A/N: My beloved, dearest Readers! I am totally aware of what I'm putting you through right now, and I know the jealousy, pain, sadness is unbearable. It's really tough for me as well to write Daryl with another woman, with Carol it's not so bad because we've still known Rick for ages now and we know he is a good man. Karen is new. We still don't know anything about her. I wanted to give her some credit because of all the hate her character is receiving on the Internet. I wanted Daryl to love her. I wanted to make him ready for real love when he finally reunites with Rick and co. I am sick of NR's comments of Daryl being "emotionally unprepared for intimacy". He is a normal person like all of us, he is a man after all and Carol is a woman. They share close bond. There's absolutely no reason they shouldn't get together and Daryl is not some precious prey who should keep his virginity close 'cos everyone is hunting for it. Daryl is a regular, healthy man. He's found a regular, healthy woman, Karen. She shares his bed, his house, his proximity. But truth is, he doesn't belong to her although he desperately wants to. But he never will, because deeply in his heart and mind, he has bound to someone else long ago. That is what I want to show in this story. My faithful Reader, please be patient. It will happen. But the road is long and twisted and the days, nights are dark and full of terrors. Daryl and Carol must find themselves on the same road, and this road has to bring them together somehow, must lead them to this one special place, so they can finally find one another. Will it be Fort Benning? We shall see...:)

May 15th.

The crucial message has finally been heard.

"The answer to infection is here. There's no other hope. Come to Fort Benning and you will be saved. We have soldiers, medical care, hot water, provisions. The outbreak is coming to its end. Trust in your military, your country. Trust in Fort Benning. The answer to infection is here".

It sounded cheesy. And fake. But it was heard on all available radio frequencies. Day after day, scouting patrols brought news about people heading north. Prison inhabitants grew restless. Especially elderly ones and those with families. They wanted to go, they wanted to check. It wasn't a bad idea after all. All of you knew that the infection won't last forever and will finally end some day, one day..Like all infections usually did.

The decision was taken on one rainy afternoon. Rick gave up and agreed for a "patrol-like" route towards Fort Benning. A few chosen people were to visit, check it, and bring news if it's any good. If it was true. If was worth taking a shot. And if the military could really take care of you now. Five people were chosen for the scouting group. Rick, Maggie, Glenn, Tyreese, and you. Hershel, Carl, Sasha and Beth were left in charge of the Prison along with Michonne still patrolling the ourskirts.

May 17th.

Armed with guns, rifles, machetes, axes and hunting knives, the five of you leave the Prison at first light. As usual, the goodbyes are painful, stressful and galons of tears fell as you leave the dear ones. Tyreese leaving his sister Sasha..Rick saying goodbyes to Carl and baby Judith...Hershel to Maggie, Glenn's still bride-to-be. You on the other hand feel glad to move on. The Prison is a safe place, yes it is. But it would be unwise not to check other possibilities. You just hope it won't be reckless. You hope that if anything suspicious comes out, you'll retreat quickly and go back to your safe haven, your home, your Prison. You put all the necessary items in your old backpack. Two bottles of water. An apple. A chocolate bar. A pack of tissues. Extra pocket knife. A compass. A box of ammo. For a second there you consider taking something warm to cover in the night and your eyes fall on a worn out poncho underneath your bed. There is absolutely no reason to leave it here, it could be useful on the road..but...maybe it is finally the time to break up with past? To start over. And leave all the remains of the old world behind? So without a second glimpse you leave your cell, turning your back to everything that used to be so dear to your heart once, and now is all but a dusty memory.

You meet the first group of refugees at midday. A woman and 2 teenage boys, her sons. They were hiding in the woods until now, on one occasion they met others talking about Fort Benning and decided to give it a shot. You bring them in and now head to the fort together. It takes 6 days to reach the iron, spiky and electrocuted fences of this new fortress. But when you finally reach it, it's so huge, so gorgeous, so fortified..it literally sweeps you off your feet. If anyone of you ever doubted that a safe place in this world existed, now was to time to stop doubting.

The facility was huge. Hundreds of tents, a few buildings with national flags attached to them, probably places where the authorities dwell. Big hospital. Several military areas with gun equipment, cars, tanks, siege weapons. You notice all this even before you're all brought into a quarantine zone that everyone must go through before being taken into the camp. Blood tests are conducted. Temperatures measured. Clean clothes given. Fresh fruits and water. You stare at your plums and pears and watermelon like it was brought from another planet. You take a look at a coffee machine. REAL coffee machine. Some people are passing you, each of them carrying a hot-dog. That's too much. You feel dizzy. The smells of this place, the loudness, the colors, all these people...Before you pass out overwhelmed with all the goodness you suddenly witnessed, or maybe just of heat exposure and tiredness...a tiny thought starts to haunt you. "This cannot be real for long..this is not the world now...it's not right...something is wrong..I wanna go back..We have to go back".

After a while, you can hear concerned voices of your companions:

"Carol..? Hey, wake up..". Maggie's deep southern accent...

"Sweetie you okay? Imma bring some water.." Tyreese's usual concern..

"Honey..? It's all okay now, we're finally home, Carol..". It was Rick's voice. So sure, so confident. If only you could believe that. After you come to your senses finally, you take a look at your friends and you know, you are sure that they have accepted the new environment and the terms of it so very soon. Well, if finally it's gonna turn out good or bad, remains to be seen. Everyone deserves a fresh start and Fort Benning presents itself as kind of astonishing. For now.

After few initial hours, the militaries provides you a separate barracks, when your whole group could stay until all the inhabitancies were settled. It has places to stay for 10 people (5 small bedrooms), one huge kitchen (the fridge is full and cupboards filled with dishes and all the necessary equipment), fresh water filter is present as well along with whatever necessities you might need meanwhile. There are also two bathrooms, one of them has a shower and another, a bath tube.

You enter the cabin and while you're still impressed with all they managed to do over last months, all they achieved here in this fort..you can't stop to think about people left in the Prison. About Hershel growing crops of tomatoes and soya beans..of Beth singing for the youngest, of Carl and his haylofts and piggys and hens he was in charge of..Of having to wash up in the pond each day, of looking for rivers and waterfalls to prevent infections..Of fighting Walkers all the damn time..On your route here you've only encountered them once, they were weak and slow so it was all easy..You think of all this and suddenly you want to go back to that life..life less perfect but filled with people close to your soul, and memories of those who were left behind..or who left willingly.

Sometimes you wonder if maybe he's heard the message too. Maybe he will eventually come here. If he is still out there. You wanted to believe he is. No one could kill a Dixon but Dixon, no?

Sometimes you're mad at yourself. Thinking of a man who left your universe forever willingly. Like the moment was the one he always craved for and wished for unconsciously. To finally be free of all these people. Of responsibilities. Of looks full of guilt and shame. Of her and her stupid affections. Because you knew he noticed them, you knew and felt it all the way. When he left with his brother...it all didn't mean nothing. He was gone. Like Ed..Sophia..Dale...Shane..Lori..Theodore...

For you right now Daryl Dixon was dead. So there was no reasonable way for him to show up in your life again. And even if he did...Rick was here. For you. To save you from whatever mess Daryl would bring into your life. Your solid stone, your stand-his-ground Sheriff. Your Rick.

Whatever meets you up here in Fort Benning, you are safe with him. And Daryl's hypothetical presence will not trigger anything. It cannot. Not anymore. He's had his chances and screwed it all the way. No more chances are given anymore.

Even if the first night is hard, it's a new beginning. New people around, new chances, new responsibilities. You know that Rick is gonna send Glenn to the Prison to bring others here soon.

A new life has started. And when you wake up the next day, when you walk off your barrack, still half asleep, in the distance you hear a familiar, rough, low voice..and its saying :

"Hey man.. no care 'bout the quarantine thing..Just caught ya a deer..ya want it..ot not?"...