D

Always sunny in Georgia. Always. Or... bright. Definitely bright. Things... changed after she came. Harder to tell if it was for better or worse. Merle musta thought it was for better, he liked Val enough. He was keen as heck on her. Can't really blame him.

Didn't feel the attraction towards Val. Merle can have her. Never been one for love 'n all that, anyway. She didn't seem to be, either. He definitely didn't. Bastard. It was hard to miss the bruises, but somehow I was the only one to notice 'em. Deep ones, too. Dark. In places you don't get bruises unless it's on purpose. Didn't know what to do about it. Ain't my business. Ain't my problem.

That's what Merle would have said. I felt the guilt pricklin' every now and then. I always feel I'm smarter in my head. The accent kinda goes. Still don't talk much.

She left the window open in the kitchen of their house. Walking by was impossible to achieve when she was playin' the music that loud. I remember the song. It was a good one. Her favourite.

'Even if I say, it will be alright, still I hear you say you want to end your life, now and again we try to just stay alive, maybe we'll turn it all around 'cause it's not too late, it's never too late.'

She had a pretty good voice, too. Glancin' in proved she was dancin' around the kitchen, too. Like a damn chick flick, damn it. She stretched at one point, reaching up to get something from a cupboard; her top risin' up. That was the first time I saw the bruises. Hard to miss 'em when they were all over her back like that. After that... couldn't miss 'em. Tragic.

He's a dick. Attitude tells us he's got a small one.

Never had patience for women beaters.

Can't tell if Merle's serious about Val. Gonna be pretty damn mad if he hurts her. She's a goodun. Rare. Good person. She sees the bruises too. I know she does.

Spoke to Val. She sees the bruises.

Val wants t'do somethin' about it. I ain't sure. Merle's advice would be shit. Ain't gonna bother.

S'just like every other time. Abandons his own brother for a woman. Every time. Every damn time. Bullshit.

Another bruise.

Nope. Two.

Guilt's harder t'ignore. Shit.

We got invited round f'dinner and poker. He made her stop talkin'. Made her go quiet. Smile weren't genuine. Looked over at Val. Val sees it; grippin' her knife like she gonna break it. Why does she care so much?

Watchin' 'em reminds me of sisters.

He got cocky with me. So close to hittin' the sick bastard.

Can't work out what she does for a livin'. He won't never let her talk. Fuckin' dumbass. Let her talk. Know they're from Minnesota.

She's cool. Funny. Good taste in music, decent taste in people. Got one o' them soothin' voices 'n shit. It's nice. She's nice, too. Don't deserve his shit.

Somethin' big happened at their house today. Crashin', screamin' and yellin'. Val weren't there. Val was at ours. Merle's room. Think I was the only one t'hear it. Why'm I always the one? Damn it.

Went over t'see if she was alright. Ended up gettin' in the middle of it. He went in t'punch her. Ended up knockin' him out. Bruised my knuckles. Good riddance, though. Been wantin' to do that long time. Felt good.

C

Cassia wished she knew what was going on in that man's head, sometimes. All his faces seemed to be the same, although... she'd never seen him cry. He looked different when he laughed, too, but rarely did that genuinely, or even often at all. It's not like there was anything much to laugh about anymore, anyway. She couldn't blame him. Even so... it was probably a good idea to pay attention to the road while he was driving,

"Daryl?" He blinked a few times before he came to. He narrowed his eyes even further than usual and frowned, only glancing at her, never bothering to voice aloud whether he'd heard her or not, "You okay?" She asked. It wasn't really unusual for Daryl to zone out, after all. Daryl looked like he was about to answer her when the sound of the huge RV in front of them braking forced him to hit the brakes. His reflexes were impressive. No-one directly told them what was going on, they seemed to be a lesser priority, but they managed to listen in to Jim and Shane and Rick. Jim wanted them to leave him behind. He wanted that. There wasn't really anything they could do; if the man wanted to die before he turned, then who were they to deny him that right? They'd have to leave him. They had to. Didn't make it any easier. It gave Cass some sense of comfort to know they could at least do their best for him given the circumstances. They laid him out under a tree, propping him up against it. De ja vu came to her in the exact moment his back hit the tree; the only thing to separate this time from the last was the fact that he wasn't tied up, and Shane wasn't shouting in his face. In fact, Shane shook his hand. Everyone took their turn to say goodbye to Jim, and when it came to Cassia's turn, she lent down and kissed him on the cheek,

"You won't be forgotten." She told him solemnly, and he returned the gesture with a weak smile and nodded, his eyes closing.

Daryl had been behind her, and the goodbye he gave had been a nod.

Cassia wasn't sure how to feel when she was back in the pickup truck. Even Daryl looked a little somber. She fixed her eyes on Jim and even turned to continue watching him until he was out of sight.

It wasn't long until they arrived at their destination.

Corpses absolutely littered the surrounding area, cars had been abandoned, some of the corpses were even completely charred and burnt out; it seems someone had been using fire as a weapon. Cass shivered, curling her arms around herself, it was a warm day but something about the area in general was chilling. She felt cold to the core. Daryl had allowed her to keep two of his knives to protect herself with. She brandished one and kept the second in the makeshift sheath she'd made (with the help of Dale). The whole group moved together in tandem, approaching the huge building as quietly as they could. The word to best describe the CDC and the bubble of the world around it was derelict, and it felt like even stepping too harshly would draw attention to them. She couldn't tell where Daryl was, she was too focused on what lay ahead of them to look behind her. She assumed he must be there. Rick's sudden drop in posture was the most disheartening thing she'd ever seen. His eyes were wide and his lips were dry and Lori was pawing at his arm, Shane tugging at his other, whispering urgently to him.

"There's nobody here," T-Dog voiced from somewhere behind her, she turned her head a little towards him,

"Then why are the shutters down?" Rick answered, his voice was shrill desperate,

"Walkers!" Daryl called, making her startle a little. She hadn't realised he was standing so close. An ex-soldier dragged itself towards the group, going immediately for Sophia and Carol, who were the closest targets. Both gave a little cry when Daryl shot it through the head. It slumped to the ground in front of them, "You led us to a graveyard!" Daryl bellowed at Rick. He seemed to have forgotten the noise rule. Dale rolled his eyes so hard it was almost audible and spoke up,

"He made a call."

"The wrong damn call." Answered Daryl bitterly, his teeth clenched, finger flexing on the trigger. This was when Shane seemed to have had enough, and spoke up,

"Shut up. Shut up! No blame, do you hear me? No blame!" Daryl moved towards them and Shane bumped shoulders with him, putting himself between Daryl and Rick. Cassia had to give it to him; she respected him for that. Carol's pitiful cry of a voice prompted her to turn for the first time and look at them,

"Where are we gonna go?" Carol cried, and for the first time, Cassia started to panic. She was right. They had kids with them, and Cassia herself was pregnant. Where could they go? Lori was still pawing at her husband,

"She's right, Rick. We can't be this close to the city after dark."

Other members of the team made other various protestations and threw their blame at Rick. She'd tuned out. Rick was sweating by now, and looked like the definition of a man on the edge.

Cassia drew her attention away from Rick and towards the building they had almost reached. Shutters. Big, metal shutters were down and there was this complete stillness about the entire structure that suggested a complete lack of life inside. Her heart dropped and could have fallen out onto the floor in front of her, and she wouldn't have noticed. Cassia was stood completely frozen, her free hand was shaking and trembling and her eyebrows were raised high, her eyes were the only things that moved, traveling across the entire front of the building, searching for something. For anything. Suddenly, the slightest movement caught her eye. She whipped her attention towards it, her head snapping in the slightest of motions. She opened her mouth to tell the others, but Shane's voice cut across her own,

"We gotta go, Rick-!" But Rick was shaking his head, pointing at the building, seeing the same thing she had. He was pushing back at Shane,

"The camera moved! It moved! I saw-" Rick was crying, his entire frame was shaking and he was erratic with nerves and panic. Daryl's hand came down to secure itself around her arm, and he tugged her back towards him, trying to lead her back to the truck, but she refused to move. The camera had moved.

The camera was still moving.

"Cassie, c'mon- move-" Daryl was trying to budge her without actually physically pushing her, but she was absolutely rooted to the spot. She couldn't stop watching Rick. He was screaming and shouting at the camera now, and still... nothing.

Finally, she let Daryl pull her away, stumbling a little as she had been motionless for so long. Shane had taken to picking Rick up from behind, practically dragging the man away. A giant metallic groan shuddered through the shutters, and all hope re-imbued itself inside of her. Daryl's hand slipped off her arm and he came to stand beside her, his mouth hanging open,

"Wha-" He began, but couldn't even finish. She looked down to her teeny tiny bump and smiled. They were saved.