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𝖣𝗂𝗌𝖼𝗅𝖺𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗋 — 𝖠𝗍𝗍𝖾𝗆𝗉𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝖬𝗎𝗋𝖽𝖾𝗋 ＆ 𝖲𝗍𝗋𝖺𝗇𝗀𝗎𝗅𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇

𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖥𝗂𝗏𝖾 — 𝖫𝗈𝗋𝗂 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌

𝖪𝖺𝗍𝖺𝗋𝖺 𝖦𝗋𝖾𝖾𝗇𝖾．

   Currently Rick Grimes was driving to where the other part of the group resided, in which was the mountains. It was quite smart, Katara and Theodore wouldn't have and didn't think about doing something like that.

Using the mountain as somewhere to lay low, because of the city is filled with walkers.

Katara's head was on her brothers lap while she slept, his hand was in her hair, his fingertips brushing soothingly against her scalp. It was a mechanism to help her fall asleep successfully.

She needed sleep desperately and since the car ride was a long one.

She used it to her advantage.

"So Theodore, I have a small question" Andrea, the one who referred to Katara as princess. The sudden talk when the van was completely quiet caught him off guard. But it gained the attention from Theodore and the others.

"Leave him alone Andrea, the boy isn't much of a speaker" Miles spoke from the front of the van, passenger seat to be exact.

That was true, Theodore wasn't much of a talker, his sister figure was though, Katara. After his sister passed, he become more observant and resilient. "What's the question?"

Andrea looked at Miles in a 'See?' Kind of manner, "Rick had shared with me how you both came across him ... but how did you meet Katara?" the question kept appearing in her mind when she saw the shared protective sibling relationship they had with one another.

His hand froze in the girls head, his expression becoming blank. Andrea was only curious, and didn't mean any harm by the ask, his throat cleared itself before meeting all of the eyes that was staring at him.

"Originally it was me and my sister, her name was Annalise" he started, "but while on a run, she was running too slow .. and got bit. We couldn't make it back to the hideout with her in that condition, so we hid in a store that wasn't infested with walkers" he didn't even know tears started to well in his eyes.

Andrea already knew she died when he said 'was' in the sentence, but her hand found itself on his unoccupied one.

"I prayed to god, asking him to spare her life, she was only eight" the well of tears overflowed so they came streaming down his cheeks.

"First it was the fever .. then she slowly started loosing herself before actually dying. And I couldn't bring myself to kill her, so when Katara and her group came upon the store to grab the supplies. She did it for me and left me with two choices" he explained it the best way he could remember.

"Two choices?" T-dog cut in being invested in this story too.

"Become walkers meat, or go with her and her group at the time, best decision in my life because she kept me alive since then." Theodore will forever be grateful for the sacrifices that Katara made for him.

T-dog and Andrea exchanged looked of surprise about his story, no wonder the boy only spoke to Katara and Rick.

"What ever happened to her group? Because it's only two of you" Miles was upfront, yet he questioned him. It was like a random pop quiz.

"Burned alive." He said simply and Rick had looked up and into the rear view mirror towards Theodore and the sleeping girl.

"Oh." T-dog blinked a few times, but didn't question him on it, but he knew Andrea was going to run another pop quiz on him.

"Have to do what you have too, to survive" Rick nodded his head defending him, even though he didn't know what and why it happened.

"Right." Mike's eyes looked over at Rick for a little while before turning back forward in his seat.

⇦⇨

"Katara" Theodore was currently shaking the arm of his older sister, attempting to wake her from her long slumber. "Kat."

Katara's eyebrows furrowed themselves starting to regain the consciousness she once had earlier. "Mm" she groaned slightly before opening her eyes to be greeted by the sun beams that shined through the front window.

"Are we here?" She asked Theodore as she forced herself remove her head from her brothers lap and sat up against the walls of the back of the pick up truck.

The boy watched her fix her messy hair and her clothes on her frame, "We are, and Rick found his wife and son. We did it" he said, happiness lacing his tone as he spoke.

"He did? She was here all that time?" She questioned him while rubbing the cold from the crests of her eyes.

"She was, they are waiting to meet us. I told Rick to give us a few seconds so I could wake you" Theodore told her.

There bags were near the exit of the truck, waiting to be picked when they exited. Katara was surprised that he wanted to stay with this group, he always had doubts.

But she didn't know Theodore and the group had a long talk while she was asleep. About his past and how he come upon the girl, and the past the two shared together.

"We're staying? I thought —"

"This group has potential, especially if you and Rick are at the head of it. We should stay, and I told Rick we will" He knew if she was to make the decision, they would already be on the road looking for another shelter.

Katara gazed turned directly back onto her brothers who was staring back at her, it took her a few seconds to process it, but she nodded her head. "Okay" she stood up.

A smile crept onto the boys lips, it was discreet of course but it was there. "Let's meet the Grimes then" he hopped up from his position, grabbing his bag with his hand.

"Let's meet em" with that, Theo had pulled up the door that kept them from the outside world, when the door was pulled up eyes reverted towards the two.

Everyone was looking at the two new members of the group, it was new faces that they hadn't seen yes, but the two expected it.

"Katara, Come" Prince Charming had walked up the truck grabbing a hold of her hips, and she placed her hands onto his shoulders. The man lifted her off of the rim of the truck and helped her down onto the ground.

"Oh we're doing this right now" she whispered watching the man's wife walk over to her, along with their son Carl.

She smelt horrible as all of them did, she would've thought she could've freshened first at least before this meet and greet.

"Lori, Meet the woman who saved my life, Katara, meet my wife, and the mother of my son" Rick was weirdly excited about the two woman meeting one another.

It was weird on Katara's part, mostly because she kissed Rick in the van while they were boarding the pick up truck to get away.

"It's wonderful to meet you, I've heard nothing but good things about you" Katara put her hand out to her, watching the woman take her hand into a firm grip.

"I've heard your name before, never could put a face to it until now. Thank you" she pulled the girl into a hug by her hand instead of actually shaking it as Katara thought she would.

"For?" She hesitantly wrapped her arms around the man's wife petit frame, patting her back with her hand.

"Bringing him back safely to me and Carl. We really appreciate this" Lori said, her eyes on Shane's as if she was shaming him.

Katara mouth opened but no words came out of her mouth, she couldn't explain why she was silenced of her words.  "She means your welcome" Theodore spoke up for his sister and she nodded in agreement.

"And you are?" Lori asked the boy.

"Theodore, little brother of Katara" he introduced himself to the woman as well.

Katara watched the interaction go on, it was filled with smiles, hugging, and exchanged looks between Lori and Shane. When Lori looked towards him, it was looks of disgust and anger.

And when he got the look, his eyes reverted down in shame. "I can show you where us ladies shower" Andrea walked up to Katara.

She could just notice how uncomfortable the woman looked in her own skin, the sweat coming down her face, the dirt under her nails, and her hair was knotted and tangled.

"It's a place to clean up here?" She asked Andrea being quite surprised and a laugh came from Andrea's mouth as she hooked her arm with Katara's leading her towards a lake.

"Yes there is, we even scavenged soap."

⇦⇨

The Greene woman was currently in the lake alone at the moment, using soap to scrub her body clean of the build up of sweat, and dirt. As all of them did when they were coming back, they smelt and had this musty odor to them.

It was normal in a apocalypse in Atlanta, the sun was beaming everywhere they went. Plus, they were on the run, so they didn't even have time to clean themselves.

"Hey" A male voice was heard from behind the naked woman, the voice was too southern to sound like Theodore, and a bit deeper, so it wasn't Rick.

"Officer" Katara replied to the deputy male, Shane was the best friend of Rick's, and his partner. "Is their something you need" she asked being curious on why he was bothering her when she didn't talk to him.

"What ever you saw, or thought you saw earlier. It was nothing" he said.

Her eyebrows raised when she heard him speak, despite she knew exactly what he was talking about, she decided to play along.

"Saw what exactly, officer?" she questioned him, still playing dumb. She knew the two had something going on, because of the looks, and the tension she felt.

She was with a married man before, fucked one, she knew the guilt behind each of their eyes. She felt the shame in Shane's every time his eyes looked downwards.

"Don't play dumb with me."

"Playing dumb would be me acting as if I didn't see the looks or feel the tension between you and Lori. And I would say I'm no where near playing dumb if I didn't see anything"

She never grew out of the habit of taunting of men, she didn't know where she got it from in the first place. But she remembered it would get her put in her place by different men every single time.

When Katara turned around to face the man, he was closer than she initially thought. Directly in front of her, with his hand now wrapped around her throat. Squeezing hard enough to cut off most of her oxygen supply.

"I don't need you running your mouth to Rick, he cannot know what happened" her back was pressed up against a rock, he didn't know if she knew directly what happened between the man's wife and him.

But she had too, he could see it in her eyes as of now, he could see it in how she walked away earlier giving looks at both of them.

Looks of disappointment.

"He deserves to know" She said to him.

"He won't ever know" the grip tightened around her neck, it was more of a warning but she didn't take it, she kept, going.

"And if I tell him" her words began to sound strained because of how tight his hand was around his neck.

"I will kill you myself" Shane's face has brought his face closer to the girl's, his accent growing thicker as he spoke, warning laced his tone.

His grip grown tighter..and tighter around her neck, her hands found themselves around his wrist, clawing at it almost.

Her airway was no longer clear, it was squeezed shut by the hand of the deputy. She always knew it was something off of it, and him fucking Rick's wife was one of those issues.

"Did you like her before too? Was it hard, watching her love Rick? Watching Rick live a life that you wanted to be your own?" She forced her words out of her mouth, her hands still tightly gripping Shane's wrist.

"Shut up" he raised her head to his, looking at now red one's due to the lack of oxygen.

"Was the jealousy that bad, that you left him on the hospital to die?" Her eyes remained on his the entire time.

She knew he was just trying to cover his own ass, but she couldn't resist the taunt of the situation. It was like she needed the thrill of holding a secret that wasn't her own, being able to control when it came out.

Having control in general.

"Is everything alright here?" Another male voice came to her ears, but as soon as Shane heard it, his grip loosened and his hand was now away from her neck. And his body no where near hers.

A large gasp came from her mouth, filling her lungs with the oxygen they lacked in the moment due to the strangulation. But that gasp was followed by a loud cough.

"Everything is just fine." Shane looked at Daryl who was currently staring in between the two, but the deputy gave the girl another look before walking out of the water and back to the camp.

Her body was filled with goosebumps from the cool breeze hitting her naked frame. She had forgotten that she was still in the water, he almost made her fall unconscious. Possibly killed her, but that was her own fault also.

"He was choking you" Daryl walked down towards the lake entrance, holding a bloody hunters knife, that by the looks of it, was covered in rabbits blood.

She thinks that because, he had a string of rabbits around his shoulders.

"No really?" She walked towards where Andrea placed put her new clothes, like it wasn't obvious that he was about to kill her.

"Don't get smart with me, I wasn't the one about to die was I?" Oh he was a sassy fucker.

"You asked a question, that you knew and saw the answer too redneck" she replied back to him, boosting herself out of the water.

"Redneck? That almost made me offended" He crouched down at the entrance of the lake, wiping the knife clean of the blood with the pad of his fingers making sure to be careful about it.

A slight laugh slipped from her lips as she placed the fresh and clean bra and underwear on, "What would be offensive is that haircut" seemed like the two got off on the right start.

"And what's wrong with my hair? I think it's a fashion statement" when he was above them, he sounded like one scary son of a bitch, but he is far from that now in her eyes.

Daryl though, couldn't help but run his eyes over her back area, being discreet about it. For a woman, that's a lot of scars to have, he wondered what exactly she went through.

But he had always been the type to keep his thoughts to himself, he was the most observant, if anyone needed words to describe him as a person.

"Fashion statement? That's hilarious" she grabbed the dress with her hands and slid it on her body with ease. Then she placed the new boots on as well, she wished she could've got some pants but this was just as flexible.

When she placed her told clothes in the bag and closes it up, she looked towards the man who was now skinning the deceased rabbits of their skin. "What's your name redneck?"

She had started to make her way over to Daryl, her neck still hurt of course, and she knew it was going to bruise. She would just have to find a way to cover it up, quickly before her brother goes off the charts with it.

"Daryl. Daryl Dixon" he gave his full name, he was the brother of Merl..oh fuck.

Merl was left behind, mistakenly of course.

"Katara Greene." She shared her identity.

The two souls had official crossed paths, this first milestone was just marked.

His eyes reverted to the side and up towards the girl nodded his head, standing up with a slight grunt before extending his hand out to her. "Nice to meet you"

She took his hand and shook it firmly, she knew this friendship was probably going to be the one to help her survive this zombie shit.