Walking through the unfamiliar house I bumped into an old man with snow white hair.

"You must be Willow, pleasure to meet your acquaintance," he put out his blood covered hands.
I shook his hand, regardless of the blood and tried peaking into the room behind him.

"He'll make a full recovery if that's what you're wondering, thanks to you of course," he smiled so kindly at me.

"I'm glad," I nodded.

"you can wait inside if you'd like, he should be waking up soon," he offered, walking away. I thought about it a good second, before shaking my head and stepping outside onto the porch. Looking out over the fields of the farm, everything looked so peaceful. No biters in site, no walls, just green grass and open area. It wouldn't last forever though, nothing peaceful ever does...

"You plan on sticking around this time?" Rick walked up behind me.

"I'm not sure," I answered him.

"Well you should, we could sure use your help, and company of course," he chuckled at me.

"I'll think about it," I nodded.

"Okay, if you're tired, I'm sure Daryl wouldn't mind you sleeping in his tent. It's the only one with available space, a bit of a walk though," he offered to me, pointing across the field.

I was exhausted, I'd probably drop dead asleep if I didn't rest soon. Finding the red necks tent across the field, I zipped myself inside and scanned over the small amount of belongings. There was only a sleeping bag and worn out backpack inside, I guess he liked to travel light. I plopped myself down in the corner of the tent, not wanting to disturb anything and passed out.

~~~~

Hours later, the sun was barely starting to rise above the horizon, I must of slept for hours... I went outside and made my way deep into the woods with my crossbow. My feet felt light as a feather as I swept through the trees and scanning the ground for any animal tracks. After about 20 minutes I stumbled upon a rabbit nibbling on the grass beside a tree. I aimed for it down the sight of my bow, took a deep steady breath, and pulled the trigger gently. I heard the thud of the arrow making contact with something before seeing the rabbit dead, an arrow in its neck.

Making my way back towards the farm house, I used the fire pit Daryl had outside his tent and cooked the rabbit I'd killed. It wasn't the fattest rabbit out there, but it'd get me through the day. After picking all the meat off the bones and feeling satisfied, I noticed a commotion going on down at the barn. I made my way behind the crowd and listened in.

"There's walkers in the barn," Glen spit out nervously.

Everybody started to talk over each other until the doors of the barn pushed against the chain and padlock, shutting everybody up fast. It even made me a little uneasy, it sounded like there was a dozen or so inside.

"This is still Hershel's farm, I'll talk to him about it, we still need to convince him to let us stay," Rick calmed everybody down.

Shane started to blabber about how we needed to keep somebody on watch near the barn at all costs while I followed Rick up towards the house.

"You really think you can convince him to let us stay?" I asked.

"Does us, mean you're staying?" Rick looked at me.

"For the time being," I shrugged.

"Oh... well I'm not so sure what he'll say," he confessed.

We nodded heads at each other as we split ways inside the house. I stood outside Daryl's door for a few minutes, debating on whether to go in or not. I think I was more confused on why I wanted to go inside in the first place.

"You gonna come in or what?" A gruff voice called from inside the room.

Shit... I turned the corner inside the small guest room, Daryl was sitting up, a bandage around his head while he played with a wooden arrow in his hands, torso exposed...

"Well I'll be dammed, welcome back tree girl," he huffed at me. I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, and I was scolding myself for coming here.

"Glad to see you're not dead at least," I crossed my arms, leaning against the door frame.

"Not yet at least," he joked. He didn't seem to have any idea that I was the one who pulled him out of that river and dragged his ass all the way here. In all honesty, I didn't want him to know.

"How'd you find us?" he then asked. Nobody had really asked me that question yet, and I wasn't sure on how to answer it.

"I went back into the city, watched you guys leave after the CDC blew up, which congratulations on destroying by the way. Just wanted to make sure everyone made it out I guess," I quickly made up. He squinted his eyes at me for a moment, and I thought for sure he knew I was lying.

"So how long you plan on sticking around this time?" he wondered.

"Not sure," I shrugged.

"Well I'm glad you're not dead either, now get lost," he grumbled. I rolled my eyes and backed out of the room. Oddly enough that was the nicest thing Daryl had ever said to me, it almost made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside but then I remembered how much of a dick he is.

I sat on top of the railing out on the porch, the sun was starting to set, that's how long I'd been here. Out near the tents where the rest of the group was huddled around a fire, one pair of eyes in particular couldn't stay off me. It almost made me uncomfortable the way Shane stared at me, but I brushed it off and headed inside Daryl's tent for the night.