A/N: Thanks guys for all the reviews! I appreciate all of them and please trust me that I took all of your suggestions to the heart. I thought about all the possibilities and I am so excited to write it! Keep reading guys and reviewing.

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Day 213

It was the middle of January now, and snow was slowly melting, which was great. It meant we would be able to move quicker, and soon animals in the woods would wake up. But it also said that walkers were beginning to speed up to their usual dangerous selves.

We didn't stop anywhere for longer than a few days. All the towns ahead were tiny, so clearing them out didn't take that long. But it was more, Rick became more serious, barely smiled, or talked to anyone besides telling us what we going to do in upcoming days.

We found a semi-stocked gun shop and managed to pick up a few more rifles. Everyone got a handgun, but now apparently, it was my responsibility to make sure the group knew how to shoot. And by the group, Rick meant mainly Beth, Carol, and Lori. The others already had a proper experience, but not those three. His wife was trained thought years ago, but I could tell she wasn't very comfortable using it, so that was my task to change it.

So this is what we were doing right now, we found an abandoned house, just off the road and behind it there was a big field. We were ready to move locations, so the sheriff decided it's the right time to use the area for training purposes. Hershel, Glenn, and Maggie were standing guard by the cars while the rest were standing in front of the make-shift fire range.

Daryl and T-Dog lined up some old bottles and cans, on a big old log in the appropriate distance. The women started with their handguns. They already had basic training with those, learned back at the farm. Nonetheless, I wanted to make sure that they know how to use it and that they aren't scared of shooting.

"Don't try to use only one hand," I told Carol after watching her take few shots. "Until you're more used to it, hold it like that." I took out my Glock and wrapped both hands around it, one supporting the other.

"It'll be more stable, and give less recoil. Try it." I encouraged her and saw that Beth was listening too and correcting her own hold on a gun. Lori already knew that, but she was doing something else.

"Lori, don't close your eye." She whipped her head around to glance at me, and I sent her a small smile. "You probably think it helps your aim, but in fact, it makes it worse. Try with both eyes open."

The brown-haired woman shifted a little and tried again, following my instructions, and her aim visibly improved.

All three of them fired a few more times, hitting, or nearly, each target when I asked them to stop. We were going to switch to rifles. They all grabbed one, Beth looked scared and unsure how to deal with that type of weapon. I took one, showed them how to load it, how to hold it. I showed them a proper stance, and where exactly on the shoulder to place it.

Once I was happy with how they holding it, I fired a shot, smashing one of the bottles in the distance.

"They have more impact and recoil, it will hit your shoulder. You must hold it like this; otherwise, it can hit you in the face. Now slowly, with both eyes open, look through the scope and aim for your targets," I explained to them, watching when they did so.

"Don't hold your breath, try to take small breaths, as to not move too much, but don't hold it in."

Lori fired first, proving again, that Rick trained her well, as she was able to hit one of the cans. Beth was slightly off target, but it's because she shifted just before firing. I went behind her and moved her hips a little into the right position and told her to try again.

Carol I would say was a good student, she quickly got the gist, and now she shot down two bottles in a row, making me nod proudly.

"Walkers!" Daryl announced, pointing behind the firing range, far away two corpses started walking in our direction.

"Alright, lesson over," I said, pushing women towards the cars.

"Let's move out," Rick ordered, and we loaded into the cars, ready to go towards our next destination.

"If I sit in this car any longer, my spine is going to cave in," I announced to no one in particular.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how that works," Maggie commented dryly from the front seat, making me roll my eyes.

We drove for what felt like hours, towards Griffin. It was larger, and we hoped it'll have more food and other supplies. We didn't found another gold mine like in Sharpsburg, all those months ago. We had to continually ration, in fear of running out, and the priority was Carl and Lori. Often, I found myself giving the remaining bits of my portion to one of them. I knew how much I needed to keep me going, but Daryl was sending me angry glares every time he noticed.

Yes, Daryl. After the thing as Glenn called it, in Palmetto, the hunter was always around me. Although it was sweet I didn't understand it, I tried to reason with him, that I can take care of myself. But that was like talking to a brick wall. Very handsome, brick wall.

"Stop yur winging, woman." Speaking of a devil, since Daryl's bike was out of commission for few more weeks, he traveled with me. And it drove me crazy! In a good way, I think, the issue was that he was so close all the time. In the car, on the run, during the house sweep, through the night. How am I supposed to suppress those feelings for him when he was always around. I know he cares, and it's his way of showing it. If he wasn't with me, he was keeping an eye at Carol.

They grew closer in past weeks as well, she was continually giving him shit, and yesterday she called Dixon, Pookie. I thought I'm going to die, I was laughing so hard. His reaction was priceless. Daryl's eyes rapidly widened, and a blush spread from his neck to the tips of his ears. He avoided her since then, making me smirk every time I noticed.

"No one makes you drive with me, Dixon," I finally replied, watching him scowled at me.

"So what you think about that new place?" Glenn asked from the driver's seat.

"Who fucking knows." I sighed and looked out the window. I was already used to see abandoned streets and vehicles, walkers stumbling in the distance.

"Same shit as always," Daryl told the other man. "Find food, shelter, and see how it goes."

"Aren't you tired of that?" Maggie grew more serious, she wasn't accustomed to that kind of life, to the constant moving.

"Nah, Merle, and I never stayed in one place for a long." I smiled to myself, that was another change in Daryl. He still didn't share important details of his life, but bits here and there, just like now. He started to fully trust this group, and I couldn't be prouder of him.

"I was always on the road. We were taking cases all around the states, helping local police." I told them, remembering my desk and always prepped go-bag.

"Anything big?" That was it, keeping their minds occupied, focusing on something other than perspective off another disappointment.

"Um, I don't know. We had two cases in Georgia since I joined the unit. Spring, two thousand and eight. Mass shooter in Albany."

"I remember that!" Glenn exclaimed, looking at me in the mirror. "You caught him, didn't you?

"Yeah, took us two days and four more victims, though."

"Who was he?" Maggie asked me, interest evident on her face. Even Daryl shifted slightly, telling me that he was listening as well.

"I can't remember his name. Ex-military, he blamed people in his community for his wife's death while he was overseas. Psychotic breakdown, basically." They didn't need to know all the evil and gory details.

"Were ya ever shot?" Daryl asked in his typical, gruff voice.

"Yeah. But only flesh wounds, we always wore vests while making arrests."

He hummed in response and looked out of the window. Nothing, of course, was as bad as that night when Amelia died. But that one was on me, there wasn't anyone else to blame, unfortunately.

The car finally came to a stop. I got out, looking around and furrowing my brows. We were standing in front of a fenced area, but it wasn't a house.

"Ya sure about that?" Daryl asked when we got to the sheriff. Rick looked forward, stroking his growing beard, and nodded eventually.

"Yeah, shutters will protect us from the wind, and I don't think many people would think of coming here. And it's not that big." He started, catching my eyes. "And according to the map, we're in an industrial district. There may be some food factories around, that might be untouched."

It wasn't a bad idea. And walkers were still slower than during summer; at the same time, it was riskier. But I think I understood what Rick saw in this place. It's not permanent, for sure, but it may be our chance to catch a break. Replenish our supplies.

"So, how do you want to do it?" I asked him.

"Someone goes on top, so we can tell how big this place is if they can see any walkers. We clear it, pick a few units, and hide the cars."

"Cool. Glenn should do it; he has a great sense of direction."

"That's what I was thinking."

Daryl helped Glenn to climb up one of the storage units. The young man took one of the walkie-talkies and my binoculars. Rick, Daryl, and T had the other radios, and we waited for information from Glenn to find out what we're against.

"Three rows, split in the middle," The Asian man spoke quietly through the device. "Some walkers at the end and on the right. But I can't see the left side properly."

While he spoke, Rick was using a stick to draw sort of map on the dirt road. "Carl and I take a right, circle around here." He pointed quickly at the ground. "Maggie and T, you take that middle and go around through the middle. Elena, Daryl, you take a left, and then the back. Let's go."

Silently, quick on our feet, we split up. Daryl was ahead of me, both of our bows up. It wasn't our first rodeo, so when he fired the first bolt at the stumbling walker, I pushed past him—giving him time to reload, sending an arrow into the second walker's head. The place was indeed small, so we quickly got into the middle split, Glenn mentioned. Dixon was closest to it, and he aimed his crossbow, but there was nobody there.

We turned the corner, right at the back, seeing around five geeks, muffled gunshots coming from the other side. While Daryl was loading a new bolt after shooting, I stepped in front, protecting him and hit the last walker that was coming at us.

But I haven't seen another geek, that came from the aisle T and Maggie supposed to be clearing. It used to be a woman, she was missing half of her face and was wearing only a nightshirt. By how she looked like, I estimated that she had to turn early on.

She surprised me, though. She was reaching out with her hands, grabbing onto my arm, which luckily was covered in many layers. Her strength and momentum pushed us onto the floor, and only my quick reactions saved me from being bitten.

I pushed my forearm onto her neck and tried to bend my legs to push her off me. My bow was in the way though, and I felt the snap of an arrow, that was still notched in place.

"Daryl?" I cried out, struggling to free my other hand, I could feel the string cutting through the skin, making the walker go more frantic at the smell of fresh blood. "Fuck, fuck."

I saw a shadow above us, and seconds later, the geek's body went still and being pushed off me. Dixon looked at me with worry, but when I smiled at him, his shoulders relaxed a little.

"Not bit. All good," I told the hunter when he helped me up.

"Shit, Elena. I'm sorry. We were making our way here, but it was faster." I heard Maggie speak, looking me over for any signs of an injury. I looked down, the arrow was indeed broken, and I threw it to the ground. I lifted the bow, inspecting it briefly, for any damage, but couldn't see any. I had a scratch on the outside of my hand, but it wasn't deep, no need for a bandage.

"Are you scratched?" T-Dog's voice was shaky, and when I lifted my eyes in confusion, I saw him look down at my hand.

"Oh, no, no. It's from the string," I assured the man quickly; both he and Maggie breathed out in relive.

"Clear." Rick's voice cracked through radios, making us remember what we're actually doing here.

"Clear everywhere," Daryl grunted into his walkie-talkie, and we made our way back to the front.

Rick decided to take the smaller set of units, next to the office, only three of them. And one of us would be having a watch outside, through the night. The best would be to get on top of a building, but unless we'd find a ladder, that was out of option.

The plan was straightforward. I break in into the ones Rick chose, set in, bring cars around, and then we go to check the other units, one by one. I was disappointed when we opened the three, which Rick picked. I always imagined that storages like that will hide some sort of treasures, or at least something entertaining. They weren't enormous, maybe three by three.

One had a few bicycles and some old children's toys, packed into the boxes. We quickly emptied it, making space so we can stay inside it.

The second one was nearly empty, except for one bed, with an old, stained mattress.

The third one was full of books and comics, something that Carl was super excited about.

Like I said, nothing fucking exciting. At the moment, we were facing the possibility of sleeping on a cold cement floor, and I wasn't looking forward to that. The bed will go to Lori, there was no doubt there, she and baby need it more than any of us.

We checked the rest, finding some more mattresses and blankets, some in horrible shape. There was so much junk, old computers, and furniture, magazines, books. Nothing really that could help us, but we had a place to spend the night or few, depends on how Rick feels about this place. Oh, and what we'll find in town.

Maggie and Glenn tried to claim a unit for themselves, but there wasn't enough space to allow them to have it without sharing. So we pushed T-Dog into their box, he was threatening them that if he as much hears one moan, he'll kill them. Or himself.

Lori and Carl were taking the bed in the middle unit, with Hershel and Rick next to them. We pulled two small mattresses for them, it nearly took all the space inside, leaving barely any area to move.

We found two more big beds; of course, we didn't take the frames. We had our backpacks with us, and weapons, T-Dog was going to take the first watch, then Rick and finally, me. There was an office on the right, in the corner next to the fence. It had windows all around, so it was the right place, with a chair and a small desk.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting when the time for bed came. Every night for the past months, Daryl was a constant, lying next to me, warming my body. But it was all discreet, usually when others already were asleep, and he tried to be gone in the morning before anyone woke up. But now we were stuck in small space with two other women, one of them an innocent teenager and the other, a mother figure, who loved teasing Dixon as much as I did.

So, ultimately, I wasn't surprised when after eating small dinner, from cans, he waited for the other women and me to lay down. Then he sat down, at the end of my mattress, propped against the wall. I wrapped myself in a blanket and bent my knees, to make more space for Daryl. I wanted him to be as comfortable as possible. Still, I missed his closeness, which seemed silly, considering he sat just a few inches from me. But it wasn't enough anymore. And that again scared me.

No, I need to really stop looking at all this in that way. He is my friend. I care for him, and it doesn't matter what kind of other feelings I might have. Most importantly, he's my best friend, and that's how I need to treat him. I can't be pushing him into the direction he doesn't want to go, or he'll shut down.

Day 225

The snow melted entirely about a week ago, we managed to scavenged what we could in Griffin, but there wasn't a lot left. I started to feel, like we were following the path of other people, shop after shop, house after house, the majority of it was already picked through. And that wasn't the worse of it. Walkers seemed to wake up from their slumber and group together once more. So now we were being chased by the bunch of undead.

We had to move on from the town, and we found some cabin in the woods, it was tiny with only one room and something that supposed represent a toilet. The morale of the group was also slowly going down. Daryl was getting restless. He put down his bike yesterday, and that's how we got here. With the crispy wind in our faces, blowing our hair into the air. That helped the hunter, but now in this small space, he became anxious again. He couldn't go hunting, because there was no game yet, so he was pacing by the window almost all the time.

Oh, and now we were listening, not voluntarily, of course, to Lori and Rick. They were quarreling outside, and there was no way for us not to hear it. That was one of the reasons Dixon was standing by the window; he was anxious about any walkers hearing their voices. Carl was holding onto Carol, hiding his teary face in her chest.

"I told you! I thought you were dead!" Lori cried, trying to plead with her husband. She was tired and scared. Her belly was showing, she was around six and a half month now, and her hormones were flooding her body.

"I'm tired of that excuse," Rick didn't hold back either, not this time. "You had a fucking affair with my best friend."

For the majority of us, that wasn't new information. Still, when Carl heard it, sat straighter, shock visible on his puffy face. "What?" His voice was small and shaky.

"And then, you told me all these things, about how dangerous he is, how I have to do something about it." Rick kept talking, his voice bitter and full of anger. "And when I did, because he'd have killed me, you stop talking to me."

I sighed heavily and stood up.

"What you doing?" Hershel asked me, watching my moves. I ignored him and moved to the door, opening them in one swift motion.

That got the attention of the couple. Lori was holding her belly like she would be protecting her baby from Rick's anger. Her face was red, tears freely streaming down her cheeks. The sheriff's jaw was clenched tightly, and so were his fists.

I got closer to him, even though they didn't realize how loud they were, I knew.

"Both of you shut up!" I hissed at them, hoping that no one else will hear me. "Your son is inside, and guess what, he could hear fucking everything. So stop this, because it's not the time or place. You're scaring your boy."

I turned back, walking inside, grabbing my book I managed to take with us. Of course, I wasn't stupid; there was no way of hiding, not in such a small space.

Carl watched his mom walk back inside. He stood up and strode towards her. Lori smiled gently, crouching down in front of the boy.

"I'm sorry that you had-"

"You and Shane?" Carl asked her, his face scrunched like he couldn't believe what he heard.

"Sweety, it's not as it seems."

"Is the baby his?" Wow, kiddo, you for sure know what type of questions to ask.

Lori looked lost, she glanced at Rick, but his expression was blank like carved in stone. I sighed and stood up again.

"Dixon, grab your shit. We're going hunting." The man glared at me, but didn't question anything, just took hold of his crossbow and walked towards the door. I grabbed Carl's jacket and then pushed him towards the door.

"Where you taking me?"

"Out." I hold his hand in a firm grip, pulling him outside. I stopped next to Rick for a second and whispered. "I'll keep him safe. Sort your shit."

"I'm not a kid, stop treating me like one." Carl tried to get away from my grasp, but I just pulled him with me after Daryl. We walked for a few minutes, far enough from the cabin, before I whistled, making the hunter stop. I let go of the boy's hand and passed him the jacket.

"Put it on, you gonna be cold." he snatched it out of my hands, and angrily shrugged it on.

"Now. I'm going to tell you something, and you going to listen. And then we will see if we can find some animals. Can you do it for me?" I asked him crouching in front of him. He looked me in the eye, and I could see him for who he was. A scared boy, afraid of walkers, starving, with his family falling apart in front of his eyes. He nodded slowly, protectively crossing his arms.

"First, I need you to know that your parents love you very much. They're arguing, but it has nothing to do with you, and it's not your fault, do you understand it?"

Carl again shook his head as yes, and I swallowed, trying to think of what to say next.

"Whatever happened between your mom and Shane, it was over as soon as your dad came back. I saw it myself; she was so sure that Rick was dead. And she was alone and scared, trying to protect you." I scrunched my face because I wasn't sure if he'd understand what I'm trying to tell him.

"When people are like that. Sad and grieving, they often turn to someone nice and helpful to them. And Shane was very nice and helpful to your mom. He took care of both of you when you needed it the most."

"But- she cheated on dad!" He didn't understand, I licked my lips and tried to think about how to make it cleared.

"Ya like Spiderman, right?" Daryl spoke, coming closer, but still looking out.

"Yeah," Carl answered, not sure what that has anything to do with this situation. Neither did I.

"And if Spiderman would die, and ya would read um-"

"Spiderman is dead, so you'd start reading Iron Man." I quickly added, knowing that Daryl has no clue about comic books. He glanced at me, gratefully, and continued.

"Yeah. And ya'd like it. But then ya'd realize that Spiderman is alive. Would ya feel like ya cheated?"

"No, they killed of Spiderman, and I wouldn't know that he's alive until next issue and- oh." He looked between us and bit his lip, and I could see tears forming in his eyes.

"But what if the baby's not dads?" He started crying, and I pulled him to me, running my hand gently through his hair.

"It doesn't matter. It will be your little brother or sister, and no matter what, it will be your dad's kid."

"So, what. I should just pretend that it didn't happen?"

"What I mean is that your little sibling is most important now. And your mom is already stressed. All I'm asking is to try not to blame her for what happened. To not stress her more. Shane- that's something your parents need to resolve by themself."

"But you could help them, right? You're psy- psycho something." I heard Daryl snicker, and I glared at him, the wrong time to laugh, Dixon.

"That sort of thing takes time, Carl. And we'd need some privacy."

"So, when we find a safe place, you could do it? Help them?"

"Sure, kiddo." I made sure to put a sweet smile on my face, even when everything inside me was shouting.

"Come on, let's go," Daryl said, urging us to move.

How could I tell Carl that I wasn't sure if I can help his parents? That they both would have to be willing. And most importantly, that I wasn't sure if we'll find any safe place. What was safe these days? My house was until it wasn't. Even if we'd find something, who's to tell how long it would last.