Learning to Live Again - Book One

Chapter 6

           

Seven months. Seven months of hell, of scraping out a life, of surviving in small towns and trying to find food in abandoned or walker infested houses. Everyone was losing hope as the months slid past. They had lost so many before and now they were fighting to keep the people they relied on and loved safe.

Tamara learnt to fight, to use her buck knife as an extension of her own arm. She became a close range fighter, able to weave between the walkers easily because of her size. Everyone learnt to shoot well enough to survive and if need be, use a knife to kill a walker. Whenever Glenn or Maggie went on a run Tamara would go with them as an extra set of eyes and because of her knife skills.

Daryl wasn't happy usually and would make sure to cover the small brunette whenever they had to fight herds. But he was happy to teach her to hunt and track.

Tamara knew he did it just in case he didn't come back one day and the rest of the group needed a tracker. She hated it but this was what their lives had become.

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"We're going round in circles."

Tamara sighed her eyes dropping to the crackling flames of the fire in front of her having heard Lori and Rick's argument more than once and not really wanting to hear it again.

"We're goin' back round to the north." The dark haired man said still talking to Daryl as if his wife hadn't spoken.

Lori sighed and moved away to sit with Carl, her hand on her now swollen belly.

When Daryl and Rick's meeting was over, Tamara got up and led the way out to relieve Glenn and Maggie from lookout, Daryl a step behind her.

The couple went back into the warmth of the house their group was squatting in. Tamara took up her position standing just outside the front door, Daryl moving to stand behind her.

His arm slid around her waist while his other hand kept a grip on his crossbow.

Leaning back against his strong chest Tamara allowed herself a moment to relax, sliding her hand over his to lace their fingers together over her stomach. She laid her head back against his shoulder and looked out at the quiet night around them.

Daryl's soft but rough voice broke through her thoughts, "Ya wanna try for another baby."

It wasn't a question, and Tamara knew he had seen her feel Lori's baby kick and talk with Carol about Sophia. "Of course I do. I want us ta have a family." She murmured her eyes never leaving the houses that surrounded the one they were using.

"We got a family." Daryl said plainly.

Tamara shifted her weight, careful of the wooden boards under her feet knowing that the porch she and Daryl stood on had rotten boards in certain places. "We got a family but we don't have our own family." She pulled out of his hold a little, "You don't have a little girl or boy ta love, ta teach, ta be a daddy to." Wrapping her arms around her waist she dropped her head a little, her chin length hair falling forward to shield her face from the world around them.

But Daryl wasn't about to let her go, sighing he moved forward to press against her back, his arm winding around her and his face falling to the bare skin of the nape of her neck, "That don't matter now. We got each other and we got this group. That's our family, 'Mara." He murmured in her ear. A clap of thunder and a flash of lightening lit up the sky and Tamara jumped before going rigid in his arms. "Good lord, ya ain't afraid of a little storm are ya, girl?" he teased brushing his lips over her skin and smiling as goose bumps rose where he touched her.