A Broken World

Six

Next Morning

I helped anyone that needed help the next morning. I took notice right away that the women did most of it. The cooking and washing of clothes, taking care of the kids, was all the women's responsibility. I helped take the clothes down to the lake to be washed and was about to help wash them when Shane called for me. "Hey, yn!" I smiled at Andrea and excused myself to go over and see what he wanted.

"Wanna come with me to do a sweep?" He asked. I raised an eyebrow in question. "A sweep? Of the perimeter?" He nodded his head. "Yeah, just to make sure there aren't any walkers roaming around. Makes everyone feel safer." I hummed and looked back at the women behind me washing clothes, talking and laughing together. I wasn't much for girl talk or being in groups. When I looked back at Shane he averted his eyes right away and cleared his throat.

"No. I'm going to stay here and help those women over there since none of you men seem to know how to wash your own fucking clothes. That's the role here, right? Women do all the work while the men sit on their asses." I saw his jaw tick and his curled into fists. "Is that everything Office Walsh?" I looked him in the eye, daring him to say something. He just sniffed, turned around, and walked back up the bank to the camp.

Later on in the day after I helped the girls with the wash and got to know them more he stopped me and asked if we could talk. I agreed and followed him to where the cars were sitting. "I want to apologize if we have given you a bad impression of us. Look, the women here don't know how to protect themselves. They don't know how to shoot a gun. Andrea acts like she does, but she doesn't know how to properly use the gun she has. They rely on us to protect them. Me, Dale, Jim, Morales, and two that are out hunting are the ones who know how to properly use a gun."

"So why don't you teach them how to protect themselves?" I asked. "They're too scared. They know if they do get into trouble that they need to go for the head. When they go out into the woods, they know to stay in the perimeter we set and to carry a knife at least. Someone is always keeping watch at all times."

I hummed, "well, they should still be taught how to protect themselves a little better. But you're the boss so…" I pushed past him and back up to the camp to help get dinner cooking. It wasn't that late in the day, maybe only three or so, but it took a while to gather fresh ingredients, stuff that was safe to eat that we found in the forest. And then the fact we had to cook on an open fire and the amount of people we had to feed, it would take a while until it was done.

I was sitting talking to Amy, she was a little younger than I was, she had just graduated college when everything happened. Her and Andrea were going on a road trip to have some sister time together when Dale found them on the side of the road. Their car had broken down on the side of the road when Dale came along and saved them from a group of walkers.

Everyone stopped what they were doing when there was a sudden rustling in the woods. The kids stopped playing, running to their mothers, and hiding behind them. I stood up from where I had been sitting and looked over at Shane. He had his shotgun in hand and I pulled my own gun from the holster on my belt. More rustling came before two people, men, walked out carrying a string of squirrels each. My jaw dropped at who I was looking at.

"Holy shit! Would you look at that little brother, it's the bitch who put me behind bars!" I looked at Merle fucking Dixon with a glare. Everyone had backed up into a group and watched us. "Merle, I see you're still alive. I thought you would have overdosed by now or gotten yourself killed." He walked towards me and as he did I caught Daryl's eye. He looked at me with shock before it turned into hatred. Merle got in my face, "you little cunt, I outta kill you!" I pushed him back, "back off Merle."

"Or what…" he looked down at my badge and scoffed. "Detective." He turned to Daryl and scoffed out a laugh. "You believe this, little brother? Your little girlfriend here is a detective now." He turned to look at Daryl but he had walked away to start on the squirrels he had. Merle turned back to me. He went to poke a finger in my chest but I grabbed his wrist, twisted it behind his back, and kicked the back of his knees, making him drop to the ground.

"If you ever try to put your hands on me again, Dixon, I will not be afraid to feed you to the fucking walkers. Honestly, I'm surprised these nice people have agreed to let you join their group. I'm sure by now they all know what a racist, sexist, drug addict scumbag. Do they know that you were a suspect in a murder case? Hmm?" I looked at the group, the woman had shocked looks on their faces, pushing the children further behind them.

"Do maybe the charges of sexual assault, public indecency, armed robbery, car theft, drug and DUI charges you have? No? Yeah, I didn't think so. I'm sure they know you're an asshole, but don't know what kind of person you really are." He tried to get out of my hold and I twisted his arm more. "They let you in because you have the skills to hunt, which means that helps fee's people. But I'm not afraid to bet that your plan when you came by these nice people was to rob them blind overnight." I let go of him, pushing him forward into the dirt.

Shane looked at me with his brows raised, "you will know each other?" He asked. "You could say that, yeah. We all lived in the same town. Haven't seen them in years though. The Dixon family don't have a good reputation. They were really tight with the police in town. Isn't that right, Daryl?! I'm just some pig!" Did I have a lot of hate and hurt in my heart right now at Daryl cutting me off the way he did? Yes. One-hundred percent absolutely yes!