Guts (season 1 episode 2)
*MENTIONS OF ABUSE*
Everything had been crazy these past few days.
First it had started off with a couple members of their group going on a supply run into the city that is Atlanta.
Second they heard a voice on the radio. It was a man. He was heading into the city alone, it was dangerous, really dangerous; as it was over run by geeks and terribly unsafe if you were to head there alone.
Then they got a message from T-dog. He told them that their group was stuck in a department store and they were surrounded by hundreds of them.
And that's where we left off. They were in deep shit.
All they could do was hope. Hope that they were okay. Hope they made it back. Hope that they would return unharmed. Hope they had the supplies. Hope they still had their own hope. All they had to do was have hope.
Hope was a strong thing. A strong feeling. But it was fragile. Easy to lose.
Hope is probably one of the easiest things to lose, you could hope for something anytime you liked but it was hard to keep it. It was hard to hope that good would come in the future. To hope this virus and geek thing could be resolved or stopped for that matter. She highly doubted anyone would have any hope by the end of this. Or have any of their humanity left.
This world is cruel. It was cruel before the apocalypse but with it, it made it ten times worse. All anyone cared about was their own survival. It didn't matter who had to die or who they had to screw over in the process.
That was what the world was. And that's what it's come to.
But that's life..right..?
Nadia looked up from her place on the hard ground, her arm hooked around her sisters shoulder as she sat beside her, to look up at a fidgeting Carl and Lori as Lori cut Carl's hair.
"Baby, the more you fidget, the longer it takes. So don't, okay?" Lori informs him.
"I'm trying" Carl tells his mom as he tries to stop.
"Well try harder."
"If you think this is bad, wait tell you start shaving. That stings. That day comes, you'll be wishing for one of your mamas haircuts." Shane interrupted.
Shane was always kind to her, sure Shane was a hot head but he had never taken his anger out on her or anyone else. The only time she had seen him lose his temper was against Merle when he wouldn't shut up, and against her father but who could blame him for that?
Shane was a leader and definitely not a follower, that's why he's the leader of this place. He had the skills; he was smart and would do anything for the group.
"I'll believe it when I see it." Carl jokes.
Shane and Nadia then chuckled as Lori rolled her eyes playfully.
"I'll tell you what... you just get through this with some manly dignity and tomorrow I'll teach you something special. I will teach you how to catch frogs."
"I've caught a frog before." Carl said slightly annoyed.
"He said frogs, Carl. Plural. Frogs mean more then one." Nadia interrupted, correcting Carl.
"Yes Nadia, thank you and it's an art, my friend. It is not to be taken lightly. There are ways and means. Few people know about it. I'm willing to share my secrets." Shane explains.
"Geez you make it sound so cool and fun well in reality it's literally only catching an amphibian." She dialed down his over dramatics.
"Says the one who can't swim." He resorted.
Nadia fake gasped and covered her mouth to mock shock, "Well okay then. Mr. I love hunting frogs, because I don't have a hobby."
Carl let out a wide smile at her and Shane's little playful fight, Sophia doing the same as she let out a giggle.
He then looked up at Lori unsure of what to say.
"Don't look at me I'm a girl." Lori stated.
Nadia was confused by that. It doesn't matter if you're a girl or not your can still go fishing. Fishing isn't just for one gender, it's for everyone. She went fishing when she was a kid and even went a few months before the bombings with her father and his friends, it ended up ending in a huge fight but at least she caught a frog and a fish(which of course she released, causing the fight).
"It's a one time offer, bud not to be repeated." Shane stated as she than rolled her eyes at his words.
Carl glanced at Shane then looked at Nadia ready to ask his question. "Why do we need frogs, plural?" He asked me. The second Nadia opened her mouth to answer someone already took the opportunity from her.
"You ever eat frog legs?" Shane interrupted Nadia. Carl's face scrunched up into disgust as he heard Shane's words. Carl took his eyes off of Nadia and Sophia, turning his attention to Shane.
"Ewww!" Carl gasped.
"That's disgusting." Sophia said, as she scrunched up her face causing her older sister to laugh.
"No, yum." Shane defended with a smile.
"No they're right eww." Lori backed up the kids, before reaching over to high-five the youngest Peletier girl with a smile, before doing the same to Carl.
"Yeah. Sorry Shane but they're definitely right, eww." Nadia backed up two thirds of the Grimes family.
Carl and Lori looked at Nadia with encouraging smiles as they both held their hands out in sync for her to high five. She held her hands out with a taunting smile as she high fived Carl and Lori.
"When you guys get down to that last can of beans, you're gonna love those frog legs, ladies. "Shane do you think I could have a second helping, please? Please? Just one?" "
"Nope." She replied confidently.
"Yeah, I doubt that." Lori agreed.
Shane just chuckles then turns to Carl, "Don't listen to them, man. You and me we'll be heroes. We'll feed those folks cajun-style Kermit legs."
"I'd rather eat miss piggy." Lori stated Shane looked at her strangely Nadia followed his lead. "Yes, that came out wrong."
Nadia looked down confused at why Shane was looking at her like that. She didn't find anything wrong with the sentence. But she did have a tendency to be a bonehead at times but her other traits make up for it, slightly.
Shane then let out a laugh before he spoke again, "Hero's son, spoken of in song and legend. You and me, Shane and Carl."
"Me too!" Sophia spoke causing Shane to smile.
"Me, Carl and Sophia." He corrected as he winked at her, his eyes shifting to Nadia with raised eyebrows but rolled his eyes with a laugh when the girl shook her head raising her hands as a hell no.
Before anyone could speak there was then some commotion going on. There was a loud alarm going off.
It sounded like a car alarm.
Shane then got up and quickly made his way to Dale.
Nadia stood up, slightly disturbed by the loud noise.
Amy then started to panic, the worry for her older sister taking over. "Is it them? Are they back?" She asked loudly and shakily.
"I'll be damned." Dale muttered in disbelief as he stared at a big moving object ignoring Amy's question.
Amy looked at Dale with a confused and concerned look before asking, "What is it?"
"A stolen car is my guess" Dale answered as a red Dodge Challenger pulled up.
The car door slowly opened and out came Glenn Rhee. Glenn was a kind boy, he was funny and slightly awkward but that made Nadia and Glenn click. They had many things in common as they both had slightly awkward personalities and they both would do what they had to, for the group and or the greater good, no matter how scared they were or what the consequences could be.
They were both strong and courageous souls and despite their seven and a half year age gap, they would most likely be friends until the very end.
Glenn said a "Hello." as she went to open his car door for him to exit the Dodge Challenger.
Dale and Shane quickly made their way over to the Rhee boy in hopes to disable the car alarm before the bitters heard and draw them to the group.
Amy then bashed Glenn with questions about Andrea.
"M-my sister Andrea- -? Is she okay? Where is she? What happened to her? Where is everyone else? What happened? Where is she?" Amy started.
Shane ran to the hood of the car after it was popped open and Glenn turned to Amy to reassure her. "She's okay! She's okay!"
"Is she coming back?" Amy asked frightened slightly, but also at ease that her sister was safe.
"Yes!"
"Why isn't she with you? Where is she? Is she okay?"
Nadia kept her eyes on Glenn as he froze. So she took that as an opportunity to step over and take over for Glenn. "Amy she's okay, she's probably on her way here as we speak. She's fine. Right Glenn?" She put her hand on Amys tense shoulder as she talked to her, turning back to Glenn.
"Yes- yeah they're on their way. They're all fine...Merle.. not so much."
"What do you mean?" Nadia asked but before Glenn could answer he was interrupted by Shane as he started yelling.
"Are you crazy driving this wailing bastard up here? Are you trying to draw every fucking geek for miles?" Shane started.
"Hey!" Nadia said loud enough for him to hear which drew some attention to her as she spoke."Language." He rolled his eyes but muttered a quiet sorry "And don't be mean to Glenn, he clearly didn't mean to." Shane then rolled his eyes again, at that moment she was glad her father was no where to be found, because he would have punished her without a doubt for even daring to talk to a man like that.
"I think we're okay?" Dale said but it was more of a question then an answer.
"You call being stupid okay?" Shane stated annoyed. He looked around the group and saw Nadia giving him a dirty look from where she was stood, for being mean to Glenn and especially Dale. He put his hands up to mock surrender.
"Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source. I'm not arguing. I'm just saying. It wouldn't hurt you to think this through a little more carefully next time, would it?" Dale asked Glenn.
"Sorry.. I got a cool car." Glenn's voice seem to go up slightly at the end, causing Nadia to give him a smile which made him grin, glad that at least one person wasn't out for his blood.
They all turn as they see a truck approaching.
Andrea is first to get out of the truck. Amy starts crying and running over to her and they share a desperate embrace. Morales a kind man got out of the truck next and embraced his wife and two children. Carl looks down sad that who he really wanted to come out of the truck, wasn't there.
But deep down he knew it was near impossible but that didn't stop him from holding out hope.
As he fought the wetness pooling in his eyes, he walked a few steps away from where he was standing before to walk over to Nadia and grab her hand as he knew if anyone could make him feel better, it was her.
Nadia looked down at Carl when he looked up at her and gave him a small, sad smile as she was too hoping that for the sake of the family he would magically raise from the dead, to make the young boy happy again.
Lori made her way over to her son, kneeling down in-front of him, with tears in her eyes as she tried to reassure him.
Nadia looked up as she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She absentmindedly squeezed Carl's hand in shock at the unfamiliar face, she must have squeezed too hard because he winced and looked up at Nadia before he followed her eyes to see what she was looking at. He held his breath as disbelief filled his eyes.
"Holy shit. Who is that?" Nadia broke the silence that caused most people to look over at her as they knew she never really swore, before they saw what she saw; Lori looked up to lecture Nadia, as Carol was watching Ed make his way over to them thankfully he was too far away to hear, before she saw him.
Carl had tears running down his faces as he took off running, yelling a loud and heart breaking "Dad!" as Lori tried to catch him as she too made her way to who she assumed was Rick.
Nadia looked over at Shane. He was in shock. He put on a smile but she could see right through it.
He was happy to see Rick but not as happy as he should have been. At that moment Nadia was scared, how attached did Shane get to Lori?
Rick looked at around and sent Shane a smile which, he returned until he buried his face into his wife's shoulder and it was in the moment that his smile dropped into a blank stare.
The rest of the camp watched in shock. They had finally just found out who the all mighty man was. The Rick Grimes.
——•——
Later that night the group was sitting around a fire at camp, the Peletier family had taken up one fire with a few other members of the group and the larger majority had taken up the other.
Nadia was laying on the ground resting her head on her mother's chest as she ran her hands through her hair. Sophia was on the other side of Carol, her head rested tightly under Nadias as she watched the fire, her mothers hand running through her hair as well.
Anyone who would look over would think Nadia was sleeping as her eyes were closed and she hadn't said anything for some time but that was just a thing she did. She was nosy through and through.
"Disoriented. I guess that comes closest. Disoriented, fear, confusion... all those things but... disoriented comes closest." Rick confessed as the rest of the group listened thoroughly.
"Words can be be meager things. Sometimes they fall short." Dale said.
"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I must not wake up from, ever."
"Mom said you died." Carl stated sadly as he lifted his head off his moms shoulder to look up at his father.
Rick looked down at his son sadly before reassuring him. "She had every right to believe that. Don't you ever doubt that."
As Rick said that Shane was staring at them with a look of envy.
"When this got really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna fly you and other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." Lori butted in.
"Well I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell." Rick pointed out.
"Yeah"
"And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun"
"Yeah looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?" Shane finally spoke.
"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it."
"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." Dale spoke up again.
She was listening as they spoke but she quickly lost focus and snapped her eyes open when a sudden heat warmed her skin.
Her eyes found her father as he put another log into their fire, which would probably draw walkers, as Rick called them, because of the big flames.
"Hey, Ed, you wanna rethink that log?" Shane asked turning his attention away from their conversation and over to her father causing him to roll his eyes at the sound of Shane's voice
"It's cold man." Ed said simply.
"The cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"
"I said it's cold. You should mind your business for once." That clearly makes Shane mad as he got up from the ground and maked his way over to Ed's fire, causing Nadia to tense up knowing what the aftermath would be.
"Hey Ed... Are you sure you want to have this conversation, man." He says as he walks closer to Ed, looking down at his wife and kids not wanting to make the obvious situation worse for them but also knowing they would be as good as dead if a herd of walkers came through.
Ed backs down and turns to Nadias mother, Carol, and yells, "Go on. Pull the damn thing out. Go on."
Carol then quickly goes to take out the log as their daughters watched, scared of what Ed would do if they didn't.
Shane then mutters a "Christ" under his breath as he stomps on the flames to put it out.
He then looks over at Sophia, Nadia and Carol in worry and starts a conversation.
"Fine. we're just fine" Carol answered too quickly for Shane's liking as he let out an unconvinced 'Okay'
"I'm sorry about the fire." Carol apologized. Shane felt confused and slightly irritated, that she would apologize for her husbands outrageous behaviour. Her eldest nodding in agreement before she stopped due to the angry glaring of her father and of course the people from around the fire noticed this as well.
"No, no, no. No apology needed. Y'all have a good night, okay?"Shane said to the family but only intending it towards the women of the Peletier family, his eyes lingering on the expression on Nadia's face.
"Thank you." Carol said sweetly.
"I appreciate the cooperation." Shane says sending the girls a soft smile before he made his way back to rejoin the group.
Nadia kept her eyes down as the dirt became the most interesting thing. She felt her mother pull her and her little sister back against her, pulling their heads towards her chest as if she was trying to shield them from their fathers threatening gaze.
"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be to happy to hear his brother was left behide." Dale pointed out, as he looked past Rick towards Nadia, a strong part of him wanted to reach out to the girl but he knew it would only make it worse for the rest the family.
"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me" Tdog said with guilt in his voice.
"I cuffed him. That makes it mine." Rick said.
"Guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it's better coming from a white guy." Glenn confessed, knowing first hand the racism that practically radiated off of the oldest Dixon. He hadn't seen Daryl being hatful to peoples races but it's not like he stepped up to his brother either and in his mind, it made him just as bad.
"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him." Tdog stated bravely.
"We could lie." Amy suggested.
"Or tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." Andrea butted in then turned to Lori "Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behide, it is nobody's fault but Merles."
She had to agree with that.
"And is that what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise... we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."
"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." Tdog confessed but Nadia could tell that he didn't mean it. She could tell by his eyes as she stood up, she had a gift, she could always tell when people were lying that's one of the reasons that Dale thought she really was psychic.
"We we're all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea pointed out.
"I stopped long enough to chain the door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at anytime. It's not enough to break through that... Not the chain, not that padlock. My point... Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed to that roof. That's on us."
"At least the geeks can't get him. That's good right? He's safe until we can go get him?" Nadia asked as she walked passed them with a hopeful tone.
"I don't think we can go get him, Nadia. It's not safe." Answered Lori this time. Her truthful words made Nadia frown as she knew she was right. It wasn't safe to go out and risk the lives of the group to save one life. Nadia knew that it wasn't smart but that didn't stop the frown from covering her face.
After that the talking calm down and it was silent, everyone was to caught in their thoughts to continue the conversation or start a new one, it was then that Nadia decided that, that was her sign to head to her family's tent.
"I'm gonna head to bed, I don't really feel the greatest. I'll see you guys in the morning?" She stated the last sentence as more of a question then an answer.
Both the Grimes parents nodded, knowing why she wasn't 'feeling well' sure Rick hadn't been there long but he had eyes and the years on the job taught him a thing or two about domestic assault and Lori had seen the mistreatment first hand, wanting nothing more to step in and protect the girls.
Nadia looked down at Carl only to find that that he was asleep in his little dream world.
The grimes parents said their goodnights to her as she began to walk away. She turned back as she realized she had forgotten to say good night to everyone else.
"Good night guys!" She said and everyone's eyes from the larger group that sat by the fire, turned to her and smiled and said goodnight to the Peletier girl.
She was glad that her father didn't hear her speak.
She was about to leave when she realized she hadn't heard anything from Shane for awhile.
She looked over at him only to find that he was staring at a tree. He appeared to be zoned out, his lips were in a straight line almost like they were stick there.
"Goodnight Shane" she said slightly louder then before and that snapped him out of his own mind that seemed to be filled with thoughts that no one else knew, and by the look on his face it seemed he didn't know himself.
"Goodnight, Nadia. Sleep well kiddo." He said holding what Nadia thought was a smile but it was so small his lips barley turned up.
Nadia knew Shane's thoughts were really messing with his head. When he was staring at the tree he looked as if he was traumatized.
Nadia snapped out of her own thoughts and gave him and everyone else a wide smile before she finished her quest back to her tent and when she arrived she pulled it open and closed the zipper.
When Nadia laid down, being scared was an under statement. She was scared that when she closed her eyes she would open them again and her fathers temper would take over. It hadn't happened in a few days thankfully, but it was only because everyone had jumped to do whatever he wanted to avoid the fallout. Well, everyone other then those around camp. No one but the Peletier women were afraid of Ed. Especially the men. Everyone with eyes could see the way he treated his girls but it's not like he tried to hide it.
Almost all of the men, had stepped in and said something to defend his wife and children. Jim had told him to watch it when he had grabbed Sophia's arm too hard when she had accidentally stepped on his foot well running around with her friends.
Shane had continuously spoke out against it but one time that stood out was the time that Ed was yelling in Nadias face, he was so close that she had to hold back tears from the embarrassment as he screamed in her face in-front of everyone but that quickly stopped as Shane came over shoving him back before getting right in his face to give him a taste of his own medicine.
Another time she had overheard Dale telling him off when he had made a joke about her mother, talking about how he should have stayed with his college girlfriend and maybe she would have actually been able to iron his clothes. It's literally the fucking apocalypse how was she supposed to get power? And that was exactly what Dale said.
Another time she had seen Daryl having a firm conversation with her father and it was bad enough that he had stomped away and later that night took his anger out on her, landing a firm slap to her face before storming out towards the lake for the next few hours before finally coming back into camp, supporting a black eye that he claimed was none of her business.
Nadia let out a loud yawn that took her from her thoughts as her eyes began to water.
She could barley keep her eyes open.
She could only hope her father would be in a better mood tomorrow and hopefully everything would go over well with the whole Dixon situation.
She could only hope but hope could only go so far.
AUTHORS NOTE
HEY GUYS! That was chapter two and it was a long one. Half of episode two is done which, thank god for.
Also I wrote most of this back in the beginning of 2021 so I have grown up and have gotten better at adding more detailed and emotional writing as well as staying in third person. I believe that next chapter is one of the more recent ones!
I am just getting into the groove of this book and I am already starting to love Nadia. She didn't have tons of lines yet but I thought it would be out of place if she magically was in every conversation as she is only a child and wouldn't be taken seriously in the show.
But she will have way more development closer to the end of season one going into season two.
Word count: 4.5k