Tryin'

The days began to fall into a pattern. Kat would wake, yelling and shouting God knows what; Charlie would appear sleepily from his room and come over to her bed. He would clamber on with her until she was quiet and they would lie there listening to the sounds of the little town waking up. Kat waited for the roar of the motorcycle to start up. When the rumble of the engine first started up she thought it was her dad’s old Nighthawk until she remembered her dad was long gone… She told Charlie all about the different kinds of bikes, and he'd ask questions distracting her from the nightmares. Then it would roar past, its growl changing as it rose through the gears. It would be gone as quick as it had come, tearing up the tarmac in the distance beyond the wall. The comfort it gave Kat in her stomach to hear that old, familiar sound would come and go with it. And then it would be time to get up.

Later in the morning one of a select group of people would pop by - Deanna with her over-charming smiles, Maggie, sometimes Rick himself and Carol, who would bring food. The latter was usually the most welcome. Kat had never eaten cookies made from acorns before, but there was always a first time for everything. She would sleep through the afternoons, and Charlie used that time to get to know the place, often going out for walks. There would be dinner and he'd tell her about who he had met, what the people there like, how they seemed to run the place. Everyone was armed, at the very least with knives though he had seen a few of them with guns. He was horrified to find they had a school he could go to, if they stayed. Then Kat would go back to sleep, looking forward to waking up and hearing the bike engine's rumble once again.

Daryl sat on the porch steps with an old piece of wood rolling between his fingers. They had finally moved in across the road, the young lad and his big sister. It was ridiculous, the two of them in there rumbling around a five bedroomed house just so they could be kept an eye on. When Aaron and him had come across the two of them they'd tracked them for days. They had to be certain the woman and the boy were still people, still human at heart. They’d found the old campsite first, a fire that had been out not more than a few hours, and two sets of footprints. They'd finally spotted them following a river course and easily tracked them from there. Aaron and Daryl picked up snatches of the conversations, about food, about the walkers, about old TV programmes, about music. From time to time they'd even sing, quiet and low, it could still be picked up by Aaron's microphone. In the end it was Daryl who made the call having overheard Kat explain to Charlie how she'd be dammed if he wouldn't know his basic manners and then clipped him one around the back of his head for not saying thank you. He'd felt as lips twitch into a smirk. He liked her and he convinced Aaron that they should ask them The Questions.

He started chipping away at the piece of wood with his pocket knife. Whittling it down to pieces at his feet. Her whole face had changed when the two men had appeared out of the woods; gone was the light-hearted manner and smiles - instead there was a snarl at her lips, eyes hard as glass. No matter what they said to convince her that they were good people she was not hearing them. Aaron had showed her photographs of the place and Daryl had tried to show them they had food. It didn't matter - "We're fine as we are," she had said turning to go. Daryl had impulsively taken the map out of his pocket, and pointed to the place where they lived. "You never know when two'll no longer be enough," he'd said to her, his gravelly voice hiding hope that she’d change her mind. They needed people back at The Safe Zone, numbers to help protect them. And now she was over the road, just feet away behind that front door. He looked up at it through the dark bangs that fell into his eyes and wondered which room of the house she was in. His pocket knife slipped, and he caught his finger.

            "Shit," he grumbled, and sucked it to make the blood flow stop. He got up to make his way over to the infirmary to get a plaster for his finger. He wouldn't normally bother, but the cut was fairly deep and he'd run out of his own. He turned the corner onto Main Street, and passed the brownstones when Kat came out of the infirmary and began walking straight towards him clearly deep in thought. Her dark hair was tied back off her face, the long braid hanging over one shoulder. That was how she'd always worn it, he remembered. Then she looked up at him, and froze.

            "It's you," she said, clearly startled.

            He was still sucking his finger. He quickly took it out of his mouth and wiped it on his trousers. "Yeah," he replied, feeling completely ridiculous. What else could he say?

            "I know you!"

            "Yeah," he said again. She was looking up at him, and he could see the deep green of her eyes was flecked with light and dark. Her brow furrowed, her lips puckered in concentration.

"Yeah," he repeated, then quickly added "Me and Aaron, we tried to get you to come here, but you didn't wanna know."

            Understanding dawned on her face, as she remembered. "You're the one who gave me that map!" It sounded like an accusation, but she was smiling.

            "Yeah," he was really coming out with good stuff today.

            "I guess I should thank you," Kat said, "Having that map saved my life… Our lives. Thank you." She gave him a really warm smile, reached out and touched his arm. Her fingers barely grazed him but a jolt shot right up his arm and across his chest and his skin burnt where they had rested on his forearm. He stood rooted to the spot, and muttered, “It’s nothin’.”

He let her pass by, and stayed standing when he was. It had been a long time since he had last felt a similar emotion; that time he’d been staring into a pair of blue eyes, unable to put his feelings into words… because he didn’t know the words…

Daryl turned and made his way towards the gate, cut finger forgotten.

Kat lay on the sofa, blanket around her and book in hand when there was a knock at the door. Carol’s head appeared round the door and she let herself in.

            "Only me! No, don't get up. I'll just take this straight through." She carried a round dish that looked to be another casserole. She placed it in the fridge then came back to the sitting room and perched herself on the arm of an opposite chair.

"How you doing today?"

            "Not so bad," Kat told her, pushing herself up. "Is Charlie over at Ricks?"

            "Him and Carl have been battling it out for top position in one of those computer games again… Don't ask me which one, I couldn't tell you,"

            "I wouldn't know it even if you could," Kat smiled. "Thanks for the dinner but I really should be making my own meals though; I am strong enough. Although nothing I'd make would be anything as near as tasty as yours. Think I've almost forgotten how to cook properly,"

            "It's good to see meat on your bones. You look so much better than you did when you first got here," Carol gave her an appraising look and said, "Though you’re looking a bit peaky… Have you been sleeping?

            Kat fidgeted with her blanket as she replied, "Some nights are better than others,"

            "What does Denise say about it?"

            "She's dying to shrink my head, get me to talk about it and all that. They're just bad dreams, is all. Never had them before,"

            "Would that be because you didn't let yourself sleep,” Carol accused, with a knowing smile, “Always being on watch? Now it's catching up to you - it's a wonder you made it as long as you did."

            Kat bristled at that. "I know how to take care of Charlie and me. We did fine."

            "Sure you did. Just a good job you had that map," Carol retorted, “Return the dish when you're done, won't you?" and with that she let herself out.

            As soon as the door clicked shut Kat flung her blanket off and strode over to it, flicking the catch on.

            "Nosy cow," she hissed.