Chapter 3

Hazel-

I woke in a startle, realizing I wasn't asleep in my tree, I was sleeping in a house, last night was a blur. I realized I was sitting on a mattress, my shoes were kicked off, and my weapons were gone. I was brought out of my thoughts by a throat clearing, it was Daryl. He was sleeping, he had a wrinkle between his brows. Then slowly he blinked his eyes open, and I quickly looked away from him. He rubbed his eyes as he straightened up, immediately aware of his surroundings.

"Daryl." Someone called from the door. "Who's this?" This was Rick. Daryl acted quickly unlocking the door and letting him in.

"Hazel. Found 'er alone. She don't talk much." Daryl explained.

"Means she's got somethin' to hide." Rick put a hand to his belt.

"Rick, she was alone. Look at her. I found her living in a tree." Daryl added.

"So why doesn't she talk?" Rick asked, looking me over.

"She just doesn't. I've heard her say a couple of words, but doesn't sound too strong." Daryl explained.

"What'd ya mean?" Rick asked. Daryl looked at me, I knew what he wanted from me." Where did you come from?" Rick was looking at me again.

"West." My voice scratched out.

"What're you doin' all the way over here?" Rick furrowed his brows.

"Vacation... Mexico." My voice cracked.

"Have Denise check her out, then bring her over after she gets cleaned up." Rick stepped closer to Daryl." Do not let her out of your sight, she's your responsibility." Rick warned as he left.

"You ready to see your new home?" Daryl said in a deep morning voice, as he got to his feet. I nodded timidly." I wasn't supposed to bring people in, I don't know how this will go over with everyone else." I immediately became nervous, and Daryl noticed." Don't worry, just stick with me, you'll be fine."

"Why?" I asked in a scratchy whisper, pointing to him and then to myself.

"I don't know, I guess I miss bringing people in. It's what I used to do, before things got worse." He explained.

"Worse?" I said with my gravely voice.

"Just a lot happened outside the walls, and inside." He grumbled, then handed me my weapons. I smiled as I put my weapons back in their place, Daryl lightly chuckled." Let's go."

Daryl opened the front door, leading me outside, the sun blinding me momentarily. Daryl pulled me along, until my eyes focused, and I looked around realizing I was surrounded by large metal walls, houses, and people that were staring at me. I looked up at Daryl timidly, hearing people whispering to each other. "Don't mind them." Daryl added.

"Why did you bring her in?" A taller man with short brown hair and a beard approached us.

"She needed a safe place." Daryl seemed to have anger toward this man.

"We don't know who she is, if she was with other people, or if she's just a killer." The man became angry as he pointed at me over and over again." Why else would she be alone?"

"You better shut your damn mouth." Daryl growled getting up in the man's face.

"Or what?" The man got right back into Daryl's face.

"Spencer stop." A woman with a cap and a long black ponytail I hadn't seen before, tried to interfere.

Daryl pushed Spencer with enough force to knock him back a couple of feet, he quickly swung at Daryl. Daryl grabbed Spencer's arm twisting it behind his back, causing pained, irritated grunts to come from Spencer.

"Daryl, stop that's enough." Sasha grabbed Daryl's shoulder, coaxing him to let go of the poor man. Daryl shoved Spencer to the ground, still with anger in his eyes.

"You have a problem with her." Daryl pointed at me. "You have a problem with me." Daryl jabbed his thumb into his own chest. "She's with me." Daryl growled at Spencer, after a few moments he got up and left, Daryl had calmed down after a few words from Sasha.

"Don't worry about him." Sasha said to me. "That's Spencer, his family's been here since the beginning, he just lost the last of his family, his mom." Sasha explained to me, no matter what these people thought of Spencer I did in a way feel bad, but I wasn't going to linger on it too long, we've all lost something or someone.

"Well ya heard Rick, c'mon, let's get you some clean clothes and a shower." Daryl led me to an alleyway, behind a row of houses; we walked over to the one with the open garage.

"Daryl." A bigger woman with thin glasses called, her eyes quickly settling on me. "Who's this?"

"New arrival, we're just getting clothes for her." Daryl explained, handing my weapons over to Olivia.

"Okay, well you know where the clothes are." She smiled and held her hand out to me. "I'm Olivia by the way." I took her hand and shook it lightly.

"Hazel." Daryl pointed at me. Olivia looked at us a little confused, until she stepped to the side.

Daryl led me inside the house, where there were shelves and racks full of clothes.

"Take your time, find what you need." Daryl nudged me forward a bit. I started looking through the jeans, soon finding a pair that I assumed were probably my size, then I grabbed a faded tee shirt, I found the other necessities underwear, socks, and a new bra that I was unsure of.

After grabbing my clothes Daryl led me to a house, that I immediately was able to tell was his. It was a large gray house, with animal pelts hanging on the porch drying, cigarette butts smashed onto the bottom step, muddy footprints covering the steps and porch as well. He took me inside, there was a table near the door with a small pair of antlers in the middle, a set of antlers hung by the door, with jackets, belts, and weapons hanging from it. We went into the living room, where a large pelt was draped over the couch, the side table, coffee table, and rocking chair all looked scuffed, scraped, or ripped. We went down the hallway into the bathroom, where he showed me how to start the water, showing me the soap, and where the towels were, along with a toothbrush. Why was he doing all this?

After he left I dropped my things onto the floor and looked at myself in the mirror. Who was this person looking back at me. My curls were tangled together, chunks of sap, ash, and mud decorated my hair, my face had dried blood smudged on it, along with soot. My clothes had tiny holes in them, probably from bugs, I slowly started to pull off the old clothes, starting with my jacket, then my shirt, revealing old scars that I had been avoiding for years. I struggled to get my shoes off, because the laces were stuck, then my pants. I had been going sockless for years by now, I used paper to keep my feet warm in my shoes. Once I was undressed I started the water, feeling that it was hot, I stepped in, the shower head shooting against my back, man it felt good.

I took a moment allowing the shower head to spray over my aching body, wanting to fall asleep in here. I started scrubbing dirt from my skin, then my hair, trying to pull the sap and chunks of mud from my curls. Daryl only had a bar of soap in here, which was kind of a bummer, there was a knock on the door, then it opened.

"Brought you more soap, I'll leave it on the sink." Daryl spoke over the loud splashing water, then the door shut. I opened the door to the shower and saw a purple bottle, with big letters saying 'SHAMPOO'. I quickly took it and scrubbed it into my hair, focusing hard on my scalp. Once I was finally scrubbed clean and rinsed off, I turned off the shower, wrapped in a towel, and started scrubbing the toothbrush over my teeth, probably for five minutes. I looked at myself closer, then took my knife and started cutting off hair, making the length about to my shoulders. I smiled at the new refreshing look then tossed the hair in the garbage.

I grabbed my shoes as I exited the bathroom, Daryl leaning against the opposite wall waiting for me. He gestured his head and lead me to an extra bedroom that had a large hammock in it. I smiled lightly at him, and gave him a slight nod as he shut the door. I sighed looking around the bare room, only an old couch across from the window that was on the far wall, and a long mirror leaning in the corner. I went over to the mirror and dropped my towel, looking over my healed burn scars. About a few years into this "apocalypse" the house I was hiding in caught on fire, I almost died in there.

I suffered with the burns for months, if it wasn't for the man that found me, I'd be dead. He never told me his name, but he had dark skin, and big brown puppy dog eyes. He didn't have any type of accent, just a large nose, and thick black hair. He really seemed to care for me, it even seemed difficult for him when I left, but I had to move on, I couldn't stay with him. Some of the burn scars came around the front of my shoulder and up my neck, my back had large scars on it, both of my arms and legs had scars here and there.

I sighed as I grabbed my clothes and started to pull them on, along with my socks that felt amazing. I lightly tossed my hair around, and scrunched my curls. I pulled my shirt on that sorta covered the scars, quietly making my way out of the bedroom. Daryl was standing there outside the door again, and straightened up when he saw me, looking me up and down; quickly clearing his throat.

"C'mon, Rick's waitin'." Daryl lead me through the house, and I caught a glimpse of my blanket and dirty clothes in a basket. Hm, maybe this guy wanted to take care of me like that other man from Mexico.

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Hey, hey, so if you guys didn't catch it, the man Hazel was talking about was Travis from Fear the Walking Dead. I know the time line makes no sense since he's dead, but I really liked his character so I just wanted to throw him in there. But I hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading!