Survival Guide: To Surviving the Living Dead 101

Rule #2

Be Perpared

One thing no one was, when the outbreak happened was prepared. Who would have thought something like the dead coming back would ever happen. The only people that were prepared were preppers, people who were expecting something to happen. We learn quickly though when something like this happens. Only pack the essentials. Lori damn near packed the whole house, taking picture albums and shit. She was still teaching Carl things that would no longer apply to this world. Of course he still needs to learn but what's math going to do for him in this world? Still I get why she wanted to do it.

"You hold it like you would a rifle," Daryl told me. He was teaching me how to shoot his crossbow, which was a lot heavier than I thought it would be. "Okay. Now, line up your sights and pull the trigger." I did what he told me, lining up my sights and zeroing in on a squirrel a few feet ahead of us. I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. The bolt let loose and hit the squirrel, pinning it to the tree it had been on. "Oh, my god! I did it!" I said, excitedly. "Not bad for your first time," Daryl told me. He walked over to the tree and pulled the bolt out of the squirrel and tree, then reloading it into the bow. He tied the squirrel to the rope he had over his shoulder. We had about a dozen or so squirrels so far.

Daryl had also been tracking a deer he had shot a few minutes ago. This was a little easier for me to follow since we could see little droplets of blood. We were closer to camp now. "Headed that way and you'll be back in camp. I'm goin' to keep following this trail. I should be back to camp soon." I looked up at Daryl and then to the way he pointed for me to go. "I can go with you," I said. He shrugged his shoulders, "suit yourself."

We kept following the trail until we came out to the small clearing not far from the camp. We had cans string up to alert us of any geeks. When we came out of the bushes we had a shotgun pointed at us. "Fuck sake, Shane," I said. "Son of a bitch! That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this... filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!" Daryl says and kicks the carcass of the walker. "Calm down, son. That's not helping," Dale told him. Daryl walked over to him, "What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to "on golden pond"? We've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" He asked

"I would not risk that," Shane told him and Daryl sighed. "That's a damn shame. We got some squirrels... about a dozen or so. That'll have to do," Daryl said, readjusting the rope on his shoulder. Suddenly, the head of the walker started to move and chomp its teeth together. "Come on, people. What the hell?" Daryl said and shot it. "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" He said and started walking off.

I followed after him. "Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up," Daryl called out. "Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you," Shane called after us. Daryl and I stopped and turned around. "About what?" Daryl asked. "About Merle. There was a... There was a problem in Atlanta," Shane told him. Daryl looked around, "He dead?" He asked. "We're not sure."

"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl yelled. Then I froze at the next voice that spoke. There was no way I was hearing it. "No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." I looked up and my breath caught in my throat. There stood Rick. How could I have just walked right past him. How did I not notice my assumed to be dead brother was standing there this whole time. "Who are you?" Daryl asked. "He's my brother. Rick Grimes," I said. Daryl looked over at me and so did Rick. Daryl looked back at Rick, "Rick Grimes, you got something you want to tell me?" He asked. Rick turned back to look at Daryl, "Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."

"Hold on. Let me process this.You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof," Daryl said calmly, "and you left him there?!" He yelled. "Yeah," Rick simply said. Daryl looked over at me before throwing the string of squirrels at Rick, who easily dodged them. "Watch the knife!" T-Dog warned. Shane grabbed Daryl and put him in a choke hold. "Okay. Okay." Daryl struggled, "You'd best let me go!" He warned. "Nah, I think it's better if I don't," Shane said. "Choke hold's illegal."

"You can file a complaint.Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day," Shane told him. "Let him go! Shane!" I said, raising my voice. Rick knelt in front of Daryl, "I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" He asked. Daryl didn't say anything. "Do you think we can manage that?" He asked again. Daryl nodded and Shane let him go. "What I did was not on a whim.Your brother does not work and play well with others," Rick said. "It's not Rick's fault. I had the key.I dropped it," T-Dog said.

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl asked. I could see he was trying not to cry from being so frustrated. "Well, I dropped it in a drain,"T said. "If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't," Daryl said. "Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof... So the geeks couldn't get at him...With a padlock," T told him. "It's gotta count for something," Rick said. "Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so I can go get him," he said. "I'll go with you. What building is it?" I asked.

"He'll show you. Ain't that right?" Lori said. I looked over to see her standing at the RV door before she walked back inside. "I'm going back," Rick said. There were some arguments between Shane and Rick about going back for Merle but in the end there were five of us going. Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, Daryl, and Me. Well I wanted to go but Rick stopped me before I got in the back of the box truck. "You're not going." I raised an eyebrow at him and scoffed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad my brother is alive and that he found us. But I was still in shock I guess from seeing him here and to be honest I was angry at myself for not double checking to make sure he was actually dead. "No offense, Rick, but you can't tell me what to do. You've been in a coma for the past like two months or so. And- and I thought you were dead; we all did. I've taken these things down. I've dealt with them more than you have. You don't know what it's been like. So please step aside." He sighed and stepped to the side. I climbed up into the truck and sat beside Daryl.