Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead.
This story is the seven months between the end of season two and the start of season three ok. It is six chapters long and spans the seven months. Each chapter will be a few days in each month, like a quick over view.
This chapter starts right after the end of Like a Moth to a Flame.
Special thanks to: NathalieIyper, JenMac, Katie Loom, asdf5101, S. , dean's chick84, Meliara422, A Midnight Muse, Pok3monTrain3erBlu3, Carpe Diem Vampire. TheMadnessWithin13, Skies192, Oreathyia, Disgaea princess, I-am-Sherlocked, Mrs Cassandra M, XLady-ZoZo-The-Pict-PrincessX, Musik Drache, Lynn Kyzar, Juliakyra, Lorelei evans, lolqwertyuiop0, rileys mom, gragner, .16, FanWoman21, XxxCheshireCat, Hope and love, Flying Frogs 001931, . , wellficme, Leave Me Alone You Stalker, jomaxrox, FanFicGirl10, xmenfan33,Mal42, natalia4, jlreck, ivy2772, speedy964, Starr97, dog88, breaktheseodds, AlanisK, Sunny and Sides151, I-am-Sherlocked-82, lolqwertyuiop0 for reviewing, favoring and following and the 5,127 other viewers who read the older version and I hope you guys like this new one too.
I also want to thank all the new readers love you guys.
Please review and enjoy.
No one got much sleep that night and if they did, it wasn't for very long. Every time I closed my eyes, I would be back on the farm, hearing walkers growling, gun shots and the smell of the barn burning. I wake up, gasping to catch my breath before I sit up and rub my eyes, I can feel a headache coming on.
I huff and push myself back, so that I can lean against the wall. It is morning, the sun just barely rising. I look down and I re-tuck in the girls and cover up Anna and Carl's shoulders, before I look around at everyone else.
Maggie, Beth, Hershel and Carol are all asleep, although they aren't sleeping peacefully. Lori is on the other side of Carl, she is awake, trying not to cry, with her hand on her stomach. I look away from her, to see that Glenn and T-dog are by the fire just sitting there, they look like they haven't been to sleep yet.
I look up onto the wall to see both Jack and Daryl are on watch, Jack is walking the wall with a shot gun, still not real sure how I feel about that. Daryl turns around from where he was standing and looks at everyone before looking to me.
'You ok' He mouthes and I give him a small smile and nod to him, but he doesn't look convinced. I can feel my eyes drooping as I gaze into the dying fire.
I wake up again when the sun starts to come up over the wall, I have a terrible headache and my neck is sore, from how I slept against the wall. The girls both wake up soon after and Maggie, Anna and Beth go with me to take the girls to the bathroom.
Maggie and I take turns standing guard, but nothing happened. Carrying Gracie and holding Haylee's hand, we all walk back into camp, to see that everyone is up and moving around.
We pack up and walk back to the cars and put everything away. Anna and Beth stay with the girls, who are playing with some leaves near the cars, as the guys look over a map. I walk to my car, opening the back door and I climb inside. I unstrap the car seats and set them on the ground outside.
"What are you doing?" Daryl asks me, when he walks over to me. I am moving around the stuff in the back, trying to make as much room as possible. "Just moving stuff around, just in case we need to leave. They will have to sit on each other's laps but… you know." I tell him turning around and looking at him when he touches my side.
His hand comes up and cups my cheek and he slowly starts kissing me, his lips moving so gently against mine, I reach my arms around him, tugging lightly on his hair at the nape of his neck.
We pull away from each other, when we hear someone clearing their throat. I try not to blush, when I see Glenn standing there. "Rick wants us to leave soon, so I would hurry this up." He teases before walking away.
I laugh a little as I turn around and close the trunk and we start walking to the others. Daryl is going with Glenn and Maggie to go find some gas and some supplies if they can. I wasn't happy when I first heard that, but I do understand why, but it doesn't mean that I have to like it.
After we eat some stale chips and cereal for breakfast, they leave to go find some gas. It is hard trying to distract the girls and myself, trying not to think about all the things that can go wrong. We all stay close to the cars, we don't want to be too far away, in case a herd comes through.
It's been only an hour or two, when I hear a car driving down the road. I look up to Jack, who is standing on top of Hershel's red truck, looking through the binoculars to see down the road.
"It's them." He tells us, before carefully getting down. I stand up from where I was sitting against a tree. Anna and Beth stay with the girls, under the shade tree, while I walk over to the approaching car. I can hear them laughing and hugging each other.
"That was kind of fast." Rick said walking over and standing in front of Daryl and Glenn. "There was a car pile-up, like the highway, it's was just a few miles up the road." Daryl tells him, while opening the trunk.
I look through the back window, to see it is full of stuff. Smiling, I hug both Maggie and Glenn before I make my way over to Daryl. He is whispering with Rick about something, neither looked happy.
I walk slowly to them, I see Rick nod his head before turning and walking away. Daryl meets me halfway and I wrap my arms around his waist, he pulls me close and kisses my forehead. "What's wrong and don't you lie." I tell him looking him straight in his eyes.
He huffs before leaning his head to mine. "Driving on the way back, we saw a herd heading towards here. We will be leaving very soon, so don't worry." He whispers to me, reassuring me when he feels me tense up. I take in a shaky breath and pull away from him. "Well let's hurry then." I tell him pulling him by his hand back to the others.
After we look over the map, Rick chose a small town that is near here. We are just going to raid the town and move on, it is too close to the farm and the herd that is coming to feel safe.
We are going to try and find a farm house like Hershel's, to stay a few days, before moving on again. Rick thinks it best, that we don't stay in a house for more than a few days, so we don't get too comfortable, or get over run again.
We fill up the cars and Daryl's bike with gas and we pack up and get on the road. I only put Gracie in her car seat, it is easier and a bit safer, only having one car seat in the way. I make sure both Haylee and Anna have on their seat belts first though.
I'm sit the back with Haylee and Gracie while Jack drives. We switched after we all made a pit stop, a mile or two back. I read to them from a new book that Daryl had found in the car pile-up. It is a nice distraction from everything for a little while.
We pull over a mile away from the town, not wanting to draw the walkers to us. Rick, Daryl, Jack and T-dog, take the truck the rest of the way and if it is them when they come back, they will flash thier lights three times.
Lori sits in the back seat with the girls, while Anna sits behind her, in the way back in a cubby hole, that's right behind the seat, while Carl sits next to me in the front. Hershel, Glenn, Beth, Carol and Maggie are in the other car. We stay in the cars, not only because it is getting dark, but we are too close to the town.
The only time we leave the cars, is if we have to go to the bathroom, but we go in pairs and just to be extra safe, we also locked the doors. We eat the rest of that stale cereal and some water for dinner.
While Anna makes some room for Gracie and her to sleep in the back in her small cubby. Lori pushes the car seat over so that Haylee could lie against her, I give her a smile as thanks and she gives me one back before covering herself and Haylee with a blanket.
Lori and the girls fall asleep just after the sun is down, Carl is still awake holding his gun on his lap, and he looks out the windows, looking around every few minutes, so alert.
I yawn and rub my eyes trying to stay awake, it's real dark now and it is hard to see with only a small flashlight on. I look over at Carl to see him fast asleep, I smile and gently take his gun and put it in the cup holder next to him. I lean my head back trying hard to keep my eyes open.
I jerk awake, when I hear a car honking, Carl jumps awake as well and we look out the windows, seeing a car speeding down the road towards us. I see Daryl jumping out of the car and quickly get on his bike, starting it up.
Hershel and I hurry and start our cars, seeing the herd coming towards us, in the headlights. I flip around, after Hershel and we take off, the herd quickly disappearing in the review mirror.
I follow Hershel's tail lights, as we drive down all the back roads, where we are going I have no idea. The clock on the dash says two a.m. by the time we start to slow down and then stopping. Lori stays in the car, while Carl and I get out and make our way to guys.
"We're all fine." Daryl tells me when I run up to him. I hug him before hugging Jack, I check them over anyway. "We found a lot of stuff. We just got held up in a store, had a small problem, had to use our guns, that's why we had to leave so fast." Rick tells me, Hershel and Glenn while hugging Carl to his side.
"We stay in the cars for tonight, try and find a house tomorrow, and stay for a few days. Let's try and get some sleep." Rick said to us, pulling Carl to the truck. Jack doesn't even look at me before climbing in the truck and shutting the door behind him.
Daryl shakes his head at the questioning look I give him, he just walks to his bike and started pushing it towards my car. I look to Glenn who shrugs his shoulders at me and goes back to the car with Hershel.
I open the door and climb behind the wheel, closing the door and locking it. I look in the back to see that they are all back to sleep, before looking over to Daryl, who is sitting in the passenger seat. He won't look at me either, something bad happened, but I'll ask him tomorrow.
I hold out my hand to him and he takes it and brings it up to his mouth. He kisses my hand and keeps it close to his mouth, he takes a few deep breaths before dropping our hands. He holds my hand all night as we sleep, yeah something bad definitely happened while they were gone.
I don't get to ask what had happened yesterday, because the moment we got up when the sun came up, we started driving. We barely had any time to go to the bathroom before Rick wanted to leave. Jack rides with Rick again, scenarios keep running through my head, what the hell happened.
Around noon we stopp and eat before taking off again, Lori driving this time, to give me a break. It is almost dark again by the time we pull up to a house. The guys go through it quickly, we stay in the cars until they come back out.
I set Haylee down on the ground and then Gracie, letting them run around in between us. I help Anna down, she looks very stiff from sitting for so long, I think we all are.
We don't take much stuff into the house, Rick thinks we all should stay together in the living room, close to the door and the cars. The girls are on the love seat and Lori takes the couch. I roll out my sleeping bag next to the girls, Anna lays hers next to me, and everyone else is spread out all over the living room and the hall.
I don't know if I should take my shoes off or not, if we have to leave quickly it would be safer to leave them on. Thinking that, I retie my shoes and I'll be keeping my gun and knife on me. I turn to see Daryl walking up the stairs to start his watch, I'm going to find out what happened, no matter how hard I have to try, I will find out.
I walk up the stairs and walk to the bedroom, trying not to gag, when I see the walkers laying on the floor by the closet, now I know why we have to stay in the living room.
I cross my arms and stand behind him, I know he knows I'm standing behind him, I see him tensing up, ok now I was pissed. Shaking my head and taking a deep breath, being pissed isn't gonna help any. I uncross my arms and walk up beside him, facing towards him.
"Please, please just tell me." I ask, leaning my head against his arm. He sighs and leans his head against the window. "We had some trouble, he almost got bit." He whispers so quietly that I almost didn't hear it, almost.
I push away from him and cover my mouth, staring at him in shock. I feel a bit dizzy, so I lean down, my hands on my knees trying to take deep breaths, he touches the back of my head, moving slowly down my back. "I know… I know. But hearing it just… just makes it real. I don't know how..." I said standing straight, me pulls me to him and I hug him, holding him so tight.
I sigh, pushing away from him, wiping the stray tear that fell. "You ok?" He asks staring at me, trying to read me. "Yes… no… I don't… he's safe, you're safe. We are all safe, that's all that matters." I sigh, my head falling back. I look back to him and kiss him, I could feel his pulse racing.
I slowly walk back down the stairs, I could see Jack looking out the window, behind a blanket that we had put up to block out our lights. I tiptoe pass everyone and I walk up to him and lean me head against the side of his.
"You are safe, you came back. That's all that matters ok." I whisper in his ear, I could see his eyes tearing up. I kiss his temple and give him a hug, I can feel him shaking a bit.
I lay down next to Anna and Jack slowly follows behind and lies on the other side of her. I lay there listening to the sound of them snoring and everyone's light breathing. I lay there thinking about what lay ahead of us, now that we really have no place to stay and winter is approaching fast. Falling asleep is difficult, with these thoughts running through my head.
I wake early the next day all the kids are still asleep when I get up. I quietly step around Beth and Maggie who are still sleeping and I walk into the kitchen to see Rick, Glenn, Daryl, and T-dog standing around the table looking over the map again.
While they talk about where we will go next I start looking through the cupboard that I was standing beside. When I find some canned soup I start quickly going through all the cupboards and I find more and more food. It's not a whole lot but enough for all of us for a few days.
I stop digging in a lower cupboard when I hear, well don't hear the men talking any more. I look over my shoulder to see Rick holding one of the soup cans. I stand and stare at him before looking over at Daryl.
"I didn't even think about checking the house for supplies…" I hear Rick whisper more to him-self then to us. He sets down the can and looks at me and nods his head before going back to the map. I smile at Daryl before going back to looking for more supplies.
When everyone is finally awake we all sit down in the living room to eat some food. While eating we start talking about our next move and how we should scavenge the house and stay the night before leaving to the next house.
After we are done eating, Daryl and T-dog go outside to check the back shed for tools and maybe some gas. Hershel and Rick are on watch while the rest of us start going through the house. Beth and Anna take turns watching the girls in the living room.
Sometime after one when we are done with going through the house we start packing up the cars with all the stuff that we have found that day.
We have some nice hot soup for dinner and we all go right to sleep. Come morning we pack up the rest of our stuff and we get on the road. Driving to the next place hoping it's safe, hoping that we will find someplace, someplace safe… someplace to call home.