Survive

First Encounter

I was tied up to a tree.
My shirt raised slightly, exposing my deep stitched-up wound. I had fallen off a little cliff on a supply run and had sliced the side of my stomach pretty deep and definitely broke a couple of ribs. My brother Matt had found me and stitched me up best he could. He wasn't a doctor but knew a little of what to do from the previous group we were with.
Since I couldn't stand very well, my brother had gone out on a food run this time around and had been gone for a day and a half.
He tied me to a tree just in case I turned while he was gone. He said it was because he wanted to say goodbye to me if something happened. I knew he wanted to stay with me until I was healed, but we needed food and medicine now. I felt weak and scared, which I would never admit. This apocalypse had changed me and my brother maybe for the better since this was probably what the world would be like for the rest of my life. I started to fall asleep. I tried to fight against it, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I soon felt someone beside me, "Matt?" I said weakly.
"What the hell happened to you?" A raspy voice said from behind me. I was too weak to turn my head. "Are you bit?" he spoke again. They were now in front of me but I couldn't lift my head.
"No," I said softly.
"Shit" was the last thing I heard before I let sleep overcome me.
I woke up with a start. I tried to shoot up for my seated position, but something held me down. I look around frantically to find I wasn't in the woods anymore, but a shed. My wrists were chained to the wall on both sides. I had enough room to hold my arms straight out in front of me but these chains were still animalistic and uncalled for. I was startled by the shed door slowly opening. A man's head poked in and stared at me.
"What's your name?" He said with a strong southern accent. I stared at him, not answering. He looked at me for a little longer before fully walking into the shed. I instinctively pushed myself farther away from the man, up against the shed wall behind me. "I'm not going to hurt you, no one here is. Daryl found you tied to a tree. Can I ask what happened to you? You were cut pretty bad and I see you have a couple of broken ribs that probably aren't healing correctly." He stepped closer to me, slowly kneeling.
"You should have left me where you found me," I said. Once I finished my sentence the door to the shed swung open and a dirty man entered,
" You better be grateful, I saved your ass." The man said.
"Daryl calm down." The other man said. He turned back to face me,
"My name is Rick Grimes and this is Daryl, the man that found you."
I looked back and forth between the two-man,
"someone let me go!"  I screamed.
"We're not going to do that. We don't know who you are and why you were tied up to a tree."
I scoffed at Ricks comment,
"Then why bring me back to your camp, huh?"
The two men looked at each other.
"We don't kill the living," Rick said.
"I was fine where I was."
Daryl shook his head and pushed past Rick to get up close to me.
"Listen hear girly, what were you doin' tied up to a tree and by yourself? Were you left for dead or somethin' else! Huh!?"
I looked down at the ground and spoke,
"My brother and I were camping out and I went out on a supply run and got hurt as you can tell. He tied me to a tree so if I turned while he was gone looking for food, I wouldn't be able to go anywhere. He said he wanted to say goodbye if I turned."
Rick stood next to Daryl.
"If you weren't bitten, then why did he think you would turn?" Rick said.
"At our old camp. Some guy just dropped dead and wasn't even bitten. He came back as one of those dead things." I said ignoring the memory that came back.
"How long has it been since you've seen him," Rick asks me.
I looked up at them,
"I honestly don't know. I was in and out for a couple of days it felt like, but I don't know."
The men both looked at each other and stood to leave.
"Are you just gonna leave me here still after I told you everything?"
Daryl was the one that turned around this time
"We still don't trust you," Daryl says.
"Sorry," Rick said. I scoffed at his words.
"Don't you wanna know my name?" I screamed
They both exited the shed, leaving me alone again. I huffed loudly and slouched back against the wall.
"I gotta get out of here."
                   The next morning there was a faint knock on the door. I looked up to see it was Daryl coming in.
"Rick told me to bring you something to eat."
I nodded as I sat up. He leaned forward to place the plate on the ground.
"Make sure you eat this, you look awful."
I rolled my eyes at him
"Wow thanks, you really know how to talk to a lady." He smirked a little before turning to leave the shed. I need to get out of here now I thought.
"Hey, Daryl."
I said causing him to turn back around.
"I know of a place where you can get ammo and food supplies."
Daryl fully turned towards me and starts giving me a weird look.
"I don't believe you whatever your name is."
I sat up a little bit more straight trying to make myself look more confident.
"I swear I do. You'll find my brother there too." Daryl walked towards me.
"Why are you telling me this girl?"
"I want you guys to trust me," I said back. He hesitated.
"Ok, then where is it."
"Get me a map and I'll show you." He reaches into his pocket and pulled out a small folded map. Shit, I thought he would take me out of this shed and to Rick.
"Show me," he said leaning close in front of me. This isn't going to work I thought to myself. I need to think quickly. Without really thinking it through, I reached up and pulled Daryl towards me, kissing him on the lips. It really caught him by surprise. I used my other chained hand to reach for the key hanging from his belt. He pulled away abruptly and stormed out the door, slamming it hard behind him as he mumbled to himself in disgust. I had to work quickly. I quickly shoved the key into the keyhole freeing one wrist and then the other.
I could hear Daryl groan and yell for Rick to come over. Through the little window, I could see that Daryl realized what I had done with the keys and why I kissed him. He called Rick over who just happened to be walking by. Of course. I looked around quickly, but there was nowhere to hide in the shed, it was empty. I could see the low beams in the shed. I jumped as high as I could and grabbed the beam. I pulled myself up, struggling a little. I let out a groan when the beam brushed again my broken ribs and the deep cut. I hid up on the beam holding my side, trying to keep the pain to myself. It hurt so bad.
The door swung open as I watched Daryl enter first with a knife in hand. Rick followed. Rick let out a groan when he saw Daryl's weapon and gave him a look to put it away. Daryl didn't hesitate to do so. They both went over to the chains and picked them up.
"I didn't see her leave. It just happened." Daryl said angrily. I jumped down behind them and sprinted out the door. The noise of my feet hitting the ground startled the men and caused them to turn around. I sprinted as fast as I could through the pain of my side. I looked behind me to see them a little bit behind me. I turned to face where I was going only to be stopped by a boy in my way, pointing a gun at me. I stopped abruptly as he stood in front of me.
"Who are you and where are you going?" The young boy said.
"Put the gun down Carl," Rick said sternly. I turned to face Rick and Daryl behind me and watched them put both of their hands up to try and calm Carl down. I became worried, thinking this boy was very impulsive.
"I'm not a threat ok, just let me go. I'm better off on my own," I yelled towards Rick as he stepped forward. I didn't know where to look, turn around and face Rick or keep looking at his boy with the gun pointed at my face.
"I trust you ok. We were being careful. You should stay here, it's safe here and we can fix your wounds up." My hand automatically shot to my side to cover up my wound.
"I'll be fine on my own."
Daryl steps forward
"I used to be like that, thinking I could survive on my own but you need people, a family to keep you safe and sane."
I stared at him and then looked back at the door.
"If you want to leave you can," Rick said after a moment of silence. I thought for a second. I didn't know if my brother was alive and the world out there is getting worse. Maybe I needed a reason to stay and trust these people.
"You just had me chained up and now you are telling me you trust me and want me to stay. Why? Why should I even trust you?"
Rick stepped closer to me.
"We were just being careful. We have a lot of people who live here. We wanted to make sure you weren't crazy or something. We want people to come to Alexandria and join us. We just didn't know if you were safe. We did find you tied to a tree."
I looked around me to get a look at this place. It was different from other camps I had seen. Maybe I should give this place a chance. If it doesn't work out I could always leave.
"I'll stay, but don't treat me like an animal again or you'll be sorry."
Rick nodded and stepped forward to me.
"Come on. There's someone you need to meet and then we'll get your wounds checked and fixed." 
I nodded stepping forward and following him.
"Hannah," I said.
"What?"
"My name is Hannah," I said. He smiled and continued to walk.
Rick asked me to follow him to some woman named Deanna. When I entered the house, he told me to sit down in a chair in the living room. She entered soon after.
"Hello, Hannah. My name is Deanna."
I nodded in response.
"Now I have some questions for you. Rick seems to like you if he brought you here to talk to me."
I looked over at Rick has he nodded towards me.
"He doesn't even know me," I said in a snappy voice.
"That's ok. It's a feeling that he has then." She answered with a smile.
"Well, what do you wanna know," I said adjusting myself in the chair.
"Tell me about your time outside of Alexandria."
*Later On*
"When did you break your ribs?" The doctor Pete said. Daryl stood by the door watching my every move. It made me feel uncomfortable.
"I don't know. Maybe a couple of days ago, a little more maybe."
"Well they seem to be healing, you just need to rest more. There seems to be some new bruising." I lifted my shirt to see the bruising.
"What about the cut?" He turned back to me with some wrap.
"Whoever stitched it up did a good job with what they had. I'll give you some antibiotics just in case an infection starts." I nodded lifting my arm a little so he could wrap the gauze around me. When he was done, I hopped off the table and stood up. "Thanks a lot, doc." He nodded before turning around and heading out of the room. I stood there awkwardly looking down at my clothes. I looked up at the little mirror on the wall and looked at my face. Wow, I was dirty and a mess. My clothes were pretty dirty and I must look scary to everyone else.  Daryl could see I was just standing there looking at myself and walked over placing his hand on my shoulder. I flinched a little before I relaxed at his touch.
"Come on now, we'll go find Rick and see what to do with you." I followed Daryl out the door and around the little town.
"What is this place?" I said
"Alexandria." That was all he said. I knew that, but I didn't know what else I wanted him to say. We headed towards a house on the side of the street. It was a nice house. Looked bigger than what I was used to the backing before the apocalypse.
"Rick!" Daryl yelled as he jogged up the stairs of the front porch. I stayed put at the bottom of the stairs. Rick came out of the house and went up to Daryl. "What did the doctor say?"
"She's fine," Daryl said looking back at me.
"Well welcome to Alexandria. If you want to stay here you're gonna have to do some chores and other things around this town. We all work together to make this place work. You're one of us now."
I nodded looking around the town before looking back at Rick.
"I'll be happy to put in some work. I can hold my own." He nodded as he walked down the stairs.
"You can stay at Daryl's house. He doesn't really live in it and it will be good for him to keep an eye on you."
I laughed a little,
"Still don't trust me huh." He ignored my statement as he walked past me. I followed behind him until we got to another house a little bit down the road. It was nice and looked like Rick's house. I smiled as I got closer to the porch of the house. I couldn't believe I would be staying in a beautiful house like this.
"Well, here you are. You'll start chores and other work like runs in a couple of days. I want you to get some rest and eat. You look terrible." Rick said as he patted his hand on my shoulder before walking back up the street. I turned to face Daryl
"Why don't you live in here, it's beautiful," I asked
He huffed at me,
"it's not my kind of style, plus I'm used to living out in the wild. Others used to live here with me, but now they got their own places to stay with other people." I nodded before entering the house with Daryl right behind me.
"So I'm guessing the master bedroom is open."
He gave me a look before doing a single nod. As I was about to run up the stairs, Daryl grabbed my wrist. "Wait girly I have something for you." I turned to face him fully.
"Here. I found this by you out in the woods." It was my backpack. It wasn't a lot of things in there, only my gun, knife, one family album, and my father's cross necklace that had my name engraved in it with a picture inside. I gave it to him when I was little and after I killed him when he turned into one of those dead creatures, I took it. I opened the bag to see if it was all in there.
"Daryl where are my knife and gun?"
"I can't let you have that."
"What! You walk around with a crossbow, so why can't I just have the knife."
He scoffed before turning and leaving. I placed one of my backpack straps on my shoulder as I looked around the house. It had a big open kitchen that leads into the living room. The house felt so empty with just me in it. I ran up the stairs and found the master bedroom. It was big and beautiful with a nice mattress.
I placed my backpack down and went into the bathroom. I looked at myself in the sink mirror. Wow was I looked scary. I slowly took off my clothes being careful of the bruises and the cuts. I turned on the shower and felt the water, warm. I took a long shower, just enjoying the water. When I was done I wrapped a towel around me and picked up my clothes. I walked out into the hallway to go downstairs. I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water. After my third cup, I filled up the glass one more time before heading upstairs. When I got back into the bedroom, I placed the water glass on the nightstand and went into the bathroom. I placed my clothes in the tub and started to wash them as best I could. There was a lot of dirty. I hung them to dry over the shower curtain rod. I dried my hands and went into the bedroom falling on the mattress, falling asleep instantly.