Everyone sat around the warm fire, as the temperature dropped each night. Elle had spent the day figuring out everyone's names and faces.

"Disoriented. That's what comes closest." Rick spoke, all eyes on him as he told his story about waking up in the hospital and how he got to the point he's at now. He told them about how a man named Morgam helped him and told him what was going on.

Elle sat in her lawn chair just looking at the ground, trying to avoid the few pairs of eyes that fell on her. She dug the toe of her shoe into the dirt out of stress. Could you blame them for staring at her? They watched as Shane pinned her to the ground and announced that he arrested her. Most of them didn't even know her name, yet they judged her.

As if reading her mind, Dale spoke up. "We never caught your name." He took a swig of his beer as all eyes shifted from Rick to her.

Before she could answer for herself, Shane responded. "Elle Clarke. Born September sixth, 1998. She was in sixth grade and taking two eighth grade classes before the dead started walking. She's a smart one. " He sat back in his chair wearing a smug smirk.

"Flattered you remember me." Elle kept a straight face. Her and Shane would never get along, she's accepted that by now, not that she really wanted to be friendly with him at all.

"You're the Elle Clarke everyone talked about at school? I wasn't at school that day." Carl spoke up from his father's side. 

"Yes, I became quite popular after my 'incident'. As I was arrested in front of the entire sixth and seventh grade." She said.  

"Glenn and Elle saved my life. When I was trapped in that tank, Elle was hiding in a bar across the street while Glenn saw from an alley. They radioed the tank and got me out. I trust her. There's no reason any of you shouldn't." Rick said defending her. She smiled at him and he happily returned it. 

"What are we supposed to tell Daryl?" Andrea asked, changing the subject. Daryl was Merle's younger brother and the two of them stuck by each other like wet on water.
 
"We could lie." Amy suggested.

"No, we tell the truth. He was a threat to the group and our safety, we handled it. He was asking for it." Elle argued. "He was high and popping off rounds as if we have unlimited ammunition."

"I'll do it. They were my cuffs" Rick offered.

"No, I dropped the key, its my fault." T-Dog said.

"Look, I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy." Glenn interfered, sounding slightly embarrassed. They understood. People said Daryl went on a hunting trip yesterday before the group left and wasn't gonna be back until tomorrow, meaning they had until tomorrow to figure out how to tell him that his brother was handcuffed to a pipe on the roof of a building in the middle of a walker infested city.

"Well everyone should get some shut eye." Dale said, putting an end to the conversation. As everyone got up, Elle stayed put, she didn't have anywhere to sleep. She never thought about it. Sleep was rare these days and these people acted as if it was normal. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen a single walker since she's been here at the camp. As Shane finished putting out the fire, she built up the courage to walk up to him.

"Shane?" She asked.

"What's up?" He grumbled.

"Look, I get it, I'm a bad influence on the kids here or whatever. But you need to know when to stop talking about it. My intention wasn't to scare anyone when I was hitting that kid. It was to show him that he can't expect someone not to fight back just because he's bigger. He was hurting my friend, so I stepped up. So can you please just not talk about it? I know you don't like me, and we won't get along, but it would help if everyone wasn't seeing me as some hardened criminal." She looked at him with pleading eyes.

"What I did wasn't wrong, I just took it too far. But please, just stop bringing it up." She finished. He sighed and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I think what you did was right. Like you said, you just took it a little too far though. The boy needed a lesson, he just learned it at the wrong place and time. It was hard arresting you in front of all those kids, but I knew if I didn't cuff you, the boy would be as good as dead." He explained. "Now, Glenn has extra room in his tent and he set up a cot for you." She nodded and thanked him before she walked over to Glenn's tent.
 
She crouched down and got inside the tent, seeing Glenn toss some blankets on the the cot she assumed was hers. "Hey there, roomie." He smiled. She raised an eyebrow at him, something she noticed about him was that he was quite cheerful.

"Hi." She let out a small laugh.

"Well there's your 'bed,' let me know if you need anything." He gestured to the cot with a few blankets and a single pillow lied on top of it. She nodded and kicked off her shoes as Glenn turned off the lantern and settled into his little "bed."

She decided to just sleep in what she was wearing considering she was exhausted. 

"How are we gonna tell Daryl?" Glenn asked rolling over to face her. 

"Well if he's anything like Merle, let's hope he's not high as a kite. And just cross your fingers he won't try to kill us." She said smirking, although he couldn't see it due to how dark it was in the tent.

"Daryl never liked drugs. But he will take a swing, that's for sure." Glenn sighed.

"You ever do drugs?" Elle asked, curious. He wore a shocked expression. "I mean, you were a teenager once. You had to at least smoke once." She chuckled. 

"Nope. I was the wimp who sat at home playing video games while everyone else would play outside." He smiled. 

"I was always the one outside. Playing soccer and flag football with my friends." She said rolling on her back. You could see some of the brightest stars through the top of the tent. 

"You like football?" Glenn asked. 

"I had a lot of guy friends. Kind of just happens when you have three brothers. I wasn't on any football team, but I was a mean softball player." She chuckled.

"I was the oldest. You?" He asked.

"Youngest." She scoffed. After a few more minutes of just casual conversation, they decided they should get some sleep.

The second Elle closed her eyes, she was pulled in the darkness. It was calm and quiet. It was sleep. That's what it was. "Sleep," it sounds like a foreign word now adays. She didn't really dream, her mind  was probably too busy being fascinated by the fact she was actually sleeping.

After what felt like was a few minutes, was actually several hours, she woke up to Glenn shaking her awake. 

"Are we in immediate danger?" She asked before opening her eyes, her morning voice making it apparent that she certainly wasn't a morning person.

"No?" He answered. 

"Then five more minutes." She grumbled, adjusting the blanket. 

"Fine. I'll get you in five minutes. You better be ready to get out of bed." He agreed. Elle heard him zip the tent behind him. She sighed as she let the darkness swallow me again. 

"Five minutes is up!" Glenn cheered from outside the tent. 

"Nuh uh." She argued, refusing to believe it had been five minutes. 

"She refusing to get out of bed?" Rick's voice could be heard from right outside. "Try this." 

Elle smelled something, something amazing. Food. She hadn't had a decent meal since her time juvie. It was meat. The thought alone just made her mouth water.

"Oh Elle, come on out.. we have food." Rick teased. She could hear other people at the camp laughing at the situation. She sat up, still wearing the clothes from the previous day.

She cautiously unzipped the tent and rubbed her eyes as she looked around. She didn't see Rick or Glenn anywhere, she just heard them talking, where were they? They came up behind her and made a loud noise, scaring her.

"Boo!" She jumped, grabbing her chest instinctively. Her heart rate was definitely high.

"You guys suck." She groaned, even after she almost had a heart attack, she was still tired.

"Yeah. Here, it's squirrel." Rick said handing her a plate. She took it and bit off a piece, chewing it, it was a little tough.

After a while, Elle did eventually change into different clothes. She changed into another pair of jeans jeans, a light grey shirt, and a blue flannel to go over it. Carol said she would wash her clothes, she brought her clothes over to her.

"This is really nice of you. Thank you." She said to her smiling. She pulled her hair into a loose bun at the base of her neck. 

"It's no problem," Carol gave her a genuine smile. "Can I ask about that butterfly behind your ear?" She asked.

"I got it in juvie. My experience wasn't too bad considering I was put in there a month before all this. Just a few more ear piercings, and someone offered to give me a tattoo. I chose a butterfly because it was my mom's favorite." She didn't smile at the thought of her mom. Her parents were never around, they were always busy with work. It only took the end of the world for her it realize that her parents weren't great.

"That's sweet. Why don't you go hang out with Sophia and Carl?" Carol suggested, pointing at the kids playing with sticks to draw in the dirt.

"Why not?" She gave her a small smile. She saw that they were just having a small conversation while admiring each other's art work. They started adding rocks to the peices.

"Mind if I join you guys?" Elle asked, slightly anxious.

"Go ahead." Sophia said, smiling at her. She sat down and grabbed a stick to draw whatever came to her mind. Not much came to her mind, she wasn't exactly artistically gifted, nor was she very creative. She simply drew a stock person.

"Want to go into the woods?" Carl asked, causing her to look up from the ground, Sophia nodded. She went and got Morales's children, hoping they would join them.

"Are we even allowed out here?" Elle asked, concerned that there were no adults and five children out in the woods alone.

"Sometimes." Carl answered. 

"Okay, but I'm asking about now." She specified. "The last thing I need is your parents thinking I'm a bad influence and got you guys into this." She stressed her worry.

After about two minutes of walking, they heard something. Elle being in the front of them, held her hand out to stop them. She looked around and her eyes landed on a deer with an arrow in it. It also had a walker's hands digging through it.

She quickly turned back to the rest of the kids to get them to go back, not wanting to alert the undead of their presence, but they screamed. Adults quickly made their way to them, hearing the screams. Elle reached for her knife but remembered they took her weapons. 

"You guys okay?" Lori asked as every kid ran to their parents. It made her feel a little bad but she didn't let it get to her. Rick, Shane, Dale, and Morales all came running with a shovel, a baseball bat, an axe, and a club. They were beating the walker, not stopping as it kept coming for them.

Dale finally swung the axe, cutting the walker's head off. Then another man came out of the woods, carrying a crossbow and a string of a dozen dead squirrels.

"Man, that's my deer. I've been tracking it for miles!" He claimed, clearly upset at the sight. Elle guessed that this man was Daryl. She looked to Rick and he had the same idea. 

"You think we can cut around this part here?" Daryl asked pointing to where the walker had been previously snacking, hoping to salvage the catch.

"I wouldn't risk it man." Shane said, shaking his head. It was the right call.

"That's a damn shame. Well I got a dozen squirrels, that'll have to do." Daryl said. Everyone turned when they heard faint growling. The walker's head was still moving, biting the air. Everyone got their kids back to camp as Daryl pointed his bow, pulling the trigger. The head fell silent for good.

"You gotta get the brain." He mumbled to them. They were all walking back to camp in silence, watching their step until Daryl shouted.

"Merle! Get your ugly ass out here, I got squirrels!" He called out, looking around for the mentioned man.

"We need to talk about your brother." Rick said stepping up to him calmly, hoping the conversation would stay that way.

"Who the hell are you?" Daryl shouted, rejecting Rick's thought.

"Rick Grimes."

"Well 'Rick Grimes', you got something you want to tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to the group." Rick said, not quite getting to the point.

"He dead?" Daryl asked, jumping to reasonable conclusions.

"We don't know." Elle answered when nobody else did.

"How can you not know? Either he is or he ain't!" Daryl said stepping in her direction. She didn't even flinch, she stood there. She was a little frightened, but she would never admit it.

"I cuffed him to a steel pipe on the roof." Rick said to get Daryl out of her face. 

"Its my fault. I dropped the key." T-Dog piped up.

"Why didn't you just pick it up?" Daryl snapped. 

"I dropped it down a drain." T-Dog added to his previous statement.

"He could still be alive." Elle suggested.

"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it ain't." Daryl shouted as he started walking to his tent.

"Maybe this will," T-Dog started. "When I left, I had enough time to lock the door shut. Iron chain and padlock. Stair case is narrow, maybe 6 geeks can fit. They can't break through that lock. What I'm saying is: Merle is alive."

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hey there, roomie

HORRIBLY rewritten: january 20, 2022