AN: More obsolete head canon that I didn't have time to write up until now. Man y'all are spoiled. Like 5 updates from me in one night? Ha ha, I'm teasing. Love you all!
-Shazzy
-Shallow-
She noticed them from a distance. She had been walking, patrolling, really. It was the least that she could do and no one really felt that she needed to do much until her strength had fully returned. No matter what she said, they just wanted her to get back to full health. It was a generous thought, there had, after all, been so much loss and pain.
Still, Daryl hovered almost constantly. Like a hawk circling around her as she did even the simplest of chores.
She couldn't help but smile.
Slowly, she meandered over to the shapes she'd spied jutting out of the ground. She didn't even get halfway before she knew exactly what she was looking at.
It was a graveyard. The rough crosses sticking up out of the ground brought a pang of sorrow to her chest and she felt her guts tighten as she approached.
There were three.
The first grave's dirt was packed loose, and the marker was labelled with roughly carved letters that read "Lori". Carol shuddered. She had heard the story and felt so guilty that she hadn't been there to help. Rick had told her what he'd found, knowing that Carol and Lori had gotten close in the months leading up to the baby's due date, and it felt only fair to tell her why the grave was empty.
The middle grave was packed down harder, and the ground dipped slightly where the earth had been packed down. The rough wooden cross marker had "T-Dog" scratched into it. Carol paused here and said a little prayer for T. Without him, she knew, she would have died in those corridors.
The third one she hesitated before looking at it. She felt a lump rise in her throat as she forced herself to pay the respects for the fallen.
The cross read "Carol."
She felt a sob escape her lips and she sank to her knees at the base of her empty grave. She spied a wilted Cherokee rose pressed into the small stone cairn placed at the head of her grave and the tears rolled freely down her cheeks.