The top layer of snow was crunchy under their boots as Daryl and Judith made their way across the barren fields towards town. The frozen air felt dry on their skin making it feel tight and uncomfortable. Judith had tucked herself into his side, her face buried in his gloved hand as she walked, stumbling against his leg. He kept his eyes on the snowy farms around them, watching the distance for any signs of danger - dead or otherwise. He had been hoping that they would come across a vehicle, but they hadn't had much luck with them in the past. Most of the gas had gone bad and they wouldn't start.

"What'd happened next?" Judith asked, tugging on his hand.

Daryl took his eyes off the distance for a moment to look at her. "Uhh," he wracked his brain trying to remember the story. "They, uhhh, had a horse, a big ol' wood one that the bad guys all crawled up inside. And that tricked the good guys - the Greeks I think… and they took it into their town, and that night the bad guys crawled out of the horse and killed everyone."

She looked up at him for a moment then blinked. "And them was called Tridgins?"

"Trojans," he corrected. "Like the condoms." He cringed as the words came out of his mouth and he flicked his eyes away, hoping that she wouldn't notice.

The little girl perked up. "Conons?" Judith asked, still watching his face closely. Her free hand flicked up to brush her too long bangs out of her eyes.

"I'll tell ya when yer older," he cleared his throat and nodded to the trees ahead of them. "Yer s'posed to be watchin'. Don't want no Walkers to sneak up on us."

The little girl tightened her hold on his hand again and she settled her eyes outwards. "What means older?" She asked after a moment without looking back at him.

Daryl thought for a moment, adjusting the straps of his pack on his shoulders. The winter settled into his bones and made his joints ache. "When you got more years on ya."

"What's a years?" Judith tugged on his hand and pointed towards a fence off in the distance. It bent like matchsticks under the weight of a dozen or so Walkers as they stumbled against it, knocking snow off its rough posts. "Can we pra'tice, Daryl? Can we?"

Daryl inspected the frozen ground that the fence had been driven into; it seemed sturdy enough. He looked back to the little girl at his side, bouncing on her tips toes. "Well, get'chur gun then," he released her hand and turned his back on her without taking his eyes off the fence. He kept his own sidearm tucked into a shoulder holster that he wore loosely over one arm. The leather felt stiff as he unclipped the strap and slipped the piece out. He hadn't used it in a while; they spent most of their time avoiding the flesh-hungry monsters that pursued them.

Judith had unzipped a pocket on the side of his pack and he could feel her digging around. Her free hand had twisted around the fabric of his coat and she was holding onto it to keep her balance as she stood on her tiptoes. He heard her huff as she tried to grab the gun.

"Better be quicker than that," he told her. "If we gotta fight you're gonna need to get your gun real quick."

"I gotted it!" She exclaimed, releasing her hold on his coat as she stepped back, holding the revolver in one hand. Using her teeth, she pulled her mitten off one hand, then transferred the gun to the other and did the same. With her fingers free she stuffed her mittens into her pockets.

"Wat'cha do first?" He asked her, turning around to face the little girl. He kneeled down slowly onto one knee so that they would be at eye-level. Using his fingertips he pushed her bangs up into her hat so that she would be able to see clearly. As his hands dropped, he moved to take the weapon from her's.

Judith twisted away from him, her lower lip sticking out. "I can do it, Daryl!" She complained, taking a step back. When his hands dropped her eyes narrowed and she squinted at the gun. The weapon looked huge in her tiny hands as she fumbled with it. Finally, she held it to her chest and it clicked as she flipped the safety.

When she looked back to him he gave her a nod of approval. "You be real careful with that. Don't touch the trigger."

Tightlipped, Judith nodded, her features determined. "Bet'cha I can get 'em all, Daryl," she skipped along beside him, barely matching his long strides.

Daryl kept his eyes fixed on the fence before them, watching for any sign that it would give way. It bowed but didn't break under the Walker's weight. When they were a few feet away, his eyes moved to sweep the faces of the Walkers that had worked themselves up into a frenzy, teeth gnashing at the air. Long clawed fingers reached for them and Daryl closed his hand around the bony smooth shape of the little girl's shoulder.

"Alright," he kneeled down beside her and pointed to the Walker that was partially impaled by the fence. The post had pushed clear through the rotten pot of its abdomen, releasing a string of black entrails that wound their way around the wood. Daryl pointed to it and watched as Judith raised her gun, one eye squeezed shut.

She held her breath for a long moment and then lowered the gun. "I's scared," she told him, looking over at him, disappointed. "It goes bang real loud," she frowned.

Daryl took her hands and raised them again. He knee walked until he was behind her and helped her line up the shot. "Hold it real tight so it don't bloody your nose," he instructed, helping her to adjust her fingers. She tensed as he pushed on her finger slowly, finally the trigged clicked and the gun fired. The bullet embedded cleanly into the middle of the forehead of the Walker they had been aiming for.

Judith bounced up and down, giggling. "We got'ted it!" she squealed.

"Focus," Daryl told her firmly.

Judith did as she was told and turned back to the remaining Walkers. He released her hands and she lined up another shot.

Eventually, with his help, she had cleaned up the small herd, reloaded their weapons, and put them away. Judith bounced happily along beside him, her eyes darting around the farms thoughtfully. "Daryl?" She asked, turning back to look at him again.

He grunted.

"Wass' years?" She asked, repeating her question from before.

Daryl sighed at the line of questioning. "Lot's o' days," he told her.

"What's a days?"

Daryl considered the question. "When the sun come up, then goes down again."

"Daryl?" She was looking up at him. "How d'you knows so much stuffs?"

"I went to school," he sighed again. "Now hush up."

She did as she was told and turned her eyes to the ground where she watched her boots sink into the snow. They were partway across the next property when she looked up at him. He caught the head movement and he turned to see her bite her lip, her blue eyes curious.

Daryl took a calming breath. "What?"

"What's school?"

Fighting back his annoyance at her constant questioning, he resisted the urge to tell her to hush again. "A place where kids used to go to learn stuff."

"Did my big brother Carl go'ed to school?"

"Yeah…"

She pursed her lips and nodded, returning to silence.

Daryl breathed a sigh of relief- until she giggled. He looked down to find that she was wearing a mischievous grin and she giggled again as she wrapped both her fingers around his wrist and lifted her legs so she was dangling from his arm.

Daryl rolled his eyes upwards to stare at the grey sky. He wish'd she'd just quit it, already.

By the time they got to town the night had settled comfortably around them. Judith had quieted down and had been plodding along beside him for last few miles. He was grateful for the silence and the break from her constant questioning. Sometimes he missed the good old days before she'd learned to talk… and ask questions.

They left the food store for last, he figured there wouldn't be much there anyway, and headed into the pharmacy. He hoped that they would be able to find fresh gloves at least to change into when theirs became soaked. Some new socks wouldn't go unappreciated either.

Judith headed straight for the drink coolers to look for water, though Daryl suspected she wouldn't find any. In the meantime, he made his way through the maze of collapsed shelves in search of some food. His ears prickled with the effort of listening so hard as he tried to take in everything in their environment.

He came to the back of the store where he found a rack. Most of the glossy magazines had fallen to the ground where they had been trampled and turned into damp pulp, ground into the tile. He turned to move, but paused when his eyes settled on a couple of faded covers. Reaching out, his fingers traced the edges of the thin books as he looked at the ABC and 123 pictures that were scattered over the pages along with drawings of animals and fruits. He dropped his hand and then kept walking.

He paused at the end of the aisle then went back. Scooping up the learning books he rolled them and shoved them into his coat pocket.

XXXX

They spent a couple of weeks in town picking their way through the abandoned stores and neighbourhoods. They slept in a wartime bungalow off the main street. The simple structure had high windows and was set further back from the road. The wild hedges across the front of the property had grown high enough to reach the edge of the roof so their movements wouldn't be spotted easily by passersby. They slept in the living room on a couple of couches, bundled up in the blankets that they had taken from the bedrooms.

Daryl knew that they needed to move on; there were too many Walkers in the area. They could hear them mostly at night, stumbling into cars and overturned garbage cans. Their ragged breaths and growling would cut through the quiet night, tearing Daryl from his sleep. He'd lay awake in the dark, listening to them as they trudged past the house. He'd watch the girl sleeping across the room, ignorant of a world where the dead stayed dead.

In the cold evenings they would boil rice, beans, and lentils. Things that could be packaged and taken with them when they moved on. Judith would count the beans and place them in wax paper and plastic bags, then suck the air out of them and seal them. She had mastered the smaller digits, and so when she reached ten she would start all over again. Daryl would listen to her determined voice, wearing a tiny smile that he hid behind her back.

On their final day there they took the alleyways and Daryl forced the heavy steel door on one of the buildings using a crowbar. Judith stood a couple of steps behind him, turning her head from side to side as she kept watch. When it opened, he pushed her inside first and closed it behind them. He ushered her forward into the main part of the store, hid hand resting on her shoulder. "C'mon," he gave her a gentle shove when she hesitated at the large storefront windows. "Keep yer head down."

Judith looked up at him and then back at the streets that had been occupied by at least a hundred Walkers for the last few days. He had hoped that they would move on, but the mindless corpses had gotten themselves trapped between two busses. They would stagger from one end of the street to the other, hit the bus and then move back again like a game of pinball or fish in a barrel.

"Why are we come here?" Judith asked, crouching down behind a display rack, her knees pulled up to her chin. She pushed her bangs out of her eyes again and looked up at him.

Daryl ducked his head and moved around the store. Most of the boxes lay opened and empty on the floor, tipped onto their sides, tissue paper scattered. He had been hoping there would be more left over. In the early days people had looted most stores, grabbing whatever they could. He figured most of it had wound up going to waste.

Finally he found something that looked like it might work and he picked up the box.

He moved back over to where he had left Judith and crouched down in front of her. She'd picked up a bottle of pink nail polish and was inspecting the glitter curiously.

"Wassat?" She asked, pointing to the box in his hands.

Daryl lifted off the lid off and pulled out a pair of blue and grey boots. "They're boys ones, but they'll do," he told her sliding her old duct taped ones off off her feet.

"Why's they're boys ones?" She asked, watching as he worked.

He pushed the new boots over her heels and tucked her pants into them. They were a little big but she would grow into them soon. "'Cause they are," he told, pulling the straps tight.

Judith shrugged and got to her feet, dropping the nail polish onto the floor next to her old boots. She turned around again and picked up a card that had been punched through to sit on a peg on a display rack. From the end of it dangled several elastic bands, tied together with a small ziptie. She looked at the diagram printed on the cardboard of a girl with her hair tied back in a ponytail. Reaching up Judith captured her own brown hair in her mittened hand and inspected the ends, biting her lip. "I can keep em?"

"What for?" Daryl asked, taking the package from her. He looked it over for a moment then nodded. "Put 'em in your pocket. We'll figure 'em out later. Best if we can getch'yer hair outta yer eyes."

On their way out Daryl traded in some of her old clothes for some new ones while Judith stayed close by, her fingers wrapped around the fabric at the back of his right knee. "Daryl, you could getted some new boots too!"

"If we find some," he answered.

They left the town behind and followed the twists and turns of the highway as it snaked through the forest. They stayed off the road itself and clung to the shoulder, keeping themselves far enough into the tree lines that they would be able to hide if necessary. They travelled South East and then broke away from the main highway to avoid coming across other groups or Walkers.

Judith practiced her counting and her ABCs as they walked, her tiny voice a steady sound in the otherwise silent woods. Sometimes he would help her as she stumbled over the letters, and tell her which words started with which letters. T for tree, R for rock, W for Walker.

They walked for days, stopping to rest at night. They ate the food that they had rationed and the scarce animals that they had been able to hunt. Daryl had hoped that there would be more to eat the deeper they got into the woods, but with no natural competitors, the Walkers had left very little alive.

It had been almost a month since they had left Hershel's farm when they opened their last food ration. The beans had gone sour as they ate them, but neither of them complained as their stomachs cramped and growled with hunger. Judith finished her portion first and then tossed the wax paper into the fire. They watched the edges melt until the flames caught enough traction, and then it burned slowly. She picked up a thin log next and tossed it on top of the pit, causing it to spit sparks into the air that drifted upwards until they disappeared against the starry sky.

"I ever tell ya 'bout the time I saw a Chupacabra?" Daryl asked her, reaching out snag the back of her coat. He tugged her backwards until she lost her footing and landed on his lap. They'd laid the tarp out on the ground so they could sleep closer to the fire.

Judith nodded, keeping her eyes on the flames. Reaching around her, he turned her palm over and set the wax paper in her hand with the remainder of his food. Her head twisted around to look at him and he nodded towards the food and closed her inside the sleeping bag with him.

"I was huntin' for squirrel when I saw it. Long time ago. I was older than you, few years or so-," he told her, watching as she folded the beans up carefully into the paper again and tucked them into her pocket. "I was down by the ol' creek. Had to climb down this ridge, 'bout forty feet up or so-," he looked down when Judith curled into him, her head tucked into his chest. Reaching over he grabbed the blanket from inside his pack and draped it over her to provide some extra warmth. He picked up Beanie from the tarp beside him and tucked the doll in with her.

"Daryl? Wassa' Joobiegoobrie?" she asked sleepily, her head dropping into the crook of his arm as she pulled her doll closer to her chest.

"Chupacabra," he corrected, watching as her breaths evened out and she drifted off to sleep. Very slowly, so as not to wake her, he moved until he was on his side, Judith tucked into his chest, her head under his chin. He sighed and closed his eyes and started counting the seconds until he fell asleep too.

The next morning he woke before Judith. He left her to sleep longer, knowing he had no food to give her. It would be better to let her continue to dream about a world where she would know no hunger. He stroked her hair, stiff from the frozen air, and stared at blue sky peeking through the bare branches above them. His back ached from sleeping on the frozen dirt but he kept still, listening.

He almost leaped up at the sound when it came, but he forced himself to stay still and quiet. He strained to hear it, somewhere in the distance, echoing around the brittle frosty woods. The sound of someone chopping wood.

Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.