Authors note: I strongly recommend that readers listen to Billie Holiday's vesion of "Summertime" (1936). This song will give you a clearer understanding of the mood on the way back to the cul de sac. However, it is only a suggestion.

Lanie

Songs of the robin

During the wee hours of the morning Daryl starts to stir out of his sleep when he instantly jumps up and out of the motel room bed. As he stands still for a second he realizes that he woke up startled because of the deafening silence all around him. There was absolutely no movement of life. Daryl always had some place to sleep where ever the group settled, but most of the time he spent the night out in the woods hunting.

In that moment, he remembers his brother Merle telling him why robins are always singing right before the sun comes up. He told him, "The robin sings lil brother, right before day break to let other birds know that he's managed to live through the night."

Since the outbreak Daryl had come to rely on the songs of robins in the early hours of the morning to remind him that he has managed to live through the night.

He walks over to the window to look outside. The night was ending as he examined the horizon growing brighter and brighter. The sun is being hidden by those same gloomy overcast clouds that have followed the group ever since they arrived at the cul de sac. He goes in to the bathroom to see if any water comes out of the faucet, when he turns it on a tiny but steady stream of water starts to come out so he splashes the water on his face then cups some in his mouth. He looks around the small bathroom for something to wash his face with; once he finds something he goes back to the sink only to see that the steady stream of water has turned brown.

Daryl looks out of the window again to check for walkers on the balcony then he grabs his crossbow and walks out of the motel room into the corridor leaving his door slightly open. He walks over to the room door where Tero had been staying and stands in front of it in silence.

Tero was like any other senior citizen; he woke up at the crack of dawn every morning. If he wasn't on walker patrol with Daryl overnight he would always come see Daryl before his shift was over and smoke a joint with him right before someone came to relieve him.

Daryl warily raises his hand to knock on Tero's door; but he pauses and begins to thinking about that early morning robin. In a fit of denial Daryl says sedately under his breath, "You probably tired from all that shit from yesterday", so instead of knocking on the door he starts collecting some of the items left in the corridor that they planned on taking back to the cul de sac and goes down stairs to the motel lobby.

Once outside, Daryl places the items on the bench outside the lobby door and looks over at Tero's SUV to make sure that it's still there, and then he starts to walk toward the back of the building to make sure the truck he came in is still intact. Just as he is about to turn the corner he can hear the tarp on the back of the truck blowing in the wind. When he turns the corner he sees the back of the truck engulfed by walkers eat the buck that he and Michonne cut up the day before yesterday.

Rick is walking along the path in the woods where he set up the snares to catch small game. As he begins to walk up on one of the snares he notices a fox trying to pull a squirrel from the snare. He stealthily approaches the fox still tugging away at the squirrel then Rick jumps to ground grabbing the fox by the neck and screams, "I got you now!" The fox fights Rick by trying to bite his fingers and wildly waving its claws around attempting to scratch him.

Rick violently shakes and holds the fox's neck trying to choke it to death when Carl walks up behind him and yells, "Stop it, stop it! You're killing her!" Rick looks back at Carl confused as to why Carl cares about the fox he's trying to choke and why does he assume it's a female. When Rick goes to look back at the fox he sees his hands are around Michonne's neck.

Rick and Michonne are lying in bed side by side; He has his arm wrapped around her stomach when he is jarred out of his sleep from the nightmare of choking her. As soon as he realizes it was just a dream he turns his head and sees that she is still asleep. He lays his head back down and pulls her in to him a little tighter when he suddenly hears a frantic knock at the door.

Rick jumps up and runs over to the door; Michonne sits up and grabs her katana. He opens the door and sees Daryl anxious and with concern written all over his face. "We got about 25-30 walkers eaten the hell out of deer I caught the other day. We gotta get out of here." Daryl tells him. "What about the SUV? Is it still accessible?" Rick asks while putting his jacket on. "Yea but not for long," Daryl answers, "Alright you and Chonne start gathering up the stuff, wake up Tero and get the car keys." Rick tells him. Daryl hands him Tero's keys.

Michonne walks over to Rick and hands him his weapon and his gun. "Go wake up T and let's get out the hell out of here. I'll pull around to the side stairs ya'll start throwing the stuff down." Rick tells them.

Michonne and Daryl start grabbing the stuff lying against the walls of the motel rooms and they start throwing it down the side stairs. As the two of them gather the last of the supplies Michonne runs in to Daryl room and grabs his stuff. Immediately upon coming out of his room she sees Daryl knocking on Tero's door. She begins to walk over to Daryl just as he's dropping his head down. As she gets closer she can hear moans and clawing on the other side of Tero's door. Michonne looks away sadly realizing what has happened. Daryl places his hand on door and says in a low voice, "Sorry brother, you'll be missed T."

Rick pulls the SUV around to the side stairs and starts stuffing the bags that they threw down in car. Daryl and Michonne start coming down the stairs and start to help him load up the vehicle. Michonne goes to grab another bag when she sees two walkers coming around the corner. Rick and Daryl don't see the walkers so she stops helping, runs over to the walkers and slashes both walker heads in half with one strike. She peeks around the corner of the building and catches sight of a line of walkers on their way towards the corner of the building. She turns around and quickly runs back to the car and tells them, "Come on we gotta go, they're coming."

Michonne gets in the passenger while Daryl makes room in the backseat to get in. Rick gets in the driver's seat and puts the key in the ignition. He looks around and says, "Where's Tero?" Michonne looks over at Rick closes her eyes, and shakes her head with regret. He looks at Michonne and is about to say something when he sees the walkers coming around corner.

Once they pull off from the trucker motel Rick asks, "Did you guys close the doors to the room?" Michonne shakes her head yes. "This place would be a good plan B if we ever have to hurry up and leave the cul de sac," he says.

The three ride along route 85 in silence. Daryl starts to think about the loss of his buddy and gets agitated and starts to shove the stuff in the backseat around so he can lay his head on the car door arm rest. Rick and Michonne hear his frustration but don't say a word.

Michonne begins to delve through Tero's CD case. All the CD's are from a time in the early 20th century, a time in civilization that will soon be considered nothing more than folklore. She pulls out a Billie Holiday CD and places it in to the CD player.

The first song that comes on is "Summertime", as the sultry horns and drums of the song begins to play, Lady Day's words seems to creates an ideal back drop as they drive by the high fields of wheat and cotton lined along the sides of route 85, almost as if Ms. Holiday was purposely mocking the events of morning. Rick, Michonne and Daryl listen to the words attentively.

Summertime and the livin' is easy/

Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high/

Oh, your daddy's rich and your ma is good lookin'/

So hush little baby, don't you cry/

One of these mornings, you're goin' to rise up singin'/

Then you spread your wings and you'll take the sky/

But 'til that mornin', there's nothin' can harm you/

With daddy and mammy standin' by/

As he listens to the song, Rick begins to think about the loss of Tero and how less than 24 hours ago was so grateful that Michonne was o.k. Tero's death reminds Rick that he no control of anything in this world. So he speeds up in an attempt to get back to Carl and Judith faster.

Rick recalls the conversation he and Tero had on the way over and what Daryl told him yesterday. In an attempt to work on Michonne's issues with intimacy, he glances at her and then reaches for the hand of the one thing that he could control from time to time. And that was giving pleasure to the zombie killing goddess in the seat next to him.

Rick swerves out the way of a walker on the road, in the process some of the stuff in the hatch spills on to the back seat. "Shit!" Daryl says annoyingly. Once he pushes the stuff back in to the hatch he glances up front and notices that Rick has his hand on top of Michonne's. He lies back down on the car door armrest and considers what Tero said in the bar about "Rick and his woman." Daryl lifts his head a little to see if Rick is still holding her hand and lies back down again with a tiny grin on his face of relief. He felt contentment knowing that Tero's lessons were finally being put in to practice by the both of them.