I shrug it off.

He hands me the baby and he climbs up to the tree house. I expertly climb up with one hand, the other protectively around the child. I hand Judith back to Carl.

"So the mattress is there." I point to it. "The blankets are free for you to use. Just please, don't touch my things." I give a small nod.

I go back down to the ground. Rick's group members are over by the fire, talking quietly amongst themselves.

I set my blankets up close to my tree, though I know tonight I won't be able to sleep. Too many strangers, my body is too keyed up.

I lay there for a while, listening to the murmurs of the group. I'm not used to voices at night, hell I'm not used to voices at all. The only time I ever hear voices is if I actually have batteries to spare for my Walkman. I know it's old school, but I found it as a child and thought it was pretty legit.

"Hello," a soft voice says. I look up to see the blonde.

"Uh, hey, Beth, right?" What is she talking to me for.

"Yeah, thank you for letting us stay here. It was very gracious of you." She smiles.

"Yeah, uh, no problem." I pull my blanket around me.

"See you in the morning." She waves and skips off. I stare quizzically at her retreating form.

Everyone starts hunkering down for the night. Unable to sleep I get up and walk towards the tree line. I notice Daryl in the shadows.

"Need some company?" I ask, sidling over to him. He glances at me but says nothing.

"Walkers don't generally walk this way often. I get maybe one or two a day if even, that's about it." I tell him.

"We don't like to take our chances." He says gruffly.

"Sorry, Mr. Macho man." I hold my hands up.

"Why aren't you sleeping like everyone else?" He gestures to everyone else.

"Not saying that I don't trust you guys, but I'm not ready to sleep with a bunch of strangers around me." I shrug. He grunts.

"I noticed you were low on arrows." I comment, remembering him only having a few.

"Thanks for telling me, Captain Obvious." He says sarcastically.

"Well, I was gonna say I have some extra ones lying around in case you wanted them, but since you want to be an ass." I cross my arms.

"I'm sorry." He apologizes. "Why do have arrows just lying around?"

"I have a bow, not nearly as nice as your crossbow, but it's decent. Sadly I don't know how to use the damn thing so," I shrug.

"I could teach you," he offers.

"Really now?" I glance at him.

"Yeah, it ain't hard. We could do it tomorrow." My heart does a little flutter at his words. Maybe I could let them stick around for a day or two.