April 3, 2011
8:45 AM
House of the Future

Carol loved Sundays.

It was the one morning a week Daryl didn't wake with the sun and try to hunt in the woods by the train tracks or in the forest outside the gates, the one day a week she had no chores other than cooking the communal meal for the House of the Future residents in the evening. They slept in late, woke gradually, and made slow, lazy love beneath the light sheets. There were feathery touches, teasing explorations, gentle sighs, low moans, whispered endearments, shy smiles, and slow rhythmic thrusting. Of all the ways they had sex in the course of a month, this was probably her favorite.

Afterward, they would drift in and out of sleep, talking between dives into slumber, as they did now. "It's strange, isn't it?" she asked. "That we're the longest-lived couple in Fun Kingdom?"

"Hmmm?" Daryl murmured sleepily as he feathered his fingers down her spine and settled them on the swell of one cheek of her bottom.

"The two of us?" she asked. "With all our old scars and abusive pasts, neither of us with much idea how to have a healthy, functional relationship, and yet here we are, the longest still surviving relationship? A healthy, functional relationship."

"That what this is?" Daryl murmured.

"You don't think so?" Carol asked.

"Sounds bland. Healthy. Functional."

"What words would you use?"

"Sexy," he growled into her ear.

Carol laughed.

"Comforting," he added.

She didn't laugh at that one.

"Forgiving. Real."

"Okay, your descriptions are a lot better," conceded Carol as she turned toward him and kissed his nose.

"Ain't the longest surviving couple. Glenn and Maggie are still together."

"They got together after us," Carol said. "They just got married before us. But we were dating sooner."

"What 'bout Bob and Sasha? How long they been hittin' it?"

"Your phrases, Pookie." Carol chuckled. "Not as long as us."

"Lori and Rick," he mused. "'Cept Lori's dead. Beth and Dixon got together after us. 'Tricia and T-Dog…after. Andrea and Milton…after. Oscar and Rosita…after. Tom and Charlotte…way after. Shit…you're right." He half sat up in bed, propped on his bent arm, and looked down at her. "Can't be true. We're the oldest damn couple in this whole damn town?"

"We aren't old," she clarified. "We're just long-lasting."

"What a world." He threw himself back down onto his back, head on the pillow and patted his chest. "Come here, Miss Murphy. Longest-lived girlfriend on earth. Second longest-lived wife."

Carol smiled and settled her head on his chest, and he draped an arm around her. "I don't know about on earth," she said. "There could be some old married couple up there in one of those communities in Virginia celebrating their fiftieth anniversary today." She raised her head. "I wonder how they're doing. What it's like up there."

"Wanna go on vacation?" he smirked. "Check out the Sanctuary? The Kingdom? McMansion Ville? Farmville? Rehabville?"

These were the names they'd heard on the radio chatter used for the five communities in the D.C. metro area. They had no idea where, specifically, these communities were actually located, and anyone else listening in would not even have known they were in northern Virginia.

"It's a long way," she said. "Maybe next spring. If they survive the winter. If we do."

"We will," he told her. "You serious? Wanna check 'em out?"

She shrugged. "Not many people left in this world with real communities. Maybe we ought to establish a relationship. Just in case we ever need each other. Or…I don't know." She shook her head. "Maybe it's safer to keep to ourselves. All we know is they overthrew a tyrant. We don't know they aren't tyrants, too. But it doesn't sound like it, from the chatter I catch here and there on the radio."

"You been snoopin' on people's calls, Miss Murphy?" Daryl asked.

Carol smiled. "I just check all the frequencies occasionally. Just in case someone's trying to reach out. Or in case I might overhear a threat or something."

"Ever hear any dirty talk?" he asked.

She laughed. "No. I did hear Gavin – I think he's in charge of the Sanctuary – talking to his girlfriend in some other community. He asked her if she minded if some woman named Dianne slept in his bedroom while he crashed on the couch in the living room. And the girlfriend laughed and said, It's just Dianne. I trust her. And he said, Well I hope you trust me, too. And then I turned off the radio because I didn't want to keep eavesdropping."

"Probably missed the best damn part. Bet that's when the dirty talk started."

Carol chuckled.

Daryl yawned and closed his eyes and they slept a little bit longer before dragging themselves from bed and dressing. They emerged to the smell of coffee and venison sausages. Rick was at the counter, with baby Judith in a snugly on his chest, bouncing and swaying softly and singing "Can't Buy Me Love" to her.

Rick stopped when they walked across the living room.

"Don't quit your day job," Daryl told him as he snatched a venison sausage off the plate he had laying on the table.

"Hey, that's mine, I signed those out."

"Give you one of mine another time," Daryl told him. He nodded to Judith as Carol poured them each half a cup of coffee from what was left in the coffee pot. "Ain't puttin' her in the day school?"

"I will. Later. In an hour when I go to work in the gardens."

"'S our day off," Daryl told him. "We'll take 'er for ya."

"Are you serious?" asked Rick skeptically, looking from Carol to Daryl.

Carol nodded. "Sure." She bent her head to smile at Judith. "I'd like a little baby time," she cooed.

April 4, 2011
12:10 PM
The Sanctuary

Someone tapped Gavin's shoulder. The power saw he was using buzzed to a stop. He'd been cutting down particle board to size to put in the wall frame he planned to erect to divide Negan's quarters into rooms. The flimsy walls wouldn't buffer sound, but they would allow some privacy.

Gavin now raised his goggles and turned to find Dianne standing there. She'd had night watch on the floor until 6 AM. "Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?" he asked.

"I did sleep. Five and a half hours. It's time for the trial. I showed up to testify when I was supposed to. But we've been waiting ten minutes for you. They sent me to get you."

"Christ, is it noon already?" Gavin planned to stop for lunch at 11:30 before the trial. His breakfast had been dry Cheerios and a cup of instant coffee.

He followed Dianne to the conference room, where she gave her testimony. Last night, just before midnight, she'd stopped an attempted rape in the factory floor camp. The perpetrator, a man name David, she'd locked in one of the cells.

The victim came in next to give her testimony, and then finally the defendant, David. When the council was alone again, Gina said, "Well, this isn't a he said she said situation. There was a witness."

"A coalition guard," Gordon noted. "Can we really trust her?"

"We trusted those Hallowbrant guards to guard our front gates for days," Jerel said.

"Were they guarding out gates, or were they guarding us, do you think?" Gordon asked. "I still think the coalition doesn't quite trust us."

"Dianne's been a tremendous help," Gavin said. "We have to work with the coalition if we want peace and prosperity going forward. I have no reason to distrust her word on this."

"And it fully corroborated the victim's story," Gina added.

"So, if I did find him guilty," Gordon asked, "what would the punishment be?"

"We're not doing it this way this time," Laura insisted. "We decide the verdict first. All in favor of a guilty verdict?"

Four hands went up. "Not until I know the penalty," Gordon said.

"Well, a guilty verdict only requires a vote of four of the five," Laura remined him. "So guilty as charged. Now for the sentencing."

"Banishment," Gina said.

"Everything is banishment with you," Gordon said.

"Well, this was worse than what José did," Gina told him. "If Dianne hadn't stopped David, and he'd gone through with it, I'd be proposing execution. We have to do something about the safety of those women. There are twenty-eight single men in that floor camp."

"I am doing something," Gavin insisted. "I'm working on getting all the women in upstairs rooms."

The harem was already converted for four single mothers and their five children. Negan's quarters, which he and his crew were working on now, would house two women, their husbands, and their three children. Since Dwight and Sherry weren't coming back, Regina's old quarters would be divided to house two more women and their husbands. Laura and Gina shared a room upstairs already. And the council had sent four women to the new Manassas trade post, along with their relatives – a husband, a father, and two brothers. He didn't foresee trouble given the family dynamics. That would leave just five more single women, who would live in this very conference room, once he could convert it.

Some of the old factory supervisors must have stayed overnight in the factory sometimes, when meeting deadlines, because all of these large upstairs offices had a bathroom with a toilet, a sink, and a rustic shower: a narrow stall with rough tile floors, a tile ledge, and a thick plastic shower curtain. Downstairs, the two worker locker rooms each had two shower stalls in addition to the three sinks and three toilets. Factory workers got dirty, he supposed, or need to hose down when they got chemicals on them. But that's where most of the citizens showered. The charge for a hot shower – the council had agreed – would be one point per five minutes, to avoid overconsumption of power and water. It was difficult to track, and was largely an honor system, but if caught lying about "excessive showering," the fine was five points.

"They'll feel more secure," Gavin continued, "when they aren't in the floor camp."

"They'd also feel more secure if we banished that rapist," Gina insisted.

"Attempted rapist," Gordon clarified. In response to Gina's cool look, he said, "Look, I'm not trying to defend rapists here, I'm just trying to be just. If we don't want to run things the way Negan did, we can't just drive a knife through every asshole who does something we don't like. Fair trials. Reasonable sentencing."

"I think banishment is reasonable," Laura said. "We need to send a message here. Negan kept this place in line with brute force. We need people to know that while we're not Negan, we are serious about providing a safe environment for the citizens. And that means no tolerance for things like this."

"What was his job?" Jerel asked. "If we banish him, what work do we have to replace?"

"He was training to be a guard," Laura replied.

Gavin sighed. "We were about to put a gun in his hands?"

"Negan was about to bring him up from the ranks of the workers to make him a Savior," Laura told him, "before all this."

"Figures," Gordon muttered. "He's just the type."

Gavin and Laura both shot him a peeved look.

"I applied to be a guard," Jerel said, "as well as a gunsmith and armorer. You assigned me to gunsmithing, but I can do both, thirty hours a week. I'd like the overtime, the extra points. I can replace David."

"All in favor of appointing Jerel as a guard thirty hours a week and reducing his gunsmithing by ten hours?" Laura asked. "Passed, 5-0."

"When this is over, join Dianne for the training session," Gavin told Jerel, who nodded.

"Does this mean we are banishing David?" Gina asked.

"If we do banish him," Gavin said, "we give him a hunting knife and a day's worth of food. And we radio each of the coalition communities to warn them what he was convicted of. He might try to join one of those communities, and it's only fair they should know."

"Are you going to radio them about José ?" Gina asked.

"What?" Gavin replied.

"To let them know he was convicted of extortion here?"

"We didn't banish José."

"No, but he left while you were at the Kingdom," Gordon told him. "Of his own accord. Before his fine was due. After spending all his points in the marketplace and packing up. And now we're down one skilled worker. Because however much of a horny goat José may have been, he was good at his job. We divided his work between two men who wanted overtime."

"Why wasn't I informed of this?" Gavin asked.

"Maybe if you'd been around, you'd have known," Gordon countered.

"Jesus Christ! I'm going to be out on occasion. To trade with the Kingdom." And see Frankie. That was the real reason. They didn't really have much to trade at this point. "I need to be kept informed!" He looked at Laura. "Why didn't you tell me?'

"I assumed you'd read the minutes from the council meeting we had while you were gone."

Gavin sighed. "Well, there's been a lot going on. I figured if anything important had happened while I was gone…" He shook his head.

"Does Hallowbrant even have a radio?" Jerel asked.

"We gave them one," Laura replied. "In exchange for lending us a few guards for a few days. All in favor of banishing David?" She surveyed the room. "5-0. The sentence passes. I'll radio the communities and let them know about both David and Jose, and it's up to them what to do if either man shows up at their gates. Another order of business. Alexandria wants their mattresses back."

"What?" Gavin asked.

"Those mattresses you just put in the bedframes you built for the renovated harem for the single moms and kids? And the ones you plan to put in Negan and Regina's renovated quarters? They used to belong to Alexandria. Negan took half their mattresses when he and Gary first instituted collections."

"Jesus Christ!" Gavin muttered. "And if we don't give them back?"

"Aaron said Alexandria will be disgruntled."

"Disgruntled? What the hell does that mean?" Gavin asked.

"I don't know," Laura replied, "but you're the one who said we need to keep the peace with the collation."

"Fine." Gavin waved a hand in frustration. "Tell him he can come and collect his mattresses. But then you need to go on a supply run to a mattress store. And take the new supply runner trainees with you."

April 5
Hunting Grounds
1:20 PM

"Carl's gonna start joinin' us a couple days a week," Daryl told Dixon as they walked through the forest after checking their bear trap. It had a walker in it, which they'd killed and dragged out before resetting the sticks atop the pit. "Learn the ropes."

"The Board assigned him to be our apprentice?" Dixon reached down and scratched behind Daisy's ears. When he stopped, she trotted ahead of them.

"Not yet, but he told me he wants to. I'm gonna propose it at the meetin' tomorrow."

"Can you propose something else?" Dixon asked. "That supply run Beth and I want to go on? And vote for it?"

Daryl glanced at him. "Still ain't got laid yet, huh?"

Dixon sighed. "She doesn't want to do it anywhere Hershel might possibly walk in. It's a huge park. There are hundred places he wouldn't walk in. But she's not comfortable doing it in the park for some reason. I don't know why. We've done plenty of other stuff in the park. But she says she wants the first time to be special…private. Secluded. Outside of Fun Kingdom. But also safe. So I was thinking...we go on the supply run. Leave early in the morning, drive all the way to that vocational center load up, stay the night somewhere, take turns sleeping and guarding a few hours, get our rest, then, in the morning, head back, but stop at my old cabin. Spend the late morning and afternoon there before we come back here. Take our sweet time. It's safe. It has those trip wires still. I can lock it up tight. I'm familiar with the area. It's nice. We left the beds there. It has a fireplace. She'll like it, don't you think?"

"Hell you askin' me for? Ask her."

"She said yes. I just...I want it to be right for her, you know?"

"You love 'er?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah. I do."

"Then it's gonna be right."

Daisy barked and began sniffing down a trail toward something, and the hunters followed.