ELEVEN. the butterfly effect

The feeling of panic had become a familiar one, the harsh beating of hearts in chests and the sounds of weapons being raised. The worries you had before changed desperately. Adeline Grimes remembered the way her heart dropped to her stomach when she accidentally left her keys in a locked car, and that same feeling racked her body when the snarls of a walker grew close. Everything changed - everyone's life had flipped a switch and was forever put on the line. You never knew when your last words would be spoken, and you never knew what monster was lurking around the next corner. For Adeline, she worried that the monster would be herself.

"Get away from her, Jim." Shanes' voice tore a tear through her train of thought, sending it off of its rails. Adeline pulled herself out of her own mind and noticed the pale and now worried body of Jim standing in front of her. His proximity had changed slightly, only one step back had been taken. But the fear that radiated off of him, it was impossible for the girl to miss.

Reluctantly, the infected man moved away and allowed Adeline to escape his panicked wrath. Jim was far from dangerous - a bite was the worst thing that could happen to you. Unless you ended it early, it was a slow and painful death. Boots skidded against the dirt ground as Shane reached his hand out to his wife and pulled her behind his back, aiming his shotgun at the man with sharp eyes. The rest of the camp went on alert, Daryl rushing to the scene with his pickax - "Show it to us!"

Jim became spooked at the number of weapons pointed at him, people he knew turning on him within a second. He hurriedly grabbed a shovel and started waving it around to anyone who came too close for comfort. "Grab him!" The order was shared around the group, T-Dog being the first to listen seeing as he was already behind the man. Rushing up on him, he wrapped his arms around Jims and held him back - the shovel clattering to the ground as Daryl discarded his pickax to lift the mans' shirt and revealing the fresh bite mark.

"I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay." Jim assures the group, the men releasing him and letting him stumble around with eyes full of lost hope. "I'm okay." He repeated, tears welling in his eyes.

Adeline felt the guilt of announcing his bite to the group hit her, knowing it was in best interest but wished her fear hadn't of controlled her actions. So, she curled her fingers around her husband's arm and stepped out from behind his protective stance - "Hey, Jim. How about I get you cleaned up, yeah? Okay?" She offered the sick man, letting go of Shane only for the man to hold her back with careful eyes. Her eyes met his, "I'll holler if I need you. Just figure this out." Words of assurance left her lips before she stepped away and guided Jim to the backside of the RV.

Tiredly, he sat against a red toolbox and leaned against the metal. Adeline had retrieved after her medical bag that Rick and the others had brought back, half of the supplies missing due to them exchanging it for Glenn. Apparently they had run into a group that called themselves the Vatos, and they kidnapped Glenn right off of the streets. This caused half of their guns to be given away and half of the medicine Adeline had packed. It didn't leave her with a lot to work with if something serious happened, so she only used alcohol pads and a small roll of bandages plus gauze to clean up Jims' wound. Reluctantly, she had given him a pain pill - but she knew she would regret that decision in the future seeing as he was a lost cause by now.

With a quick sweep of her eyes, she found the group stood in a circle to discuss the current situation. Adeline assured Jim she would return before standing on her feet and trudging over to the survivors, "I say we put a pickax in his head, the dead girl's and be done with it." The southern drawl of Daryl Dixon's voice greeted her as she brushed past him and held back her remarks.

She moved to stand beside Shane, his head lifting from the ground at Daryls' word, "Is that what you'd want if it were you?" he questioned the man who only nodded his head in approval of the idea.

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Adeline chewed on the inside of her bottom lip before deciding to speak up. "But that's your life, your decision. This isn't something you get to decide." She informed, avoiding the sharp and squinted eyes sent her way.

"I hate to say it, I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl's right." Dale put in his two cents, which sent a wave of confusion spiraling down Adelines' spine. From what she heard, he was Jims' closest friend, so the last thing she expected was for the older man to agree with killing him.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog. He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" Rick jumped in, his voice carrying an authoritative tone. Frustration drew lines on his tanned skin, marked with dirt and blood. They all looked like they had just been through hell and back - and the sleepless night made them feel like it too.

Daryl scoffed, his fingers tightening around the handle of the blood covered pickax, "The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be."

At this, Adeline pinched the bridge of her nose. "We dealt with a whole group of them last night and you're worried about two? Two that haven't even turned yet?" She inquired, her eyes locking with Daryls, his already glaring at her - "I ain't the one worried about them. I know I can take them, it's you all that can't." He retorted.

"What if we can get him help?" Rick broke uo their argument with his hopeful words, "Morgan told us that the CDC was working on a cure, remember?" he spoke to his sister - hoping the girl would back him up. But she had seen someone turn, and she even tried to save them. It was Morgans' wife. Every medicine she tried, every antiseptic - nothing worked. It was a lost cause to even attempt saving a bite victim.

Shane waited for his wife to respond, but when no words left her mouth her he stepped up to the plate. "I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell." he informed, fingers around the curve of his shotgun.

"What if the CDC is still up and running?"

"Man, that is a stretch right there." Adeline watched as Shane was quick to disagree with Ricks plan, staying quiet beside her husband as the two men hashed it out.

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection -" Rick started to list off, heart hopeful for a chance at safety.

"Okay, Rick, you want those things, alright? I do too. Now if they exist, they're at the army base." He started - his wife meeting his eyes, "Fort Benning." Adeline finished for him. "It could work. They would have everything, and we have kids. There's no way they wouldn't let us in." She theorized, tucking strands of her brown hair behind her ear.

Lori squinted her eyes away from the sun, "Thats a hundred miles in the opposite direction."

"That is right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me, if that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there." Shane assured, Adeline stepping it to back him.

"And plus, the CDC isn't a community center. If they're working for a cure - do you really think they're gonna want a bunch of sweaty survivors in their way? They wouldn't have room for us, or the time." Her voice was soft, eyebrows pulled together in concentration.

Rick sighed at his sisters words, "The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun, we've all seen that. You and I especially, Adeline. The CDC is our best choice and Jims' only chance. Please, I need you on my side for this." he pleaded, looking at her with expecting eyes.

A feeling twisted her stomach, never liking the pressure to be put on her but she was the one thing that balanced the options out. Adeline was the deal breaker, and every-time Shane and Rick stuck her in between their arguments - she absolutely despised them for it. The only thing she wanted was for everyone to be safe, and to know that they would make it through this hell fire of a world. But before her thoughts could progress and her decision could be made, Daryl Dixons' voice pulled through her mind.

"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" He roared, twisting around on his ankles and sprinting towards Jim with his pickax raised. Adelines heart jumped in her chest, Rick lunging towards the redneck with his pistol raised. Cocking it, he pointed the barrel to Daryls head, stopping him in his tracks.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Her brothers voice didn't even sound like his, her feet skidding against the dirt ground as she rushed over to the men. Shane stepped in front of Jim, blocking him from Daryls wrath. "We don't kill the living." Rick asserted, his finger hovering over the trigger. with his sister standing closely behind him.

Lowering the pickax, Daryl turned around to face the man. "That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head." He deadpanned, his eyes in a sharp glare.

"We may disagree on some things, not on this. You put it down." Shane started, motioning towards Rick at the disagreeing part before moving his eyes back to Daryl. "Go on." he repeated, waiting for the man to move.

"It's not worth it." Adeline assured, stepping away from her brother. The angered man saw her, scoffing beneath his breath before throwing the pickax down and storming away from the scene. Rick lowered his gun, tucking it back into his holster while walking over to Jim. Guiding the man into the RV, he gave him a place to lay while the tension simmered down to an approachable level in the camp.

It wasn't long before a gunshot rang throughout the air, coming from a broken Andrea who had put her sister to rest. It caused a feeling of solemn sadness to waver over every able body, the loss of many finally starting to have an effect. The realization really sunk in when Adeline hoped in the pickup truck with Daryl, the two of them driving in an comfortable yet awkward silence up the hill, the bodies of all of their human losses in the trunk of the truck. They were burying them - Shane and Rick already up the hill, readying more graves.

The truck squeaked to a stop, no words being said as Adeline popped the door open and slipped out. Daryl offered to let her ride with him due to the long walk up the hill, noticing how much of an impact her ankle had on the speed of her movement. The heat greeted her skin, sweat already sticking against her forehead and making her hair lay unmoving. Her eyed landed upon her brother and husband, a noticeable tension between them which made her furrow her eyebrows and trek towards them with Daryl beside her. "Y'all alright?" Adeline questioned, announcing their presence with her voice.

Rick looked up from the grave he stood in, sticking the shovel into the dirt and gripping the handle to help himself out of it. "Yeah, we're just fine." He mumbled, to his sister and squeezing her shoulder. The tone in his voice gave off an obvious misleading signal from his words, two different meanings held behind his ways.

"I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right?" Daryl started, standing close to Rick and Adeline. "Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?" He questioned.

Turning her head, she noticied the group that slowly approaching the burial site. "I think that was just yours." Adeline retorted, catching the hat that Shane threw her way once he noticed the red marks the sun was leaving on her pale face. Situating it atop her head, relief greeted her when she no longer had to squint her eyes from the bright light in the sky.

"Chinaman gets all emotional, says it not the thing to do and we just follow him along? I mean hell, I saved your life, least you could do is back me up on somethin'. These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are." Daryl ranted, ignoring the presence of the group behind him.

Adeline sighed at Daryls words, "He's Korean." She spoke, only for him to turn his head and looked to her with slanted eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

Rick walked towards his shovel and pulled it out of the ground, "There are no rules."

An approaching Lori spoke up, "Well, that's a problem. We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do." and with her words, she received the agreement of everyone but Daryl.

The burial process was one of the many things Adeline wasn't fond of, but she stayed and paid her respects. They survived together - and she wasn't going to be the one to just check out when things got hard. Watching Andrea lower her own sisters body into a grave sent a snake of realization to slither up her spine and into her brain. It was at any moment when you could lose the person you love. At any split second, things could change and your world would be flipped on it's axis. Everything you once knew - you no longer did. You lost all sense of direction and you start to lose grip on the person you once were.

Guilt was a constant emotion. The thought that you could have done something, you should have done something to prevent the death of others. Adeline even went to the extreme of thinking of if she didn't spill her drink on her shirt that maybe Amy would still be alive. Because the slightest difference can have the most impactful result. The Butterfly Effect- the theory always intrigued her. Every single thing that you do, matters. Everyone was created as one of a kind, created in order to to make a difference. Each and everyone of them hold the power within to change the world. It had been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can cause a typhoon halfway around the world. Adeline started to believe that she was in a situation similar to the saying - but, instead of the flutter of a wing it was the placement of her body. And instead of a typhoon halfway around the world, it was the disaster that would struck her tonight.

Quietly, she sat inside of the RV next to the open door leading to the steps. Two voices that were familiar as family entered her vicinity, quickly realizing who it was. Adeline glanced to her brother in the back of the vehicle who sat with a sickly pale Jim, Rick tagging along with his sister to check up on the mans growing infection. As expected, it was nothing good. But that thought was soon wiped away by the words that she heard leave the throats of the voices outside.

"I think folks around here can make up their minds without bringing my marriage into it. It's a habit you need to break, Shane." The voice of Lori became known.

Gravel crunched beneath boots, "It wasn't a habit, Lori. It was a mistake. I hate myself more and more everyday because of it. I love her." At Shanes words, Adeline felt a rocky wave of emotions crash into her. She furrowed her eyebrows and rushed down the steps of the RV, her eyes landing upon her husband and sister in law. The woman stood close to Shane, quickly backing away at the sight of Adeline leaving the vehicle.

The look that laced around the features of their faces made it clear to the Grimes sister, her own emotions set in stone as she kept her eyes trained on Lori Grimes,

"WHAT HABITS?"