Chapter 15

I awoke to Lucic scratching at the door and whining to get out. I let him and Luna out after gently rolling out of the bed, not daring to wake the sleeping man beside me.

Out in the main store room, I could see that I was the only one up. Past front door, in between the wooden boards, I could see that it was still very early, around five. So I let the dogs out in the garden area with Paille who was munching away on the grass that had grown between the slabs of concrete.

With the dogs out to run around for awhile, I yawned and headed back to our room to sleep for a little longer.

An hour or so went by and I finally got up and dressed for the day. Ember was now awake and ready to feed. I made the sling around myself before pulling her to me and heading out to feed her. Daryl was still sound asleep in the new bed that we had rested upon so soundly.

Out in the main room, Rick, Lori, Carl, and Carol were all up and eating breakfast. I smiled a good morning at everyone just as Maggie strode past me towards the bathroom. It was then that I took notice of how bad we all smelled. We needed a place to bathe, but it was too cold to get undressed and wash outside. The water in the pipes was cold too, making everything that much harder.

I looked over at Lori who was trying to adjust herself on the floor to eat. I'd noticed that she was starting to get round in the front and knew that she would like to lay in a bath. We all could use somewhere to relax. Back at the camp we at least had lake that we could swim in, and at the farm we were so busy, but now that we were idol most of the time, it was very boring. All the books in the world couldn't save us from this smelly boredom. We needed something to do and somewhere to wash.

"Hey, any ya'll seen Glenn?" Maggie asked when she came back.

"He went to the bathroom a little while ago." Rick answered through a mouthful of fruit just as I opened a can for myself. Maggie nodded at Rick then went off looking around.

When I was finished eating, I could smell something rank and knew that someone needed a changing. I stood up and grunted in the process.

"She getting heavy?" Carol asked with a slight smile.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Good, that means shes growing." Hershel said coming in for his breakfast. "Is she teething yet?"

"I don't think so. Shes been eating normal but not sucking or biting on her fingers any more than usual."

"How old is she again?"

"I think she is rounding her third month in the next week or so."

"And her weight?"

"I'd say about thirteen fourteen pounds." I guessed, lifting her sling slightly.

"Right on track. Maggie was about fifteen at three months."

"Good to know she is on a healthy start." I smiled as I headed back to our room to changer her.

In our room, I found Daryl still asleep right in the middle of the bed. I quickly changed the baby then felt his head, wondering if he was sick or something. He didn't stir at my touch but he wasn't warm either. He needed to eat soon before everyone got to putting up the rest of the boards on the windows.

"Daryl," I called softly, rubbing his uncovered shoulder. He didn't respond. "Daryl," I called again. He finally started to stir under my hand but he didn't respond. "Daryl," I spoke quicker and a bit louder.

"Hmm?" he grunted, keeping his eyes closed.

"It's after ten, are you getting up today?"

"No," he groaned and rolled over.

"At least come get something to eat." He sat up at my suggestion and rubbed his eyes. "What happened to your hand?" I asked, noticing a large cut on the top of his left hand.

"Huh?" he looked at the scrapped knuckle and answered, "I cut it on a piece of metal last night when we went to find you."

"It'll need to be cleaned before an infection gets to it. Come on, get dressed and I'll take care of you." I laughed slightly as he yawned and reached for a shirt.

With Ember still wrapped around me, I lead Daryl into the other room where I found one of the med kits and started to address his wound. After he was taken care of, he ate then helped Rick, Hershel, and T-Dog get the rest of the windows done while us women, other than Lori, took care of the laundry. We started a small fire in garden area where were boiled a bucket of water then washed all the clothes. Beth took charge of Ember for the afternoon while we worked with our pruning hands.

When we were done, we all had a late lunch before going through the store collecting any food and pilling it with the rest of the cans. When that was done, Maggie and I checked on the clothes that were hung on several lines in the garden. It was becoming bitter cold in the wind so that clothes were still pretty wet.

When we got back in, I found Lori with a pen and paper sitting beside that pile of food.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Taking inventory. We are going to have to ration this out properly if we want to get through the winter."

"Good idea." I agreed. She counted over a set of cans before frowning. "What's wrong?"

"We don't have enough meat to get us through. The chili is nice but even with the chunky soup, we are still going to need something else to go with it." I nodded and thought for a while.

"Daryl is a good hunter and tracker." I brought up.

"Honey, we are going to need a lot more than just a few squirrels." she shook her head.

"He'll teach me and we could find deer and turkey in these woods. With less people around, I think we'll see a lot more of them." I hoped.

"I don't see why you can't try at least." she finally nodded.

"I'll talk to Daryl about it during dinner." I said heading out to get something for the animals to eat. I found some of the dog food hidden in one of my bags and I fed them after I gathered a bucket full of grass for Paille.

Soon it was time for dinner and everyone gathered around a bright LED lantern for cans of soup and green beans. Glenn showed up with Rick and T-Dog. Maggie shot him a look then beside him for a good talking to. He'd given me their clothes earlier but I hadn't seen him since.

"Hey, I was talking to Lori today," I started when Daryl came over.

"Yeah," he chewed his dinner.

"She was counting the cans of food and realized that we are going to need another source."

"We'll just go back for more." he looked at me.

"No, that's not what I mean. I mean we need something else to go with it. Something to keep us strong and warm. We are going to need fresh meat, and you're the only hunter in here."

He looked back down at his food then asked, "Is there any rock salt?"

"Rock salt? Yeah, I think there are a few bags. Why?"

"We are going to dry what we kill." I smiled, knowing that he was agreeing with us.

"You're going to have to teach me how to hunt and track."

"You got it." he said softly to his dinner. I was excited to learn. It was something to do and nothing could be more exciting than that. "I'll talk to Rick." He held out his hand towards me, asking to throw out my can for me.

"Thanks." I smiled then went out to collect the now dry clothes and bring in the dogs for the night. I folded the clothes with Carol and Maggie then brought Daryl's and mine to our room. Ember was starting to get cranky so I put her to sleep after changing her again.

I was beyond bored so I just laid down for bed. It had been dark for a good long time so I had no problem with going to sleep.

Daryl came in soon enough and laid down with me after getting undressed.

"What'd Rick say?" I asked quietly.

"He was fine with it. Offered us both a gun."

"Great," I said, sleepily. "When do we start?"

"Tomorrow?"

"Works for me." I smiled and nestled into him on the bed and drifted off to sleep.