The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 68 - There

They had migrated back inside after a while, and took a good morning drink of water as they still hadn't quite recovered fully from the previous days dehydration. For the most part people were still exhausted, but then there was monotonous boredom as well, as silly as that sounds given the situation. But for days they had just simply been walking and now they were simply just sitting. And waiting. And worse was that there wasn't anything in particular to wait for. They were kind of just... there.

They didn't know how long they were going to be there, how long there would last. Maybe there could be their new set up. Kat wouldn't dare think the word 'home.' She didn't believe in home anymore. All it was was there. The prison was back there, the farm was further back there. This was their current there and tomorrow could reveal a new there.

There was home and so long as it remained there and not home in her mind it made leaving easier. She had grown so horribly, horribly sentimental. No. She had always been sentimental. Trouble was was that she had never really been denied sentimentality before so she never thought much on it. Then after the world collapsed she wasn't given much time to think either. Until the prison. Then that was taken as well. It was better this way. Home didn't exist. It was a fantasy. At least what your definition of it probably would be. Home was all around her, the people around her not the walls. Her gaze drifted about the room. Each and every one of them. Even the newcomers. Her eyes rested on Noah for a long moment. She hadn't paid him all that much attention in truth. He was a dangerous person for her to acknowledge. Because with him came Beth.

Beth. Perhaps putting the title of home in people was as dangerous as the walls, she realised. Worse.

Kat's eyes dropped. No one was talking. Silence was dangerous as well. It allowed her mind to wander. Her machete had been laying next to her and she reached for it, turning it over in her hand. It felt comfortable there. It made her feel just a little safer. Yes. This was home, she decided. This inanimate object was home. It was safe. Familiar. And when she looked at it she didn't see all those dangerous things; her family, the ones she had seen dead and the ones she's could picture joining them, her real home that was nothing but a ruin, her second home in that small dank prison cell with Daryl beside her. All those wonderfully good dangerous things. She didn't see any of those, she just saw walkers. They were a safe thing to think of. They were... simple. You could hate them if you wanted, but in truth she didn't really blame them for anything. Even those that have killed. They didn't know any better. No more than a hungry animal. She could understand that.

Yes this blade would be her home, those few inches of dirt bellow her feet at any given moment would be home. The walkers would be her home.

The rest they were just... the reasons. The motivation. They were the air in her lungs. The things that kept her alive. Her breath seemed to get shorted the less of them around her there was. But for now. For now she decided maybe she could breathe. Even if it burned like going for a run on some bleak freezing cold morning. Your chest burning with every intake of air....

The door opened and her thoughts stopped.

"Everyone." Maggie's voice called out as Kat glanced over. "This is Aaron." She stated and like that Kat was on her feet with the machete grasped firmly in her hand, throwing a quick glance over to her sniper rifle. 5m away, it was. 6 seconds and she could run for it and pull the trigger.

Daryl was storming over to the new guy that Maggie had brought inside with Sasha tailing him, her rifle ready. Everyone had jumped to some kind of action. Daryl checked outside for anyone else.

"We met him outside, he was by himself." Maggie explained. "We took his weapons and we took his gear." Daryl still searched him.

"Hi." He said simply just as Judith began to cry. Rick passed her over to Carl. "It's nice to meet you." Aaron said, moving ever so slightly as if he wanted to shake Rick's hand. All guns were then raised and Daryl had moved threateningly behind him. Kat moved to stand at Rick's back, Michonne on the other side, before she gave a hand signal for Luke to stand by Carl's side.