Chapter 10:
Daryl spotted it a moment later and braved a step towards the open road to get a better view. The walkers that were passing nearby were too distracted to notice him. With nervous, clumsy movements he opened one of the pockets on his pants to pull out the map again. He scanned it briefly, then looked back up towards the horizon where the smoke continued to billow forth.
"Terminus," he said, first only to himself and then with more conviction as he turned towards Carol, "it's coming from Terminus."
She nodded darkly and followed him onto the clearing.
"We're outa time. We gotta keep moving." He pursued, "They're in trouble."
"What we have to do is keep our heads." Carol corrected him evenly. "I know you're dying to barge in there and make sure everyone's alright. I know you. But think about it. We don't know anything about Teminus, we don't even know if Rick and the others…" she paused and swallowed, "we don't know who else made it out of the prison alive. And we certainly don't know if those that are have made it to Terminus."
"I just know, alright?" Daryl flared up, starting to pace back and forth on the little stretch of open road. "And I know that you do as well. I don't believe you just wanna stand around here and-"
"That's not what I was saying," she interrupted him softly, "all I meant was that we need to get closer to take a look and see if they're really there, if they're in danger. We're no use to them either if we get ourselves killed along the way."
Daryl exhaled heavily a couple of times and then stopped pacing.
"Alright," he nodded but continued to look doubtful, "how do we do it?"
Carol turned a little so she could fully see the herd again. "Only one way…we have to do it like Glenn and Rick did."
"Kill some walkers and smother ourselves in their guts?" Daryl asked and she nodded.
"That's the only way they won't detect us."
"What about bandages, weapons?" He felt his ribs uncertainly.
"We'll pass shops along the way. Let's see what we can scavenge."
Daryl nodded determinedly, stuffed the map back in his pocket and then held out his hand. "Give me your knife. I'll take one of 'em walkers out."
Carol nodded and gave it to him, then she retreated back to the cover of the trees and watched as he captured a walker that had strayed from the herd, dragged her towards the woods and killed her there.
But even though his movements had looked as smooth as ever he was panting heavily when he beckoned her closer.
"Daryl, are you-?" she began worriedly but he nodded quickly.
"I'm fine. Let's gut this motherfucker."
She shot him a concerned look and briefly touched his arm for reassurance, before crouching down and placing her backpack on the ground. She rummaged inside it for a while until – beneath the cans and bottles – she managed to unearth one of the old lady's coats that she had slipped off the rack before they had left.
She shrugged out of her own jacket, rolling her shoulder against the soreness that still lived in her muscles and then stuffed it into the backpack.
"Your vest?" she looked up at Daryl questioningly and after a moment's hesitation he handed it to her.
Taking her knife from him as well she positioned herself on the side of the walker.
I need to learn how to cut through the abdomen and the uterus without cutting the baby.
She blinked and plunged it into the walker's abdomen. The blade slid through thin layers of skin and then bounced harshly against bone. She took a deep breath, pulled it out slightly and picked a new spot. This time she was more successful and within seconds had opened her up enough so that her guts were laid bare.
"Help yourself." She instructed, breathing through her mouth.
She couldn't look at it anymore and focused on Daryl instead, knowing that if she didn't she'd convince herself that something was stirring inside that corpse.
He didn't seem to hesitate and quickly lathered himself with walker guts so that his bare arms were coated in red. The smell was almost unbearable; worse than the one of decay that surrounded them day in and day out.
The energy bar she had consumed previously – and now wished she hadn't – threatened to come back up again. Her body shivered and she swallowed once, twice purposefully to make sure she wouldn't gag.
"Your turn." Daryl said and she anxiously glanced back at the dead walker.
There was still plenty of blood and intestines left and with another deep breath she lowered her hands into the gooey mass.
"I'll help ya," he offered and scooped up handfuls as well which he then continued to smear over the back of the old woman's coat she had put on.
"How do I look?" Carol asked when she was done; intestines adorning her like jewellery.
"Disgusting," he commented and managed a small grin.
"Then let's get moving," she nodded, slipping the backpack over her shoulders.
They didn't talk anymore once they joined the herd and spent the first few moments in tense silence, anticipating to be discovered any second. But the walkers just kept moving, stumbling sluggishly but gradually towards the fire.
Carol tried matching her movements to theirs and turned her head as little as possible while still trying to take in everything around them.
"Store," Daryl muttered quietly after a while and she tried following the direction of his eyes.
Nestled between a row of apartment houses a faded marquee announced the latest bargains on sale at "Kroger's Convenience Store". But the windows of the little shop were broken, shards of glass littered the ground and a small shopping cart lay abandoned in the doorway.
"Too late," she muttered back and they kept walking, trying not to contemplate what might have happened to Kroger and his employees or the other poor people who might've sought shelter in the shop.
For a long time afterwards they didn't encounter a thing. No supermarkets, no pharmacies, not even a gas station. Instead they pressed themselves through the herd of walkers, dead limbs bumping into them, snarls and moans filling the air around them.
Carol felt her heart starting to race. Wherever she looked there were dead faces and twitchy movements.
Everyone looked the same.
Everyone looked like them.
Perhaps they had died too, a long time ago.
Her breathing became laboured. Her body felt heavy.
What did it feel like, what did it look like to walk normally?
Was she staggering or walking?
Snarling or panting?
"Psst," Daryl whistled lowly and purposefully bumped into her, "jackpot over there."
She couldn't see what he had spotted now but he'd disappeared so quickly that she had no choice but to follow him. When she caught up with him he'd already climbed halfway into a building with the title Bass Pro Shops.
He kicked against a piece of glass his pants had been caught on, then turned and offered a hand to help her climb inside as well.
"What's this?" she whispered.
There was movement and groaning sounds coming from the back but camouflaged as they were, it didn't worry them.
"They specialise in hunting equipment." He nodded and looked around. "Though it seems like most of the good stuff was already taken."
His eyes flickered to an empty rack under which a label read "crossbows" and Carol instantly understood his disappointment.
"Let's keep looking," she suggested, "they can't have taken everything."
They split up and looked around but Carol soon realised that he had been right; most of the weapons were certainly gone.
A soft whistling startled her and she made her way across the shop towards its source. Daryl was waiting there with his arms full of different items.
"Gimme your backpack."
She frowned but nodded, swung it off her shoulder and opened it up.
"Here we go," he announced happily, "flashlight, a spring trap and a two-way radio. Could come in handy at Terminus."
"Unless we run out of batteries," she remarked and watched him reaching for more things.
"Might be more behind the counter," he smiled.
He'd discovered a black knife and was flipping it open and closed.
"These are the best," he explained when he saw her watching, "we're lucky they didn't take it. Can you give me one of those bags?"
Carol looked around at the assortment of military duffel bags and backpacks that nobody seemed to have touched and then picked one up.
"Won't it all fit in my backpack?" she frowned.
"Course it will," he nodded, "I'm just making myself a bandage."
She wanted to ask him how but chose to watch instead.
Angling the pack she had just given him and propping it up against his knee, Daryl used his newfound knife to cut out a chunk.
"It's not quite bullet-proof," he grinned and tapped against it, "but it'll help some."
He dropped the discarded pack, as well as the cut out piece on the floor, tore open a package of rubber gloves and started forcing one of them over his makeshift piece of armour.
"Gimme a hand," he muttered and she stepped closer, sceptically eyeing his new creation.
"I push and you hold it," she suggested and together they managed to do it without breaking the glove.
"What's that for then?"
"It's softer," he shrugged, "won't rub so much and tear my skin open."
"Smart," she praised appreciatively and then shifted her eyes from it back to Daryl who looked rather pleased with himself.
It was adorable, really, but she doubted he'd enjoy hearing that. So instead of lingering and watching him undress even further, she turned around and walked back towards the counter.
"I'll have a look for those batteries."
"Good," he called after her, "if you see some tape bring it! I'm gonna need it."
Carol cast a last glance back at him and then pushed her way to the front of the store.
Outside, the herd of walkers was still shuffling past. She watched them for a couple of moments, trying to prepare herself for the inevitability of having to join their ranks again, and then climbed over the counter and rummaged through the drawers at the wall.
No batteries, but plenty of tape.
She picked up two rolls and returned to Daryl who was waiting for her bare-chested at the other side of the store. Her eyes briefly swept over his body and when she handed him the tape she tried stifling her giggles to no avail.
"What?" he frowned, tearing some tape loose with his teeth.
"Next time, let Lola show you how to use the sunbed correctly, pookie." She commented, erupting into laughter now.
He frowned and looked down at his body that was largely covered in red and brown goo, except for the flecks of white skin where his shirt had been resting.
"Shut up," he muttered, but the corners of his mouth twitched amusedly.
She didn't know what had come over her, knew that the situation was entirely too inappropriate to make such a comment but she just hadn't been able to stop herself.
Perhaps a bit of laughter was what they needed at times.
Then an explosion erupted nearby and shook the ground around them, bringing them swiftly back to the present.
"Terminus," Daryl muttered, quickly fastening some pieces of tape on either side of the bandage.
Carol nodded silently in agreement and turned him around so she could tape it to his body. He wiggled around a bit to make sure it would stay there securely and then pulled his shirt back over his head.
"Ain't gonna stick forever but might last through Terminus."
She nodded again and carefully tapped the spot the bandage now covered with her finger.
"Better," she concluded, allowed him to drop the second roll of tape in her now heavier backpack and then swung it over her shoulder once more.
They groped and felt their way back towards the entrance of the shop, the fading sunlight making it harder to see now that the night was settling around them.
"We could really use that flashlight now," Carol sighed, letting him slip through the bashed in window first.
"No batteries?" he asked, turning away from the herd to face her again.
"No," she shook her head and followed him.
"Don't matter," he offered his hand once more, "light might've only distracted them from the fire."
She nodded in agreement and then eyed the walkers sceptically. "Do you think the smell will have worn off?"
He studied her and then himself. "Only one way to find out."
The thought of re-joining the herd terrified her but there was no other way and so they slipped back between their ranks and adapted the same old slow pace.
As the sky turned pitch-black the billowing smoke of the fire, its red, angry flames became a threatening beacon. At times a reassuring reminder that they didn't have much farther to go and at other times filling them with dread at the possible scenarios they might encounter.
Leaving the little suburb behind, the road cut a clean path through the forest once more but the trees that had once provided them with shelter now towered intimidatingly over them. And although neither of them spoke, they both knew that whoever had caused this fire, the explosion, could very well be lurking there.
They continued to walk for so long that Carol wondered if they had wandered off-course but with the fire burning so prominently that couldn't be the case. Nonetheless she couldn't shake the concern that had taken hold of her.
If Terminus was a city like she had assumed, surely they should've seen a sign of it now?
And they had to be close, she could feel the heat of the fire as if the flames were licking at her skin. The dust and smoke was tickling her throat.
"No!" Daryl exclaimed and instantly made her feel sick to her stomach.
He hadn't raised his voice, hadn't needed to, but it had nonetheless sounded so full of anguish that she'd just known that something was wrong.
She stopped walking, too, turning her head back in his direction to see what had stopped him. Walkers bumped into her and snarled angrily.
"We're too late." He said quietly and crouched down to pick up a sign she hadn't even noticed.
He turned it her way so she could read the note that welcomed lost people to Terminus.
"It doesn't mean…" she began but he only nudged his chin in the direction of the fire once more.
She squinted, the flames dancing in her eyes in the darkness and then with a sudden, deafening feeling realised he was right. The fences that must've once been erected to keep the city safe were torn down and walkers roamed every last corner of the promised sanctuary.