Chapter Fifteen: Lost
Lost: unable to find one's way; not knowing one's whereabouts.
Day 60
After a tense drive from Atlanta, the group finally arrived at the camp, which was located just outside of Atlanta near a quarry in what looked like a park land. Daisy was a little apprehensive due to a certain resistance to camping, but grateful to be out of the havoc that was Atlanta.
Across from her, Merle was the first to stand and raise the truck door, jumping down and stalking back into camp in sullen silence. Daisy and the rest soon followed, Andrea ahead of them having a touching reunion with 'Amy' who looked enough like her that Daisy deduced them to be sisters. Daisy backed up and made her way around the back of the truck and to the driver's side window, which she rapped her knuckles against to catch Rick's attention, who looked lost in thought. Rick startled, then opened the door at seeing Daisy.
"May I help you, ma'am?" He drawled with a smirk, she raised her eyebrows back at him.
"Yes, Officer Rick…I'm in need of an upstanding pal to help me get in the good favours of our new group!" Daisy stood back and swept an arm inviting him to join her.
"Hey, new guys! Come say hello!" Daisy heard Morales call out for them, Rick walked ahead of her. "Guy's a cop, like you." Morales continued. Beside her, Rick had stopped in place and Daisy looked ahead to see a familiar face staring at him in shock; it was the guy from the picture she had found at the police station, curly black hair and big nose, though currently sans smirk.
"Dude, it's your cop buddy!" Daisy noted, bemused at the coincidence. Beside her Rick seemed to waver in place.
"Oh my God." He murmured and started forward, leaving Daisy alone and feeling at a loss.
"Dad! Dad!" A kid was screaming at Rick and running towards him, Daisy's eyes widened at realising it must be his son Carl, and that the woman that was beside him was Rick's wife. They met in the middle and Rick hugged his son to him, dropping to his knees then picking him up, walking over to Lori who looked…incredibly shocked.
"Mission accomplished." Daisy muttered to herself, smile so wide it was hurting her cheeks at the ridiculously cute and heart-warming sight before her. She started forward and slunk up beside Andrea and her sister, both were watching the reunion as well. "Goddamn adorable." Daisy said to them, both giving her a cursory glance before wrapping themselves up together again. She felt both happy for Rick and entirely alone, especially with her own family's fate being unknown.
Hours later, Daisy found herself just existing on a nearby lawn chair, the sun laying low but not quite beneath the horizon. She was rummaging in her backpack, taking mental stock when she discovered another of those blessed, bright-green packets.
"Praise be to Reese's." She mumbled to herself as she tore open the packet and took a bite of the Peanut Butter Cup. Daisy leant her head back and closed her eyes as she revelled in the small comfort.
"Hello?" A quiet voice sounded from near her head, Daisy jumped in surprise and the rest of the PB cup fell onto the dirt near her feet. She looked up with wide, sardonically heartbroken eyes to see Rick's son Carl staring back at her and a little girl beside him, both with eyes as wide as her own.
"Why?" Daisy cried softly as she crumpled the empty packet in her hand, after a moment's silence for her lost brethren, she turned her attention back to her backpack and noticed a slightly smushed Hershey bar lying innocently under a bra. "Yes! When one door closes, another opens and gives you more chocolate…" Daisy fished the chocolate bar out and opened it, taking a bite then turning a content smile to the two children before her. "How may I help you two chickens today?" Carl scrunched his nose up indignantly and the little girl let loose a tiny smile.
"I'm not a chicken…" He mumbled, getting off track.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr Grimes, was it?" Daisy straightened her shoulders and jokingly looked down her nose at him for a second, before letting loose a chuckle and continuing, "How can I help you, little dudes?"
"Uh, Dad told me that you helped him in the hospital…then in Atlanta." Carl started, "And I wanna thank you?" He looked at her with pleading eyes. Daisy caught his subconscious signal and looked up to see his mother standing just behind him.
"Oh, hey there!" Daisy greeted Lori, who gave her a terse smile and a nod of acknowledgment. She turned her attention back to the kid. "No problemo, Carl's Junior. And…?" Daisy looked expectantly at the little girl with a welcoming smile.
"Sophia." She replied softly, smiling wider.
"Uh, Carl's Junior?" Carl interrupted, Daisy turned her attention back to him.
"It's a restaurant…well, I wouldn't necessarily say restaurant…but, I digress…I am glad to have helped your father. He seems to be a great guy." She shot him a smile, relieving him and his mother of their unspoken duty. "Yo, want some?" Daisy held the chocolate bar out to the kids who almost leapt forward for a piece. "Wait, this ok?" She shot over their heads towards Lori who gave her reluctant ascent for the two, so they continued their leap.
"Share it, you monsters. Bye Carlos and Sophia-friend, have fun with that…" Daisy laughed at their eagerness and gave them the bar to split. They thanked her and ran off to continue their adventures, and Lori called out for them to stay close while she approached Daisy herself.
"Thank you, really." Lori said with sincerity, Daisy smile up at her with modesty.
"Ain't nothin' but a thing…" She replied awkwardly, before reaching in to surface another treat, this time a muesli bar. "Man, I didn't know that muesli bars could look so sad." She noted, "I really got the short end o' the snack-stick this time." Daisy laughed up at Lori who gave her a short smile, then left to follow after the rascals.
Daisy leant back in her chair more and kicked her feet out to stretch, catching Rick's eye from across the camp. She shot him two thumbs up and an exaggerated smile, getting a fond smile in return before he went back to his conversation with big-nose friend.
"'Ch'you doin' all on your lonesome, Girlie?" Daisy heard the hoarse voice of Merle interject from behind her, she turned to look up at him with narrowed eyes. He moved around to sit heavily in the lawn chair next to hers, overlooking the camp with hostility. "Lost your pal, huh? Officer friendly?"
"He's with his family, can't blame him for that." She said lightly, placing her backpack down on the ground beside her, then looking at the incessantly smug man with suspicion. "What's it to you?"
"Hah, I'm just thinkin' we have somethin' in common, you and I…the rest of these chumps, they leave us alone, treat us like…outsiders…left me to die." Merle looked at her with a slightly raised brow.
"Are you trying to stage a fucking coup, Merle? Jesus Christ, I'll have no part in it…" She leaned in closer to him, widening her eyes to emphasise the following point, "Rick cuffed you to the roof to protect the rest of us; you were high on coke for Christ's sake! He didn't mean for you to be left behind to be eaten by raging cannibals! And, in any case, you weren't left behind, I uncuffed you." Daisy said with obviousness.
"If anybody else had had the choice whether to help me or leave me to die, they would have left me!" Merle exclaimed quietly with narrowed eyes, Daisy just sighed in response.
"Maybe, but don't you think that's a reflection on you, not them? Maybe don't do mind-altering drugs and shoot recklessly at walkers…they might come to know the truly beautiful soul within." Daisy said the last words with a sarcastic lilt, gaining a reluctant chuckle from Merle, she smiled at him. "I mean, there are dead people wanting to kill and eat everyone, maybe leave the drugs at home?" She suggested, he looked thoughtful. "In the famous words of Zefron, 'you gotta get your head in the game'." Daisy finished, looking proud at her well-reasoned argument.
"Who th'fuck?" Merle narrowed his eyes at her, Daisy just let loose a chuckle and shook her head in dismissal.
"Never mind…" After a moment, Merle spoke again.
"I might just take you up on that advice, Curly." He said agreeably, standing to leave. One massive hand came down and messed up Daisy's already wild hair, she protested with a squawk and he left with another chuckle trailing after him.
"What a psycho…" Daisy mumbled to herself, trying to restrain her curly hair with a tie. "Still, there's hope for him yet."
Later, after the sun had fully gone down and the group was circled around the fire like they were at some summer camp that Daisy had fortunately never had to go to, Rick was regaling the group with his experience waking from his coma.
"Disoriented, I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion all those things but disoriented comes closest."
"Words can be meagre things." The old man with the rad bucket hat, Dale, piped up from across the fire, Daisy looked between the two thoughtfully, bringing her stick up towards her and blowing on the toasty marshmallow; it seems that post-apocalyptic Daisy really places an importance on collecting candy. "Sometimes they fall short."
"I felt like I'd been ripped outta my life. And put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream…only until Daisy ran at me like a mad woman, talking'a cannibalistic monsters that things became clearer." Rick finished with a huff of a laugh, Daisy smiled over at him.
"Mom said you died." Carl said quietly from where he laid against his dad.
"She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it." Daisy saw Lori exchange a shifty glance with the big-nose friend, Shane she had later discovered…so, there was some drama there. Thank God, Daisy had thought she had escaped that, she thought sarcastically to herself. Lori started talking and Daisy zoned out, no offense to her, having a non-thinking moment to herself.
Daisy waved the still-cooling marshmallow in the air slightly, then tilted it to the left. "Want one?" She whispered to Amy beside her, who shot her a smile and eased the marshmallow off the stick, tearing it in two to share with her sister. Daisy sighed and put her stick down, zoning back in.
"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane." Rick said to his friend. "Can't begin to express it."
"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." Dale added, Daisy was beginning to suspect that he was the Mr Miyagi of this camp. There was a quiet moment, then a soft thud and a crackle sounded from the campfire next to theirs. Daisy looked to see the bright red sparks whoosh into the air after a man had added a log.
"Hey, Ed, wanna rethink that log?" Shane said with false lightness.
"It's cold, man."
"Cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers—so we can't be seen from a distance."
After further resistance from Ed, Shane stood and walked over to their fire, pulling the log out and stamping the flames.
"'Preciate the cooperation." Shane added as he walked away from the sullen Ed. Daisy frowned at the whole confrontation, not sure such hostility was conducive to safe communal living.
"Where's, uh, Merle?" Daisy asked the people around her quietly.
"Psh, probably sulking in his tent…Dixons never sit around the campfire." T-Dog informed her, scoffing at Merle while brushing a thumb over his bruised cheek. Daisy became quiet and wary of the relationship between the Dixon brothers and the rest of the camp. She knew that at least Merle was an abrasive person, to say the least, but Daisy was almost certain that if they continued to encourage the segregation of him and his brother like this, someone was gonna get hurt. Merle seemed to like her well enough, maybe she could bridge the gap.