Sorry it has been so long since I've updated, but I should be able to post new chapters more often now. This one is a longer one, so hopefully you'll enjoy it.

Again, thank you so much for reviews. I really appreciate them and love to see when there's a new one.

Chapter 11

"Quite a night, huh?" I said, taking a seat beside Thera. She was sitting away from everyone else, dividing the rations up into separate piles.

"You could say that," Thera joked. We had just finished dinner, most of now sitting around lazily, feeling more content than we had in months. It wasn't even close to being dark out, the sun still pouring through the clouds, but we had nothing to do. Sure, there was laundry and a ton of other chores, but right now we were done. Everyone was together, laughing and smiling. It was strange, but wonderful to see everyone this happy.

"Intense day, though. For us, at least," I continued, attempting to keep the conversation up.

"Rick and Shane, too," she said with a smile. "That sounded exciting."

"It definitely did. They've been at each other's throats for a while now. I guess they were pretty close friends before all of this," I revealed.

"Until Lori slept with Shane?" How in the world does she know about that? As far as I knew, I was the only one that had found out. I had caught them together when I was heading off on one of my runs. After that awkward encounter, I hadn't seen them in the same area again, but I was still aware of the things happening between them.

"What are you talking about?" I attempted, failing miserably.

Thera laughed, "You suck at lying. It's pretty obvious that they were. Your reaction when we snuck up on them, then later with Lori made it kind of apparent," she concluded, making it sound simple.

"What are you, a detective?" I said, stunned by her observations.

"Not even close," she answered, sounding derogatory, but accompanying it with a smile, making it clear that she was just playing. "But at least now I know I was right."

"Just don't say anything, okay?" I would be in some serious trouble if she it slip that she knew. Luckily, this was Thera. I was fairly certain I could trust her to keep a secret.

"Of course."

Daryl's POV

Glenn had been speaking to Thera for quite some time, but he was finally leaving her alone, heading back to the fire. Taking this as my opening, I stood up quietly, starting towards her.

"Hey there, Daryl. Come to see how many cans of beans you've been blessed with?" she said, glancing up from the many piles of food surrounding her.

"No one helping you?" I inquired. It really wasn't like everyone to be enjoying themselves, leaving the new girl to do all the work.

"Oh no, they've offered. I'm good, though. I enjoy having time to myself." I straightened my back a bit, surprised at the comment.

"I'll leave you alone then," I said, realizing the crudeness of my tone of voice only after the reply had left my mouth.

"No, no! Sorry, I didn't mean that. Stay. I was just meaning that I-"

"Right, right." I affirmed, cutting her off. Silence fell between us, only broken by the laughter that was coming from everyone around the fire. I wasn't exactly sure what to say, but it wasn't as though I could leave now without seeming as though I had taken her comment to heart.

"So, how many cans of beans have I been blessed with?" I questioned. Thera smiled, then began recounting a set of cans from one of the piles.

"Six for each of us," she concluded happily. I nodded, impressed by the haul. The two of them had carried a huge amount of supplies back with them. Must have weighed a ton. Asking about beans hadn't been my true intention, of course. My real question was about what they had to do to get all of this stuff.

"How'd you do it?" Thera looked slightly surprised. "How'd you get all of this food from those people?"

She took a moment to think, then replied simply, "We distracted them." I raised my eyebrows hoping for more information. Thera sighed, putting down the cans that she had been holding.

"We opened the gates that were blocking off the alley, drew them outside, then went through a window and locked them out there. We grabbed as much as we could, then got out. Just in time, too." She paused. "No one was hurt, if that's what you were thinking."

"Good. Next time, I'm coming with you," I decided, hoping there would be no complaints.

"Oh are you, now?" she said with a smile, almost speaking as though she were poking fun at a child without them knowing. "Sure thing, but we're still going to need those squirrels every once in a while." she assured me. At least someone had appreciated them.

"We're not going to be going back to my place, I don't think, but I think we still need to be making runs. This might last us a while, but it's not going to be enough."

"Good plan. Tomorrow, then?"

"You're eager. But sure, I'm up for it. I'll ask Glenn once I'm done here."

With that, I nodded once more and turned away, heading back to my place at the fire. Thera remained behind, still seated amongst her piles of food.

"Hey, Carl! Sophia!" Thera called, ushering over the two excited children. She was standing next to the RV, finally done with her food sorting. The children had enjoyed tonight's meal as much as the rest of us, but they hadn't remained as peaceful and content. They had been pestering their poor moms for at least the past hour, only stopping for a few minutes when Shane had told them off, receiving a look from Rick in the process.

"Want to play some baseball?" she inquired. It was such an unexpected question to be asking in our situation, I let out a laugh, attracting the gazes of Thera and the kids. They answered with a resounding yes, so Thera sent them to retrieve the Morales children to join us.

"Something funny, Daryl?" Thera challenged, pretending to be offended. I looked down, smiling.

"Oh, no. You going to be using your meat bat for that?" Looking up once more, I could see the grin spreading across Thera's face.

"My meat bat?" she asked through laughter. Still smiling broadly, she continued. "Yeah, actually. We will be using my meat bat. I don't see any other bats around here."

She was right, of course. It wasn't as though we had a surplus of recreational supplies. As blood spattered as her bat might be, it was still going to entertain the kids. Standing, I went over to join the three of them by the RV, deciding that flinging a ball around was going to be better than sitting by myself. Though, did we even have a baseball?

"Joining us, then?" she asked snidely, still smiling. There seemed to be no stopping for her, now that I thought about it. She hadn't been like this when we had first met her, though she had still be cracking jokes constantly, but now she had seemingly let loose. Everything was one big joke to her. It was strangely refreshing.

"Suppose so," I replied, following her as she began walking towards the clear area nearer the quarry upon the arrival of four children. "Do we have a ball?"

"Yep! I swiped it from some fancy apartment a while ago. It's signed by some guy, but I can't read it. I figured since I had the bat, may as well get the ball," she answered with a shrug of her shoulders. Now that I knew that we actually did have a proper ball, I sighted it in her pocket, only slightly visible. She seemed to really like those cargo pants. She had been wearing them when we had first met, and hadn't changed out of them since. The shirts had been cycled through, though it was easy to tell that she only owned a few, but the pants had remained the same. They were obviously quite useful, as the pockets were large enough to carry the baseball, as well as cans of food, as we had witnessed earlier in the day. Everyone had been joking over the pocketed cans, which had been forgotten about until halfway through dinner.

"Did you play baseball before, Thera?" asked Sophia.

"Naw, I've never been one for sports, but I did play some Quidditch. Plus archery, of course." What the hell is Quidditch?

"Quidditch?" Louis inquired, "Like form Harry Potter?" Seriously, Harry Potter?

"Yeah, actually. I'll explain later, maybe we can get everyone together and play a game. For now, baseball," Thera decided, taking the ball out of her pocket and tossing it to Carl, who scrambled to try to catch it. It flashed across the ground, rolling to a stop at the base of nearby tree. After being retrieved by Carl, Thera started to explain the rules of the game.

"We'll just play toss for now, I think," she stated, directing Carl to throw the ball back to her. From her it went to Eliza, to Louis, to Sophia, then from Sophia to me. Darn girl doesn't know how to throw. Thera continued to explain the basic of the game, knowing much more than I would have expected. After a short time, both kids had begun to throw slightly better, so Thera went on to the next step.

"Batting!" she announced, returning the ball to her pocket. Her bat was slung across her back in its usual position, but she now removed it, taking up the required stance. The bat was passed back and forth as Thera attempted to adjust the children, occasionally having to jump backwards in order to avoid a blow to the head. Everytime she would just smile or laugh, advising them to be more careful.

"Think you've got it now?" she asked them, a hint of doubt in her voice.

"Yeah!" they all exclaimed, itching to begin playing.

"Okay. Daryl, do you want to start?" Jarring me from my state of quiet observation, Thera tossed the ball in my direction. I reached out and caught it smoothly in one hand, still not sure as to what my job was.

"Daryl is just going to do a nice little toss," she started, speaking to Carl but truly directing the last bit at me, "and all you need to do is swing. Watch the ball, and you probably hit it."

We continued doing this for quite some time. I immediately realized that I had been given the task of pitching simply because Thera had taken over the position of retrieving the many awkward hits and misses without a word. She was constantly having to run back and forth, but luckily she had a really good arm. Once she reached the ball, no matter how far it had rolled, she would throw it back to me with impeccable aim, then run to its next location.

By this time, the others had left their warm fire and come to watch the progression of the kids. They had improved to the point where they were hitting nearly half of the balls I threw at them, so Thera decided to start a game, inviting the rest of the group to join in. Having only one ball was a bit inconvenient, but it had worked out so far on account of Thera' superior patience and cardio-respiratory endurance.

Unexpectedly, everyone participated, giving us enough people to make two teams. Thera was voted as one team captain, and Rick as the other. They decided on first pick by choosing numbers between one and ten, Thera being determined as the winner by Dale. She started off, scanning the line of us in front of her.

"Carl," she decided quickly, flashing a smiling at Rick, who was now smiling.

"So that's how it's going to be, huh? Steal my own son from me," Rick joked. "Sophia," he said, choosing his first team member, who skipped over happily.

"Lori," Thera laughed, stealing the last member of Rick's family, earning a friendly insult from Rick.

"T-Dog"

"Glenn."

"Daryl," Rick stated, becoming increasingly intense with every name called, apparently being really competitive. I left the dwindling line of people, standing beside T-Dog.

The choosing continued until there was no one left, leaving us with our determined teams. The friendly banter had already begun, setting the mood for the rest of the game. We were given first bat, leaving us to wait while Thera attempted to position her team around the area that we had to play in. There was a risk of the ball going over the edge of the quarry, but otherwise we were in a fairly good location. The field didn't have too many trees, but the ground was slightly uneven. Thera gave the nicest areas to the children on her team, arranging everyone else around them, then taking the position nearest the quarry for herself.

Thera designated Glenn as the pitcher, then gave the signal for us to start. Rick went up to bat first, receiving positive reinforcement from our team, as well as some degrading comments from Thera's, Carl included. Glenn pitched decently, however Rick didn't swing. The ball was thrown back by T-Dog, and pitched again. This time, Rick swung. The contact between the ball and the bat could be heard clearly, and was soon followed by the sound of the bat dropping to the ground. Pushed on by the cheers from his team, Rick sprinted to what had been designated as first base, yelling with joy as he went.

Lori, our first baseman, jokingly attempted to tackle him before he reached the base, as the ball had been lost by Eliza on the other side of the field, however Rick made it safely to the base.

The rest of the game proceeded as you would expect, filled with an excessive amount of laughter and playful comments, only halted after I had batted.

I begrudgingly walked out onto home, taking the bat from the ground where Jacqui had thrown it before me, picking it up, I could see the impact points dotted along the body, being the only places where the blood had begun to chip away, revealing the silver underneath. Assuming the proper stance, I brought the bat up, bending my elbows and preparing to receive the pitch from Glenn. Eye on the ball. Too cliché…

Glenn pulled his arm back, transferring his weight to his back foot. Pausing a moment, he took a breath in, putting a determined look on to his face. I transferred my concentration back to my stance, hopping up on the balls of my feet, then settling in. Suddenly, Glenn lurched forward, sending the ball hurtling at my head. I hit it smoothly, sending it off to the right, directly towards Thera. She started sprinting further out, getting uncomfortably close to the edge of the quarry. If she fell down there, it would kill her.

Lori and Dale were both yelling after her, warning her of the hazard, but she continued, ignoring them. She abruptly stopped soon after, just in time to watch the ball go over the edge.

"Daryl!" Sophia yelled behind me. "That was our only ball!"

Thera had turned, jogging back toward the group of people that had converged around me.

"How far down is that quarry?" she questioned, apparently intending on retrieving it.

"It's pretty far down. There's a bit of a lake at the bottom, too," Shane clarified. "I think it's lost, now."

"Well, it's not like it has just disappeared! I'll go look for it," Thera decided, remaining optimistic. Not knowing what to do, the rest of us followed her, creating a search party to find that stupid baseball. There's no chance we're finding that thing.