"Be careful out there." Glenn stood at the wooden gate, ready to close it behind us.

I gave him a cheeky smile and held my fist out. When am I ever not careful?

He fist bumped me before I got my babies from their homes at my thighs and spun both in my hands, blade down parallel with my forearm and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

We already checked for the all clear before opening the gate but there's no harm in double checking.

The thin layer of snow on the ground crunched under my feet as I made my way to the nice, wide neighborhood street.

Being in this place has really given me a few ideas about better places to hole up than anywhere I thought of before.

Richer neighborhoods were not only less populated even before, but everything is bigger, spaced farther, comes with built-in gates and is almost guaranteed full of stuff we can use. At the very least it makes for comfortable relatively safe living for large groups of people. And there's almost always at least 1 car in the 2-car garages. Fueled up and ready to go. If only they weren't usually sports cars or really nice flashy vehicles.

Glenn & I almost passed out when we found the lambo in that house two streets over on our search for food.

It makes me wanna cry thinking about it sitting there for the rest of it's days.

I would have brought it back if I wasn't positive that Rick would gut it for spare parts. Just like the red camaro. Rest in peace, baby. Rest in peace.

"We should be back before dark." Rick spoke from behind me, presumably to Glenn.

I felt eyes on me and turned to look over my shoulder, nodding at Glenn as he closed the gate before I met Randall's eyes.

He looks nervous.

I put a finger to my lips briefly. Call it a preemptive strike at his tendency to talk when he gets jittery.

Daryl walked past me, jerking his head and I spun on my heel, following after him in the direction of the bridge.

I like the spaced out streets. Makes me feel less boxed in, less like I have to pay absolute attention to every foot of my surroundings and second-guess or be skeptical of whether or not I might miss something crucial.

I glanced up at the overcast sky, white and slightly grey indicating it'll probably snow again today but not until later.

The walk was quiet and for some reason somber. Though it does feel just a little bit like I'm walking through Lord of the Rings. Don't ask me why.

The grumbles and moans seem… fainter than the last time Daryl & I came through here.

I walked up to the bridge, meeting Daryl's concerned eyes with my own. It put me on my toes if I wasn't already before. Hmm, I wonder where that expression came from.

I glanced over my shoulder at Rick & Randall, letting them know to be ready without a word.

As soon as we reached it, I watched Daryl's shoulders relax before getting a look over the railing myself.

Oh.

That makes things easier.

Somehow I forgot what happens to things in water when the temperature drops below freezing.

I stared in gross fascination at the walker-cicles shoulder to shoulder across the entire canal; almost frozen solid. The dusting of snow over every head, like powdered sugar.

"It's like Turkish delight down there."

Randall snorted and I bumped my shoulder against Daryl's. Better be careful, Dixon, if I didn't know any better I'd say you're picking up a thing or two from me.

"Let's get going."

Ugh, and you haven't spent enough, Grimes. Your sense of humor is tanking.

We moved along and I took one last glance at the canal. The walkers are making noise and moving very little but not a whole lot. The muscles must be too tight for them to move much. Couple that with the ice and I'm surprised they're moving at all. They're still alive though.

So the laws of thermodynamics still apply, but still no sign of the laws of nature apparently.

I stood watch at the door while the others searched the small storefront for the remainder of the things on our list.

This part of town is definitely more dangerous even if there's not a ton of walkers, it's way more dense. There are a lot more corners and places for things to hide.

But it's got what we need.

We're gonna need bigger bags and probably more hands if we're gonna take back as much as we need. For now, we'll have to settle for what we can carry.

And for me, that includes this nice sweatshirt, which I'm gonna put on right now cause I'm freezing my eyelashes into daggers.

I yanked the big black sweatshirt off the shelf and checked the size only briefly before setting my knives down where I can grab them in a heartbeat, and slipped my backpack and jacket off.

I quickly pulled the sweatshirt on, not giving any mind to the fact it's about 2 sizes too big and quickly got my leather jacket back on. It's uncomfortable to have the sleeves all bunched up around my arms but I'll take it over every hair on my arm reaching for the sky.

I swiped the hair out of my face and got my knives back into my hands before even thinking about adjusting the sleeves.

The others finished before that, and we headed out.

A random shiver ran down my spine like someone had dropped ice down my shirt and I tucked my elbows into my sides as far as they'll go, pulling shoulders in so high they're practically earmuffs.

"It's gonna snow soon." Daryl's heavy steps crunched the snow as he turned to glance at Rick behind us.

Rick looked around at the surrounding buildings before nodding. "Let's head back."

Daryl nodded once and turned, me following in his steps; literally. My feet are cold and my boots are wet, don't judge me.

A crinkle drew my attention to Rick who's staring at the list in his hand as he walks, glancing up every few seconds to watch where he's going.

I took a peek at the list. We found a lot of this stuff but couldn't take most of it because we're gonna have to bring the wagon that Carl & Beth found in the shed out back when we first got to this house.

It should be easier to get everything we need in 1 or 2 more runs though. Which is good because it's starting to snow every few days now and I've got this foreboding feeling about a possible ice storm.

I apologize for any mistakes and if it feels like filler, I only got 3 hours of sleep last night and was running around with my kid cousins for 2 days.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed your escape from reality, and I'll see you next chp! Don't forget to Favorite, Review, and Follow for more!

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