Chapter Ten
Carol felt like a horrible person. He was about to get his whole family back and here she was, almost wishing that it was still just the two of them. It was awful and selfish and she hated herself for feeling that way but she also felt cheated.
All she wanted was one person and she couldn't have her and he was getting everyone he cared about and if she was being completely honest with herself, she didn't truly believe they had a chance of finding her daughter. She wanted to believe, she wanted to believe more than anything, but she didn't know how they would do it. Atlanta was a mess, those things were everywhere and it had taken a toll on the two of them just making it this far.
"How many other people live up here?" She asked, her voice almost too quiet for him to even hear her.
"Nobody anymore. That's why the road is so rough. There used to be a couple more cabins but they've been left to rot for a while now. This road ain't even on a map."
She wasn't sure how high up they were but they ran out of pavement a long time ago and it seemed like they had been driving uphill for so long that they should have topped the mountain by now. She almost cried out when suddenly he was turning the wheel. There was a narrow break in the rock face and he angled the truck into the space. It curved up and around through the trees and it was so overgrown that she was surprised that he hadn't missed it. It was a good thing they had a four wheel drive because it was much more steep with dips and curves every few yards.
"How long has it been since you've been up here?" She asked as he fought the wheel around another outcropping of rock.
"Last fall."
Suddenly they crested the last steep incline and the truck was once again on level ground. She could just make out a red Jeep that was parked next to a small log structure nestled in the middle of a heavily wooded lot. A low mist hung over everything and the constant shade made it feel twenty degrees cooler than the temperature had been down below. "It's beautiful," she muttered.
The door to the cabin flew open and a man stepped out. She swallowed hard as he sauntered towards them, grinning.
"That's Merle," Daryl said, catching her eye. "Remember what I said. If he gives you any shit, just ignore him."
She nodded and then slid out on his side. The man stopped and eyed her, taking her in with a slow sweep of his eyes and then he cocked one eyebrow at Daryl. "Not bad, baby brother. Not bad at all. Why the hell wasn't I as smart as you and Damon? Goddamn it," he said, shaking his head and pulling Daryl towards him.
Daryl sighed and hugged him back. "I ran into her car after I left the school yesterday."
"Damon just picked out some random chick and brought her along. Smart little bastard."
"Odin and June with you?" Daryl asked, glancing behind his brother towards the cabin. The doorway remained empty.
Merle's face fell and his eyes grew dark. He shook his head and looked down.
"What?" Daryl breathed. "How?"
Carol's heart fell to her feet. It was obvious that what Daryl saw in his brother's eyes wasn't good.
Merle finally looked back up. "They got torn apart by a group of those things. I didn't get to them in time. They were dead when I got there and those things were fucking feeding on them. There wasn't nothin' left but a couple of stains in the carpet, man. I couldn't even tell which stain was who."
Daryl was looking at the ground, his shoulders slumped. "That don't make any fuckin' sense. You know Odin for fuck's sake. He's better equipped for this shit than either one of us. He wouldn't have gotten taken down like that."
Merle kept his gaze trained on something far away and Carol was glad that she couldn't see what he was likely reliving at the moment. "I thought the same thing, but if you'd have seen it..."
"Damon know yet?"
Merle shook his head. "I wanted to wait until you got here. He's gonna need us both."
Daryl nodded and then cursed, staring past Merle towards the cabin. "He's gonna be a goddamn wreck." There was a catch to his voice that had Carol wanting to do something to take the pain away. She just didn't know how.
"He's gonna be. They're all asleep right now. Have been for a few hours. None of them got any rest so they're out of it."
Daryl toed the ground with his boot for a few moments before looking up at his brother. "She's got a daughter around Piper's age. She wasn't able to get to her. I told her that we could go back and try to find her."
Merle met her eyes and his jaw hardened. "We'll do what we can, lady. I know what that shit is like, not knowin' where your kid is. Wouldn't wish it on many."
Carol nodded. "Thank you."
He turned to head back to the cabin but Daryl called out, stopping him. "I'm gonna go ahead and go down to the shack, take a look around. I'll be back up in a bit."
Merle nodded and walked away.
Daryl motioned towards his brother's retreating figure. "You can go on with him. He'll show you around and shit. I'll be back," he muttered, stepping around her.
She didn't want him storming off alone and in pain. "Daryl?"
He glanced over his shoulder and she winced at the pain in his eyes.
"Do you mind if I come with you?" She asked, hoping she could offer him some kind of comfort. Even if it was just her presence.
He looked like he had to think about it but he finally nodded.
She followed close behind him. They actually had to make their way across a narrow ledge where the rock face was steep on one side and there was a drop off on the other. They had about eighteen inches to walk. There were saplings struggling to rise up out of the cracks so if she did fall, at least there was that. Maybe she could just grab on to one and then surely he would pull her up.
"Carol?"
She looked up and saw that he was frowning at her. He was also quite a few feet in front of her now. She hadn't realized that she had stopped walking.
"The secret is to not look down," he said gruffly.
She nodded, her face flushing and then made her way towards him. Gruff or not, he still waited for her and didn't seem to mind that she was walking so close.
~H~
He felt like something was squeezing his heart. His chest actually ached at the loss of his uncle and aunt. The two of them were more like parents, raising him and Merle like they were their own. The only mother that he had ever known had been June. Odin had taught him to hunt and track. He'd given him his first beer and taught him that you had to push through the pain of the past if you ever planned on having any kind of future. He hadn't just lost some distant relative. He had lost his parents just like Damon had.
He wanted to be alone in his grief but he didn't have the heart, or the energy, to tell her to stay the fuck at the cabin with Merle. Her presence didn't bother him the way someone else being there may have.
Once they hit the clearing the shack came into view. He wasn't sure how she would feel about it but he loved the place. It was small. Just one room with a low roof but he'd rigged it to the well and it had a hand pump inside, just like the cabin did. It was easy to keep warm when the weather was freezing and it was comfortable for him.
"You built this?" She breathed as they came closer.
He glanced at her and if his heart wasn't so heavy he would have laughed, or at least smiled. Her eyes were huge as she looked at the sad little structure. He liked it, but it was weird that she would. "I just used what I had on hand, really. The floor is dirt, I used moss to patch the gaps in the logs, the roof ain't nothin' but sheet metal we salvaged from a dump in Atlanta."
"It looks like something you'd see in a book. I keep expecting some mythical creature to step out of the trees!" Those impossibly blue eyes turned on him and then a genuine grin split her face.
He was too surprised at her reaction to even respond so he nodded towards the shack and started walking again. He opened the door and gestured for her to go inside, sure that she would change her mind about it once she was closer. From the looks of it, however, she was still in awe. He snorted and shook his head. She was a weird fucking woman.
"Look at this place!" She said with a grin, spinning in a slow circle as she took in the space.
"I've seen it already, remember?" He said, the iron around his chest seeming to loosen at her odd reaction to the shack.
"Can you teach me how to build one for Sophia and I?"
His brows shot up. "You wanna build a trapper's shack?"
She nodded.
He shrugged. "Most women dream of castles or mansions and you wanna live in a trapper's shack," he muttered.
She looked embarrassed but he hadn't meant to embarrass her. "I guess it's stupid," she smiled slightly and looked down.
He shook his head. "I don't think it's stupid. Stupid is wishin' for things like castles and mansions when you can get by just fine in a trapper's shack."
Her smile returned but it faded again when she met his eyes. "I'm sorry."
He knew what she was talking about and he looked away.
"At least you have your brother and the rest of your family," she said quietly.
Anger had him looking up sharply. "What, is that suppose to be, some sort of consolation prize or somethin'?" He snapped, the sudden anger making the pain bearable, giving him something to hold on to. "Their boy don't even know they're gone. It don't matter that we're here. They ain't. And don't act like you're sorry either. They weren't your kin. You don't know what the hell my family has just lost."
She swallowed hard and nodded, taking a step back towards the door. "I didn't mean that at all. I just meant..."
He glared, holding fast to the anger because anger was easier to handle than grief. Grief was crippling but anger was something he had learned to cope with for most of his life. "Just go," he said, his voice like acid and his eyes narrowed on her fiercely.
She took one more step backwards and then turned and slipped out the door.
He watched her go and he was surprised at how quickly the anger that had chased the grief away, morphed into remorse for hurting her. And he knew he hurt her because he saw it in her face. He sat down heavily on the narrow bed and ran a hand through his hair. It was almost funny because if June had seen him talk to her like that, she would have slapped him right upside the head.
The thought of his aunt had him dropping his head low, his forearms resting on his thighs. He'd have to go after Carol now. When he found her he'd try to apologize. That was gonna be a first.