Carol fought against tired eyes as she drove down the back roads leading back in the direction of Hershel's farm. The crying jag earlier had left her head feeling like it was stuffed with cotton wool and her eyes gritty. She checked the trip readout on the dashboard and calculated that she should reach the farm some time the next afternoon if she stopped to rest for the night.
She pulled the car off the main road and down into a slight gully. Luckily the weather had been dry and bright so there was no chance of getting the wheels stuck trying to get out in the morning. Carol rummaged around in her satchel for a bottle of water and an apple. As her fingers brushed the fruit she felt the edges of her journal that she carried with her always. She left the apple in the bag and brought out the journal instead. Opening it up to a fresh page; she began to write.
Well, I did it. I finally told Rick that it was me that killed poor Karen. I couldn't let little Lizzie take any of the blame; God knows she's suffered enough already in her short life. Hopefully now that I've gone, no one will ever need to know the part that she, Tyreese and Karen had to play in the whole affair. Ty has promised to look out for Lizzie and Mika and will let Hershel know if he notices any unusual behaviour.
My only regret is not getting to say goodbye to Daryl. He will never know just how much he means to me and I will cherish every moment that we've spent together – however innocent they may have been. If only I could have had the courage to show him how much I cared for him and that I longed for something more. The dreams I've had at night time were enough to make me blush thinking about them and I was afraid that he would see my wanton thoughts every time he looked into my eyes. Every day that passed I felt my feelings growing stronger, until I felt that they might burst out of me at any moment – what would he have said? Would he have turned away? Surely he must have noticed how I told him that I loved him in the little things that I did for him every day. Men like Daryl are few and far between and I feel blessed to have known him, even if it was just for a little while….
Carol rubbed at a spot that appeared on the page, and realised that it was her own tears smearing the ink. "I'm like a dripping tap that just won't turn off." She wiped her nose with the edge of her cuff and placed the journal back in her bag. She tipped the seat back until it was almost fully reclined and tried to go to sleep.
A scream in the darkness woke her in the middle of the night, and Carol sat up with a start. Someone or something pushed against the side of the car, making it rock sideways. Carol scrambled with the seat controls and managed to get it upright so that she could peer out of the side window. She jumped back, pressing the door lock in place as a terribly distorted face pressed against the window, jaw dripping with blood and gnashing its teeth against the glass. She fumbled for her weapons and scrambled across the seat to reach the passenger door. The Walker continued to push against the car, causing it to rock more wildly, its cries soon led a second and a third to lend their weight against the door. Carol tightened her grip around the handle of her knife and threw herself out of the passenger door, falling out onto the road and scraping her knee on the asphalt with the impact.
Walker number three stopped rocking against the car and sniffed the air, scenting the faint trace of blood seeping through her pant leg. Carol reached a hand bag into the car to grab her satchel; not noticing her journal falling out to lie in the foot well. She kept her back pressed against the rear passenger door, in a crouched position waiting for the Walker to make his move. As soon as he lurched into view around the rear of the car she swiftly reached up with her knife and plunged it straight through his eye socket. He fell to the ground, body twitching as she pulled the knife out and whirled around to face down the other two. The first Walker had smashed its face repeatedly against the driver's window causing it to splinter and leaving smeared blood and spongy skin pieces across the glass. This one had been a female and it uttered a decidedly feminine scream when it realised that its intended victim was no longer in the car.
Carol looked around the rear of the car to gauge the distance between the car and the wooded area on the opposite side of the road. The final two Walkers were stumbling around trying to track her scent and she knew that it wouldn't be long before they found her hiding place. She bent down to inspect the damage to her knee, there must have been glass or something similar where she fell as the blood was now flowing freely from the wound. Carol reached around to remove her jacket which she had wrapped around her waist when she had pulled over. She rubbed her hand across her wounded knee, hissing between her teeth as she felt the foreign object dig a little deeper inside. She wiped her now bloody palm over the neck of her jacket until it was smeared in and then quickly threw the jacket across the car to distract the Walkers. As they sniffed out the new blood, Carol made her way silently across the road and disappeared into the woodland. The Walkers continued to lick the blood from the jacket and then stopped and dropped it to the ground. They paused with their heads cocked to one side and they stood still as if listening to instructions. If Carol had stopped to look back, she would have noticed them lurching along again heading in their ever present journey towards Washington.