CHAPTER SIX

Rick, Daryl, Andie, T-Dog, and Carl are the first ones into the house to clear it of any and all walkers that might be inside; Glenn and Maggie handle the perimeter on their own. It's a quick job, easy enough, and then the rest of the group files in with all of their things.

They settle in the living room, and Andie slides down the wall before placing her rolled up sweater behind her head. She crosses her arms over her chest, shuts her eyes, and leans her head back, wanting to take a quick nap while they have a minute. Another sweater's placed over her, but she doesn't react to the action — she knows it's Carol.

There's a loud bang, and the teenager jumps. Her eyes snap open as she grabs her knife from the floor beside her, but she quickly sees that no one else is moving. There's no threat.

Daryl looks down at the girl who's sitting not too far away from him. Strange things seem to set her off sometimes — anything that sounds like unexpected gunfire, the growl of an animal in the distance. It all makes sense at face value, but he's gotten to know her pretty well, and there's just something off about the way it unsettles her.

She's just drifting off when T-Dog gives the signal that they have to move. Daryl rests his hand on her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze as Carol takes the sweater and starts moving. Andie then takes Daryl's hand, letting him help her to her feet, then they follow after the others.

The group exits the house out the back and quickly makes their way to the cars. They're all quiet as they pile in, and Maggie makes a quick detour to get an ax that might come in handy at some point in the future. Anything sharp is good to keep on hand.

Andie swings her leg over the back of Daryl's motorcycle, patting his shoulder when she sees that the last of their people have gotten into the cars. He starts up the engine then drives off, leading them away from the house and all of the walkers that are now closing in on it.

They stop on a backroad about twenty minutes away from the house, and then Rick puts Carl on point while the others try to figure out where to go next. Maggie spreads a map out on the hood of the silver car that was right behind Andie and Daryl.

"We got no place left to go." T-Dog says.

"When this herd meets up with this one, we'll be cut off." Maggie says pointing at two spots on the map. "We'll never make it South."

"What would you say? That was about a hundred-fifty head?" Daryl asks Glenn as he rests his arms on the windshield, standing directly to Andie's right.

"That was last week. Could be twice that by now." Glenn tells him.

"This river could've delayed them." Hershel says. "If we move fast, we might have a shot to tear right through here."

"Yeah, but if this group joins with that one, they could spill out this way."

"Damn, T, do you ever have anything positive to say?" Andie grumbles, and he places his hand over her face before pushing her into Daryl.

"So we're blocked." Maggie says as the younger girl chuckles, straightening herself up.

Daryl looks down at Andie when her arm brushes against his side. She's fallen into step with the group pretty easily, though she chooses to keep her distance for the most part. The only ones she really spends her time around are him and Carol, and he can't figure out why. He knows she likes everyone, but she keeps people at arms length.

"What if we double back at twenty-seven and move toward Greenville?" Andie asks, her dark eyes on the map.

"We picked through that already." T says, and she glares up at him. "Don't look at me like that, you little shit. It's like we spent the Winter going in circles."

"At Newnan we'll push West. Haven't been through there yet." Rick says, and she sticks her tongue out at T-Dog. "We can't keep going house to house. Need to find some place to hole up for a few weeks." He adds, looking over at his very pregnant wife.

"Alright. Is it cool if we get to the creek before we head out?" He asks their leader. "Won't take long. We got to fill up on water. We can boil it later."

"Knock yourself out."

"Literally." Andie adds, then she dodges T's hand and walks over to her bag where she left it on her seat on Daryl's motorcycle.

"You like pickin' fights with men twice your size?" Daryl asks as he walks over to her.

"Yeah, actually." The brunette smiles up at him. "Should I pick one with you next?" She steps closer to him, her chest almost touching his as she looks into his bright blue eyes.

He clears his throat as he looks away from her, his gaze landing on the trees. "That's not a fight you'd win."

Andie scoffs as she returns her attention to what she was doing before, going through her bag to find her water bottle. "Win or lose, it'd still be fun."

Unsure of how to respond — and quite frankly a little flustered — Daryl turns and looks over at their leader. "Hey, while the others wash their panties, let's go hunt. That owl didn't exactly hit the spot." He says, and Rick nods.

—

Rick and Daryl came across a prison while they were hunting in the woods, and their leader thinks that it could be a good place for them to stay for a while. All they have to do is clear the first field of walkers, and then the group can stay there for at least the night.

"It's perfect." Rick says as he looks up at the prison; the group's standing by a guard tower, already on the grounds. "If we can shut that gate, prevent more from filling the yard, we can pick off these walkers. We'll take the field by tonight."

"So, how do we shut the gate?" Hershel asks.

"I'll do it. You guys cover me." Glenn tells them, and Maggie shakes her head.

"No. It's a suicide run." His girlfriend argues.

"I'm the fastest." He reasons, and Andie scoffs.

"Andie's the fastest." Daryl cuts in.

"And Daryl and Rick are the best shots — apart from me, of course." The teenager smiles, winking at Daryl. "I'll go in. You guys cover me."

"Why do you always wanna do the dangerous jobs?" Carol questions, not liking her eagerness to get her hands dirty.

"I'm living on borrowed time as it is, Mama Bear. Might as well save my friends for as long as I have left." Andie says as she reloads her gun.

"Aren't we all living on borrowed time these days?" T-Dog asks, and she glances at him, but doesn't answer.

"You're sure you can do this?" Rick asks, and Andie nods as she readies her gun and her hatchet.

"I'm sure."

"Alright. Glenn, Maggie, and Beth draw as many walkers as you can over there." He instructs, pointing to where he's referring to. "Pop 'em through the fence. Daryl and I are gonna go back to the other tower. Carol, you've become a pretty good shot. Take your time, we don't have a lot of ammo to waste. Hershel, you and Carl take this tower."

"Need the clamps, boss." Andie says, and he looks over at her.

"You wait until we're in the tower to cover you." He tells her, and she nods. "We won't let a walker get too close, so you won't need the hatchet, just your gun." He holds out the clamps that are connected by a small chain, and she takes them. Before she can turn away from him, he hands her a rifle, and she slings it across her back.

The teenager then walks over and stands next to Lori; the older woman's waiting to close the gate behind her once she's in the field. "You don't have to be so brave all the time, you know? It is okay to let other people take the risks." She says, and Andie looks at her.

"We all take risks every day." She shrugs. "I do my part. I don't have a parent or a kid waiting on me like the rest of you. I can afford the bigger risks."

"You have Carol. And Daryl." Lori reminds her. "And they've both lost so much already."

"This is who I am, Lori. It's in my blood."

"What's that? Life threatening tendencies and a lack of self-preservation?"

"Let her in!" Rick calls from the far tower.

Andie smiles at Lori. "Adventure." The teenager winks at her as the older woman pulls the gate open. "This one's for Baby Grimes!" She calls over her shoulder as she jogs into the field, moving past an overturned prisoner transport bus.

She shoots at a walker that starts straight for her, then she runs up the gravel path. The brunette hears the gunshots going off around her, and the others yelling who are killing walkers through the chain-link fence, but she doesn't pay it much attention. She has one task in mind — shut the gate.

One of the walkers gets closer than is comfortable for her, but it drops just after she sees the arrow enter its head. A smirk crosses her face as she continues, and she reaches the gate soon enough. The dead on the other side see her coming, and they start toward the opening.

Andie drops her gun as she jumps up and grabs the fence on either side of the opening. Her legs swing in, and she kicks the closest walker in the chest, sending it flying backward to take out another. She lands on her feet and quickly pulls the gate shut, then she locks the clamps into place so that no more can fill the yard.

The teenager quickly retrieves her gun from the ground before whirling around and shooting the two closest walkers. Then she turns and opens the door to the guard tower that was on her right, killing two more in there before entering and shutting the door behind her. She hears a few others banging on the door as she heads up the steps, taking them two at a time.

The rest of the group has already started picking off the remaining walkers when she emerges from the tower door, and she wastes no time in joining in. She cocks the rifle and looks through the scope as she starts taking as many headshots as she can.

The last walker drops, and Carol looks over when she hears Andie hoot a couple times. The teenager's doing a victory dance, and she waves when she hears the older woman chuckle at her antics.

Andie slings the rifle over her shoulder before cupping her hands around her mouth. "What's Baby Grimes think of that?!" She calls out and is met with laughter from the others.

"We're impressed!" Lori says, and she smiles before heading back down the tower.

The teenager's skipping through the grass when Daryl walks over and grabs her arm. "What the hell was that?" He questions, and her eyebrows furrow as she looks up at him, her shoulder now against his chest.

"That was awesome." She tells him. "What did I do wrong?"

"Your little karate kick before you closed the gate." He says, and she rolls her eyes as she lightly pushes him away from her. "Why do you take unnecessary risks all the time? What if you'd fallen? You could've gotten yourself killed."

"Believe it or not, I know what I'm doing."

"You rarely give me reason to believe it." He turns around and walks away from her then, and she takes a deep breath as she stares after him.

—

Andie's laying on the side of the bus as Daryl paces back and forth. It's after nightfall, and the rest of the group's sitting around a low campfire as they eat. The teenager choosing not to stay with them isn't exactly new, and Daryl doesn't like to leave her alone.

She pulls her dark eyes from the night sky to look at the older man who's standing a few feet away from her, looking out at the surrounding area. "Are you still mad at me?" The brunette asks, and he glances over his shoulder.

"I was never mad." He says, and she scoffs. "Not liking the way you don't care if you get hurt ain't the same as anger."

"I care." She refutes, and he turns to see her staring at the stars with her fingers laced over her stomach. "I care about other people more than I care about myself, but I do care."

"And if Carol had pulled a stunt like that?"

"I'd be mad."

He smirks as he turns away from her. "Exactly."

"So, you were mad?" She asks, and his head turns toward her, but he doesn't respond.

It's silent between them for a while before he speaks up again. He never knows how to phrase his questions with her, he's always afraid he'll make her clam up and shut down. She doesn't like to talk about her life before the walkers, and he never knows what memories his questions will dig up in her head.

"What did you mean before?" Daryl asks, and she looks over at him again. "When you said that you're living on borrowed time."

The teenager sits up, letting one of her legs hang over the bus. She stares in the window at one of the seats as her mind wanders. For a moment, he thinks he asked one of those questions that accidentally shuts her up, but then she takes a deep breath.

"A couple years ago, I, uh... Something happened to my family, and then more things kept happening, and..." She clears her throat. "I was in a really bad frame of mind, and I did a lot of things that I wish I hadn't. And one night... My friends and I got into a lot of trouble, and..." Tears well up in her dark eyes and she squeezes them shut.

Daryl walks over and kneels down in front of her, reaching out with his free hand. He's keeping his crossbow in place over his shoulder as he stays in his place, and he squeezes her arm.

"There was a fight, and I was hurt pretty bad." Andie reaches up and wipes the tears from under her eyes. "I lost a lot of blood... I died. But my friend — she gave the others time to get to me, and her dad saved me. He did CPR, restarted my heart...but she died that night. She died to save us, saving me. But she didn't just save me from death, she saved me from myself. After that night, I promised myself... I promised her that I'd make my life mean something, so I live it for her."

"You save everyone else because she saved you." He says, finally understanding. "You risk everything because she did."

"You can call me a martyr, but I choose to believe that her sacrifice is supposed to mean this. I'm supposed to carry on her legacy...in some way."

"I don't think your friend would want you getting yourself killed in her name."

"I haven't died yet."

Daryl pauses for a moment as he looks at her. "Come on. Let's go get you something to eat." He stands up, holding his hand out toward her.

She grounds her foot that's still on the bus before letting him pull her up, then they both walk over to the wheel on the farther side — where they climbed up. Before Andie can start toward the rest of the group, he stops in front of her, and she looks up to meet his gaze.

"Your friend died so that you could live a life. So live it." He says, and her jaw tightens as her brow furrows. "This group needs you, and you can't help them survive if your recklessness gets yourself killed."