The Beginning Of The End (A Daryl Dixon Fanfiction)

Chapter Two: Handcuffed

The journey to their camp didn't take long as it was just outside of Atlanta and when the van pulled to a stop they all jumped out. The camp was incredible, it was on top of a small hill next to a quarry so you could look out for miles, there were a few tents pitched up, a plastic picnic table and an rv, it was cozy.
There was alot more people too, more people than Rain had seen in a while. The first one she met was Amy, Andrea's sister, she was young, quite a bit younger than Andrea, with long blonde hair and pretty features.
"Amy!" Andrea cried and ran towards her sister, they jumped into each other arms and held each other sobbing.
Next was a man called Dale, he was old with a grey beard and kind eyes.
Rain then met a woman with short grey hair called Carol, her husband Ed who was a large, round man and their daughter Sophia.
Rain felt sort of left out, everyone knew each other. She walked over to Rick knowing that he was probably feeling the same, she was about to talk to him and ask him if he was alright but he looked up and across the camp and something caught his eye.
At first he was looking at Shane, a physically fit man who was also a cop like Rick, but then he looked behind him at a young woman with soft features and brown hair and a freckled face boy.
The boy started crying and so did Rick before they ran to each other.
"Dad!" The boy shouted, "dad!"
The woman ran after him and they both jumped into Rick's arms.

Rain sat down in the back of the van, now she really was the only person who didn't know anyone.
"Hey." a girls voice spoke. "Did you forget to introduce yourself?"
Rain looked up, it was Amy, she slid over to give her space to sit down,
"I'm Rain." she smiled at her,
"Friends with Rick?"
"Yeah I guess so." Rain was weighing up what to say next, she should be polite, say she'd leave as soon as possible, get out of everyone's hair but instead she broke down crying.
"Hey." Amy rubbed her back. "What's wrong?"
"I have no where else to go." She sobbed,
"Why would you need to go anywhere else, they brought you here didn't they?" Amy asked,
"I have nothing to offer," Rain continued, "I can't fight, I can't hunt..."
"We've got fighters and hunters." She said. "I heard you helped T-dog, clearly you can offer something."
Rain smiled and quickly wiped her tears as she heard voices getting closer to them, Amy put her head round the door of the van,
"It's Rick."
Amy jumped up and left as Rick arrived with his family.
"This is Rain." he said gesturing to her,
"She saved me."
He looked into her eyes as he said it and she smiled. She felt like she barely did anything for him, she only opened the hatch to tank and gave him a gun. The fact that he actually appreciated that, it made her feel loved, more loved than she felt in a long time. She remembered what Amy had said about how she helped T-dog, it must have meant something to him if he told people. Maybe these people weren't so bad.

~

The next morning Rain woke to light filling the tent, she stayed with Andrea and Amy that night. She quietly slipped on some jeans, a jumper and boots and left the tent. The camp reminded her of going camping with her daughter, they took camping trips any weekend they had free and her daughter would bring different friends. It was exactly the same atmosphere, the sound of children giggling as they ran around playing 'tag', the smell of breakfast cooking on a campfire or gas burner, the sun beating on her back and comforting her like a warm hug.
Rain found Carol hanging up clothes to dry, some of them she recognised,
"You washed my clothes?" Rain asked her,
"Some of them." She replied,
"You didn't have to do that."
"I know." she said, she sounded stern but she was smiling.
Suddenly a piercing scream echoed around the camp coming from the forest nearby, Rick and Lori were the first to jump up, they recognised their sons screams and soon others followed with weapons.
Rain grabbed her axe and walked slowly in the same direction.
She passed Lori, Rick and their crying son heading back to camp and soon found the rest of them stood around the reason for Carl's breakdown. Rain stood up on her toes to look over Rick's shoulder to see a walker knelt on the ground pulling the guts out of a deer which had two arrows sticking out of its hind leg. The walker soon stood up when it heard everyone behind it but before it could even take a step Rick hit it over the head with a black pole causing it to stumble sideways like a drunk man, next Shane hit it with his rifle and then Glenn did the same, it was being passed around the circle, bouncing from one person to another.
Finally the walker fell to the ground and Rick turned to look at Rain, the only person who hadn't attacked it yet,
"Go on." he said.
She stepped into the middle of the circle and raised her axe, she took a couple deep breath before swinging it down onto the walkers neck.
She then pulled the axe out of the ground and stepped back, admiring her work.