Chapter 12

Daryl's POV

"Seriously, this is a waste of time." Shane grumbled, pacing the perimeter around the lake. We were all scouring the bottom of the quarry, walking back and forth over the expanse of ground. Having covered most of the area around the lake, it was starting to become more and more apparent that the ball had landed in the water. Though no one had yet to voice this opinion, it was fairly obvious that we had come to a non-verbal consensus.

"Thera, what are we going to play baseball with now?" asked Sophia sadly.

"Don't worry, we're going to find it. Think of it as a game," she encouraged, hoping to get a positive reaction out of the little girl.

"You said that last time!" she whined. Carol walked over, abandoning the area that she had been searching, and picked up Sophia.

"Come on now, you know it isn't Thera's fault. Daryl is the one you should be complaining to," she teased, kissing her daughter on the cheek and setting her down and smiling at me.

By now the sky was beginning to darken slightly, but we still had a few hours of light left. Thera sent away a large portion of the searchers, leaving us with just Carl, Lori, Rick, Glenn, Thera, and me.

"I have to say, I think this is kind of hopeless," Lori sighed, sitting down on a rock near the lake.

"Yep, I'd say so," Thera agreed, surprising us all slightly, as she had been the one set on searching for this stupid ball in the first place. "But, we haven't looked everywhere."

"Well, it's not like we can search the lake!" Carl exclaimed loudly, forcing exaggeration as kids sometimes do.

"Why is that?" Thera inquired with a smile. "It's warm enough for a swim, I'd say. Wouldn't you, Lori?" Thera took a few steps forward, walking slightly into the water. She had better not expect this of me.

"Well," replied Lori, looking toward Rick and Carl. "I think it our only hope if we still want to play baseball." Rick had a proper smile on his face, making this whole scene look almost normal. It was almost as though they were a family on some sort of a vacation with nothing to worry about. Thera was like the big sister, fitting in perfectly. Glenn and I were the only ones that didn't seem to be a part of the fantasy, probably because were both a little less keen on this pansy pool party than the others.

"What do you say, Glenn, Daryl?" Thera asked, stepping back from the happy family and joining the two of us. "Up for a swim?"

Glenn looked a little lost at first, then smiled. "I mean, we do have to find that ball."

The two of them followed Lori and Carl toward the water, removing their shoes and wading in. Immediately, Thera began play-wrestling with Carl, getting both of them soaked in seconds.

"Daryl, you going to come too?" Glenn asked, now waist deep in the lake.

"Naw, I've got stuff to do back at camp," I attempted.

"Oh come on, Daryl. We've got plenty of time." Rick was now joining in on the session of peer pressuring, stealing the odd glance at Lori and Carl, who had now been left to their own devices as Thera swam off by herself.

"Better ways to spend it than splashing around in the water," I stated, retrieving my crossbow from the rock I had set it on and turning around to head up towards camp. I had only made it a few feet when I was hit in the back by something. Spinning around, expecting to see some sort of threat, I saw the baseball that we had spent the last hour searching for rolling away from me. Looking up, Thera could be clearly seen a ways into the lake, treading water and grinning.

"Bring that back up to camp then, will you?" she shouted smugly.

I sighed, trying not to give her more enjoyment than she was already getting, then stepped forward, grabbing the ball and continuing on my way. Once I was out of sight I attempted to shove it into my pocket, but was surprised to find that it wouldn't fit. How on Earth are her pockets bigger than mine?

As I was working my way up the hill I could hear shrieks and the sound of laughter echoing behind me, slowly fading away. Apparently they weren't the least bit concerned about walkers, but I was sure that with Thera and Rick there they'd be fine no matter what. As playful as the girl might be, she was still better than I could have imagined when it came to a fight.

After a little over half an hour, the others returned from the lake, changing, and then joining the rest of us near the fire.

"You all sounded like you were having fun," Dale said to them with a smile. Everyone was smiling, actually, apart from Shane. It was strange to see them like this. It seemed as though I was constantly being struck by the peculiarities of these situations that were, in all definitions, ordinary.

"I have to say," decided Rick, "it's the most fun we've had in a long time. It was definitely a nice change." The three of them had now taken their usual positions around the fire, closely followed by an exhausted looking Glenn, however Thera was still missing. Though she had no tent of her own, she had somehow managed to sneak away to some location without being noticed.

"Where's Thera?" I questioned, directing it mainly toward Glenn.

The kid looked around, obviously starting to wonder the same thing, then was struck by a sudden realization.

"She said she has a tent to set up. Must have been one of the many glorious items that we looted. I don't know where she'd be, though." I nodded, returning my gaze to the fire. I did recall, now that I thought about it, a tent being among the supplies that had been splayed out on the ground.

I sat with the rest of the group for another ten minutes. At that point, the Morales family began to excuse themselves, so I took the opportunity and followed suit. Heading back toward where my tent was pitched, I veered off my regular route, hoping to locate Thera.

Though I had been expecting to find her in the middle of setting up this new tent, I ended up coming across her sitting by herself amongst a few bags of supplies, most likely her clothes and personal items, with no tent visible.

"Hey there, Daryl," she greeted with a smile.

"I heard you got yourself a tent," I replied simply. She held up a long, dark navy bag in answer, throwing back on the ground beside her.

"Need help setting up?"

"Oh, thanks, but no. I'm a practiced tent setter upper. However, is this going to be an okay spot for me?" I looked around, trying to determine not if this was going to be fine in terms of the rest of the camp, but more in terms of if it was a decent camping spot.

Around the area was a few overhanging trees, which would work as a shield against the rain, as well as the sun. The ground was relatively flat and smooth, looking to have been cleared by her. Behind her was the forest, while to one side the ground dropped off steeply, giving her quite a nice view. I had seen a few of the group members staring out this way more than once, in fact.

To the other side was my tent, though it was just out of view from here. Apparently we had similar tastes in camping spots; not to close the the rest of the group, however not to far, either. The RV sat roughly fourty feet directly out of where her tent door was most likely going to be. All in all, this was a decent spot.

"I don't see why not. Might want to clear it with Rick first, though," I said, not bothering to compliment her on her choice. It was clear that she knew as well as I the benefits of this location.

"Sure thing, thanks." Why did she always have to be so happy?

"Hey, you're not setting up that weird hanging tent of yours here, are you?" I inquired, just now remembering her excitement over it.

"Naw, I'm saving it for any overnight supply runs we might need to make in the future. I'd love to try it out some time, though."

"Yeah, makes sense. How many tents did you bring, then?" I was full of questions, it seemed. It did seem ridiculous, however, that she had managed to stock up and cart back all of these things.

"Just the two," she started. Oh, only two? "but I do have those two tarps, if I remember correctly. I was thinking of stringing one up here if no one else needed them."

It had actually been kind of crazy to watch her unpack all of her supplies. She packed efficiently, that was for sure, but even when taking that into consideration, the amount of things that she had in those packs made it seem like there was some sort of enchantment over them.

"We've made sure everyone has one already, so you should be fine to use one," I stated, knowing very well that we had a couple of extras lying around.

"Okay, thanks again."

"Yeah," I murmured, walking off toward my own tent.