Making dinner starts off a bit awkwardly as I have no idea what I could even converse about with these women. "So did you know each other before all this?" I ask, "oh no, we met in Atlanta." Carol says before she and Lori go into greater detail about how the group came to be.
"Are you not in pain?" Lori asks suddenly making me look up from the pan of spaghetti we were making. I shake my head. "A bit but it's manageable, I'm used to it." I shrug, she can't help it as her eyes tear up, "it's ok." I feel weird watching her get so upset for me. "Really Lori, I'm ok." She nods and turns away as she wipes her eyes. "Sorry." She apologises but I shake my head and turn back to my pot blinking as my own eyes begin to sting.
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Once we're done we take the food up to everyone, they'd all had their showers and were sat laughing together. I eat quietly watching them all interact, I felt like such an outsider but it was nice to be apart of the environment.
"What about you Selene?" I turn to Carl, who'd just asked me a question so sweetly. "What about me?" I wasn't paying attention to the conversation enough to know the question. "What were you before all this?"
All the adults tense as they realise what he's just asked. "Carl-" I shake my head at Rick, to let him know it was ok. Carl didn't realise what he'd asked me because everyone was talking about life pre walkers, he just wanted me to feel included in the conversation. "Before all this I was training to be an athlete." I tell him, "no way." I nod, "yeah I wanted to take it all the way to the olympics." His eyes widen, "which sport?"
"I was really good at track and so I had my heart set on hurdles." I smile remembering when I'd train after school with my friends. "Were you any good?" I laugh for the first time in forever, "I was amazing kid. I would've gotten the gold." I wink making him grin, "I'm sorry you didn't get to." My smile dims slightly but I nod, "me too." I add thinking of how different my life would've been, I could've been to the olympics already. "Maybe after all this you still can." Sophia chimes in making me grin at her. "Yeah maybe."
"Alright Carl I think it's time for bed." Lori says making him pout. "Already?" He asks as Carol prompts Sophia. "Yes it's getting late come on."
With the kids gone I feel awkward again, they were easy to be around because they didn't know what the adults did. They were still innocent kids who asked innocent questions.
"Alright I think it's time for the rest of us to be getting to bed as well." Rick tells the room after seeing me yawn, I knew that he was doing it because I'd claimed the couch and we were all sat in the living room so I couldn't sleep till everyone was gone. Once everyone disperses I roll over and sigh, I wasn't much of a sleeper. Instead I get up and am surprised to see Daryl sat alone in the kitchen. He relaxes once he sees that it's only me. I get the feeling that neither of us were big speakers so we'd probably stay in silence for however long we stayed here.
"Why aren't you sleeping?" He asks breaking the silence, I slide into the seat across from his. "Not much of a sleeper." I shrug, "what about you?" He scoffs, "I ain't shacking up with any of them." He says it in such disgust I can't help but laugh a bit. "You do know that there's another couch in the living room." I say but he shakes his head. "Nah you claimed that room."
"You can take the other couch, I don't mind. I probably won't get any sleep tonight anyways, no reason for both of us to suffer." He looks at me nods and then leaves.
I stay in the kitchen for a while not really sure what to do. After meeting the group, I liked them and I wouldn't mind staying with them. On the other hand was there any point? Was this really the world I wanted to live in? I didn't see the point in surviving this was not a life worth living.
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I don't remember falling asleep but when I wake up it's to the sound of discussion. I'm back on the couch and everyone's talking in the kitchen. "Look now everyone you met her, what do we think about letting her join us?" They're talking about me? I can't help but get up and walk over to the door to hear better.
"I already asked her but if anyone has any major concerns I need to hear them." Rick is the one talking, "I have some concerns." Shane speaks up and I hear Rick's sigh from here. "What?" I want to try and get a glimpse of what everyone looked like. "She's been locked down there for ten years, she's afraid of everything and everyone I just see her holding us back."
"Shane." Almost everyone disagrees with him. "No look I'm sympathetic to her I am, but she doesn't even know anything about the world before all this? How is she gonna survive."
"She's tough man. Killed that bastard all on her own, survived all this time too, she has it in her." Daryl says, "how do we know that she's okay? That she won't try and take one of us out next?" He was trying his hardest to keep me away from them. "She's been nothing but nice to all of us." Rick defends. "I don't trust her."
"We can't just leave her to die." That's Dale the older man, he had a good heart. "We have a moral responsibility to help this girl, what type of people would we be if we didn't? After everything she's done for us."
"Everything she's done for us? She made us dinner big whoop." Even though Shane won't let it go I'm not too stressed because it seems like he was the only one with this mindset. "Anyone other than Shane have a problem with Selene joining us?" Rick asks not wanting to entertain Shane further. No one says anything, "I guess it's decided."
