One Hope In This World

Chapter 8

Piper POV

I opened my eyes and I was very confused. I laid in a bed with a cozy quilt on top of me. My left wrist was, of course, handcuffed to the pole of the bed. I rolled my eyes because I knew for a fact Rick did that. He has an obsession with handcuffing me to anything he can. I lifted up my right hand to rub my face. Raising my arm back down, I noticed my knuckles were cut up and bruised. That's when I remembered what previously happened last night. I remember bickering with Rick, finding Hunter beaten up, and attacking that asshole, Shane. Because I remember everything that happened, I needed to see my brother. 

Sitting up in the small bed was difficult. I had a piercing pain shoot through my stomach as I attempted to sit up. I pushed the brown quilt further down onto my legs so I could inspect my stomach. I carefully lifted up my black tank top to discover my stomach bruised up and scraped. Groaning, I swung my legs out of the quilt and pushed myself up with my feet to be in a sitting position on the bed. I heard footsteps approaching the bedroom I was in. 

A woman around my age with short brown hair walked in with a glass of water. She set the water on the bedside table and looked at me curiously. I stared back at her.

"How are you feeling?" She asked. She had a nice southern drawl. 

"I'm fine. I just hurt a lot." I replied honestly. She nodded and sat down on the corner of my bed. So far this woman has been the kindest to me and we've only exchanged a few words.

"Shane gave you a pretty good beating so I'm not surprised you still hurt. He's an asshole." We both laughed at her comment and I lifted my shirt back down over my stomach, not realizing it was still up. "I'm Maggie by the way." she added.

"I'm Piper." I said. Maggie stood up and dug into her pocket for something. She pulled out a key and walked over to unlock my handcuffs. I brought my left wrist to my right hand and rubbed it. "Thank you."

"Rick said you can stay with us if you'd like. He wants to speak with you first before you get full personal privileges, though." I nodded at her and she left the room. I stood up and saw my green flannel sitting on the chair. I put it on and pulled on my combat boots. I eagerly left the bedroom and the house. Standing on the porch, I observed what was in front of me.

There was a small camp set up outside the house that I ran through last night. There was a group of women sitting on some logs and lawn chairs under a tree. There was a white R.V. with a man wearing a fisherman hat standing on the top of it. There was a little boy sitting by the R.V. playing boredly with some sticks. I felt bad for the poor kid. He had nothing to do except twiddle his thumbs. 

Out in the very distance of the camp was the shed where I had to stay. Hopefully Hunter was alive in there. I made my way down the porch steps, only to be approached by my least favorite man in the world. Shane. He had a black eye and a busted lip. I'm proud to say that I did that.

"Who said you could come out here?" He asked in an irritated tone. I stood back and crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at him.

"Rick told Maggie I could be free to walk around after I talk to him. Where is he?" Shane scoffed and pointed to a car by the fence that protected the farm. Rick was leaned over the hood of the car looking at something. I nodded and began my walk over there. As I walked, I heard small footsteps following me. 

I turned around to see the bored little boy who was sitting against the R.V. previously.  He had on a sheriff's hat and wore a curious look on his face. I raised an eyebrow at him. He was just looking at me like I was crazy.

"Who are you?" He asked. I realized he probably was not informed that his group was holding people hostage.

"I'm Piper, uh, I was tied up in the shed for awhile." The little boy looked shocked. I couldn't help but laugh. 

"W-why were you tied up in our shed?" He questioned me. 

"Because Rick wanted to keep the group safe. He didn't know if I would hurt your group or not." I answered carefully.

"Rick is my dad." he commented and kicked a rock that was sitting by his foot awkwardly. I nodded at him. "Why do you have a bandage on your hea-".

"CARL!" A woman screamed. He turned around quickly and began to run to where the scream came. 

"Bye, Piper!" He hollered over his shoulder as he ran away. Carl ran to where the group of woman were. A lady with black long hair glared at me and shook her head. She knelt down to be at Carl's height and talked to him. I turned away and made my way to Rick.