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❝ chapter one — regular old testament stuff ❞

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     "MY HEART IS TOWARD THE GOVERNORS of Israel, that offered themselves willin'ly among the people. Bless ye the Lord," Birdie read, squinting at the small letters on the thin pages. She glanced at Carl Grimes and Sofia Peletier, who were staring at her with twin furrowed brows, tilted head, and parted lips. "Speak, ye that ride on...on — " Birdie stared at the words on the page, then dissolved into obnoxious laughter.

     "What?" Carl demanded, leaning forward in the seat. "What's so funny?"

     "I—I can't say that," she snorted, reading the words again.

     "It's the Bible," Sophia whined. "There's no bad words in the Bible."

     "Depends on the book," Rick Grimes said with a chuckle, glancing at her in the rear-view mirror.

     "What book are you in?" His wife, Lori, asked.

     "Book of Judges," Sophia supplied, in the same voice of someone who tattle-tails.

     "Deborah," Carl added.

     "Wait — doesn't she kill some guy with a stake to the head?" Rick questioned.

     "You spoiled it!" Birdie cried with a pout, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees.

     "That book is thousands of years old, Bird," he pointed out.

     "Doe'n't matter," the blonde huffed, scanning the words again. She leaned against Carol and showed her the passage. "What do you think?"

     Carol's eyes dropped down to where Birdie was pointing; she laughed softly, shaking her head. "Birdie, that means donkey."

     "It does?" She gasped.

     "Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment, and walk by the way," Carol read with a chuckle. "Yeah, it means donkey."

     Birdie, Carl, and Sofia started laughing again. "Asses," Birdie giggled; Rick shook his head and rolled his eyes.

     "You gonna keep readin'?" He asked; Birdie scrunched up her face.

     "Yeah, yeah...Uh...oh, here: They that are delivered from the noise of anchors in the places of drawin' water, there shall they re...rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord..." She struggled a bit and had to ask Carol every once and a while to help her pronounce certain words, but she got through a few more passages.

     She'd gotten to Judges 5:24, right before the woman Jael "put her hand to the nail" and "smote Sisera," when Dale's RV slowed to a stop ahead of them. Birdie glanced up to see cars, trucks, and eighteen-wheelers scattering the highway on both sides. It looked like a graveyard or a battlefield as Rick stopped behind the RV. Daryl Dixon, motorcycle thrumming, pulled up beside the window and explained that he might have a way through. He had done it less with words and more with a single head nod. Regardless, the RV started moving again and Rick followed them carefully through.

     "Creepy," Birdie muttered, glancing out Carol's window. She had seen quite a few roads like this, chock full of empty vehicles and corpses, some Rotters (or Walkers, as the others called them), some people. Sophia leaned into her mother with a soft whimper, staring out the window as though a Walker would jump up at them at any moment. Lori reached back to comfort Carl, taking his hand tightly.

     The RV made an ear-piercing sound, a pipe bursting to release air or some other gas; Birdie could see the edges of a stream of white gas vanishing into the air. Dale, Andrea, Shane, Gen, T-Dog, and Glenn filtered out of the RV, various looks of stress, worry, and irritation painted on each of their faces.

     "Didn't I say it?" Dale was grumbling as they approached. "A thousand times; dead in the water."

     "Problem, Dale?" Shane Walsh demanded, shotgun in hand.

     "Oh, just the small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of — " He cut himself off as Daryl came over and started rooting through the trunk of a nearby car. The older man glanced around at the abandoned vehicles surrounding them and nodded. "Okay, that was dumb."

     "We'll find a replacement, no problem," Birdie chirped, her feet bouncing as she came up next to him. He shot her a smile underneath his scraggly white beard.

     "If you can't find a radiator hose here..." Shane trailed off, motioning around him.

     "There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find," Daryl announced, still pulling things out of the car, things like a small box of medicine, some old clothes, and blankets. Birdie glanced at Gen, who watched him with a slight frown, eyebrows furrowed.

     "I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start," T-Dog said, grabbing what he needed.

     Suggestions for food and water were raised, until Lori spoke up, arms folded over her chest. "This is a graveyard," she said; everyone stared at her, then had to shirk her unyielding gaze. "I don't know how I feel about this."

     After a pause, Daryl went back to what he was doing and T-Dog started moving again. "Alright, c'mon, ya'll. Gather what you can."

     "Need help?" Gen called; T-Dog turned with a smile and a nod. She shoved past Shane with almost enough force to knock him over, earning a deadly glare from the man.

     Birdie's brow shot up and she glanced at Glenn, who sighed.  "Again?" She asked.

     "Yep," he confirmed, grumbling. "Kinda wish we took the other car."

     "Waste of gas."

     "Yeah, but at least Shane and Gen wouldn't be at each other's throats constantly. We should have had you ride with us instead."

     "Oh..." Birdie looked at her shoes with a small smile. "I'd just be boring y'all. I'm reading the Book of Judges to Carl an' Sophia. I don't think they've understood a word. I don't think I've understood a word."

     Glenn snorted. "I'd rather hear you read than listen to Shane and Gen argue about the proper way to clean a gun...Uh, what were you reading?" He asked curiously.

     "Oh, just regular Old Testament stuff...begging God for deliverance, stabbing people through the head with nails...white asses."

     "Who's an ass?" Glenn asked with a shocked laugh, turning to her.

     "Shane," Birdie replied with a sweet grin. "Just don't tell him I said that; I can't have my reputation as a good Christian girl tarnished."

     Glenn laughed and her cheeks got warm. "Your secret's safe with me, Bird."

     "Greatly appreciated," she grinned.

     "Hey, Little Miss Sunshine!" A voice like gravel called before Glenn could open his mouth. Birdie pursed her lips and looked over to Daryl, who had moved onto a mini-van with shattered windows. He looked mildly irritated under the glare of the sun, hands on his hip.

     "What's the problem, Mr. Dixon?" She asked, smiling apologetically to Glenn before going to investigate. He gave a little wave and went off to help Dale with the RV.

     "If you're done standin' around, I need your tiny hands to get in there and grab somethin' for me," he said, motioning to the open door.

     "Don't got tiny hands." Birdie peered in and saw the car stuffed full of suitcases and stuff. Useless things that would serve to only slow whoever brought it down...which was exactly what it did. Two people sat up front, long dead. She turned to Daryl. "Are they dead-dead?"

     "Yeah, now reach in there," he said, pointing.

     "Sure thing, Mr. Dixon," she replied with a mock salute, then hopped into the car. From his limited direction, she assumed he wanted a small zip-lock bag stuffed behind a rather large suitcase that was jammed between the seat and the ceiling. There was a small opening that allowed for her "tiny hands" to reach in and grab it. She grunted, fingers straining, and snatched it. She pulled it out with a triumphant huff and nearly tripped over her feet getting out of the car.
Birdie held them up and immediately frowned at the assortment of medications in little orange bottles.

     "Really?"

     Daryl snatched it from her. "What's it to you?"

     She shrugged. "Just think there are more important things to be lookin' for 'sides drugs."

     "It's none of your business what I think is important," he muttered, stalking towards his motorcycle. She stuck her tongue out at him when he wasn't looking; she heard Glenn laugh from nearby and she grinned at him when their eyes met, giving him a little wave.

     Smiling to herself, she started rummaging through the van Daryl had abandoned. She opened up the trunk and opened up a suitcase full of packing cubes. "Huh, well, at least they were organized," she mumbled to herself, opening one up. She immediately gagged at the foul, rotten smell of moldy fruit and zipped it back up, shoving it further into the back of the van.

     "So...when are you gonna tell 'im?"

     Birdie jumped at the small girl's voice, whipping around to see Carl and Sophia standing there, staring up at her. They looked rather innocent, with Carl's messy bangs and Sophia holding onto the doll she'd been gifted by the little daughter of the family who'd split up from them when they'd left the camp.

     "I, uh...What?" She blurted, hand over her startled heart.

     "That you like him," Carl whispered with a nod, leaning forward, arms folded against his chest.

     "Who are we talkin' about?" she questioned, her voice pitching up an octave. Sophia and Carl grinned at each other and the young blonde scoffed. "Stop that. When — when'd you even get here?"

     "We've been there the whole time," Sophia said. "You came over to us."

     "Oh..." Birdie trailed off, looking anywhere else. Gen and T-Dog were still siphoning gas, Daryl had gone back to rooting around like a pig that had caught the scent of truffles, Glenn was working on the RV, and Dale stood atop keeping watch. Rick and Shane were standing guard, slowly stalking around the area to keep an eye on them. Andrea...well, Birdie couldn't see Andrea from her vantage point.

     "C'mon," she prompted, turning away from the van and to the car behind the pair. "Help me look for food."

     "Hey, Carl," Lori called; the trio looked up to where she and Carol were standing. "Always within my sight."

     "Don't worry Mrs. Lori," Birdie said, hands gripping Carl's shoulders from behind. "I got my eyes on him."

     "Still..." she trailed off, distress in her eyes. Birdie glanced at Carol, finding a similar expression on her face.

     "Yes, Ma'am; they won't leave your sight," she replied with a nod. It gained her a small smile, and she took what she could get. She opened up the car and beckoned the kids over. "This one doe'n't got people in it," she murmured, opening up the door. She didn't think about why, only that this was a better vehicle to look through for Carl and Sophia.

     Birdie made sure they took their time going through it, taking stock of everything they uncovered, whether it was valuable or not. She had Sophia lay out a meager collection of granola bars and dried fruit on a clean blanket, while Carl found a small box of water bottles.

    "Look, Birdie!" He held it up with a grin.

     "Hey, nice!" She praised. "Put it right here next to the food Soph found." She put her hands on her hips, observing all that they've collected. "This is great, y'all."

     "Birdie!" Rick's hissing voice in sudden proximity to them made the blonde jump. She whipped her head up and saw him ducked next to a car, rifle gripped in one hand. "Get down! Under a car!"

     Birdie steered Carl and Sophia downwards, pushing them underneath the car they were looting with her. She slid down next to them, one hand on the little girl's back and the other one pulling out her knife. She couldn't see anything from her position, but she heard Carol's soft sounds of terror from somewhere across from them. "Nice and quiet, okay?" She whispered, craning her neck down. They both nodded, their bodies trembling.

     She had assumed that there would be Walkers. She didn't expect just how many there would be. It started as a dozen or so, but then the groans and moans grew louder, until a symphony of death filled the air. There had to be at least a hundred Walkers, though Birdie thought her fear could be inflating the numbers. They trickled through like tainted water, running into cars and tripping over ripped clothes.

     Sophia gripped her wrist and Birdie tightened her grasp on her knife, a silent, breathless prayer of deliverance on her lips.

     The herd started to thin after several long minutes; Birdie watched with bated breath as the shuffling feet vanished, and the sounds quieted. She could hear her pounding heart now, feel her pulse racing underneath the death grip Sophia had on her wrist. Glancing up, she spotted Rick for the first time. He held a shaking hand out and she nodded. Wait.

     But then the grip was gone, and Sophia was slipping out from under the car to peer out. "Wait, Soph — " she started, but was cut off by the girl's shriek as a straggler from the herd lunged at her. She grabbed the girl and pulled her back, rolling her over to put herself between Sophia and the Walker. She took her knife and stabbed the outstretched hand, hacking it off. She reached back to grab the girl, but found her out of reach. She whipped her head around; Sophia had crawled out from under the car and was getting to her feet. She started running into the forest, fueled by her terror.

     "Sophia!" Birdie cried, but the girl was already vanishing into the woods. She didn't hesitate to drag herself up, nearly colliding with another Walker. She yelped, kicking it back and jumping over the highway barrier. She ran after the girl, stumbling down the hill and landing on her back. Winded, she dragged herself back up and kept running.

She wouldn't let them get her.

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A/n: I mean, we all know what happens 😞 But it's gonna be a little different this time around. This chapter is primarily for establishing relationships, though I couldn't fit in everything without making it weird and chunky. So I hope you enjoyed!
Please consider leaving some feedback and letting me know what you think! ^-^