AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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"We send Carol in first, whatever we find," T-Dog said.

It wasn't dark. Not yet. It was dusk. It was the time of night when it became oddly impossible tell colors from shades of gray. It was the time of night when it was difficult to trust your vision.

Daryl was driving with the lights off. The sound of the engine might draw some attention, but it wouldn't draw half the attention that the headlights would draw.

They'd spent a couple of days creeping closer and closer to the large camp they'd set their eyes on. They'd decided to ignore the smaller campfires that dotted the landscape. It was nearly impossible to tell exactly where any of them were at night and, more likely than not, they were farther away than they appeared. It wasn't worth traipsing around, in a place they didn't know at all, to try and find campfires that probably belonged to one or two assholes that couldn't live with anybody else.

They had gotten close enough to the big camp in the daylight hours to see that it was a camp at what had apparently been a type of cabin resort or campground. They'd gotten close enough to tell that it was fenced in. The whole of it was surrounded with wooden fences and, beyond that, there was a barbed wire fence and then a chain link fence.

They were all fairly certain that the barbed wire and the chain link had not been part of the resort to begin with, but rather had been added as things had been settled.

They could see there were people, and they could tell there were animals. It was impossible to tell how many people or animals, though, with their desire to keep a more than healthy amount of distance between themselves and the camp until they decided that they were committed to interacting with the people who lived there.

"We ain't throwin' Carol out some damn where like a sacrifice," Daryl said.

"Did I say fuckin' sacrifice, man?" T-Dog shot back quickly.

"Boys," Carol said, putting just enough warning in her tone to stop them before they got started.

In the cab of the truck, Daryl drove and T-Dog sat pressed against the passenger-side door while Carol practically sat half in the lap of each of them.

"I didn't say sacrifice," T-Dog mumbled like a child who was irritated with having been scolded.

"Don't worry," Daryl said. "We ain't gonna throw you to no wolves."

In an act of comfort, Daryl trailed a hand over and patted Carol's leg affectionately. She liked the familiarity of it, but immediately he pulled his hand back. Maybe he thought better of it. Maybe he thought that she wouldn't care for his hand upon her thigh. She couldn't very well tell him that he was welcome to put it back.

"I know," Carol said, speaking to try and alleviate any lingering discomfort he might feel over what he likely thought was an unwelcome touch. "I don't think—correct me if I'm wrong, T—but I don't think that's what T-Dog had in mind."

"Everybody's soft for pregnant women," T-Dog said. "Pregnant women and babies. They got a free ride to just—walk through this whole world. Easy passage."

Carol laughed to herself.

"There's less that's easy about being pregnant in this world than you might think, T," Carol said. "And having a baby—in this world? It's not all fun and games."

"I didn't mean…"

"I know what you didn't mean," Carol said. She reassured him by patting him in almost the same familiar way that Daryl had patted her. As tightly packed as they were into the front of the truck, there was little else in the way of reassuring touch that could be offered. "And—I think I know what you meant, too. People are more likely to be kind to me than they are to you. They're more likely to take mercy on a pregnant woman than they would on some unknown man."

"You have to be a different kind of asshole to hurt a woman that's growing a tiny, defenseless, little baby," T-Dog said, clearly agreeing with Carol.

"And we all know them kinda assholes exist," Daryl said.

"We do," Carol agreed.

"So whatta we do if we throw Carol out there, T, an' they end up being that kinda damn asshole? What then?" Daryl asked.

"The first thing we do is stop talking about Carol in the third person," Carol offered. "And we stop talking about her like—like the baby in her uterus is going to keep her from being able to make decisions for herself in this whole process."

"Sorry," Daryl offered.

"Sorry," T-Dog echoed.

"It's fine," Carol assured both of them. "It's just—as much as I don't want to be bait, I also don't want to be left out of everything and talked over."

"You right," Daryl said. "You right. You as much in this as we are and you got every right to say what you wanna do as much as we do. So—what do you think?"

Carol laughed to herself.

"I think—T-Dog is right," Carol said.

Immediately T-Dog laughed and Carol could practically feel Daryl glare at him across her. She laughed to herself.

"Let me explain," she said. "Let me explain. T is right that—I'm less threatening than both of you. Even if I approach this place fully armed, I'm less scary than you are just because I'm a woman. They're automatically going to think that I'm not a threat. I can be talked to. I can be dealt with. If it's a woman that meets me, she gets some—solidarity. If it's a man, he doesn't feel threatened by me. Add in the fact that I've got an extra passenger and…I have a good chance of getting to actually talk to someone."

"What if they're not the talkin' type?" Daryl asked.

"You two will be there," Carol said. "Just behind me. I'll just tell them who we are. I'll tell that we're not interested in fighting. We don't have any reason to fight. We come in peace, or whatever."

"And if you need it," Daryl said, "then we'll step in and help handle things."

"Exactly," Carol said.

"It could work," Daryl said.

"Don't act like you thought of that," T-Dog said. "Neither one of your asses better act like you thought of that. That's what the hell I've been saying and you've just been dismissing me. Send Carol in first. Soften them up with the baby and the pregnant woman thing. Then we all get in to talk to whoever's in charge. It was never about throw Carol out and see if they ate her like a bunch of damn Walkers."

Carol laughed and leaned over, pressing herself affectionately against T-Dog. He relaxed and laughed, too.

"It was a wonderful idea," Carol assured him, straightening up as much as her tight spot would allow. "And I think it's got a chance of working."

"It's got as good a chance as anything," Daryl said. "I just don't want you gettin' hurt."

"I won't," Carol assured him. "Because the two of you have my back."

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They found a place to park the truck that was close enough that they could reach it before they ran out of steam if they had to run for it, but was far enough away that they wouldn't immediately be noticed by anyone at the camp. When they filed out the truck, they spent a moment stretching their legs and Carol slipped off behind a tree to relieve herself while T-Dog and Daryl took care of the one Walker that they saw wandering in the area.

When she was ready, they all went through the weapons in the back of the truck to decide what they were taking with them.

Carol put her favorite knife in her boot. She couldn't reach it as quickly as she could if it was at her side, but her pants covered it and there was a good chance that anyone looking at her wouldn't suspect that she had a weapon hidden in her shoe. A second knife went at her belt and a third she slipped down the back of her pants.

Daryl and T-Dog weren't shy, either, about hiding weapons around their bodies that they could get to in a hurry. If someone was picking weapons off of them against their will, they'd still have a chance at having something they could use.

Carol slipped her quiver on and adjusted it so that it was comfortable before she took her bow.

When Daryl and T-Dog were satisfied with their own arms, they all started through the woods and toward the place where the cabin-resort-turned-camp was situated.

Carol's sense of direction was not as wonderful as she wished it was, and she assumed that T-Dog felt the same. They fell in step behind Daryl. Even though he'd never made the exact walk they were making from the truck to the resort, he seemed confident with every step he took. He seemed like he knew the place as well as he knew the wooded area that surrounded the motel that they were temporarily calling home.

Once, while they walked, they practically ran into a Walker, but Daryl took it down before it hardly had the ability to realize that there was fresh food roaming around in its vicinity.

They took their time. Being off road, Daryl was walking slowly. He turned, once, to warn them to watch their step. The last thing they really needed was broken ankles out here. Once, they reached a sort of washed out spot and Daryl slipped a little as his feet found the mud in the darkness. He'd stopped and helped both Carol and T-Dog across it before he'd gotten in front of them again.

The darkness slowly settled in around them. The coolness settled in around them, too, and Carol shivered at the feeling of the air after the sun was set. It was a reminder that they were doing the right thing. They were trying to find somewhere safe. They were searching for somewhere secure. They needed somewhere where, unlike the motel room, they could keep warm through the winter.

The winter here, after all, would be much harsher than any they'd known in Georgia.

As they neared the camp, Carol could see something of a glow in the distance. She assumed it was a glimpse of the light coming off of campfires. They were the same campfires that they could see from their motel room except, now, they were hardly like stars in the black blanket of the landscape.

Carol could smell the campfire smoke in the air. She could smell, too, the scent of something cooking. She could smell meat cooking.

It was entirely involuntary that her stomach let out a growl that rivaled that of any Walker when she smelled the meat.

The growl was loud enough that T-Dog laughed and stopped his forward progress to stifle the laughter. Daryl, too, stopped. He laughed, but his laughter was little more than a snort that escaped him before he swallowed down his amusement.

"That criticism?" He whispered. "That we shoulda fed you 'fore we left?"

"I'm sorry," Carol hissed into the darkness. Her stomach growled again and she put her hand over it like she could stop it. "Oh—I'm so sorry. It's going to give us away."

"T'll give us away with his laughin' first," Daryl soothed. "It's OK. Sounds like a Walker."

"Sounds like a Wookie," T-Dog responded. "Man—if it's a Walker, that Walker is sufferin'! When's the last time you eat something, Carol?"

"Lunch," Carol said.

"You ate a half can of Vienna sausages at lunch," Daryl said. "You tellin' me you ain't eat nothin' else since then?"

"And ketchup on the sausages," Carol offered.

"Ketchup ain't a fuckin' food, Carol," Daryl hissed.

"Are we going to argue about food, or are we going to go?" Carol asked.

"She's right, she's right," T-Dog interrupted quickly. "We gotta go. Besides—if they worth their salt, they're gonna hear that and they're going to offer us something to eat. The only thing that people are going to find more damn irresistible than a pregnant woman, is a pregnant woman that sounds like she's starving to death."

They did start forward again. They weren't far away, and it didn't take long before Carol could actually see the fences of the resort just beyond what looked like the end of the wooded area. Though it was dark and there was little more than moonlight and starlight in the woods, there was light beyond the fences that somewhat illuminated the area.

"You go on ahead," Daryl said. "Oughta be the entrance up there. If you ain't changed your mind."

"I haven't changed my mind," Carol assured him, taking a second to screw her courage up and say something of a little prayer that they wouldn't run into any trouble. She didn't want anything to happen—and she wasn't ready to lose her baby.

Carol walked forward. The woods ended in an almost immediate break. Carol stepped out onto the road. She looked both ways for traffic—since old habits died hard—and she walked toward the fences. She could see the gate that the group had made.

She almost missed the woman entirely. She stopped, though, when the woman stepped out of the shadows that swallowed her up. Carol saw the light from inside the fences as it glinted on the metal of the large blade.

"Don't come any closer," the woman warned. "Or I'll run you through."

Carol held her hands up in surrender, though she kept enough fingers tightly curled over her bow that she didn't drop it.

"I wish you wouldn't," Carol said. She wasn't even ashamed of the slight shake in her voice. After all, the only thing that people found more irresistible than a pregnant woman who sounded like she was starving was a pregnant woman who sounded like she was terrified. "I'm pregnant. And—I'd really appreciate it if…you didn't hurt my baby."

Although the woman didn't lower the sword entirely, she did swing it enough that she was no longer pointing it straight at Carol's stomach.

Carol allowed herself to breathe.

"My name is Carol," she offered. The woman didn't seem entirely convinced to speak to her. In fact, she startled Carol and Carol backed up a step to show it. She suddenly raised the blade back up like she might really run Carol through.

Carol practically backed into a wall behind her, though, that was none other than Daryl. She realized, immediately, that the woman had only raised the blade again in self-defense. Carol didn't know, after all, if her companions had assumed the same position of surrender that she had and she wasn't turning her back on the woman to see.

"Who the hell are you?" The woman growled.

"Easy," T-Dog said quickly. His tone was light. He was trying to be charismatic. Carol could hear it. "You saw she was pregnant? It's hard to see out here, but…she is. Like really, really pregnant."

Carol didn't expect to have to bite her lip to keep from laughing at T-Dog. She didn't know what really, really pregnant was, exactly, but she'd accept it. She was possibly as much as six or seven months pregnant—she wasn't even sure and none of them had any clear idea of how long they'd been living in this world— and, for T-Dog, that was more than sufficient to be accepted as really, really pregnant.

"Who…are…you?" The woman asked, slowing down her words. She no less growled the words out now than she had before. The blade was still leveled at Carol. If the woman charged, it would be Carol that she literally came through first.

"This is Daryl," T-Dog offered quickly. "He's with her. You know—baby? I'm T-Dog. T. Just a friend and…we don't mean any harm. We just couldn't help but smell the food, and she hasn't eaten in a while."

As if on cue, and as if it wanted to back up her story, Carol's stomach growled loudly at the thought of food.

Carol had no idea what was happening behind her. She had no idea what Daryl's reaction to T-Dog's attempt to paint a picture of three people this woman wouldn't want to skewer might be, but the woman lowered the blade again.

"I'll see what we can do," the woman said. "But—you've got to wait out here."

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AN: Is it OK if I ask for suspension of disbelief on timelines and such? Everyone, please remember that this is just for fun and entertainment. I'm no professional, and I'm not getting paid for this in any currency beyond your comments and reviews (which are all greatly appreciated). Please forgive me if we lack verisimilitude from time to time.

I hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think!