The start

a friend

When we both got back to the group, Rick hands us a note. It says 'from a friend'. Daryl takes his crossbow off as we hold our weapons close to us. Someone's watching us. Again.

"What else are we gonna do?" Rosita ask. There was a stack of water bottles in the road. What kind of joke is this?

"Not this. We don't know who left it." Rick says.

"If that's a trap, we already happen to be in it. But I, for one, would like to think it is indeed from a friend." Eugene says.

"What if it isn't?"

"They put something in it?" Carol ask. Eugene picks up the water.

"Eugene." Rosita warns him.

"What are you doing, dude?" Tara asked.

"Quality assurance." Eugene tries to drink the water but Abraham smacks it out of his hand.

"We can't." Rick looks at him. Then a roll of thunder happened. The rain poured down on us. Jay spreads her arms out and opens her mouth wide.

"Everybody get the bags. Anything you can find." Rick tells us. I take my water bottle out and place it on the ground. Jay takes her plastic container out placing it down. The thunder was booming. I could see the lightning developing in the gray clouds.

"Storms are coming. Looks like a bad one. We need to find shelter." I tell Rick.

"Let's keep moving." Rick tells everyone.

"There's a barn." Daryl yells out. Oh yeah. Duh.

"Where?" Rick asked. Daryl and I lead them toward the barn. A few of us check it out for anything or anyone. Only one walker that Maggie took care of. Everyone spread out to sleep or be alone. I started a fire again with my last match. Daryl throws in a could of sticks. The fire was getting low because of the wet wood.

"I'll try." Glenn says.

"No, too wet." Daryl says. It was silent as we watch Jay, Carl and Judith sleeping soundlessly. Jay was moving around in her sleep. Must be the nightmares.

"He's gonna be okay. He bounces back more than any of us do." Carol says.

"I used to feel sorry for kids that have to grow up now. In this. But I think I got it wrong. Growing up is getting used to the world. This is easier for them." Rick says.

"This isn't the world. This isn't it." Michonne shakes her head.

"It might be. It might." Glenn looks over at Maggie.

"That's giving up." Michonne points out.

"It's reality. Until we see otherwise, this is what we have to live with." Rick annouces. I nod my head in agreement. Its the sad reality.

"When I was a kid I asked my grandpa once if he ever killed any Germans in the war. He wouldn't answer. He said that was grown-up stuff, so I asked if the Germans ever tried to kill him.
But he got real quiet. He said he was dead the minute he stepped into enemy territory. Every day he woke up and told himself, "Rest in peace.
Now get up and go to war." And then after a few years of pretending he was dead he made it out alive. That's the trick of it, I think. We do what we need to do and then we get to live.
But no matter what we find in DC, I know we'll be okay. Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves that we are the walking dead."

"We ain't them." Daryl says. He snaps a branch and throws it in the fire.

"We're not them. Hey. We're not." Rick tells him.

"We ain't them." Daryl repeats. He walks off from us as I curl up next to Jay. Her whole body was shaking.

"Hey, hey Jay. Wake up hun." I push her gently then roughly. She was still shaking.

"Jay wake up." I shove her as her body rolls across the ground she wakes up gasping for air.

"Harls." She cries. She crawls back to me as I wrap my arms around her.

"Its alright I got you. I got you." I pull her close to me.

"She alright?" Daryl came and check up on us.

"Nightmare. You need to sleep." I tell him.

"Not until we're safe." He says then walks back over to the doors. Once Jay was asleep again I walk toward him. His back was against the door trying to keep it shut. I ran up to the door pressing my back to it.

"Walkers." He says. Maggie and Sasha came over helping to keep the doors shut.

Everyone was joining and pressing the doors. The Walkers were tough and the wooden doors were creaking. It scared me to say that these things could snap in half as the herd of Walker were pushing against it. Jay got up and pressed her back against the door. Daryl switches sides and press both hands to keep the doors closed. After a while there was less pressure against the door. Everyone went to lay down and went back to sleep. I laid next to Daryl as he kept watch. Jay curled up against my chest. I woke up in the morning same position. I didn't move when Maggie came over and sat next to Daryl.

"You like her, don't you? You've been the only one closer to her then her sister is." Maggie asked.

"She can't sleep unless I'm with her." Daryl's voice grumbles. I could feel my face heat up.

"You should get some sleep." Maggie says.

"Yeah." He response.

"It's okay to rest now." She says.

"He was tough." I'm not sure who they are talking about but maybe it doesn't matter.

"He was."

"So was she. She didn't know it, but she was. The gearbox had some grit in it." Obviously they are talking about Beth.

"Thank you." Someone left. Sounded like Maggie.

I could feel an arm go across my side pulling me and Jay closer to their chest. I let go of Jay and roll over to face Daryl. His arm stayed still on my side. His hand held my lower back as I reach up and move the hair out of his eyes. A small smile forms on my face. Soon enough he was snoring in my ear but I didn't mind it.