AN: Here we are, another chapter here. This one is kind of the last one that really just sets things up. Of course, we have tons of people to meet and lots of experiences, but this one kind of finishes setting up the here and now. You can think of it as some of the final scenes where we've still got the opening credits running at the bottom of the screen. LOL
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Daryl had purchased the two-bedroom tent the first time that Carol and Sophia had gone camping with him, Merle, and Andrea. They'd been to this very rock quarry, before, and they'd been to at least one other—though most of the areas where they went looked the same to Daryl, and it was often Merle that chose their campsites. As a surprise, as soon as Carol had accepted Daryl's first invitation to go away with him and his family, Daryl had made the purchase of the tent and nice sleeping bags for Carol and Sophia.
Camping was something that Daryl and Merle really enjoyed. Andrea had learned to love it because of her love for Merle, though she hadn't been a natural-born camper in the beginning. Daryl was excited to share his love of the wilderness with Carol, and he'd been excited when she and Sophia had really taken to the camping lifestyle.
They'd intended to travel around and camp at a good number of places, since camping was a vacation that Dixons could afford when other types of vacations were a little too extravagant. Honestly, though, this wasn't exactly what they'd had in mind when they'd made those plans. Still, Dixons were flexible people, and they were doing their part to keep things running.
Carol's natural adaptability and fervor for taking care of people had come in handy throughout the day. She'd been an absolute asset to getting their large campsite up, running, and relatively comfortable for everyone there.
Daryl couldn't remember half the names of the people who had followed them up there. Part of that was because he was terrible with names, and the other part was because the names didn't really matter to him yet. He'd been focused on helping Merle and Shane get everyone ready to survive. The getting-to-know-you time could wait.
The first thing that they'd done was to go around and find out about tents and sleeping arrangements. There were some people who lacked tents, but there were some who had happened to bring extra because they had assumed that the safe spots in Atlanta might need some assistance putting everyone in shelters. People could sleep in cars, as well. There was also a man who had an RV, and he was more than happy to let anyone stay with him that had no roof over their heads.
They had added tents and sleeping bags to the top of their list of things they needed to acquire when they were able to venture out in search of things. It would never hurt to have a few extra on hand, once everyone was as spread out as they wanted to be, in case bad weather or other things damaged any of the shelter they currently had.
The second thing they'd done was discussed how to secure the area. The vehicles did a decent job of surrounding their campsite, but that wouldn't be sufficient if there were any of the corpses—which they dubbed Walkers, following Daryl's decision to refer to them as such—that managed to make it up there. They assumed that they wouldn't have a great deal of company, thanks to the terrain, but Daryl and Merle had reasoned that they had no idea how many corpses might be left wandering around after the bombing of Atlanta. It was impossible for them to know, after all, how many people were sick with the virus or whatever it was that had caused this crisis in the first place. And, given the fact that the government had bombed Atlanta like they had, they were now certain that it was far more widespread that they'd even imagined in the beginning.
With the use of a decent amount of cord found in one of the trucks, and with the use of quite a few cans emptied into pots to contribute to the stew they'd all eat for dinner, they'd rigged up an elementary alarm system that any Tom and Jerry enthusiast could appreciate. It wasn't much, but it would at least alert them to when something was crossing the barrier and nearing their camp. That would, if nothing else, buy them time to prepare to defend themselves.
With shelter and security covered, the next logical concern was food—especially given the fact that the inviting water of the two nearby quarries made it so that nobody was terribly concerned with water. Everyone had gathered together everything they had, as far as supplies went, and Carol had taken the job of categorizing and cataloguing what they had, in a notebook, so that she could figure out, realistically, how much they could all eat before the need for more provisions drove them out of their hiding place.
In addition to the boxes of food that people had brought when fleeing their homes, Daryl and Merle tossed out the information, to the group, that they could hunt pretty well, and the woods were teeming with wildlife. In addition, they were both pretty good at spotting edible plants, so they could gather what was around and available. Andrea and Amy, beyond that, possessed the skill of pretty much being able to catch a fish with every hook they'd ever dropped into the water, and the quarries were almost desperate for a little thinning of the fish population.
Ed was the only person in the whole group who hadn't contributed any food, swearing that he had nothing on him when he'd left, even though Carol had nonchalantly informed Daryl that Ed—the whole time they'd been married—had seen himself as something of an amateur survivalist that had been preparing for the end of the world for at least the past decade.
Daryl told Shane that he suspected Ed was holding back on supplies and, then, when Ed refused Shane the right to search his vehicle, Shane had found himself agreeing with Daryl. Not only was Ed then banished to his far, solitary, corner of the camp, but they decided that he should be left out of the communal sharing of things unless he was able to contribute in some way.
Daryl, personally, hoped that the man proved to be so absolutely useless that they forgot him on the far edge of the camp and that, finally, he simple wandered off of his own volition. Since he doubted that would happen, though, given that Ed was a natural-born leech, Daryl decided that he would settle for the man becoming something like a late-night bear snack.
Once the logistics of food and shelter were settled, they took inventory of tools and utensils. They collected together a list of their greatest wants and wishes, for whenever they should decide to venture away from the campsite, and then they'd divided into small groups to take care of the work that needed to be done to establish their camp.
Their protective barrier—although something straight out of any good cartoon—was erected. Merle left camp and, while still remaining within shouting distance, hunted up enough squirrels and rabbits that, skinned and cleaned, the whole camp was able to eat well. Carol prepared the meal in half the pots they had as a camp, and they boiled water in the other half of the pots to be sure that it was clean and ready to drink.
Before it got entirely dark, they chose a spot on the far edge of camp and got a latrine dug for everyone, and those that were familiar with erecting tents helped to get everyone settled in for the night.
It was a long and draining day, but there was something infinitely rewarding about knowing that, somehow, they'd managed to get this entire group of people—all strangers at the start—to pull together and set up a functioning camp that had the promise to carry them through the next couple of weeks, as they waited out whatever storm had started brewing when a virus led the United States' government to bomb Atlanta and, presumably, other large urban hotspots throughout the country.
They had all been kept busy to the point that, when people were finally turning in for the night, most of them looked like they were crawling to their tents. They would sleep well and, if everything went off like they hoped it would, they would be equally as busy the next day as they kept the place running.
Daryl felt strangely optimistic about the whole damned thing.
When it was getting late, Daryl had offered Sophia a hug and a kiss on the forehead goodnight, and then he'd sent her with Carol to get tucked into her special purple sleeping bag. After everyone had gone to their tents, cars, and other respective sleeping spots, Daryl walked a circle around the outside perimeter of the camp and relieved himself at one corner. He lit a cigarette and took in the brightness of the moon and the stars when there were no lights, anywhere, to dull their shine.
The only lights, in fact, around them were those produced by camping lanterns that burned in the tents. The smoldering remains of their fires had already been kicked out, covered over, and doused with used bathwater that had been boiled up in the pots that would, without a doubt, get a great deal of use.
Daryl made it a special point to walk out toward the edge of camp where Ed had been banished. The man was sleeping in his car, and the vehicle was dark. Daryl didn't like knowing he was there, but there was very little that he could do. He had spoken his peace to Shane, but as long as Ed kept his distance, Daryl wasn't justified in feeding him the bullet that he hoped Ed choked to death on. The same lack of governmental regulation that could keep Daryl from going to prison if he killed Ed right now, might very well see Daryl strung up from a tree somewhere if he decided to take things into his own hands before he had the support of the crowd that had now settled around them all.
When Daryl was satisfied that Ed was asleep and all the fires were out, he made his way to his tent.
Inside the tent, he found Carol sitting and, by the light of the camping lantern, working on some sewing.
"What'cha doin'?" Daryl asked.
"Sophia ripped her shirt today," Carol said. "It's her favorite one, and it isn't like we can exactly run to the store right now."
"In all we packed, she's gonna run outta clothes?" Daryl asked.
"It's her favorite," Carol repeated.
"Can't it wait until morning?" Daryl asked. "You gonna wreck your eyesight like that."
Carol sighed and moved to put away the shirt and the sewing kit in the corner of their tent. As she moved a few things around without much deliberate purpose, Daryl realized that she was simply doing things to keep herself busy and distracted. The busy day was enough to wear anybody out—but not everybody was dealing with everything that Carol had on her plate.
Daryl crawled toward her, closing the gap between them. He reached out and caught the top of her arm to get her attention.
"Hey," he said, tugging her gently. "Turn around a minute. Look at me."
Carol did turn around, and Daryl caught the tears shining at her lower lids just before she brushed them away at the exact moment they landed on her cheeks.
"You OK?" Daryl asked. Carol sniffed and nodded. Daryl rubbed his thumb over the upper part of her arm before he brought it up to rub at her face, wiping away the dampness. "I don't want you to lie to me. You understand?"
"Yeah," Carol said, quietly, nodding her head.
"You OK?" Daryl repeated. Carol shook her head and Daryl pulled her forward, practically pulling her into his lap.
"What if he hurts her, Daryl?" Carol asked, keeping her voice just barely audible to Daryl as she breathed out the words. "Just to spite me?"
Daryl nodded his understanding. His chest ached. There was no concern for herself. There was no worry about what Ed might do to her if he were, somehow, able to get her alone. There was no concern for how he might try to punish her for imagined sins against him. Carol's only worry was what Ed might do to Sophia.
"Listen to me," Daryl said, matching her volume so that Sophia wouldn't hear them. "I need you to listen, OK? He ain't gettin' near her. OK? Just like today—like we never let her outta our sight? We're gonna keep her in our sight like that. Between me, you, Andrea, Merle, and Amy? She don't get outta everybody's sight at once. Never. And he don't get the chance to ever so much as look at her good. OK?"
"OK," Carol agreed, though Daryl knew that a mother's fears couldn't be quelled that easily. She was accepting his words, but she would still worry. He wasn't going to try to remove all worry, because he knew it wasn't possible. He only wanted to remove enough that she could sleep.
"She doin' OK?" Daryl asked.
Carol smiled to herself. She nodded her head.
"Better than I thought she would," Carol said. "She told me that—her Daddy would protect us."
Daryl smiled to himself, his chest aching, now, in a slightly different way than before. He touched Carol's face and she leaned her cheek into his hand.
"She ain't wrong," Daryl said. "If he wants to come after either one of you? He's gotta go through my ass first."
"I just wish he wasn't here," Carol said.
"I do, too," Daryl assured her.
"I—know it's wrong to say, but I almost wish that…he'd just never made it away from I-20. Worse than that, I wish—he'd never made it out of the house that night. I just…wasn't strong enough."
"OK, shhhh," Daryl shushed, practically rocking Carol in his arms. "That's enough of that. That's enough of all that." He pulled her toward the sleeping bags that she'd zipped together for them to share, and he ushered her inside, following right behind her. He blew out the lamp and pulled her to him, holding her in the dark. "He can't bother us. He's a coward. Always was one. And he ain't gonna have the balls to do what he knows would cost him his sorry ass life, OK? But if he did? If he got stupid and he tried? We'd take care of him. And believe me, Carol, I know you—you're plenty damn strong enough to take care of him, yourself, if you got to."
"I didn't that night," Carol said. "He left the house."
Daryl laughed to himself.
"Only after he knocked you unconscious, and you give it to him good enough that he got the hell outta there in case you woke up again, I'm sure of it." Daryl said. He kissed Carol's face, identifying exactly where she was in the darkness, and then moved again to kiss her lips. "Don't talk about it no more tonight. Just sleep. Know that there ain't shit that he can do to us. Not any of us."
"Daryl?" Carol offered quietly, before she squirmed a little tighter against him.
"Yeah?" He breathed out, fitting himself comfortably around her.
"I love you," Carol said.
"Love you, too, woman," Daryl assured her. "More'n you got any fuckin' idea. Close your eyes now. Time to sleep."