They reached the campground during the middle of the night, making it difficult to see the best spot to camp. Turning in, they drove about a half a mile to a fork. As they turned left at the Y, their lights caught the reflection of two jeeps parked side by side. Rick stopped the car, leaving his brights shining on the vehicles and put the car in park. Tyreese drove the other SUV up beside Rick and did the same. The cars were left running and Ben slid over to take Tyreese's spot just in case, while Andrea took Rick's.
Pulling out their weapons, they slowly moved toward the Jeeps, flashlights sweeping the area, looking for signs of survivors or walkers. Approaching the Jeeps carefully, they shined their lights inside but saw nothing. Neither one had keys in them either, so whoever they were, they might be at one of the campsites. Rick stood, turning his flashlight into the tall grass and treeline, searching for signs of anyone.
Seeing the worn trails of campers that led to various campsites, Rick and Tyreese started down the closest one. They both heard the sound of voices talking at the same time and turned off their flashlights. Crouching low, they waited for the owners of the voices to move so they could see them.
They didn't have to wait long. After about a minute of patience, they saw four figures moving across the trail and into the treeline. Watching, they didn't see any others and since there were only two vehicles, there couldn't be that many people.
Rick decided to call out to them.
"Hey!" He shouted, cupping his hands over his mouth. "We don't want trouble. We're just here ta camp and rest for a bit!"
He didn't hear anything.
"I'm Deputy Rick Grimes! This here is Tyreese! We got a few more people with us back there!" He called out, hoping they'd show themselves. "We got food and water if you need some."
He waited a few moments before he saw one of them stand up and start walking toward them.
"Um, I'm Scott." He heard a young man's voice call out and watched intensely as he approached.
The youth stepped into the moonlight and Rick sighed with relief. The kid was obviously a college student or at least that age. He was tall, with a wiry build and had an open, honest face. Not that it meant anything. He'd met some bad guys who looked clean cut too, but this kid was obviously a college student.
Scott looked back behind him toward where his friends were hiding and waved them up.
"We, uh, when everything went down, we got the hell out of town and came out here." He said, as his three other friends approached.
Rick sized them up immediately. There were two other boys, and a girl. All of them were obviously the outdoorsy type; lean and muscular with hair that was somewhat shaggy and scruffy faces from the lack of shaving.
"This is Micah," Scott said, pointing to the black haired young man, "And this is Joe." Pointing to the sandy haired one.
"Julie is my girlfriend." He said as she walked up beside him.
Rick tipped his hat and said, "M'am," earning him a smile from her at his gentlemanly manners.
"I'm Rick Grimes and this is Tyreese." He said, offering a hand to each one of them.
"You're welcome to join us if you'd like." Rick stated, motioning back toward the cars.
The kids all looked at each other and began nodding.
"We're back at your vehicles right now. We're gonna move farther in and set up a camp." Rick said.
"We'll go pack up our camp and meet you up there." Scott said, seemingly relieved that they'd found another group.
"All right. We'll see you up there." Rick said, as he turned to leave.
Once on the trail, Tyreese turned to Rick.
"You think they're okay?" He asked, wondering why Rick was so inviting to them.
"Yeah. They're just kids. None of them had weapons on them either. They're walker bait if they don't figure out how to protect themselves. Besides, at this point, we could use the help." Rick explained, already thinking in his head about training them to fight walkers.
Tyreese nodded.
Arriving at the cars, they both hopped in and Rick started heading up the road a little further.
"Did you find anybody?" Andrea asked.
"Yeah. A group of college kids. No weapons. Lucky as hell to be alive." Rick stated.
"Shit." Andrea exclaimed.
"I invited them to join us." Rick replied.
Andrea was surprised but honestly, Rick had gotten them this far. She wasn't about to doubt him now.
They weaved through the campground, finally coming to a perfect spot near a large grouping of trees and a stream, toward the back. Parking the cars, they left the lights on so they could set up camp. Breaking out the equipment, they began building their tents while Katelyn and Carol started gathering wood for the fire.
Katelyn headed into the trees with Carol in tow, her flashlight scanning the path in front of her. Walking over to a group of fallen trees, they began pulling the dead branches out and dragging them back to camp one at a time. They went back a second time, going further down the path, when they were both startled by the dead eyes of a walker standing in the middle of the trail.
Screaming, they both started to back away, with Katelyn grabbing her axe just in case, but the walker merely turned slowly to look at them. Moaning, the walker staggered, nearly falling to the ground.
They heard the footsteps of Rick and Glenn behind them as they came running up but they stopped them before they killed the walker.
"What's wrong with it?" Katelyn asked, looking at the pitiful creatures as it tried to walk toward them.
"I don't know." Rick said, moving closer to it, his axe readied in his hand.
"It's hibernating." Madeline's voice startled all of them as she came up behind. "We saw significant slowing due to freezing temperatures, even stasis in some of them."
"Will it kill them?" Rick asked.
"No, but it does make it easier to kill them if they can't move." Madeline said.
Rick stepped forward and planted his axe in the walker's skull. Watching as it dropped to the ground, the group stood over it, wondering if they were actually going to find placed without walkers due to climate.
"The mountains. I wonder if there are even any there?" Katelyn wondered aloud.
"Good question." Madeline stated, before turning to walk back to camp.
Glenn stayed to help Carol and Katelyn just in case there were any more wandering around. Within twenty minutes, they had enough firewood and began to break out the packs so everyone could eat.
Stepping away from the campfire for a moment, Katelyn scanned the dark horizon, looking up at the stars. Sadness crept over her as she wondered where Daryl was. Putting both arms around her growing midsection, she closed her eyes and prayed.
Please find us.