AN: hey! Here we are with volume five! Wow I can't believe it! It makes me excited to see how far these characters have come since the first installment. I hope you enjoy it.

"Wow look at him! I can't believe he's a year old already!" Maggie said as Charlotte arrived to drop little Micheal off first thing in the morning before she took off.

Summer was coming to a fast end, and as always, they needed supplies for winter. Charlotte, along with Aaron, who had been deemed by Rick as the best errand runners since Glen had been killed had been chosen for the job of heading to an outlet mall Charlotte had seen on a scouting mission with Daryl a few weeks back

And of course, Daryl had wanted to go with her, but the group needed meat,and Carl wanted to learn how to hunt and track. So of course, Rick had instructed him to go with the boy, and his hands were kind of tied.

But he hadn't been happy about and he made sure everyone knew it, not that it was hard to tell anyway, Daryl always wore his emotions on his sleeve, especially when it came to Charlotte.

Charlotte didn't mind going with Aaron, he was a good dude, he was kind, smart and had a lot of common sense. The only bad thing about him was that he was a bit of a chatterbox.

"Thanks again for watching him." She said.

Maggie waved her off.

"Are you kidding? It's no trouble at all, and Hershel loves it, he calls Micheal his little brother!" She said with a laugh.

"You might be chasing after him, though! " Charlotte said as Micheal began to crawl across the floor.

"No worries, I've been through this before." Maggie assured her as they shared a hug.

"I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Take your time, just make sure you come back safe, remember you're a momma now." Maggie said, giving her a final squeeze before releasing her.

"Oh trust me, it's ALWAYS on my mind." She said as she hurried off to meet Aaron.

"So, where are we going?" Aaron asked from the passenger seat.

"There's a huge outlet mall a couple towns over, last scout Daryl'n I did of it, there was a pretty large group of walkers milling around it, so I'm hoping they kept people away." She said, her eye not leaving the road as she spoke.

I'm surprised that Daryl didn't insist on going wirh you this time." Aaron said, a hint of humor in his voice.

"Oh he did, but Carl wanted to learn how to hunt and track their ain't no one better at that then Daryl." She replied, the air of pride in her voice when she talked about her man wasn't on Aaron and he gave her a wry smile.

They fell into a comfortable silence until it started to get dark and they began looking for a place to hole up for the night.

Charlotte spotted a old run down farm house off the road, and after cutting a few old fences, they rolled up to it.

"Seems quiet." Aaron said.

"That don't mean anything." She replied as they slowly got out, careful not to slam their doors.

They crept towards the house, Aaron had his axe ready, Charlotte had her machetes drawn.

It was oddly quiet as they approached the house ... TOO quiet, there wasn't a walker in sight, not outside, and not inside the house.

"I don't like this, it's too quiet, too easy. It's like this area's been cleared." Charlotte hissed.

"I was thinking the same thing, but we don't have much of a choice but to stay here, it's just not safe to travel at night anymore." Aaron replied.

As much as she hated to admit it, he was right.

"Let's hide the car, and we'll take turns keeping watch, I'll take first shift since you drove here." Aaron said.

Charlotte nodded wordlessly as she set up her sleeping bag.

"See anything?" Charlotte asked Aaron as he scoured the outlet mall through the binoculars.

"No. No people, no walkers, nothing. I don't like this, Charlotte. It's too clean, too quiet."

Charlotte blew out a frustrated breath. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. The place looked like someone had grabbed it up.

"Yeah,as much as it fucking sucks, you're right. The last time I was here scouting, this place was crawling with walkers, whoever cleared this place must be quite a large and organized group and that's not someone I wanna start a turf war with over some clothes and shit." She said as she rubbed her eye wearily.

"Are you sure you're okay? You seem really tired lately." Aaron said worriedly as he put a hand in her shoulder.

"That's cause I am, being the mother of a twelve month old that has found out that moving is the best thing ever will do that to you." She said shortly.

Aaron shot her one final, worried look, but wisely decided to drop it; instead choosing to peer through the binoculars once more.

"It's a shame about this place, because it looks like it's a gold mine." He said as he did a sweep of the place.

He felt a pang of disappointment ripple through him as he saw an Old Navy, a Gap, and an Ralph Lauren outlet. He would've loved to have swiped some clothes from there, and he would've loved to surprise Zach, his boyfriend with some as well.

But alas, as much as it pained them to turn around after an almost two day trip, logically it was the best decision.

"Don't worry, there'll be other malls, this ain't the only one in the area." Charlotte reassured him.

He smiled at her as they got I to their car and drove away.

"Yeah, I know, I just can't help but he a little disappointed."

She barked out a laugh.

"Yeah I feel you, I was looking forward to dressing my kiddo in some bad ass polo garb."

"I still can't believe that you're a MOTHER." Aaron said.

"That makes two of us, but I think I'm doin' alright, all things considered." She replied.

"I think you both make amazing parents."

She shrugged.

"You never know what you're capable of until it happens to you. I bet this whole apocalypse thing has taught all of us a lot about ourselves that we never knew we could do."

Aaron nodded concurrently.

"True."

They drove on in comfortable silence until they reached the old farm house where they stayed before.

"Do you think it'll be okay to stay at the same place twice?"

Charlotte shook her head.

"Probably not a good idea, we still have about a couple of hours of daylight left, let's see what else we can find, if push comes to shiver we can always pull off the road and sleep in the car."

It was dark before they found another suitable place to stay, an old filling station that looked like it had been abandoned before the apocalypse had even happened.

"Better than nothing, I guess." Charlotte said with a shrug as they pulled the car around to the back of the old ice house so it couldn't be seen from the road.

"At least we might not have to worry about any walkers in here." Aaron said, even still, they both got out with their weapons drawn.

"Never say never. At least the moon is gonna to be full tonight, so it'll make watch easier."

There was one walker in the place, it looks like someone who had taken refuge during last winter and hadn't made it.

"Well ... I guess this is home sweet home for the night. This time I'll take first watch." Charlotte said.

"Remember to come and wake me up half way through the night." Aaron said pointedly as he shook his axe at her.

"Why does everyone say it like that!" She said with a laugh.

"Because we all have known you for a long time, and we know how you are." He replied.

Charlotte chuckled as she held out her hands in front of her, she knew when she was beat.

"Fine, you win, I promise, I'll come wake ya." She drawled.

"You'd better." Aaron retorted, a humor flickering about his face as he settled into his sleeping bag.

As Daryl and Carl crept theough the woods, Daryl held up a hand and pointed downward in front of them.

"Look at that, a big ass bull moose. By the looks of the tracks, he's been through here in the last hour ." Daryl said.

"How can you tell that?" Carl asked as he knelt beside him.

"These got well defined edges, it's been drizzlin' all mornin', and the weather hasn't had a chance to wash away the tracks." He said as he traced his index finger around the edges of the tracks.

"Now, let's go and get us a moose." Daryl said as he motioned for them to continue.

After almost a day of tracking, Daryl came to an abrupt halt and help up his hand, and made a 'shhhhing' gesture as he pointed through the trees.

About two hundred yards ahead of them was a spectacular specimen of a bull moose.

Daryl handed the rifle to Carl.

"Here, you drop em."

"A ... Are you sure?"

Daryl shrugged.

"No time like now to see if all that practicin' you've been doin's been worth it."

Carl readies the rifle, took his time lining up his shot, exhaled a breath like his father taught him and took the shot.

"Yes!" He whispered as the huge animal dropped immediately, not even knowing what hit it.

"Now you're gonna learn how to gut it and clean it, we gotta hurry cause that smell's gonna bring em for miles." Daryl said as he took out his knife.

Carl was surprised at how easy it was.

"Look at you, boy, you're a natural." Daryl said.

"Thanks for letting me go with you, even though I know you're only doing this until Micheal is old enough to go with you." Carl said.

"Naw, I'm doing this so my boy has someone to go with in case something happens to me or his momma, or when we get too old, whichever comes first."

"Nothing's going to happen to you or Charlotte, I can't think of anyone more equipped to handle this world." Carl replied as they bagged the meat and started home.

"Never say never." Daryl replied.

Charlotte awoke just as the first rays of sun began to peak through the trees. She shivered against the chilly early fall air, her breath hanging silvery in front of her.

As much as she hated the cold, she was also thankful for it because it made the walkers slower, and it gave them the advantage.

"Come on dude, up and at em' we still have a two hour drive back." She said as she nudged Aaron.

A thin layer of frost crunched softly under their feet as they made their way to their car.

"Morning frost already." Aaron commented, his breath coming out in silvery puffs as he pulled the zipper of his jacket up and wrapped his scarf tighter around his neck.

"Yeah, early for it, looks like this winter's gonna be a bad one."

"Yeah, but a long, bad winter means that we don't have to worry too much about ..." He trailed off as he caught sight of a reflection of something from the distant tree line.

"Charlotte, get down!" He shouted as he shoved her out of the way.

Time seemed to slow down, as it always did when something like this happened.

Aaron's body jerked as the bullet entered between his chest and shoulder and exploded out the back.