leader || book 5 of 'she's a dixon'

chapter 2

and just like that, we were on the road again.

just walking. having no absolute clue on where we were going.

we stopped that evening. we'd been walking for hours and we all thought that we should just call it a night.

there wasn't much that we were able to eat, just some wild berries that were first okayed by dad and i to eat. him and i wondered off to the corner like usual, trying to keep distance from everyone.

"reagan, come here" i heard rick call out. i jogged over to him and he was talking to the new girl tara, the one that was originally with the governor.

"i know you're still getting a feel of us, but you need to meet reagan. she's...important. to everyone here. especially me. she's kinda like my right hand man, she makes all the important decisions around here." i heard rick say as i approached him. "hi, i'm tara" tara said shyly. "reagan" i said giving her a quick smile.

then the next day, more walking. still having no clue where we would end up.

we kept walking until night time. we set up a camp, made a fire, and ate the little amount of food that we had.

"alright everyone, try to get some rest" rick announced. "i got watch" dad said. "me too" carol announced. rick nodded and then we all got situated to go to sleep.

i also wanted to keep watch, so i made my way towards dad and carol. "no, you need to sleep." dad said in a stern tone. i sighed and gave him an annoyed look. "you haven't slept in nights. and we're all here to protect you now, so go find carl and go to sleep" dad said. "ok" i said walking over to him and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

i then made my way over to carl, layed next to him, and eventually drifted off to sleep.

"rae, come on, let's go hunting" i woke up to someone whispering. dad was leaning over me, shaking my arm, trying his best not to wake anyone else up. i rubbed my eyes, grabbed my bow that was beside me, and got up.

when heading out, i noticed he was a little distracted. his main priority wasn't hunting.

"dad what are we really out here for?" i asked. he sighed. "carol and i heard somethin' last night. i ain't got a good feel bout it so i wanted to see if i could pick up any tracks. and i didn't want to leave you there without me" he admitted. "alright, i'll help" i said.

we were out for about two hours. within those two hours we managed to kill 6 squirrels. dad killed 4 and i killed 2. but we didn't pick up on any tracks from what dad heard last night.

"come on, let's head back" dad said. i nodded and walked along side of him back to the camp.

but when we got there, they were gone. we didn't panic, we can just track them. but we didn't have to because after walking a little ways we heard them.

when we started approaching, they didn't know it was us at first so they all had their guns pointed at us. "we surrender" i said raising my hands. the group then without says a word, turned around to continue walking. i caught up with carl.

"i was worried when you weren't there when i woke up" carl said as we were walking. "i was just huntin'. dad woke me up early to go with him" i said.

that was partially the truth, i didn't want to freak him out.

carl moved closer to me, and slid his hand into mine. which was nice, it was a small sense of comfort considering the circumstances.