My Hunter || D. Dixon (On Hold)

Six - Disoriented

Nothing really was going to beat the feeling of sitting around a campfire. Not even the end of the world was going to beat it. The orange glow reflects off of the metal blade of my hunting knife that I twisted in my hand. Caleb sat beside me, Jessica fast asleep on his lap. By now we had met everyone and Jess had become fast friends with Rick's son Carl and Carol's daughter Sophia along with Morales' kids.

Rick sat across the fire from me with his wife Lori and Carl. Through our questioning, Rick had agreed to tell us about his journey up to now. "Disoriented." He starts, looking around the group. "I guess that comes closest." I twirl the knife in my hand, eyes locked on his figure. "Disoriented. Fear, confusion--all those things but. . .disoriented comes closets." Rick says, thunder roaring out in the distance, I grip my knife a bit tighter.

Caleb sats his hand on my shoulder for a moment. "Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short." Dale speaks up, setting his cup of water on the ground. I look to him then to the family that was set up behind him away from us. That was Carol and her family, her daughter and husband. Her husband, Ed, gives me bad vibes and Caleb can feel it too.

My eyes flicker back to Rick as he continues on. "I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while, I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever." I look down, picking at the food on my plate, letting his words sink in.

"Mom said you died," Carl spoke from his spot laying down on Rick's lap. It was cute like Jessica and Caleb were beside me.

Rick looks down at his son with a small smile. "She had every reason to believe so. Don' you ever doubt that." He convinces the nine-year-old.

I look back up and to Caleb, who was smiling down at Jessica. "When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta and it never happened." I look back at the Grimes family with a small smile.

Rick nods his head. "Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell. And from the look of that Hospital, it got overrun." Shane started to talk about the beginning of the end.

Something about it was a bit self-centered, just the way that he explained things. "Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?" Shane says and Rick nods his head.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it." It was true in the way that he voiced it that he was sincere, but was Shane?

Dale chuckles from where he sits. "There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." I laughed a bit at that.

It only took the sound of wood clattering and a fire crackling to make me and Shane look over to see Ed placing another log into the fire pit. "Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?" Shane said and Ed just ignored him.

The man definitely gave off bad vibes to me. I hated every bit of it that came from him. "It's cold, man," Ed speaks up from where he's seated. I glance at Shane, who was sitting on the other side of me.

I shake my head, seeing as Shane had given us the basic rundown on how things work here. "The cold don't change the rules, does it?" I question him, raising an eyebrow in his direction though he didn't see it. "Keep our fires low, just embers. So we can't be seen from a distance, right?"

He groaned from where he sat. "I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once." Growling, Shane got up and walked over, the rest of us fall silent. It was really awkward for a minute, all of us not knowing what to do while Shane walked back, having gotten them to take the log out.

He sat back down next to me, clearly pissed off at Ed. "So Luna, Caleb," Morales speaks up, making the two of us look over at him. He gives us a warm smile. "What did you two do before all of this? What made you come to Atlanta?" He asks and I laugh a bit, Caleb staying quiet beside me as to not wake up Jess by his movements should he laugh.

I lean forward a bit, pulling out the tags that hand around my neck. "Military, both of us. We got sent here to head to some station before they told us that it was too late. Jess and Caleb's wife were with us for their safety." I explain, putting the tags back under my shirt and leather jacket. "This camp that we were at, got overrun, figured Atlanta would be okay. The dead thought otherwise." Caleb nod in agreement from beside me.

Dale looks around the group before looking to Rick with a look of worry. "Had you given any thought about Daryl Dixon?" He questions and I look down at my knife, cursing under my breath. I had completely forgotten that we're going to have to break it to Merle's brother that we had left him in Atlanta. I wasn't even good at telling families that their loved ones died in the fight.

Amy was the first to give up the idea of lying to him. I shook my head at her, hating the very idea of lying about what happened. "No, it's family, he needs to know. He deserves to know the truth." Rick nods in agreement with me. Though his next words were very stupid form what I've heard from Glenn.

I lean back, resting against Caleb "I'll tell him, it's my fault, I cuffed him to the roof." He insists but T shakes his head.

T-dog laughs a bit. "I'm telling him. I dropped the key, it's my responsibility." Caleb shakes his head along with me.

Caleb gestures to Rick with a sigh. "No offense T, but this might sound better coming from a white man." T nods, crossing his arms. On that note we disbanded, going to our own tents for the night.