The Hunter's Prey

Chapter 1

I've been with my group for a while now. Nearly since the start. We meet along the road after they were driven from a farm, by a herd of walkers. Ever since then I've been accepted as one of their own. We fought side by side and trusted each other with our lives, which was a nice change from my life before the dead rose. We were on the road again, after losing our last home. It was something we were used to by now. We had very little food and water, but we had shelter for now. Last night a storm hit and we fled into a barn for cover. The day before we came across a pack of water on the road but the water was almost gone by now.

A few of us were scattered around the barn, and a few were out patrolling. We sat in silence, some of us cleaned our weapons as others worked on other things. I smiled slightly to myself as I watched Carl and Judith play. Carl and Judith were both Rick's children. Carl is somewhere in his early teens, while Judith is probably 2 or 3. No one really knew how old they were anymore. A lot of things became more important than knowing your age. Rick was our leader. Whatever he said, we followed and no one argued with him. He wasn't afraid to do what was needed to save us, especially his kids, and it could be terrifying sometimes. I once watched the man rip someone's neck out with his teeth. Everyone here had their stories and had done things for the group. Yet we never judged each other. I sat towards the back of the barn with Daryl. We both liked to keep to ourselves, but he seemed more distant from the other's than me. Rick trusted us both, and if we had something to say he knew that it was important. Daryl had taught me everything I know about hunting, even though he was a man of few words. Whenever we were hunting or it was just the two of us he seemed to open up and talk more. I was pulled from my thoughts as the barn door opened.

"Hey," Maggie's voice rang through the church.

Maggie and her husband, Glenn, were some of my closest friends. We all looked towards the door as Maggie entered with the rest of our group, and a new addition. He stepped through the door and we all got to our feet, weapons ready. We didn't like strangers, it always seemed to end badly when we met someone new. The last group we met tried to eat us, and the one before that killed some of our people and drove us from our home.

"Everyone, this is Aaron." Maggie continued, as Daryl and I quickly moved to the door. "We met him outside. He's by himself. We took his weapons and we took his gear."

This Aaron could have more people with him and he could be hostile. I quickly scanned outside as Daryl checked Aaron for weapons. Seeing nothing, I closed the door as I entered the barn. We were clear, for now.

"Hi." Aaron held his hands up, as our weapons were trained on him.

Judith began to wail, and Rick signaled to Carl to take her from his hands. She was probably hungry, we all were. Carl took his sister and hushed her as he bounced her in his arms.

"It's nice to meet you." Aaron stepped forward, extending his hand to Rick.

With his step Daryl quickly aimed his crossbow at him and I followed suit. Aaron seemed to understand not to move any farther or he'd die. His body stiffened and he stepped back. Everything in his body language showed no signs of being hostile, yet people were amazing actors these days. Rick turned to Maggie.

"You said he had a weapon?"

Maggie stepped forward and handed Rick a gun. Then she moved back to Aaron's side. Rick checked the barrel of the gun, before putting it in his pants.

"There something you need?" Rick looked at Aaron.

"He has a camp nearby." Sasha spoke before Aaron could.

Sasha was pretty cool. She was a great shot, but wasn't very talkative. She was kind, but she used it as a way to hide her grief. She had lost her brother and her boyfriend during all of this. They were good people, I was lucky to get to know them.