Carol was starting to think that Vi had a touch of hypochondriac in her. She'd been to the clinic twice already that day. Once for a migraine and now for a sore lower back. Leaned up against the wall next to the window, hands waving wildly in time with the story she was telling.
"I don't know, sometimes it comes and goes and I think it all goes back to this one time I picked up my sister's kid and he was a fat baby and it threw my back out for like two weeks but then it was fine, except that was a decade ago and now it just randomly happens again for no reason what do you think I should do?"
Carol simply stood there and blinked at the complete run on sentence the other woman spouted at her. She tried and barely succeeded at hiding a small smile. It apparently didn't take long for news to spread that someone was actually in the medical area of the main house on a regular basis and she wondered when she'd be looking at sore throats and hangnails.
"I think there's not much you can do except take it easy and wait for it to pass."
Vi nodded, accepting this advice without question. "Yeah, you're probably right. I mean it's not like it'll last forever. Maybe it's good they didn't send me out today. I really wanted a chance at that rocket launcher though. Dammit."
"I'm sure there will be other chances to set things on fire. Here take this…" She handed Vi a few capsules of Tylenol for good measure. "and rest up for the reminder of the day."
Her outstretched hand holding the medicine barely had time to reach it's destination before her eyes cut to the window. One of the other girls was walking the perimeter of a paddock about twenty feet from the house. Rifle slung over her shoulder, eyes squinting into the sunlight, an easy but purposeful stride to her gait. She didn't see it coming when someone snuck up behind her and slid a long blade directly into her back. Moments later she fell to the ground. Soundless, motionless, gone.
Vi must have noticed her pause. Seen her stare out the window and take in the scene in front of her because she swiveled around and looked too. Gaze going wide and a firm grip dragging Carol a few steps out of view in one swift motion.
Her voice was serious when she spoke. All trace of back problems or headaches forgotten. "Stay here. Shoot anyone who comes in that isn't one of us."
And then she was gone. Leaving Carol alone in the clinic still clutching the pills in her hand. She most definitely was not staying there. That much was certain. There was only ten of them left on the farm that day, the rest having gone earlier to handle the situation at the quarry.
She had no idea how many enemies were roaming their property but the idea of leaving it up to chance and hiding in the clinic while the remaining girls faced it alone was never an option. She slide out the back door, keeping close to the walls of the building and passed over the bodies of two of their attackers on her way. A third rounded the corner the same time she did and she didn't hesitant to stab him directly in the neck, then once in the head to make sure he didn't get back up.
The first spray of blood coated her hands and slid down her wrists over the sleeves of her white shirt. He fell like a rock and she left him there without a second thought. The captial W etched into his forehead barely registering as something to remember before she left.
Four more bodies greeted her on her route to the larger guest house. Whoever was attacking them seemed to be having a hard time of it. They'd barely made it onto the grounds at all before swiftly being taken out.
Carol made her way to the back of the house and came face first with the sight of someone pointing a gun at Vi. Her own gun was out and firing a bullet into his head before she could process more than the thought required to pull the trigger.
Vi huffed out a relieved sigh. "I thought I told you to sta…"
She didn't get to finished her sentence before another shot rang out and her blood sprayed in an arc across Carol's chest.
Any shock at what had just happened was overtaken by instinct and she fired the last bullet in her gun, taking down the man who'd shown up behind Vi.
The sound of gunfire was consistent in the space beyond her, ringing out in waves and then stopping entirely. She chanced a look around the corner and saw the rest of the girls standing over what was left of their attackers littered across the front drive.
How quickly things could change in an instant, she thought. There really was no where safe anymore. They were only kidding themselves if they'd thought otherwise.
It had taken the better part of a day to make sure the majority of walkers went directly into the fires they'd set at various points around the quarry. There hadn't been much effort required. Walkers were simple creatures and the light from a blaze had lured them in easily enough.
Keeping watch over the fires themselves was another story and they'd left a small handful of people at the site to make sure they burnt themselves out instead of climbing the walls and licking over the edges.
Daryl rode in a truck next to Faith who was driving him and two others back home. She was on some sort of high from the day's events, going on about shit he wasn't even paying attention too.
"Did you see that explosion? Holy shit. Now I can check using a rocket launcher off my bucket list. Wonder if we'll get to use it again someday." She paused and side eyed him with a sly expression. "Bet you'll steal that fucker right outta my hands next time, huh? Saw you eyein' it. Don't worry, man. I can share my toys."
He snorted. "Nah. That's all you. Have at it."
"I can't figure you out sometimes, dude. You don't wanna blow shit up, you got a cute little side piece in that shack with you and you ain't hitting that, you don't seem to wanna hit this either." She gestured to herself. "What DO you like? What gets you off? Come on…share your feelings. This is a judgement free zone."
He was glaring at her now but she only laughed and he shook his head in response. This woman was like a thorn in his side. She'd spent the vast majority of their first outing together talking his ear off about her walker kills and prying into every avenue of his life, including but not limited too his relationship, or lack there of, with Carol.
There were no limits to what came out of Faith's mouth. Her only saving grace was that she seemed to treat everyone the same way and didn't single him out. He supposed some people just couldn't help themselves when it came to lack of boundaries.
In some ways, if he was being honest, it was a welcome change to spend time with people that spoke real words to each other on a regular basis, regardless of how tactless those words were. He was sorely out of practice with social skills, if he ever had any to begin with, and his group never gave him much reason to hone them.
"Fine. Opt out of this arm chair therapy session. But someday I'm gonna get more than one sentence out of you. I have my ways."
"We'll see 'bout that."
As they made their way down the gravel drive he had a sudden realization that it was entirely too quiet on the farm. Even with half the people left there for the day it was bustling with activity and the girls were often anything but quiet.
The view of the main house and the carnage that lay at it's feet only confirmed his suspicions. He felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him.
They were just here. They'd just left. How had this happened already.
Daryl didn't wait for the truck to come to a complete stop before jumping out and asking the first person he saw where Carol was. He only got a confused "Don't know" in response from a woman who's name he'd forgotten and ran to the first place he thought to look.
The clinic was just as empty as the rest of the main house and he was almost frantic by the time he'd reach the shed. Having to step around and over at least a dozen bodies on the trip there.
He stopped in his tracks when he saw her, bloodied and quiet on the single porch step. Felt his stomach drop and his feet move of their own volition in a sudden rush to reach her.
"You ok? You hurt?"
She didn't respond and he knelt in front of her to check for injuries. There was so much blood. It coated her hands and arms, speckled across the front of her chest and dripped down her collarbone.
His hands ghosted over her. Tilting her head from one side to the other, pulling her shirt slightly sideways to check for bites or cuts at her shoulders, pushing her sleeves up a few inches and even going so far as to inch up the bottom edges of the fabric to check her stomach for any source of blood.
"Hey, look at me. You get bit? Are you hurt?"
Carol's eyes cut to him and she shook her head. "It's not my blood."
They stared at each other for the span of a heartbeat before he let out a rush of breath. He was relieved even if it felt like a completely inappropriate reaction considering the situation.
"Vi's gone. She was telling me her whole life story just an hour ago and now she's gone."
He sighed. Let go of her arm that he'd been clutching and sat next to her on the step as she continued.
"I shot the man who shot her. Stabbed someone else. The other girls ended the rest of it before it really began. Couldn't have taken more than ten minutes? Fifteen?"
She wasn't really talking to him as much as she was talking at him. Her voice distant and unaffected. He needed to find a way to change that before she slipped away entirely again.
"You did what you had too."
She nodded. "Yeah."
"You did. Don't question it. Start doing that and there ain't no end to the what ifs. For any of us."
She didn't respond, just stared out over the paddock in front of the shed and he nudged her leg slightly with his knee. Held out a hand palm up and waited.
She looked at it for what felt like a lifetime but he was too far in to give up now and so he stayed still. Heart thumping in his chest from the adrenaline at thinking she'd been hurt. Face creased with worry after finding that she was, but not in the way he'd first thought.
Eventually, she reached out a trembling hand and took his own, lacing their fingers together as they sat quietly in front of what was quickly becoming their home.