Carry Me Home


As the young brunette sat in her tent, skinning the squirrels she had caught, she could hear the men shouting at each other. Shaking her head, she put down the squirrels and covered her ears from the shouting. This was a common thing for Caitlyn to endure, as her parents argued constantly when she was younger, right up till the outbreak started. Every time they argued, Caitlyn would sit in her room and cover her ears till one of her elder brothers came into her room to take her out of the house. Opening her eyes, she saw a figure standing just outside her tent. The brunette grabbed her hunting knife, expecting the worst after seeing the walker and the deer. Holding her breath, Caitlyn slowly unzipped the tent, enough to look at the figure outside. Daryl fucking Dixon.
"Hey, is it... Is it okay if I come in?"

She nodded, opening the tent and moving out of the way so he could enter. She sat back on her sleeping bag, pulling her knees up to her chest. He slid in and sat opposite her, with a heavy sigh.
"I thought you were a walker," Caitlyn whispered, glancing up at Daryl.

"I probably should have said somethin'," Daryl commented, fiddling with his pant leg. "I'm gonna go get him."

"You're gonna go into the city? But that's dangerous."

"My brother is out there. He's all I got left and he needs me now. He might not have been there when I needed him, but that don't mean I ain't gonna be there when he needs me."

Caitlyn sighed, nodding her head slightly, "I guess you are right. Want me to come with? It's not safe on your own."

"Not safe for you, either," Daryl said, glancing up at her.

"I'm a big girl, Daryl. I think I can handle myself."

"I'm just scared that you'll outshine me, that's all."

That comment made the brunette laugh, causing the older male to also laugh. Although they felt guilty about it, they both had to admit that it felt good to laugh again. Since the world's end, they had both been all doom and gloom so laughing, even over something stupid did feel good.
"I ain't one to talk to people. But you... I don't know. You are different from others."

Caitlyn look up at Daryl, a frown forming on her face, "What do you mean?"

"Well, you ain't judging me. You know what I feel like right now. I don't know whether Merle is alive or not, and you don't know about your other brother either."

"Life's a bitch though."

"Ain't that right," Daryl sighed, closing his eyes.


Caitlyn ended up staying behind, Shane saying that they don't know enough about her to be able to trust her out there. It had been a while since they had left, and she was wandering around the camp, looking for something to do. The comment from Shane had stung, a lot. But seeing Daryl rolling his eyes at it, made her smile which made him give a brief smile. As she stood near the edge, looking down at the Quarry, she saw Andrea and Amy fishing. Mm, fish would taste so good right now, she thought to herself as she caught Dale's attention.
"Anything interesting?" she asked the elder man, who shrugged with a gesture over to the bushes.

"Jim is over there. Think I should say something to Shane?"

"Choice is yours, only if you think he could hurt himself."

Dale nodded, watching the man again through his binoculars. Caitlyn took this moment to go back to her tent and grab her drawing gear as well as her chair. She headed back over to the RV, putting the seat down in it's shadow and sat down before starting the draw the view. Working slowly, she would glance up and take in the view before copying what she saw onto paper.

About a quarter of the way through her drawing, she heard people talking behind her. So she got up, and put her things away before returning to the group that had gathered around the sisters.
"Hey, Dale. When's the last time you oiled those line reels? They are a disgrace," Andrea said, looking at the elder man.

He didn't seem as happy as normal as he spoke, "I, uh. I don't want to alarm anyone, but we may have a bit of a problem."
Shane walked up to the group, moving his gaze to where Dale was pointing. Jim was still out in the bushes, digging.


As the group walked up to the lone man, they saw that he was digging separate holes. Caitlyn frowned at this as some were deep enough to be a grave. Was he searching for something? she thought to herself.
"Hey, Jim. Jim, why don't you hold up, all right? Just give me a second here, please," Shane said, softly as he looked at the situation.

"What do you want?"

"We're all just a little concerned, that's all."

"Dale says you've been out here for hours," Morales commented.

"So?"

"So, why are you digging? Are you heading to China, Jim?"

"What does it matter? I'm not hurting anyone."

"Except yourself," Caitlyn spoke up, walking forward. "It's like super hot today, Jim. Heck, even I'm wearing shorts and I rarely do. You can't keep this up, not without water."

"Sure I can. Watch me."

"Jim, they're not gonna say it so I will. You're scaring people. You're scaring my son and Carol's daughter," Lori spoke up, gesturing to Sophia who was wrapped in her mother's arms.

"They got nothing to be scared of. I mean, what the hell, people? I'm out here by myself. Why don't you all just go and leave me the hell alone?"

"We think that you need to take a break, okay? Why don't you go and get yourself in the shade? Some food maybe. I'll tell you what... Maybe in a little bit, I'll come out here and help you myself. Jim, just tell me what it's about. Why don't you go ahead and give me that shovel?" Shane asked, his arms out for the shovel.

"Or what?"

"There is no or what. I'm asking you. I'm coming to you and I'm asking you, please. I don't want to have to take it from you."

"And if I don't, then what? Then you're gonna beat my face in like Ed Peletier, aren't you? Y'all seen his face, huh? What's left of it. See, now that's what happens when someone crosses you."

"That was different, Jim."

Amy spoke up, defending Shane, "You weren't there. Ed was out of control. He was hurting his wife."

Caitlyn stood there, watching as the scene unfolded. It wasn't long before Shane tackled Jim to the ground, mumbling things to him as he tried to fight out of it.


It was later in the day when Caitlyn walked up to Shane, wanting to call him out for his behavior towards Jim. The guy had sunstroke, there was no need to get violent. But upon observation, Caitlyn had also noticed that almost all the holes were 6 foot deep, which did worry her. Was something going to happen to them? Were they all gonna drop dead?

"Shane, hey, Shane!" she called out to him as he walked away from Jim. She watched as he sent Carl and Sophia over to Amy, who was with the fish. Carol followed them. Caitlyn walked over and pulled him to a more secluded area. "What you did to Jim was not acceptable."

"What do you mean? He was gonna hit me."

"That doesn't give you a right to hit him. He had sunstroke, for fuck's sake. Maybe you should remember that actions speak louder than words, but words from the wrong mouth speak louder than actions."

"Is that a threat?" Shane growled, grabbing her arm as she turned to walk away.

"Take it as what you want, but I know what you and Lori have been doing the past few weeks. I'm sure you would hate for Rick to find out," Caitlyn said, innocently. "But then again, maybe it will do us all some good. He might kill your ass."

The brunette walked away from the deputy, heading back to her tent where she climbed inside and sat down. In the shade and out of the sun felt so good right now. She decided not to tell him about the possible graves, he was an ass and deserved to find out the hard way. As the night got colder, Caitlyn eventually changed into a pair of jeans and put on her gun holster. It was something she always had on in the night, in case of something happening. She slipped her handgun into it's hold, tucking her knife into her belt before walking over to the camp fire.
"Hey, Caitlyn," Carl greeted, moving over so the brunette could sit next to him.

"Hey, little dude," she smiled, ruffling his hair before accepting a plate of fish. "Does it taste good?"

"Oh, yeah. Best meal since we got here," Carl replied, causing her to laugh.

"Don't let Daryl hear you say that," she teased.

"You are so weird," Amy said, looking at Dale which caused the group around them to laugh.

"It's not me. It's Faulkner. William Faulkner. Maybe my bad paraphrasing."

Caitlyn watched as Amy got up from the campfire, moving to go to the RV. Andrea's arm reached out to her.
"Where are you going?" she asked, causing Caitlyn to roll her eyes.

"I have to pee. Jeez, you try to be discreet around here..."

Everyone laughed, except Caitlyn who just watched Amy till she went inside. In her gut, Caitlyn knew something was gonna happen and stood up, looking around.
"We're out of toilet paper?" Amy asked, as she walked out of the RV. In this moment, a walker came up to her and took a bite out of her arm, making the young blonde scream in pain and shock. Andrea witnessed this and let out a scream, causing the group to scatter.

Caitlyn did what she did best and climbed up a tree, pulling out her handgun and starting to shoot the walkers who were surrounding the group. A walker started to claw away at the tree she was in, and she went to shoot it but she was already out of ammo. Groaning, she put her gun away and pulled out her knife, reaching down and stabbing the walker through it's brain. She dropped down and started to take out walkers with her knife, looking around for anyone in trouble. Suddenly, more gun shots are heard, and she saw Rick, Daryl, T-Dog and Glenn come out from the trees and start to kill the remaining walkers. When they were all dead, Caitlyn watched as Carl ran up to his father to give him a hug. Everyone looked around the fallen, Daryl catching Caitlyn's eye as Jim speaks.
"I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes."


It wasn't much later that Shane and Rick walked up to the brunette who was sitting down by the water, looking into it's depths. Everyone had been awake all night, and Caitlyn didn't feel like sitting around with everyone who was crying. It was early morning, probably about 5 or 6 and someone had finally realized she was down there. Amongst the walkers, the young female had recognized one of the faces and she broke inside.
"You are pretty good with a knife," Shane commented from where he stood behind the female.

"How many did she take down?" Rick asked, glancing at his companion.

"At least five, just with a knife. Maybe two with her handgun."

"Only switched because I ran out of ammo," Caitlyn replied, staring at the water. "And you say you can't trust me. One of the walkers that I took down was my own aunt, so don't you ever give me that shit ever again."

Shane gulped, stepping back and looking at Rick who seemed at loss of words, "I'm sorry to hear that, Caitlyn. Would you like us to bury her?"

"Burn her. She's dead anyway. It's doesn't even matter anymore. There's the dead and the living, you just have to know the difference between them. My aunt is dead, as are my parents and my brother. I put them down, for everyone's safety." She looked up at the men, her face expressionless.

"Girl's got balls," Shane said as he walked away with Rick.

"Yeah, we are gonna need her. Maybe she can go on watch today, while we've got people going off and stuff," Rick suggested.

"Might do her some good, but make sure she is in the shade. Seems like she was in the sun too long yesterday, her arms seem a bit red to me."

Rick nodded, walking ahead and over to the group who were yawning and gathering together. Shane stopped where he was, watching Caitlyn as she threw stones into the water and watched as it rippled out. The girl had balls.