This family has gotten so big with so many personalities, and in trying to write everyone, I have lost Beth and Daryl. It needs to be all them in the next chapter.
…
Two. Find.
"I don't know how smart this is," Anna said with a slight frown.
"It's very smart," Matt assured her. "Smartest thing we've ever done."
Anna just gave him a look that showed him that she highly doubted that before looking back down to the clump of buildings at the bottom of the hill they were on. They were crouched behind a ridge, looking over the top; watching. Waiting.
"I count seven," Matt then said.
She nodded. "Seven," she confirmed. "That we can see," she then added. "Do you really think there's anything down there that will be of any use for us?"
He shrugged. "Won't know unless we check it out."
Anna was quiet, looking over the situation once again, studying it and thinking of every possible outcome just as Daryl taught her. There were seven walkers and two of them. They could handle seven walkers between the two of them. But there were seven walkers that they could see. There could be more in the buildings for as much as they knew. And those buildings, they didn't even know what they were. They could be completely useless and not worth the risk of going down to explore them.
After seeing to the animals after breakfast and making sure that the others would be able to keep an eye on them, Anna and Matt had left to go collect grass. Plenty of grass to be had, growing as tall as their hips in some yards, and they used it as a substitute for hay for the animals since the hay she and Mulligan had had years earlier was long gone and they didn't have any more readily accessible. They collected grass about every other day and brought bushels of it back, storing what they didn't use up in the hayloft for the winter months.
Today, Anna and Matt had taken the wagon with them to load up with grass and had walked and hacked at it, covering it with a blanket as they moved so it didn't blow away from the wagon and they had walked southeast from their home. The sun had moved over their heads, letting them know that they had walked and collected grass for nearly two hours before they stopped and saw the buildings below. Anna couldn't remember ever stopping at the buildings before or even ever seeing them before.
With his mind made up, Matt stood up and went to put the wagon securely in a thicket of bushes so it wouldn't roll away and he then came back to Anna. She stood up, dusting dirt from her hands and she hiked her backpack straps more securely onto her shoulders, her eyes still focused below. Matt came next to her and his eyes studied her profile.
"You can stay up here," he offered to her.
He wasn't surprised when Anna smirked at that and turned her head to look at him.
"Like I'm letting you out of my sight," she said with a little wry smile and Matt was relieved to hear that.
He knew how to handle walkers. Anyone who had made it this long without dying knew how to handle walkers, but he had gotten so used to having Anna right at his side when he did, he wasn't too wild about a plan where she wasn't there.
"You ready then?" He asked and she nodded, her eyes drifting back down the hill.
"We'll go down this way," she said, pointing off to their right. "That way, we'll come down behind that larger building and we'll be able to sneak up on the walkers. Kill them quietly."
Matt nodded in agreement. "After you," he said with a little smile.
But Anna stepped up to him and pressed her lips to his. Matt framed her face between his hands and he kissed her, holding onto her tightly for a long minute.
"Don't be stupid," Anna told him once their lips parted.
"Don't be brave," he retorted with a smirk.
Anna led the way with Matt right behind her and they slid down the hill as silently and as quickly as they could. And as they got closer, Anna could see this was going to be a waste. Kudzu was creeping in; taking over; beginning to cover the buildings and the cars still parking on the street. There was a school bus almost completely shrouded and the only way she could tell it was a bus was a bit of the yellow and a "BU" on the side was still visible. Beth cooked with kudzu sometimes. She chopped the leaves for salad or cooked them like they were spinach – which she threw in some of her casseroles. They took kudzu roots and dried them out and then grinded them down into powder, which could use as breading for food or even to throw in soups to help thicken them up.
But she and Matt weren't here for kudzu.
Their feet hit even ground once more and with their knives drawn, they slowly crouched down and crept behind the nearest building to them; what was once someone's home. Anna crept towards the end of the house and peeked around the corner, looking back towards the main street. There were the walkers, but they weren't walking. She watched them for a moment and then figured out why. They must have shuffled along to this area – and then had proceeded to get tangled up in the kudzu growing in the street. Some had fallen down and the kudzu was now growing right over them, letting Anna know that they had been there a while.
She watched for another moment just to make sure and then slowly stood up, turning back to look at Matt, who was behind her. When he saw her straighten, he did so.
"We good?" He asked in a whisper.
"Seven, like we saw," she confirmed. "And they're stuck in the kudzu."
"Alright," he nodded, his fingers tightening around the hilt of his knife. He stepped past her, and slowly, he turned around the side of the house, Anna following after him this time.
The walkers snarled and tried to move when they saw the pair coming towards them, but Anna had been right. Their feet were all tangled up in the plant vines and when they did try to move, some of them fell to the ground. Taking out seven walkers was pretty damn easy when they couldn't do anything except snarl and reach their arms out. Within minutes, Matt and Anna had taken care of all of them. They then stood in the middle of the street, silent and listening in case there were more nearby. But they only heard birds.
Sometimes, Matt caught himself still waiting to hear a plane fly overhead.
"You know what sometimes I still miss?" Anna said suddenly and his eyes immediately went to her. "Mint chocolate chip ice cream."
Matt smiled a little and then followed her eyes to a storefront window with a neon sign shaped like an ice cream cone. "Come on," he said, taking her hand and giving her a gentle tug. "Let's go see if they have any left."
Anna gave him a little smile and grasping his hand, she followed him towards the store.
She didn't expect to find anything. It was just becoming unrealistic to come upon a big find anymore. Too many years had passed and things like this were happening all over. Nature was taking back what was once theirs. She knew Daryl and the others thought about it constantly. One day, they would be gone and she and Matt – and their children if they ever had any – and Eli, Aiden and Bee, Jack and Ceci would be left and they would have to live without cinnamon and cocoa and maybe even sugar because someday, there wouldn't be any left to find out here.
They climbed the wooden steps to the store and Matt let go of her hand so they could both have a solid grip on their knives once more and he looked to Anna as he went to the door. She gave him a nod and slowly, he tried the handle. The door pulled open easily and Anna crept forward, slipping into the store first, her sense on high alert, listening for any sound. But what she heard wasn't what she had been expecting. Not in a million years.
Matt came in behind her and stopped when he saw her standing completely still, staring in what was almost shock. And when he saw what she was looking at, he went completely still, too, and could do nothing but stare.
"No fucking way," he finally breathed and Anna began to slowly take her pack off her back.
"We need the corncakes," she said.
…
There was a tree in the center of their yard and they had built a platform for lookout. From that platform, they could see every square inch of their fenced in world and they could also see the surrounding area where their world was built.
Aaron had been up there most of the afternoon. He and Spencer had finished laying the manure down around their crops around lunchtime and Beth, Daryl and Eli had returned from picking that morning. There were apples Beth was going to use that night for dinner, but they had picked plenty more and they ate apples and Beth fried up mushrooms and there was a loaf of bread and they toasted the slices over the fire, having mushrooms and toast as well. And after eating, Aaron took it upon himself to go up onto the platform to look out for a few hours.
They were so isolated up here, on their mountain, they rarely saw walkers, they never saw other people, but they weren't stupid to ever think they didn't have to look out. He knew people had never understood how vast these mountains were. He knew he had never understood. But a person could come here and live here and never be seen again.
It was perfect.
Below, everyone spent the afternoon going about their daily chores. Picking crops, seeing to the animals, washing clothes, Daryl walking circles around the fence, checking for any sign of weakness, and it make quite the picture because he had his crossbow in hands and Ceci strapped to his back, taking her afternoon nap.
None were acting like it, but all were doing the same. They were waiting and wondering where the hell Anna and Matt were. They had been gone all day and the sun was starting to move further into the west, the day nearing its end, and they had just gone out to collect grass. They should have been back by lunch. Not by dinner.
Aaron slowly turned in a circle on the platform, again and again, his eyes looking in every direction, silently willing them both to get home. If they didn't, he, Daryl and Spencer would go out and look for them without hesitation. The only problem would be that it would be dark and Daryl wouldn't be able to track them in the dark, but they wouldn't want until tomorrow morning to start their search.
But hopefully, they would come back before those decisions had to be made.
Daryl left the fence to come stand beneath the platform and he looked up at Aaron, not saying anything. Aaron shook his head and didn't say anything either and Daryl frowned.
Where the hell were they?
But then, Aaron lifted his head and through the thick green foliage and tree leaves, he thought he saw something. At first, he thought it was a walker, but it was moving too evenly. The steps were slow, but they were smooth. And then, he heard the whistle.
They never shouted, but when one of them wanted to get another's attention, they whistled. It was sharp and short and Aaron felt like he was breathing again for the first time in hours. He whistled back and hurried to the ladder to climb down. Daryl went to the cabin, where Beth was already coming out through the back door, having heard the whistle as well, and Daryl turned his back to her. Slowly, so not to disturb her too much, Beth lifted Ceci from her carrier and the baby whimpered at the move, but then settled herself heavily against Beth's chest and went back to sleep.
Together, Daryl and Aaron headed towards the door they had in their fence and it was already opening with Spencer poking his head in, having been out, collecting wood.
"Where the fuck have they been?" He frowned at them as if they had the answer.
"Let's go ask 'em," Daryl said and they stepped outside, making sure the gate door was closed behind them before heading in the direction Matt and Anna were coming from.
Daryl wondered why the hell they were moving so slow. But when he saw, he stopped dead in his tracks. Aaron and Spencer had the exact same reaction. Matt was walking first, pulling the wagon of grass behind him and when he saw the three of them, he broke into a grin. But they weren't even looking at him. Instead, they looked at gray donkey next to him.
Anna was walking behind him, but she was walking backwards, breaking off pieces of the corncakes Beth had packed for them to take on their grass collecting trip that morning and she was now tossing bits every few minutes to the two white geese waddling after her.
Daryl stared at the sight before him and he nearly shook his head because he couldn't believe what he was looking at. A donkey and geese? Where the hell have they been?
"Where the hell have you been?" Daryl asked.
They had a horse, Jasper, that they had managed to capture from the wild, but they were still working on breaking him and was still a little too wild to hook him to the plow or wagon. A donkey could save their asses in more than ways than one. And they had chickens – plenty of chickens that gave them plenty of eggs – but geese gave big goose eggs and after raising geese and getting a few, they were big birds and could give more than one meal.
"Let's talk inside," Matt said and passed the rope around the donkey's neck to Spencer.
Inside their yard, with the protection of the fence around them, the rest of the family had much the same reaction. Rosita and Beth stared, in shock, not able to say much of anything while the kids all crowded around the donkey, having never seen one before. The donkey just stood there and flicked its tail lazily as if all of this happened to him every other day.
"We promised the geese corn," Anna said before heading into the barn.
She returned a moment later with a small bucket of cracked corn and tossed the kernels into the grass for the geese to eat. Another good thing about geese was they tended to eat grass and leaves – which there was plenty of around them.
"How did this happen?" Beth finally asked, still holding a sleeping Ceci, her mind still in a fog of shock. Things like this didn't happen anymore. The animals that had been around had been eaten by walkers or had starved to death without people around to take care of them or – like Jasper and the other horses – they became wild again.
"We found a town. Or, I think it was a town," Matt answered. "Just a few random buildings, I guess," he said and looked to Anna, who nodded in agreement. "It was being taken over by the kudzu and the walkers got tangled in it and weren't able to move. That's how these guys were able to survive even with them there."
"They were in a store," Anna continued. "There was a man nearby, dead. Shot through the head. Looked like the back of his leg had gotten bitten. So he took care of himself and left these guys there and it looked like they were living on kudzu leaves." She then looked to Daryl and gave him a smile. "Good?" She asked him.
Daryl was staring at the geese and the donkey and let out a puff of air that was like a laugh.
"Good," he said with a nod of his head.
Beth gasped suddenly. "A goose and a gander. We can get eggs and more geese!"
"Watch out, Bee," Rosita said and took her daughter's hand, pulling her back from the goose the girl was reaching out to touch. "Geese can be mean."
Bee's eyes widened at that. "They can?"
"They honk and chase after you if you piss them off," Spencer nodded in agreement. "A goose chased after me once in the park. Traumatized me more than anything in my life."
Aaron raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? The dead are walking around. You had to put your own mom down. But a goose chasing you is the most traumatizing thing to happen to you?" He asked and everyone looked at Spencer for an answer.
"Obviously, you have never been chased by a goose, smart ass," Spencer quipped back.
"Alright," Beth says with a slight laugh. "Dinner's just about ready. Let's get the animals settled and get washed up. Kids, come help me set the table."
"I can't believe this," Aaron said as they led the donkey to the barn. "Things like this just don't happen anymore."
"What is Beth always saying?" Matt said as he began dumping the grass from the wagon into Jasper's stall and then in the paddocks where the sheep and goats slept. "Good things happen to good people," he recited what Beth had said more than once to all of them.
Daryl stared at the donkey and the donkey lazily began chewing some grass. Jasper sniffed at the new animal in the barn curiously, probably not too sure what to think like the rest of them. It was what his wife always said and though for the most part, he believed it – since they did have a lot of good things in their life and it would be stupid to disagree over something like that – still, he couldn't quite believe that that was the reason they had a donkey right now.
Was this real? Did they really have a donkey now?
Daryl rubbed a hand down the donkey's snout. The animal definitely felt real.
"Dad," Eli said his name as he came running into the barn. "Dinner's ready. Mom wants everyone in to wash your hands and you can play with the donkey later, she said."
Daryl frowned a little. "I ain't playin'. I'm…" he looked back to the donkey and the animal blinked at Daryl, eating another mouthful of grass. "I'm studyin' it."
"You know mom doesn't like waiting when dinner's ready," Eli reminded him.
Spencer snorted. "That's for damn sure. Beth's gotten mean lately. I blame you," he told Daryl as they all left the barn, heading for the cabin.
"Just to you," Daryl snorted.
Inside, the kids had set the table and Rosita was filling cups of water for everyone.
"Hands," Beth said once they entered the kitchen and didn't let them go anywhere near the table and she went to go set the casserole dish down in the center of the table along with the salad from forest greens she had made with fresh tomatoes from their garden along with the rest of the mushrooms she had picked that morning.
They didn't have butter so Beth was always trying to find other ways to be creative. There wasn't much fat on the squirrels, but there was enough. She fried the fat in a pan and then mixed noodles, apple pieces and the fat altogether in a casserole dish and baked it for a few hours. The first time she saw the recipe in Mulligan's family's cookbook, she hadn't thought that apples and noodles would go well together, but she had tried it and everyone had loved it and now, it was one of everyone's favorites.
After washing his hands, Daryl left the sink, drying his hands on the towel and handing it to Anna next, he then went to Beth, who was cutting slices of the bread. He bent his head down and kissed the side of her throat and felt the curve of her jaw as she smiled. He then went to go get Jack, who was sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace with Lily, playing with his stuffed rabbit, trying to get the wolf to play with it, too, but she didn't seem interested, but the bigger her indifference, the more Jack kept trying.
"Alrigh', Jack. Leave Lily alone 'fore she bites your face off and your mama blames me," Daryl said as he bent down, picked up his son and then carried him to his high chair where Ceci was already sitting in hers.
The family sat down for dinner and began passing dishes around the table for everyone to get their servings and for a few minutes, everyone was quiet as they began eating.
"That was a real good job you did today," Daryl spoke, looking to Matt and Anna.
Anna smiled happily at the praise, her mouth full of salad and unable to respond.
"Thanks," Matt said for both of them. "Still can't really believe we found them, to be honest." He looked to Anna and she gave him a smile.
"I wonder if we'll have a goose egg tomorrow," Beth said. "I have to go through the cookbooks and see if there is anything special I can do with them."
"What's the difference?" Aiden asked. "They're eggs, aren't they?"
Beth smiled and she loved that the kids were able to taste something new. She had never thought that would ever happen again. "Goose eggs are a lot bigger than chicken eggs. And they're heavier and richer and the yolks, they're actually amazing to bake with."
That made Aiden's eyes widen slightly. "You can bake better with goose eggs?" He asked and at the question, he, Eli and Bee were all looking at her and what could be called amazement at just the idea of it.
Beth laughed a little and blushed at that.
"The donkey changes everything," Daryl said.
"Does this mean…" Spencer trailed off, watching him closely.
Daryl chewed on a mouthful of noodle and apples and then swallowed with a nod. "Yeah. Goin' to Crispin when the weather's still right might not be the worst thing. And with the donkey, we can taken the wagon just in case we do find somethin'."
"Thank you, Daryl," Rosita said with obvious genuine gratitude in her voice.
Beth reminded herself to look through the plant book tonight before going to sleep.
Daryl gave her a slight head nod, still not knowing why she and Spencer seemed to want this particular run so badly. "Everyone is goin' on this run 'cept Beth and Anna," he said.
Matt's head flew up at that, looking at Daryl and then looking at Anna. She had only gone on a run once without him and had been gone for nearly a week and Matt was pretty sure that he hadn't slept in all of those days. After she got back, they promised to never go anywhere without the other.
But he couldn't argue. If this was what Daryl wanted, this was the way it would be. Daryl didn't like to consider him as their leader, but that was exactly what he was. He made decisions and they all followed them, but he wasn't some totalitarian dictator. He was quiet and thought things through from every angle before he made his decision. They trusted him and knew that he would make the best decision for them all. If Daryl wanted Matt to go on this run and have Anna stay behind, that was what would be done.
"Wait," Eli's brow furrowed, looking to Daryl, though he was pretty sure he hadn't misunderstood. "You said the only ones staying are mom and Anna."
"And Jack and Ceci," Beth added.
"So, does that mean we're going, too?" Bee asked in a quiet voice.
They were all looking at Daryl though by now, they all knew the answer.
"No," Spencer was the one to speak up.
Daryl frowned at him. "They have to learn. There's no way around that."
"So, me and my wife and my two kids are going to be coming," Spencer frowned right back at him. "My entire family is going and if something happens, I could lose my entire family."
"We'll be fine, dad," Aiden said, able to feel the tension just like all of them. "It'll be fun."
"Yeah," Eli agreed with his best friend with a ready smile. "It'll be a lot of fun."
Daryl and Spencer stared at one another and Daryl pointed to two boys. "You hear that? That's why they're comin'." He then looked to his son. "There's nothin' fun 'bout runs, Eli. And it's time you kids learned everything we do out there." He looked at Eli and nothing else. "Remember what I told you? Learning is how you kids survive."
Beth was quiet as she scooped another small helping of casserole onto her plate and she stayed quiet as Daryl began going over the details for the run.
She was suddenly quite sorry that Matt and Anna had found that donkey.
…
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