Chapter 10

-The long story-

The big council, a leadership group responsible for the overall safety of the fort, had met in Costa's room to discuss the unusual amount of walkers Sal and Archer had found.

They had all seen migrations of the dead in the fall as they moved away from the cooler climates, but the number of dead in the traps hinted that an unusually large group coming had passed through. In the end, they decided to put off setting up the windmill for electric power until a good cold set in. The noise and motion of it tended to draw walkers, and if they were going to be herds in the area, it was best to lay low.

Archer was replaying the conversation over in her head as she held her post on the wall. The wind was dying down, but it still tugged strands of her hair out of the braid she kept it in. She pushed them out of her eyes as she scanned the perimeter.

"Hey." Daryl said as he came to join her at her perch. She noticed he was wearing a heavy coat from their supplies.

"Do you like the coat?" She asked.

"S'okay." Daryl pulled two mugs out of his pockets and set them on the edge of the wall. He pulled a thermos out as well, and filled the mugs. He handed her one.

"Here."

She sniffed the cup. "Coffee?"

He nodded.

"Thank God." She held the warm mug in her hands. "It's been a long day, this is just what I needed." She thought she saw Daryl smile, but she couldn't be sure.

"How 'bout that long story then."

She blinked "Sorry?"

"You said you'd tell me if I took you out for a coffee."

"Oh. You want to know how Michael and I ended up at Charlie."

He nodded. "We're out. I brought coffee."

"Fair enough. I'm not sure where to start though."

Daryl stayed quiet, waiting for her to begin.

"I guess I should start with Michael, since it seems my life has been wrapped up with him. You know how Michael's always on crutches? It's some neurological thing, I can never remember what it's called. He's been in a therapeutic riding program since he was a kid."

"I started volunteering at that program when I was in high school, that's where we met. I was generally assigned to tack up his horse and help him in the lessons. We were chatting one day about Universities and found out we were both accepted to one not far from here."

"There wasn't a therapeutic program nearby, and he wanted to keep riding. He was good enough to go out without help, but given his issues, it wasn't a good idea for him to be alone. Since I love riding, we worked out a plan to go out on the weekends together. We found a hunt club nearby that had suitable horses and good trail access. Every weekend we'd carpool up to the barn and head out for a few hours. The deal was I'd tack up, and Michael would clean the equipment afterwards."

"It was nice. Sometimes we'd chat about school, movies, tv shows we liked… Sometimes we'd just ride for hours without saying much at all."

"After graduation Michael took a research position at the University. I got a job at a logistics company nearby. We stayed in town and continued getting together to ride. That's where we were when all hell broke loose. We'd gotten up early that day at headed out to the barn. There were reports of rioting in the big city, but it just seemed so far away…. We'd been out nearly all day, when we got back to the barn we heard that there were roadblocks in place around our town."

She shook her head. "Honestly Daryl, we thought it would all pass. I mean, who could have seen this coming? We just drove to this out of the way motel on the highway and booked a room for the night. The place was such a dive, the TV didn't work, the radio was crap… " She chuckled, "We nicknamed it the Bates motel. We joked all night that someone was going to try to kill us in our sleep."

"The next morning I went out for a coffee run. I had just parked at the donut shop when I saw this man in the parking lot covered in blood. He was just staggering around so I thought maybe he'd been hit by a car. I was going to go over and ask him if he needed help when he launched himself at a woman that came out of the shop." She shuddered at the memory "It took me a minute to realize he was eating her."

Daryl nodded. "Walker."

"Yes. I didn't know it at the time though. A couple of guys from the shop came out to stop him, and he just attacked them too. There was blood everywhere. They finally subdued him and we trying to call 911, when the woman got up and started attacking people…. At that point I just got right back into the car and drove back to the motel." She took a deep breath. "I thought I was going crazy. When I told Michael, he could scarcely believe it either. We thought it had to be a drug thing…"

"Drugs don' make people do that." Daryl's eyes were on her now.

"No kidding." She sipped her coffee. "I kept trying to reach the police from the motel. That's when the screaming started. I could hear it coming from the other rooms…I looked out the window and saw more of them. They'd come from the highway. I don't know how many…" Archer paused. "I guess now it wouldn't seem so bad, but then? I had no idea what was going on. I was lucky that we'd parked right by our door. We decided to make for the car. I used the keyless entry to pop the trunk of our SUV, Michael closed it behind him while I climbed over into the driver's seat. There were a few pounding on the doors of the car. I'm sure I ran some over... We headed to the highway, but there were just more and more of them. Cars were all over the place. It was insane."

"Michael suggested we go back to the barn. He thought with the horses we'd be able to take the back trails and get somewhere safe. When we got there most of the horses were out in the fields. The horse Michael rode, Tank, was in the barn. I tacked her up and threw my saddle on the next closest horse, Churchill."

"When we left for the back trails, there were people eating the horses in the front paddocks. We ran hard and fast, avoiding any roads or places where we might be seen. Michael had grabbed the maps from the car before we left, and he was keeping track of where we were. All I could think of was running."

"We ran for days. Walking the horses when we could, sometimes I'd switch Michael onto Churchill and lead Tank to give her a rest. We hid in old barns and cabins we found. We even spent a few days in a cave. Whenever we stopped for too long, those things would catch up to us. It took me a little while to figure out the head shot thing. Once I sorted that out, I started scavenging for food in out of the way places. We made it all the way out to a big provincial park. There we grabbed supplies from a park store and headed into the deep woods. We swam the horses across lakes and forded rivers. Eventually we stopped at an old forest ranger's cabin. We lived off fish and whatever edible plants we found."

"We stayed there most of the summer, but the cabin wasn't winterized and we knew we had to find someplace with more food for us and the horses. We set out for a distribution center I knew off not too far from the park that catered to farmers. We had hoped to find feed for the horses, it was isolated enough that we didn't think there would be many walkers."

"We made it just as the snow started to fall. There was already an older man inside. I think he used to work there. When we showed up, he took one look at us and let us in. He said we'd work out some kind of arrangement."

Archer's mouth settled into a grim line. "After a couple days, he followed me into the ladies' washroom and locked the door behind us. He set about explaining what kind of arrangement he had been talking about."

Daryl's eyes darkened, but he remained silent.

"He went into great detail about how he wanted to hurt me. Even though what he wanted was horrible, I'll admit that I thought about giving in. The horses were weak, we were hungry and Michael couldn't walk at all. I didn't think that we'd make it outside. Then that man told me what he would do to Michael if I didn't comply."

She paused. "He shouldn't have said that."

"I fought him, hard. Michael dragged himself to the door and tried to break it down." She looked down at her cup. "He couldn't help me."

"In the end, I had a couple broken ribs and my face got really messed up. That bastard didn't get what he wanted. I killed him with a shard from the bathroom mirror."

"In fact, I killed him twice." She shrugged. "That's when we figured out that everyone turns. In that particular scenario, I was quite glad for the opportunity to kill him again."

"Damn straight." Daryl raised his cup in salute.

"We lived well that winter, the horses had ample feed and enough hay. Michael figured out which feeds we could eat. There were coats for us and blankets for the horses. We even found a stash of guns and ammo. But we knew we couldn't stay there. We needed a permanent place, something we could defend. That's when the idea to come to Fort Charles came to me. I talked it over with Michael, I thought maybe I could clear it in stages. We didn't need the whole fort, just some of it."

"We packed what we could reasonably carry and left when we thought the grazing would be good enough to support the horses. We looked for more supplies along the way. Generally Michael would stay out of sight while I'd sneak into towns. "

"That's how I found Joel. He'd been beaten up very badly and was in a Dentist's office looking for pain killers and bandages when I walked in on him. We just stood there and stared at each other. He very politely said 'Would you be so kind as to help reset my shoulder?' " She smiled at the memory. "He was all filthy and bedraggled; the words just didn't match what I was seeing. I helped patch him up. Once I found out he was a doctor, well, I had to bring him to Michael."

"Life was better with Joel. He and Michael hit it off right away. I didn't worry so much about Michael when I did supply runs and Joel knew what meds would help manage Michael's symptoms. We made it to Fort Charles in late summer."

"As soon as I saw Charlie I knew it was occupied, I could see people moving around, and there were new fortifications on the perimeter. We camped in the woods that night and talked it over. It was decided that one of us should go to the fort to see if everything was ok. The boys thought Joel should go… I think they were worried I'd get raped. If it was safe, Joel would come back and get us. If he wasn't back in 48hrs, we were to run. "

"Somethin' tells me you didn't listen." Daryl was looking at her intently.

"I snuck out after they'd fallen asleep and headed to Charlie on foot. I was at the gates before dawn. I caught Trapper by surprise." She laughed. "He was this crusty old man. He'd been heading out to check the snares and there I was. At first he thought I was a biter. He was raising his shotgun to shoot me when I asked him not to." She chuckled. "I'll never forget the look of shock on his face. He just sighed, opened the gate and let me in without question. Took me to the kitchen and sat with me until Mr. Murphy got there."

"That the same Murphy you worked for?" Daryl asked.

"The very same. I was never so glad to see a friendly face. I went to get the others right away. We've been here ever since."

Daryl drank the last drop of coffee from his cup. "What happened to Trapper?"

"He got bit."

"Shame."

"Yeah. He was a disgruntled old man, but I liked him."

" ' nother cup?" Daryl asked, offering her the thermos.

"Please." As he filled her mug she asked "So what's your long story?"

"Not that long."

"Come on, I told you mine."

Daryl shrugged, "What d'ya wanna know?"

"Where were you when it started? How did you meet everyone? How'd you end up here?"

"Well that last part ya already know. Some crazy ass woman was stalkin' us in th' woods and lured us back with promises of paradise."

She laughed. "Before that."

Daryl gave her the cliff notes version of meeting the group, being sure to gloss over the bits he wasn't willing to share. He did tell her about Merle, though. He hadn't expected to.

"What about before everything happened? Who was Daryl Dixon during the days before this mess?"

"Does it matter?" Daryl ducked his eyes behind his long hair.

Archer sat thoughtfully for a moment. " No. I suppose it really doesn't. I don't think we'll see those times again." She bit her lip and looked down. "Shame about your brother though."

"Merle was a dick." Daryl looked up at her again. "You'd a hated him."

"Maybe, but he was your dick."

Daryl guffawed, slapping a hand on his thigh.

Archer blushed furiously. "You know what I mean."

"I sure do. You got family?"

"Mom died from Cancer a few years before all this. My Dad and my brother's family are all I had."

"Older or yonger brother?"

"Five years older, but to hear him talk you'd think it was ten. He's married and has a daughter, Kate, she's three." She stopped herself. "Actually, she'd be much older than that now."

"I take it they didn't make it." Daryl said softly.

"I don't know. Dad's a pilot, he was stranded in Japan when they closed the airports there. Before my cell phone died I got a text from my brother in Scotland. He was taking my niece to get my sister-in-law from the Castle."

"Castle?"

"There's this monstrous Castle in Edinburgh. My sister-in-law is one of the curators of their collection."

"Maybe he made it."

"I try not to think about it too much."

"This Castle, does it have big walls?"

She nodded. "The biggest. It's up on a rise too, higher than Charles."

"If he's anything like you, I bet he made it. Prob'ly holed up in there, worried sick about you."

"Maybe." She was looking out at the moonlit plain as a single walker staggered across the field, too far away to be hit. With no light visible from the fort, it just walked by, oblivious to the living eyes that watched it pass.