Papá's Girl

Discovery

©JRF2016

I decided to go for a walk around by the quarry where I saw Lori and Shane. She looked really mad and Shane looked conflicted. As soon as he saw me he kept glancing over at me. I felt awkward every time he looked at me. A good awkward but still awkward. I found a warm, sunny spot and sat down looking out over the quarry. Below me four of the women were doing laundry while a man watched them. They started arguing until Shane ran over and pulled him away. He stood over the man punching him in the face as the women yelled for him to stop. I had run down to see if I could help and when I got close enough I heard Shane say, "If you lay a hand on your wife, little girl, or any other woman in this camp I will not stop. You understand me?" The man gargled out a yes. "I'll beat ya to death Ed."

He walked off and brushed past me without acknowledging me. He looked almost scary at this point. I turned and walked in the opposite direction.

When I finally made it back to camp someone new had shown up. "Let me process this." He said as he turned back to the sheriff, "You handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there!" Rick explained his actions to this man and as he was explaining Isabella kept thinking about how familiar this man looked to her. She just couldn't figure out how she knew him.

"Just tell me where he's at so's I can go git 'im."

"He'll show you, ain't that right?" Lori told him.

The sheriff nodded, "I'm going back." Shane really got heated now.

"Why would you risk your life for a doucebag like Merle Dixon?" Shane argued with the sheriff.

"Hey, choose your words more carefully." The man with the crossbow told him.

Shane responded back with, "Oh, I did. Doucebag's what I meant. Merle Dixon, guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst " I was listening closely now. After the first time I heard him say Papá's name I still wasn't sure I had heard right. Now I knew, Papá was a part of this group and this other guy, he's my Uncle Daryl.  I sat down and pulled out an old faded picture out of my pocket. On the back was written, Papá and Uncle Daryl. I stared at the picture and then looked back at the man. He was so little in this picture but it had to be him.

They were loading up in that van. I was going with them. I had to find my Papá. I grabbed my bag and ran over to the van. I threw my bag into the back and started climbing up when he grabbed my arm. "Where do ya think yer goin'?" Daryl sneered at me.

I simply responded, "To help."

Daryl huffed and rolled his eyes, "We got enough help. We don't need some little girl taggin' along and gettin' us killed." He pushed me backwards and I fell to the ground. The sheriff helped me up as he stared back at Daryl.

"Are you okay?" He asked and I dropped my gaze to the ground. "It's nice of you to want to help but we are already taking enough people. We need you to stay here and help protect camp, can you do that?" I nodded and walked back over to the RV.

I climbed up to the top where the old man was posted and sat down. I just wanted to watch as that van drove away. "You got a name?" He asked. I cocked my head to the side and looked at him. "I'm Dale. What's your name?"

I dropped my gaze for a second before connecting with his again, "Mi chiamo Isabella."

"That's a beautiful name." He smiled. I turned my eyes to that disappearing van.

"Yeah it is," Shane said coming up over the top of the RV and smiling. He stood there staring and still smiling at me. He had a cute smile. I stared into his dark, brown eyes for a moment. He looked over my shoulder at Andrea and her sister walking up with an arm load of fish. Shane jumped down and ran to the girls, "Who wants to help me clean some fish?"

"I do," Carl jumped up, "Come on Sophia."

It was dark now and we were all sitting around a campfire enjoying the fresh fish. I was starting to get worried because the men had not yet returned with my Papá. I missed him so much. I needed to be alone. I got up to walk away. "Where are you going?" Shane asked but didn't give me a chance to reply before continuing, "No one goes off alone. You trying to get yourself killed?"

"Non m'importa." {I do not care} I said yanking my arm out of his grip.

'Damn, she's so sexy.' Shane thought. He started to follow me when someone screamed. He ran back to see a walker taking a big bite of flesh out of Amy's arm. More of them were stumbling into camp.

I heard those screams followed by gunshots. I ran back as fast as I could and grabbed some of the children and got them into the RV. I started to leave them to help with the dead people attacking when a little hand grabbed me and said, "Please don't leave us." Her eyes filled with tears. I sat back down wrapping the children in my arms and rocking them. The gunshots slowed and eventually stopped. I heard men outside arguing. The sheriff was back. That meant that my Papá was back. I ran outside and without thinking blurted out to the sheriff, "Did you find Merle?" I slapped my hand over my mouth when I realized what I had just done but dropped it because I didn't care anymore if they knew I spoke English. All that mattered now was seeing my Papá.

"You speak English after all." Shane said smiling at me. I nodded at him turning back to the sheriff. I could not for the life of me remember his name.

"Sheriff," I started but he stopped me.

"Rick," he said, "Rick Grimes."

"Rick, did you find him?"

"Why do you care?" Daryl blurted out. I ignored him and kept staring at Rick. He nodded toward the van. I opened the back of the van and climbed inside. He was just lying there so still. I heard footsteps walk up behind me.

"Is he..." I stopped and felt a tear fall down my face.

"Just unconscious. He's lost a lot of blood." Rick said placing a hand on my shoulder. I could feel everyone staring at me but I didn't turn around. Finally I heard the footsteps behind me leaving and I couldn't hold back any longer. "Papá," I cried and fell to my knees, "Papá please wake up."

"Merle's yer daddy?" Daryl said startling me. I looked up at him with tears streaming down my cheeks and nodded. "So I guess I'm your Uncle then. Merle never told me about you. What's yer name?"

"Isabella Rosa," I told him and Papá started moaning. Daryl pulled me to my feet and to the other side of the van.

"Just in case," he said steadying his crossbow, "I don't think he was bit or scratched but we mighta missed it."