When they left Atlanta after regrouping and recovering from the Terminus debacle they did it in six vehicles that they had scavenged from around the city. Two of them were pickup trucks to carry all their supplies, two of them were more comfortable large cars for those who were injured or young, and two were electric, solar-powered cars which could be recharged as they were driven as long as there was enough sun.
They'd taken them from a home covered in solar panels, with wind turbines on the roof. The solar panels had found themselves crammed into the pickups and now resided on the roof of the most lived-in barn at the farm. They'd been a little skeptical of the electric cars at first, but as time wore on and fuel got scarcer the electromobiles (as dubbed by Luke and Mika) became the most-used vehicles for runs.
Carl was fourteen, at least by Carol's reckoning, when he revealed that he'd never seen the ocean. They were sitting around the fire pit where green wood smoked to keep the bugs away, seated on logs or blankets on the ground in the warm night air. Carl was cradling a warm beer and sipping at it while everybody talked about, for whatever reason, the things they'd never done before the apocalypse.
"I've never ridden a roller coaster." Carol shrugged.
"Never had cookies and cream ice cream." Bob said with a mournful sigh.
"Never driven an electric car." Rick chuckled.
"Never eaten squirrel!" Beth laughed.
"Never seen the ocean." Carl admitted.
"Neither." Daryl confessed.
Carol put her half-finished beer down. "Really?"
Rick rubbed the back of his neck. "We were goin' to go for his birthday that year… Didn't happen. I wish we had though." He said to Carl. "You, mom, and me all at the beach. Would'a been nice."
"It's okay, Dad." Carl scuffed his boot in the dirt.
"We could go." Carol offered after a moment.
Rick paused a beat too long. "No, we don't have the resources. It's a nice thought, but-"
"Sure we could. Leave some people behind, them who don't wanna go, pack enough food and water for everyone. Make a trip of it." Tyreese interjected.
And so it was decided that they were going to make the three-day trip to the beach.
The summer weather held beautifully and Carl couldn't hold his awed gasp as they rounded the top of the hill and the ocean suddenly lay sprawling in front of them. Daryl was slightly more subtle, but Carol still heard the stunned huff that escaped him. It stretched as far as they could see, rich blue-green and sparkling in the sun.
"It's awesome." Carl breathed. Carol twisted around in the front seat to look at him, bright-eyed and beaming like she hadn't seen in years.
"Just wait 'til we get down there." She chuckled.
Daryl was almost squirming in the driver's seat with veiled excitement, and Judith squealed delightedly from the back seat, jabbering excitedly at Rick about "Blue! Blue! Look, Daddy!" as if he couldn't see for himself.
The two carloads of people unloaded onto the side of the beach road into hot sunlight and dry beach grass, the constant whispering of the waves unsettling some at first.
As they stood around, drinking out of their water bottles, Carol fished around in the trunk of their electric car and came up with an almost full bottle of sunscreen. Daryl snorted as she shook it teasingly at him, and when he backed away with a smirk she headed for Judith, smearing it more liberally than was really necessary across her face and chubby arms. Rick wiped off the excess once he'd rubbed it in and swiped it across his own forehead and cheeks, making Sasha and Bob laugh. Beth and Maggie held their hands out for some, and Carol managed to get a blob on Carl's nose while he rubbed sunblock onto Beth's shoulders, pink-cheeked. Maggie and Glenn kicked off their shoes and bolted, hollering, down the dirt road to the sand.
Carol stood, thigh-deep in the waves next to Bob, and watched her makeshift family play in the warm water. Rick and Carl were chest-deep, engaged in a playful but ferocious splashing match near Maggie and Beth who were shrieking and diving as Glenn circled them and swiped at them when they got close enough to duck. Sasha lay on a towel on the sand, her long knife next to her and a shotgun on top of the pile of towels nearby.
Daryl stood in the shallows, pants rolled up to his knees, holding Judith up under her arms so she wasn't knocked over by the waves or shifting sand underfoot as she jumped and squealed, splashing him and soaking him halfway up his legs. He was smiling widely, eyes crinkled as he laughed at her antics. The sun played through his hair and glinted off his shoulders as his eyes met hers. She patted Bob on the shoulder and began slogging through the water towards him. He straightened up, keeping a firm hold of one of Judith's hands, and cocked a hip in his characteristic way whilst he watched her come towards him.
He was surprised when she threw an arm around his neck and pulled him down for a salt-spray flavoured kiss, but he returned it until Glenn and Beth wolf-whistled and cheered from out in the water. He flipped them off with a chuckle and released her from his one-armed embrace, bending back down to play with Judith as Carol began heading for the sand. He was entirely unprepared for the swat she gave his backside as he bent over, but he had to laugh at the jaunty wink she gave him when he eyeballed her over his shoulder.
Everybody was itchy with dried seawater by the time they reached the first stopover house that night. Thankfully, it had a rainwater tank on the roof that they filled by bucket from the well and they could all have a gravity-fed shower, considering the nights were almost stiflingly warm. Carl's shoulders were pink, Rick's back was streaked where he hadn't been able to reach with the sun lotion, but Judith was unscathed by her sun-drenched adventure.
Carl, in a rare snuggly mood, had crawled up next to Carol on the sofa and rested his head on her shoulder. She'd thrown her arm around him and hugged him closely, kissing his hair.
"What's the verdict, then?"
"On the beach?" He mumbled into her shoulder. She giggled at his obvious exhaustion.
"On the new brand of sun lotion."
He humphed. "It was so cool… I didn't realise it was so, I dunno, big. And Jude liked it. It's been ages since Dad laughed like that, too."
"It's been ages since you did something fun, huh?" Carol smiled benevolently.
"No, I do fun stuff all the time at the farm; I'm not complaining or anything… It was just different, you know?"
"It was… Did you enjoy it, sweetheart?"
He sat up after giving her one last hug. "Yeah, I did. I'll remember to say thanks to Ty when we get back." He stretched, winced at his sunburn. "I'm going to check on Judy and go to bed. Night, Carol."
She smiled up at him. "I'm glad you had a nice day. Goodnight Carl."
She crawled into bed next to Daryl not long after and he barely woke enough to sling an arm over her, testament to how tiring the excitement of the day had been for everyone. Despite the sunburn on her shoulders and the itchy tiredness behind her eyelids, she smiled in the dark.
Life was good.