"She did not intend to be taken alive.
She would die as she had lived,
With a blade in her hand and a smile on her lips."
-George R. R. Martin
Chapter TEN – Stay Frosty
Keeping one eye on Jim, my rifle at my side, I tried to help Carol and Lori with the kids schooling. It was Math, and surprise, surprise, Carl had inherited his father's math illiteracy. I swear, when it came to Math, the brains of the Grimes men just take a long walk somewhere very far away and stubbornly refused to return without a bribe, usually of the sweet or savory variety.
"What are we doing again?"
"Fractions and percentages, squirt. Your momma and Carol just taught you this," I reminded him, and Carl sighed, disappointed that he'd forgotten how to do it already. I nudged him, and pulled out a packet of beef jerky from my backpack, waving it in the air just in front of him. "You know this is how I had to bribe your dad to learn fractions. Beef jerky, sugar cookies and grape Kool Aid. If you focus, I'll give you some jerky. If you don't, I'll eat it. Beef's your favorite jerky flavor, right?"
Carl nodded, before he bent over his books again, Lori grinning at me as my techniques worked. I opened the packet of jerky, seeing Carl's eyes flicker up to me, and I smirked at him.
"Carl, buddy, if I ate twenty percent of this strip of jerky…how much is that as a fraction? I'm just curious." I questioned, shrugging my shoulder as I took a small bite and faked a satisfied moan as I did so. I smiled when I heard a little giggle from Sophia, glad that she was coming out of her shell a little bit more.
"Uh…one sixth?" Carl guessed, and I grinned at him, before taking a bigger bite of the jerky.
"I've just eaten about forty to forty six percent more. That's sixty percent of the jerky. What's that as a fraction?" I pressed, holding the small jerky piece aloft for him to see.
"Four sixths?" Carl hedged, and I arched a brow at him.
"You askin' or tellin'?" I teased him, and he grinned widely at me.
"Telling. You've eaten four sixths." Carl beamed, as his mother praised him for getting it right.
"I'm telling you. Bribery and food always works with the Grimes men," I said, handing him a couple strips of jerky, before handing the same to Sophia, who took them with a grateful smile and a quiet 'thank you'. "Only two for now. Andrea and Amy worked hard to catch those fish, so we have to save room for dinner."
I saw Jim staring blankly in our direction, so I climbed to my feet, grabbing my rifle so that Carl didn't get any dumb ideas, and walked over, plonking myself down onto the dirt, holding up a piece of jerky. Jim seemed to scrutinize it, before he nodded, and I held it up to his lips as he slowly dragged it into his mouth by his teeth.
We had to tie him to the tree since there was nowhere really to contain him, so his hands were trapped behind him. He seemed to understand, though. The kids were still a little nervous, so for their peace of mind, he was willing to sit there until Shane was convinced he was fine.
I sat there with him, placing the jerky back into my bag, and neither of us spoke. It didn't even feel awkward, almost like a companionable silence that didn't need to be filled with random chitchat that didn't matter.
Shane and Dale came over, Shane giving me a look of disapproval as we weren't supposed to be near Jim unless we had his say so, and Shane crouched down next to Jim so they were eye level and equal. I noticed the metal bucket my cop friend had placed down at his side, filled with clean water and guessed what he had come to do.
Shane tilted his head to the side, getting Jim's attention, and Dale held back a bit, not wanting to crowd his friend with both Shane and I near as well.
"Jim, take some water?" Shane asked, giving Jim the option now that he'd calmed down.
"All right." Jim nodded, probably now realizing just how desperate he was to cool down. He had been sweating bullets doing all that manual labor in the hot afternoon sun, and now he seemed to feel just how much that had affected his body.
"Yeah? All right," Shane smiled, putting his hand into the bucket, and pulling up a deep blue mug full of semi-cool water. He held it up to Jim's lips and nodded at him. "Here you go, bud."
Jim eagerly sipped at the water, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down in his throat as he gulped the liquid down, before he finished.
"Pour some on my head?" Jim requested, and Shane nodded, scooping up another mugful of water, and gently tipped it over Jim's head, the man sighing almost in relief at the sensation. He was obviously more overheated than he had thought.
"Cooling you down, huh?"
"Yeah," Jim breathed, before he looked at Shane straight in the eyes, a single question in his own. "How long you gonna keep me like this?"
"Well, yeah, until I don't think that you're a danger to yourself or others." Shane said, emphasizing the 'others' part, causing Jim to nod, his eyes moving from the cop and pseudo-leader to the two mothers and two children still doing their schooling at the small table just in front of him.
"Sorry if I scared your boy and your little girl." Jim apologized, and I half-smiled at the gesture.
All four looked over, none of them looking all that fearful. Jim was just a man tied to a tree, the heat had gotten to him, and he got a little crazy for a bit. He wasn't dangerous.
"You had sunstroke. Nobody's blaming you." Lori tried to assuage his guilt, but Jim clearly wasn't completely certain that the kids themselves had forgiven him as he addressed Sophia and Carl.
"You're not scared now, are you?"
"No, sir." Sophia replied, Carl shaking his head in agreement.
"Your mama's right," Jim said to Carl, who looked up from his schoolwork again to catch Jim's eyes. "Sun just cooked my head is all."
"Jim, do you know why you were digging?" Dale questioned, concern and curiosity warring on his face for his most prominent emotion. "Can you say?"
"I had a reason. Don't remember. Something I dreamed last night," Jim answered, his eyes flickering from Dale back to the 'school' table and to Carl. "Your dad was in it. You were too. You were worried about him. Can't remember the rest. You worried about your dad?"
"They're not back yet." Carl responded, and I lowered my eyes to the dirt.
I'd been trying not to think about how they probably should have been back a while ago. It was an easy retrieval mission. Get in, grab Merle and the bag of guns, and get out again. The only reason it could have taken them all day was if there were complications. For the sake of everybody, there had better not have been any complications. It would destroy the morale of the group, as well as the hearts of Carl and Lori and myself, possibly Shane too, if they didn't come back. It just didn't bear thinking about.
"We don't need to talk about that." Lori stated, rubbing Carl's back as Shane shot me a look of sympathy. Shane had always known how I'd felt about Rick, I think. He hadn't come right out and said so, but I knew that he knew. Shane was always intuitive that way.
"Your dad's a police officer, son. He helps people," Jim continued, ignoring Lori's subtle warning. She hadn't wanted to panic Carl, so there had been no mentions of Rick or the others all day since they'd left, especially once it started to look like they weren't coming back that night. "Probably just came across some folks needing help, that's all. That man, he's tough as nails. I don't know him well, but…I could see it in him. Am I right?"
Jim looked between Shane and me until one of us answered.
"Oh yeah." Shane replied, completely understating the entire thing, but it worked.
Rick Grimes was the toughest son of a bitch I knew. He wasn't physically the strongest man I'd met, but he was the strongest in character, in will and mind. I knew that there was nothing that Rick couldn't do if he put his mind to it. Once he believed he could do it…that was it, it got done. If he said he was coming back, I knew that he would find his way.
I just had to believe and hope that his strength would hold out and bring him home.
"There ain't nothing gonna stop him from getting back here to you, your mom and your step-mom, I promise you that."
I gaped for a minute, seeing that Shane was grinning down at me. Rick and I weren't even together, let alone married. I wasn't even wearing a wedding ring, for Christ's sake! I was just about to open my mouth to correct him, but Carl was already nodding, and Lori was hiding her silent laughs behind her hand, and then Shane picked up his pail and opened his damn mouth to cut me off.
"All right," Shane said, and I glared at the laughter in his tone. "Who wants to help me clean some fish, huh?"
"Sweet. Come on, Sophia." Carl urged the girl, as he climbed off his seat and chased after Shane, Sophia close behind.
"Stay with Carol, all right?" Lori said, as Carol started to follow the others along with Dale.
Lori got up off her seat and came over to Jim and me, crouching down in front of him, looking at her hands before she looked up at him, ready to speak. Jim got in first though.
"You keep your boy close. Both of ya," Jim said, and my eyes snapped to his. Carl wasn't mine. He was my godson, but he wasn't my boy. "You don't ever let him out of your sight."
Jim gave us such a fierce look that it completely wiped any of my protests from my mind, and we both nodded numbly, no words able to leave either of us, as we got up and left him to his thoughts.
When we got back to camp, Morales brought us over to show off his own genius; he'd built a rock wall around the fire so that the flames wouldn't be as visible which meant we could let the fire get a little higher.
"I, uh, built up the rocks all around, see? So the flames can be a little higher and have 'em be hidden." Morales grinned at his work, and I patted his shoulder, with a grin of my own.
"Using your initiative. Good work, Morales." I praised him, before I started helping the others get the fire and food started.
By the time the fish had been cooked, lukewarm beer had been distributed to the adults and soda to the kids, and we were all in relatively high spirits. Everyone was getting a full meal for a change.
I sat with my back to the tree line, my rifle resting against my leg, with Dale in the chair next to mine. I'd finished my fish fry, my stomach full for once, the dull ache that came with rations gone for now. It was delicious, and fresh and I'd almost forgotten what fresh food tasted like. Canned meat, canned anything, just didn't fill you the same way. I mean, you could obviously live on it, and it wasn't that bad for your health, but it just lacked the taste that came with fresh food.
So I was happy and satisfied, smiling as I picked up my rifle and started to clean it.
Everyone was talking, laughing, and enjoying themselves, faces bright in the glow of the fire. Everyone, but Ed, who had wisely decided not to join us, and the four man rescue team.
Carol and Sophia had joined us too, and it was nice to see them both smiling and having fun without the fear of Ed's shadow forcing them to silence themselves before they got hurt. No one could say, with the massive smiles on each of their faces, that Shane had been wrong to beat Ed black and blue now, not when Carol and Sophia looked so…free and happy.
The dinner conversation switched a lot from the food to the drink to old memories people would bring up about life before walkers. Simple things like school runs, work, drinks with friends, college experiences. Eventually, Morales shifted the conversation onto Dale, who had finished his fish and was staring speculatively into the darkness beside him.
"I've gotta ask you, man, it's been driving me crazy." Morales prompted, grabbing Dale's attention, as well as his wife's and pretty much everybody else's.
"What?"
"That watch." Morales pointed, and I glanced at Dale, looking down at his watch, finger stroking the face. It probably had sentimental value. A gift from his wife, maybe. I know that she died, he'd told me earlier, to cancer, but he never said how long ago. She had probably bought that watch before she was diagnosed or before they knew the cancer was terminal, and it meant a great deal to him. Especially with the care he gave it.
"What's wrong with my watch?" Dale questioned, eyes still staring at it, before finally flicking back up to Morales.
"I see you every day, same time, winding that thing, like a village priest saying mass."
"I've wondered this myself." Jacqui said, as she forked a piece of fish on her plate, glancing up at the old man with her dark eyes and an amused smile that seemed to span the whole group. Being the only newcomer around the fire, I didn't really know what they were talking about.
"I'm missing the point." Dale informed them, and I nodded since I was too.
"Unless I've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end. At least hit a speed bump for a good long while." Jacqui stated, a small satirical smile gracing her face.
"But there's you every day winding that stupid watch." Morales added, that happy grin still on his face.
"Time, it's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least. Don't you think, Andrea?" Dale asked, gesturing to the blonde who was sipping on her beer. "Back me up here."
Andrea just shook her head, a wide smile on her face, and I remembered her mentioning it was her sister's birthday soon, so I guess she didn't want to remind Amy so she would be more surprised when the day actually came.
"What about you, Thea? I saw you winding your own watch earlier today. Help me out here."
"My, uh, my drill sergeant gave me the watch when I was made a Ranger," I smiled down at it, the simple titanium Army watch that had seen him, and me, through most of his, and my, career. He didn't have any children of his own and he treated me like his. He didn't exactly give me special treatment, he just pushed me harder to prove myself, so I did. "He kept saying to me 'Winters, timing…timing is everything. It can be the difference between life and death, love and hate, the greatest happiness and the greatest sorrow. Time is the only thing that never changes, the only thing that you can count on in this life, besides an inevitable death'."
"Sounds like a wise man," Dale smiled at me, and I nodded, looking at him from the corner of my eye. Dale grinned before looking into the fire as he thought out his next words. "I like, I like what, um, a father said to son, when he gave him a watch that'd been handed down through generations. He said, "I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine, or my father's before me. I give it to you, not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it, for a moment now and then, and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it". Huh?"
There was a long silence as we all listened to his words, some of us with wistful smiles, some with contemplative expressions, until Amy broke it with four words that made mostly all of us laugh or chuckle.
"You are so weird."
"It's not me, it's Faulkner," Dale chuckled, trying to defend himself. "William Faulkner. Maybe my bad paraphrasing."
I chuckled a little bit, wiping down my gun with a half-clean rag. Despite the buzzing in the air, that excited thrumming energy that seemed to be all around us from eating a simple, but large meal, there was a pit in my gut that I couldn't get rid of. Like my gut was warning me something terrible was going to happen. While I could put that down to my constant worry that Rick and the others could be in danger in the city, I didn't fully believe that it was. Each time I tried to push those thoughts away, I kept thinking of Jim digging those large, almost human-length holes in the ground, and it felt like an omen.
Amy standing up pulled me out of my head, as my eyes snapped towards the movement.
"Where are you going?" Andrea questioned, and Amy looked down at her elder sister in annoyance.
"I have to pee," She informed her, and I shook my head with a smile, as she turned away and muttered to herself, "Jeez, you try to be discreet around here!"
I watched her as she walked away, that twisting in my gut getting worse. I scanned the area, looking for any threats, or even just animals in the forest that had wandered near to camp, anything that could be the cause of that sinking feeling in my stomach.
Shane must've seen me searching, as he stared at me before he spoke.
"What's wrong, T?"
"I don't know. I've got a feeling, bad kind. Probably just paranoid." I said, dismissing the feeling aloud, but I turned my eyes back towards the RV.
"Gut feeling?" Shane questioned, and I nodded, not turning back to him, though I felt more eyes than his two burning holes into me. I didn't want to panic the rest of the group and have it be nothing, but at the same time, maybe it was best that they were always a little on edge. It wasn't safe to be complacent, to think you're safe. Nobody is these days. "Your gut's never been wrong before. Maybe it's about Rick and the others. Maybe it's because they haven't come back yet."
"Maybe." I murmured in agreement, forcing a smile on my face as Amy clambered out of the RV again, a look of annoyance on her face.
"We're out of toilet paper?" She complained, probably annoyed that nobody had mentioned it before she had gone in.
I saw it before anybody else did, so when I aimed my gun in Amy's direction, Andrea almost leaped out of her seat to tackle me. I squeezed the trigger twice, the kids screaming at the sound, but the bullets didn't hit Amy.
They hit the walker that was about to grab and bite her.
"Walkers!" I yelled, firing at woman missing half of her face as she stumbled towards the young blonde, who had squeezed her eyes closed when I had shot near her before.
Amy, opening her eyes and seeing the fallen undead people at her feet, screamed loudly, and that's when chaos ensued.
Walkers poured into camp, and everybody scrambled away from the campfire, trying to find some sort of safety. Shane started firing rounds of his shotgun, taking down walkers, while I did the same, rushing forward with Andrea to get to Amy. The men started to grab their melee weapons; bats, pipes, whatever they could find, while the women, particularly the mothers, tried to keep their kids at their sides and near to the closest armed person.
Walkers grabbed at us, and I felt strong dead hands try to grab my waist, but I shot them down, before any could scratch me or bite me, splattering dull red blood on my clothes. I grabbed Andrea's hand, and practically threw her towards her sister, who was still screaming and crying, before I put my back to them.
I had a better vantage point in front of the RV. I could see everybody in front of me, and all the walkers pouring in from all angles but behind me. I slowed my breathing, pushing down any emotional response to the attack, and felt the soldier in me come out again. I raised my M4, wishing I could use the grenade launcher, but everybody was so scattered that I could hit one of the group, and fired on the walkers.
It was just head shot after head shot, walker after walker, until I saw Shane, Lori and Carol approaching with Carl and Sophia in tow, the two mothers gripping their children and each other for dear life, not wanting to lose them, or each other, in all the chaos.
"Stay close!" I yelled, rushing forward to help Shane, looking around at the utter mess that the camp had become. Everybody was scattered. I could see at least six of our own people littered among the many walkers on the ground. We had suffered some major casualties tonight. "Come on!"
I grabbed Carol's skinny wrist in my hand and tugged her forward behind me until we reached Andrea and Amy, who were clutching each other desperately. Andrea was holding Amy so tightly to her that her knuckles were turning white from the effort, probably in shock at how close she had come to losing her baby sister.
"Come on, y'all! Work your way up here!" Shane instructed, waving his free arm towards Morales' wife and kids, as Morales beat a walker back to death with a wooden bat in front of them.
"Right in front of you, Shane!" Lori called out, and Shane and I both whirled back round to fire at the three walkers who had gotten in front of us and near to the RV.
"Get to the RV! Go!" I heard Morales urge to some of the survivors of the attack, and Shane and I pushed our weaponless loved ones and friends behind us as we got closer to the RV, seeing that most of the walkers were coming in from the sides and the forest now.
I dropped walker after walker, but it felt like with each one I killed, there was just another one to take its place.
"Morales, work your way up here!" Shane ordered the man, who had pushed his family towards us, but continued to beat the dead senseless with his blunt instrument.
Then we heard the extra gunfire, and I almost sobbed in relief.
Rick, Glenn, Daryl and T-Dog were back, armed and dangerous, to help save us.
With their added assistance, we made quick work of the remaining walkers, and I heard Rick before I saw him.
"Thea! Carl!" Rick hollered, and I heard the fear in it. He was scared that we were one of the dead, like so many of the group were now. "Thea! Carl!"
"Dad!" Carl called, running out from behind us and into Rick's arms. Carl sobbed into his dad's shoulder, and I stared at the scene, thinking that their embrace was so similar to their one yesterday, yet so different at the same time.
Rick, with Carl still in his arms, made his way towards us, and I had tears streaming down my face, stepping out of the way so he could make a beeline to Lori, who still stood by Shane, but he didn't. He stomped straight towards me, before wrapping his free arm, still gripping a rifle, around my back and pulled me into their embrace. I dropped my own rifle, so I could grip his shirt in my hands, while I hugged him and Carl to me, grateful that they were still alive.
The only sounds to be heard now where the muffled sobs of the kids, the crackling of the still burning fire and gasps and whimpers that came from Glenn and Amy, the two most visibly panicked and disturbed of the group. No one spoke, everyone being in a state of shock as we all took in the destruction of the camp and the severity of our losses. No one spoke, until Jim did, and no one spoke for a long time after, too stunned to form a response.
"I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes."
A/N:
Hi Guys!
I'm back again! And this is my first update of 2016.
Technically, this is only about half an hour late, so I'm counting it as on time. Even though it isn't.
So the camp has been attacked and Rick and the guys are back. Oh, and AMY LIVES! I wanted to change Andrea's story line and I thought what better way to do that than to save her mermaid-loving, baby sister, Amy. Plus, I liked Amy. I'm going to have a lot of fun developing Amy and seeing where I can take her character and how it changes the story that already exists. What do you guys think of this twist?
And what did you guys think of the tutoring session right at the beginning? Thea knows how to get the Grimes men to cooperate. And Jim calling Thea 'Carl's Step-Mom' was something that made me chuckle as I pictured Thea's reaction, because we know that's something that Thea would love, but she's so heavily conflicted about actually admitting her feelings for Rick to another person.
I'm planting all these seeds, guys. Can't wait for them to bloom into something awesome. (I'm tired, please forgive all the flowery-ness).
So now that the camp has been attacked, we all know that shit is about to go down. And it's going to go down in the next chapter and just carry on until our characters hit rock bottom. It's the Walking Dead universe, our heroes can't have too good of a time, can they?
Anyway, thank you to all my reviewers. I'm too tired to go back and list you all, but you guys know who you are and know that I love and appreciate you for it!
The next chapter will be uploaded on January 23rd, so look out for it.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it,
SophStratt.
