Welcome To Evangrove - A Walking Dead ff

Chapter 11 - Don't Trust Familiar Faces

Shane held the gun unwaveringly; that grip hadn’t lessened whatsoever since she had last seen him. Carl stood behind him, eyes as big as a doe’s, but his hand held a gun as well, shakily. It’d been four days since Quinn met Isaac and Lucky, and though they were still strangers and by now a mile away, she suddenly wished she had taken them up on their offer, instead of wandering into Georgia’s wilderness, the very ones she walked alongside Merle in, by herself. They were probably far gone now.

“Are you guys with the rest of them?” Quinn’s voice is hoarse and completely unmelodic, hand clenching the knife in her pocket. Shane by himself was bad enough, Shane with Carl could’ve been worse.

“We aren’t with my da- Rick’s group.” The boy interjects. “I went with him.”

“Enough, Carl.” Shane quiets the boy and lowers his gun, but only after his trained eyes scanned the area behind Quinn, revealing she was alone and no threat. “How’s that bullet feelin’?”

“I hope just as good as that cut I gave you.” She spits. The man before her now completely shelters his gun within it’s holster, as does the boy behind him, and he sits on the tree stump between the two. At this very date it had been six and a half months since she last saw Merle and the rest of the group, and even longer since her altercation with Shane Walsh. She was mildly relieved to see a familiar face, but it brought up a homesick feeling she felt could never be quelled. Carl smiles at her, perhaps happy to see her as well, but she doesn’t return the physical gesture.

“Ain’t no reason t’ fight, now.” He starts, signaling her to take a seat on the other stump. Carl stands and she sits, leaving no more seats available. “Haven’t seen you for a real long time. Since that thing with the Governor, actually.”

“Thing.” Her tone remains unkind. It wasn’t a thing, it was a massacre for both sides, leaving Merle and probably countless others dead. It wasn’t just a thing. “Yeah. That kinda screwed me up, y’know, with him dying and all.”

“Who?”

This only serves to worsen her opinion of the man. He didn’t even know. “Merle, Merle died.” Her hands fly up and motion to herself, invoking only confused and wide eyed looks from the two.

“Merle -” Carl starts.

“Merle’s death hurt ‘ya that bad, huh?” Shane wipes the corner of his mouth, eyes, for once, showing sincere emotion. “Why didn’t you just come back? They would’a housed you, helped you through your sufferin’.”

“But -” Carl begins again.

Shane raises a hand, his index finger specifically, and silences the boy. Quinn would’ve noticed had her eyes not been inspecting her shoes; an attempt at keeping her composure. Even the thought of the Dixon brother would send her into a tearful downfall and she was too proud to let them see.

“No reason to go back. He was my reason.” On that note the conversation, at least for a few minutes, drifts off into silence.

“Why’d you leave? You and Carl?” She pipes again, tone and eyes showing no sign of the immense regret she carried.

Carl decides that now it’s time for him to speak up, and so he does, interrupting the beginning moments of Shane’s speech. “They changed.”

“Who did?”

“Who didn’t?” He continues with a scoff. “Everybody changed after that attack, mom, dad, Daryl, nobody is the same. They’re - it’s hard to explain, but Shane and I, we couldn’t do it anymore.”

She restrains herself from pointing out he’s a growing boy, his mind couldn’t be made up so swiftly without external influence especially when it concerned his own parents, and so she nods instead. Quinn doesn’t smile, however, as this information only serves to perturb her further than Walsh’s presence. It appeared he wasn’t beyond manipulation of children, but if one could intend to kill a child as he had once before, this must’ve been a walk in the park for a man of his caliber. Shane watches her in return, only glancing back once at Carl to flash him a quick smile. A bond was established between the two, that was clear, but he already had a father. Shane did always want what wasn’t his. “That’s, nice, I guess. I don’t know what else to say.” She shifts in place, arms crossing against her chest. Two sets of eyes notice the cuts and bruises on her arms and she suddenly grows nervous.

“You don’t look like you’re doin’ alright.” The older man points out. “You run int’a trouble?”

“Few straggling walkers, nothing serious.” She affirms truthfully. “I’d rather a walker over a living human any day. Walkers don’t believe in revenge.”

“Come with us.” Carl interjects. “We’re going to that military fort we were supposed to before, but we went to the CDC instead.”

“You went to the CDC?” She asks.

“Years ago, an’ it was a bust. Nothin’ there anymore, there was no cure, no nothing. Waste of damn time.” Shane sighs. She senses there’s a bit more behind this but doesn’t press. Didn’t concern her then and it doesn’t now.

Carl is confused for a few moments, greatly so, but the flood of memories return and Quinn nods with a spiteful smile. “She doesn’t have to leave now, right? Can she come back to camp with us?”

“No - it’s fine. I can handle myself.”

“I insist.” Shane says, gesteruing towards her. “We’re a lil’ ways back, got a lil’ somethin t’ hold you over. Ain’t nothin’ major, but, s’ better than nothin’.”

She’d be stupid if she turned down his offer; she was starving, her baby weight finally diminishing into starvation. Merle was the food provider and without him, she’d returned to eating whatever remained in the old cans left behind in abandoned houses, or the berries that still clung to trees and brush around the area. It was a wonder she hadn’t died. Nonetheless she follows when the two rise and start towards their camp, and sure as anything it was a cute little circle in a clearing, four tents, what looked like a dilapidated RV, and a fire in the middle.

“You have other people here?” She inquires curiously, hopefully. Six months with only the dead to accompany you - well, it went without saying.

“Just a young girl, she’s nice though.” Carl informs her.