Four months and a half after the farm...
"Holy mother of..." I whisper "...no fucking way!" I say amused and call my brother so he can see my discovery. I yell his name.
Now that I'm ok we've been surviving around Senoia and nearby places
The weather has become better so its easier to move around and hunt without having to sleep with our legs tangled to prevent us from freezing... that was awkward.
This time, were staying at a toy store.
Who would look in here, right?
My brother appears on the door ready to kill anything that made me shout.
He rolls his eyes and leans on the door when he sees there's no threat at all.
"Don't be so fucking loud. Walkers can still hear us."
"We're on a well secured second floor. We had to climb up here and last time I checked Walkers couldn't climb. Don't be an asshole, it's worth it!"
"Alright. what is it?" He asks annoyed
"Look at this!" I say showing him my new water gun "I swear this thing still fucking works!"
"Sure." He says and turns to leave.
"No no! Don't go!"
"Why not?"
"When was the last time Merle, you and I played like stupid little kids?"
"When you were like 5. we don't have time to..." Daryl gets interrupted when I pull the plastic trigger shooting cold water to his back. He freezes in his place and gasps.
"Too bad you don't have your vest on" I tease when he turns.
He's about to yell at me but I shoot him in the face and laugh.
His face of annoyance is priceless! He growls staring at me.
"You need a haircut" I tell him when I notice the water traveling down the tips of his hair.
"Oh yeah?" He asks dryly.
"Yup"
"Give me that shit!" Daryl jumps on me pulling the toy "you want me to be a kid? Heres your stupid fucking kid, you piece of shit" he says
He pulls the toy until I let it go. I look at him surprised.
"Don't you dare!" I tell him giggling and back up
He looks at me with an evil smirk
Well, I'm screwed.
He shoots a little bit of water.
I gasp and look at him with wide eyes. "Its cold!"
"It is!" He says making fun of me
He shoots again but this time he shoots like I did to him. I laugh and run away from him.
I throw him random toys I find in my way with him behind me shooting water to my back.
It feels super cold.
I stop to look for another water gun but he tackles me. He grabs me and holds me on the floor.
"No" I yell and laugh.
He sits on my stomach and holds my hands together.
"No?" He asks "you wanted to play!"
He shoots more water to my face and laughs
"Daryl, no!" I say setting my hands free. I covering myself with them and trying to fight him.
We play like that until Daryl runs out of water.
It was fun. We're both all wet and tired.
I feel like a five year old.
Daryl stands up leaving the gun on the floor while I complain about how heavy he is.
He shuts me up with a smirk and makes sure we didn't draw too much attention.
He helps me up and we check on the windows. The walkers are staggering like always except for one or two that heard all our yelling.
I search my backpack to get more water but this time I don't waste it.
I drink a bit.
I call my brother's name while putting the cap on the plastic bottle to then throw it in his direction.
He catches. He drinks and throws it back.
We hear a gunshot that startles both of us. Yeah... Not only walkers can hear us.
I put the water back inside my backpack while Daryl kills the two walkers trying to climb up to where we are.
We climb back down and sneak out of the place as fast as we can.
No more games.
Now...
Lori's screaming is still in my mind. I wake up startled by it.
I relax a little when I realise I was dreaming and notice a little bit of light coming from outside.
Huh... The sun is coming up. Wasn't my brother going to wake me up?
I put my boots on and walk out of my cell making sure I have all my weapons near me this time.
I look inside my brother's cell and frown. It's empty.
I walk down the stairs looking for him and try to not wake anyone up just yet. Last night we all had a hard time with the lil' ass-kicker, specially the Greene family.
Daryl's crossbow is on one of the tables with some bolts around it.
Where is he?
I look the the door leading to the lower levels. I think he wouldn't go down there without his bow.
I walk up the small stairs leading outside. I walk out.
I look around and start walking through the yard. It is so quiet that I can hear the walkers all the way down and outside growling softly.
I look up. The sun is just raising and the weather is a little cold.
It is the perfect morning. The sky looks beautiful in those tones of red and yellow.
But then I look back down. All the corpses on the floor.
The blood from yesterday is still there.
I sigh and keep looking for my brother.
I open another gate and keep walking. The walkers chew on the wire outside of the catwalk.
I see Daryl down there. The graves.
Glenn picked a nice place for them. It makes me feel nostalgic.
I stop walking in front of Lori's and Carol's. Right behind Daryl.
I look at their graves feeling completely awful. I sigh.
I look at Daryl. I wonder why is he here.
He's kneeling on Carol's grave. I see how he carefully puts his hand on the cross and rubs his thumb on it slowly.
He just makes me feel depressed.
There's a cherokee rose on her grave.
"We're gonna find her" he tells me and stands up.
I nod and walk to his side. "We will"
We stay there for a few seconds. Just staring at the graves of what once were our friends.
I remember all that's happened since we joined them.
I remember... Atlanta... The first time they attacked us in camp... Amy... Merle...
I look down to hold a tear from coming out of my eye.
Daryl looks down to me. "You ok?" He asks.
I nod once more. "Do you think we should dig another one?"
"Mac..."
He rolls his eyes. He knows what I'm thinking about.
I shrug "Carol is not here either. Do you think we should like... Bury something that was his?"
"What do you think?" He mumbles.
"I don't know..." I sniff. "I just want to have something to remember him like Carol and T-Dog..."
Daryl sighs "I don't think is a good idea"
I dont cry managing to control myself. I nod "I miss him..."
"I know. I do too..."
"I'm sorry." I say wiping my face awkwardly with my hands and keep looking at the graves.
Daryl clears his throat "Lets go" he says. "We got stuff to do"
We walk back to the prison quietly. We gotta look for Rick.
I am super tired today. Last night Ass-Kicker wouldn't stop crying for hours straight.
Daryl looks as tired as me but he's not the kind of person who would take a nap ever.
Carl is up too. He seems absent.
Its his turn to feed the baby after last night's nightmare for the Greene family...
No one is awake but the four of us.
Daryl and I are eating something as quiet as we can to go look for Rick.
I am worried. I hope he's ok.
Daryl finishes eating and after showing Carl the proper ŵay of feeding her, takes the baby for a bit before going. Just to wait for me to finish eating.
He seems to be trying to cheer Carl up by playing with the baby. Carl smiles a bit.
I smirk.
He really is good with that baby.
When I'm done I stand up and let them know. Daryl gives the baby back to Carl and we hear the gate behind us open.
We turn in surprise.
"Hey..."
It is Rick. I feel too ashamed and embarrassed to look at him in the eyes.
He looks at us with tired eyes.
He looks different... Cleaner... And he is wearing different clothes.
"All good?" Daryl asks him
"All good." He mumbles "everyone alright?"
My brother nods but stays quiet.
"Ok" Rick nods too. he walks closer to us. I back up a little when he does and says "I cleared out the boiler block"
Daryl frowns "By yourself? How many were there?"
"I don't know. A dozen, maybe two. I'll wait for the others to wake up, then I have to get back. Just wanted to check on Carl"
Carl stays quiet and just looks down to the baby in his arms.
"You okay?" Rick asks him. He nods.
He has to go back? Why?
"We can handle taking out the bodies. You don't have to" Glenn tells him but Rick shakes his head.
"I'll help you" he replies and looks at my brother. He asks is we all have guns and knives.
Daryl nods. "We're running low on ammo, though."
"Maggie and me were planning on making a run this afternoon" Glenn says.
"Me and Mac are gonna look for Carol. We're gonna sweep the lower levels next. Axel's there trying to fix the generators."
"Daddy and I found a phone book with some places you can hit, look for bullets and formula" Beth says looking at Glenn
Rick nods absently and heads for the exit again.
"Rick!" Herschel calls him but he ignores the old man.
We walk the lower levels of the cell block in which the guys found T's body and Carol went missing.
Daryl said we're gonna find her and seems determined to do it.
He suggested to bring Carl to keep him distracted and active. To get him away from his problems for only a few hours if possible.
There are almost no walkers left so its easy to spot them and kill them.
Daryl walks up front with Carl and I following him.
We brought Oscar too. He seems like a good guy.
He points at a door moving slightly and says ".Check it out, man"
Daryl tells us to stop by just looking at us and walks back to Oscar.
Carl and I look at them.
The prisoner keeps going "Must have missed them last night"
"It's probably just one or two of 'em. Don't look they got much fight" Daryl says while checking the door "They ain't going nowhere. We'll take care of it on the way back"
Daryl whistles walking back to where we are and positions himself next to Carl with a soft 'Lets keep moving'.
I move behind them. I know Daryl wants to tell him something.
Carl is still looking down with a blank expression.
I hope Daryl cheers him up. We've been trying all morning, but its understandable.
I walk behind them and just listen to my brother.
"You know, my mom, she liked her wine. She liked to smoke in bed. Virginia Slims." He says checking another cell and then directing his attention back to Carl.
He hates that brand of cigarettes. I found a box once and he just threw it as far as he could after looking at it absently. I'm super interested now.
Merle never told me what happened to their mom. He only said her name was Brooke but never wanted to tell me more about her.
Obviously if Merle never told me I was never gonna be able to get it out of Daryl... But now...
I listen carefully how Daryl says "I was playing out with the kids in the neighborhood. I could do that with Merle gone."
Merle never let Daryl do nothing... He became the cool brother when I got there but thats a whole other story.
I see Carl looking up to him finally. Its good that Daryl caught his attention.
"Anyway," Daryl keeps going "They had bikes, I didn't. We heard sirens gettin louder. They jumped on their bikes, ran after it. You know, hopin t'see something worth seeing.I ran after them, but I couldn't keep up."
I check the cell on my right. Its empty.
I keep following them and listening to the story while imagining a younger version of Daryl in the story.
"I ran around a corner and saw my friends looking at me." He pauses "Hell, I saw everybody looking at me. Fire trucks everywhere. People from the was my house they were there for. That was my mom in bed. Burnt down to nothing. That was the hard part..." He looks down to Carl "You know, she was just gone. Erased. Nothing left of her. People said it was better that way." Daryl sighs "don't know. It didn't even feel real."
I feel sad for him.
I didn't know my mom. I don't even know her name, but him, he knew his mom, he lived with her, she took care of him when he was a kid and one day she's... Suddenly gone...
That's horrible..
"How old were you?" Carl asks feeling sorry and looking a little better. I guess he's happy to see that someone understands what he's feeling.
I cant even imagine how Daryl felt.
"About 8. Maybe 9" Daryl says
"I shot my mom." Carl speaks suddenly "She was out. Hadn't turned yet. I ended it. It was real" Daryl decides to stay quiet until Carl says something else. "Sorry about your mom"
"I'm sorry about yours" Daryl replies putting a hand on the kid's shoulder.
We keep walking in silence until we hear a voice behind us.
"Oh! That's what I'm talking about!" Oscar cheers and we turn around to see what's going on.
I forgot he was here.
He walks inside a cell.
Me and my brother frown. We look at each other and tell Carl to stay close.
"I'll go check it out" I say and walk forward. "What is it?" I ask the prisoner when I get to where he is.
He stands up properly and cheers again "yeah, baby! Just look at this!"
I look down and start laughing at him
"All this drama for a pair of slippers? Come on" I say and move so he can walk out.
Daryl and Carl are coming closer. Daryl frowns when he sees his feet.
"What the hell you need slippers for?"
Oscar smiles."You know. End of the day? Relaxing."
Daryl frowns even more making the prisoner chuckle.
"Y'all gonna be lining up for these things by the end of the day."
"I'll be the first in line" Carl jokes for the first time.
I smile "yeah, you wish"
We stop walking and look around us when we hear something growl behind us.
All of us take our weapons and turn to shoot at whatever is threatening us.
When the walker falls on the floor dead With an arrow on its head I walk closer to inspect it.
"Is it dead?" Oscar asks.
"That's Carol's knife" I mumble taking the weapon out of the undead's arm.
Daryl frowns and rushes to where I am. I hand him the knife.
I bite my lip.
Daryl shakes his head.
"maybe..."
"She's dead." Daryl whispers angrily.
"Daryl.." I don't even know what to say. I just don't want to see him like that...
"Get the fuck out of here" he growls softly turning his head to look at us.