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CHAPTER THREE // 67 & 68 days after the fall. A NEW COMMAND I GIVE TO YOU.
Scarlett was lucky to have wound up with the Greene family. She was smart enough to know she'd be as cold-blooded as the monsters in the streets if it weren't for them.
I know you knew many of the Greenes, but believe it or not, there were still a handful of them you never got the chance to meet.
Obviously, there's Maggie. Tough and brave and the reason Scarlett even survived in the first place.
But the reason she could still walk after having her leg practically turned backwards was Hershel. I'm not sure how much you remember about Hershel. It's been a while and you were still pretty young, but he was stubborn and determined the same way Maggie is. But he also had this sort of transcendent wisdom about him that she doesn't, and it was particularly soothing to have around in a decayed world. You probably remember him constantly doctoring everyone up back at the prison, so you'll get a kick out of it when I tell you that he was actually a vet before the fall. He was just savvy enough to draw his expertise from that to help humans' own suffering.
Then there were Otis, Patricia, and Jimmy, who weren't technically related but still nothing short of family to the Greenes. I never met Otis, but I know he was the ranch foreman, and Patricia, his wife, had been a nurse until leaving to join him in living and working at the farm. Jimmy was only 17 and had been at a neighboring farm before the world died, eventually ending up there with them. From what I have heard and what I could tell, all three of them were genuinely good people.
And finally, there was Beth, who truly was a diehard fan of Scarletts. Her adoration became immediately evident when Maggie and Scarlett had first hobbled through door after having almost just been killed by the armed forces. They were covered in sweat, dirt and bloodand the very first thing Beth had done was gleefully scream Scarlett's name and stumble backwards into a wall like the wind had been knocked out of her. Completely starstruck.
I'm sure it's hard to believe now, but Beth used to make Scarlett super uncomfortable. It was actually kind of hilarious. She was usually really shy and timid at the time, but never acted that way around Scarlett for a single second. She was so enamored with her that all she ever wanted to do was talk to her. She wanted to know everything. Every second Scarlett had spent in Hollywood, every detail of her on and off screen romances, every failed audition, and every celebrity she had gotten to work with. It was overwhelming, and the only reason Scarlett hadn't been driven away by the enthralled teenager at that point was because Hershel and Maggie were there to help reign in her obsession.
Maybe it had all been amplified by being 16 in the apocalypse. Maybe having someone like Scarlett Hawksley in her very own home was her only connection to how the world used to be. You know more about being a kid in this world than I do, so you can decide wether that adds up or not. Either way, Beth made her nervous.
