The Survivors of Dawn

The barn

I breathed in, my eyes slowly opening. I squeezed them shut. Morning.

I made a miserable noise and turned over to where Daryl was, or should've been.

Where was he? Did he just wait for me to fall asleep and left? Fine.

I sat up and wiped stuff out of my eyes. I stood up and stretched, my fingers touching the ceiling.

I looked at my clothes.

~after she got dressed and stuff~

I stepped out of my tent, then took in the pure air. It smelled, well, clean. Free of city toxins. I smiled. Dad always used to take me camping. We would hunt, run around. Those were the days.

I shook my head. It wasn't the time.

I walked up to the house. Up on the porch was a girl in a green tank top and brown, short hair.

"Hi." I said shyly. She smiled.

"Hey. Name's Maggie. Yours?"

"I'm- my name is Allie.", I said. I liked this girl.

"Want to come in? I was supposed to watch you to make sure you didn't do anything, uh, unexpected."

I laughed at this." Ah- sure. I'd like to meet everyone."

Maggie nodded."Well, not everyone is here right now, but I can show you around."

"Ok", I replied as Maggie opened the screen door.

I stepped into the house, and followed Maggie into the kitchen.

In there was the woman with blackish tangled hair, a woman with short, graying hair, Beth, and the other blonde woman that looked like her. They all turned to me.

"Allie, this is Lori, Carol, Patricia, and I guess you already met Beth. I nodded.

"Nice to meet you", I said, putting on my best smile.

Beth looked at Patricia. Carol and Lori both smiled at me.

"Hi", Lori said.

"Nice to meet you", Carol said softly. Patricia smiled and nodded, the same with Beth. They all seemed a little...off. like they were afraid. Lori turned back around and started to work again. Carol turned her attention to the potatoes in front of her, while Beth and Patricia started to wash dishes again. Maggie moved her head in the direction of the living room, and then started to walk that way. I followed.

In there was Rick, the older man with bush eyebrows, and another old man wearing trousers. The little boy, I think his name was, what, Carl? Yeah, Carl, he was standing next to his dad. Then there was Shane. I took one look at him and knew screwed. His face was beaten in, one eye black. I could see where Daryl hit him so hard that he started to bleed. His lips were cut, his breathing ragged. The only think that really scared me was the anger in his eyes. They cut through me, like a knife in soft cheese. I silently took a deep breath. I think I knew why the other women were looking at me with fear.

"Hi", Rick said coldly. I looked at him.

Maggie coughed.

"So yeah, this is Dale, that's Hershel, and I guess you already know Shane and Rick.", Maggie said quietly.

I swallowed.

"Uh, yeah. Anyone else-"

"Before you do anything, I want to have a little chat with you. Privately.", Rick said, the last part directed to Maggie.

"Yeah, um, I'll just go find Glenn.", she replied.

Hershel walked after her.

"I'm going to go check on Daryl.", Dale said, motioning to the door. He headed out.

I looked back at Rick and Shane. Well fuck.

" A word?", Rick motioned to the the bedroom. I nodded and walked inside. He followed after, then shut the door. He turned to me.

"Care to explain what happened last night?", He said angrily.

I looked at the ground.

"Look, Rick, I dot know what Shane told you-"

"I heard enough from him. I said I want to hear your part of the story."

I sighed.

"Okay. So I was just in my tent, and I woke up. Someone was outside my tent. They opened the tent, and it was Shane. Rick.0, he tried to rape me. He was about to, too, if Daryl wasn't there. He stopped Shane." Rick stared at me.

Finally he sighed.

"I knew Shane was lying. I only had to play the bad guy to get it out of you. Daryl said the same thing you did. Only Shane's story doesn't add up."

I narrowed my eyes." What did he say?"

Rick looked me straight in the eyes.

"He said you came after him. You brought a knife, and you were going to kill him"