One minute the path is clear ahead and the next it's blocked.
The only warning Carol has is a flash of movement in her peripheral vision and then the obstacle is in the path in front of them.
Still jumpy from the Walkers they'd just killed and knowing them not to have gotten far from the dump site, she imagines there can be only one thing standing before her. Rather than take the momentum of the adrenalin racing through her veins to fight, she skids to a stop, screams, drops her weapon and plows into the obstruction.
It curses in a blissfully familiar drawl as she begins to fall backward.
"What the-" Cassie exclaims as she skids into Carol's back.
The impact changes the course of her fall and she's knocked once more against Daryl's chest. With Cassie's weight and momentum behind her, the trio goes down in a tangle.
For a moment, they all lay there regaining breath; Cassie and Carol's lost in their running and Daryl's knocked out of him in the collision.
Carol recovers first and begins to shift, trying to leverage herself up enough to apologize to the man. Cassie decides to help by wriggling around until the teenager is able to shove her aside. As Carol thuds to the ground beside them, the girl exclaims and drops herself against Daryl's chest.
"Daryl! I was so worried about you!"
His eyes are slightly panicked as he looks down at the teenager trying to burrow into him as he lies sprawled and defenseless on the ground.
Carol almost laughs as he awkwardly pats Cassie's back while the girl babbles incoherently against him. The fact that the brat is doing what Carol herself would like to be doing; exclaiming her relief at Daryl's well-being from the comfort of the man's arms is enough to dampen any amusement, though. She pushes to her feet and calmly yanks the girl up off her man.
Green eyes glare at her for the move, but Daryl's blue gaze sparkles with gratitude and concern.
"What the hell y'all doing out here?"
Cassie's eyes narrow at the question and her mouth quirks in a grin that promises to make trouble.
"Carol had this silly idea that you'd be attacked by Walkers while dumping the hide since we were out here earlier dumping the innards."
Rather than incur any redneck wrath for the notion, Daryl stands and moves toward Carol with a crooked smile.
"Worried about me?"
"Always, when you're away from the group," she answers honestly, showing her heart in her gaze and words.
"Don't," he husks, nudging her chin with a rough hand when she shyly ducks from his return stare. "I take care of myself."
"Really?" she scoffs, unmindful of their observer as she raises her fingers to brush at the scar on his hairline before looking pointedly at his side.
"Still alive, aren't I?" he counters. "Plus, scars are sexy. You can't even keep your hands off 'em."
She grins up at him, huffing out a laugh at his playful words. His fingers flex on her chin, holding it firm and tilting her face upward as he slowly begins to bend toward her. Her grin slowly fades as she reads the intent in his gaze. The heat of his stare dries any moisture from her lips and she licks them in preparation of his kiss, sparking added fire in his eyes at the sight of her tongue.
"You should have seen us," Cassie announces, overly loud as she forces her scrawny little body between them.
Both adults jump at the intrusion and Daryl drops her chin like a hot potato before stumbling back from Carol.
"We killed six of the roamers. I got most of them, but Carol actually managed to off two all by herself," Cassie says, acting for all the world like she has no idea what she's just deliberately broken up.
"I just may manage to off you all by myself if you don't get your butt back to camp," Carol bends to hiss in the girl's ear.
"Walkers?" Daryl ignores the byplay between the females and snaps to attention at that. "Where?"
"Where we usually dump," the girl answers with a negligent shrug at his concern. "Where did you take the hide, by the way?"
"Away from where we usually dump," he growls, bending to pick up the crossbow he'd dropped in their group tumble. "Haven't used that place in over a week now. Can't let these damn things pick up a routine, kid. They keep finding scraps in the same place and they'll start to wait there for scraps."
The words and tone work more effectively than any chastisement Carol could have imagined and Cassie's shoulders droop at the lecture. Fool that she is, Carol's first impulse is to hug the girl and chide the man for his abruptness.
"Were there more?" he demands before she can defend the teenager.
His no-nonsense, all business tone and tension stiffen Carol's spine.
"None that we saw, but we heard something coming before we ran," she answers slow and cautiously, picking up on his concern. "It was pretty much the reason why we ran into you."
"Well, congratulations, slugger," he drawls, bending to retrieve Cassie's fallen machete and return it to the girl. "Game's gone into an extra inning and you both better be ready to swing away."
Carol picks up her own weapon before he can get around to it and frowns at his words as he checks the bolt loaded in his bow before turning back toward the dumpsite.
"You want us to go back there?" she asks, eyes widening at the obvious conclusion.
"You gotta be shittin' me," Cassie exclaims as she finally catches up with the grownups' logic.
While it wouldn't be how she would have phrased it herself, the crude expression echoes Carol's own thoughts, so she again goes without attempting to correct the girl's use of profanity.
"Language," Daryl corrects the girl instead, surprising both females.
Cassie looks back at Carol with an expression that seems to ask if the woman's going to let the man talk to her like that and Carol can only shrug. She can only think that Daryl's heard her say it so often to Cassie that he just automatically did it upon hearing the child curse, but it was just so funny to have him do it with all the cussing they'd both heard from the hunter.
The hypocrisy is so typical of a parent with child that Carol finds it endearing and encouraging that he's making such gestures toward the girl without even realizing it himself. Cassie only sees the hypocrisy and Carol's lack of defense and the teenager scowls at them both before stomping past them both.
"Fine," she huffs, "you wanna get us all killed, let's get it over with."
Daryl calmly snags the girl by the back of her shirt and hauls her back before she can walk off in her sulk back to the dumpsite.
"You'll both stay behind me and the goal is to kill anything that should already be dead. There's no telling how many of these things are out here and all this racket's bound to be stirring them up. If you idjits had just stayed put at camp, everyone'd be fine, but now we've got to make sure there's nothing trying to follow you back to camp."
She glares at him until he gives her a shake and she tugs free of his hold.
"Fine," she snarls, straightening her shirt. "Lead on, McGruff."
Carol snorts at the expression, surprised that the teenager is familiar with the crime solving dog used in so many public service announcements for children from decades ago.
Daryl gives them both a squinty eyed glare that wipes away Carol's budding grin and increases the glower on Cassie's face. With a series of hand gestures he indicates that they're to shut up, keep their eyes peeled for danger and follow close behind him.
As soon as he turns to lead them on this new mission, Cassie sticks out her tongue and mimics those gestures behind his back, throwing in some inappropriate use of her middle fingers. Carol tsks at the juvenile display and nudges the girl's shoulder to get her moving forward.
"Behave," she orders quietly, giving the teenager her sternest stare.
"I know," Cassie sighs, all signs of youth leaving her with the expulsion of breath. "Game faces. Time for another blood bath."
In the blink of an eye, the teenager goes from aggravated and defiant child to braced warrior. She shifts her hold on the machete so the blade is ready to lash out with maximum deadly force and she stiffens her spine to face any threat head on. Her eyes go cold and vigilant as she swivels her attention from left to right for any hint of approaching danger.
Carol frowns and mimics the girl's battle ready motions while thinking she preferred the child annoying and young. She promises herself that when they finish this, she'll have a very serious talk with Daryl about how they were going to proceed with the raising of this young lady in this frightful world that they now found themselves thrown together in.
