April 10
9:15 AM
Atlanta Nursing Home
Daryl's old, battered pick-up pulled into the courtyard of the Atlanta nursing home. Dixon hopped hurriedly out of the bed. Rick spilled out of the driver's side and Glenn and Maggie out of the passenger's side of the cab, where they'd been squished closely together. They must have left before sunrise to get here this early.
Carol and Daryl walked out to greet them.
"Where do we start?" Dixon asked as he made sure he had a round in the chamber of his rifle. "What have you already checked?"
"Got four more precincts we ain't been to," Daryl told him. "Glenn'll be a big help. Knows these streets like the back of his hand. Used to deliver pizzas here."
"You were a pizza delivery boy?" Maggie asked skeptically.
Glenn sighed and looked at the back entrance to the nursing home. "I never thought we'd be back here again."
9:30 AM
The Kingdom
Frankie, propped up on one elbow in bed, smiled down at Gavin. That smile scattered his doubts like the sunlight streaming through the classroom window.
He'd been a tangle of tension yesterday, for reasons he didn't quite understand – petty jealousy, mostly. Daniel had sat too close to them at the quartet concert, and that knight and Frankie had exchanged too many pleasantries. But Frankie was just friendly, Gavin thought. She had been, when he'd first met her, before Negan's shadow had silenced her. Now she was more herself again. That was all.
After a night of lovemaking and a good, solid, sleep, Gavin felt more assured. He brushed a strand of red hair from her forehead and half sat up in bed to kiss her. Still, he couldn't help but ask, "We're good, right?"
Frankie raised an eyebrow. "Is there a reason we shouldn't be?"
He shook his head.
"We'd be better if you could stay longer," she told him.
"I'm working on it. Two days next time."
"Is that a promise?" she asked.
"it's a promise to try."
She sighed and threw herself back down on the pillow.
"Come back with me," said Gavin, rolling toward her. "Just for the next week. See how much the Sanctuary has changed. It's an unfinished work, but…just come see."
"I can't. I have ten different massage appointments next week and I'm helping in the school for a few hours."
How many of those appointments are Daniel's? Gavin wondered, and then cursed himself for letting the niggling doubt slip back in. "Can you reschedule? Just one week."
"I have responsibilities, too, Gavin! To this community. Even if they aren't as big or as important as yours."
"All right. I get it. I wasn't…" He sighed. "I wasn't trying to belittle you."
"I know," she said quietly.
"So…uh…" He reeled to alleviate the tension he hadn't anticipated. "What do you want to do today? I'm all yours until four o'clock. Anything you want."
She rolled on her side to look at him. "Horseback riding."
He laughed.
"I'm serious. I've been taking lessons. You need to learn, too, sugar. We aren't going to have gasoline forever."
"Who's been teaching you?"
Frankie shrugged. "Dianne."
"She's been at the Sanctuary for the past week."
"Well, my first five lessons were with Dianne, before she left to go help you. Then Daniel took over my lessons."
"Ah." Gavin gritted his teeth as he rolled from the bed, stood, and began to dress, a little quickly and violently. "Horseback riding it is, then. And I might surprise you. My best friend in junior high grew up on a farm." He tossed her a shirt. "I spent a summer working there once."
2:30 PM
Atlanta
Nothing. They had been to three more police precincts in this city and had found nothing. They hadn't even found anything worth scavenging, other than that baggie of pot Carol had snagged yesterday and an unopened pack of Daryl's favorite brand of cigarettes – Morley's – which he had slipped into his pocket a few minutes ago.
Now, as they walked back out onto the streets of Atlanta, Maggie asked, "What next?"
"Get up high somewhere," Daryl said. "Try to see something again."
They were walking down the street toward the pick-up when they heard the roar of an engine and took cover behind a dumpster and some cars to stay out of view. Daryl peered around the dumpster and saw a brown sedan driving through the street, with a white cross taped on its back window. It was sandwiched between two police cars, as though being escorted somewhere.
Dixon leapt from hiding and attempted to shoot out the tires of the rear police car. Despite the movement of the car and the distance, he managed to ping the bumper, close to the tire. His next shot might have flattened the tire if not for the cops shooting back at him – two of them, one out of each car.
The first shot missed him, but the second would have invariably hit if Daryl hadn't leapt out from behind the dumpster and tackled the teenager to the ground. As the shots continued, Daryl rolled him out of the line of fire beneath a lifted Ford 150 abandoned along the curb. The bullets pinged off of the metal of the truck as the police cars and sedan roared on out of sight.
Daryl breathed hard beneath the truck, while Dixon growled at him, "Why did you do that! I almost had them!"
"'Cause you'd be dead if I hadn't! Smarten up!"
"We have to chase them!" Dixon began to scurry out from behind the truck but jerked back when a walker approached and fumbled for his knife. The walker dropped and fell face-first on the pavement, with Carol's throwing knife in its forehead.
There was a flurry of activity beyond the truck – Rick, Glenn, Maggie, and Carol killing the pack of walkers that had been drawn by the gunshots. Daryl could see only legs and bodies dropping one by one.
They waited until Carol called, "All clear" to crawl out.
Dixon ran for the pick-up truck to pursue the vanished cars, but when his hand was on the doorhandle, Glenn stopped him with a hand over his and nodded in the direction in which the cars had disappeared. A herd of walkers was now lurching their way, and there was no driving through it. "We need to get inside until they pass."
The search team ran on foot through a back alley and vanished into a building. "We need to get up top," Glenn said when they were inside. "See if we can see where the cars went." He shrugged out of his backpack so he could run up the stairwell faster, carrying only his rifle.
Dixon followed, clambering up the stairs. The others went more slowly, looking for walkers along the way, Maggie having picked up Glenn's pack and slung it over her shoulder.
As fast as Glenn and Dixon were, they hadn't gotten to the rooftop in time. When the rest spilled out of the rooftop doorway, exhausted and panting, the two men were staring through their rifle scopes at the empty streets below. The cars had vanished, and they hadn't seen where.
Dejected, they all sat against the brick rim of one side of the roof, shoulder to shoulder, sipping from canteens and wiping sweat from their brows.
Daryl stared at a white pipe rising across the cement and dipping back into the roof. "'S like the pipe you chained m'brother to," he told Rick.
Rick looked at him warily and took another swig of water.
"What about my father?" Dixon asked.
"Nothin'," Daryl told him. "Don't matter now."
"Did anyone go back for the military truck?" Carol asked.
"T-Dog and Rosita did," Rick told her. "Changed the tire and brought back all the loot. It was untouched, fortunately. Beth and Dixon got a good haul."
"It wasn't worth it," Maggie muttered.
"I didn't suggest it was," Rick said. "Just…it's something positive to think about. That's all. All that medicine and oil and fuel stabilizer, coolant and seeds and insecticide and fertilized potting soil. It's something."
"For what price?" Maggie asked, and looked through narrowed eyes at Dixon.
"The question is what now?" said Glenn as he glanced warily from Maggie to Dixon.
"We should look at the hospitals and urgent cares and clinics," Dixon replied. "You saw that cross? It's a medical sign. And that cop on the radio, Carol said he said something about getting a bed ready for Beth. The camp must be in a medical facility of some kind."
"Why don't they have ambulances if they have cop cars?" Glenn asked. "Why just some sedan?"
"Who knows," Rick said. "But Dixon is right. A medical facility is our best bet."
Carol opened and spread out the map on the roof and leaned forward. "The closest hospital to where we re right now is Emory University Hospital. Let's start there."
5:00 PM
Route 1, Virginia
Jerry took up most of the passenger's side of Gavin's pick-up truck. DJ was back in the bed, with the crate of fruit Gavin had secured for the Sanctuary. He'd bring Alden on his next trip, eight days from now, when he returned Jerry.
"Are you friends with Daniel?" Gavin asked as he weaved around a two-car crash-up in the roadway.
"I'm friends with everyone," Jerry replied.
"Does he have a girlfriend?"
Jerry shook his head.
That was not the answer Gavin had been hoping for, even though he hadn't seen Daniel with a woman. "Why not? He's a good-looking guy, right?"
"There really aren't that many single chicks in the Kingdom. There's Nabila," Jerry smiled broadly when he said her name. "Dana. Our doctor." Gavin didn't see Daniel going for fifty-something Dana. "Dianne. They did date for a while. Her and Daniel. I mean, sort of."
"Really?" Gavin asked. "She didn't mention that." She'd only said gingers weren't her type.
"It didn't work out."
"Why?" Gavin asked.
"I don't know, man. Dianne's not exactly one to talk about her feelings, you know? They were just hanging out and sucking face one day, and then one day they weren't anymore."
"Do you know who broke up with whom?"
Jerry laughed. "I never took you for a soap opera gossip kind of guy."
"Yeah. None of my business." Gavin hit the accelerator a little harder.
"Then there's Bonnie," Jerry continued his list of single women. "But she's…like…sixty. And then there's the ladies from your crew."
Gavin gritted his teeth. He hoped Jerry didn't mean Frankie. "Which ladies?"
"Well, you know. Tina, but she's too young for Daniel. Benjamin likes her though. They've been flirting a lot. Like something out of a teenage romcom. Amber, but people are giving her space, you know, because she hasn't been a widow that long. Poor girl. I feel badly for her. Jennifer – but, uh, I think she's hooked up with Draco already. He's a knight."
"So, no girlfriend, then?" Gavin asked. "For Daniel?"
"Why, you got someone at the Sanctuary to hook him up with? Hey, we should start an inter-coalition dating service!"
Gavin turned his head slowly toward Jerry and gave him a peculiar look.
"I mean…you know…" Jerry smiled. "After all the other stuff gets done."
8:15 PM
Atlanta
Dead sharks floated in the dark, murky waters of the aquarium as Carol and Daryl wound their way up a series of ramps, their packs now full of junk food from the Café Aquaria, the beams of their flashlights cutting across the blue carpet, toward the top floor where they knew the others were surveying the streets from the balcony.
The place reeked of dead sea life, but it would do for a night of sleep. They'd probably sleep on the upstairs balcony, which gave a view of the city, out in the fresh air. They'd had to kill fifteen walkers when clearing the aquarium - people who had once been camping out and surviving here. How they'd all died and turned was anybody's guess. There were two feasted-over human bodies in the main floor camp, which was littered with tents, and three already dead walkers as well, so it must have happened quickly, with a failed survival attempt.
The former camp, it appeared, had eaten the fish from one of the open-top aquariums. Another of the glass aquarium cases had been shattered and the floor nearby soaked with water, but the fish were gone. Now the people were gone, too, having become walking shells of their former selves, shells Beth's search team had been forced to put down. Maybe the fish had made them sick, swimming as they had been in tanks that weren't being properly cleaned or maintained.
Though the camp had eaten fish for meat, they hadn't lived long enough to completely clear out the cafeteria of packaged snacks and drinks. Several of those now sat heavy in Carol and Daryl's backpacks. As Daryl was getting ready to open the door that led out to the upstairs balcony, Carol called to him. He turned, and she motioned him over to a bench. When he sat down beside her, she said, "We can't do this forever. This search."
Emory University Hospital, when they got to it, had been part rumble, part ash. The military had killed a lot of walkers in this city, but they'd destroyed some buildings in the process. They'd tried Children's Healthcare of Atlanta next, and then Emory Midtown Hospital. All three had been looted and abandoned.
"There are other hospitals," Daryl said. "Clinics. Medical Centers. Dixon ain't gonna quit. Not Maggie neither."
"None of us is going to quit. I just mean we can't all conduct this search. Fun Kingdom needs workers and guards and…family. Sophia needs a parent. So do Mika and Luke. Carl needs Rick. And Hershel needs his daughter. He needs Maggie. He was beside himself when she insisted on coming here. He's terrified of losing both his daughters. It would be better for him if she was at home. And Maggie's not good for Dixon here. Every time Dixon looks at her…he just sees judgment, whether she means to judge him or not. I think Glenn and I can convince her to go back with us. You should stay on here with Dixon and keep searching for Beth. Radio us when you find her." Carol didn't want to say if. "Give us an idea of their manpower, and then we'll get a small army together if we need to and come back. We'll bring the armored vehicle, the military truck, and Rosita will do…"
"What Rosita does," Daryl finished for her.
"Yeah."
"'S for the best," Daryl agreed. "Draw less attention with just the two of us anyhow. If I can keep Dixon from bein' a dumbass."
"He's desperate. Just remind him he needs to get his head on straight if he wants to find her."
"Yeah."
"You two are the best trackers I know. You will find her."
"Ain't no sign, Carol," he said in frustration. He could say that to her. He couldn't say it to Dixon or Maggie. "And what if the rest of these hospitals and medical centers are all burned out or abandoned, just like the first three we checked?"
"You'll figure it out. I know you will."
Daryl chewed on his bottom lip.
"Just be careful, Pookie." She wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Promise me?"
"Promise."
Carol leaned in to kiss him. She pulled back and crinkled her nose.
"Me or the rotting fish?" he asked.
"I think it's just a combination of everything. Although it's better up here than on the lower floors."
"Just the otters up here," Daryl said. They'd been devoured, though, by a walker. The camp must have been keeping them alive until then, either as pets or a potential future food source. "And the jellyfish." Those didn't stink much.
The door to the balcony opened, and sunlight penetrated the darkness that was cut only by their upright flashlights before. "You find food?" Rick asked.
"Yep."
Daryl and Carol both rose and slung their packs on their shoulders and followed Rick outside. Maggie was surveying the street through the scope of her rifle on the west side of the balcony with Glenn standing beside her, his hands on the railing. Dixon was searching through a pair of binoculars on the east side.
Dixon turned back. "Come look at this, Uncle Daryl," he hollered.
Carol remained with Rick at the center of the balcony while Daryl left his pack with her and walked over to Dixon.
Dixon handed Daryl his binoculars and pointed. "On that bridge. The van that's half over the rail."
"'S got one of them crosses on it," Daryl murmured as he squinted against the setting sun through the eye holes. "Like that sedan."
"It's a clue. We need to go check it out. Now. Maybe it has a GPS or something that can tell us where it's been. A map with the camp circled. The name of the camp. Anything."
Daryl lowered the binoculars. "Not now. Sun's settin'. Too far, too dark, too many damn walkers."
"It's a clue," Dixon insisted.
"Yeah, it's a clue. And we'll check it out. At sunrise. First thing." He clamped a hand down on Dixon's shoulder. "You and me. The others are goin' back. Regrouping. Gettin' an army ready in case we need it. But you and me, we're gonna find her." He squeezed Dixon's shoulder and let his hand slide away.
"We need to go check it out now!" Dixon cried.
"Don't be a fool, kid. Get killed doin' it now, all those walkers at night, us movin' in the dark. Got to stay alive to help Beth."
"If we don't go now, that's one more night Beth is – " He breathed in and out hard and then gripped the rail of the balcony with both his hands. His eyes turned down at the street below, and his words thick with anger and fear and guilt, he asked, "What if…what if they've got her in some kind of rape dungeon or something? What if they're taking turns…" He choked, as if he might vomit, but he only dry heaved once.
"That's not what's happening," Daryl insisted, a hand now on Dixon's back.
"You don't know that!"
No, Daryl didn't know that, and it wasn't as if the terrible thought hadn't crossed his mind after what had almost happened to Beth at the farm. "Hell, we don't know anything about this people, Dixon. Maybe he hit her accidently and was trying to get her help – "
"It was no accident! I mean…I didn't see how he hit her. I was working on the tire. But then he just grabbed her and put her in there. If he wanted to help her, he would have asked me for help! He wouldn't have just driven off with her when he saw me scrambling for my gun. And if I'd just been quicker, if I'd just been paying more attention – "
"-Stahp!" Daryl hissed. "This ain't your fault."
"It is my fault. If I hadn't been taking her to my old cabin to try to get my dick waxed, if I'd just taken her straight back to Fun Kingdom in the morning after we got all that loot, we'd have taken a different road back, we'd never had been there on that part of the highway, we'd never have run – "
"- Stahp! Ain't no use in this. Ain't helpin' Beth."
"Maggie thinks it's my fault."
Daryl glanced at where Maggie stood, her rifle now on her shoulder, and her head on Glenn's shoulder. "Maggie's scared for her sister. And maybe she needs a scapegoat right now, but she don't really think that."
"Hershel thinks it."
"He said that to you?" Daryl asked skeptically. "Hershel?"
"Not in so many words, no, but I could see it in his eyes."
"You got to take all this this guilt, son, and shove it aside. Ain't gonna do Beth no good. You need to think straight. You hear me?"
Dixon sighed out. He nodded. "I'll try."
"You and me, first thing in the morning, we'll check out that van. When we can see what's in it. When we can see what's coming up behind us. A'ight?"
Dixon nodded again. "All right." He took the binoculars and resumed his gaze at the van, though the sun was nearly set now.