*Author's Note*

Thank you for the faves, follows, and reviews.

And here we go, back-to-back updates. YAY!

Packing Every Picture

Daryl Dixon was a simple man. He lived in a cabin up on Blood Mountain, in a community filled with a handful of back hills Appalachian folks. He had electricity and well water, but he didn't have tv. He had a burner phone to keep in touch with the few loved ones that he had (Merle, Jenny, and Trevor) and a clock radio for entertainment. That clock radio kept him in the loop when it came to the news, which was why he knew a shit storm was brewing down in the flatlands. Down in civilization. He never dreamed that the virus turning people into the walking dead would rear it's head up dead in the hills, but it did.

When he was out hunting, which is what he did for food since he rarely went down the mountain to the town stores (unless he was in Atlanta visiting his nephew and sister-in-law), he came upon one of his neighbors and fellow hunter devouring a hiker (most likely somebody that had a late start wanting to hike the Appalachian trail). Between what he heard from the news and from his phone calls with Trevor, Daryl knew that he had to get to Atlanta to find his brother, who he hadn't heard from in a few days, and protect his nephew and sister-in-law.

So, he packed up some gear, loaded up his old blue truck, and headed out. Only problem was when he tried to call his family, he couldn't get a signal. "Damn piece of shit. What am I even payin' 20 bucks for?" Daryl grumbled, tossing his phone onto his dashboard.

Opening the glove box, he grabbed a random cassette out of it along with his pack of smokes. After slamming the glove box shut, he stuck the cassette into his radio and pulled a cigarette from the pack before shoving it into the front pocket of his cut-off flannel. He grabbed his lighter from the cup holder it was in, lit his smoke, and tossed that into his pocket too. "Gonna be a shitty motherfuckin' day." Daryl exhaled, causing a ring of smoke to float out of his lips.

"Lori, listen to me, quickly pack up some bags. I gotta get you and Carl to Atlanta." Shane told Lori, as soon as the woman answered her phone, as he sped down the street to his house.

"But, Shane, what about Rick? We can't just leave Rick."

"Lori…I-I hate to tell ya this, but Rick's-Rick's gone."

"Gone? What'd you mean he's gone? He's-he's dead?" Lori trembled over the phone in disbelief. It couldn't be true. Rick was supposed to be transported to a hospital in Atlanta, he just couldn't be dead. Not when there was so much wrong left uncorrected between them. She wanted to, so badly, to tell him she was sorry for the last words she said to him that fateful day he was shot.

"Yea…" Shane sighed brokenly.

"Oh God! What'd gonna happen to us? To me and Carl now that-" Lori began to panic, only for Shane to firmly cut her off with, "We're gonna get you and Carl to safety in Atlanta. I got a friend there that's gonna give us a place to stay." Taking a deep breath, he went on to assure his best friend's wife, "I'll do right by Rick; help you and Carl. Least I can do since we're family."

"Thank you, Shane. Thank you so much." Was her grateful reply.

"Look, I gotta pack some stuff too, but I'll be by in about 5 minutes. After that we'll pick up Grandma Jean; then head of town." Shane told Lori as he pulled into his driveway.

After exchanging goodbyes with the new widow, the deputy rushed out of his Jeep and into his house. He ran around his house, gathering a few things he thought was useful. Mostly some clothes, his personal guns and ammo, a few canned goods from his Grandma Jean, and some camping supplies- like sleeping bags, a cot, a small table- to hunker down in Jenny's living room with. Well, so that Lori and Carl could hunker down in her living room since Shane was planning on being in her bed. Hey, he was a hot-blooded male that had a past with Jenny, it was only natural that he'd want to bunk in her bed.

Once he was done, he left his house and rushed a few streets over to the Grimes' residence. The house was a stereotypical southern home complete with a tiny fence, a large front porch, and the American flag proudly flying from a porch post. On any other day, he'd nicely park in the driveway and walk on up the path to the front porch, but today wasn't any other day. Today was the beginning of the end of humanity.

Quickly, Shane cut the Jeep's engine and ran up to the house all the while yelling, "Lori, Carl, let's go! Lori, Carl, time to go!"

The front door swung open, revealing Carl in the threshold with a large suitcase by his feet. "Mom's still packing."

"What the hell? I told her just a few things."

"She already packed our clothes," Carl tilted his head to the barely zipped suitcase by the door. "But now she's packing up all of the family photo albums."

"Jesus Christ…" Shane muttered, running a hand thru his dark curly locks and down to the base of his neck. Pointing to the Jeep, he told Carl, "Get in the back and lock yourself in. I'll be out with your mom in a minute."

"Ok." Carl nodded before doing as he was told.

"Lori! Come on, we gotta get Grandma Jean and go to Atlanta! Leave the pictures, we don't got time!" Shane ordered in a loud bellow as he entered the house, only to find Lori frantically yanking picture frames off the living room wall and stuffing them into an overfilled suitcase.

"I can't leave my family pictures, Shane. I might have to leave Rick's body in the hospital, but I won't leave the albums." The woman told the broad-shouldered deputy as he walked up to her.

"Nice to see you're the perfect loving wife now that Rick's gone." The sarcastic remark slipped out of Shane's mouth before he could even think better of it. He knew it wasn't right to say, but his brain to mouth filter just didn't work in time to prevent the harsh quip.

"Don't, Shane. I know I was a horrible wife; you don't have to tell me that. Now Rick's gone and all I have left of him's pictures. Carl's father is dead and all he has are printed sheets of paper to remember him by." Lori cried while cramming a large suitcase full of every family framed photo and album she had.

"Lori, look, I understand taking a couple of pictures. Hell, I took the ones off my desk at the station, but you can't take everyone you own. It's just going to take up unnecessary space in the Jeep."

"I'm not leaving without all of my pictures." The grieving window stood her ground. She didn't care how long it took her to pack, she was going to take every single picture she owned with them.

"Think about Carl, Lori. Think about him and my Grandma Jean. Think 'bout Jenny and Trevor, if we spend too much time here, we're gonna take too much time pickin' up Grandma Jean and getting to Atlanta." Shane pleaded as Lori grabbed another photo album from a large bookshelf.

"So, Jenny Lacey and her kid's who we're going to Atlanta to stay with? Since when did you get with her?" Lori asked with venom dripping from her tongue. All the jealousy she felt about Jenny being able to go off to college without having to be saddled down had reared its ugly head up. Even though Lori loved Rick, she was grieving and a part of her was suddenly jealous and bitter about Jenny, her old friend, having both a career and rekindling a flame with the sort of sweetheart she ran out on years ago.

It wasn't fair. Lori did everything a good southern girl's supposed to do, only to ended up a widow while Jenny was a bad girl and ended up with a kid and a long lost man jut itching to drop everything for her. To say Lori was bitter about it was putting it lightly.

"Jesus, Lori, now's not the time to grill me about Jenny." Shane snapped. "You're done packing, let's go." He told her, slamming the suitcase shut before she could pack anything else in it. "We'll talk 'bout Jenny later if you want, but now we gotta go." He said while picking up the suitcase and heading towards the door.

"How old's her boy? Is it yours, is that why ya'll got together? Is seeing her your way of getting out of child support? She did seem like the type that wouldn't tell you if she was pregnant." Lori asked, ignoring Shane's request to discuss Jenny later, as she followed right behind him.

"Trevor's her nephew. Sadie and Axel's boy. He's a year older than Carl; she's been raising him since his parents passed in a bad car accident on I-85 last year." Shane explained while picking up the suitcase that was near the door.

"She's been in Atlanta this whole time? And you've been-" Lori began to babble, only for Shane to cut her off with, "Now's not the time, Lori. I need to focus on getting us to Atlanta not discussing what's goin' on with me and Jenny." In reality, him and Jenny were in a weird over the phone flirtationship (more than a friendship, but less than a friendship), but he wasn't going to be sharing that with Lori. It wasn't any of her business.

"Fine, I'll leave it alone for now. But once we're in Atlanta I want to know what's going on with you and her." The slender brunette said, hugging a photo album to her chest, as she followed Shane out to his Jeep.

"Are you going to waste time looking for Jean or are you taking us to Atlanta?" Lori bitterly asked the man behind the wheel as he drove up and down every back street he knew of in the west side of the county, looking for his beloved grandmother.

"I can't just leave without looking for her. She's my family, raised me when I didn't have no one else."

"But what 'bout Jenny and Trevor? Hmm, don't we need to get to them?" Lori asked, using the deputy's previous words against him.

"They'd want me to find her." Shane said matter-of-factly as he kept an eye out the run-down neighborhood he was driving down. He was hoping to find Grandma Jean visiting one of her bingo buddies. It wasn't like she got out much or had too many friends, at least he had an idea of where she could be.

"Don't tell me she knew about-" Lori began to ask, only to be cut off by Shane saying, "Not now, Lori. We'll talk later about it."

"Who's Jenny and Trevor?" Carl curiously pipped up from the back seat.

"She's a friend of mine from high school. Used to be friends with your parents too." Shane explained while shooting the boy a smile via the rearview mirror. "And Trevor's her nephew. He's a year older than you, so I think you'll become friends."

"Oh, ok." Carl nodded before turning his head to look out the window.

"We're going to need gas if you keep this up, Shane. Maybe you should just call her; leave another message so she'll know to find us in Atlanta."

"Lori, I need to try to find her. I can't just leave her here on her own. She's old." Shane barked, causing Lori to just prop a fist under her chin and sigh. "Don't worry 'bout gas, there's some jerry cans in the back filled up." He assured the scared woman next to him, hoping to ease her worries about needing more gas. He always had jerry cans in his garage for his lawn tools; so, he just loaded them in the Jeep. He wasn't going to leave them behind, that's for sure.

One thing Shane thought was odd was that Lori and Carl never asked about Sherriff Grimes and Mrs. Grimes (Rick's parents). Shane figured he'd break the news to them later if they asked, but he would've thought that they'd be more worried about them. Hell, he knows that he's worried sick about his Grandma Jean being out and about somewhere instead of at home- where she usually is.

"At least call Jenny and let her know we'll be late." Lori suggested, hoping that if Shane called Jenny, then the object of his affection would convince him to give up his search for Grandma Jean and head to Atlanta.

"She already knows I have a few stops to make. Unlike most women, she's understanding and low maintenance."

"Of course, she is, considering she practically lived with you and Jean during high school. Must be used to your unpredictable ways."

Looking at the woman next to him, Shane ordered in a low, but calm tone, "We're not doing this right now Lori. Not in front of him. He just lost his father; he doesn't need his mother and uncle fighting over an aunt he's never met."

Lori raised a single brow at Shane. "Now she's an aunt?"

Shane looked out his window, hoping to spot a sign of his dear Grandma Jean, while telling Lori, "Yea, well, she would've been if Dean didn't scare her off into running 'way. She was good friends with you and Rick too, if I recall."

"But she left, Shane. She left, so nobody's been friends with her for years."

Tired of arguing with Lori, he flipped on the radio. "Here, listen to the emergency broadcast on the radio."

"All Western and Northern Georgia counties are now under a volunteer evacuation. Currently, there is no mandatory evacuations for Western Georgia counties. All Eastern and Southern Georgia counties are under mandatory evacuation. Please evacuate to Atlanta; all tolls have been forgone for toll roads during evacuations. Please utilize your local evacuation route and evacuate to Atlanta." Sounded over the radio in a robotic woman's voice.

"Shane, you heard the broadcast. We need to leave, now." A wide-eyed Lori frantically hissed at Shane while her son quietly sat in the back seat, looking out the window as if they were on a road trip and not an evacuation.

With a heavy heart, Shane nodded and turned the Jeep around. 'I'm so sorry, Grandma Jean.' He mentally thought as he sped down the dirt road in order to leave the western part of King County and head to the state road that'd take him to the I-85 ramp.

AN:

I know, I know, I said we'd have some Merle in this, but it just didn't happen. All the stuff with Shane getting Carl and Lori out of King County took up most of the chapter. Merle will be in the next chapter though. Jenny will be too. Hey, I posted back-to-back updates, so I guess that makes up for the lack of Merle. We did get some Daryl, so at least one of the Dixon boys made it into the chapter. Lol.