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03. the campfire song

The group were having a fire like they do every night, Harlow sat between Katherine's legs on the floor, as Katherine sat in her seat between Glenn and T-Dog.

"Disoriented. I guess that comes closest" Rick tells them he was telling the group what it felt like when he woke from his coma to see the world as it was. "Fear, confusion– all those things but disoriented comes closest" he concludes.

"Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short" Dale says.

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else" Rick explains, Katherine knew the feeling, when she saw on the news about the sick, then seeing Atlanta for herself, she felt like she was dreaming, not believing it herself until she saw it herself.

"For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream," he explains.

"I know the feeling" Katherine spoke up, the eyes of her peers on her now, "Not the coma part, but the feeling trapped" the sixteen year old explains. "It's like you're trapped underwater, you're drowning, and then snap back into reality to pull yourself up so you don't drown. Reality kicks in and this is your life. Living in a world where the dead roam and you have to fight to survive" Katherine explains, looking into the fire.

"Yeah, I get what you're saying, Katherine," Rick nods at her, "You feel like it's a dream you may never wake up from. You're living a nightmare"

"Mom said you died," Carl spoke up, looking at his father, from within his arms.

"She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it" Rick replies, stroking his hand through his son's hair.

"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened" Lori informs her husband. 

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell" Rick replies, "And from the look of that hospital it got overrun"

"Atlanta fell early, we tried going there, but it was gone" Katherine said, moving her hand through her sister's hair, Harlow was leaning against her sister with her eyes shut, not sleeping but listening in to what everyone was talking about.

"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out" Shane spoke up.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it" Rick thanks his best friend.

"There go those words falling short again" Dale said, "Paltry things"

Ed Peletier adds more wood to the fire, Katherine looks over at Shane on her side to see he does not look happy. Everyone knows the rules about the fires, but apparently Ed thinks he knows better.

"Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?" Shane says to him.

"It's cold man" Ed replies plainly.

"The cold don't change the rules, does it?" Shane asked, "Keep our fires low, just embers, so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"

"I said it's cold," Ed repeated.

"No one gives a shit that you're cold" Katherine snaps at him. She was sick of Ed Peleteir, a lot like with Merle Dixon, Katherine could live happier if he wasn't a part of her life.

"What did you say?" he says, glaring at her.

"You heard me" she returns his glare.

"Why don't you mind your own business girly" he sneers at her.

Shane gets up and has a hush conversation with Ed, before he's again ordering Carol around like she's his maid, Katherine wishes she'd stand up to Ed. Carol has all the women in camp on her side, they'll happily protect her.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?" Dale questions, "He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind"

"Someones gonna have to tell him. Like ripping off a bandaid, do it quick" Katherine answered.

"I'll tell him" T-Dog spoke up from beside her, "I dropped the key, it's on me"

"I cuffed him. That makes it mine" Rick retorted.

"Guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy" Glenn broke the disagreement.

"I did what I did" T-Dog replied, "Hell if I'm gonna hide from him"

"Why do we even have to tell Daryl?" Katherine asks.

"She's right. We could just lie" Amy agrees.

"Or tell the truth" Andrea disagrees, "Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed. Your husband did what was necessary"

"She's right" Harlow spoke up, which surprised the group, "From the sounds of it, it was his fault. Plus, he's mean"

"We can't tell Daryl that, sweetie," Dale says to her.

"Didn't say we had to" Harlow shrugs her shoulders.

"I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?" Dale turns to Andrea. She stays quiet, moving her head into her knees which she pulled up her chest, "Word from the wise– We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt"

"I was scared and I ran" T-Dog explained, "I'm not ashamed of it"

"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea agrees.

"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that– not that chain, not that padlock. My point– Dixon's alive, and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us" T-Dog explains.

"If he was a nicer person, and didn't constantly harass half the camp, then he wouldn't have gotten handcuffed in the first place. It's his fault" Katherine says, smiling at T-Dog in hopes to make him feel better.

"Still, it's my fault" T-Dog returned a small smile, getting up off his seat and towards his tent.

"We should sing a song," Katherine giggled, hoping to brighten the mood.

The group all groaned and shook their heads, except Rick who asked, "What's the problem"

"She sings the same one, every night" Glenn informs him.

"It's great, it's called The Campfire Song Song" she laughs.

"From Spongebob?" Rick asks, confused.

"Yeah!" Katherine giggles.

"No, we're leaving" Ed replied, pulling Carol up, Sophia following behind.

"I wasn't asking you asshole" Katherine mumbled.

"Maybe another night, Kat" Glenn replied, getting off his seat and towards his tent.

Soon enough, everyone followed, Katherine pulled Harlow up and the James' sister's made their way to their tent for another night.

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I'm getting through these, I want to finish act one so we can get onto act two! And you can meet her love interest, any guesses who?

And thank you for 100 reads already !! That's absolutely insane <33