Waking (The Walking Dead)

3| Stitches

3| Stitches

The man, who they find out is named Harrison, drives them to a camp where they gaurantee is zombie-free. He explains to them that there are a couple more survivors there- two young ones, a fourteen year old, and some adults.

Harrison begins to talk about his life before the outbreak. He was a cop, which explained the badge that he still wore on his dirty white shirt. While Buck breaks into a conversation with Harrison, Claire kept her attention out the window, watching the buildings disappear and the thick trees emerge. Wherever this camp was located, it sure was a fair distance away from the main road.

Xavier notices that she is quiet and leans over from the back seat. "I'm sorry." Claire snap her attention away from the window and turns to him.

"What for?"

"You know...this." He whispers.

Claire shakes her head. "You led us to more survivors, which we would of never found if it wasn't for you." She replies truthfully.

Xavier stays silent, before sinking back into his seat. The van makes a turn before stopping. "Alright, from here we walk. Everybody stay close." Harrison grabs a gun from under his seat. Buck pulls out his own from his leather jacket. Xavier reaches for his waistband and also pulls out a small gun.

Harrison and Buck lead the way, while Xavier stays at the end of the group. As they trudge through bushes, Claire brings a hand up to her arm, which is beginning to hurt and bleed again. She removes her hand and stares down at it. It is coated with a lot of blood. She quickly wipes it on a tree.

In the distance, smoke can be seen rising up into the air. The group begin to move faster, eager to reach safety. Harrison pushes a branch out of the way, revealing the open spaced area. There is a fire in the middle, and around it are some chairs, dishes on the ground, two caravans and a few vehicles. On the other side are some large tents. A woman with dark skin sits on a log, vigorously scrubbing a shirt with a bucket in front of her.

Alarmed by the sound of movement, she looks up quickly, only to smile when she realizes it's just Harrison. She drops the shirt into the bucket of water and stands up. "Farrah, I found more survivors." Harrison says, walking over to her. She eyes the group and smiles at them in a friendly way.

"That's great to hear, I was starting to get a bit sick of being around the same people." She jokes and Harrison chuckles.

"I'm Buck, this is my wife Johanna, my daughter, Lila and her boyfriend, and these are, uh, some survivors we met." Buck says.

Farrah nods. Just then, shouting can be heard from one of the caravans. A male and a female yell back and forth at one another, and Harrison rolls his eyes. "They back at it again?" Harrison asks, referring to the angry couple.

"Yes, that's why Rodger took the kids down to the lake, so that they won't have to hear them." Farrah says. Claire shivers. Rodger is her dad's name. Whenever she hears it, the terrible memories of her mom being hit repeatedly floods her mind.

The caravan door can be heard being pushed open roughly, before footsteps are also heard making their way around. A woman with blonde hair pulled back in a loose bun appears, rubbing her hand over her forehead.

"That asshole, why can't he just leave me alone?" The woman looks up and stops dead in her tracks when she sees the strangers in front of her. "Oh, sorry about that." She says faking a smile and walking over to them. "I'm Layla," she proceeds to shake everyone's hand, but just before she lets go of Claire's, her eyes land on the blood trickling down the massive cut on her arm. Claire looks down at it when she realizes.