Chapter Thirty Eight: Ramen

Ramen: quick-cooking noodles, typically served in a broth with meat and vegetables.

Day 72

The sun was hanging heavy and low in the sky as they all stood by two consecutive holes in the ground, a green-leaved tree stood tall beyond the holes, casting flickering shadows over the dirt. Daisy scratched at the dirt that had embedded itself resolutely under her short nails, and stared quietly as Rick and T-Dog lowered the second sheet-wrapped body into its grave. Hershel's wife and her son had been in the barn—Daisy and Daryl had not been told of the latter's being there, and had to dig him out of the pile of unknown walkers. That had not been a pleasant experience, Hershel having to look upon the decaying faces of dozens of walkers to find Shawn, and even then, the dirt, blood and grime on his face had made it incredibly hard to be certain it was really him.

Closer to the fence, where the tree's branches hung at their lowest and brushed against the faded paint that covered the fence, two more graves marked the resting places of Otis and Jimmy. Daisy glanced over at Hershel, Patricia, Maggie and Beth, and reflected on how much they had lost. Half of their number had been lost, two of those losses in the last couple of days. She was almost grateful that she did not know the fate of her own family—they could be safe and sound up in sunny LA for all she knew. Daisy half-heartedly noted that they could also be dead...either in the ground or stumbling around as walkers. Perhaps it would be better to know, Daisy corrected herself with an upset grimace.

"Would...anybody like to say something?" Rick spoke suddenly, staring at Hershel with an expectant look.

There was a breathy sob from Beth, who promptly slid from her sister's grip to stumble forward. She looked down into her mother's grave with shaky hands gripping at the hem of her shirt. Tears were steadily streaming down Beth's face, she hurriedly wiped them away and shot one last, slightly angered glare down at the grave and then walked off towards the house, her head bowed and her shoulders shaking. Maggie followed after her sister, concern furrowing her brow, and the group wallowed in their silence.

Hershel walked forward a pace, and stared wearily between the graves of his wife and step-son, then the too fresh graves of Jimmy and Otis, "'There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die...'" he trailed off with a tired sigh, and raised his hand in an aborted gesture, laying it on his chest where it gripped at his shirt with tired fingers. Hershel turned to glance between the miserable faces of the group, then followed after his daughters.

Without waiting for another beat, Daryl trudged forward and picked up his shovel where it had been abandoned between the two once-empty graves. Daisy followed his lead and picked up her own, drifting around the open hole towards the dirt piled high beside it, and began to shovel it over to lay over Annette Greene's body.

"How about we go rest in the RV?" Carol's soft voice drifted over the remaining group, she led Sophia and Carl away, Lori following after gratefully. Daisy dug her shovel deep into the dirt with a grunt, and directed her bounty into the grave, looking up towards the others as she wiped the sweat from her brow—it had not left from when she and Daryl had dug the graves half an hour earlier. She did not exactly know why she had taken the mantle of grave digger for the day—being of low arm strength, especially compared to some of the others. The group began to disperse, until only Shane and Rick lingered by Daisy and Daryl as they filled the graves.

"I'll...do that, Dais'. Least I could do..." Shane drawled, Daisy looked up with narrowed eyes to see him staring down at the grave with a guilty grimace. Good, Daisy thought as she dug her shovel upright into the ground. She leant her elbow against the handle of the shovel and stared at Shane silently, catching his gaze awkwardly.

"Okay," Daisy said abruptly, and backed away from the shovel, she saw that Rick had similarly commandeered Daryl's shovel. Shane stepped forward and pulled the shovel out from the divot she had made in the ground, nodding respectfully to her and beginning to move the dirt. Daisy noted with jealousy that he was filling the grave with a significantly higher amount of competence than she had been, but admitted that she would be more efficient if she was a veritable giant.

"Want some ramen?" Daisy asked quietly as she and Daryl drifted away from Rick and Shane towards the campsite.

Daryl squinted at her for a moment, then rubbed at the back of his neck, "Sure, I guess." Daisy smiled up at him and nodded to herself, pleased. She walked towards her tent and unzipped it with a wide gesture, then shuffled forward on her knees until she could reach her backpack. Ruffling around inside, she surfaced two of the packs of ramen she had gathered from the highway, along with the tiny bottle of Sriracha as an afterthought, and shoved them into the pocket of her jacket. Daisy left her tent and zipped it back up to dissuade any sieges by bug, and met with Daryl back by the campfire.

She noticed that Amy was limply strewn over a camp chair, nose buried in a Robert Ludlum novel, brow furrowed in either confusion or disgust at whatever she was reading. Daisy decided to be generous, "Wanna share some ramen, Amy?" Amy looked up from her book, her eyes widened in excitement.

"Yeah, sure...you need a pot?" Amy asked excitedly, her book knocked off her lap as she hurriedly stood, it fell onto the dirt with a thump. She moved without Daisy's answer towards where the RV was parked nearby. Daisy pulled the pack up and she noted the microwave instructions on the back—and briefly lamented the lack of microwaves in this new world. Amy soon returned with a heavy metal pot, which she placed in the tripod contraction to hang above the fire, dropping it with a short grunt.

"Hey..." Daisy spoke up, glancing between the hanging pot and the packets of ramen in her hands, "Daryl, wanna light the fire?" She looked up at him with a hopeful smile, and noticed that he had already been reaching for the matches. Daisy searched her mind—which was disparagingly dulled from the upsetting events of the day—for the final ingredient in the incredibly complicated process that was making cheap ramen. Water, she thought with her eyes rolling skyward at the amount of time she had taken to realise that.

"I'll get some water from the house...d'you think they'd be okay with that?" Daisy mumbled with her brow furrowed in concern, Amy stared back thoughtfully.

"Yeah...yeah, I think so, go for it."

Daisy huffed a calming breath and stood, looking over at the Greene farm house that sat nearby. On the porch she could see Maggie sitting on a slowly rocking chair, staring listlessly ahead of her. Daisy nodded her head once as if to assert herself as a neighbourly friend seeking after some water—they had multiple wells at the farm, more than enough water to go around. To the side, Daisy saw Rick and Shane talking quietly as they continued to fill the graves, both seemed moderately angry. Daisy considered herself very lucky to not be a part of that shitstorm, baby drama may well be the very worst form of drama.

"Daisy?" A Southern, drawling voice called over as she approached the house, Daisy shot a sheepish smile up at Maggie who leaned forward with her elbows resting against her knees. A soft, sad smile returned Daisy's own awkward iteration, Maggie waved her up onto the porch. Daisy hurried up the steps and sat heavily on the kitchen chair that had been moved beside the rocking chair, and pulled her arms tightly around her.

"Are you, okay? Your sister okay?" Daisy asked suddenly, Maggie quirked her smile and squinted her eyes against the harsh sun. She sighed and rocked her chair back, and pulled her legs up to wrap her arms around them.

"I'm okay...Beth, not so much," Maggie replied, glancing sadly over at Daisy, "Daddy had her thinking she might get her mom back. It's as though she's lost her all over again."

Daisy gulped nervously, "That's terrible, I'm sorry. I'm...sorry for what Shane did."

"It wasn't your fault...people like him, real hard to keep 'em contained." Maggie stretched her toes up, and rested her chin against her knees, she continued, "I'm sorry for Daddy kicking you out..."

"Oh...yeah, that's...deserved," Daisy admitted, glancing disappointedly over at Shane, who had finished off the grave and was wiping his sweaty face with the hem of his shirt. Daisy furrowed her brow as she realised something, "What's gonna happen with you and Glenn? Is that...still happening?"

Maggie's smile lilted up, her eyes crinkling with a flicker of happiness, "Yeah...we're together, still. He's real sweet, bit of a dork." She huffed a laugh, then her smile turned sad once more, "I don't know what's gonna happen when you all leave. If Daddy even knew about me and Glenn..." Maggie stared over at Daisy with a helplessness that made Daisy want to promise her a long and happy life with Glenn, but felt at a loss as to how she would actually do that.

"Do you see any world where your dad would let us stay?" Daisy asked with a sliver of desperation leaking regretfully into her tone. Maggie broke their gaze and stared back out into the middle distance with a long sigh.

"Maybe if Shane leaves..." Maggie suggested, she grimaced, "Daddy was real mad that he didn't respect his beliefs, and killed all the walkers." Daisy thought on that prospect and decided that she would certainly not beg Shane to stay if he left the farm. But, upon glancing over at Shane and seeing that he had moved to speak with an angry Lori, Daisy did not think that was likely to happen—him being the likely father of Lori's unborn child and all. She sat back in her chair with a sigh and thought unequivocally, life is complicated.

"Do you have any water?" Daisy asked suddenly, Maggie glanced over curiously.

"Yeah, we do, indeed, have water," Maggie said with a smile smoothing her worried face, her words light in implicit enquiry as to why exactly Daisy had asked such a thing.

"We have a lot of ramen," Daisy explained ineffectively, she looked back down at the camp to see that the others had begun to congregate there. She backtracked, "I think we're having a post-memorial dinner...really going all out with our large quantity of ramen." Daisy nodded thoughtfully, supposing that even something that was once so cheap and readily available as ramen could be seen as utterly desirable in a world where game meat was considered an elusive luxury.

"Ramen?" Maggie followed her line of sight to look upon the campfire that was blazing with orange flames, Glenn hurriedly pulled the heavy pot from its tripod, likely upon realising that the water and ramen must first be placed inside before beginning the cooking process.

"Yeah, ramen..." Daisy confirmed unnecessarily, she watched as Maggie stared at Glenn with lovable fondness clear upon her face and fell in love with them as a couple a fraction more, "Want to join us? You can bring Beth, too...and, well, I'd say bring your dad but I don't think he likes us as of recent events."

"An understatement," Maggie said, "I'll see if Beth wants to come...and you can go right ahead and get some water from the kitchen tap."

Daisy shot Maggie a grateful smile and stood from her chair, then followed her into the house. As Maggie scaled the nearby stairs in search of her sister, Daisy slid into the kitchen and searched the cupboards immediately to her left for a container in which to carry the water she had come for—her expected lack of foresight still caused her a small amount of pain and annoyance, it was not so hard to realise that water cannot be moved without a jug or dish of some sort. She spied a bright yellow jug with accompanying lid, and carried it over to the sink.

The tap flipped up without incident and Daisy began to fill the jug, staring out the kitchen window to see Carl and Sophia whispering amongst themselves conspiringly. Daisy leaned over to see more clearly under the lace curtain on the window and saw that they had a small, yellow puff held between them. She flipped the tap back off and held the full jug to her chest, and contemplated telling on the children. Ultimately, Daisy decided that in the wake of the somewhat incredibly horrifying events of the morning, Carl and Sophia could have their fun with what seemed to Daisy to be a baby chicken—in any case, it was quite unlikely they would manage to harm the chick to an unforgiveable extent.