Yay! Chapter Three! I love all of my reviewers, y'all make me so happy. Make sure you leave a review telling me how you feel about this or that... Be honest and be descriptive. I like knowing what y'all think.

Three: Storm Clouds in Sight

Might not be storm clouds in sight

Oh but don't you worry friend

Linzie tied a piece of twine around the stalks of wild plants and hefted them, shaking the dirt of the roots lightly, over her shoulder.

Whistling, she called for Cooper and smiled down at the big, red bloodhound. She set her hand on his head and whistled as she walked the few yards back into camp. She strode right up to the 'kitchen' and set the bundled greens on an empty camp chair, grabbed a bucket and went to the quarry for water, ignoring the women sitting around the fire.

"What are these for?"

Linzie turned over her shoulder and smiled. "Dinner." She held up the bucket and wiggled it at Andrea. "Gotta wash them first."

She hauled the water pail over and took a seat on a cooler and untied the bundle as the women gathered around her.

Amy made a face. "What are they?"

Linzie dropped a couple stalks in the bucket and set to cleaning all the dirt off the roots. "Chicory, burdock, wild asparagus and dandelion greens."

Jackie huffed. "Are they edible?"

Linzie chuckled. "No they're all poisonous." She winked. "Thought I'd do us all in, all koolaid like."

Jackie sucked on her teeth and glared at her while Lori stepped up. "Do you need help?"

"With what?"

"Cleaning? Preparing them?"

Linzie cast Lori a look and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess." She motioned at the remaining roots. "We need to clean the dirt off the roots. The chicory root we can wrap up in some tinfoil and bury under the coals so it'll bake, we'll make chicory coffee in the morning."

"Like in New Orleans?"

"Sorta. The leaves of the chicory and the dandelion greens will make a half-decent salad. The burdock leaves and steam and the asparagus we'll boil once, throw out the water and then boil again with the squirrel Merle and Daryl got this morning."

"Okay, so…"

Linzie chuckled. "Chop the roots of the chicory off of the rest of the plat and then chop it up. Peel the leaves off of the chicory and the dandelion greens and set them aside. Do the same for the Burdock leaves. Then peel and chop the stem."

The women nodded.

Linzie shook her head and set to washing her bundle of weeds.

"See, there!" Andrea pointed a flopping stem of chicory at Linzie. "That's what I mean! You are so damn snotty. Turning your nose up at the lot of us like all you needed was the damn apocalypse to prove that you are better than us."

Lori shook her head. "Andrea, don't."

Carol looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Look at all this food gotten us."

Linzie laughed. "Let her talk, she's been itchin' to. Don't matter none anyway."

Andrea's face darkened. "You bitch!"

"Are you that damn used to people heeding your every fuckin' word?" Linzie wiped her knife on a clean towel. "You want to know why I'm 'snotty'? Must have something to do with how fuckin' hospitable and friendly you've been since gettin' here."

"Excuse you?"

"You heard me, bitch. You've looked down your perfect little nose at me since you stepped foot in camp. Treatin' me like the scum on your boots and you have the gall to call me 'snotty'. Maybe you should check your own damn attitude."

Daryl walked up behind her, eyes on Andrea. "Problem, Ladybird?"

Linzie chuckled. "Nothin' I can't handle, Daryl. Thanks."

He nodded once and handed her a line of squirrels. She smiled, took them and began laying them out on the makeshift griddle in the fire to cook.

"Are you fucking him or the older one?"

Linzie shrugged. "None ya business who I'm fuckin'."

Andrea snorted. "I mean, you have to be having sex with them."

"Why is that?" Linzie settled back on her cooler and set to working on peeling burdock.

"You do their laundry, set your tent up next to theirs. I think I know what's going on. You realize that with the world ending you needed to find yourself a suitable mate to ensure your survival."

"What am I? An animal?" Laughing, Linzie leaned back. "Take a look around, Sweetheart. Does it look like I need help? Are you jealous or are you just angry that all your fancy training and schooling don't amount for shit?"

"At least I got a degree, two in fact." Andrea looked smug. "That has to count for something when the world comes back."

Linzie shot the look right back. "Congrats. I have three. Still don't matter for shit right now."

Lori's eyes widened and Andrea chuckled. "Three Associates? Three degrees from some podunk two-year technical."

"I have a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, bitch. I was a professor at a major accredited university. What did you do, blondie?"

Andrea straightened her spine. "I was a civil rights attorney."

Linzie nodded, chuckling and then called over her shoulder. "Merle, you owe me a pack of cigarettes! Blondie's a lawyer!"

Merle cussed and Daryl laughed. Smiling, Linzie threw the leaves and stem pieces of the burdock she had been working on into a pot of boiling water as Andrea went red.

"Look I don't care what you think of me. I don't care if you think I'm pond scum. Your opinion don't mean shit to me. But do me a solid and don't gossip about me behind my back like a highschooler. I outgrew that a long time ago."

The group was silent and tense for a long while until Carol looked up nervously. "You're a teacher, right?"

Linzie pulled over a dandelion plant and nodded. "Yep."

"How good are you at math?"

She shrugged. "I just about had enough math credits to have a minor in math."

Lori smiled. "Do you think you could teach the kids math and physics and maybe some science? We have textbooks and all that, but I'm not sure how much longer I can teach Carl."

Linzie squinted at her suspiciously and Carol nodded. "Never was all that good at math anyway."

"You want me to teach your kids?"

Lori nodded. "You seem pretty good with kids…"

"What about Bobby? He's an engineer, too you know."

Carol nodded. "If you don't feel comfortable doin' it, we'll ask him, but I personally think you're a better choice."

"You aren't afraid that I'll like corrupt your children or somethan?"

Carol shook her head. "Just try not to cuss around them or anything."

Linzie flipped through the book, then set it off to the side. "Okie dokie. What have you guys done so far."

Lori hmmed. "Addition, subtraction, division and multiplication."

"Have you guys done order of operations? Or fractions?" Half of the kids bobbed their heads and she smiled. "Okay let's do fractions first, get everyone up to speed. When you added or subtracted fractions, what did you do?"

Carl raised his hands. "You have to make them the same."

"The same?"

He nodded his head. "The bottom number has to be the same on both fractions."

Linzie smiled. "Correct! Okay…" She jotted down a quick fraction addition problem and a subtraction problem. "Okay so what does 2 over 2 equal?"

They thought about that for a second and Sophia timidly raised her hand. "1?"

"Right! How about 4 over 4?"

"1!" They screamed in unison.

"Man, y'all are geniuses!" She pointed at the addition problem. "Okay, so the easiest, sure-fire way to make these bottom numbers the same is to multiply this bottom number, called a denominator, by the other denominator and then multiple that second denominator by the first. Does that make sense?"

They nodded uncertainly and she smiled. "Don't worry I'll show you. Okay, now the only problem is: if we multiply only the bottom number, the fraction won't be the same. So we have to multiply both the bottom and the top number by the same number. Okay?" The bobbed their heads again. "We have ¾ plus ⅚. We are going to multiply both the top and bottom, the 3 and the 4 by 6. What is 3 times 6?"

"18!" Louis chirped.

"Perfect. And what is 4 times 6?"

"20!"

Linzie shook her head. "Almost… what is 6 times 2?"

"12…" Carl ventured.

"Right. What is 12 times 2?"

"24."

"So what is 6 times 4?"

"24!"

"Geniuses, I tell ya." She smiled. "So we converted ¾ into 18/24. Now we are going to do the same to ⅚. We are going to multiply the five and the six by…?"

"4!"

"Perfect! What is 5 times 4?"

"20!"

"And 6 times 4?"

"24!"

"So now ⅚ is 20/24. Now the bottom numbers are the same, so we can just add them. What is 20 plus 18?"

"38!"

Linzie laughed and smiled. "So what the answer to ¾ plus ⅚?"

Eliza hesitated. "38/24?"

"Yep. Why don't we add the bottom numbers?"

"Because…." Louis looked at his sister.

"Because these numbers represent parts of whole numbers, right? The bottom number just tells you how many parts you need to make a whole."

"Ladybird."

She looked up and smiled at Daryl. "Yep."

"They're havin' that meetin' about the supply run into 'lanta." He jerked his head toward the big fire pit.

She frowned. "Now? They weren't supposed to do that until this afternoon."

He jerked his head again and started back towards the fire pit. She smiled down at the kids. "Why don't y'all do you history homework for a while? I'll be back in a bit."

They nodded and opened a different book, watching the adults approach the main fire pit out of the corner of their eyes.

Linzie whistled for Cooper and approached the small, steadily growing group at Daryl's side.

Linzie sat in her camp chair while Daryl stood behind her next to Merle.

Shane swaggered to the front of the small group. "We need to make a supply run."

Glenn nodded. "I'll go, just get me a list."

Shane shook his head. "Nah...man, I'd feel better knowing that you had some fire-power with you. You said last time that you nearly got cornered. 'Sides we need to bring back as much as possible. We're running low on everything."

Andrea stepped up. "I'll go."

Shane huffed. "Now, Andrea...we've talked-"

"No, you talked about this. I want to help. You can't stop me."

Amy stood behind her. "Andrea, don't."

"I'm going. It's done."

Linzie chuckled. "You ever shot that pea shooter you got?"

Andrea shook her head stiffly. "I'm going to have to learn sometime, right?"

"Wrong." Linzie leaned forward in her seat. "You need training. A supply run into the bowels of walker Hell is not the time to learn. That's how you get people killed."

Andrea huffed and Morales and T-Dog stood. "We'll go."

Shane turned from Andrea. "Good. Three men. Small group, you can watch each other's backs."

"I'm going, too."

Shane rolled his eyes and turned to address Andrea.

"If'n Blondie's goin', I reckon I'll go, too."

Shane grit his teeth. "That mean you're goin' too, Daryl?"

Daryl shook his head. "Caught deer tracks last night. I'm goin' hunting."

"Linzie?"

"She's goin' wit' me."

"Linzie."

Linzie sighed and opened her eyes, staring up at Bobby. "Look, Bobby. I come up here to be alone."

He set his jaw. "I'm coming hunting with you and Daryl."

Laughing, she stood and brushed her pants off. "The hell you are. We won't git anything with you crashin' 'bout the fuckin' forest."

"I need to learn right?"

She rolled her eyes. "What don't you people git? It's the end of the fuckin' world. It is too damn late to learn new life skills. Instead of wastin' my time, why don't you find somethan you can do to help and git off ma back?"

"Look, you aren't going out into the woods with that backwoods, coked-up hick by yourself."

Taking a deep breath, she dropped her cigarette and stubbed out with her boot. "I will do as I damn well please, Bobby. You should remember that."

He held his hands up, frustrated. "Why won't you stop being so fucking stupid about this?"

"What's goin' on up there?"

Linzie looked over the ledge. "Nothin' I can't handle it, Dale."

Dale nodded. "I don't doubt that you can handle it, Linzie, but could you maybe handle it quieter. The kids are a bit too interested if you ask me."

Linzie chuckled and nodded. "You got it." She glared at Bobby. "Daryl and Merle are my friends. I trust Daryl-"

"Not Merle?"

"I trust the Dixons. Whether you choose to is your business, stay outta mine."

She moved to walk past him and he grabbed her arm tightly. "Don't you walk away from me, bitch." He moved in close, whispering in her ear. "You fuckin' him? Is this hunting trip just some excuse for a booty call? Why do you put out for him and not for me?"

She shrugged him off. "Get your hands off of me. Have you lost your fool mind?" She shoved him away. "Touch me again, asshole, and I'll hang you out for a walker."

She stomped away, glancing up at Daryl who stood halfway up the walkway towards her smoking spot. She shook her head at him and continued back toward camp, throwing over her shoulder, "Don't bother, he has his head up his ass."

Bobby started down the path, still fuming and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Daryl.

Daryl stared at him for a show while, silently and turned back toward camp.

Linzie reassembled the shotgun and checked the sight. Loading it with with quick practiced movements, she closed the bolt and watched Daryl argue with Merle. She set the shotgun off to the side and checked the chamber on her revolver and began cleaning it.

Merle sauntered over. "You gonna let me take one of these guns with me, Ladybird?"

She smiled and eyed Daryl as he approached. "You gonna make sure you bring it back?"

Merle chuckled and grabbed the rifle she had just cleaned and settled it against his shoulder. "This is a nice piece."

"That was my daddy's. You ain't taking that one."

Merle shrugged and set it on the table. "Fair enough."

"I'll clean my Remington and you can take that." She finished the revolver and picked up a sleek, bolt-action rifle. She cleaned it and felt the bench dip as Daryl took a seat next to her. "What was that about?"

Daryl grunted and picked up one of the never ending pile of guns. He set to cleaning it and ignored the question.

Linzie nodded. "I see."

"What was your daddy like?"

She smiled quietly and loaded the rifle she was working on, setting it off to the side. "He was a good man. Loved cars and guns and me."

"What about ya ma?"

She shrugged, shoulder hunched. "She's pretty… Don't really know her well."

Daryl's brow furrowed. "Why?"

She leaned back against the picnic table behind her. "She didn't want me... ah'guess. Else ways my daddy and his parents raised me. I ain't never had anything to do with my mother or her family." She pulled out her cigarettes and offered one to Daryl. "I saw her lots...'round town. Only ever tried to talk to her once." She stood and puffed on her cigarette, starting to put the guns back in her gun bag.

"What happened?"

"She laughed. She took one look at my bucktoothed, freckled face and laughed her pretty blonde ass off. Then she turned to her fiance and told him she had never seen me before."