Survival Guide: To Surviving the Living Dead 101

Rule #43

Expect the Unexpected

Always expected the unexpected. Whether it be a place you're scavenging in, that you thought was safe and cleared out, but wasn't, and a hoard of walkers turn up around the corner. Or whether it be one of your best friends and your brother coming out of the same room half naked, after the guy you imprisoned the night before somehow escapes the jail cell you put him in.

Or maybe even a whole community of people not too far from where your own community is. Either way always expected the unexpected because this new world is fucking crazy, and confusing, and absolutely exhausting. I'll give you a little run down of what happened before we ended up at a little community called Hilltop.

Or maybe even the possibility that there was more than just that one community. In fact four more communities. The Kingdom, who has a "king", who by the way had a tiger! Yes, that's right a fucking tiger! Ocean Side, a community that is run by and only has women. A community that made the trash dump their home. Then there is the Sanctuary, with a leader that thinks he's the hottest, most badass, man on this planet.

A man who kills innocent people for literally no reason, then makes the rest of the group find food and supplies for his community. A man who will come into your homes and take whatever the fuck he wants to take. And it's not just your food, clothes, or guns. No, it's  also people. People who he will make his prisoners.  

That night when we got back and explained to everyone what had happened after we took the man we had brought back with us to the jail cell Rick's friend. Morgan built, Rick went back to the house. I stayed with Daryl when he wanted to keep an eye on the guy even though he was knocked out. "Can we please go home? I'm tired and feel gross."

"Ya go ahead. Imma stay here and keep an eye on him." I tilted my head back with a small groan. "I'll watch him." I looked up at Morgan who nodded his head at me slightly. "See. Thank you, Morgan. Come on, Dixon!" I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the door. He mumbled something but let me grab him along.

I headed for the bathroom the second we got upstairs. I was so glad we had the room with the bathroom attached to it. I heard the bedroom door shut just as I was getting ready to turn the shower on. I let the hot water run and walked back out to the room to take my boots off and belt off. "I know damn well you ain't going to lay in that bed all dirty and sweaty." Daryl looked up at me and backed away from the bed.

"You can either sit in the chair and wait until I'm done or…" I pulled my shirt over my head and dropped it on the floor. "You can join me." I started to unbutton my pants, pushing them down and off my legs. "Your choice!" I called as I walked into the bathroom while unhooking my bra. When I was out of sight I threw the bra back into the room.

Honestly, I was expecting him to follow and that was okay. I took my underwear off and stepped into the steaming shower. The water felt so good. I had my back to it with my head tilted forward. My muscles started to loosen up. It was nice being able to come home from a long day and be able to take a hot shower. That was a rare thing in this new world. We got lucky somehow to be able to enjoy it.

When I opened my eyes I saw a figure standing over by the sink through the fogged up glass door on the shower. "Daryl?" I asked, opening the door just enough that I could poke my head out and look at him. "Something wrong?" I asked. He was biting on the side of his thumb; a bad habit of his. "Do you want to join me?" I asked, giving him a small smile. His blue eyes flicked up to me and I tilted my head.

"If you're worried about the scars on your back, don't be. I've seen them already and you don't need to talk about it or tell me anything. We can just enjoy the hot water together and then go to bed." He looked away from me and down to the ground. "Or I'll just hurry up so you can get in after I leave." I ducked back into the shower, not wanting to make him more uncomfortable than he clearly already was.

I made quick work of washing my body and then my hair. "Could you hand me a towel please?" I asked, peaking my head out to look at him. Daryl grabbed the towel off the counter and handed it to me. I stepped away from the water, wrapped the towel around me, and then got out. "It's all yours, Dixon. Waters still hot, too." I smiled at him and walked out into the bedroom.

I was so happy that I had snatched the only bedroom with an ensuite. I dried myself off and changed into an oversized shirt before towel drying my hair. I crawled under the duvet, burying myself under it, and closing my eyes. I don't know how long it was before strong arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me back into a bare chest.

The next morning I woke to someone shaking me and when I opened my eyes, one blue eye stared back at me. "Carl?" I asked. "There's a man in the house. He's sitting on the stairs." That made me jump up out of bed, pull on a pair of pants, and grab my gun. Carl had already left and I found him holding his gun to the guy's head. Jesus, that's what his friends call him. He somehow had escaped and was now sitting on our stairs.

I heard one of the bedroom doors open and turned my head to see Rick walking out his shirt in hand, and then Michonne walked out after him. My eyebrows shot up and I looked between them. Michonne gave me a look that told me to shut up and we would talk about it later. Then Daryl, Maggie, and Glenn were running up the stairs. They had the same reaction me and Carl did at seeing Rick and Michonne.

We eventually went downstairs and that's when Jesus told us about the community where he lived. It was a shock to know there was another community that wasn't too far from us. A few of us, meaning, me and Daryl, Maggie and Glenn, Abraham, and Rick and Michonne. We met their leader, Gregory. He was a fucking asshole and I was honestly surprised he made it this far.

We made a deal with him. We would kill a man named Negan and they would trade with us. We were given a location and killed everyone there but the thing is…that location was just an outpost. Maggie and Carol were taken by a few of Negan's men. Of course, they got away and killed them just as we got there. But we never killed Negan.

But we were going to find out who he was soon. Because now after killing more of his men we sat in a circle. Rick, Carl, me, Michonne, Sasha, Rosita, Maggie, Abraham, Aaron, Eugene, Daryl, and Glenn. We were taking Maggie to Hilltop, she was pregnant and started having a lot of pain and was afraid she was losing the baby. Michonne, Glenn, Rosita, and Glenn had been brought a little after we were forced on our knees. Now we were waiting there in a clearing for this man Negan to come out of the RV, our RV.