"Extreme Happiness"
A/N: This story has been circulating in my head for so long. It's just that I have seen the characters go through hell and yet they do not get any relief, of any sort. My story is a one-shot. It is pure fiction, so I intend on going overboard with possibilities that could never happen otherwise. I just want to see the characters happy and relaxed for a while.
The members of the group are the ones that are left after the barn attack, when they all meet at the highway, along with the addition of Michonne. Andrea is still left at the farm. (end of season 2)
Hope you will like this fluff (not romantic, but extreme joy and happiness). Although I do not know if this would get any comments or reviews, but if you want (I mean after you R&R…..Please do..I want to learn…constructive criticism is welcome along with positive comments of course) it can be converted into a story.
Thanks.
Hope you guys like it.
And oh..I obviously do not own anything. It all belongs to amc and the makers. I am just having fun with the story and my imagination.
"It is so cold, and we do not have any ammo left. We need to find a place soon" said Daryl who was sitting in the front seat with Rick, who was driving.
The group had walked a while and found a bigger jeep. It was rusty but it was big and in working condition. Daryl had to leave his bike behind. His brother's beloved bike. He did not want to part from it but he had to. He hid it, so that he could come later to fetch it, if no one else found it by that is.
This way, all the group members could travel together and save on gas. Carl, who was scared, shattered, cold and hungry was sitting with Daryl in his lap. It was not a comfortable situation but they had to manage. At least in the weather case they were lucky that it was cold, otherwise it would have been stuffy in the big black rusty looking jeep. In the second row sat Carol, Lori, Maggie and Beth. In the back sat Hershel, T-Dog, Glenn and Michonne along with the stuff that they were carrying. Yet again, they were very uncomfortable.
"Mom, do we have some water left? I am thirsty" asked Carl looking behind to his mother. Daryl let out a grunt as Carl shifted in his seat but he loved the kid, even if he did not show it.
"We have some" Beth answered slowly; she somehow gathered the courage to smile. She grabbed her bag and took the last bottle of water out from it. Maggie smiled proudly at her sister. Maggie knew how fragile Beth was and yet, she was being hopeful at the moment. Beth had lost close friends very recently and yet she was the only bright hope in the group. Its not that she said anything out of the ordinary, its just her mere presence made the group feel hopeful.
"We really do need to find a shelter, food and warm clothes as soon as possible. Its only gonna get colder" Michonne said while sitting at the back, Hershel nodded at her statement and went into a deep thought. He was thinking about any option that they could cash on. The man had just lost his home, his friends, his everything and still they needed to find some place, just so they could keep breathing.
"Daddy, wasn't there a storage facility here?" Maggie asked her father looking back. Hershel opened his eyes while coming out of his thoughts.
Rick was listening to the conversation. He hoped Maggie was right.
"Yes sweetheart, there is. Just about 15 miles East" Hershel said happily. This might be it.
"Shouldn't we find a housing facility or a building of apartments" Glenn said out loud. "I mean we might find food there"
"There are, but we recently purchased a storage facility and had kept old clothes, some camping stuff. We need that and it is stronger. The homes nearby are small and weak. A passing by herd can destroy it, just like.." Hershel stopped remembering his home.
"And moreover, the bigger buildings, which are very few around, would probably be filled with walkers and we need to hide out somewhere which can be warm. Storage units do not have windows, which might be broken otherwise in the homes and we won't need to board them up. We can stay there for the night. Find food and maybe make camp there till we find something permanent" Maggie continued explaining, in place of her father.
Rick still did not say anything.
"Alright, we'll go there. We need to try" Rick said after a few minutes of silence. Lori looked at him through the rear view mirror's reflection. She wanted to talk to him but just could not understand how.
"Its gonna be okay" Daryl said almost in a whisper. Rick nodded and they moved in silence.
Surprisingly, there were no walkers in the storage facility. Hershel reached his storage unit and opened the combination lock. They all entered and moved some things out side to make room for all of them to fit in.
"Good thing, we did not throw the sofa set Daddy" Beth said while pulling out a sheet from the sofa.
"It was your Mother's. I was going to get it repaired to surprise you both" Hershel said in a low voice. Maggie and Beth hugged their father. All these things were a mere memory now and the world as they knew was over. Getting a sofa repaired seemed such a simple thing earlier and now, it was just a dream. How times had changed.
"Lets go scout the other units and see if we can find something useful" Daryl mentioned to Rick and Michonne. Glenn was asked to stay with the rest of the group. They let the shutters down, for Hershel's unit, but kept it slightly open. They found some old flashlights along with the camping gear.
"There is obviously going to be no food around here, so lets find warm blankets. Clothes and anything else which is useful" Rick directed Michonne and Daryl.
They did not split up, as it would be easier to go through stuff in one unit at a time. They risked of making noise while breaking the locks, but they had no other choice.
Luckily for them, right in the few neighbouring units, they were able to find mattresses, blankets and warm clothes along with some other stuff.
Michonne saw a Bible kept in a storage unit they were searching, along with some other books. 'Who would keep a Bible in a storage unit?' she thought but did not ponder on it. She picked up the Bible for Hershel and books for Carl and Beth.
When the three went back to their unit, they found lot of space for them to sleep in. The sofa cushions were taken out so that they would make a temporary bed for one of the members. Lori and Carl shared the sofa. There were only three mattresses, which they had to share. Hershel chose to sleep on the sofa cushions, as they were big enough. Maggie, Beth, Carol and Michonne combined two mattresses. The one left was with Rick, Daryl, Glenn and T-Dog.
"Two of us will remain on watch at any given time" Rick declared pointing to the men. Michonne and Maggie did not question Rick's decision. It was hard enough for two people to get up in the crammed space; it would have been difficult for all to do the rotation.
It was so cold, that they had to put on the over coats along with the blankets to warm themselves. They all started to settle when Michonne remembered about the books. She handed the Bible to Hershel, which brought a smile to his face and other books to Carl and Beth. They did not have much light, but Daryl had found a stick-on hook, which he did stick on the ceiling and hung two flashlights on it. All were now settled in but no one was asleep, even in the dead silence, may be it was too silent. They were too restless, too tired, too hungry, too thirsty and too depressed.
Rick and T-Dog took the first shift. They had already lowered the shutters completely but they still needed to stand guard, just in case.
"I really am hungry" T-Dog said. Everybody agreed with him but nobody said a word.
"I can't believe we did not find anything nearby" Rick said out loud. He was blaming himself for not going further out in the dark. Michonne, Daryl and Hershel had suggested against it.
It had been too cold, dark and risky. There was an office in the storage facility and all they found was one water bottle, which they all shared. It was surely not enough.
"Its okay, we had a hard day today. We needed the rest. We will move further tomorrow and find something" T-Dog reassured him. He was never the one to give much advice, but he knew Rick was disturbed.
"I'll go for a hunt nearby tomorrow and find food" Daryl also added while lying down.
"Hey look Beth. It's a journal and it is addressed to Daryl" Carl said while looking through the books Michonne had given them. Everyone looked at Carl, including Daryl.
"What?" he asked in surprise. This was a surprise.
"Show it to me" Beth asked the young boy and he passed the journal to her.
Beth opened up the black journal. It was indeed addressed to Daryl. The journal was more of a letter and was maybe intended to be given to someone and instead ended up here, just like the Bible.
"Well it is addressed to Daryl but it is probably someone else 'cause it says 'love Dad' in the end..and well Daryl's never mentioned his Dad" Beth said casually.
"First of all, I aint never gave permission for my personal life to be discuss'd in public and sec'nd of all I aint from here and third of all, even if it was from my father..its none of 'yor damn business" Daryl practically shouted but with inside voices. He knew the risks.
" 'M sorry" Beth whispered back.
"Bethy, you gotta be careful about people's feelings." Hershel suggested while smiling at Daryl. He knew how sensitive Daryl was from the inside.
"Its okay, calm down Daryl" Rick said while going to Daryland kept his hand on his shoulder.
"Come on, give it to me" Michonne said with a big grin on her face. She slowly started reading the journal.
'Dear Daryl,
I know you think I am a paranoid person and I know that the doctors have said the same thing but I cannot help but feel this feeling that something is not right. As a matter of fact, something is going to be very wrong. I do not have any proof, I just have this gut feeling. You are my only son and you are barely 14 years old. Trust your old man now. I am giving you this on your birthday. Even though I am not going to be there with you because the doctors are going to shift me to a different location. And you will not be allowed to visit me. But I have made sure that this journal reaches you along with the Bible. It is the only safe way, which I can think of.
I know you are young and you have no idea about life. So I have built a bunker for you. It is not a bunker exactly but a modern home that has all the facilities. It is nuclear war safe and I have made arrangements which will have food reserves and water for you, your friends (whomever you choose) and a couple of my friends as well, and will last for at least 25 years. You probably wont need to stay there as long but if you bring more people then you might need more food…so I made arrangements. I am telling you again. I am not paranoid. I just cannot let go of this feeling.
And because I am not allowed to say anything about this, I am writing to you. If you cannot understand something at this time, keep this journal and in the coming year, if need be, which I know you will, make sure you make an adult read it to you. You should only give this to someone you really trust and no one else.
If all else fails, I also have made financial arrangements for you that you will get when you turn 18 (if the world is safe by then) and you have nothing to worry about. Your future would be safe.
I want you to work hard and become a good man. Like you keep on telling me that there is nothing wrong, I sure hope that you are right. I hope you stay safe and I hope you find happiness.
Be safe Daryl.
Love Dad'
Michonne finished reading the journal entry or letter whatever it was.
There was complete silence. Nobody spoke anything and everyone looked towards Daryl, who obviously had no idea about anything.
He just shrugged his shoulders and answered the unasked question. He was obviously not the same Daryl as he was clearly not 14 years old.
"There is an address mentioned here, which is not far from where we are staying" Michonne spoke when nobody else did.
"Do you think this is for real?" Carol was the one to ask first.
"I don't know but its worth checking out" T-Dog answered.
Lori who was silent till now looked at Rick with a ray of hope. If this were for real they would be able to provide a life to Carl and their unborn child.
Rick was confused but when he saw Lori and then Hershel, he knew what he had to do. Daryl and Michonne were already on board.
They might just have a chance.
The next morning came too late as nobody slept at all in the excitement. Rick and Daryl were still preparing themselves for all this to be a hoax. Could they be this lucky? Afterall this all could go in vain. Even if the so-called nuclear safe bunker did exist, it could have been found by someone else. The boy Daryl might already have shifted there, leaving behind the journal. Anything could happen.
But for now, all they had was hope and it is the one thing which nobody wanted lost.
Daryl had woken up early and went for a hunt. He brought back some squirrels, which were thoroughly enjoyed by all. They soon left for the new location.
According to the address the bunker or the modern house was built in the middle of the woods and was hidden well. So they had to look carefully to find something that was hidden.
"Its not a pipe dream, I can feel it" Michonne whispered to Rick, who was walking alone. Daryl soon caught up.
"What do you think?" Rick asked him.
"I dunno" he shrugged his shoulders again.
"I guess we'll just have to find out" Rick finished and Daryl went ahead.
"We will" Michonne also went ahead. Rick smiled.
He had a lot of burden on his shoulders. He needed to find a place and that also soon, he had to look after his family. He had to find a place for his unborn baby.
Soon enough, almost in the middle of the woods they found a huge building that was surrounded by solid iron fences. It was camouflaged in the colour of the forest and was difficult to find from a distance.
Rick, Daryl, Michonne, Hershel, Glenn and Maggie were all thinking the same thing.
"Could this be real?" Maggie finally asked.
"Yes. It seems so" Hershel said not half heartedly but with hope in his voice. He had to keep his daughters safe and this place seemed just like it could be a safe haven.
"We'll check the perimeter just to be sure" Rick announced and everyone followed.
After almost half a day they all gathered at the front gates.
"The perimeter is huge. It took us so long to cover it. And its cover'd with solid iron bars and fences; no herd of walkers can break this. This seems to be the saf'st place till yet." Daryl said
"Did you check out the water stream which passed right through the perimeter and into the property? Even if they did not have water inside the building, this stream would be more than okay" Michonne added.
Rick nodded. "We still need to get inside and check if it is safe". There could be people inside or worse there could be walkers.
"How do we get in? Its locked" Beth asked while checking the huge entry gate.
The entire boundary seemed like that of a military base. It had no leaks and was extremely strong.
"Great, when we find the place, we don't know how to get in" T-Dog huffed.
"The gates and fences are too big for us to climb without a rope or other support. Even then it has barbwires on top. We cannot just climb in" Daryl said with a defeated look.
Rick was getting angrier by every passing second. He could not be this close to a safe place and yet not be able to go inside. They did not have any tools with them right now.
"We could go find some tools to figure a way out" Rick said and was about to move towards the direction of the city.
"Rick. It's already too late. Look around you. You'll be lost" Lori finally spoke up. She could not let her husband go in such conditions.
"And what do you suggest I do huh?" he asked in an angry tone.
"We'll have to make camp here" Michonne said with her Kattana in her hand.
"Its too cold. We need to at leas' go back to the jeep" Daryl said.
"If we can go back to the jeep, we can find tools and then come back here" Rick said angrily.
"Rick. Its not the going part, it's the comin' back part" Daryl argued.
Rick was too disturbed to think of anything at the moment. He was worried about his son and his group. His wife practically left him back at the highway when she pushed him away. He was too disturbed and Daryl's words suggested very clearly that he needed to gather his thoughts together.
"Some of us can go and bring back the supplies from the jeep. Otherwise we wont get any sleep. And moreover, this place seems to be safer than on the road. We'll be too vulnerable here" Rick said and he was back in form. He had his moment of weakness and he will not let that happen again. "By the time we get back, get a fire started. Keep it low but we need as much warmth as possible" he continued.
Hershel agreed with Rick but he was worried. He remembered he carried the Bible in the backpack. He opened it up while the rest of the group was still discussing. Just as he opened the Bible, he found a key inside, in place of a bookmarker. It was a very slim key and he added two and two together.
"Rick. Wait. I think I found a way to open the gate" Hershel said while holding the key in his hand.
There was no explanation needed and everybody got his or her weapon ready before Rick himself took the key and opened the door. Surprisingly enough, it opened and there was no one in sight.
They did not shut the door completely out, yet another precaution and T-Dog stayed at the door till the inside was checked.
The nuclear modern house (NMH) was not a very huge house but was big enough. From what looked from outside, it was a typical 60's styled modern house made of glass and cement. It seemed to have a few rooms. It did not touch the perimeter from either sides but had garage spaces instead. They could bring the jeep inside if need be but the forest was too dense. The motorbike and other small cars could easily come. They crossed the garage area and all they saw was open space, lots and lots of open space with a river stream flowing in the middle of it. There was huge space that Hershel knew he could use for farming. They also saw a barn close to the house and it was huge as well. They checked inside. Lucky for them, the chickens and buffalos had survived. They also had a stable next to the farm but there were no horses sadly.
"How is that possible that the buffalos and chickens survived? There is no one to look after them?" Carl asked in curiosity.
"Well let's not ask the how right now but the animals do survive without human assistance Carl" Hershel answered.
They could all see a farm now, in their imagination. They just needed to forget about the big strong perimeter. They now went back to the NMH.
It also had a lock but the key was hanging in it with a bow tied on it with a card. It said 'Welcome Daryl'
Rick looked at Daryl and smiled. He couldn't help but grin.
"The father was sure that his son would come" Lori said with a sad smile on her face. Everyone was thinking the same thing but it was her who voiced her thoughts. There was a moment of silence that prevailed in the air and then Carol suggested opening the door. T-dog was asked to join them and he did after closing the main gate behind him. Since they knew that no one was outside, so they could stay even there if the building was not open.
Since no one shouted from inside NMH or no weapons were fired, they thought that either inside was empty or there were walkers. But since most of it was glass, they did not see anyone. But there were rooms, which were not visible from the outside. The group had to be careful.
The door was opened and the group entered. They saw an amazing lobby, which was not very large but was beautifully painted and was well designed. Next they saw a living area that had modern, utterly comfortable couches and recliners. The kitchen was big enough for 10 people to cook together and eat. It was furnished and had all kinds of utensils, stove and chimney. There were only four bedrooms, which meant either they would have to share or some members would be sleeping on the couches. Each room had books, a TV set, DVD's, games, everything, individual fireplace, comfortable beds, cabinets full of different clothes and other necessary things, attached bathrooms with all the supplies, a mini firewood water heater etc. The floor above had never ending supplies and they had everything that they could ever ask for. They checked the ground floor again and found there was a secret passage, which they earlier thought was an escape route but when they inspected it was an underground storage unit which seemed to have no limits. Hershel believed it lead to the end of the premises. It had a water purification system that was in built and a room that seemed like a freezer. There were guns and ammunition in one room and clothes in another. There so much that they could live there their whole lives and never need to step out again. They found batteries for their flashlights that were almost dying. When it got dark, Beth accidently turned on a switch and it worked. They had electricity. It was later found out that the entire building was solar powered. And rooms were warm inside. The chimneys were built just as a fail-safe.
Lori and Carol found a library in the storage unit and Hershel found seeds and other farming equipment. The house had all the facilities that prepared it for winter and summer. Each room had electrical bulbs along with candle stands. Modern and traditional ways were used in a perfect amalgamation. The medical supplies were a huge relief. Basic amenities such as soap, toilet paper, toothpaste everything was available.
"Tell me I am not sleeping and this is not a dream?" Lori asked while talking to Rick. The entire group was settled in the living room. She was so happy. Rick ignored her and asked the group if they were all good. Now they needed to make a decision of rooms.
"You get the first pick Daryl, since technically the home is in your name" Rick joked. Daryl laughed for the first time.
"I am fine here. The couch or the recliners are practically beds and my clothes… I can use any of your closets if that's cool?" he asked. He got a yes from everyone.
"You, your wife and son take one bedroom" Hershel suggested and before Rick could say something Hershel just continued "Maggie, Beth take one; Carol and Michonne another..T-Dog and Glenn share the last one" he finished.
"What about you Daddy?"
"I will accompany Daryl outside on the recliners"
"We'll clear out the rooms upstairs tomorrow, then everyone can have their own private room, including Carl" Rick announced. "We can shift the stuff to the storage unit and there must be beds there somewhere, it is practically wallmart over there" he finished.
"I saw inflatable beds Dad. So yeah, no problem" Carl told his father in excitement. He was more than happy to know that the TV worked and he could watch movies. He would get to be a kid yet again.
"Amm Daddy. Can we all stay together one more night? Here in the living room?" Beth asked her father nervously.
"Why Bethy what's the matter?"
"I am just afraid of the new place and want everyone to be together and safe" Beth replied. She was missing her home more than ever.
"Its alrite' we can bring the inflatable beds and sheets here in the living room. Tonight we all stay t'gether" Daryl agreed with Beth without worrying about Ricks decision. He knew Rick would never say no.
The next few hours went in preparation of feast and eating together. There was so much food that all of them ate more than their share. But they decided that they would not be greedy and will eat balanced diets and save without remaining hungry. They had plenty of water and the home was warm. The internal heating was something that they had missed so much. They had already tried to break the glass walls of the house and thankfully not even a gun shot was able to do so. They could all sleep easy. They drew the curtains as the night fell and turned on the lights. Rick had gone outside to check if the lights were visible but to his relief it was not. The glass not only had curtains but it darkened at night with giving no visibility from outside. But they could see everything from inside.
The doors were locked and they were all safe. Still, they kept round the clock watch, as they could not risk it. The only difference was, Glenn and Daryl were now drinking coffee while keeping watch. They had found a security room in the storage area and cameras covered the entire property.
The house was warm, solid, safe and secure. This is what they had been waiting for. They needed a place to be and sleep without worrying and this is exactly what it was. The group had never been happier. They were relaxed for once.