Surviving The New World (Book Six in the Surviving The Walking Dead Series)

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

We sat around camp for hours. Daryl sharpened weapons, I spent time with Eugene. When lunch time came around, it got bad again. Daryl was waiting for me at the table as I got my bowl of rabbit stew. The Savior poured my food into my bowl and locked eyes with me before spitting in my bowl and handing it to me. The next Savior took my slice of home bread and licked it before setting it on top of my bowl. The last Savior grabbed an empty glass, proceeded to piss in it, and handed it to me.

"I didn't kill Justin," I grumbled lowly.

"Yeah, just like you didn't kill Harlow?" I thought about it, throwing my glass of piss in his face, but I looked down the row and sighed. Not only did I want to cause more drama, I didn't want to get piss in the food. Instead I tossed everything into the trash and stormed out of the food area.

"Don't eat your food," I scoffed as I stormed past Daryl.

"Why?" Daryl asked.

"Call it a hunch." Daryl looked down at his food and threw it all away before following after me.

"Babe, what's wrong? Why ain't ya eatin'?"

"They fucked with my food right in front of me, Daryl. They spat in my stew, licked my bread, pissed in my cup—I gotta get outta here."

"Rick said to stay close."

"I know what Rick said, but I need food and I can't trust these people right now."

"Michaela, wait!" I stopped and turned to Daryl. "Just let me get my crossbow, alright?" I let out a sigh and nodded. Daryl quickly rushed off and grabbed his bow and met back up with me, leading us into the woods. We scoured the woods for an hour in silence. While Daryl worked on trying to track a nutria, I went to work gathering some wild plants and herbs such as wild onions, Japanese Knotweed, and wild chamomile, giving us what we needed for a nice drink and to season whatever the hell we ended up bringing back to camp.

"Fuck," Daryl grumbled. I looked up as he shot his bolt. A distant squelch told me he had shot a walker, and his sigh told me that it caught his nutria.

"I'm sorry, baby," I sighed. "Should we head back?"

"Give it another hour, somethin' has to come along soon." Daryl plopped down on a nearby stump and rested his bow beside him. I looked around some more and picked a few wild strawberries and handed him some, which he happily took one and plucked it into his mouth.

"I've been thinkin'..."

"Uh-oh," Daryl tittered.

"I'm serious," I laughed. "I was thinkin'...what if we left this place?"

"What, camp?" I gently shook my head. "Oh."

"It was just a thought. But what if you, Harper, and I just packed our shit and headed out on our own?"

"Why would ya wanna do that?"

"Well, we wouldn't have to worry about bein' accused for murder, that's for sure."

"Yeah, but we'd also have to worry about starvin', the weather, makin' sure we can keep Harper safe; MJ and Elijah are here, Judith's here, our friends and family are here, babe...why would ya wanna leave all that behind?"

"It was just a thought," I shrugged. Daryl took another strawberry and sighed.

"Ain't like I haven't thought of it before, you either." Daryl took my hand and pressed it against his lips. "I get why, but it ain't worth it...not yet. The moment our lives depend on it, we will."

"Okay." Daryl and I fell silent at a faint whistle. We listened carefully and finally smiled. "Is that what I think it is?" I quietly whispered. Daryl gave me a gentle nod and I slowly handed him his crossbow. He loaded it as quietly as he could and I followed him as he kept low and quiet, following the sound of the noise. The whistling grew louder as we went deeper into the woods. The whistling soon turned into a chirp, and we knew exactly what we were after...dinner.