[Finished] Living Among the Dead

15. Them

"What are you doing?" I ask Daryl when I see him digging in the dirt.
"Scavenging."
I nod slowly, and sit by and watch him, he finds a worm, before eating it.
We're alone in the middle of the woods; everyone was asked to try to find food and or water, maybe shelter if any of us get lucky.
Other than Daryl's worm, I don't quite see any of us finding any sort of provisions today.
Daryl and I start walking back to the van, Maggie and Sasha joining us.
"Oh, shit." Daryl grumbles.
"It's been a day and a half. They didn't find any either." Maggie says, weakly.
"How do you know?" Asks Sasha.
"I know."
"How much longer we got?" Maggie asks.
"Sixty miles, give or take a few," I mumble, as we get closer to the van.
"I wasn't talking about that."

The vehicle we all are in stops driving, and Abraham says, "We're out, just like the other one."
"So we walk," responds Rick.
So we do, we walk, everyone tired, hungry, thirsty and hot.

I'm right behind Daryl and Rick who is holding Judith when Rick says, seemingly to Daryl, "We're not at our strongest. We'll get 'em when it's best. High ground, something like that. They're not going anywhere." I assume he's talking about the dead following behind us.
"It's been three weeks since Atlanta. I don't know what's been going on with you since then, but you're not the same."
I hear Judith fussing before Daryl states, "She's hungry."
"She's okay," Rick responds, "She's going to be okay."
"We need to find water, food." Daryl says.
"We'll hit something in the road. It's gonna rain sooner or later."
"I'm gonna head out," Daryl states, and I feel the anxiety building up. Splitting up doesn't seem to be doing any of us any good, but who am I to but my two sense in. "See what I can find."
"Hey, don't be too long." Rick asks.
"I'll go with you," Carol offers.
"I got it," Daryl responds gruffly.
"You gonna stop me?" Carol asks, and instead of responding, Daryl just looks back at her and then keeps walking, Carol following suit.
I look at Mason, and feel conflicted, I know how to hunt and could help Daryl and Carol if they'd allow it, but I don't want to leave my son at all.
So I keep walking with the group.
"Mason and I found this when we were looking for water," I hear Carl say and turn around to see that he's speaking to Maggie.
"What is it?" She asks.
"I think it used to play music. It's broken."
"Thanks, Carl."
"I thought you might like it."
"I used to joke these things were leftovers from the days of hair shirts," I hear the priest say out of nowhere. "The church actually made shirts out of hair. So if you wore it, you could atone just a little for your sins."
"I know what a hair shirt is," Maggie states. "My daddy was religious. I used to be."
"If you ever want to talk about your father-"
"Please, stop."
"Whenever you're ready, I'm here."
"You never even met him," Maggie snaps.
"I know you're in pain."
"You don't know shit. You had a job. You were there to save your flock, right? But you didn't. You hid. Don't act like that didn't happen."
I slow up and let Maggie pass me, surprised by the viciousness of her words.
"Don't listen to her," I mutter. "She's truly a kind person, she's just mourning her father."
"She's not wrong," is his response before he keeps on walking, I end up at the very back of our group now.

We have so many of the dead following behind us. So when we hit a bridge that will allow us an easier way to take the dead down, we use it. We have Mason, Carl, Noah, and a man with a mullet named Eugene take Judith to the other side of the bridge, and then Sasha, Maggie, Abraham, a woman with a beautiful face and long brown hair named Rosita and Sev stay on one side whilst Michonne, Glenn, Rick and I stay on the other, ready to take all the dead.
I have my pocket knife, but our plan is to just shove the dead over the edge of the Ravine.
It isn't until Sasha actually engages that our plan changes.
"Sasha," Michonne whispers, a warning in her voice.
We all pull out our weapons, mine now a katana similar to Michonne's.
"Stay in line," Rick instructs, "Flank her," he stabs one of the dead in the head before continuing towards Sasha. "Keep it controlled."
Abraham shakes his head, "Plan just got dicked."
I'm next to Glenn and Rick when one of the dead sneaks up behind me, I turn around just in time to struggle with him, then Daryl comes out of nowhere, tossing the dead off the edge. "Thanks," I breathe, and he nods in response.
The two of us go back to back, killing the walkers around us. "Need to talk to you," he mutters as I decapitate one of the dead in front of me.
"I don't think now's," I slice through another's head, "really the time, do you?"
"Not now." He agrees and we finish taking out the dead.