❝What if I say I'm not like the others? What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays? You're the pretender. What if I say I will never surrender?❞

- Foo Fighters

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CHAPTER FOUR - THE PRETENDER

D E X T E R 

As the hours went on, Dexter's mind kept reeling back to Deb. The Bay Harbour Butcher was never one to get worried though, Debra could handle herself, she had proven that many times. It was just a matter of waiting.

The brunette had cooled down since blowing up at Lori and joined the group again after muttering a few fake apologies to the ones she deemed acceptable (Dale and the children). She was reluctant to say one to Lori or Shane, in fact she downright refused to do so.

And as Dexter watched her cut Carl's hair from over by the RV where she was smoking a cigarette - they weren't hers, they were Debra's  - all she wanted to do was smack that little glare that Lori kept sending off of her boney little face.

Shane was talking to Carl about shaving in the future as he cleaned his shotgun, casting Dexter a few cautious glances as well. Dexter wasn't fazed by them at all and just sent him a smug smirk whilst blowing out the cigarette smoke from her nose. He might have thought he was tough, but she had killed men twice his size. If it ever came down to it, she was sure that she could end his life as quickly as she breathed.

Dexter dropped the cigarette the floor and stomped it into the ground when the sound of a car alarm sounded, drawing closer every second. 

"Talk to me, Dale!" Shane stood up and ran up towards where Dale was on the roof of the RV. Dexter looked up at them from below.

"I can't tell you yet." Dale replied, looking through his binoculars.

"Is it them? Are they back?" Amy asked, trying to get a good look.

"I'll be damned." Dale mumbled, following the car with his eyes.

"What is it?" She questioned as she looked up at him.

"A stolen car is my guess." He answered. The car pulled up near them and they all walked over to it as Glenn climbed out with a massive grin on his face. "Holy crap. Turn that damn thing off!"

"I don't know how!" Glenn smiled, slamming the car door.

"Pop the hood, please. Pop the the hood." Shane ordered and Glenn did just that as Amy started babbling on about her sister. Shane was taking his sweet damn time turning off the alarm and the noise was getting frustrating with all of the shouting as well, so Dexter pushed him out of the way, earning a glare from him as she went and pulled out the plug that kept the alarm going.

"Andrea's okay? Why isn't she with you? Where is she? She's okay?" Amy kept pushing. Why did Deb talk Dexter into joining this group? All they did was annoy her. It was like Sergeant Doakes all over again, although they hadn't found out her alter ego like he had.

"Yes!" Glenn replied, flustered by all the questions. "Yeah, fine. Everybody is." This caused Dexter and everyone else to sigh in relief. Deb was safe. "Well, Merle not so much."

"Are you crazy, driving this wailing bastard up here? Are you trying to draw every walker here for miles?" Shane quizzed with a slight hint of anger, Dexter couldn't help but to roll her eyes at him.

"I think we're okay." Dale said, looking around and listening to the surroundings.

"You call being stupid okay?" Shane retorted.

"Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills." Dale reasoned, "Hard to pinpoint the source. I'm not arguing. I'm just saying. It wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time son, would it?"

"Sorry." Glenn apologised. "I got a cool car."

A van soon arrived and parked a little bit further away than the car that Glenn had driven. Everyone who had went on the supply run, except Merle came rushing out and hugged their loved ones. 

"Amy!"

"Andrea!"

Debra spotted Dexter through the cluster of people as she climbed out and ran over to embrace her in a tight hold. "I missed you so fucking much, Dex!" She mumbled into her older sister's shoulder. 

"Me too." Dexter hesitated at first, but then she returned the gesture and looked over her shoulder, watching as Lori pulled Carl away to talk to him.

"You are a welcome sight." Dale said as he pulled Morales into a hug. Dexter backed away from Deb slightly, breaking their embrace in the process and patted her back while she let out happy sobs. "I thought we had lost you folks for sure."

"How'd y'all get out of there anyway?" Shane asked.

"New guy." Glenn answered. "He got us out."

"New guy?" Dexter asked with a raised brow as Deb clung to her arm and dried her tears.

"Yeah, crazy vato just got into town." Morales informed and then shouted towards the van, "Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello."

The van door opened to reveal a man with short brown hair, a bit older then Dexter by the looks of him, late thirties or early forties, and he was dressed in a sheriff's uniform. "The guy's a cop like you." Morales said to Shane and the look of pure shock on Shane's face almost made Dexter laugh.

Almost.

The cop began running closer and it was when Carl began running and shouting 'dad' that she had finally put things together. This man was Carl's dad, Lori's husband whom Shane had left to die. Lori and Shane were so fucked, Dexter could see it on their faces as they looked at each other and she was enjoying every second of it. Lori and Carl embraced the man with tears and she walked over to Shane with another smug smile on her lips.

"Better tread carefully Shane, it would be a shame if Carl's daddy found out you and his wife shacked up while he was gone." She smirked at him with her arms crossed and then walked away with Deb.

Shane quickly caught up and grabbed her arm tightly, forcing her to stop and glare back at him. Seeing the exchange between the two, Debra was quick to intervene, "Hey, asshole! Let my sister go before I punch you in the face."

"It's alright Deb, go to the tent." Dexter calmly replied, yanking her forearm out of his grip and putting a fake smile on. "I'm sure he just wants to talk."

"Okay." She sighed and then glared, "I'm watching you, Shane."

Once she was gone, Shane dropped his fake persona and squinted at the woman in front of him harshly, "Don't you dare tell Rick about Lori and me or so help me I'll-"

"You'll what?" Dexter cut him off, knowing full well he didn't have the guts to hit a woman. "You won't hurt me. You can't."

"There's something off about you, Dexter. And apparently I'm the only one that can see it. I'll be keeping an eye on you." He continued, walking forward and forcing the brunette to walk backwards to get away. She wasn't scared, but right now others were watching and they believed that she was weak like she had led them to believe.

"Oh yeah? And why's that?"

"I found them knives in your tent, you intending to use them on anybody?" He sneered, causing Dexter's eyes to widen, she hadn't expected anyone to find her collection.

"What makes you think that? Just because I have a set of knives hidden in my tent doesn't mean I'll use them. In case you hadn't noticed, Shane, there's dead people walking around trying to eat us." Dexter sneered, clenching her fists by her sides. She couldn't make a scene, that would draw too much attention to herself.

"Just shut up about me and Lori." He replied, "Do that, and I'll stop going through your things."

"Fine." She grunted, giving in and pushing him away. "But you make one wrong move and I'll bust your ass."

There was one thing Dexter knew for certain. She needed to keep and eye on Shane Walsh, He didn't know it, but he was close to finding out her secret. She didn't need another Sergeant Doakes situation.

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The whole group was huddled around a camp fire later that night and Dexter had forced her sister to sit with her as far away from Shane as possible. After finding out that he'd snooped through her things, she wanted nothing but to keep her distance until she could get some more dirt on him.

"Disoriented." Rick spoke up, explaining how it it felt when he woke up from his coma as he cuddled with his family. "I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion- all those things but...disoriented comes closest."

"Words can be meagre things." Dale voiced, putting his cup down onto the ground. "Sometimes they fall short."

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else." He looked down to his wife, "For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might no wake up from ever."

"Mom said you died." Carl said softly from his dad's lap.

"She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it." Rick soothed. He had a good heart, almost innocent like Carl's. Dexter analysed the way Rick acted, it would take a while for him to realise that his wife was unfaithful and that his best friend betrayed his trust with how oblivious to everything he was.

Lori took a quick glance at Shane before speaking, "When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened."

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell. And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun." Rick replied.

"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?" Shane said, Dexter scoffed quietly at his reply. Thankfully no-one took any notice.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it." Rick praised, looking at his best friend.

"There go those words falling short again." Dale smiled. "Paltry things."

Ed, Carol's husband, got up from his log and threw some more wood on the fire, making the flames burn brighter and then he sat back down.

"Hey, Ed, you might want to rethink that log?" Shane said with an accusing tone.

"It's cold, man." He replied, leaning his head back.

"I don't know how you find it cold." Dexter quipped and gestured at his overweight figure. If everyone else in the group could deal with the cold, so could he.

"What are you tryin' to say, bitch?"

"That you're a fat ass, who doesn't think about anyone but himself." She retorted, pointing a stick at him in a threatening way.

"Hey now, there are kids here, keep the language to a minimum." Shane intervened. "Ed, the cold don't change the rules now, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers, so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"

"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once."

Shane got up and went over to Ed. "Hey Ed, are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?"

"Go on. Pull the damn thing out. Go on!" Ed sighed, scratching his ear as he nodded to Carol. Carol rushed to get the log out of the fire and then sat back down again by her daughter Sophia.

Shane crouched down in front of them, "Hey Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?"

"Fine. We're just fine." Carol replied in a quiet voice.

"Okay."

"I'm sorry about the fire." She apologised.

"No no no no. No apology needed." He said quietly, "Y'all have a good night, okay?"

"Thank you."

"I appreciate the cooperation." Shane said sarcastically as he passed Ed and sat back down with a sigh. Okay, so maybe Shane wasn't all bullshit sometimes. But most of the time, he was.

"Have you thought about Daryl? He'll go batsh-" Deb glanced at the children, "-sugar honey ice tea when he hears we left his brother behind."

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me." T-Dog volunteered.

"I cuffed him. That makes it mine." Rick replied guiltily.

"Guys, it's not a competition." Glenn intervened. "I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy."

"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him." T-Dog said as he looked into the fire absentmindedly.

"We could lie." Amy suggested.

"Or tell the truth." Andrea added firmly. "Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed. You're husband did what was necessary and if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale asked. "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?"

"Man, that's fucked up." Debra piped in, quickly realising her mistake when the parents of the group glared at her. "Shit, sorry!"

He continued, "Word to the wise- we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt." 

"Ain't that the truth." Dexter smirked, only to be nudged by her sister.

"I was scared and I ran." T-Dog defended himself, even though he didn't have to. "I'm not ashamed of it."

"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea retorted.

"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that- not that chain, not that padlock. My point- Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us." T-Dog explained and then left.

"Well, I think that's enough story telling for the night." Dexter announced sarcastically, getting up and pulling Deb with her, who did not protest. "We're going to bed."

"Goodnight, Debra, blood girl!" Glenn said from the fireplace.

"G'night, pizza boy." Deb laughed, following Dexter into the tent. They climbed into their sleeping bags and looked up at the roof of the tent in silence until the eldest of the two broke it.

"I'm glad you came back safe, Deb."

"Me too, Dex. It was strange going somewhere without you. We've been together since the beginning. I wish Rita and the kids were with us." Debra whispered.

"Rita's dead, Deb. And the kids are across the country. They're better off without us." Dexter scolded, shifting to face her but all she could see was the outline of Deb's face through the darkness.

"But Dexter, they're your kids."

"They weren't my kids. They were Rita's." Dexter denied sharply. "They were weak and this new world is cruel, it has no place for them."

"I can't believe you even said that!" She gritted her teeth. "You know what? This will not turn into a fight. I'm going to bed, goodnight Dexter."

Dexter waited until Debra's fast breathing became shallower before she shifted over to where she hid her blood samples and she shoved them into her bag. They would have to be with her at all times, she couldn't have anyone else snooping around her stuff and finding them. Once they were securely hidden, Dexter laid back down and closed her eyes, falling into a dreamless sleep. She destroy the sample when she could.

❝MONSTERS DON'T GET TO LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER.❞