AN: Here we go, another little chapter here.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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They were working in waves so that no one was alone at any one time in any one location. As a result, Daryl and Carol were the last two left alone inside the hunting store.
On the whole, their group had cleared out many of the weapons there, but they weren't trying to be overly greedy and had left behind plenty for anyone who might pass through the location after them seeking survival tools. Even if they'd wanted to take more, they couldn't have given that they had to keep in mind at all times that what they took, they had to carry.
They hadn't made it immediately to the store. They'd decided to linger in the area a few days and had spent the first day or so in search of food and provisions which they divided for their stay and for when they moved on.
Finally, though, they were keeping their promise to Carol to find her something suitable…something that might actually help rather than hinder her if she were to begin to regularly fight Walkers alongside the rest of them.
"OK, let's see what the hell they got here might be better'n that cooking knife," Daryl mused, looking through the knives left in the display. He could see that one or two had been taken, but really they hadn't done too much to clear them out. There were still a good number to choose from.
Carol came over and leaned onto the glass counter, looking down into the glass where Daryl had already begun to peruse.
"Those are all small," she said, her voice sounding as full of disappointment as it possibly could.
Daryl wasn't a fool. He'd seen her eyeing the katana that Michonne carried. She looked at it like she was dying to get her hands on it. He was afraid that someone might die if she did get her hands on it. He had absolutely no doubt in his mind that Michonne had probably had difficulty wielding the weapon when she'd first acquired it, wherever she'd gotten it from, and Carol simply wasn't ready for something like that.
"Well what the hell'd ya have in mind?" Daryl asked, carefully putting his hand through the broken out back glass of the knife display to take a few out that he thought might be more her speed.
She hummed.
"I don't know," she said. "Something bigger."
Daryl snorted.
"Ain't the size that matters," he said. "It's what the hell you can do with it."
Carol smirked at him, curling her lip up slightly in amusement.
"I wouldn't think a man like you would have to make that argument too often," Carol teased.
"Stop," he warned. "Talking about fuckin' knives."
Her smile only broadened.
"I don't know," she said. "That might be pretty uncomfortable."
He could tell she was proud of herself. She could barely contain the smile she was swallowing back for the effect of the joke and she swayed, whether or not she realized it, while she leaned on the glass, her body moving with her own excitement over having said something she thought was clever.
"Stop," he said. "Now they gonna come in here we don't pick something out before long."
She hummed at him, smirking despite the fact he'd ruined her joke, and then she sighed at the knives he was looking at again.
"You do alright with this and you hate it? We'll get you a machete next," Daryl said. "Real good one…but I reckon you probably gonna like this better. Good control and don't weigh as much. Easier to carry. What the hell Michonne's got? Awkward to lug around. Try this."
Daryl handed Carol a decently weighted knuckle knife. It was a nice piece, and he might have kept it for himself, but at the moment he was more interested in finding her something that was perfect than in acquiring something "extra" for himself since he was relatively happy with what he had.
"See there?" He prompted. "Good handle, you ain't gettin' that snatched right out your hand with splinters to show for it."
She looked pleased with the selection, turning it over and over in her hand.
"And it's big enough, ain't nobody makin' fun of your ass in the locker room neither," Daryl added with a chuckle.
She smirked at him, but she didn't continue the joke. She was too pleased, at the moment, with admiring her new weapon that she'd have to work with.
"Nobody's going to make fun of me anywhere," she responded, turning it in her hand.
Daryl left her long enough to slip down the abandoned aisles and find her a sheath to carry it on her belt. He was pretty sure, even if she might think she wanted a katana, that for the time being she'd be pleased with what she had.
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Daryl immediately slung his arm up to shield his eyes from the sun as he emerged from the store with Carol just behind him, still turning her knife over and over in her hands. Her first reaction, too, was to do the same as their eyes struggled to make the initial adjustment from a space lit by nothing more than the light beaming through a few dirty windows to the bright flooding of the open air and the midday sun.
As his eyes slowly adjusted to the light, he realized that Merle was off a short distance from the storefront, Andrea close by, with Sophia.
Tied to a tree, by cables or ropes of some sort, were two Walkers, leashed side by side. Immediately Daryl realized they had no arms, or at least they had barely more than stumps, since they reached toward Sophia with nothing really to touch her with.
In a fraction of a moment, Daryl figured out that what Merle was doing was, essentially, training Sophia with Walkers that had been rendered more or less harmless while Andrea stood off to the side walking semi circles around the space.
He might have commented on it being a good idea, even, if he'd gotten to say anything at all. He never got a word out of his mouth though.
Carol, just behind him, must have found her eyes adjusting to the light at the same time he did. But she, for whatever reason, must have seen the scene in front of her in quite a different light. She darted past Daryl, at a full run, screaming suddenly…the cries too blood curdling for her words to be understandable.
And there was a scramble since no one she was running toward clearly understood what was happening or expected it.
Daryl slung off the crossbow he'd been wearing slung across his back and started to run too, hoping to stop whatever might happen before it had a chance to start, but he wasn't going to catch up with her. She was being driven by some force that he simply didn't have.
Carol slammed into the Walkers, apparently not even realizing they were tethered like animated pinatas to a tree, and sunk the new knife she'd acquired into their skulls, one by one, ignoring entirely the confused shouts around her. And if it had ended there? It might have been entirely a case of no harm and no foul, but she turned suddenly toward Merle, no more in control of her emotions than she'd been when she'd launched out into a full run, and screamed at him, the force of her own screams almost taking her off her feet.
"They could have killed her! You could have killed her!" Carol screamed.
And when she launched herself at Merle with the same fury as she had at the Walkers, everyone was taken aback, Merle included.
"She's gotta knife!" Daryl yelled as soon as he realized what was going on.
His heart thundered in his chest because both Carol and Merle were armed, and even if neither of them truly wanted to hurt the other, even roughhousing about with blades wasn't the best idea.
"Fuckin' shit!" Merle yelled out at anyone who was listening as the two of them locked into some kind of hand to hand combat. Carol appeared, at the moment, just a step below rabid and it was clear that Merle's entire aim for the time being was keeping himself from being slaughtered.
With Andrea and Sophia both yelling, neither one's words coming through clearly in the chaos, coupled with the screaming coming from Carol and Merle, Daryl figured that every Walker within a ten mile radius would be upon them in a matter of minutes.
He ran toward his brother, trying to figure out how to get a hold on Carol and get them two out of the fight that they were locked in.
"I'm gonna break her fuckin' arm you don't get her soon!" Merle yelled out.
Daryl realized it wasn't a threat. Merle was simply stating the obvious. The only way that he was keeping Carol from getting to him with the blade was holding the harm connected to that hand with his one good and hand twisting it constantly in one direction or another as she turned herself to try to gain the upper hand on him.
Seeing she was somewhat controlled for the moment, though clearly not at all in possession of her senses, Daryl caught her from behind and yanked her backward, away from Merle and on top of him, bringing them both to the ground and accepting the impact for himself in hopes that it would jar her enough to make her lose her grip on the knife.
It didn't knock it loose, but it didn't matter either. As soon as he hit the ground, holding her tight to him, Merle was on top of them and he wrenched the blade free from her fingers and threw it to the side before he collapsed back on his ass in the dirt near them.
As soon as the whole thing was over, though, it was clear that Carol had the wind knocked out of her and the fight too. Daryl kept his arms wrapped around her for a moment, making no move to get himself up and off the ground, and simply tried to remind her that it was "OK," even if he wasn't entirely sure what it was that he was telling her was fine.
Around him, Merle was back on his feet and silence had fallen over both Andrea and Sophia, both of whom had been yelling earlier without, probably, being sure even what they were yelling.
"I leave you alone for not even ten minutes and I come back to this?" Michonne's voice rang out.
And suddenly she was standing over Daryl as he lie on the ground, holding Carol against him.
"What happened?" Michonne asked.
Carol had dissolved, now, into tears and sobs and Sophia came over, also crying, to try and figure out what was happening.
And Daryl thought, maybe, that there wasn't a person present who wanted clarity in the situation more than he did.
He pushed upward, trying to sit up, and Michonne reached for Carol, catching her around the arm but quickly letting go when Carol cried out at her without words. Michonne snatched back like she'd been burned. And Sophia took her place, wrapping herself around Carol and dropping to her knees in the dirt.
"What the hell happened?" Michonne asked.
"Lost her fuckin' mind is what the hell happened!" Merle spat from where he was. "Come at me like she was gonna gut my ass."
Finally finding his way out from under Carol's body and gaining his feet once more, Daryl felt his pulse beginning to return to normal. With the excitement of the moment over, his mind began to take in everything that was happening and everything that had happened with a little more clarity than the heat of the moment had allowed.
"She thought you was lettin' them damn Walkers get to Sophia," Daryl spat at Merle.
"Fuckers was tied to a damn tree!" Merle yelled back. "Got no damn hands! Missin' half they damn faces! Couldn't do shit! Was teachin' Sophia how the hell to put them down if'n she was in a situation that she needed it! Weren't no damn reason to lose her fuckin' mind!"
"She didn't lose her mind," Michonne offered. "She thought Sophia was in danger. It'll make you crazy, but it doesn't mean you've lost your mind."
Carol seemed to have used all the energy in her body now. She was hugging Sophia, rocking the girl in what must have been a most uncomfortable position in the dirt, and crying. There was nothing left, at the moment, of the woman who had taken down two Walkers without blinking an eye and would have taken out Merle and Daryl both given half the chance.
Daryl went over, touching her on the shoulder, and she jerked, pulling Sophia with her, away from him.
"Carol, it's me," Daryl said. "It's just me…"
She pulled her face, red and wet now from the crying, out of where she'd buried it in the crook of her daughter's neck and looked at him. He swallowed and shook his head at her, gently touching her shoulder again with just his fingertips to see if she would jerk away again. She didn't.
He shook his head again.
"Weren't nobody gonna let them Walkers get Sophia," Daryl said. "Merle…Andrea…weren't gonna let 'em get her. Everything's OK."
"I'm fine, Mama," Sophia declared, equally red faced, her upset having come over, more than likely, seeing Carol's reaction and seeing the fight that broke out afterward. The Walker training session, prior to that, hadn't bothered her at all. "I'm fine, Mama," she repeated, petting Carol in an attempt to comfort her.
Daryl glanced toward Merle and gestured that he might want to see about Sophia before he reached and caught Carol under the arms, pulling her toward him and away from Sophia. He helped her gain her feet and then he pulled her tight against his chest.
"It's OK," he said, not knowing what else to say at the moment. "It's OK. It's over. All over now. We gonna head back. Get cleaned up. It's all over now."
He could feel the tremors shaking her whole body, and whether or not she understood him, she wrapped herself tightly into him. Around him, Merle was standing with his arm around Sophia while Michonne and Andrea gathered together packs.
Daryl assumed that they could handle, without his assistance at the moment, carrying the items back to the house they were staying in and he pulled Carol with him, being the first to lead them in that direction.