My Secrets In The Apocalypse

Chapter 11

After Glenn had laughed at her nickname until his sides hurt, she made him promise to keep it to himself and to never call her that. Riley and Glenn sat on the porch for a little while longer laughing and talking. She found out he had sisters before, she could tell he missed them when he talked about them. When Maggie stepped out of the house Riley couldn't help but notice the blush that dusted Glenn's cheeks. Shooting him a knowing smile she excused herself to give them some privacy.

Riley wandered back to the camp noticing Lori and Carol hanging up some wet laundry to dry. She paused for a minute trying to decide if she should try talking to them. She still wasn't happy about what Carol had told Sophia but she understood that she was just concerned for her daughter. She decided she needed to try to be nice to her, kill them with kindness she thought. If Carol still didn't want to be around her, then that was on Carol. Besides she still needed to thank Lori for helping her when she probably didn't want to. Making up her mind she made her way over them.
"Hey," she said catching their attention.
"Riley, hey," Lori said. Carol just watched her quietly.
"I just wanted to say thanks for helping me out," she said to Lori.
"Your welcome," she said with a small smile.
"So, do y'all need any help?" Riley asked.
"We were about done actually," Lori shrugged.

"Are you any good in the kitchen?" Carol suddenly spoke up.
Riley couldn't help the smile that took over her face. "I know my way around a kitchen, though I'm better at baking than cooking," Riley said thinking back to all the times she would bake cookies or make a cake for herself when she would be upset.
"We were thinking of making dinner for Herschel and his family tonight, if you'd like to help," she said.
"Sure, I'd love to!" Riley said happily. She was glad to see that Carol was trying to get along also.
"Great, we'll come find you when its time to start," Lori said with a smile.
"Ok," Riley said watching the two women make their way toward the house, probably to check that it was ok with the family before hand.

Riley was happy. Things seemed to be looking up and she was happy that the people in the group were trying to be nice to her. She made her way over to the fire slowly, trying to figure out what to do. It was probably about noon so there were still a few hours at least before they needed to start cooking dinner. She suddenly remembered the book she had started before they got stuck on the highway. She had only read a few chapters before they had to stop, what better time to finish the book than now.

She made her way over to the RV where Dale was sitting on top, keeping watch with a shot gun in his hands. She decided it might be better to ask permission before she just barged in and took the book, so she slowly climbed the latter on the back of the RV.
"Hey Dale," she said once she reached the top.
"Oh Riley, I didn't realize you were up and about yet," Dale said a little surprised.
"Yep, had to get a few stitches but I'll live," she shrugged moving to sit on top of the RV with Dale.
"That's good to hear," he smiled. "So what happened out there? They already told us what happened with Sophia, but I know there's more that happened to you than just that."
"I guess so," she nodded. "Well I followed Sophia but I was too slow with this leg," she pointed to her leg. "So I ended up just getting myself horribly lost," she laughed. "When it got dark I climbed a tree and slept there for a while, but when I tried to get down the next morning a branch broke and I fell, knocked myself out cold for a while too," she said.
"So the blood on your head yesterday..."
"Yea I cut myself pretty good," she laughed. "When I woke up it was dark and I ended up wandering around for a while until I found the farmhouse where Daryl found me by," she explained.
"It's a good thing he found you when he did. Who knows what could have happened to you if you had been out there longer," Dale said looking concerned.
"Yea I know," she agreed. "I got lucky. I only hope Sophia is ok. She's been out there for so long now," she sighed.
"I know what you mean," he said. The conversation died down after that, both of them retreating into their own thoughts for a minute.

"Hey, Dale." Andrea's voice by the bottom of the RV caught their attention. T-dog and Andrea must have just gotten back from their search in the woods, she thought. Riley and Dale made their way down the ladder of the RV.
"Oh, Riley, I didn't know you were up there too," Andrea said surprised. "Didn't mean to interrupt."
"No, no. It's fine. I was actually just gonna ask if I could borrow a book to read," she said turning to Dale.
"Oh, yea. Go right ahead," he said waving her toward the front of the RV.
"Thanks," she smiled and went to find the book.
She looked around the RV, finding the book sitting on the table right where she had left it a few days ago. With the book in hand she left the RV and made her way over to the campfire, making herself comfortable in one of the chairs and picked up reading from where she left off.

She had been reading for a while and she had made it through a considerable chunk of the book when Lori's voice snapped her back to reality.
"We're ready to start cooking if you still wanted to help," Lori informed her.
"Oh yea, I almost forgot," she said putting down the book and standing up to follow Lori.
They made their way to the house and went inside to the kitchen.
"So what do y'all want me to do?" she asked once they had made it to the kitchen.
"Well, we need help peeling and chopping potatoes. Then we though maybe you'd like to make something for desert since you said you prefer baking," Lori said.
"Ok, sure," Riley said with a smile. She picked up a knife and began peeling the potatoes carefully so she wouldn't cut herself.

They had been working on the potatoes for a little while and Riley had finally peeled the last potato. She washed her hands quickly and moved aside so Lori could wash the potatoes that she had been chopping as Riley peeled. She had just started looking through some ingredients to decide what she wanted to make for desert when a loud gunshot rang through the air.
Riley followed behind Lori and Carol as they all quickly ran outside to see what was going on.
"What's going on here!?" Herschel yelled angrily.

Riley noticed Andrea and Dale looking off into the distance from the RV. She turned and looked where they were looking and saw Rick and Shane carrying someone back toward the house while Glenn and T-dog followed quickly behind. As they got closer she felt her stomach twist when she realized it was an unconscious Daryl. He looked terrible, covered head to toe in dirt and mud and his side was bleeding badly. She watched as Rick and Shane hauled him inside the house quickly followed by Herschel and a blonde woman.

"It'll be ok," Glenn's voice startled her and she looked at him quickly.
"What?" she asked confused.
"Daryl. He'll be fine. He's tough," he said reassuringly.
"Uum...ok...," Riley said with a raised eyebrow. She wasn't sure what he was telling her this for.
"Well, just now, the look on your face...it just-"
"What look?" she furrowed her eyebrows.
"You looked like you were gonna cry. You seemed really worried," he said.
"I did?" she asked. She couldn't believe it. He nodded at her answering her question.
"Well, I mean, yea I'm worried. But so is everyone else too," she told him. She mentally berated herself for being so easy to read. Now Glenn would go getting ideas in his head about her and Daryl that weren't true, and more importantly were never going to happen. She had already decided that she couldn't act on her feelings for Daryl, so there was no use even thinking about it.
"Not like that," he said definitely. "That was different," he said with a knowing look. She just shook her head dismissively at him. She wouldn't fuel his crazy ideas.
"Oh, come on!" he said. "You can't try to deny it! I mean now that I think about it, it's kind of obvious"
"Wait, what?" she looked at him.
"Well, yea. I mean, you guys have been spending an unusual amount of time together lately, and he was the one who told us to set up your tent for you too," he said thoughtfully. "And Daryl did seem pretty concerned over you last night, he did go back to check up on you too."
"Glenn, no. Just stop," she said shaking her head. The way he was talking made it sound like Daryl was the one who had feelings for her. But that wasn't true. It couldn't be.

"Hey Riley, are you still gonna help us with dinner?" Lori called to her from the porch.
"Yea I'm coming!" she called back to Lori before turning back to look at Glenn.
"It's no big deal, ya know," Glenn said smiling. "I actually think you guys will be good for each other."
"Well too bad for you, because there's nothing going on between me and Daryl," she told him seriously.
"Seriously?" he asked unbelievingly.
"Seriously," she said with a laugh. "We're just friends, that's it"
"Well I still think there's something there," he said.
"Kinda like you and Maggie?" she said changing the subject.
"What?" he said, his face instantly blushing.
"Don't think I didn't notice that!" she said teasingly. "Don't worry, I think you two will be good for each other," she said throwing his own words back at him. She watched as he blushed red as a tomato and decided to give him a break.
"Don't worry Glenn, I'm just kidding with you." She patted his shoulder lightly. "But I've got to get going, I promised I'd help with dinner." She patted his shoulder again before heading back up to the house.