Disclaimer: Buffy The Vampire Slayer was Created by Joss Whedon and is property of many companies but not me. The Walking Dead was created by Robert Kirkman and the show, which is the world I am referencing in this, is shared with Production Creators Frank Darabont and Angela Kang.

Arthur's Note: Am I telling more than showing? It feels like I am but if you've read the other stories on here, you'll see I swing hard one way and then the other. Ah well. Slow chapter before another jump.

[14]

Lights off as they approached the pile of dead cars, it was difficult to see, fingers white on the Jeep's steering wheel. Carol was sniffling in the back, sitting up which she hadn't been to begin with but seeing she wasn't looking around Shane pointed to the opposite window, "Hey, I can't do this on my own."

Long sleeve shirt stretched over her thumb she pulled the material to wipe her eyes, doing her best to peer out into the motor graveyard. None of the other cars showed any movement, and none of the shadows rising from the asphalt looked big enough to be the RV, "It's too dark."

Shane grunted in response, ears straining for any other sounds but finding nothing other than the gravel gritting under the car tires behind him. The sound of the bike hadn't started when they'd pulled off the farm, but the tracker had made a good point about the group possibly returning here, the last place they'd been together.

"What if they're not here?" Carol doubted quietly behind him, an octave shy of mournful.

The officer refused to entertain the thought, thinking of Lori, Carl… the baby, "They're here. We just might have to wait until morning to find them." The woman didn't nod, only looked back out the window and Shane refrained from facing her again for the time being, pulling over as they reached the extent of the cars that had been cleared.

Behind the jeep, Dawn was doing better making out the shapes of the frames around them, Rick silent behind her, done crying. If she had had to choose, she preferred the sobbing to be honest, this felt familiar to some of the psych cases she'd seen. How far was too far for Rick? A coma, waking to an entirely different reality, the race to find his family, the pressures of leading an entire group of people, struggling to make peace with the head of another one… The list went on, all building on the new promise of the home they had found, a refuge to call their own and then return with the news to find everyone gone.

She looked back at the man in question to find him staring at the back of her head, his eyes raising to meet hers in the mirror. His voice was hoarse, "How come none of this bothers you?"

Dawn backed up when the Jeep pulled to a stop ahead of her, the brake lights flashing for just a moment before it was turned off. Using the small beam form the taillights to assist in getting her off the road as gently as possible she waited until she was parked as well, "I wouldn't say it doesn't."

"Really? Your friend's gone, half your stuffs missing," he shoved a bag that had been rifled through at some point but whether it was by Spike or one of the group that had attacked couldn't be determined. "We don't know where our people are and your," he gestured, struggling with his words even when lashing out, "so forgive me if I assume it doesn't bother you."

Dawn stepped around the remark and shifted in her seat to look at the man more than a few years her senior. Minus the Greene's and their barn of walkers, Rick's group had seemed to be handling things decently for this being their first foray into the land of weird which was not easy. Grabbing the bag, she rifled through it to find there was still plenty in it, "I recognize what you're going through is traumatic," at the shaking of his head she stopped rifling to press,

"What we're all going through, but I've seen your group Rick and I know Spike." Trying to find a comfortable position she pushed the seat away from the wheel and stretched her legs into the passenger cushion, "Spike killed that guy, by the car, probably more we couldn't look for because you and Shane had to go blazing into the house." Hearing her own frustration start to tinge her words with blame she back tracked,

"I am worried, but it's not about Spike because where we're from crazy things happened just because it was Monday."

"Thought you were from California?" There was a little less bite to his tone, half interest but also doubt.

"Stuff happens there too." The young woman smiled wanly, trying not to wonder just what things were happening there exactly. If she'd gotten a note that night, she hadn't seen it unless it had arrived while they were surveying the damage at the farm and it got left behind, "T-Dog and Glenn wouldn't let anything happen to Lori and the kids and Andrea's too stubborn to go down."

Though there wasn't a smile, Rick leaned back in his seat, quite again as their breathing filled the car. Sometime later when she had thought he may have drifted in his thoughts that he probed, "So tell me about this place."

[Break]

Cars gone, Daryl jogged around the house, no visible attempts of escape at the windows or doors where the flames had thickened following Shane and Rick's rush in. The front of the house had been the focus of the attack, accelerant of some kind to catch so must of it when the back was untouched. Looking for signs of a struggle he studied the shadows the light twisted on the grass but found no drawn depressions indicating someone was pulled. The splintering wood forced him further from the house before he could investigate, and he swept up the hill where the walkers seemed to originate.

Over the hill, two walkers were hunched above a body, fingers dipping in and out of flesh, skin dark up their forearms. Daryl let the first arrow fly, sticking below the top knot on the animated body in a dingy yellow dress. Notching the other, he took aim at the second walker who turned its head to him. White hair was a muss around its face, beard stained with its meal. Jaw ticking, he let the second bolt fly, Herschel falling back on the ground opposite the first, the dead man between them.

Walking closer he studied the three, the woman on the left looked familiar though he was sure he hadn't seen her alive, her decomposition was weeks ahead of Herschel with a bite mark high on her collar. Seeing their meal begin to twitch, Daryl pulled the arrow from the woman's temple and drove it back down into the man's skull. The guy was heavy set, his build and features matching Spike's description, "Tony."

He shook his head looking back to Herschel and searching him, no bites. The back of his shirt was dark with blood, a gunshot below his left shoulder blade, "Son of a bitch."

The remainder of his search turned up the remnants of another body, likely a man, by the broken doors of the barn. The axe he'd used to the burst open the doors was buried in the head of a walker fallen backwards inside the red building. The other walkers, which had been plenty, were strewn across the property but it was clear where they had come from.

There was a sound separate from the roar of the fire, Daryl crouching, raising his crossbow as he crested over the hill again. Two figures were rushing from the road to the cars, calling out but it was hard to make out the shout. As they passed the vehicles the figure became focused - women visible, long hair flying behind them, the brunette was ahead of the red head. The slower of the two reached out to the house, still a way ahead of them when the fire went out and their voices were audible in the absence of the flames, "Dawn!"

Their calling continued and he moved quickly over the ground despite the lack of visibility. He was in the tossed camp when a glow lit the front porch ahead of the two, not a beam like he'd expect from a flashlight, and not anything they were holding as demonstrated by the first woman reaching out to support the second as she made her way up the steps. The hairs along Daryl's neck stood straight against the moisture collecting there, a numbness spreading from his shoulders and toes. After a moment he pushed on as they disappeared into the house.

[Break]

The inside walls of the house were black, the char stretching along the front flooring, but they weren't checking for structural damage. Tara didn't sense Dawn's aura, or anyone else's in the house, her fingers squeezing Willow's as they continued to look around. While the front and back of the house were damaged the middle of it was unscathed and made climbing the stairs less nerve racking than it would have been otherwise. When they came to it, they paused in the doorway of the bedroom at the back of the house, a body visible on the balcony. They walked together, hands clasped again, light floating ahead of them burning brighter with their need to see clearly.

Hair long gone, the skin from torso to skull was blistered and naked while their jeans hid their sex. Still, it was easy to see what was left of their chest from the parched skin and Tara reached to pull the cover from the bed and drape over the form while Willow tried to get a better judge of their height, "I… I don't think it's her."

Looking at the figure it was clear the balcony had been a landing place and looking up could see that whoever it was had fallen from the roof, down to the open area. Tara swallowed, mouth full, and signed for peace over the form when she felt another presence moving up the steps, "Willow."

Looking around, the witch transferred the energy into the lantern on the table instead of trying to find their flashlight, but weaponless without their bags they moved together as a man shifted into position outside the door.

Neither party said anything for a minute, the dark eyes swallowing the entire room as he studied both them, the body on the floor and the lantern. A long look at the lantern, finally seeming to reconsider his words, "What are you doing here?"

Reading the man, Tara looked past his rough exterior and raspy voice, nodding when Willow checked her estimation with a glance, "We're looking for our friends." She looked down at the body beside them, "We're sorry, did you know her?"

The man didn't respond but the answer to the question was obvious, still not relaxing to drop his guard, "Who you with?"

Introducing themselves they explained who they were looking for, already knowing he would know Dawn if he was with the group, they tested, "You?"

"Daryl," the man didn't offer any other information but eventually lowered the bow stepping back and gesturing them out, "come on."

Downstairs, they walked back through the back again, the man pilfering a few things quickly in the kitchen, "We can't stay here long. Don't know if they'll be back."

Bags left at the main road in their hurry to cross the property, they looked if they could be assistance but also wary of who they may refer to, "What happened?"

Daryl shook his head, "Weren't here but I'd guess a group we became aware of a ways back. Figured they mighta left town by now," he shoved a pack over his shoulder that forced him to hold the bow in hand at his side, "Guess not." He looked between them, considering, "You got a ride?"

Tara shook her head, Willow mimicking the same, "Ran out of gas." There was bound to be an abandoned vehicle somewhere nearby, explaining they'd teleported the relatively short distance from the last place they'd rested probably wouldn't be believable. Whether the man believed them or not he didn't press, but if they had to guess neither thought he bought it.

Circling back to the front, Daryl considered the abandoned cars left in the attack and checked the one with a windshield remaining. Keys in the ignition he jerked his head at it, "You can take this, we'll find your car in the morning."

[Break]

The throaty roar of the bike woke the RV's inhabitants as it's light cast over the lot of cars, Glenn still on watch with T-Dog, shifting in their positions as the large man nodded for the other to check it out. Peering around the curtain it was difficult to see who it was from the distance of the rider, but it sounded familiar. A second vehicle followed close behind the biker, Glenn's jaw clenching causing T-Dog to hiss, "It them?"

Glenn shook his head, "Can't tell, I thought… won't be sure until we can see."

T-Dog gripped the gun, muscles flexing under the stitches of his injury, looking back at the others. Maggie was seated at the fold down dinette, so much quieter now that she was cried out from seeing her father shot in the back, Dale opposite her, face drawn. In back, Lori was stretched out with a child on either side of her in bed, meeting his gaze for a moment before looking to Beth, curled away from her. Like her sister she had screamed seeing Herschel gunned down, but when Jimmy had been taken out as well… The blonde scrunched into the corner, invisible to T-Dog held one hand over Beth's feet, keeping contact with the young woman as she slept to escape the day.

"How long now?" Glenn retrieved the pocket watch Herschel had gifted him, squinting at the face to no avail,

"I'll go out first light."