A/N: Hooo, boy. Folks, I have to be honest. This may just be an exercise in futility. This was originally based on the PREVIEWS for episode 4x03. How far we have come since then! I think its safe to say this season shattered my muse for this story. I've been trying to come back to it all season, with not much success. However, lately a new idea started marinating in my mind, so I'm trying to see if it works.

I can't promise anything, except that I will give this my best effort. A little encouragement would be splendid, if you are so inclined. I really, really, really need it for this one. If anyone actually read this, you win my eternal devotion.

Spoilers: Well, now this is COMPLETELY AU after 4x02. The rest of Season 4 didn't happen, as far as this story is concerned. This may or may not turn out to be a good thing. I haven't decided yet.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Seriously, nothing.

Chapter One: The First Day (Part 1)

Carol sighed as she checked over their meager supplies one last time. A rifle and a handgun for each of them, with enough ammunition to last them a few days. She had a knife lashed to her belt, another tucked into the tall shaft of her black boot. One flashlight, with an extra set of batteries. Two thin, threadbare blankets taken from one of the empty prison cells; barely enough to ward off the chill at night, but they would have to do. A canteen of water for each and a small variety of canned goods. A small book of matches completed the supply cache. That's it, then. Carol felt eyes on her and turned to see the dark figure of Glenn, leaning against the door to C block as he watched her pack. She let the back door of the Tuscon fall shut, wincing as the resounding thud echoing across the prison yard like a shotgun blast.

The morning was so young it was still dark as they loaded up the back of the green Hyundai. Carol could just make out the first glimmer of morning sky lightening up as the sun crept closer to the horizon. Here, though, the shadows were still long and cold, raising goosebumps across Carol's skin as she shivered, folding her arms across her chest as Glenn approached her slowly.

"Everything set?" he asked her.

"Yeah," Carol replied. "Just waiting on Bob now." She watched Glenn heave a deep breath, knowing he had more to ask her.

"Did you talk to Tyreese yet?"

She had. With an aching heart she'd watched as Tyreese escorted his sister Sasha to quarantine. He'd come to her after, full of fire and determination as he laid down his decree at her feet. Carol just nodded at Glenn.

"We have one week to make it there and back," she said softly. "Or Tyreese will have everyone evacuate the prison and there won't be anyone for us to come home to. What's he decided to do about the ones who are sick?"

"I have no idea," Glenn replied, shaking his head morosely. "I mean, we can't just..." He trailed off, furiously blinking back tears. Carol reached out and wrapped her arms around Glenn's shoulders.

"We'll make it." She whispered the promise in his ear as Glenn's arms folded around her and his head dropped to her shoulder, shaking with his sobs. "Daryl and the others will come back. We'll survive. You just need to be strong right now, Glenn."

"You come back," Glenn said fiercely. He pulled back and looked her in the eye. "You come back, Carol. We need you."

And there is the crux of everything, isn't it? Carol knew she was needed here. Their strongest fighters missing for days, their physicians ill, the children in her care left defenseless. She couldn't help but feel as though she was turning her back on all of that, all on the palest glimmer of hope, a pipe dream that somewhere to the south lay the promised rewards that would make her family whole again. She could wait here, firm in her faith that Daryl would come back as he always did. (Eventually, a traitorous part of her mind whispered, echoing Glenn's earlier comments. Carol quickly banished that thought.) She could shoulder her pack and use what little knowledge of tracking Daryl had passed onto her to try to find them herself. She ached to follow that path, to get out there and find him, if only to quelch the constant, selfish urge that burned in the pit of her belly to see him, to make sure he is still real and alive.

Carol knew that there would be no finding Daryl though, not when he and the others covered their tracks as they went for fear of the Governor, or another unfriendly camp. Fear covered everything they did now; it seeped its way into all of them until Carol could feel it crawling beneath her skin. She knew fear intimately, had spent most of her adult life trapped in its raw embrace. She was tired of being afraid. She hated seeing that fear embody the ones she loves most.

"I promise," she said firmly, giving Glenn's shoulder a light squeeze. "I'll come back."

The slow drag of the sun across the sky beat down on the little Tuscon as Carol slowly inched her way around another car. She loathed coming across pileups like this. They reminded her too much of days she'd rather forget, standing on black asphalt baking in the sun and waiting endlessly for her little girl to come out of the woods. No more waiting. Not now, not ever again. Bob had been silent since the last glimpse of the prison had faded into the trees behind them, his fingers tapping out an unsteady rhythm on the dashboard that grated on Carol's nerves. This is going to be one long ass trip.

Carol wondered how the others did it all the time, stuck in the confines of vehicles that grew smaller with each passing mile and searching for supplies that, more often than not, wouldn't be there. I guess they just get used to it. The same way she'd resigned herself to rarely seeing more than the view out the prison gates every day, with a quiet sigh and a reminder that they all had their jobs to do, as Hershel said.

She knew this was risky, her going out with only Bob, neither of them experienced with making supply runs. This... this was their Hail Mary play. Fingers crossed, throw the salt over your shoulder, click your heels together and pray those ruby slippers could bring about one more miracle.

Carol wondered if they had anything on their side.

"Hey, honey." Glenn sank into the chair in front of the long window and raised his palm to the cool glass. Maggie smiled wanly from the other side, pale and trembling as she lifted her hand to match his.

"How is everything out there?" Maggie rasped, her voice low and strained from hours of coughing.

"It's..." Glenn trailed off, not quite sure how to answer Maggie without worrying her. He could see it in her face, the deep seated fear that had settled into every line of her face, and knew that whatever he said would not ease that feeling inside her. Might as well be honest. "Horrible," he finished lamely. Maggie chuckled, the ghost of a smile flitting across her face.

"Well, that's comforting."

"Sorry." Glenn shuffled his chair closer to the glass, wishing he could reach out and take her into his arms the way he loved. Maggie would lay her head on his shoulder while he combed her hair with his fingers, her arms wrapped around him. It felt wrong, having a thick wall isolating her from him.

"So, its true?" Maggie asked carefully. "Carol and Bob left?"

Glenn nodded. The guilt, the fear, the knowledge that the odds of Carol and Bob coming back from their suicide run were next to none weighed down on his shoulders until he bowed under it, bringing his head to rest against the glass as the throbbing in his temples reached epic proportions.

"What if they don't come back?" Glenn whispered.

"Which ones?" Maggie replied.

"All of them. Any of them. Does it matter?"

"No," Maggie sighed. "I suppose not." She leaned forward until her head rested against the window, matching Glenn's posture from her side of the wall. They stayed that way for hours, the dim light filtering in from outside slowly making its way across the floor as time marched on its relentless path.