It was early in the morning when I opened my eyes and looked up at the bright sky. Only a few clouds were visible, but more of the blue sky.

I stretched with a loud yawn and felt it crack in my back, so I screwed up my face and finally sat up.

If Shane knew I had slept out in the open again without any protection, he would definitely tie me up in the RV himself. It was a stupid habit of mine that I just wouldn't give up. I loved the starry sky, whether it was before the world ended or after.

Standing up slowly, my eyes searched for the group of people. I patted the dirt off my dark pants and walked up the small hill where I could see Lori first.

Ever since we met on the highway we'd been more than good friends and I loved her, like my older sister, just like Shane. I would have been lost without them, I owed them my life and I would never forget that.

I ran to her and gave her a crooked grin when she gave me a look I knew all too well.

"I'm sorry, okay? I really wasn't planning on it this time."

I came to a stop in front of her and put my hand slightly in front of my eyes as the sun was now shining right in my face.

Lori just shook her head with a grin. "I'm not going to tell him anything, but you really need to stop doing that," she said softly, stroking my arm briefly. "Shane's right, eventually it won't be safe here, it's just a matter of time before a walker strays up here."

Of course I understood their concern for me, but I always had my knife with me and even though they said that there could be walkers here at any time, I was relatively relaxed about the whole thing. There had never been a biter here before and I doubted whether it would change anytime soon.

"I know, I know. It was the last time. I promise." I smiled and out of the corner of my eye saw Carl come out of the tent and wave at me when he spotted me in his field of vision.

I waved back and couldn't hide the wide smile that formed on my lips as Carl walked towards us.

"How is he?" I wanted to know from Lori, my voice a little more serious than before.

The woman in front of me sighed and looked sadly at her shoes. "He'll be okay. We both will."

I bit my lip and kept my mouth closed. I mean, what was there to say in response? Lori had had to leave her husband at the hospital, he had been dead according to Shane. How could I ever say anything that would help?

I knew what I was talking about, only it was different for me. My parents died in a car accident a very long time ago. My twin brother and I were five years old at the time. My uncle and aunt took us in until my brother decided to go his own way when he was twenty. The separation was more than just difficult and to this day I miss him every second. How was he? Was he alive? Would I ever see him again?

Every day the same questions and thoughts and I would never get an answer.

It was far from okay, but I knew I had no choice but to deal with it. My priority now was here, with my new family and surviving. If I wanted to find my brother again someday, then I had to be alive.

"Maeve! Wanna play with me?"

I looked to Lori, who nodded. "I'll go find Carol and send Sofia to you, she'll be happy to play with you."

"Good idea, Mom."

Smiling, I grabbed Carl's hand and pulled him with me to the log where we sat down. Every morning since we had been here, apart from helping the adults, I tried to play a lot with the children. I wanted to distract them and give them a good time that they could remember when they grew up one day.

I used to help my aunt out at primary school when she got pregnant herself. Children were really special.

"Have you been sleeping outside again?"

I turned to Carl and widened my eyes playfully. "No, why would you think that?"

Giggling, Carl pointed at my white top, which was full of dirt.

"Oh, shoot."

Laughing, Carl held his stomach, knowing full well how clumsy I was.

"You won't tell the others, right?"

Carl nodded. "Of course not. I'll just go and get the cards from my tent!" He shouted and sprinted to the tent. Laughing, I looked after the little boy.

If you didn't think about the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere, due to an apocalypse, this would be really nice.

I sighed and played with my fingernails as someone approached from behind. I turned around with a jerk and was about to draw my knife when I only looked into Merle's face.

"Easy with that, sweetheart," he grinned as he raised his hands. "Don't want you to hur' yourself with that."

I rolled my eyes and put the knife away.

I had completely forgotten that Merle and his younger brother Daryl were here with us. There was pretty little I could say about Daryl, he mostly kept to himself and did his own thing. Merle, on the other hand, was the biggest asshole I had ever met. Loud, cheeky and disgusting. Every time he saw me, his blue eyes wandered greedily up and down my body; I felt sick every time.

"What can I help you with?"

I rested my forearms on my thighs and leaned forward so that some of my long strands of hair fell to my side.

"You saw ma baby brother? That lil' son of a bitch keeps runnin' away, ya know."

He swayed a little to one side as he propped himself against the tree beside him and ran a hand over his face.

"Nope," I merely replied, automatically turning my head away to look for Daryl. I hadn't seen him since yesterday at noon and honestly I wasn't really worried about anything happening to him. He was one of the strongest and knew how to protect himself.

"Ah, there he is," he grinned as his brother came out of the forest, many squirrels and even rabbits hanging from his rope as far as I could see. There was blood on his tanktop, as well as on his arm.

He ran towards us, more likely towards Merle, and stopped.

"Don't leave without tellin' me, baby brother," Merle scolded.

Daryl rolled his eyes and expelled air angrily. "Ya ain't ma fucking dad. Maybe if ya weren't high all the time, you'd have caught on."

He threw the squirrels on the ground in front of Merle and shouldered his crossbow, then turned to leave. I reacted faster than I could think and ran after him. Today he was particularly angry and pissed off and somehow I wondered why it was like that.

But the reason I ran after him was the wound on his arm. It looked like a scratch, so I was all the more afraid.

"Daryl, wait!"

I jogged to him and almost crashed into his chest when he turned around with a jerk.

"Ain't got time for ya, sunshine."

I rolled my eyes at the name and pointed at his arm wound. "At least let me clean the wound for a minute, then you can go all crazy again."

He lowered his head to look at his arm and snorted. "Make it fast."

I nodded and walked to the RV, running into Dale, Andrea and Amy who were sitting inside preparing cutlery for breakfast.

"Morning," I greeted everyone. "Dale, do you have any alcohol and bandages here?"

The older man nodded immediately and opened one of the drawers.

Andrea tilted her head. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "It's for Daryl, he hurt himself again while hunting. Does anyone know what's wrong with him? He's more bitch than usual."

"He was fighting with Merle yesterday, pretty bad," Amy said and looked at Andrea, who agreed with her.

"Yeah, but it's not like it's anything new."

I formed an 'O' with my mouth before gratefully exiting the RV again, now with disinfectant and bandages in my hand. "Maeve, are you coming?"

I looked at Carl, who was sitting on the floor with Sofia, both waiting for me.

"Gimme a sec, kid, I'll be right back."

With the words I ran to Daryl who was by now sitting on his trunk aggressively cleaning his crossbow and didn't stop even when he saw me.

"You gotta stop doing that for a sec, Daryl." I gently knelt down on the ground next to him and watched as he threw his crossbow on the ground pissed off and now gnawing on his thumb as he signalled for me to start.

I wasn't a doctor or anything, but back when I helped my aunt, I was usually responsible for the children's wounds, so I had learned a few things here and there. Besides, everyone had their own jobs here, mine was to treat wounds, among other things, and Daryl was the only one who had new ones on a daily basis.

I cleaned his wound, noticing that it really was a scratch. I swallowed and looked at Daryl, who also looked at me and furrowed his eyebrows.

"What now?"

"Where did you get that wound?"

He looked at the wound and shrugged. But when he saw that I was still looking at him, he scoffed. "It ain't a walkers scratch."

Relieved, I exhaled. "Good."

Finished bandaging, I stood back up while Daryl just nodded at me and turned back to his crossbow.

I sighed, used to his distant manner, and walked over to the kids.

__

By late noon, the camp was very quiet, the summer heat getting to us all. While Carol and Lori were thinking together about what to prepare for dinner, I sat a little apart from the group, a larger piece of wood in my hand, which I was carving with my knife.

When someone sat down next to me, I didn't even have to turn around to know it was Shane.

"What's this going to be when it's done?" He wanted to know, pointing at the piece of wood in my hand that was losing more and more of its bark.

I sighed and lowered my arms to look at him. "It should be a bow."

Shane raised his eyebrows. "You know how to handle a bow?"

I nodded and picked up where I left off. "Yeah. I was in an archery club with my brother back in the day. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty good at it and I thought at some point it might help us, you know. When we run out of ammo." I muttered the last part with a shrug. That thought just popped into my head when I saw the gun on Shane's belt.

Shane followed my gaze.

"Ever shot it?"

I shook my head. "No. I've never had to until now."

Shane ran his hand through his hair and smiled as he handed me his gun. I furrowed and stopped whittling my bow as I stared at the man in confusion.

"I said I've never used it before."

He chuckled.

"I heard that. But just walking around with a knife isn't going to help. Next time Glenn and the others go into town, I'll have them look for a bow. Until then, I'll teach you how to use it," he explained calmly, holding the gun even closer to my nose.

Hesitantly, I dropped the bow, or rather the piece of wood, on the ground before taking the black weapon in my hand. It was heavier than I had thought.

"It's really heavy," I remarked, turning the gun a few times in my hand. I had once held my brother's gun in my hand when I found it in his drawer. I still don't know what he used it for and who knows if I will ever find out.

"It is," Shane agreed, getting up from his seat. "But you'll get used to it."

I followed his lead and stood up too as he gestured for me to come along. Gun in hand, I walked after Shane, smiling at some of the people in the group along the way. The sun was still burning high up in the sky.

When we arrived at Shane's truck, he opened a toolbox. I stood beside it in confusion and noticed someone else joining us and when that certain someone put his arm around me, I moved away from that person in disgust.

"Stop touching me, Merle."

Shane had found what he was looking for by now and turned to Merle, annoyed.

"Woah, I'm not doing anything."

"Just keep your hands off her," Shane said before turning back to me and holding out the belt.

Hesitantly, I took it and put the gun on the truck so I could put the belt on. It fit tightly and strangely made me feel better. However, I had never been armed except for my knife and now to have a gun and not even know how to use it was scary.

"Alright, we'll go off to the side in a minute. I'll show you the basics, nothing too hard. The important thing is that you learn to hold the gun properly," Shane started and was immediately interrupted by Merle.

"Yo, look who's starting to grow up," he laughed. "Makes you more bad ass, princess," he added.

"Don't you have anything to do, Merle?" I asked annoyed and shoved him a bit off.

"Why are you all so pissed off, won't anyone talk to Daddy Merle?" He grinned dirtily, but was grabbed by Shane's arm and pulled away a bit. I smirked, even though I couldn't hear what Shane was saying to Merle, but when he ran off annoyed that was enough for me.

Exhaling annoyed, Shane came back to me. "Such a dick."

Chuckling, I crossed my arms in front of my chest, "Yeah."

"Well, get ready, we're leaving in ten minutes," he murmured to me and ran off. I noticed how firm and confident Shane actually was. After Lori's husband, I think his name was Rick, died, he had taken it upon himself to replace him. But only to the extent of protecting them, because as far as I knew Rick and Shane had been best friends since they were children.

Sighing, I walked into the middle of the camp, my eyes somehow finding those of Daryl. He was making new arrows, his gaze always fixed so that he could watch the group very closely.

I averted my eyes and smiled at Carol, who beckoned me towards her. As I came closer, I noticed that her cheek was flushed. Immediately my smile fell. "Carol," I breathed softly.

She noticed my change of mood and wunk off. "It's nothing, I promise. I'm fine." I didn't believe a word she said, but I knew that no matter who said what, it would never be enough to get Carol away from Ed. Normally I didn't want to hurt anyone, but Ed was an abusive asshole and didn't deserve to live.

"What was that with Shane and you about?"

I shrugged pettily. "He's gonna teach me how to shoot."

Carol looked surprised as she pulled me closer by the arm and lowered her head. Confused, I followed her movements. "I saw something last night," she whispered. I was even more confused.

"What?"

She hesitated and looked around quickly, but when she saw no one she continued.

"Lori and Shane," she whispered quickly and pulled her head back to watch my reaction, but I couldn't get more than a 'huh?

"So what? I don't get it."

Carol's eyes widened and she tried to signal something to me, but when I still didn't understand, she rolled her eyes and gently pulled me back to her by the arm. "I saw them, together, in the woods. Alone."

"And they were doing what exactly?" I wanted to know. My brain didn't understand a thing.

"God, Maeve, they were having sex."

"What?!" I immediately put my hand over my mouth as I saw Daryl looking at us and Shane standing by the truck, holding his hands on his hips as he looked at us in confusion.

Carol punched me in the arm. "Sshh, don't be so loud!"

I snapped my eyes open. "I'm trying!"

My hand automatically settled on my forehead and I couldn't realise what Carol had just told me. Shane and Lori? It hadn't even been a month since Rick died and they had something going on?

"I never saw that coming," I admitted, blowing the air out of my cheeks.

"Neither did I," Carol replied, suddenly grinning. I drew my eyebrows together.

"What now?"

"They were literally having sex on the floor," she said, laughing out loud. Carol was a wonderful woman and I loved her. Also, although she was often beaten by her husband, she could be herself when she was with her friends. We urgently needed to sort out the Ed thing as soon as possible.

"Oh god, Carol, stop that," I cried out. "No, too late, I have images in my head that will never go away."

Laughing, we shook our heads until Ed arrived.

"What's so funny," he wanted to know as he threw the cigar on the floor. I looked at him in disgust, with Carol shaking her head slightly to signal me to leave it alone.

Sighing, I moved away. "Nothing."

I turned and walked to Shane, who was waiting for me. When I got to him, I couldn't look him in the eye for more than two seconds without those images and the conversation with Carol catching up with me.

It was none of my business, but knowing that Lori and Shane were having something of an affair was a little strange.

"What was that about?" He gestured with his head towards Carol, an amused grin settling on his face.

"That? That was nothing," I laughed awkwardly, brushing my hair out of my face as I finally pointed to my gun.

"Wanna start?"

Shane nodded and got the truck ready. "Yeah, let's go."

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