Walking Back Episode 7: Cherokee Rose

Daryl glared down through the broken well cover. He absently wondered why nothing could be simple as he flipped the cover up and to one side. The smell from the bloated creature sloshing about in the well drifted up to him.

"Get Glenn and Maggie—"

"Who?"

"The Farmer's girl, the older one, we'll need them to make a run to town." Daryl told T-Dog, who was standing over his crouched form trying to see down the well. Daryl scratched at the faint stubble on coming in on his chin and contemplated when he'd get to shave next while he waited.

"Daryl? What's going on?" Glenn asked, walking up to where Dale and Daryl were gathered around the well.

"It seems that we've got ourselves a swimmer." Dale told him.

"Problem is," Daryl added, "even if we ge' it out in one piece the water won' be drinkable." He grumbled, contemplating how they were going to fish it out of the well without it biting anyone or having its waterlogged and rotting flesh just fall apart.

"Why not?" Glenn asked, leaning over to see. Daryl squinted up at him a little annoyed.

"It's rottin'." He answered. They just stared at him and he sighed. "Didn't ya learn abou' battle tactics in Medieval times? When they would lay siege ta a fortress they'd throw dead things over the wall. People would ge' sick being so close to the bodies they'd have to give in or die off."

"So?" Glenn asked, confused as to what that had to do with the reanimated corpse in the well. Daryl wanted to groan.

"Bacteria!" Dale exclaimed, finally seeing where Daryl was going with his little history lesson. "Bacteria cause a body to decompose, that's why they smell. It's—it's marinating in bacteria. More than just what makes them turn, but germs that have been making people sick for millennia!" Dale explained. Daryl nodded in agreement still looking into the well.

"Okay, so what do we do, shoot it from here and seal the well up?" T-Dog asked, moving aside so that Andrea and Amy could look as well. Daryl tugged a curious Sophia and Duane away from the edge of the well.

"No!" Maggie said horrified.

"That's a stupid idea." Andrea agreed.

"Normally I'd say do it," Daryl answered, "But yeh can't jus' turn on the faucet anymo'. If we can we should pull it up an' bleach the well." Most of the group protested but after a moment of consideration Dale spoke over them, agreeing.

"It makes sense, bleach isn't potable either but if we run the well for a few hours that should take care of it." Maggie looked uncomfortable as the others slowly came around to Daryl's thinking.

"Alrigh'," Daryl said when most of the group had agreed. "Glenn and Maggie, I need ya ta go ta town. Get all ya can find of the usual list: Antibiotics, batteries, food, and the like—"

"What about other survivors in town?" Maggie interrupted, Daryl turned to squint up at her.

"Girlie, if there was anyone left alive in yer town you'd know it." He told her before turning back to face address Glenn. "Ask the ladies if they need any…lady products. If ya can find it, grab condoms an' birth control pills, las' thing we need is a baby crying." Glenn nodded and the pair left. He turned to Andrea. "If you an' Amy, an' the kids could finish up any chores? See if you can't get Lori to help." He asked. Andrea protested being forced to do all the "womanly" things but Amy quickly agreed, pulling her sister back towards camp. Once they had started to walk away he began outlining his plan to Dale and T-Dog. When they had their orders he left to catch some bait for the undead.

He swung through camp on his way to the woods. Amy and Andrea were teaching Duane and Sophia how to do the laundry by hand while Morgan manned the lookout on top of the RV. Shane sat at a picnic table cleaning some of their arsenal of guns. Daryl hesitated.

"Hey," He called walking over to the former deputy. "One a' the rotten bastards fell inta the well. I'm gonna go an' catch somethin' ta get its attention with." Shane scowled up at him. "I'll be back inna hour." Daryl told him. Shane continued to give him a nasty look and the hunter shifted, unsure if he should say anything more. He knew that Hershel wasn't a fan of guns and probably wouldn't like Shane cleaning their sizeable arsenal in his front yard. He also knew that Shane hated how close he and Rick were and that Shane's own power within the group had diminished because of it. The aggressive man was itching for a fight. If it wouldn't make a complete mess of things Daryl would have rather set the man on the walkers in the barn.

Daryl opened his mouth to ask the man to move the guns into the RV but thought better of it and walked off to the woods instead. He decided to check some snares he'd set up the night before while Shane was collecting the rest of the group to bring them to the farmhouse. He breathed deep, playing close attention to the sound of the birds and trees in the wind. The stress he had been feeling in camp began to melt away. He had meant it when he had told Rick that they couldn't change everything. He knew it was the truth. It seemed that Carol and Sophia couldn't both survive this hell on Earth. He consoled himself with the knowledge that Sophia wouldn't ever be alone. It hadn't been enough to stop him from worrying about Carol or Carl or even Rick, who was fighting to protect everyone whether they wanted it or not.

Daryl knew that Rick was struggling with being back in the past and facing ghosts he'd finally put to rest. Daryl, on the other hand, felt stronger now, steadier. When he had joined the quarry group the first time he had been under Merle's thumb and unsure of his place in the new, undead infested, world. Rick had thrown him off even further. No one had treated him with equal respect and trusted him before. After the barn had been cleared out Daryl had been trusted as a replacement for the wild Shane. Suddenly he could choose who to follow and lead others in his own right. Much later, after getting fed up with Merle's bullshit he had realized that he could stand alone if he wanted but didn't have to. He had known as soon as he had woken up to Merle's smug face and a truck long abandoned that he could make it alone. He also knew that, even if no one else remembered the first time they had all done this dance, he was not going to abandon his family.

Daryl reminisced as he walked from one snare to the next. He kept a weathered ear out for the telltale shuffle and groan of walkers even as he relaxed in the open air. After more than a year of dealing with the menaces he could take a leisurely stroll with minimal risk.

Daryl had just knelt down to catch a still struggling rabbit caught up in the second snare when he heard a twig snap behind him and had to duck a baseball bat being swung at his head. He whipped out the knife at his belt as he rolled to his feet. He was surprised to find a furious looking Shane as his attacker.

"What the fuck?!" Daryl swore at him, not letting his guard down as they circled each other.

"Rick's been different since he found us and the only cause I can find is you." Shane accused. "He left his wife to shack up with you, and your opinion is gold while he dismisses me. I'm fucking sick of it so, you are going to have a 'hunting accident'. Maybe I'll tell that little girl you seem to love so much that you ran away like the deadbeat you are." Shane spat. Daryl grit his teeth and remained focused on his opponent instead of his words. He couldn't die here. Sophia, Rick, and everyone else in camp needed him. Shane swung the bat at him wildly and Daryl almost tripped over the rabbit still in the snare. Annoyed at his lack of success, Shane threw away the bat and reached for the gun at his hip. Daryl didn't think, he just lunged, the blade of his hunting knife hit the other man's collar bone and skittered off course, clipping Shane's neck. Surprised, Shane stumbled back, clutching at the gash in his throat. It bled thick dark blood, not a bright red spray like Daryl might have expected. White as a ghost Shane choked on his own blood and collapsed against a tree, dead before Daryl had had time to realize what was happening. Daryl stared at the body in front of him, stunned.

"Fuck" he uttered, surprised. The sound of the rabbit struggling in the leaves jolted him out of his stunned stupor and he quickly crossed over to the body and plunged his blade in to the skull to prevent the other man from turning. Shaky, Daryl went to run his hands through his hair only to stop and stare at his bloody hands.

"Fuck." He stated again. He looked around but couldn't think of anywhere to stash the body while he dealt with the walker in the well. Shane had been a dick but he didn't feel inclined to let the man be eaten by whatever wandered by. What had Glenn said? "We bury our dead and burn the rest"? Daryl stared at the corpse and resolved to come back to bury the body as soon as he could. Conscience now somewhat clear, he turned back to the rabbit and secured it, still alive, to his belt. He washed his hands in a nearby stream and set back to work.

Using the struggling rabbit as a distraction they were able to easily rope the swimmer and haul it out of the well. Daryl managed to pull the legs up onto land before the torso tore away, making Maggie gasp in horror.

"Jus' 'cause it moves don' mean it's alive anymore." Daryl told her, crushing the grasping creature's skull in. He left the rest of the clean up to Dale and T-Dog. Claiming to be hunting he went to bury Shane's body. There had been a small hunting cabin with a shovel near where they had fought and Daryl buried the body under an old oak tree. He brought back a few squirrels and a raccoon to distract the group while he slipped away.

Quietly he climbed up the ladder into the barn's hayloft. The fading sunlight was bright enough to illuminate the inside of the building. He tucked himself behind a wall of hay bales and eyed each of the walkers in the barn. After a few minutes one shuffled out from underneath his perch and Daryl sucked in a breath. It was a female walker with short-cropped salt and pepper hair. Carol. The walker turned its ravaged, chewed off face towards him and Daryl choked back a sob.

Rick left to check on their group after Carl had fallen asleep. It was still early evening and the sun hadn't yet set but the boy was worn out from healing. Rick walked up to their huddle of tents as everyone was eating dinner. He frowned when he didn't see Shane or Daryl with everyone else.

"Rick?" Dale asked, getting up.

"Yeah?" He answered. He watched as Duane consoled and distracted a distraught Sophia. Dale glanced at the girl and motioned towards the edge of camp. Morgan got up to join them, but Dale waved him back. Andrea frowned at the byplay but no one else seemed to notice. The pair of them walked away from the house and RV to stand on the edge of camp furthest from people. "What's wrong?" Rick asked when they were alone. Dale looked uncomfortable before he spoke.

"Daryl went into the woods this morning. Morgan said that he saw Shane follow a few minutes after. He didn't think much of it at first since we aren't supposed to travel alone." Dale told him.

"Are they not back yet?" Rick asked, alarmed. Dale took off his hat to run a hand nervously through his thin and sweaty hair.

"Daryl came back; the problem is that Shane didn't." Dale took a deep breath before continuing slowly, considering each word. "With how antagonistic Shane has been, I think he may have attacked Daryl, who fended him off." Dale hedged. Rick stared at him and tried to formulate a response.

"And what do you think my response should be. If Shane's dead do we execute Daryl? If Shane's alive should we hunt him down and punish him for attacking Daryl? I can't arrest them so they can be tried by a jury of unbiased peers!" Rick hissed. Dale held up his hands and gestured for Rick to calm down. He took a deep breath. "Shane's been violent recently; I've been worried about something like this." Rick admitted. "We can't afford to lose any one let alone one with Daryl's skills-"

"It's more than that." Dale accused. "Even those of us who don't know you can tell that there is something going on between you."

"I never cheated on Lori, not with Daryl or anyone else. He's probably the only thing holding me together right now and it's not really anyone else's business." Rick hissed. "I'm tired of people thinking it is." They stared at each other in silence for a while, when Rick had calmed a bit he continued. "Daryl told me this morning that Carol's trail had gone cold. He might not have seen Shane at all and is upset about losing her. We don't know what happened and there isn't much we can do either way. We'll tell the group that Shane's missing and that we don't have much hope of finding either him or Carol, then I'll see if I can't find out where Daryl disappeared to." They stared at each other for a few moments.

"Okay," Dale eventually conceded. "You're right. As much as I would like it otherwise, there isn't much we can do about Shane's disappearance. I just don't want us to forget how to be good people, to lose sight of our morality." Rick blew out a breath of relief and grasped Dale's shoulder in gratitude.

"We won't, not with you here to keep us on the right path." Rick told him gratefully. "Thank you." Dale nodded his head and they trudged back to the campfire. "I have some bad news." He announced to the group looking around the circle of people who had come to mean so much to him. Lori walked up to the fire at that moment and he swallowed thickly.

"Daryl told me this morning that Carol's trail has gone cold. We've no way of finding her and given the state of things…" Rick trailed off as Sophia began to sob. Amy quietly began to rock the grieving girl back and forth until Morgan got up and helped carry the girl into the RV. After a moment of somber contemplation Rick cleared his throat. "The other thing is that Morgan reported seeing Shane heading into the woods this morning." Murmurs broke out between the people seated at the fire. "We don't know why." Rick continued over their distress, "He didn't take any supplies with him, so he must have intended to come back. Given that he isn't, Dale, Morgan, and I think something must have happened to him." Rick told them.

"Fuck." Glenn said, stunned. Lori sank down onto a log one hand over her mouth and the other clutching her stomach. Rick gave the news some time to sink in before continuing.

"We need to learn from this." He told them. "No one leaves camp without a buddy, not even Daryl. Everyone is going to learn to use a knife and gun. If something happens and you get separated from the group we will meet up at the north end of the traffic jam on Highway 403. It's the same place we lost Carol." He looked around at everyone's sad and tired faces before ordering them all to bed.

Numb, they slowly shuffled off to do as bid. Rick thanked Andrea for watching over Sophia as she moved to pass him. When he looked up from speaking with her he found that Lori had already disappeared into the house. After everyone had disappeared into their respective sleeping places he went to the tent he shared with Daryl. After grabbing a few supplies Rick turned to the barn and made his way across the field between them. He listened to the shuffle and quiet moans of the undead, bracing himself for what he might find at the top of the ladder.

"Daryl?" He called softly into the loft at the top. There was movement on the other side of a small stack of hay bales to his right. The former deputy climbed over the barrier as quietly as he could.

Daryl was nothing more than a slightly darker blob in the barn's shadowed interior. After a few moments of groping blindly Rick managed to grab one of the hunter's tense shoulders. Carefully he gripped the other man's neck and pulled him close enough for their foreheads to touch.

"Let me hold you together for once." Rick pleaded softly. Daryl held out for a few more seconds before sagging against him with a sigh.

"Shane, he—" Daryl tried to start, his voice tight with emotion, but Rick just slotted their lips together for the first time since they had come to the past. Between Rick's grief over Lori's betrayal and death, and the abuse and isolation Daryl had suffered growing up, their intimate relationship had never really been the wild passion romanticized on TV or in books. Instead, it reminded Rick of the warm constancy of his grandparents' marriage: immutable and wordless. They found more intimacy in talking and working together than in sex. So, naturally, sex was actually only a small part of their relationship. Often it was only used to "scratch the itch", but Rick had found that it was also one of the only emotional outlets Daryl allowed himself.

Daryl felt his failure to Carol and the sin of Shane's death keenly. He wanted Rick to be rough with him, to punish him. Rick littered his chest with teeth marks and rode him hard so that, maybe, Daryl would come to forgive himself. Daryl grit his teeth against his cries and moans. Living, packed like sardines, in a small cellblock there hadn't been much in the way of privacy, they had had to make their own. This wasn't the first time they'd had sex in the presence of walkers and it wouldn't be the last. Except for the hushed rasp of straw on wood and the rubbing of slick skin together, they made no noise. Afterwards, Rick used a small penlight to clean them up and check that he'd not done any lasting damage to Daryl.

"Her face was eaten off," Daryl rasped quietly, voice hoarse as if he had been screaming, "but Carol's definitely here." Rick finished doing up his belt and groped around for his lover. Daryl allowed him to pull him close.

"Sophia will just have to continue to stay with us." was Rick's response, giving whatever affection Daryl would allow.

"How is everyone reacting to Shane's disappearance?" Daryl asked, tense. Rick didn't respond for a moment.

"I killed him the first time, remember? How could I hate you for something I did too?" He eventually asked. When Daryl didn't relax he continued. "You aren't that kind of man, Daryl." They lay together in silence for a while.

"It was an accident. He attacked me and when I went to retaliate the knife went off course and—" Rick shushed him.

"You don't need to explain it to me." He told him. "It's done and we don't have the luxury of time to dwell on it. Tomorrow we need to start training everyone to defend themselves. I don't want anyone wandering alone, not even you, so you'll probably need to teach someone to hunt with you. I'm not even close to convincing Hershel to clear out this barn and join us." Rick rubbed at the headache he could feel forming behind his eyes at the thought of all they would need to do to keep alive. Daryl didn't reply but he still hadn't pulled away so Rick tabled all those problems for a later hour and just sat with the other man in silence for a little longer.