𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄
𝐒𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍
︶꒦꒷★꒷꒦︶

Claire followed Rick through the grass, turning the corner of a house, where someone was hunched over the engine of a car that was parked by a tree.

As the two approached, the smell of oil hit Claire, causing her to wiggle her nose.

"Roman. Get that car working yet?"

The man laughed as a clanking of metal echoed, "You wish."

The two stopped in front of the car, and the man stood. He wore a pair of black cargo pants and a dirty white tank top, he was tall, dirty blonde hair, defined body...

"This is Claire," Claire snapped from her daze on the man's biceps, smiling at him with a nod of her head.

Really, Claire? She thought to herself as he threw the almost black rag onto the car, "Hello." He smirked, holding out his hand. The girl smiled dumbly and stuck her hand out. Roman smiled, looking down at his own hand, and Claire looked down as well, the sight of his dirty, oil covered hand making her laugh, "Another time." He said, and she nodded, dropping her hand back to her waist.

"Claire's brother, is lost, probably heading to Fort Benning, and I'm sending Glenn, Marcus and Kira with her to find them. I'd like you to join them, seeing as you have more gun training than Glenn and Marcus combined." Rick spoke, placing a hand on the hood of the car.

Roman nodded with a small smile, looking back over at Claire, "Of course. When?"

Rick sighed, looking at the slowly darkening horizon and then to Claire. "First light?"

Claire's breathing stuttered, first light was a long time, but a good sleep in an actual house might do her good. " Sounds perfect."

Rick looked back at Roman, "Alright then, first light, head out to the highway and take your car into the town over, see if he's been there. Look through the woods in that area."

Roman nodded, grabbing the rag and wiping his hands with it, "Sounds good." Rick patted Romans back and started walking off, but Claire was stuck in her place, watching the sun glisten off his sweat covered arms.

"Are you alright?" The man questioned, leaning his head own a little as he took a step closer. He towered over her, despite her average height of 5"6', and it was slightly intimidating.

"Mhm," She nodded, squinting her eyes from the sun as she looked up.

He smiled, furrowing his eyebrows, "When did you get here?"

Claire cleared her throat, "Um, like maybe an hour ago. I've been looking for my brother, he ran away from our camp after it got attacked by a herd, and I've been out there for 5 days looking for him. Found the farm, thought it was empty, maybe he was in there."

"I see," He spoke, bending back down under the hood, metal clanking echoing through her ears again.

"What's his name?"

"Uh. Eli."

Roman's head peaked from the hood, "I'm sure we'll find him." Claire sent him a grateful smile, his reaction was much different from Glenn and Kira's, which gave Claire a little more hope in finding him, "Thank you for helping."

Roman shrugged, "Can you hand me that?" He pointed at a large wrench on the roof of the car next to Claire, and she nodded, grabbing it and stepping closer, handing him the tool.

As he dug his hand further into the hood of the car, he looked over at Claire with a raised eyebrow, "How old are you anyway? You look a little young to have survived 5 days alone in this world."

Claire rolled her eyes, too young her ass, "I'm 19. You look a little young to be judging someone for looking young." She stuck her tongue in her cheek, and the man laughed, dropping his head, "I'm 22."

"Hmm." She hummed, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

The man sighed, looking up at the darkened sky, nothing but a small sliver of sunshine left, before glancing back at her, "Should head inside, it's dark and we gotta be up early."

Claire nodded, watching as he wiped his hands as well as he could and dropped the rag back on the roof of the car, "Shall we," He mumbled, putting his hand out in front of him, silently telling her to walk. She nodded as she began walking, his large legs keeping in stride with her.

"You come here alone?"

Claire sucked in a breath, looking up at him, "Uh, yeah. My mom was bitten during the herd, and I'm pretty sure my dad did too. So, just me."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't on good terms with my parents when it happened, they moved to Florida after I graduated, so I can only assume where they are now, but I lost my brother a few weeks back, so, I get it. I think we all kinda do."

Claire looked up at him, scanning his face as they walked up the porch steps.

"I'm sorry."

Roman shook his head as they leaned against the railing, "Don't be. He was...challenged, I knew that he wouldn't last long without his meds and whatnot, I figured we could still try, but the damn walkers got to him before we could even attempt to make a run to a pharmacy."

Claire placed a hand on his forearm, "I'm sorry, again. That's horrible," She pulled her hand away and he looked down at her, "I'm almost glad, ya know? I wouldn't want him to suffer, especially in this kind of world. And if something happened to me? Who would take care of him? It was painful, but, I'm glad he's not suffering."

Claire nodded, fumbling with her fingers, picking away at the barely there left-over red nail polish. She couldn't imagine his pain, experiencing your brother just, vanishing like that right in front of your eyes. She, fortunately, didn't have to watch her mother turn, but she knows the pain of seeing the soul of your loved one disappear from their eyes.

"Hey guys, dinners ready."

Claire looked back at a girl with short brown hair, and Roman nodded, "Thanks, Maggie."

Roman pat the railing after the door shut, looking at Claire before turning around and making his way inside.

Claire looked out at the dark field with a sigh, what if Eli isn't out there, or he's dead, and she's just risking the lives of these people for nothing?

"You hungry or not?"

Claire spun to look at Roman, nodding and following him inside.

★

Dinner was nice. Claire couldn't remember the last time she had a real, homecooked meal. It was just spaghetti, a meal she complained about having too often growing up, but sitting there, eating it, surrounded by people, not the dead, not fearing whether she'd wake up or not tomorrow. It was so nice.

She was sat between Roman and Carl, who had to practically push Glenn out of his seat to sit there. She had been introduced to everyone. Andrea, who grabbed a plate with thanks and walked outside, Gale, a nice older man, Maggie, with whom she had a nice conversation with about horses, Paulette, a quiet older woman, Carol, a softspoken lady whose daughter they were actively searching for, T-Dog, the man from earlier (she apologized for snatching his gun), a young blonde girl named Beth, Jimmy, Beths quiet boyfriend, and the owner of the house, Hershel, who after Rick conviced him that she needed just one night of actual sleep, begrudgingly allowed her to stay on the couch, was actually quite sweet. And then there was Kira and Marcus, the two acting like siblings with the way they fought over who got which slice of bread.

"They act like this all the time, the rest of us have just learned how to ignore it," Roman whispered in Claires ear, and she smiled, looking at him through the corner of her eye, watching as he smiled before taking another bite of pasta.

Claire looked back up at Marcus from across the table, watching as he triumphantly took a bite out of a big piece of bread, Kira sitting next to him with a frown.

Marcus smiled, looking across from him, locking eyes with Claire as he chewed.

Claire smiled at him, and he gave her a smile back, before being nudged in the side by Kira.

"Pass the salad bowl, idiot."

Marcus rolled his eyes, grabbing the bowl of greens and handing it to her.

"Claire, you look exhausted sweetie. You should really get some sleep." Claire looked up at Carol, before weakly smiling, "I'm fine, really."

"You can take my bed. It's an air mattress, but it's damn better than the couch." Claire looked over at Marcus with wide eyes, "No, I'm fine with the couch, really. It's 100 times better than what I've been sleeping on the past week."

"It's good, really, plus, I won't have to listen to Roman's snores."

"Hey, I don't snore." Roman pointed his fork at the boy, and the tabled laughed. "Thank you, I really appreciate it."

Marcus held his glass of water up to her before taking a sip.

★

"It's the bed in the corner, get some sleep honey." Lori handed her a spare folded blanket before kissing the top of her head and leaving the room.

The room, which was basically a spare bedroom with 3 beds. One actual bed and two air mattresses.

The girl placed the blanket on the mattress, before slowly ridding herself of her tank top.

Now in her bra and jeans, she stared at the mirror. She was bruised, slightly clean from the rag bath she gave herself earlier, but still a little dirty. Placing two gentle fingers on a large bruise on her side, she winced, "Fuck."

"Hey, Claire, you're welcome to some of my cloth- Shit I'm so sorry."

Claire spun around as Marcus walked in. The boy quickly covered his eyes and turned away, keeping one arm extended out to her, a pile of clothes sitting atop of it. "I'm so sorry, I should've knocked."

Claire giggled, walking over and taking the clothes, quickly pulling on a large St. Johns University shirt. It fell to the middle of her thighs, and she grabbed the pants from his hand quickly.

"Law school, huh?" Marcus peeked through his fingers, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw her with a top on.

"Uh, yeah. I got in before all of...this." Claire nodded, pointing to herself, "University of Virginia."

"Ah, good school." Claire smiled, gripping the pair of plaid pajama pants tight to her chest. "Thank you, for the clothes and the bed."

"No problem, I'll uh, see you in the morning."

"Goodnight." Claire whispered, and Marcus turned to look at her, "Goodnight." Before he pulled the door closed.

She didn't know how long she was up, but she knows it was at least an hour of tossing and turning in the bed before Roman walked in. There wasn't any light in the room, but the moon shining through the window showed him attempting to quickly walk in, but tripping over a bag.

"Shit." He grumbled to himself, before pulling his shirt over his head and flopping down on the air mattress next to hers.

"Nice trip, see you next fall." Claire mumbled behind a smile, and Roman quickly lifted his head, looking over at her.

He chuckled, dropping his head into his arm, "Very funny."

"Do you even fit on that mattress?"

Roman groaned into his bicep, "Not really."

Claire laughed, adjusting her pillow so the cold side was pressed against her cheek, closing her eyes and allowing herself to doze off.

When she awoke the next morning, Roman was not in his bed, nor was anyone else. With a groan and a glance at the closed door, she stood up and pulled down the pajamas pants, a sigh of relief at the feeling. The pants were nice, but they were quite scratchy throughout the night and Claire refuses to complain, because beggars can't be choosers. But she definitely was excited to have them off.

The door opening caused Claire to spin around, watching as Roman entered the room, cleaning what looked to be a gun.

As he looked up, he gasped and turned, a giggle leaving his throat.

"I'm so sorry. I thought you were still asleep." Roman placed a hand over his mouth in an attempt to conceal his embarrassment.

Claire quickly grabbed her jeans, slipping them up over her thighs. The girl struggled, jumping up and down frantically to get the jeans over her butt, before a sigh of relief left her lips as it finally did.

Buttoning them closed, she turned her neck to look back at Roman, her cheeks a bright pink, "Walking in on me half naked seems to be a pattern in this house. I'm decent, by the way."

Roman turned with a smile, "In my defense, no ladies sleep in here, just Marcus, Jimmy and I. And even getting Hershel to allow Marcus to sleep in here was a stretch. So it'll take some getting used to."

Claire nervously smiled, before turning around and bending over, grabbing her shirt.

"Oh, right! Uhh, we're leaving in about 45 minutes. Leaves you enough time for breakfast. I made toast for us."

Claire nodded, "Thank you."

Roman sent her a tight-lipped smile, before walking backwards and closing the door.

Claire sighed, turning to look out of the window, where the sky was blue, rays of orange and yellow scattered across it. It was beautiful, and Claire could do nothing but hope that by the end of the day, her little brother would be in her arms.

She began wondering about the people in her life from before. Her boyfriend, Lucas. Was he alive? Dead? Dead, but walking? He was so kind, so free spirited. They were together for 2 years, near the end of it, she had considered breaking up with him. He was going to Washington State University, she was going to University of Virginia, it wouldn't have worked. She wonders if she would've done it by now if none of this had ever happened.

And even with her romantic feelings for him gone now, she prayed he was okay. With a group, with his sister family, just safe. She loved him, truly.

But this new world was cruel, and she knows she could only hope for both of the boys' safety.