AN: So I'm always glutton for punishment.

However, my mind won't let me be at peace when it wants to start talking about something…telling a story…and I won't let it. I don't, however, think this one will be "that long" considering I already know most of what's going to happen…but we'll see.

So here's what I've got so far of this one. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not positive exactly where it's going, but I've seen a little into the future and I'm curious to see how it's going to play out. I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that "Caryl purists" might be bothered, because it's not going to be purely Caryl…but Caryl is going to be there. More after the chapter in an AN that contains spoilers if you want to know what to expect "romantically" besides Caryl. Don't read if you want the full impact.

This is an AU with Walkers, taking place "after" Season 4 with my own interpretation of what happens in the finale (since we haven't seen it) and with the characters going off in a direction that I've set for them.

Anyway, if you choose to read…I hope you enjoy! I'll update when my mind tells me I have to!

My disclaimer is that I do not own the Walking Dead or any of its characters. This is just for entertainment purposes and I don't get paid, etc. etc.

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We can't be around people any longer.

There are no people left to be around.

Only shadows of what once were people…hollow shells.

It had been centuries since they'd neared the place at the end of the line…a place that promised sanctuary but from a short distance sounded like terror and chaos.

And without words they'd both steered their steps away from the Promised Land that they'd thought they'd find and they'd taken another road…a road that led to somewhere different…or maybe led to nowhere at all.

Because the truth was that they were no longer fit to be around people, if people even really existed any longer, and stepping into whatever hell was unfolding would have been certain death for the three of them.

And they'd travelled on, not even knowing where they were going and not even bothering to question it at this point. Both of them carrying the fear that they were the last people left alive…and the fear that they weren't.

The passage of time was once something marked by seconds, moments, hours, days…once their lives had depended on knowing how much time had passed. It was, now that Carol reflected on it, perhaps an urgency brought on by wondering…not how much time had passed…but how much time there was that was left.

And had it not been for Judith, nature's natural way of marking the time, Carol might have been convinced that centuries really had passed since the day that she and Tyreese both had accepted that everything they'd ever known had changed and was gone. Nothing remained of any of the lives that they had known before…nothing remained of any of the forms that they had taken on…everything was only shadows and memories.

And the only future that was left, if there was even a future left, was the future that they saw in Judith's sweet eyes and in her happy smile…pleased because they found a piece of fruit to let her gnaw at…enjoying a short time some toy they found for her, something she would have to leave behind as they moved on in search of something that neither of them could quite put a name to.

Because they weren't looking for people any longer. Every time they neared a place that showed any sign of current life, they turned their feet and they ventured in another direction.

The only people that mattered to them…the only people that had ever mattered to either of them…were either dead or at their side. There would be no more. It was a silent agreement between them.

But now that it was growing cold…too cold to continue long without shelter…and now that Judith was growing too heavy to carry for the long spurts they travelled between sun up and sun down but was still too slow to keep up without costing them just as much time as passing her from one set of arms to the other…they both were realizing that their journey had to end, at least temporarily.

And that was when they found the farmhouse, like some kind of mirage set in a somewhat cleared area in the heavily wooded area where they traipsed, sometimes crossing their own paths, because often they forgot to carefully navigate their steps and they marveled at not having stumbled on it before, even if the fact remained that they hadn't seen it because their eyes hadn't been opened to it.

"It looks as good as anything else," Tyreese said. "Better…even…fireplace is a working fireplace…there's a well."

The place hadn't been difficult to clear. Three Walkers that they'd taken out easily enough, Judith's weight pulling on one of Carol's arms and her shoulder…a weight that they'd both learned to carry as naturally as they carried their own.

Carol put Judith in the living room floor where the girl wandered around, taking her own inventory of the place in silence, probably not knowing that this wasn't planned to be just another overnight stay like in the barns, houses, and sheds they'd called home before.

She stepped into the kitchen, found the stove to be a gas stove, and flicked it on. There must be a tank…because the burner lit.

"There's gas for a little while," she called out to Tyreese who was taking inventory.

"Looks to be a generator out back," Tyreese said, after she heard the squeak and thud of him moving through doors they'd closed behind them during their initial sweep. "Probably in rough condition…but with a little work, I might get it going…fences look pretty secure for now…if I can find the supplies I can reinforce them…hang barbed wire."

Tyreese's heavy footsteps echoed in the kitchen area as he came into the room and stood, looking at Carol.

"What do you think?" He asked.

Carol nodded her head.

"It's as good as anything else we've found," she said, knowing full well that they couldn't afford to be picky with the winter threatening to set in and freeze them to death without a guaranteed shelter.

Tyreese's face broke into something of a smile. He crossed the room and put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into him.

Tyreese hugged more than anyone that she'd ever known, but there was a comfort in those hugs that couldn't be found in many other places these days. He rubbed a hand on her back.

"Looks like we've found home..." he offered.

"For a while," Carol agreed.

"Any food here?" He asked.

Carol broke away from him to start searching cabinets. There was food…not the biggest score they'd ever hit, but there was more than enough for a little while…especially once Tyreese found the pantry.

"There looks to be a basement too," Tyreese said, peeking through some door that Carol could only imagine must lead to the space that he presumed to be a basement.

He knew, though, how she felt about basements…so he would be the one to take on that exploration, when he felt up to it.

"I can start some supper…get us something to eat," Carol offered.

"I'm going to look for any lanterns that might be around," Tyreese said. "Collect them together…be ready for night. Should I start a fire?"

Carol offered him a soft smile and nodded her head slightly as she went through the food that the place had to offer them.

"That could be nice," she said.

And he took that as all the request that he needed, slipping off to do the chores he'd assigned to himself while Carol settled into preparing something that would keep them from starving to death. Something that would prolong this life that they now called their own.

This was all the life that they had left anymore…and all they had to share it with was each other.

Everyone else that they had ever known were reduced to nothing more than ghosts that sometimes haunted their dreams…whether they were asleep or not.

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When you're going nowhere…you don't really care who wants to tag along…

Daryl found his company as agreeable as he could find any company these days. He had thoughts sometimes of taking off on his own…leaving behind Joe and Zane…but he'd never done it.

Because even though he thought that it would be just about the same thing, sometimes, to be alone, he didn't really want to be alone.

But he didn't really want to be accompanied either.

And therein lie the rub.

"Prob'ly last damn meat for months," Joe declared, particularly jolly for the cold evening that clearly reminded them that winter was coming. "Hate bein' a damn vegetarian…"

They were sharing a couple of possums that Zane had scared up and cooked over the small fire around which they now huddled for the meagre warmth it put off.

They were wanderers now…not that it really mattered.

Daryl couldn't care less where they went or if they went anywhere at all really. There no longer existed that feeling that there was somewhere to be or something to do. That feeling had been gone for so long that Daryl wasn't even sure any longer if he'd recognize it were it to overwhelm him.

Now they just survived…day in and day out. They stuck to land so overgrown with time and lack of use that they might as well not care where they went because they couldn't have kept track of it even if they bothered to employ the tracking skills they had between them to the mission.

And Daryl didn't care one way or another.

They had gone to the end of the line to look for the people that Joe and the men that were with them before had hard feelings for. And when they had gotten there, they'd found the place looking like a war zone. Shooting had broken out…screaming…blood…death. It had become some kind of battleground and they'd show up late to the fight.

And of the people there that Daryl even got close to while they spent very little time deciding if they'd stay or if they'd go, not a single one of them had worn a familiar face.

And when some stray bullet from a fight that wasn't there's had taken down the man travelling with them, a man that Daryl hadn't even bothered to get to know, he'd left as suddenly as they'd come with Joe on his heels. This wasn't their fight…there wasn't really anything worth fighting for anymore.

And Daryl tried to learn to accept his fate.

He would travel, until the end of the road, whenever and wherever he may find it, with Joe and whatever assholes they might end up with…which right now was only a boy named Zane who wasn't much of an asshole.

And they would avoid, at least as much as they could, having to come into contact with people…because the last battle that they'd stumbled into had reminded them that most people these days weren't the kind you really wanted to mix with anyway.

And anyone that Daryl had ever given a shit for was dead now anyway…and he had little desire to go increasing the numbers.

The best he could say, perhaps, was that the three of them were comfortable together, whether that was good or bad, and maybe that was the best that anyone could say while they walked through hell on Earth.

"Might be a little meat left still," Zane said. "Ain't even frosted yet…"

Joe laughed and threw the bone he'd been gnawing on at the fire that was dying quickly.

"Not enough for the winter, bet'cha balls on that," Joe declared.

Joe got up, moving around and getting his blanket rolls ready for sleep. They'd already hung the wire circumference around their camp that they took down every morning and put up every night. It wasn't a fool proof way of keeping Walkers out…but it was typically enough to slow them down and alert the men to their presence.

It wasn't like anyone slept soundly anymore anyhow.

Daryl took Joe's preparations as indication that they were sleeping now…and it was Zane's watch…but Daryl wasn't tired.

"Zane…go on an' sleep," Daryl offered. "I got watch…"

"Don't forget to wake him up in a couple hours," Joe offered. "Don't want no one draggin' ass tomorrow."

Daryl hummed his agreement with what Joe had said and moved a little closer to the dying fire, preparing to sit up with his thoughts while he waited until it was time to wake the boy and settle down in his own blankets with his dreams.

Not that his waking thoughts and his dreams were that much different anymore. Both were the same images…the same memories…the same painful scenarios…played over and over again like a torturous movie.

Both were merely reels of all the things that Daryl tried, but never quite managed, to forget.

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AN: *SPOILERS*

So basically as far as non-Caryl in this story (even though it's not completely non-Caryl), there is going to be some contemplation/discussion/consideration on Carol's part of starting a relationship with Tyreese based on the belief that there's just the two of them remaining. There will be a kiss and (for lack of a better term) the start to a make out session. I won't go into all the details…but as far as non-Caryl "romance" or whatever you want to call it…that's what you get. No one is actually "doing the dirty" with anyone else…but there is a little kind of angsty consideration.