CHAPTER THREE
TROUBLE ARRIVES

season one, episode three

CHARLOTTE DOESN'T WANT TO sound dramatic but she had been dreading the day since she opened her eyes. It's going to be, well, it's definitely going to be an interesting day to say the least. The camp is already alive with activity, the kids running about and the others doing some chores. Charlotte hasn't been bothered since last night and has made the executive decision to lay in her tent a little longer then she normally would. If there's anything for her to do, she'll make up for it later.

She lays within her sleeping bag and stares at the roof of her tent, even after she'd gotten dressed she didn't want to move from her spot. It's almost peaceful, the sounds coming from outside much like those she'd hear from her bedroom back home. The only thing that's missing is the smell of pancakes wafting up from the kitchen downstairs, her mum smothering them with syrup before bringing them up to her.

Then the screams start.

Charlotte is scrambling out of her tent before she can even comprehend it, grabbing her bow and sheath of arrows before rushing in the direction of the noise. To accompany the yells is the cracking of sticks and leaves beneath heavy feet, the rest of the group having already rushed off ahead of her. She stumbles through the clearing to see a walker on the ground and the group surrounding it. Heaving out a sigh of relief, the brunette allows her hold on the bow to slack and her entire body to relax.

"It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain," Dale comments, looking to Rick more-so than the others as if to assure him that it's usually safe.

"Well, they're running out of food in the city," Jim adds.

Snapping of branches causes Charlotte to go straight back into fight or flight mode, bow up with an arrow at the ready aimed straight at where the sound had come from. There is a shakiness to her hands as the girl tries her absolute hardest to settle her erratic heartbeat. It doesn't get any easier, walkers were once people, it feels like she's killing a human being. Others are less concerned with that idea, including the person who eventually makes himself known to the group.

Daryl Dixon looks just as pissed off as he normally does, his face seemingly a permanent scowl. His eyes are fixed on the deer that the walker had once been eating, a strew of swear words falling from his lips. "Son of a bitch! That's my deer,"

The man walks closer to the walker and begins to kick it aggressively. "All gnawed on by this filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!"

Charlotte cringes a little at the sound of the walker's body as it's attacked, lowering the bow once again and keeping a wary eye on Daryl. She'd been hoping that he would come back a little later in the afternoon, a little while for everybody to have a bit of calm before the Dixon storm rolled into town. However, as per usual with life these days, it hasn't gone how she wanted — so now they have this situation to deal with.

"Calm down son, that's not helping," Dale says to Daryl.

"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'on golden pond'?" Daryl practically hisses the words at the older man, clearly displeased with being told what to do.

His attention turns back to the deer on the ground, the middle of it now gone thanks to the walker. "I've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison."

Daryl crouches down next to it and looks at the damage. "What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" He gestures to the middle with his knife.

"I would not risk that," Shane replies, adjusting that hat on his head and looking at Daryl.

Charlotte wouldn't be able to stomach it, not after seeing the fact a walker had literally been eating it before hand. It would be a little bit of a hard thing to figure out, whether or not this deer is actually edible and for that Shane is right, it's not worth the risk. All of this is so new to them all, nobody knows what's a good idea and what's not.

"That's a shame," Daryl speaks, getting back to his feet and swinging a few squirrels over his shoulder which Charlotte hadn't even noticed before. "I got some squirrel, about a dozen or so. They'll have to do,"

The Walker on the ground, well its head that's been unattached from its body, begins to chomp its teeth. Some of the group step back in disgust as Daryl looks down at it with his typical unbothered expression. He lifts his crossbow. "Come on people, what the hell?"

He then proceeds to shoot I through the eye, the sound making Charlotte cringe. The man then once again glances around at the group of people. "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?"

For once he may actually have a slight point. Nobody had even thought about shooting in through the head apparently, simply detaching its head instead. Charlotte keeps her eyes on him as he pushes his way by them all, moving back towards the camp and shouting out his brother's name. Here we go.

"Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up!" Daryl calls, eyes searching for the other Dixon who doesn't come and greet him in his usual brash way.

The others look at each other, as if trying to decide between them who is going to tell him, when Shane finally steps forward. Almost on instinct, Charlotte sticks by Lori and Carl, trying her hardest to steer clear of the incoming issue.

"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you," Shane speaks, moving into his line of sight and grabbing his attention as a result.

"About what?"

"About Merle. There was a — there was a problem in Atlanta,"

Daryl goes quiet for a few moments before addressing the comment. "He dead?"

"We're not sure,"

"He either is or he ain't!"

Rick then steps forward. "No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it,"

"Who are you?"

"Rick Grimes,"

"Rick Grimes, you got something you want to tell me?"

It's escalating rather quickly, so much so that before Rick can even speak again, Lori has grabbed hold of her arm gently with her free hand and pulled her back slightly. She appreciates it more than she could possibly explain.

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there," Rick says to the irate man, his voice calm and collected as the rage grows on Daryl's face.

"Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there!?"

There's that pain in his voice, the one that resonates with Charlotte so much that there's a creeping sense of sympathy within her — for Daryl anyway, Merle not so much. It's horrible to think about but the brunette would much rather it be Merle stuck out there over everybody else in this camp (except Ed that is) and yes, that includes Daryl. Losing family is never easy, even when they are a total dick.

"Yeah," Is all Rick offers up in response and it causes a bunch of squirrels to be thrown directly at him.

"Hey! Watch the knife!" T-Dog exclaims as Daryl reaches into his pocket to pull the weapon out, which he actually manages to do before Shane grabs him and locks him in a chokehold.

"You'd best let me go!" Daryl yells, clawing at Shane's arms.

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't," Shane replies rather casually.

"Choke hold's illegal!"

"You can file a complaint. Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day,"

Rick crouches down in front of Daryl and proceeds to try and get through to him. "I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?"

Probably not.

Daryl nods his head and as a result, Shane lets go of him finally.

"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others," Rick explains, once again channeling his calmness.

"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it," T-Dog is the one interjecting now.

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl asks incredulously.

"Well, I dropped it in a drain,"

"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't,"

"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof, so the geeks couldn't get at him, with a padlock. It's gotta count for something,"

What happens next does surprise her, the man rubs his eyes to try and wipe away what appears to be tears. The grief playing on your mind, whether or not your family is okay, it weighs on you so harshly. If it was anybody else in this camp, except maybe Ed, Charlotte would probably offer up a hug but she can't see Daryl being too accepting of that. So she does what she's been pretty good at so far in this apocalypse, keeping her mouth shut.

"Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him," Daryl yells.

"He'll show you, isn't that right?" Lori directs the question at her husband, her voice ringing out from behind Charlotte. The spouses seem to speak through their gazes, not even needing to verbally exchange words.

"I'm going back," Rick says and it causes Lori to move, the woman walking by him and straight into the RV.

Charlotte sits by and watches as the small group of people gets ready to go, Shane trying his hardest to persuade Rick to reconsider. Whilst there may be some logic to his argument, Charlotte knows that Daryl will just go off by himself anyway so others may as well go with him. They don't need to lose anybody else, especially somebody who has quite a prominent role in the camp — they will run out of food without a hunter and whilst she can shoot a bow exceptionally well, she's not quite used to the idea of using it for anything other than an archery competition.

Charlotte can see Carl, the boy practically clinging to his mother as he asks his father not to go away again. A frown pulls at her lips, fiddling with the hem of her shirt to make it seem like she's not really paying attention to the scene before her. It's a pretty hard situation really, Rick seemingly only wants to do the right thing, even if it means throwing himself head first into danger.

As soon as Rick hops in the van, Carl turns around and begins to head straight for his tent. "Carl!" Charlotte calls out his name and jumps to her feet.

He slows his pace, turning his head to look at her with tears swimming in his eyes. A sympathetic expression arises on her face almost instantly, a soft smile following soon after as she tries to put him at ease. "Say, how about we go to the water again? We can take Sophia too,"

It's the most down she's seen him in some time. After a few moments though, he nods his head somewhat hesitantly.

"Great! I'll get Sophia, you can meet us down there," Charlotte smiles, patting his shoulder lightly before heading off in the direction of Carol and Sophia. Thankfully, at this moment in time, Ed is nowhere to be seen. "Hey Carol, do you mind if Sophia comes down to the water with me and Carl?"

The woman seems a little startled by her appearance but composes herself rather quickly. "Yes that's fine. A bunch of us will be heading down there soon to do the washing anyway,"

Sophia perks up, her face bright, as she hears her mother's answer and practically skips over to the teenager. The younger girl grabs Charlotte's hand, the flower bracelet she'd made yesterday hitting against her's, and drags her down to where the water is.

"Are we going to be okay up here now that Walker is gone?" The vulnerability in Sophia's voice as they walk is a gut-punch.

"I hope so. We'll just have to trust that the adults can keep us safe. I mean, if I was a walker, I wouldn't want to cross Shane, Daryl or Rick. A badas–I mean a scary hunter and two police officers are pretty good backup," Charlotte replies, sitting down on one of the rocks when they finally reach the quarry.

The answer seems to satisfy Sophia who is now sitting to her left, leaning down to pick some of the flowers once again. It's something the two of them have been able to bond over, both of them rather content with weaving together bracelets and necklaces from the available flowers and grass around them.

It's not too long later that Carl makes an appearance except he's brought Shane with him. Charlotte hides the frown on her face as the man guides Carl towards the water so they can catch frogs — well that's what she's overheard from them anyway. There's also quiet chatter from behind them as a small group of the women from camp begin to wash the clothes. Real fair division of labour at the moment.

"Charlie? Do you think the red or purple goes better with the pink?" Sophia questions the brunette, effectively drawing her attention to the small bunch of flowers in her hands.

"Why not have all three? That would be pretty cool," Charlotte smiles.

"Yeah, yeah it would," Sophia replies, twirling the flowers together almost expertly at this point. A large amount of laughter can be heard from behind the two of them but Charlotte pays no real mind to it, until Sophia tenses up beside her that is.

Ed has come through the trees almost silently, heading straight for the women and as a result, his wife. Charlotte may be bigger than Sophia, but she isn't able to properly hide her from the man's view. The teenager gets to her feet rather quickly, standing so she's now facing Carol and the others.

"What's so funny?" He spits out, completely sucking the happiness from the air.

"Just swapping war stories, Ed," Andrea responds.

As he moves closer, Charlotte can feel Sophia's presence behind her. Ed is definitely one of the most hostile members in their group, he and Merle could probably be the best of friends, and Charlotte can say confidently that she never feels safe around him.

"Problem, Ed?" Andrea asks, eyes narrowed at the man in question.

"Nothin' that concerns you. And you ought to focus on your work, this ain't no comedy club," Ed hisses, acting as if he actually does anything to benefit the members of this camp. Since day one, he'd rather sit and smoke than help provide for others — those of which include his own wife and child.

"Ed, tell you what, you don't like how your laundry is done, you are welcome to pitch in and do it yourself. Here," Andrea tosses a shirt in his direction and Ed is quick to throw it right back at her.

"Ain't my job, missy," Ed is seething at this point.

"What is your job, Ed? Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes?"

"Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some uppity smart-mouthed bitch. Tell you what, come on. Let's go. You too Sophia, you don't need to be hangin' around with some leech,"

Leech? There is no world in where she is the leech in this group, not whilst he's here. Charlotte takes care of Sophia more than he does, cares a hell of a whole lot more than he does as well. Andrea is already fighting back in defence of both of them and as it escalates further, Charlotte decides it's definitely time to get Sophia out of here. She turns to call for Carl as well to see he's already gone — probably with Shane or Lori.

"Come on, let's go back to camp, yeah?" Charlotte holds her hand out and Sophia takes it, happy to have the comfort it seems. There's a loud slap from behind them but the teenager keeps walking, just gets Sophia out of there. As they pass by Shane on the way, Charlotte avoids eye contact. "Ed is not in a good mood,"

That's all she has to say it seems because Shane heads off in their direction. Charlotte simply tries to keep Sophia's attention away, cracking lighthearted jokes and complimenting the new bracelet on her wrist.

This world is already shit, there's no need for it to drag this little girl down any further.

NOTE!

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed :)