Broken Souls

Life Before

I walked over to Dale who was standing on top of the RV, "I need to talk with you for a second" I told him, climbing up the RV. "Can you tell me how I got in Daryl's tent this morning after everything that happened?" I asked. "I'm not sure, you'll have to ask him" he replied while taking a look through his binoculars. Morning slowly went by as the other ladies and myself walked down to the lake to wash the dirty clothes and dishes. We started talking about life before all this mess started, jobs and kids and family. I wasn't missing much compared to the others, they all seemed to have happy lives and wonderful jobs. We continued talking and laughing while watching Carl and Sophia playing in the shallow water with a couple frogs trying to catch them. After finishing up we decided to head back up to the camp to check on the others, and maybe have lunch. Carl and Sophia ran up the hill racing to see who was faster, we all began laughing wishing we had their energy. When we got to the top Lori and I began making lunch for the group, when Rick walked over. "Shane and myself want to have a talk to the group about wanting to move out of the camp and hit the road to head to the CDC" he told us. "Alright, sounds good" Lori said "Fine with me, but is it safe to travel" I asked "Yeah it will be okay, we're gonna take 3 of the vehicles plus the RV we leave in he morning" Rick said

The day went by as we all packed up the things that we didn't need for the night before we sat down for dinner. Daryl had went out hunting, and brought us back a deer and some squirrels. Lori and I spent a couple hours cooking it all up so none would go to waste with us heading out tomorrow and we could have food on the road. By the time we finished up with dinner Daryl had already retreated to his tent for the night before I got to talk to him about this morning. I hadn't seen Ed since last night, so Sophia and I stayed in the RV with Dale. I finally got a good nights rest for the first time in I cant remember how long I thought to myself. As the sun rose up over the horizon I stepped out of the RV to see Rick, Shane and Daryl by the vehicles I walked over as they were discussing arrangements to who was riding with who. Lori, Dale, and Andrea joined us near the cars,"Dale you can take Glenn with you in the RV, Shane and Andrea you guys take the blue SUV, Daryl you and Carol take your truck, and Lori and I will take the red SUV with Carl and Sophia" Rick said. "Is that good with everybody?" he asked everybody agreed and nodded, we gathered the rest of our things putting them in the vehicles.

When we were about to leave the only tent we hadn't packed up was mine. Rick asked if I wanted him to go in and put Ed down, I shook my head no and motioned him to just lay him outside. "Let him suffer" I said walking away as Rick walked into the tent dragging Ed out. We hopped in the vehicles leaving the camp we had safely been at for a little over a month. We were driving down the hill and was getting ready to pull onto the interstate in hope to find a small ray of hope. The CDC was about a 7 hour drive from Atlanta so we would be on the road for a least a day maybe 2. Mine and Daryl's drive was pretty silent I hadn't came up with the nerve to ask him how I had gotten in his tent that morning. We talked here and there but Daryl was a man of few words he was shy and quite, but that was fine because I was too, I decided to break the silence and asked Daryl were he was from to get him talking a little "Just a little ways out of Atlanta,you?" he replied "Just on the outskirts of Atlanta" I told him.

"Sorry, about the other night" he said

"No..No..No don't be, I'm glad you did I hated him" I said 

"How long?" he asked 

"What how long were we together or how long had he beat on me?" I replied. 

"Both" he said

"15 years we were married, he started beating me about a year after we got married" I said

"And Yer Little Girl" he asked

"He had slapped her a couple of times, but I went to check on her one night and found Ed in her bed rubbing and touching all over her" I told him

He didn't know what to say so we rode a ways in silence, as it began getting dark we pulled off to a house that was off the side of the road, to camp out for the night. We got out waiting on Daryl and Rick to sweep the house there was walkers inside, so they took them out one of them slipped out and made its way towards us Andrea rammed her knife in its head making it fall to the ground. "All Clear" Rick hollered motioning us to bring our things in we picked up our bags carrying them inside. "There is only three rooms Lori, Carl and I will take one Shane, Glenn, Dale and Andrea can take the other and Daryl, Carol and Sophia you take the other" he stated as we all retreated to the rooms Sophia and I walked down the long hallway and passed a room with a huge bed that must have been Rick and Lori's, I continued down the hall to pass what looked like a kids room that had 2 sets of bunk beds for the other four. As I came to the last room I seen 2 twin sized beds that was just enough for us, I sat our things down at the edge of the bed grabbing some clothes to change. Sophia wanted to go and play with Carl for a moment so I told her to be back in 30 minutes. Daryl was still down stairs so I decided to go ahead and change, slipping off my pants into a pair of shorts I pulled my ratty shirt over my head unclipping my bra throwing a big shirt over my head. I turn around to see Daryl standing in the doorway staring at me, "How long have you been there?" I said putting my head down looking at the floor as I could fill my face burning hot with embarrassment. "Not long, just a minute or two" he said