Afraid of Being Alive (Shane Walsh Love Story)

Chapter 9: Get Some Rest

“Not funny, Zelda, you’re hurt.”

“Okay look Shane, I’ve just come back from a rough day, could you save the questions for later?” I huffed, knocking my shoulder lightly against his as I walked past him.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he said, spinning around and grabbing my arm, “look, I’m sorry.”

I turned to look at him and nodded my head calmly, biting my lip slightly and then continued to walk away from him and over to where the women were all huddled around the fire.

As I got to the fire I noticed fresh, scaled fish on boards of wood and carrots on Andrea’s lap. The three women all looked up at me as I sat down beside Lori. Carol and Lori were both scaling fish whilst Andrea chopped up the carrots.

“Anything I can do to help?” I asked, lifting my hands up to the fire to warm them.

“We’re pretty much done actually,” said Lori as she finished scaling the last fish.

“I can stay and cook the fish.” I offered, reaching out to take the raw fish out of Carol’s hands.

“No dear, it’s fine.” Smiled Carol, “you look like you haven’t had such a great day, relax a bit.”

“Is it that obvious?” I grimaced.

“Well, you look pretty battered, so I’m going to go ahead and say yes, it is.” Replied Andrea as she placed the cut up carrots into the pot that was currently bubbling above the open flame.

“Go and rest up sweetie, we’ll call you for dinner.” said Lori.

I just bowed my head, got up and left the fire.

I was getting bored with nothing to do, and my cuts didn’t bother me in the slightest. Sure, they stung a little, but all in all they didn’t trouble me. I wasn’t sure why everybody was being so, dare I say it, “protective” of me. I wasn’t a child and they needn’t treat me like one. I was a little annoyed about being told to go and rest, so I headed back to the RV with my head down and climbed back up and onto the roof where Dale sat on watch.

“What the hell happened to you?” he asked, giving me an odd look.

I looked down at myself and then back up at him, “what does it look like?”

“You look awful Zel, have you seen yourself lately? You should go and take a break from the day.”

I rolled my eyes and climbed back down, frustrated with peoples anxiety over me.

I entered the RV, hoping to find peace within it, only to see Shane taking apart a gun. I took a step in and then a step back when I saw him. He raised one eyebrow at me before calling me back into the RV. I walked back in with a heavy step.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“Sit down, take a load off your mind.”

“Again!” I exclaimed, turning around and heading out of the RV. Everybody was on my back and agitating me.

I heard the sound of hurried footsteps behind me, Shane reappearing.

“Rick told me what happened back in Atlanta.”

“And?”

“And I’m sorry about that, I truly am.”

He motioned for me to come back into the RV and I did so, following close behind him. We took seats opposite each other at the table and sofa and collapsed in them, Shane reaching over behind him and opening the mini fridge, pulling out two cold beers and cracking the cans open. He passed me one without even asking whether I was a drinker or not. Thankfully for him, I was. I always enjoyed a cold one, despite being the age I was. I was barely of drinking age, but seeing as the world had gone to shit, I wasn’t sure how much age mattered anymore.