Chapter 10

Daryl pulled his hammer-like apparatus from a dead walker's head. "What's up, Rick? You're not puttin' these walker's down with yer usual enthusiasm." he said, grinning.

Rick shook his head. "I jes' hate second-guessin' myself."

"What d'ya mean?"

"I. . .I think that maybe, I should-a gave that Colonel the serum. Or. . .or, maybe, jes' showed him the 'Ek' an' how easy it is to put these bastards down. . ."

"Yeah. . .maybe. . .who knows? Maybe th' best thing is to protect yer own. That's what makes sense to me."

"Yeah. . .well. . .I jes' don't know."

"Tell ya what I know. I know that I jes' love these new hammer-things Billy made for us." With that, he popped another walker in the head with something that looked like a hammer, with a spike where the flat part usually is."

Rick smiled, "Yeah. . .these things are pretty sweet."

"Looks like Carl's havin' a good time, too!" Carl was dispatching walkers with a long spear type thing. "Kinda takes away that edge they had. . .y'know. . .with him bein' so short an' all."

"Hey!" shouted Carl. "Who'er you callin' short?"

"Jes' speakin' of yer temper, little man!" Daryl called out, as he put another one down.

Billy pulled up in the flat-bed. "Looks like ya'll found quite a little nest here. My, my. . .what a mess."

Glen jumped out from the passenger side. "Well, let's get this cleaned up. . .Maggie's cooking tonight, and I don't want to miss it."

Daryl said, "I didn't know Maggie could cook."

Glen cleared his throat. "Well, that's what she calls it, anyway. . .you know. . .cooking."

Everyone laughed.

Carl took off his hat and wiped his forehead on his sleeve. "D'ya think this is where they came from?"

"I think so, Carl," Rick said. "Hope so, anyway. I don't really cotton ta having my Sunday dinner interrupted."

Daryl looked around. "Well, this is the only group we've found this week. Must be where the walker came from.

Billy and Glen started tossing bodies on to the back of the flat-bed. Billy laughed, "Actually, it was kinda funny, Rick. . .you about to bite into that chicken leg, and that walker about to bite into yours."

"It was too close to be funny." Rick sneered.

"You're right about that!" chuckled Billy. "Just to be on the safe side, we probably should check the north fence. . .just to see that it's holding."

Daryl suddenly brightened up. "Maybe we could visit my cabin on my lake. . .I mean, since we'll be there in the neighborhood, anyway."

"I don't see why not." Rick said, "Summer's almost done, anyway. Might as well have us one last whoop-te-doo."

Daryl slapped his hands together. "Hot damn! Lake Dixon here we come!"

"Sounds like a plan. . .guess we could just camp out for about a week. . .might as well get it out of our system before the cold comes."

Glen leaned up against the back of the truck. "Might be a good chance for us to find out what those Greene girls are up to."

"No shit!" Billy agreed.

"What're ya talkin' about?" Rick asked.

Billy and Glen threw another body on the back of the truck. Glen said, "Maggie and Beth are up to something. . .and they're not letting us in on it."

"They've been whispering and laughing about something all week. . .been driving me bat-shit."

"Me, too!" Glen said, shaking his head. "And I don't think it has anything to do with fried chicken recipes."

The next day, everyone headed out to the lake for a late-summer getaway. They stopped by the northern fence briefly, where everything still looked rock solid. Daryl, who was always 'Mr. Cool' when it came to dealing with just about anything, was acting like an obnoxious kid the night before going to Disney World. . .just couldn't wait to get back to the lake. . .the woods, and the cabin. . .hunting and fishing. There was just something about 'roughing it' out at the lake that made Daryl fucking crazy. . .and he was bound and determined to take the rest of the crew with him on his excursion into glorious madness on the crazy train. It was so bad, everyone decided to let Daryl have the cabin all by himself. Glen and Maggie had their little pup tent. . .Billy and Beth stayed in the big tent with the baby. Rick and Carl brought their own pup, and Carol and Mishonne doubled up. It probably wouldn't have been so bad, except that Daryl just planted his ass in the rocker on the porch, and didn't move for the entire week. He didn't hunt. . .didn't fish. . .hell, he didn't even stay up late. He just sat on the porch, rocked in the chair, stared at the lake and grunted whenever anyone talked to him.

But, it wasn't just Daryl. Beth and Maggie refused to go skiing, much to Carl's dismay. Oh, they went out on the lake. . .they'd ride in the boat, as long as they didn't have to be out in the sun for very long. They spent most of the week underneath a big beach umbrella on the shore. Billy and Glen were kind of crabby, too. . .apparently, the girl's weren't being really. . .uh. . .nurturing, when it came to the boys. Basically, Carol and Mishonne ended up doing all of the work, and received none of the glory.

It was beginning to feel like everyone may have become just a little too familiar with each other. . .

By the end of the week, everyone was ready to leave the lake. . .including Mr.

Daryl Dixon. They all gathered at the picnic tables to eat lunch before they packed up the campsite, and hiked back to their cars. Everyone sat there in silence, and ate their sandwiches. But then, something amazing happened. Beth produced a small box from underneath the table. It was rectangular, with blue paper and a red ribbon wrapped around it. She placed it carefully in front of Billy.

Glen put his head down, and whispered, "Here it comes. . ." to himself.

"What's this?" Billy said, quietly.

The blonde smiled out of one side of her mouth. "This is for you." she said, flatly.

"For me?" he said, as he glared at her.

"Um-hum. . ." she said, trying hard not to look into his eyes.

"So. . .uh. . .what's the occasion?"

"Oh. . .it's a surprise." she said, using that 'little girl' tone of hers.

He picked it up, and tapped it on the table. "Uh. . .I didn't get you anything."

"Uh. . .yeah, you did!"

"I did?" he said, setting the box carefully in front of him.

"Um-hum." she said, still doing the voice, and rolling her eyes. "Open it." she said.

"Now. . ." he said, "Right here. . .in front of everyone?"

"Um-hum!" she said.

He didn't move a muscle, he just stared at her face for what seemed to be a lifetime. "What is it?" he said, eventually.

"Oh, fer Christ's sake. . .will you jes' open the goddamn box?" Daryl screamed.

Billy picked up the box, looked it over again. . .then put it to his nose and smelled it.

Daryl's face turned red. "Today!" he screamed.

Billy slowly. . .carefully, used his index finger and thumb to grab the red ribbon, and pulled it. The ribbon fell out of it's knot, and dropped to the table. Billy followed the ribbon with his eyes all the way down to the picnic table. Then, he looked up at Daryl, who was still staring at him.

Quietly, Daryl said, "You never got presents when you were little, did ya?"

Billy looked at him, and said, "I was never. . .little." After a moment, he carefully stripped the paper, folded it neatly, and set the naked box back down on the table.

By this point, all eyes were transfixed on the box. Slowly, Billy took the top off, and stared at what was inside. Then, he looked at Beth.

Suddenly, his voice began to quiver. "Beth. . ." he said, "Wh. . .wh. . .what is this?"

"Well," she said, matter-of-factly. "I'm guessing it's either a boy or a girl!"

Billy took out the e. p. t. so everyone could see the 'plus' sign in the window.

Carol went nuts. "Beth. . .oh, my God! Beth. . .how long have you known?"

Billy turned pale-white, and had trouble remembering how to breathe.

Glen suddenly burst out into a major horse-laugh, and pointed his finger at Billy.

"Billy. . .Billy, Billy, Billy, Billy. . ." he laughed much, much too loudly. "Lookie here at what you did! I knew. . .I knew you girls were up to something! I knew it. . .I knew it. . .I knew it! Oh, Billy, Billy. . .you're gonna make one helluva daddy, Billy." He laughed way to loud and too long.

Maggie seemed quite perturbed. "Really, Glen. . .really?"

Glen was having trouble breathing himself. With only half the amount of breath it actually takes to talk, he half-whispered, "Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!"

Maggie looked out over the lake for a moment, then put a small box, wrapped in exactly the same way in front of Glen.

Suddenly, things didn't seem quite so funny anymore.

Everyone seemed a little freaked at the news that both of the Greene girls were pregnant at the same time, but it was really a nice type of freaked. Billy took to the idea of parenthood quickly, and would let Beth do nothing when it came to breaking camp. He even made her ride on his back all the way back to where they had left the cars. Once they arrived there, Mishonne noticed something odd. It seemed like there was a pillar of smoke, emulating from east of where they had left their vehicles. Since they were all there together, they all decided to go to check it out. Soon, they found themselves heading directly toward the patch they had made to the eastern fence.

There, at the exact place where they had encountered the Army before, they discovered Corporal Wiggins and a handful of other uniformed personnel, tending to a large bonfire just feet from that patch in the fence.

"Thank God, you spotted our smoke-signal," Corporal Wiggins stated. The young man looked like he had walked through hell. The others he was with fared no better. They were all dirty, and beat up. . .many of those soldiers dressed with blood-soaked bandages.

Rick looked over the troop in disbelief. "Corporal Wiggins, where is the rest of your unit?"

"This is all of us that's left." he stated, flatly.

"How about your C. O., Colonel McCloud?"

"He's dead, sir. . .along with just about everyone else. Sergeant Lawson was blinded. . ."

"Well, what the hell happened?"

"Well, we had just arrived in Tennessee, when we heard that the dead had over-run Washington. The President made it out just before the city fell. . .he was taken to an undisclosed location, but continued to call the shots. We heard that New York, Chicago. . .pretty much everywhere north of the Mason-Dixon had already fallen to the dead. We tried our best, but we were just overrun." He stared off into the distance as he talked, and he began to cry. "There were just too goddamned many of them! They. . .they overran our lines. . .they ate our compadres. Some said they saw the ones that got bit rise back up an' fight for the dead. We had to shoot our friends before they turned. It was like. . .like the end of the world. That's what we all thought. But that was before they dropped the bomb."

"Which bomb?" Rick asked, just to see if the Corporal was still with them.

"THE bomb. The great big, mutha-fuckin' bomb. The kind that makes your sergeant go totally blind if'n he don't remember not to look at the fireball. The kind that cooks everyone around you from the inside out."

"Jesus!" said Daryl, seeing the pure horror in the young man's eyes.

The corporal eased up a bit. "We were the lucky ones. . .we got away. . .we few. They didn't drop the biggest ones on Knoxville. They'd already dropped those on New York and Chicago. . .Detroit. . .y'know, the big population centers. I don't know anything 'bout the west coast."

"We can only hope. . ." said Carol, who was obviously moved by the soldiers' oration.

"But that ain't all. . .", he continued. "There's somethin' else. When we got to this fence, I remembered you guys, so we lit this fire, hopin' ya'll'd find us. I gotta warn you. . ."

Rick kind of snickered beneath his breath, in spite of himself. "Warn us about what?"

"Well. . ." the corporal was downright serious. "Once they dropped the big bombs on New York an' Chicago. . .somethin' happened to the dead. At least, the one's that weren't vaporized or that weren't too decayed or torn up by the blast. It was kinda like. . .like a fight or flight response. We felt the shockwave and then we saw the cloud swallow up the dead by the thousands. But, then. . .out of the smoke. . .the dead came. Not slow and meandering like before. . .but runnin'. . .runnin' as fast as their feet and legs would carry them. And they were black as soot, except for their eyes and teeth. And they destroyed everythin' in their path. Everythin'. . .they rolled over the land, like. . .like waves on the seashore. Thousands of them, so thick, that all you can see is black, and as far as the eye could see in either direction. We managed to catch a transport outside-a Gatlinburg. . .the pilot told us that the dead from Chicago and the dead from New York were all converging on us. They dumped us off, 'bout five or six miles from here and was headin' on toward the everglades. We built this here fire, hopin' ya'll see it, so we could warn you. . .the runnin' dead are comin'. . .movin' straight south. They don't sleep. . .they don't rest. . .and they're headin' right for ya. . .thousands of them. . .and it could be even more. This here planet now belongs to the dead, so, ya'll need to gather up whatever you can, and move south as fast as you can."

"Now, jes'. . .jes' wait a minute. . ."

"We ain't gonna be able to wait on ya'll, now. . .we gotta go. I had a tough time convincin' the rest of 'em to stop long enough to build this here signal fire. Just. . .just head south as quick as ya can."

"How long do ya think we got? Y'know, 'til they get here?"

"I dunno, for sure. I'd guess, probably. . .say, three or four days, at best. That's jes' a guess, mind ya. Ya'll just need to get th' fuck outa Dodge."

"Stanley!" called one of the other soldiers. "We're movin' out!"

"Right!" he yelled back. He turned back to Rick. "Mind me, now, sheriff. . .Get your people, and ya'll move along straight south. And I wish ya'll the best of luck."

"Uh. . .thanks, corporal. Thanks for the warning."

With that, the corporal and his troops started moving south just outside of the east fence. Carol looked up and said, "What're we gonna do, Rick?"

Rick looked to Billy, then to Daryl, who spit on the ground and said, "I'll be damned if I'm gonna give up my goddamn lake. . ."

The vote was unanimous. . .between the girls being pregnant, and Daryl's lake. . .everyone agreed that life without their little hamlet wouldn't really be worth living. Billy asked everyone over and over if they were absolutely sure this is what they wanted to do. I guess maybe he didn't realize that this was now their home, even if they weren't born on the plantation to the town's relative genius. Maybe he didn't realize how close they had all become since he first discovered Carl, Beth and the baby in the woods. The truth of the matter was that he had promised each and every one of them that their nightmare was now over. Now, it looked like he was going to have to eat those words, and he hated that. He just didn't know. . .he didn't know if the 'Ek' would work on this new brand of walker. . .'runners', the corporal had called them. He didn't know if you could put them down by destroying their brain. Hell, for all he knew, these new walkers could 'eat' brains. The only thing he knew for sure was that they were all going to make their last stand here. . .for their little town, and for each other. And, especially, for their babies. . .

Billy was like a madman, and the pounding from his forge went on day and night. He wouldn't let anyone else help him with whatever it was he was doing in there. He finally came out sometime during the third night, and moved a ton of stuff with the flat-bed. He awoke everyone with a 911 call before dawn on the fourth day. . .and had everyone to meet at the warehouse. They moved every bit of armament they had put away to just behind the northern fence. Billy had even dug out a couple of large caliber automatic weapons he had stashed.

Billy had been a very, very busy boy. He had designed a type of bracing for the fence, that would make it much, much harder to bring down. He also had developed a form of liquid titanium that was to improve the tensile-strength of the fences by something like five-hundred percent. He didn't really know if the fence would have time to dry. He mentioned that it might even explode when the runners hit it. But, there was no time for testing his theories, or his mathematics. His basic idea was to keep them alive long enough for the waves of runners to run on past them as they fought from behind the fence. . .that is, if it held up. This was their endgame, and they were all in.

He had buried all of the explosives they had gathered in the fields in front of the northern fence. He had Daryl on the tractor, digging trenches they would fill with what gasoline they had saved, and laundry detergent. . .sort of a 'redneck napalm'. He said he didn't hold much hope for it, as these 'runners' managed to survive extreme radiation in order to attack them here at this last vestige for humanity. . .aw, to hell with it. They were just throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at their enemy.

Just for good measure, and to make sure they used every idea they had, Billy hung an extremely large and stinky 'Ek' on the fence directly in front of where they would be. . .in hopes that, maybe, if nothing else worked, maybe the stench would drive away the impending horde.

It all seemed to be one large exercise in futility. But, they had to try. . .that was the bottom line. That's what got them to this place in time. . .and time had run out.

Uh. . .well, almost. The 'runners' didn't show until the afternoon of the fifth day. They had seen the coal black cloud as it wafted into the air on the horizon. An hour later, they heard the first explosions. Fifteen minutes after that, they actually saw the first 'runners', and the corporal wasn't at all mistaken about their resolve. . .or their numbers. They were, indeed, not unlike waves breaking on the beach. . .the black sea water as far as the eye could see in either direction. Rick ran over and opened the huge 'Ek' on the fence, then took his place at the front of his crew. They opened up with everything they had, and when the 'runners' hit the fence, they used the last weapon any of them had left. . .

They screamed.

As the black cloud began to settle, they could hear the sound of each of them trying to hack up a lung. Daryl caught some breath first, and, through his coughing, asked Carl if he would mind 'closin' that infernal stinkin' thing up'. Carl fell backwards into the fence, then, once he found his legs again, complied with Daryl's request. Carol found her voice next, complaining that her mouth was open. Everyone said their's was, too. . .then, slowly, they began to realize that they were still alive. Glen whispered, "Haz-zah?", and they looked at each other. They looked like the lead act in a minstrel show. . .each and every one of them, black as soot, from head to foot. . .except for their eyes.

Beth asked the question they were all asking. "What the hell happened?"

"I don't know," said Billy. He thought about it for a moment, then said, "The answer may be in something the corporal had said. . .how radiation cooked from the inside out. Maybe they'd all been baking on the inside for the last couple of days. Once they hit the fence, they just. . .disintegrated."

Beth suddenly screamed, "Oh, my God! Judith!"

She looked down, to the place behind her where she had set the baby. Her blanket was there, although it was as black as everyone else. The baby on the inside was clean, and breathing a lot easier than any of the rest of the crew.

Once everyone had some water, and washed the soot from their eyes, they finally issued their final "Haz-zah!"