This first chapter is a bit of a catch up chapter so you can get an idea of what Daryl and Anna and the town folk have been through for the past couple of years...We will delve much deeper into the story as this progresses.

Welcome to our Community

There was a massive blizzard roaring outside as Daryl, Anna, and Hunter huddled around the fireplace to keep warm. It had been a brutally cold winter and the solar panels on the house were pretty much useless with the build-up of snow covering them. Anna had a stew cooking in a pot over the logs in the fireplace and Daryl was engaged in a conversation with his now three- year old daughter Hunter.

Hunter was a stunning little girl. She had her mother's dark hair and her father's crystal blue eyes. Daryl was not Hunter's biological father, but there was no doubt that he was her father. Anyone who witnessed Daryl interacting with the little girl could see the parental relationship with the young child. Anna's first husband John had been killed before Hunter was born, and Daryl had stepped into the role seamlessly. Both parents had agreed that Hunter would know about her real father, and Daryl held no ill will at all about the little girl knowing she wasn't his biologically. He knew it was more than blood that made someone family. His blood relations had caused him more grief in his life than anyone could imagine. However the people he now considered his family such as Rick and Carl, and his wife and her family offered him more love and support than he would have ever expected to have in the world pre-apocalypse.

"Daddy why can't I play with Judy?" The little girl inquired.

"Baby girl, it's snowing too much outside to go over to her house right now. If you go out in the snow you may get buried and we won't be able to see you."

"But I wanna play. Please take me to see her" She pleaded.

"I wish I could baby, but it has to stop snowing first." He tried to reason with her. She stomped her little foot and began to pout because she knew she wasn't going to get her way. Anna then decided to intervene,

"Hey Hunter don't make that ugly face and pout. Your daddy is just protecting you. Why don't you get your coloring book out and color a picture for daddy. We can put it on the wall to show everyone that comes over to the house. Maybe you can even make Judy a picture too. Then she knows you were thinking about her when you couldn't be with her."

"OK, good idea mommy" the little girl responded. She went to her room and grabbed her coloring book and crayons and sat down on a chair by the fireplace. Anna set up a little table for her and the little girl was soon occupied coloring.

Daryl then quietly spoke to his wife "This snow is getting serious. We are all getting low on supplies up here and need to go out on a run soon. I also haven't been able to hunt and our meat supply is getting low also."

"Look, we will stretch things if we have too, it's too dangerous to go out in this storm." She told her husband.

"Rick found a guy named Nick the other day who said he just came from the Greensboro fuel depot and he said there was still quite a bit of fuel to be scavenged. We could all use the gas for the vehicles and the plane, as well as propane to get the generators back up and running." Daryl told Anna.

A lot had changed over the past two and a half years. Anna's family, the prison group, and the families that had remained in the area had worked on organizing the community and making it function like a communal town. Similar to the prison, a council had been formed and all decisions that effected the area had to be agreed upon by the council. There was a formal request process that allowed people to express their ideas and solutions, and no idea was considered off the table.

The members of the council included Daryl, Rick, Marty, Joe, Thomas Blevins, Maggie, Bill Mocksley, Glenn, and Michonne. Each of them headed up co-councils, with Marty being the deciding factor on all decisions. He had basically assumed the role of the Mayor and mediator. If there were any community grievances they were put before Marty and his decision would be final.

Rick was in charge of going on runs and finding survivors, and he often would go on these runs accompanied by Daryl or Glenn. He also was the equivalent of the town Sheriff. All of his experience as a police officer in the past was utilized to create a type of police force in the community. He worked closely with the Mocksley's and members of the prison group to make sure that everyone was safe and secure, and that the town was well patrolled. The primary goal was to prevent any outsiders or walkers from making their way into to community unnoticed.

Michonne was in charge of making sure that the single females in the community were self-sufficient and protected. Twice a week she taught self-defense classes and twice a month Daryl would take a group out to teach them hunting and survival skills. Rick and Michonne had become very close lately and Daryl suspected that the two of them had crossed the line of friendship into something more romantic. Carl seemed to back to being a normal sixteen -year old kid and Daryl assumed that Michonne had a lot to do with that as well.

Thomas Blevins was in charge of farming and air transportation. He had taught Daryl how to fly after they were able to secure a replacement plane shortly after they lost the original plane in the battle with Laurel Springs. Any run that was in an area more than one hundred miles away would be handled via the plane and either Daryl or Thomas would pilot the flight.

Glenn was the strategist of the group. He kept records of anyone that arrived in the community and gathered information about where they had been and what they had experienced. He would then plot the information on maps so they knew what areas were still deemed safe and what areas were considered dangerous. Areas were either marked as Green, Orange, Red, or Black. Green Zones meant the areas were safe. Orange Zones meant they didn't have enough information to determine if they were safe or dangerous and Red Zones meant they were overrun with walkers. A Black Zone was considered hostile and dangerous and was to be avoided at all costs. Laurel Springs would have met the criteria of a Black Zone.

Besides Marty being the head of the council, he and Joe were in charge of all the weapons in the community. They kept an inventory of the weapons on hand and the amount of ammunition that they had stored as well. They never knew if there were going to be any threats from outside sources. Even though it had been close to three years since the incident with Laurel Springs, Damian, and Carol, they knew Damian could possibly still be out there somewhere, biding his time to finish what he started. Just another reason they could never completely let their guard down.

Maggie, with the assistance of Viv had assumed the role of community doctor. Neither of them were well versed with intricate surgical procedures or diseases such as cancer, but they knew enough to treat illnesses such as the flu, help deliver babies, and treat infections and even re-set broken bones that weren't seriously damaged. They had a routine of traveling to different homes to check on some of the less able members of the community, and had established a small clinic in the center of the area.

Bill Mocksley and his sons were in charge of making sure that everyone in the area was well supplied with food. They would head up hunting expeditions that could last a week and would come back with enough meat to provide to the community for a month at a time. Several families had smokehouses that were almost mandatory now because it was about the only way to preserve meat for extended periods of time. Even though several families had self-sufficient homes, there was no guarantee that everything worked properly all the time. Case in point being that because of the brutal extended winter and heavy snow, fuel supplies were low and solar panels weren't offering much help. Most people learned to live with a "Plan B" in all aspects of their lives.

Daryl was not actually in charge of any specific committee, but he was second in charge to Marty. He actively participated on all of the committees with the exception of the medical team. Marty felt that Daryl's skills were too valuable and diverse to put him on just one team, so Daryl would step in and participate on most activities that were taking place. Marty had made Daryl second in charge not only because of his immense skill set, but also because Daryl had keen observational skills and seemed to always be highly aware of what was going on in their community. On top of everything else, people trusted Daryl. Even with his rough exterior and blunt people skills he was well liked, and on top of everything, highly respected.

The entire community now consisted of around 120 people and more that half of them were female refugees. A good portion of these women had survived the horrors of Laurel Springs, but others had found their way to the community on foot through the mountains, or had been rescued by Rick and his team out on various runs. This was one of the reason's Michonne and Daryl had been so busy lately. They were constantly training and teaching the women skills so that they could protect themselves and the community. Some were better than others were, but all of them were much stronger than they had been when they were first found. Thomas had done his part in helping everyone find adequate living quarters and the Mocksley's had worked their assess off making sure all of them had plenty of food. Daryl respected the hell out of Bill Mocksley and his family and probably felt he had the more in common with the Mocksley's than any other family in the area.

As the wind whipped and howled outside Anna pulled herself closer to Daryl. He looked exhausted and she knew he was worried about the dwindling supplies in the community. Tomorrow night if the weather permitted the council was going to gather together for an emergency meeting. Even if the weather didn't let up, something needed to be done to replenish the supplies. As self-dependent as their community had become, they still needed to be able to get out and hunt, find fuel, and check on the other residents. A few families had radios, but there weren't enough of them for all of the families in the area and Daryl wasn't comfortable knowing the status on some of the weaker families.

It was now late afternoon and Daryl pulled himself away from the fire and headed down to the basement to gather some more wood. He now had a permanent limp from his injuries sustained at the battle with Laurel Springs, but he never complained. He was rummaging around looking to see if he could find a couple of additional radios that he vaguely remembered Gus mentioning shortly before he passed away. As he moved some of the boxes around, he found an old dust covered box hidden behind an old lawn mower. He opened it up and discovered it was full of old Martinelli family pictures and documents. He put the lid back on the box so that he could take it up to Anna. He guessed she would love to go through the box and re-live some old family memories.

An unspoken sadness had been existent in the Martinelli family as of late. Isabella was seriously ill, and Viv was pretty sure that she was suffering from breast cancer. It was painful to watch her slowly whither from the strong and vibrant woman that she had always been. Isabella being the woman she was though refused to let her fading health get her down. Unfortunately without a proper oncologist or the ability to treat her illness, there wasn't much that anyone could do other than to try to make her last few months among them the happiest that they could.

I hope this chapter didn't bore you...I will get another chapter up shortly...Enjoy and Please Please Please leave a review-I love suggestions!

Thanks Guys-

Missy

XXOO