Sugar and Spice

Chapter 13

After stewing in my own thoughts for sometime I emerged from the tent making note of where the temporary home was amongst the other tents. I glanced around the area seeing both Dale and T-Dog gathering water for the camp, I wandered over causing the two to look over at me offering nods in my direction.

"Hey, you need any help?" I asked softly, still a bit unsure of how to act around the new people, Dale quickly put me to work though handing me some of the buckets as he moved the full ones while T-Dog was in control of the water pump. I quietly took note of the wrapped arm. "How's your arm doing?"

"It's okay now Hershel handled it while you were asleep." I smiled at the man which he returned as we continued to work, but I stopped when I saw Dale next to a wooden plank that had a hole in the middle leading to the water source. "Everything alright?" T-Dog asked noticing the older man's strange behaviour, I placed the bucket I was holding down before jogging over and peeking down the hole as Dale had done only a few moments ago. The sound of growling filled my ears as I spotted a large figure moving around at the bottom in the water.

"Shit." I muttered hearing the two talking behind me, I bent down grabbing the wooden panel and moving out the way with the help of T-Dog so we could at least try and get a better view of the problem at hand. T-Dog walked off to get the others as Dale and I stayed by the water source looking down into the well just watching as the bloated walker bobbed up and down in the water. Eventually the group was surrounding the well staring down as we tried to find a way to solve this.

"We need to get it out." Lori concluded as several members suggested that we just shoot it and then drag it out. However, the idea was quickly shut down; we all knew it had to come out alive if we didn't want to risk fully contaminating the water source.

"We could try using bait." Glenn suggested within a few minutes Maggie had ran into the house grabbing a canned ham which we were currently dangling into the hole from a piece of rope hoping that the walker would bite.

"He's not going for it." Dale stated after a while of trying to get the walkers attention.

"It needs to be alive." I told the group breaking the silence as I glanced around. "What do we do now?" I asked turning my attention back to the walker in the hole with a grimace.

"We need live bait." Andrea told us as she turned to Glenn I noticed the uneasiness at the new suggestion, it was clear from the look she was giving him that she was suggesting him to be live bait.

"I'll do it." I blurted out as everyone turned to look at me, Glenn with a shocked look. I don't know why the words came out but they did. However, what shocked me more was when Shane spoke up from beside me.

"No." The ex sheriff was quick to protest as I turned to him with a confused look, my head tilting to the side slightly as an involuntary action. The rest of the group was equally confused at the sudden protest.

"Maybe Shanes right plus I think Daryl would kill us if we let you go through with it." Glenn spoke up, attracting all the attention back to him again. I didn't argue with everyone as we began to set up the ropes that would keep Glenn away from the walker while he hooked him.

"We have to be careful with this." I told Shane and Glenn as I helped to knot the ropes. "Depending on how long he's been dead and how much the body has decayed combine that with the bloating from being down there the body could pull apart when we bring him up." Glenn grimaced as Shane took the information into account thanking me before I went to grab the rope with the rest of the group. I watched as Glenn lowered himself into the well and the pull on the rope was instant as we began to slowly lower him, I tried my best to keep the rope steady like everyone else. The sound of creaking broke me out of watching the well as I spotted the pump shaking slightly under the pressure.

"Shane the pump." I called out, but it was too late as the bolts that held it to the stand gave way pulling us all to the ground as we scrambled to grab the rope. I drowned out the shouts focusing on trying to keep a grip on the metal along with everyone else. We were all panicking at this point desperately pulling on the rope trying to hoist Glenn up, it was a relief when the man pulled himself up onto the ground and out of the well. Luckily, Glenn wasn't hurt or worse and he had managed to hook the walker at the same time. Now came the harder task of trying to get the walker out in one piece, Shane has decided that this time I would be the eyes for the group as they brought the thing up and out of the well.

"Almost there I called out to them." Keeping an eye on the walker as I kept my knife in hand ready to put it down, as it got closer to the top the smell was disgusting. The bloated corpse reached for me once it got out of the well, which I quickly jumped back. "Just a little more." I shouted to the group getting ready to go take the thing down, but stopped when I noticed that it was stuck. "Wait." I shouted knowing what would happen if they put too much strain on the corpse, but the group didn't seem to listen and eventually the worst scenario happened. The walker split in half as guts spilled everywhere and the lower half fell into the well. T-Dog came forward with a club bashing the walkers head in to put it down, I looked away not really wanting to see this. I walked away from the group heading towards the tent to wait for some other kind of work to come around or for Daryl to show up. I sat outside with a book reading it with only a bit of interest as I enjoyed the remains of the sun. When footsteps approached I glanced up smiling when I met Daryl's eyes as he made his way over.

"Hey." I called softly as he gave a tired smile, without a word I made my way into the tent knowing that he wanted to be in some kind of privacy right now. Daryl quickly joined me as I slipped off my shoes while he zipped up the tent dropping the crossbow to the side. The two of us came to sit by each other on the duvet.

"How did everything go?" I asked quietly, I knew that finding Sophia was a priority for Daryl and it upset him that he wasn't able to find her. However, the other man just shook his head silently not feeling up to talking just yet. I shuffled over to him crawling into his lap with a sigh, straddling him as I wrapped my arms around him. "I know we'll find her." I whispered into his ear, placing a kiss to his shoulder with a smile. "You shouldn't get yourself too low about it in the meantime." I pulled away to talk to him offering a smile to him, Daryl reached up to cup my cheek.

"I don't know what I'd do without you." Daryl muttered under his breath as I chuckled, pecking his lips. "You'd be fine, you're strong." I told him as he gave me a smirk.

"I'm strong?" The hunter questioned as I smiled back at him slapping his chest to get him to stop. "Stop it you know what I mean." I whined before getting off him and flopping down on the duvet next to him. Daryl came to lie down beside me pulling my body against his as an arm came around my waist to keep me in place. I relaxed into the taller man's grip enjoying the warmth, I knew that when night fell the cold would quickly set in even if it seemed boiling throughout the day. The two of us lay there enjoying each other's presence as we talked quietly about whatever came to mind, but it mostly stayed on topic about life before the apocalypse. Eventually, we separated from each other so I could turn on a lamp lighting up the whole tent. I slipped off my shirt before digging around in Daryl's bag for one of his shirts to wear. I stopped when I found a short sleeved grey shirt and put it to the side, quietly I turned to look back at Daryl smirking when I saw he was openly staring at me.

"Do you need something?" I asked the smirk never leaving my face as I watched his eyes track over my half naked body. He just silently stared for a few more moments before reaching a hand out towards me, which I took without a second thought letting myself be dragged over to him till I came to straddle him. Softly, our lips connected as his hands came to grab my waist while I let my own hands come up to run though his hair bringing us closer. The kiss lasted a few more seconds before we pulled apart, as soon as the kiss broke Daryl instantly ducked down to my neck pressing kisses along it occasionally sucking on a particularly sensitive spot. I let out a soft moan tilting my head further to the side to give him more space, slowly I was lowered onto my back with his lips never leaving my neck. "Daryl we can't, there are people close by." I tried to reason with him softly, but he was having none of it.

"You're just going to have to be quiet then."