"You're Daryl and I'm Evelyn"
"Yeah?"
"In the alphabet, it's A B C D E, that's us. We're D and E"
"Then there's F"
"What does F stand for?"
"Failure"
*** DRUG ABUSE TW***
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"You don't like the Grimes?" Evelyn asked the guy, almost enlightened to hear what shit Rick has done.
"Rick put a gun to my head twice in the first week we met, so not really" he shook his head.
"What's your name?" A blonde woman asked.
"Evelyn" she smiled along with her response.
"I'm Andrea," she smiled back "that's Carol," she pointed to an older woman with short grey hair, "and Daryl"
The walker Evelyn previously hit had risen. The groans turning their attention to it. Daryl raised his crossbow and shot it, muttering 'shut up'.
"Crossbow, huh?" Evelyn asked, noting her previous experience with one.
"Yeah. What about it?" He gruffed as the group started to move on.
"My husband used to shoot one, tried to teach me but I never caught on too well. My son is really good at it though" she rambled.
"Son? How old?" Daryl asked, he was almost shocked she had a kid.
"He's sixteen," she nodded and looked down at her hands "you have kids?"
"Nah" he shook his head.
"So where are we going? Just wondering" Evelyn asked anyone.
"Back to the RV, on the highway," Andrea answered "Dale, T-Dog and Glenn should be there too"
"Who?"
"You'll meet them. We've all been together from the beginning"
"'Cept Merle" Daryl muttered.
"Who's Merle?" She questioned further.
"My brother who was killed by your brother" Daryl answered bitterly.
"Wasn't killed, just, left for dead" Andrea argued.
"Well, I'm sorry" Evelyn mumbled to him.
*****
"Now who's this? You leave, missing Lori, Rick, Shane, Carl and come back with a stranger!" Dale rambled on the highway to Andrea and Daryl as Carol had already left to the RV.
"This is Evelyn, Ricks sister. She came with Maggie, from the farm where they are taking care of Carl" Andrea tried to say quick for him.
"Rick has a sister? What happened to Carl? Who's Maggie?" Glenn questioned next.
"Yeah, this is her. Carl was shot. Evelyn probably knows more about Maggie" Andrea turned it over to her.
Evelyn felt everyone's eyes on her and she fell shy. She shrugged as she began to speak.
"Don't know much about her, just met her today. Shane, he um, stumbled across me and my boy after Carl was shot. We all went to this farm, Maggie gave me clothes and a hot shower while her father, Hershel, worked on my nephew" she explained briefly her story.
"Well um, I'm Dale," the old frazzled man said "that's Glenn there, in the hat. And um, on the end there, that's T-Dog"
As the sun started to set, the sky turned grey with a cloudy sunset. Carol, Daryl, Andrea, Glenn and Dale had a small huddle. Evelyn listened from afar, not wanting to barge in but still wanting to listen.
There was talk to Sophia, a girl who was missing. Guessing from the way Carol spoke about her, Evelyn assumed it was her child. They were deciding on leaving the highway by tomorrow.
"Glenn, you take T-Dog to the farm, reconnect with our people" Dale suggested him for the job.
"Me? Why is it always me?" Glenn rebutted.
"Not just you, Evelyn is goin too," Daryl mumbled, waving a finger towards her "she's got directions. She'll drive y'all down tonight, then come back here and lead us in the mornin'"
"That's what I'm doing?" She asked, standing up to walk to the group.
"Yeah, ain't that why you came? To lead us out of here like Moses parted that damn sea for his people?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right" she agreed reluctant.
"T-Dog has a bad infection it looks, so he's gonna need real medical help ASAP" Dale spoke as Daryl got to his bike and pulled a bag of pills out.
"Merle has lots of shit, got the clap every now and then so there should be some antibiotics he can use" Daryl grumbled as he picked up prescription bottles and read labels.
When he found the one, he tossed it to Dale to give to T-Dog. Carol walked past them to the camper.
"So I'll stay here tonight, with Carol, Andrea and Daryl?" Dale asked for clarification.
"Yeah, while Evelyn takes me and T-Dog to the farm. Tomorrow I'll give her keys to the car so she can lead you guys out to the farm" Glenn nodded to Dale.
"Everyone got that?" Daryl asked, not wanting to keep going over this plan.
Everyone gave their own nods of understanding the plan. Then they split up, the sun was now almost gone. Evelyn got in the yellow Cherokee, Glenn in the passenger seat and T-Dog rested in the back. She weaves her way out of the cars and off the freeway before driving freely on the road. Nothing stopping them at this moment.
"Who's Sophia? And Merle?" Evelyn asked as they coasted down the road, windows down.
"Sophia is Carols daughter. She went missing a while back, Carol blames Rick and because of that Daryl blames Rick. It doesn't add to their rocky history," he explains the whole history of the group "and Merle is Daryl's brother. Rick, surprise surprise, played good cop and handcuffed him on a roof of a building overrun by geeks"
"Geeks?" She asked.
"Zombies" Glenn shrugged off the causal use of the word of a once fictional creature.
"Oh, walkers," she nodded "my son prefers roamers, so I go back and forth with what I say"
"How old is he? Your son"
"Greyson is his name, he's sixteen right now. Before this break out, I remember teaching him to drive," she sniffles at the thought of the loss of his innocence through the last year "god, I'm crying about my almost grown son. I need to grow up" she shook it off.
"There's crying we all do, now more than ever it's understandable" he consoled her.
She pulled into the dirt driveway, Glenn offering to open and close the gate to their property. He sat back in the car.
