AN: Here we go, the second chapter.
For a while, the story will be heavier on the Carol/Tyreese narration with small Daryl parts. Just so you know.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Carol might not have even known Tyreese was coming if it weren't for the thump of his boots on the floor. They'd gotten really good at being quiet…they'd learned to open and close doors without noise, they'd learned to go long stretches in silence…communication taking place with their eyes, even Judith, it seemed, recognized the importance, even if she didn't understand it of silence, but there were some sounds that they never seemed to avoid entirely.
And Tyreese had a heavy footfall.
When he appeared in front of her, where she was sitting in one of the porch rocking chairs, he was carrying two juice glasses and had something bulky draped over his arm.
He passed her one of the glasses, not offering any word, and then he held the bulky mass out to her that she could tell was some kind of coat.
"I found this for you," he said. "It's going to swallow you twice…but it's warmer than what you've got."
Carol accepted the coat from him and put the juice glass she hadn't examined on the floor beside her chair, just long enough to get the oversized coat on. It was far too large for her…it might have fit Tyreese if he'd tried to wear it…but it was warm. It was too warm, really, for the night, but it had been a while since she'd been really warm and she'd accept it in the moment.
She picked the glass up and passed it under nose.
"What is this?" She asked as Tyreese sat down in the other rocker that he brought close to her.
"I was hoping you could tell me," Tyreese said with a chuckle. "Found it in the basement. There's enough down there to drown us all…not bad…but I have no idea what it is."
"So you drank it?" Carol asked.
Tyreese laughed and pushed his rocker so that it rocked, creaking slightly.
"Someone had to try it and I knew you would if I didn't…" he challenged.
He often gave Carol a hard time because she had, on more than one occasion, given herself an accidental case of food poisoning while trying to figure out just how sincere expiration dates were on the food that they found.
She tasted the liquid and coughed slightly into her hand, not having expected the potency of the sip that barely coated her tongue.
"It's strong…" she said.
"Why do you think I only poured you a little?" Tyreese asked. "I knew neither of us could drink more than a taste…but it does warm you up a bit."
She smiled and sipped a little of the few tablespoons of liquid in the glass, now more prepared for the flavor than she had been before.
"I don't know what it is…but it isn't bad…it's sweet," she commented.
"Apple?" He asked. "Peach?"
But the conversation over the questionable liquid faded out there since it would be nothing more than speculation on either part.
And silence fell over them again, but it wouldn't last too long…Carol already knew that.
Since they had decided to go on…since they'd decided to turn away from whatever was left of society…silence was something that was carefully guarded when it had to be…but avoided most other times.
Whether they filled the time with idle chat or they dared to speak about any of the things that hung with them from all the lives they'd left behind…all their many incarnations of the past…they talked to keep the thoughts at bay.
Just as Tyreese had done by coming out here…because Carol couldn't even take watch on an old porch without thinking about Mika and Lizzie…she couldn't sit on an old porch without thinking about Hershel's farm and Sophia…about all the faces of the past…about the man who kept her company then but made the silence more bearable.
"Seen anything?" Tyreese asked.
"No," Carol responded. "It's quiet…I haven't even heard anything."
And now the only thing she could hear was the light creak of the rocker that Tyreese kept in an almost steady motion.
"Jude asleep?" Carol asked.
"Yeah," Tyreese responded. "I put the mattress in the floor…for you and her…it might not be the most comfortable place, but the warmth from the fire's good there…she likes that rabbit you found her to sleep with."
Carol smiled to herself.
Judith was a sweet little girl. She was so very sweet…but she was different, in a lot of ways, than children used to be. It was almost like she knew…or maybe it was something just instinctively inside of her because she was born after the fall. But she was more serious than most small children…quieter…less prone to fuss.
But she was still sweet, and no matter how different she was, there were many things that reminded Carol daily that Judith was still a baby…and she'd still grow into a child…and she still needed to be protected.
But Carol didn't like to talk about it much because it filled her with a particularly cold type of fear to think of such things. The world these days was so cruel for the sweet and the innocent…so cruel that Carol almost wished it on the girl that she would be neither.
But there would be time to teach Judith all that she needed to know.
"At least she gets to keep it for a little while," Carol remarked, thinking back to the stuffed rabbit that she'd found in one of the upstairs bedrooms that had some toys and books…things Judith might enjoy over the winter. "Until we move on…"
"Tomorrow I'll check all the fences," Tyreese said. "And I'll scout the area…see where the nearest town is…or towns if we're lucky."
Carol shook her head to herself.
"No…we'll go together," Carol said, putting enough force in her words that he might not argue with her…even though she knew that he would.
"I'm not going to get supplies," Tyreese said. "Just to scout. You'll stay here with Judith."
Carol turned, barely making him out in the almost complete darkness that made it difficult to see your hands if you didn't know they were on the ends of your arms.
"No…you're not going alone," Carol said. "We all go together…"
"I know you like us to go together…but one of these days," Tyreese said, but he broke off, never saying whatever it was he was thinking.
Except Carol didn't need him to say the rest of it.
"One of these days you're not going to come back if you go off alone," Carol said.
"Better that than you…and Jude…" Tyreese said, his words trailing again.
"We go together," Carol said, "or no one goes…those are the rules."
Silence fell between them again.
The rules. Those were the rules.
Where one of them went, they all went. The only exceptions were made once they knew a particular area fairly well for one reason or another. Then, knowing what to anticipate, they felt a little more confident and one of them would stay behind in their safe shelter with Jude while the other scavenged. But until they knew what they were walking into and what danger they might face, they faced it together.
If they fell…they were falling together. It was difficult to face knowing that everyone else you cared about in the world was gone. It was difficult to know that the person, because Jude sometimes didn't feel quite like a whole person, that stood beside you was your last remaining link to society. It would be even more difficult to know, because they never returned, that you were left entirely and completely alone.
So those were the rules.
Until they knew the area well, when one of them left the safe shelter, they all left it.
And Tyreese wasn't arguing with the rules because he knew, and she knew it too, that if it had been her that proposed going out to scout for nearby towns alone tomorrow, he would never let it happen.
"I think we might not need to do too much to the fences," he said, changing the subject quickly. "Reinforce them…barbed wire…"
"An alarm system?" Carol asked.
"No," he said quickly. "It's good at alerting us, but it's too good at calling them up too…we're not doing that again."
Carol sucked in a breath and nodded her head, though he wouldn't see the gesture, she was sure.
One time when they'd built camp, they'd created an alarm system for themselves to help announce Walkers that approached. It worked wonderfully, calling their attention despite the fact they'd fallen asleep together, except for the fact that it had the one little flaw that they hadn't thought about. They'd been too careless to think that a noise loud enough to rouse them from their slumber might be loud enough to bring up more Walkers…more Walkers even than would have come on their own…more than they could handle.
And they'd had to flee with Judith because before they'd even known what was happening the small handful of Walkers that woke them had grown to a sizeable bunch…and they couldn't fight them.
They'd lost most of their supplies that way and barely escaped with their lives.
Tyreese was right. They didn't need to make that mistake again, even if the fences here were more secure.
"No alarms…you're right," Carol said softly.
"We should get some rest," Tyreese said after another few moments of silence fell between them. Carol drank down the last of the drops of strong liquid in her little class and turned it in her hand.
"You sleep," she said. "I'll keep watch…"
"You need to sleep as much as I do," Tyreese said. "We haven't heard or seen anything tonight…and I think it's because of the fences…"
"And the chill," Carol added.
"I think we'll be fine for the night," Tyreese said. "Could be the first night we both get a full night's sleep…"
Most nights they simply traded off. One person stayed up half the night, and then they woke the other to take over. It was taking its toll on both of them, perhaps, considering how limited the amount of sleep was that they were able to steal here and there…but it's what they had to do keep safe.
And if either of them bothered to tell the truth about it, they'd have to admit that even the time they had to sleep was seldom spent sleeping, especially if they were the first on watch, because whatever it was that had crept into their minds to keep them company in the silence didn't leave the moment that they burrowed down under blankets and tried to close their eyes against the visions that danced inside their eyelids.
But Carol was tired tonight…and whatever the pungent liquid was that she'd drank had relaxed her in a way that she hadn't been relaxed in a while. It made her feel like she might sleep if she committed to such a thing.
And she thought that Tyreese was right. It seemed as though the farm house was safe and that it would offer them a good place for the night.
She didn't answer him, but she did stand up and as she passed by him, she stopped, holding out a hand to him which he took as he rose up from the rocker.
And then he followed her inside, closing the heavy wooden door and bracing it with a piece of furniture he'd moved near it for just such a thing. The smallest precautions could buy you important moments.
He'd put a matress on the floor and Judith was curled up in the middle of it, though it was at least a queen sized mattress.
"You sleep on the mattress," Tyreese said, apparently seeing Carol taking inventory of the living room. "I've got the couch…"
"I had the mattress the last time we found one…" Carol said.
In response, Tyreese chuckled and sat down on the couch, pulling off his boots and making a show in the flicker of the small fire of arranging himself on the couch with a pillow and quilt that he'd brought in there.
Carol smiled and shook her head to herself, peeling off her coat and then easing herself down to sit on the mattress and rid herself of her boots. She reached and unsnapped her bra, taking it off inside of her shirt, and tossed it to the side…it wasn't as if Tyreese wasn't used to the practice in any of the places where she felt comfortable enough to remove any extra piece of clothing beyond her boots.
And then she slid down on the mattress, hugging the pillow that had been brought for her and pulling the quilt up around her before she closed her eyes, knowing that Jude would find her before long and Tyreese's snoring would play the background noise for whatever dreams her mind might decide to offer her.
She could only hope, as she did whenever she closed her eyes, that her mind would be kind tonight.