Chapter 12-The Plan For King County
Lori walks into her tent and sees Rick taking off his gun belt. He looks up at her. Lori holds out some clothes towards him. "Change that uniform it smells like blood and guts," Lori says. Rick nods as he grabs the clothes. Loir steps out of the tent as he changes.
"Shane told me about Carl carrying a gun," Rick says.
"He should be. If walkers get into the camp, he needs to be able to protect himself. I may not be the biggest fan of it. But I understand why he needs to carry. Do you have a problem with it?" Lori asks him.
"Who taught him?" Rick asks.
"Does it matter?" Lori asks. Rick comes out of the tent with his uniform in his hand. He holds it out to Lori. Lori grabs it.
"Yeah, it does," Rick says as he stares her in the eyes.
"It was Shane, but he would still have the gun even if it were Daryl, Merle, Dean, or Sam who trained him," Lori says before he walks away from him. Lori walks up to Madison, Carol, and Grizelda.
"Are you okay?" Carol asks. Lori looks at Carol and gives a weak smile.
"Yeah," Lori says to the older woman, who nods.
"Your husband was the sheriff, right?" Madison asks. Lori nods.
"Yeah," Lori says.
"Do you think he's okay with Shane and Daryl being in charge?" Madison asks. Lori looks down at her tent, where she knew Rick was sleeping.
"I don't know. But for his sake and Carl's, I hope so," Lori says. Madison nods. Daryl, Shane, Glenn, T-dog, Alicia, Merle, Nick, and John were looking at a map.
"Dean mentioned to me that you two were planning on leaving the quarry," John says. Daryl and Shane nod.
"Getting supplies around here is becoming harder and harder after what just happened in Atlanta. I don't want to send anybody else into the city, and we can't keep using all the gas on runs," Daryl says.
"Do you have any ideas?" Nick asks. Daryl and Shane look at them.
"No, Fort Benning maybe, but that is far. We might try to look for a farmhouse or another building with some fences. One thing we both agree on is that we don't want to be near the big cities," Shane says.
"A farmhouse isn't a bad idea, but we need more gas. We have some, but we'll have to stop and grab more on the road," Merle says.
"So we need to go on one more run," Glenn says. Daryl and Shane nod.
"We'll talk to the group tonight. See if anybody knows somewhere we can get the supplies we need. For now, let's all relax. We have had a long day, let's just take a break for a little bit," Daryl says. Nick looks at Merle.
"That means us too. We'll continue training soon," Merle says. Nick nods as he walks away. Alicia walks down the hill.
"Alicia," Madison says. Alicia looks at her mom. "Can you go to my tent and grab the clothes," Madison says. Alicia nods as she walks towards the bottom of the hill. She walks into her mom's tent and grabs the clothes. She walks out and zips up the tent. She hears footsteps behind her. She turns around and sees Mason.
"Hey, Mason," Alicia says.
"Do you need some help?" Mason asks.
"No, they are just some clothes. I should get them back to my mom," Alicia says as she starts to walk past Mason. Mason grabs her wrist. Alicia tries to pull her arm away.
"Let me go," Alicia says.
"Just let me help. Let me show you," Mason says as he tightens his grip. Alicia drops the clothes.
"Let me go, Mason," Alicia says again.
"Just let me show you," Mason says as he pulls her wrist. Alicia brings her other hand up and punches him. Mason lets her go and looks at her. Alicia grabs the clothes and walks away. Mason watches her. Alicia covers her wrist with her sleeve as she gets back up to Madison. She holds the clothes out to her mother.
"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Madison asks her daughter.
"Yeah, I'm okay," Alicia says. Madison nods, not quite believing her daughter. Alicia walks up to Daryl, Merle, Nick, Glenn, T-dog, and Shane. She sits down in between Daryl and Shane. Nick looks at his sister.
"What's up with you?" Nick asks Alicia. Alicia shakes her head.
"Nothing," Alicia says. Merle looks at her and sees some red on her wrist.
"Move your sleeve up," Merle says.
"Please leave it alone," Alicia says.
"Alicia, your sleeve," Shane says. Alicia sighs as she pulls her leave up to reveal a red handprint.
"What the hell happened?" T-dog asks.
"Mason, he grabbed my wrist down by the tent. I punched him, and he let go," Alicia says. "Please leave it alone right now. We don't need any more problems. Let's just have a few minutes of peace, please," Alicia says to the others.
"Fine, but if he does anything else, I'm killing him," Merle says. Alicia nods as they sit there.
Night
It was night, and the group was around the fire. Daryl was sitting beside Shane and Alicia. Charlie had her head laid on his lap as Alicia ran her hands through the girl's hair. Madison was beside Shane and Nick beside her. Merle sat with Glenn and T-dog as Rick watched them. "Disoriented. I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion, all of those things, but disoriented comes closest," Rick says.
"Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short," Dale says.
"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else for a while. I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever," Rick says.
"Mom said you died," Carl says.
"She had every reason to believe that. Don't ever doubt it," Rick says.
"When things started to get really bad. They told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened," Lori says.
"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell, and from the look of that hospital, it got overrun," Rick says
"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know," Shane says
"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it," Rick says.
"It may have gotten them out, but it was all of us. We kept each other safe and looked out for each other. It isn't just me you should be grateful to," Shane says.
"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things," Dale says.
"There is something we need to talk about," Shane says. Everybody looks at Daryl and Shane.
"Only a few of you know about our plans to leave the quarry," Daryl says.
"How long have you guys been talking about it?" Liza asks.
"About a week. Look, we can't waste our gas going to towns hours away, and after today we don't want to send anybody else into Atlanta. We need some more supplies, so we need to go on another run," Shane says.
"Where?" Jim asks.
"King county," Lori says. Daryl and Shane look at her.
"Rick, how stocked was that hospital?" Shane asks.
"Pretty good. It didn't look like they had that much time to get supplies. Most of the town looked good," Rick says.
"How long will it take to get there?" Daryl asks.
"Less than 2 hours, maybe even an hour," Rick says.
"I guess we'll go to King County," Daryl says.
"Who will go?" Glenn asks
"We'll take my truck and Travis's truck. Me, Shane, Ofelia, T-dog, Alicia, Chris, Jim, and Amy," Daryl says. Everybody nods, agreeing with the plan.
"Merle, Dale, Dean, Glenn, and Madison are in charge. Now everybody get some sleep," Daryl says. They nod as they leave. Daryl walks over to Madison as ahe walks towards her tent.
"Madison," Daryl says. Madison looks at her.
"Can you keep an eye on Charlie for me?" Daryl asks.
"Of course," Madison says. Daryl nods as he walks down to his tent, where he sees Alicia sitting with Charle. Daryl climbs in the tent.
"Thanks for waiting with her," Daryl says.
"Mind if I stay?" Alicia asks.
"It's fine," Daryl says as they lay down and go to sleep. Shane sat on the Rv when he heard someone climbing up the ladder. He looks at Madison.
"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Madison asks.
"I will at midnight," Shane says.
"I'll stay here and keep you company," Madison says. Shane nods as they sit there in silence. Nobody in the group knew the hardships they would face for the next few days. The people they would lose and who would start to lose themselves.
Thanks for reading. Next chapter, if I do it all in one chapter, which I plan to. It will be bloody. Do you guys want me to bring Morgan and Duane into this story this early. I'm leaving that up to you and myself. I will wait and see. The last thing I want to ask is, once again do you guys think Merle and Carol are a good pairing? As always, suggestions and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.
So this is after I posted the chapter. I got a review that thought maybe King County police station would be a good camp. I kinda want to know want to know your option on it. Cause if you agree I can work with that and still bring in the Hershel's Family. So tell me what you think.