afraid | the walking dead

Chapter 6

"Meet me at my house whenever, it's that brown one right there," He said and pointed to a house across the street. I nodded and walked away, trying to find Maggie. I walked towards the front gate where I found Glenn.

"Hey, Glenn. Where's Maggie?" I asked him with a smile. I trusted Glenn. And that's saying a lot. Even though I had only met him a day ago, I can't not trust him. Glenn was a guy you could trust. I mean, he was my sister's husband after all.
"She's down the block to the left. Said she wanted to be alone to think," Glenn said honestly. "Thanks, Glenn," I said, waving.
I walked down the block and to the left, where I was told she was. I found her sitting on a step, looking lost in thought.

"Mags?" I asked her, almost in a 'wake up' sort of way.
"Oh, hey Q," She said, looking up.

I can't even remember the last time she called me 'Q'.

"What do you need?" She asked nicely.
"I wanted to talk to you about the whole 'me joining the group' thing."
Maggie almost looked scared.
"Okay...did you decide?"
"Yes," I replied,
"I'm joining."

I didn't know about this. I didn't know about trusting people again. But Carl was right. Maggie's a good person, and she would surround herself with good people. I just had to take baby steps.

"Quinn!" She said happily, hugging me.
"Now, I promise everyone will eventually like you, don't worry," She said, trying to relieve me of something I really didn't need to be relieved of.
"I'd be fine if they didn't like me," I said, letting go of the hug.
We were silent for a moment.
"Mags, Glenn told me you went back here because you needed some time to think...what were you thinking about?" I asked, concerned. Sometimes Maggie worried about things too much, I learned that from living with her.
"Just, ya know, about the baby. And how it's all gonna work out," Maggie said slowly, but honestly.

I thought about what she said. How was she gonna raise a child in this world?

"Well, I um, I'm gonna go. Take as much time to think as you need."

Later That Day

I walked over to the brown house that Mikey told me to go to earlier that day. I didn't even want this kid to show me around, I could find my way around here just fine. What I did want to see was what the people here were like. The environment they surround themselves with. And that was something I couldn't do on my own. Not without looking suspicious and Rick threatening to kill me. I needed his help.

"Oh, hey Quinn." Mikey was already standing outside his door.
"Ready for me to show you around?"
I nodded. He walked in front of me and motioned for me to follow him. We walked to the front gates.
"This is just the main gate. People take shifts guarding here day and night."

So they're smart. Especially for having people there at night.

We walked to a house across the road.
"The infirmary. It's been really quiet around this place since our doctor, Denise, died."

Shit. So they don't have a doctor.

"Uh, how'd she die?" I asked and Mikey turned on his worn out sneakers. Denise could have died simply from walkers, but if not, this group could have enemies. Enemies out to kill them.

"I don't know, actually. I wasn't there."

Could Mikey be any less helpful?

He showed me around to a few more places, and throughout the tour, I realized he had the personality of a paper plate. He wasn't very interesting at all. He was also weak. He talked about how he 'never learned how to use one' as we walked past the weapon storage. I hoped most of the people here knew how to fight.

"That's a lot of weapons. Everyone here know how to use them?"

"Probably most of them. A woman named Rosita has been giving lessons on that kind of stuff."

Finally, we arrived back to his house. He led me to the back of it and I immediately put my guard up. There was no one around behind the house. Who knows what he could do? I was comforted by feeling my emergency knife in my boot, so I followed him to the back, knowing I could protect myself if I needed to. Once we were completely behind the house, he started talking.

"So, where'd you come from, doll?"

Excuse me? 'Doll'? He had become extremely creepier when people weren't around.

"Hey, back the hell up," I said, putting a hand in between our faces. Who the hell does he think he is?

"You don't wanna tell me about it?" He said sadly, but in a creepy way. He grabbed my waist and pulled me closer to him.
I punched him in the face.
He yelped weakly fell to the ground. His hand covered his face where there was a slight red mark from the hit.
I leaned over him.
"You ever do anything like that again, I will rip out your vocal chords, you understand me?!" I'm sure some people heard. I saw that his nose was bleeding and he was holding onto his jaw.

I leaned closer to his face.
"Do you understand me?!"

He could barely get a word out.
"Y-yes..."

Oh well. He deserved it.

I gave him a hateful glare and walked away. As I was walking, Glenn and a few others came up to me.
"Quinn!" Glenn yelled, catching up with me, Daryl and Maggie behind him.
I turned around.
"What, what is it?" I asked, trying not to be rude. Mikey had put me in a really shitty mood.
"What happened back there?" He asked. He probably heard me yelling at Mikey. I pretended to not know what he was talking about. I didn't need anyone worrying about me. I could take care of myself.
"Nothing. I'm fine," I said calmly.
"We heard you yellin'," Daryl said.
I was surprised that Daryl was there. He really didn't seem to care about me at all when we first met, what made him care now?
"It was nothing. Don't worry about it," I said nonchalantly.
I turned around, ready to let go of the situation, when a hand grabbed me by the arm.
"Quinn. Tell us what happened." It was Maggie's voice. But sterner than usual. I turned around.

Well, Quinn, you're not getting out of this one.