With the group of strangers lowering their weapons, I followed suit and lowered my bow.
"What's your name?" asked the supposed leader.
"Andrew Hunt."
"Nice to meet you, Andrew. I'm Shane. Now would you mind telling your dog there to stand down?"
"Bei Fuß." I said to the on-guard Burger who stopped and moved to my side.
"He a police dog?" asked the Caucasian man wearing a white shirt.
"No. Just trained like one." I said, petting Burger.
"Y'all can gossip later. Help me carry this thing." said Daryl.
I strapped my bow to my pack, walked over to the boar, and grabbed one of the legs while Daryl, Shane, and another grabbed the remaining legs.
"Ready? 1, 2, 3."
With a strong heave, we lifted the boar and began following the others. We took a few steps and were already within the boundaries of the camp, having to first go around a bunch of strung-up cans that served as an alarm system.
As we moved I took a quick look around the camp. I could see a few cars, an old RV, clotheslines full of clothes hung up to dry, one active fire with various camping supplies nearby, and a few tents scattered around.
"Put it down by the vehicles. We'll have to take it down to the water before we butcher it. Don't want animals or walkers smelling all the blood." said Daryl.
"Put it next to the Jeep."
After plopping down the boar next to the Jeep, I noticed a group of people congregating near the RV looking in our direction. They looked curious, probably about me, the newcomer, but they were also looking at Daryl with worry.
"Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! Got us some boar and squirrel!" said Daryl as he put down his crossbow.
"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you." said Shane as he put his shotgun in the front seat of the Jeep.
Everyone else started paying attention when Shane called out for Daryl, which led me to believe everyone already knew what the talk was about.
"About what?"
"About Merle. There was a … problem in Atlanta."
"He dead?" asked Daryl, who had begun pacing around.
"We're not sure."
"He either is or he ain't!" he said, getting angry.
"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." said the man who helped us move the boar as he moved closer to Daryl.
"Who are you?"
"Rick Grimes."
"Rick Grimes." repeated Daryl, mockingly, "You got something you want to tell me?"
"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."
"Hold on. Let me process this." said Daryl, still pacing around, "You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!"
"Yeah."
Daryl started breathing heavily before tossing the squirrels at Rick who avoided them by ducking. Shane took the opportunity to tackle Daryl to the ground, who then took out a knife and stood back up.
He swiped at Rick who backed up, avoiding the knife, but on Daryl's next swipe, he grabbed hold of his hand to stop him from swinging it around. Shane took that opportunity to come up behind him and put him in a chokehold causing Daryl to drop his knife.
"Okay. Okay." said Shane as he held him in the chokehold.
"You'd best let me go!" said Daryl.
"Nah, I think it's better if I don't."
"Chokehold's illegal."
"You can file a complaint. Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day." said Shane as he brought Daryl to the ground while Rick crouched to an eye-level position with Daryl.
"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" asked Rick to which Daryl responded by calming down a little causing Shane to let him go, "What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others."
"It's not Rick's fault." said a bald Black man, "I had the key. I dropped it."
"You couldn't pick it up?!"
"Well, I dropped it in a drain."
Daryl scoffed as he stood back up.
"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."
"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him. With a padlock."
"It's gotta count for something." chimed in Rick.
"Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him."
"He'll show you. Isn't that right?" said one of the women congregating near the RV, looking at Rick like only a wife could.
"I'm going back." said Rick.
With that, the spectacle was over. Rick's wife went into the RV, clearly against his decision to go for Daryl's brother. Daryl was readying his things, and Rick went off to his tent. Meanwhile, I was put in the awkward position of being completely lost about what to do.
"Andrew, right? I'm Dale, nice to meet you." said the old man from before who was wearing a fishing hat and carrying a rifle.
"Likewise."
"Bit of an inopportune moment you join us at." he said, taking his hat off to scratch his head.
"Feels like every moment since this thing started is inopportune."
"Doesn't it." he said before looking down at Burger, "And who's this little pooch?"
"His name's Burger."
"Belgian Malinois, correct?"
"With some German Shepherd and who knows what else mixed in."
"Really? Looks every bit the Malinois. Do you mind if I?"
"Sitz." I said to Burger who was already sitting but now went still, "He won't move."
"Wow." said Dale as he started petting Burger who was enjoying it if the wagging of his tail was any indication, "You said earlier he was trained like a police dog?"
"Yeah. Trained like a police dog and hunting dog."
"Must've been expensive." he said as he stopped petting Burger.
"Not really. I trained him myself." I explained, "Entspannen."
With that command, Burger stopped standing still like a statue and relaxed, lying down on the ground.
"Oh another policeman, then." said Dale.
"Another?"
"Rick and Shane are, er, were both deputies." explained Dale, looking a little awkward at his mixup.
"Ah, that tracks."
When I learned that Rick used to be a police officer, I understood why he was practically sacrificing himself for Daryl's brother. Shane's role as a leader also made more sense.
"Anyway, I wasn't a cop. I just trained my dog."
"Oh. If you don't mind me asking, what did you do?"
"Little bit of this, little bit of that. Nothing long enough to be called a career." I said, vaguely.
"I've been there." said Dale, getting a far-out look before returning to normal, "Anyway, I'll show you around, introduce you to everyone."
"Appreciate that." I said, turning to look at Burger, "Bleib."
With that, the relaxing Burger just licked his snout and closed his eyes before I followed Dale.
"This is Jim, you may recognize him as the one who pointed a pitchfork at you. He is also our resident mechanic."
Jim was a bearded Caucasian man with a baseball cap on his head who was in the middle of working on a red Challenger.
"Pleasure." I said, shaking his hand, "Shame stripping down a car like that for parts."
"Tell me about it." said the Asian guy who had also pointed a weapon at me, "I only got to ride it for a few minutes."
"This is Glenn. He's the genius who stole this car and brought it up here with the alarm going off." introduced Dale while shaking his head.
"I heard that yesterday."
"Great, we'll have to be more vigilant then. The walkers may have heard it." said Dale looking at the apologetic-looking Glenn.
After that, I met everyone else and quickly concluded that while the group was around 30 people, there was a little more than half who served as the core/inner members.
Just as we were finishing up introductions, Shane's talk with Rick drew the attention of everyone.
"Could you throw me a bone here, man? Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?" said Shane as he followed Rick.
"Hey, choose your words more carefully." said Daryl.
"No, I did. Douchebag's what I meant. Merle Dixon ... the guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."
"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst … me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."
"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" said Rick's wife, who I had learned was named Lori.
Rick then turned to look at Glenn who understood what he was asking.
"Oh, come on."
"You know the way. You've been there before." said Rick as Glenn took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair, "In and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask. I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too."
"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?" said Shane, the frustration evident in his voice.
"Four." said T-Dog, the bald Black man, causing Daryl to huff in disbelief.
"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" said Daryl as he cleaned and checked his arrows.
"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?"
"Why you?"
"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language."
"That's four." said Dale.
"It's not just four. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. Those walkers, they're out there. And if, god forbid, they come near the camp, we need every ablebody we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp." said Shane.
"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." said Rick.
"What guns?" asked Shane.
"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up."
"Ammo?" asked Shane, the frustration for taking four men away from camp having subsided after hearing about the guns.
"700 rounds. Assorted."
"To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in. Tell me. Make me understand." said Lori as she stood up.
"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy." explained Rick as he approached her, "Lori if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him."
"What's stopping you?"
"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer."
"These are our walkies?" asked Shane.
"Yeah."
"So use the CB. What's wrong with that?" said Andrea, a blonde mid-30s woman.
"The CB's fine. It's the walkies that suck to crap. They date back to the '70s, don't match any other bandwidth not even the scanners in our cars." explained Shane.
"I need that bag." said Rick to Lori who relented.
Rick then moved to crouch in front of his son, Carl.
"I'll be back. I promise." said Rick to Carl who reluctantly nodded.
With that, the dramatic show was done and everyone started doing whatever they were doing before. I still needed to butcher the boar but it could wait until the four left, but before that, I walked up to Daryl.
"I can come along if you want." I told him, making him look up at me.
"After everything you heard about my brother? Why?"
"Family is ... complicated. Besides, you brought me to the camp when you didn't have to. Call it repaying the favor."
Daryl looked at me for a couple of seconds before turning back around.
"Appreciate it, but Shane's right. We need people here in case walkers come. You being here gives these people a good chance."
"Alright. Good luck."
Ten minutes later, the four were off to Atlanta in the cube van, leaving the rest of us to our devices.
Shane stood on the road watching them as they left so I made my way to him.
"Excuse me." I said, causing him to turn to look at me, "That boar needs to be butchered and I need a vehicle to carry it to the water. Plus I need some help loading it."
"Can't you use a wheelbarrow or something?"
"The thing weighs upward of 300 pounds. Even after processing, that'll be about 150 pounds of usable meat, give or take." I explained.
He looked like he was debating something for a few seconds before eventually pulling out his keys.
"We'll take my Jeep. Planned on going down to the water anyways. Come on."
With the help of Jim and Morales, we successfully loaded the boar onto the back of the Jeep.
"Fat bastard." said Morales, wiping the sweat from his face.
"That he is, but we'll be eating good tonight, tomorrow, and the next day." said Shane.
"I don't know about good, but you'll be full." I said.
"What do you mean? Pork's the best." said Morales.
"Pork's good, but there's a pretty high chance the meat will have boar taint. I'll do my best to try and minimize it but no promises."
"The hell's boar taint?" asked Shane.
"Boar taint is when the meat has an underlying unpleasant taste and odor. It's usually found in uncastrated adult males. Like this wild boar." I explained.
"So you're saying the meat might taste like shit?" asked Morales.
"Or urine. Or sweat." I said, smiling at their disgusted looks.
"Maybe the Muslims and Jews were onto something." said Jim before he and Morales walked off.
"Alright, just give me a sec and we'll be off." said Shane before walking to the tents.
While I waited, I noticed four women, Andrea, Amy, Carol, and Jacqui, loading up clothes and baskets onto a truck while Carol's husband, Ed, stood nearby doing nothing but smoke. Seeing as I had nothing to do but wait for Shane to return, I decided to help them out.
"Do you ladies need any help?" I asked.
"Andrew, right?" asked Amy, Andrea's younger sister, who I noticed looked me up and down, like she had done when we were first introduced.
"Yes."
"Could you load up those washboards? They're kind of heavy though." said Andrea.
"Not a problem." I said as I picked up the heavy washboards and put them in the truck.
"What a gentleman." said Jacqui.
"Yeah, what a gentleman." repeated Amy.
"Andrew."
Turning around I could see Shane calling me from the Jeep while Carl was seated in the back.
"Ladies." I said, bidding them goodbye before walking to the Jeep.
"You ready to go?" asked Shane.
"Almost."
With a quick whistle, Burger came running, coming to a stop in front of me. I gave him a quick pet before looking at Carl, who was smiling and staring at Burger.
"Carl, right?" I asked, even though I was sure of his name.
"Yes, sir." he said, tearing his gaze away from Burger to look at me.
"I'm not old enough to be "Sir" just call me Andrew."
"Okay, Andrew."
"Do you mind if Burger sits next to you? He doesn't bite."
"C-can I pet him?"
"Yes, you can. He loves being pet."
"Okay."
"Thank you."
I opened the back door of the Jeep and pointed at the seat next to Carl. Burger understood my meaning and quickly hopped in, tail wagging and tongue lolling. Curious, he started sniffing at Carl who was smiling as he did so. When he was finished, he started licking Carl's face.
"Hahaha." laughed Carl.
"He likes you." I said as I hopped in the front passenger seat.
"Alright, hang on." said Shane.
The ride to the water was nice and tranquil, but short, just a three-minute drive down the quarry. It almost made me forget the world had ended. The water was blue and clear and with the quarry's size, it made for quite a sizeable pond.
"Time to unload the fat bastard." said Shane as he parked and turned off the Jeep.
We all got off and Shane opened the tailgate, revealing the big boar.
"Whoa." said Carl, "Did you hunt that?"
"With a little help from Burger and Daryl." I said as Shane and I scooted the boar to the edge of the tailgate.
"With a gun?"
"With a bow."
"Back up, Carl. Don't want to squish you." said Shane, jokingly.
With a well-timed coordinated heave, we got the boar on the ground. We took a moment to catch our breath before moving it near the waterfront but away from where the clothes were usually washed, or so said Shane.
"We'll be over there catching some frogs. If you need anything just holler." said Shane as he and Carl went a little farther away from where I was.
"Sounds good."
Before I began butchering the animal, I first took out my arrow that was still in the boar. When I took it out, blood started leaking from the wound, so it was a good thing we were near the water. With that done, I took out my hunting knife, which had a gut hook, and began butchering the boar.
A few minutes after I began, I heard a vehicle coming down the path and saw it was Ed driving the women down to do some laundry. I nodded in greeting before focusing back on the task.
As I finished removing the skin, I noticed Lori had come down and was talking to Shane after sending Carl away. Whatever they were talking about it seemed heated, like a couple fighting.
"Hey, Andrew." said Carl, sounding downcast while wet from trying to catch frogs with Shane.
"Catch any frogs?"
"No." he said as he petted Burger's back, "Mom said I need to go back to the RV."
"Bummer."
I continued butchering the boar, answering whenever Carl asked or said something until Lori made her way to us.
"Come on, Carl. Let's go." she said with an underlying tone of anger.
"Okay. Bye, Burger." said Carl, receiving one last lick from Burger before following Lori away.
I saw Shane looking longingly at Lori and Carl leave before we made eye contact. I held it for a few seconds before the sound of arguing and screaming drew our attention.
Ed was grabbing Carol's arm and trying to drag her away while the others were trying to stop him. Seeing that, I stood up in case I needed to intervene while signaling to Burger to be ready.
"You don't tell me what?! I tell you what!" shouted Ed before slapping Carol.
"Bring!" I shouted while pointing to Ed.
With a bark of acknowledgment, Burger took off and quickly reached Ed before latching on to his pants leg.
"Get this mu-" yelled Ed.
He was interrupted by Burger pulling on his pants and making him fall forward. Burger then started dragging him away from the women and to me all while both Ed and Carol screamed.
"I got this." said Shane as he walked past me.
"Wache."
Burger let go of Ed's torn-up pant leg but stood guard, growling and ready to pounce on him with my command. Shane turned Ed around and started wailing on him while the women held Carol in comfort. Seeing Ed get hit over and over again, I had no intention of intervening even if Shane wanted to kill him.
"Shane, stop! Just stop!" said the girls after seeing that Shane kept punching him with no intention of stopping.
"You put your hands on your wife, your little girl, or anybody else in this camp one more time, I will not stop next time. Do you hear me? Do you hear me?!" said Shane, grabbing Ed's pummeled face.
"Yes." answered Ed, weakly.
"I'll beat you to death, Ed." said Shane, punching him one more time, "I'll beat you to death!"
Shane got off of Ed, kicking him one last time as a crying Carol rushed to Ed's side, apologizing as she hugged him. The other women looked at Shane with some trepidation as he walked away in my direction.
"Komm." I said, causing the growling Burger to make his way to me, "Good boy."
As Shane passed me, I could see he was lost in thought, probably because of the talk he had with Lori. He stopped and looked at me.
"You think I went too far?" he asked, practically whispering.
"Not far enough if you ask me."