CHAPTER TWO

Andie's sitting on the floor of the shed with her knees to her chest, her elbows on her knees, and her head down. Her arms are over her head with her wrists still bound as she tries not to listen to the blows of Daryl punching Randell, or his grunts with each contact.

"I told you—"

"You ain't told me shit." Daryl reaches down and pulls him up so that he's not laying on the ground anymore.

"I barely knew those guys. I met 'em on the road." He says. "Man, why aren't you asking her anything?!"

"How many are in your group?"

Randell whines when he sees the hunting knife come out, and then Daryl demands an answer as he holds the blade to the wound in the younger boy's leg.

"Thirty. Thirty. Thirty guys." Randell spits the number out quickly.

"Where?"

"Uh..." He screams as there's a ripping sound, and Andie squeezes her eyes shut. "I don't know, I swear! We were never any place for more than a night."

"Scoutin'?" Daryl questions. "Planning on stayin' local?"

"I-I don't know. They— They left me behind."

He starts talking about picking scabs, and Andie's stomach turns. "Start real slow at first. Sooner or later, you just gotta rip it off."

"I'm gonna be sick." The brunette mutters as she lifts her head, and Daryl glances over to see her covering her face with her hands.

"They— They have weapons." Randell scrambles for a way to get him to remove the blade from his leg. "Heavy stuff — automatics. But I didn't do anything." He panics when the knife moves.

"Your boys shot at my boys, tried to take this farm." Daryl argues. "You just went along for the ride? You're trying to tell me you're innocent?"

"What about her?!"

"Fuck you, Randell!" Andie snaps as she looks at them. "I was in the pharmacy looking for food when the shooting started. You dumbasses attracted the corpses!"

"I wasn't talking to her." Daryl moves the knife again, and he squirms.

"These— These people took me in." Randell quickly tells him. "Not just guys — a-a whole group of 'em. Men and women, kids too — just like you people. Thought I'd have a better chance with them, you know? But... We'd go out, scavenge — just the men. One night, we— We found this little campsite. A man and his two daughters — teenagers, you know? Real young. Real cute."

Daryl looks over at Andie and he sees the horror on her face as she imagines where this is going.

"Their daddy had to watch while these guys — they..." He continues. "And they didn't even kill him afterwards. They just— They just made him watch as his daughters... Just— Just— Just left him there. No, but I didn't— I didn't touch those girls. No, I swear I didn't tou—" He screams when Daryl kicks him.

"Get me out of here." Andie starts kicking up dirt as she pushes away from them, pressing herself into the wall as far as she can go. "Keep him—"

"I'm not like that." He rushes out. "You gotta believe me, man. I ain't like that."

Daryl walks over and holds his hand out toward Andie. She immediately reaches out and grabs it, letting him pull her to feet before leading her to the door. He pushes it open, and she practically runs out before stumbling to her hands and knees, landing on the grass.

Rick and Shane — who had started running toward the shed when they saw Andie — slow their advance as they watch Daryl close and lock the door behind him, seeing that he's obviously not worried about her trying to get away. The two men stop a few feet away as she stays hunched over on the ground, then she gags before vomit spills out of her mouth.

"What's wrong with her?" Shane questions as the teenager wipes her mouth with the sleeve of her shirt. "She ain't pregnant too, is she?"

"I'd rather kill myself than bring a baby into this world." Andie falls onto her side and scoots a few inches away from the pile of puke. "Oh, God."

"Are you okay?" Daryl asks as he looks down at her.

"I knew they were creepy — that's why I was planning to leave them." She tells him. "I-I didn't know that they were...that."

"How many men is it?"

"Four children, thirteen women, nineteen men — thirty-six people total. Not including Randell, that is." Andie takes a deep breath as she looks at the blue, cloudy sky above her. "Heavily armed, even the nice ones are mean as soon as their woman walks away."

"How do you have such a precise head count?" Shane questions skeptically.

"It was dangerous to be a woman on her own before the world turned." She looks over at him. "I know better than to let my guard down. And if I had kept to that like I knew I should've, I wouldn't be where I am now." The teenager grumbles as her gaze returns to the sky.

"Any thoughts on what we should do with Randell?" Daryl asks.

"I don't give a shit what you do with that bastard. Just keep the sick son of a bitch away from me."

"Take her to the barn instead of the shed." Rick says as the brunette closes her eyes, trying to calm her nerves.

"So that we can have people on watch over two separate locations?" Shane questions.

"Why don't you lock Sergeant Dickwad in the shed with the kid who watched two innocent teenage girls get raped in front of their father?" Andie grumbles as she rolls onto her side, then she pushes herself to her feet. "Or — and here's a better idea — we can try the drop off again. But this time, you two dumbasses don't try to murder each other while we're surrounded by hungry corpses." She glares at him, and his jaw tightens as he looks back at her. "Just a thought."

"I'll take guard in the barn." Daryl tells them, and she swats at his hand when he reaches out to pull her away from the very angry Shane.

"I remember where the barn is."

—

Andie's laying in the dirt when Daryl walks into the barn later that same day. Her eyes are closed and her fingers are laced together over her stomach, her breathing even. The teenager seems perfectly content where she is.

"They make a decision?" She asks, but he doesn't respond. "Do I at least get to choose how I die?"

"How are you so nonchalant about all this?" He questions. "How can you be so okay with the prospect of dying?"

"I'm not okay with any of this." She tells him, her eyes opening to look up at the ceiling. "But what am I supposed to do? Beg? Try to run?"

"You could talk." He reasons. "You've been here a week, and you've barely said a word. This morning outside the shed is the most you've ever said. Give me a reason that'll make them less afraid. I mean, you barely say thank you when Maggie brings food or water. You won't even tell any of us your name."

Andie suddenly sits up and turns to face him in one fluid motion. "Our name is the only thing we have left in this world. None of you have given me any reason to believe you deserve to know me well enough to learn it." She argues, getting to her feet with her hands still crossed in front of her. "Your little friend comes in here and she walks over slowly with her eyes glued to me. She sets the food on the dirt in front of me and holds the cup out like she thinks I'm gonna snatch it from her hand and use it to bash her head in. None of you are owed an explanation from me on anything."

"They're scared." He tells her. "Especially after what Randell told us this morning."

"You want me to tell you something?" She raises her eyebrows. "You want my side of the story?"

"I'm in here, ain't I?"

The brunette pauses a moment before motioning for him to sit down, then she lowers herself to the dirt and crosses her legs. Daryl takes a deep breath as he rests his crossbow against the wall before sitting in the dirt as well. He crosses his arms over his chest as his legs stretch out in front of him.

"Tell me something first." Andie says, and he waits for her to continue. "Why do you come in here and try to get me to talk? Why do you seem to care if I live or die?"

"I don't know." He shakes his head as he shrugs his shoulders. "Call it an instinct... Or maybe I'm tired of seeing people die. We've lost a lot of people already."

She looks down, her dark eyes falling on the dirt. "I was in a grocery store trying to find anything that was left in the feminine hygiene section — periods are a real bitch in this new world... I heard footsteps coming my way, and I turned to the direction they were coming from. I raised my gun and my hatchet, but it was just another girl. She looked startled. I lowered my weapons, and I guess to her that meant I wasn't a threat...that I didn't see her as one either.

"We started talking, and everything seemed so normal. Her name was Jane, and she was on a run with her boyfriend — a man named Dave... It had been so long since I'd had a conversation with another person, and it felt so good to feel normal again. For a few minutes, the world felt like it used to, you know? She asked me where my group was, and I couldn't come up with a good lie fast enough. As soon as she realized that I was completely alone, she told me that I could stay with them.

"How could I say no, you know? I had been on my own, watching my back alone for so long. I gave up keeping track of the days; I hardly slept, so they all blended together. It's all just one long nightmare, this never-ending...

"Dave said there was more than enough room, so I went. I got there, and there was a man. He was friends with Dave, but I didn't bother to learn his name. I didn't want anything to do with him, and I sure as hell didn't want him near me.

"He stared at me a lot, it felt like he was always watching me. I'd catch him looking, not that he was really trying to hide it... I had been with the group three days when I saw him talking to Dave about something. He kept looking at me, and I got this really uneasy feeling — something in my gut telling me that something was off. Dave shook his head, and it looked like he said something about Jane.

"Dave's friend was talking to someone else later, and I noticed him looking my way again. I strayed a little ways from the girls that I usually stayed with — being in a group of women felt safer while I was the new girl surrounded by strangers. So, I walked past him, and I heard him say that... He said it had been a long time since he'd..." Andie grinds her teeth as she squeezes her eyes shut. "...since he'd had any young, cute cooze..."

"This was the guy who'd been watching you?" Daryl asks, seeing the disgust and horror on her face.

She nods. "There was a group going out to get supplies, and I asked if I could go. Some of the guys argued, but I told them that there were a few girl things that I still needed. Doesn't matter what version of the world we're in — men don't wanna hear about pads or tampons... Jane said that I could be a good asset since I'd been on my own so long, and Dave convinced them that it wasn't a big deal.

"Then he and his friend broke away from the group while we were out. The rest of the group all went looking for them, and I slipped into a pharmacy while they had their backs turned. I put down one of the corpses inside, but all of the yelling and gunfire outside drew more of them from the back. I didn't know how many there were, so I ran.

"I already learned the hard way that when you're outnumbered, it's best to just get your ass out of there. I wasn't gonna stay to find out how many were in there with me. When I got back outside, I heard Randell screaming, so I went to see what was going on. I knew it sounded different than when someone gets caught by the corpses, and I found him with...that gate spike through his leg.

"When your buddy found me, I was leaning against the wall trying not to puke. I only got in their car because they made the case that we could help each other survive — that I was basically screwed on my own because of how many of the dead were closing in on us. I didn't sign up for the ride back to this farm, and I have no interest in being here.

"I was sitting there, minding my own business, and the next thing I know Ranger Rick's slapping his cuffs on my wrists and putting a paper bag over my head. I don't even know where he got the damn bag. Now I'm sitting in your barn waiting for my death sentence to be carried out." She picks her head up and looks over at Daryl. "I mean nothing to your group, I'm no one to any of you. None of you need to know my name...and I don't need your pity."

"Let me talk to Rick." He gets his feet. "I'll see what I can do."

"You enjoy your walk back to Oz." The brunette says as she lays back down. "But I can tell you right now that the Lion doesn't have the courage to stand up to the Tin Man — and your buddy with the buzzcut who looks like a serial killer — he doesn't have a heart. But do me a favor, ask the Wizard if he can spare a paper and an envelope, ask if he'll let me borrow a pen."