Most of the camp were already up when Cassie woke. She didn't understand why they all got up so early when there was hardly ever enough to do to last the whole day other than really drag out the chores.
The other kids were playing games while the adults went about their business and Sophia called her over when she noticed that she was awake.
Cassie wasn't in the mood for playing games but she did want to know more about Carl's Dad and could only find out if she went and spoke to him. She approached them nervously, wondering the best way to bring it up, though it turned out to be completely unnecessary for as soon as Cassie had joined them Carl blurted out, "I can't believe my Dad's back! It's like a comic book or something! We all thought he was dead but he wasn't the whole time!"
"Why did you think he was dead?" She asked quietly.
They all stared at her for a second before comprehension lit up Carls eyes, "Oh yeah, you weren't here at the beginning when everyone was sharing their stories. My dad's a Sheriff, he was shot and ended up in a coma. He was supposed to be evacuated from the hospital when everyone started getting sick then attacking people but they never did so Shane went to save him but he said the whole hospital was going crazy and when he tried to move Dad the machines went off and Dad stopped breathing." He started out blurting the words so quickly they all strung together but as he got to the end he got quiet and slowed down.
Carl's head hung down, eyes on the dirt, "We all thought he had died then but it must have been a mistake or maybe he did stop but then started started breathing again." His head shot up and he was suddenly beaming again, "But he's alive! And he found us!"
His joy was so infectious Cassie couldn't help but smile back, "That's really lucky."
She meant that somehow Carl's Dad was able to find him and his Mom when he couldn't have known for sure that they would head to Atlanta and then that he would happen to get into Atlanta on a day where the group his family was a part of was on a supply run and meet up with them but it seemed Carl thought she meant something different.
"Your Mom said your Dad died right after they dropped those bombs on Atlanta? I'm sorry." He looked at her pityingly, having no idea how little she has thought on her father since his death except in relief at his absence or because of being reminded of him by Ed.
"Yeah." She replied non-committedly, she didn't know how to fake a grief she didn't feel so decided to just be as short as possible and hope they thought it hurt so much that she couldn't talk about it.
Luckily Sophia seemed to get the hint at least, "Do you want to play tag with us?" She asked
Cassie nodded, wanting to get out of this conversation now.
"I'll start! I'm it!" Carl called and they all scattered, running away from Carl who immediately started after them. Sophia suddenly took a sharp turn running into the woods right in front of Cassie who followed behind her instinctively. She could hear more footsteps crunching leaves behind her and giggling from the Morale kids who she had learn't were called Eliza and Louis, and with Carl hot on their tail, until Sophia came to a dead stop right in front of her causing Cassie to barrel right into her back, sending them both to the ground.
Cassie was still struggling to untangle herself from Sophia and stand when Eliza started screaming, her head shot up and she saw what was causing it immediately, there was a walker right in front of them feasting on a deer.
Seeing one so close again brought Cassie back to the death of her father; seeing the thing ravenously tear into the deer as the others had done to her father and that woman, Marie, was sickening.
It was Sophia's high-pitched scream from right under her that startled her back again and she tore herself away from Sophia, turning and running away as fast as she could. She assumed the others were following as she could hear a stampede of steps behind her but she didn't have it in her to turn to check they were with her, she just knew she had to get out of there before what happened to her father and was happening to that deer happened to her too.
She saw her mom and some others coming towards them as they ran and didn't stop until she had ran right into her mom's arms, who immediately wrapped them around her, holding her tight while bombarding her with questions that she wasn't even remotely listening to.
She didn't notice some of the others rushing past them to check out what had spooked them so much, didn't much care about anything but not being anywhere near one of those things the others had taken to calling walkers. Her mom pulled her out of the woods and back into camp, keeping an arm around her shoulders clutching her to her side.
Cassie saw Lori, Carol and the Morales mom doing the same with their kids, bringing them to sit where they usually do to eat so they can gather together.
Barely longer than a minute later they could hear more footsteps coming out of the forest, Cassie turned to see Daryl coming out from between the trees with the group that had gone to deal with the walker following on his heals.
"Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel!"
Daryl looked dirty and worn from how long he'd been out hunting, and knowing what was coming Cassie didn't think he'd be looking better any time soon. She didn't want to see this, see him find out about Merle. She may not care much for Merle but Daryl was kind and he didn't deserve having his last family member torn away, she couldn't imagine how she'd feel if it was her mom.
She turned her head into her mom's stomach, squeezing her eyes shut and attempting to block out everything but she could still hear what was happening.
She could hear Rick telling him his brother was a danger to them all, that he handcuffed him and he was still there. She could hear Daryl's rage right before there was a scuffle and someone said "watch the knife!"
She gripped her mom tighter, she was afraid for Daryl but still couldn't bare to look.
There were mumblings of lowered voices that she couldn't make out until T-Dog interrupted "It's not Rick's fault. I had the key… I dropped it."
"You couldn't pick it up?!"
"Well I dropped it down a drain." He explained.
Cassie tried to stop listening, concentrating on her breathing, in and out, trying not to think about Walkers bursting through a chained door, spilling out onto a roof where they spot a man handcuffed there and helpless to stop them as they descend on him, tearing into him, ripping the flesh from his bones with their teeth as he screams high-
"HELL WITH ALL OF Y'ALL!" Daryl shouted, interrupting her nightmare… daymare?
"Just tell me where he is, so I can go get him." He sounded broken, in pain. It hurt to even hear it.
Her mom made her promise to stay out of the forest and in sight of a trusted adult at all times after things had calmed down, not that she was in the mood to play anyway. All she could think about is Daryl and Rick going back out there into the city.
She was still sat by the fire when Rick returned with Daryl and Shane, arguing about it.
"So you and Daryl… that's your big plan?" Lori questioned skeptically and Rick just turned to look pointedly at Glenn, causing Cassie's heart to pick up again. Not Glenn too surely? He was taking every adult she cared about besides her mom.
"Oh come on!" Glenn groaned.
"You know the way." Rick explained, "You've been there before, in and out no problem you said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask I know that but i'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." He finished, gesturing to Lori.
"That's just great, now you're gonna risk three men huh?" Shane complained bitterly.
"Four." Now T-Dog was getting involved too. Soon it seemed the whole camp would be marching out.
Cassie just didn't understand. How could so many be voluntarily leaving the safety of camp and going to where those things were, where thousands of them were.
Daryl she understood, Merle was his family. But the others were risking their lives for a man they not only barely knew but actively hated when he was around.
"That's four." Dale confirmed after T and Daryl were done arguing T going.
"It's not just four. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that Rick. Come on! You saw that walker, it was here! It was IN. CAMP. They're moving out of the cities, they come back we need every able body we got, we need them here! We need them to protect camp!"
Halfway through Shane's rant Cassie went totally ridged, was he implying that the walkers in Atlanta were going to come into camp? She could see it in her mind, thousands of them trampling through the woods, making a beeline right to them, emerging from the trees and descending on them as they screamed and ran around the camp in chaos. Blood flowing from bites and covering the ground beneath them all.
"Seems to me what you really need most here are more guns."
"Right. The guns!" Glenn perked up.
"What guns?" Shane seemed more interested now.
"Six shotguns, two high powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed, it's just sitting there on the street waiting to be picked up."
The explanation of what guns didn't really mean anything to Cassie who knew nothing about different kinds of guns, she knows her mom has one that camp doesn't know about but they don't talk about it at all, never mind her mom giving her a lesson on what kind it is.
"You went through hell to find us, you just got here and you- you're gonna turn around and leave?" Lori asked in disbelief.
"Dad… I don't want you to go." Carl pleaded, he was so happy and excited about his dad being back this morning and already he's leaving again. It made no sense to Cassie.
"To hell with the guns, Shane is right! Merle Dixon?! He's not worth one of your lives even with guns thrown in. Tell me, make me understand."
Rick approached her, talking softly to her and Cassie couldn't hear from where she was sat but she thought it would be a touch too obvious and rude to move closer to listen.
Instead she watched Daryl who was sitting near, going through his things to check what he wanted to take and leave. He must have felt her eyes on him as he looked up unexpectedly and met her gaze, "what you lookin' at?" He sneered.
Somehow it made Cassie smile. She knew he was trying to be rude and mean to get her to stop looking or go away but it felt forced to her. Maybe she was delusional and he was actually just a mean hick, maybe he watched and let her father die not because he could see what kind of man he was but just because he didn't care either way. But she didn't think so, even when he was rude and mean it was always in some small way that seemed more designed to push her away or because he simply didn't know how to connect or talk in a normal way, which she could relate to.
So yeah, him sneering and trying to be rude just made her smile, because underneath it all she truly believed he was a kind man trying to seem meaner than he is.
He took in her smile and scoffed, turning back to his pack he was cramming things into, "Crazy child." He muttered, still perfectly audible to her, most likely on purpose which just made her smile wider.
This time she was the one to feel eyes on her, she turned to see Carl staring at her incredulously.
"What?" She questioned curiously.
"I think he might be right, you are a little crazy." He looked bemused.
Cassie just shrugged, still smiling, there were worse things to be after all.
The rest of the day dragged on forever as they waited for the group to return with Merle and the guns. She found herself missing going to school, at least there she could loose herself in a book from the library while she hid in the corner or tune out in class and just daydream. But here if she disappeared to hide people would search for her and worry that something had happened and whenever she tried to just sit and daydream she was always being interrupted by either the other kids or the adults going past who always seemed to feel the need to stop and ask if she was alright.
Sometimes she napped just to waste time and get through the day but her mom never let her for long and if she complained of being bored her mom would assign her chores like collecting mushrooms with whoever was on duty or passing Dale tools while he worked on the RV. Not that she didn't like hanging out with Dale, he never bothered her or asked her a load of annoying questions when she was with him but the mushroom collecting could be awful depending on who was on duty.
She spent the day wandering around camp aimlessly, making sure she stayed in sight of an adult and checking in with her mom every now and then so she didn't worry but mainly she was just trying to stay out of peoples way and look busy so no one talked to her or asked her to do something.
It was going well until her mom came and told her she was going down to the river with some of the other ladies to wash the clothes, she gave her the choice to come or stay and be watched by Dale. She was going to go with her mom but then she saw Ed driving down, heading that way with Carol in their truck and told her mom she'd stay here. Anywhere Ed wasn't was always the best place to be. She told her mom to be careful, still looking in the direction Ed had drove though she couldn't see the truck anymore. Her mom rested her hand on her head softly, she looked back up at her, seeing her look back down at her with sad, understanding eyes. Her mom nodded, telling her "I promise." Then she left to join the rest of the women walking down.