Homeward Bound
Carol was relieved to see that Daryl was better the next morning. His memory was still fuzzy and he seemed to have lost the last few months, but he was less dizzy and nauseated. He still had a headache but it was not as intense. He was well enough to be irritable and impatient. He had managed to walk to the restroom and had gotten dressed. He looked like himself except that this Daryl avoided looking or touching her. He virtually ignored Tyreese and Michonne. She tried to treat him as casually as possible; she didn't want to put too much pressure on him to remember. He needed to rest and recover his strength now.
Daryl watched Carol inspect Tyreese's leg; she had told him that Tyreese had gotten hurt when they had ambushed some of the Governor's men. He remembered enough about the Governor to know why that would have been necessary. Carol was smiling and talking with Tyreese as she undid the bandage and looked at the wound. Carol and Tyreese seemed like good friends and for some reason that just pissed him off. Michonne stopped loading up their supplies to watch Daryl's eyes narrow as he watched Carol with Tyreese. Michonne thought to herself, he may not remember Carol but her favorite redneck did not want to see her with anyone else. Michonne smiled, Daryl couldn't remember that Carol thought the sun shone out of his ass and he was back to being jealous of Tyreese. Daryl took his boot off and scratched his itchy foot. Carol looked at him and smiled, "Grandma would say that your foot is itching because you are going to be walking on new ground today". "More likely athlete's foot from the shower", he grunted back.
Carol and Michonne checked to make certain that everything was packed. They had already decided on their route to the mountains; they were avoiding major highways because they were probably grid locked. They were skirting all the big cities and staying in rural areas. They would be on the lookout for gas and supplies if they could find them. After a last pit stop before they left Michonne and Carol cautiously opened the door and found it was still peaceful outside. Michonne moved the vehicle closer to the door and helped Tyreese to the passenger seat. Daryl walked to the car but did not get in. He kept an eye on things while Carol and Michonne loaded their supplies. Michonne got in the driver's seat while Carol and Daryl got in the back.
Daryl thought that going all the way to the mountains in North Carolina was crazy, but Carol seemed set on it. He had never been there, less people and more trees seemed good to him. He was too tired and weak to argue and he found himself nodding off. He fell asleep and somehow Daryl wound up with his head on Carol's lap as he slept. Carol pushed his unruly hair out of his face and reminded herself that she and Daryl had been good friends before they were lovers. She was just showing affection for a good friend.
Daryl slept on as they traveled along lonely roads by deserted farms losing their battle against the encroaching wilderness. Michonne stopped at a barn, Carol eased Daryl off her lap and helped Michonne siphon some gas out of a truck. Tyreese was armed with a pistol and a rifle in case of a walker but the place seemed empty. They put gas into the Sub and were able to fill one of their five gallon cans as well. Carol was surprised that Daryl did not wake up as she slid under him to get back in the seat. Daryl was awake enough to realize that he was resting on Carol's lap and that he should get up and get back on his side of the seat. Daryl kept his eyes closed and told himself that he would just stay here a few more minutes and then he would move but it just felt so right to be this close to her. He was going back to sleep with an almost smile on his face when his body began to betray his guise of innocent sleep. He had a hard on from being so close to Carol, and he pretended that he was just waking up and sat back up on his side of the seat. He faked a real interest in the view from the suv windows.
Michonne stopped again at a barn and was able to find another few gallons of gas. They were now north of Atlanta and the terrain was becoming hillier and more forested. A quick lunch break behind a barn energized them. They tracked their progress and estimated how much farther it would be until they were at McAllister Mountain. Tyreese wanted to continue to search for gasoline; he wanted to know that they would have enough to return to Georgia if Daryl's memory returned. Everyone agreed, and they checked out the barn in front of them. They found no gasoline but they did find some tools that could be used as weapons and they added to their arsenal.
They hit pay dirt just down the road, a farmer had stored enough gasoline to fill the Sub and with that bounty Michonne got serious about getting there in a few hours. There were fewer choices in roads and they knew that they must travel through some small towns. There were walkers around and they had to be ready to defend themselves. Tyreese had his pistol ready, Daryl had the crossbow and a pistol, and Carol had a pistol and her sword. The rifles were loaded and on the seats if needed.
They saw a few live people but both sides avoided contact; they put down a few walkers here and there but the trip was relatively calm. Carol seems transfixed by the changing scenery, the hills became mountains and there were no houses or people for miles and miles.
It was late afternoon and they were very close to their destination when there was a roadblock ahead. . The roadblock was in the middle of a long clear stretch of road and there was only one truck with two men at the stop. There were open pastures on both sides, it did not look like a trap but you never really knew until you got closer. Every one tensed but Carol told Michonne just to drive closer and she would get out and talk to them. Michonne stopped about 50 yards from the truck and Carol got out; she had told them that if something was wrong she would drop her sweater and they could turn around and leave her. Daryl got out and caught up with her. She shook her head at him but didn't say anything. They walked up to the roadblock together. The two men had rifles but they lowered them as they came closer. The body language was cautious but not aggressive. She and Daryl were relatively unarmed, their knives were sheathed and their hands empty. Everybody was playing nice.
The older of the two men spoke to them as they neared the truck, "Strangers, can I help you with something?" Carol smiled and answered back, "I am Carol Ann McAllister, my father was Michael McAllister, and my grandparents were Nancy and James McAllister. My friends and I are looking for any of my family that might be on McAllister Mountain. Can you help us?" The older man gave her a closer look; she surely looked like a McAllister, skinny with big blue eyes. "Those McAllister have all passed, do you have any other kin?" Carol thought back to her uncles and cousins. "My father's brothers were named John and Patrick. John had a son named Ashton who is about my age, and a little girl but I don't remember her name". "Your cousin is Ashton McAllister?" the younger man asked. Carol replied, "Yes, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents when I was young and Ashton and I were close". The two men conferred for a minute and used a hand held radio. They walked back to Carol and Daryl and told them that Ashton McAllister was on his way. In less than five minutes when a truck came roaring up.
A skinny silver haired man with blue eyes swung out of the passenger side of the truck and approached Carol. He searched her face and a big smile spread across his face. "Still king of McAllister Mountain?" She asked, and he hugged her close. Daryl felt strange just standing there, but Carol soon introduced him as her friend and said that she had two other friends waiting in the Suburban. Ashton assured her that the community would welcome all of them and that he had a place for them to stay. Carol turned and motioned for Michonne to drive closer. Ashton said that he would ride up the mountain with them and show them their house.
Michonne gave him the wheel and got in the back with Carol and Daryl. Ashton drove them through a small town and past small farms in the valley before they came to a road winding up the mountain. He kept pointing out to Carol places where their kin lived. They went farther up the mountain and he showed them his sprawling log cabin. A little further and he turned onto a gravel road that quickly opened up to a small farm.
There was an old barn and a spacious log cabin. It was her grandparent's house, renovated and expanded a bit. There was a high chain link fence around the yard and Ashton soon had it unlocked. Carol thought it was the most beautiful house that she had ever seen. The door was locked and Ashton fished out the key from a string of keys. He unlocked the door and gave her the key. Carol opened the door. The house was dusty and needed a good airing but it still said "Welcome home" to her.
The others came in and sat down in the leather couches that ringed the wood stove. The place felt good and it felt safe. Ashton and Carol sat down at the kitchen table because he wanted to have a private talk with her. "Carol Ann, do you remember how much Grandma loved you?" She nodded yes, and he continued, "Your mother dragged you out of here after your father's funeral; Grandma always said that she didn't fight it because she thought your mother would let you come back if she did. Your mother refused to let you have any contact with any of us. She changed her address, changed your names, and we lost contact with you. Grandma kept trying to find you but you must have moved around a lot. Grandma had the "sight" you know". Carol had heard her grandmother tell her about the "sight", sometimes you just knew things and no one knew why. Nancy McAllister's mother had the sight and her grandmother as well. It fell to the oldest daughter in the family. Grandma had explained to Carol that she was the oldest girl in the family and she might have it someday as well.
Ashton went on, "Grandma told me that she saw that someday you would come home and need this place. She said that you would be bringing good people with you and that we would know and love them as much as you did. Carol, she left the house and the farm to you. I was her lawyer and I have been keeping this place for you. It belongs to you Carol. Welcome home Carol Ann McAllister".
Carol looked at Ashton; he was serious. "My grandmother left this for me 34 years ago?" Ashton looked puzzled, "She had a will written after your father died, she left you the farm but it was tied up so that your mother could not waste have any way to get control of it. She rewrote it five years ago to make you the sole heir with complete control. She said that she knew the time was coming for you to come home." Nothing was making sense to Carol, how could her grandmother rewrite a will five years ago when she had died over three decades ago? "When did Grandma die?" Ashton saw that Carol was getting upset. He answered softly, "Grandma died five years ago this summer". She realized that her mother had lied to her about her grandmother dying, allowed her to grow up without her grandmother in her life for sheer spite, and that her entire life had been altered in a profoundly disastrous way by that lie. Carol forced her rage into a controllable place; she didn't have time to deal with her anger right now. She would use it to fuel her next walker attack, or whatever else came her way.
Ashton went on, "Grandma had money, not sure from where, maybe she used the sight to play the stock markets. She renovated this house to make it safer, the doors are steel reinforced, she had the windows reinforced with steel grates on the outside and steel shutters on the inside. The water system is spring fed and there is also pump outside. Solar panels provide electricity and she used geothermal energy to heat and cool the house. The basement has food stored, and there are additional supplies in the barn. She convinced me to redo my home the same way and though everybody in the county thought we were crazy I went along with every nutty thing she came up with. She is the reason why I have two children, a wife, a sister, and a niece safe at my house".
Ashton gave her a tour of the house, the large living room, kitchen, laundry room, bathroom, and a master bedroom downstairs. Upstairs were three bedrooms and a bathroom. The basement had a year's worth of food for a large family stored. She could also see that Nancy McAllister knew the value of weapons and ammo. There was a locked area in the basement stocked with all sorts of weapons of destruction.
Ashton hugged Carol goodbye at the door and reminded her that he would bring his wife and sister by tomorrow. He said that an occasional walker wandered through, the outside gate would probably deter them, but everyone locked up at night and looked before they went around a corner.
Carol told the others the news that this house was theirs. They quickly unloaded their vehicle putting the weapons where they could be found conveniently but taking some to the basement. Carol offered Tyreese the master bedroom. It was downstairs and he wouldn't have to climb the stairs with his leg, but he refused saying that he would be alright upstairs. Michonne and Daryl took rooms upstairs as well. So Carol took the room that had belonged to her grandparents. She moved her few possessions to that place. Tyreese was cooking supper on the stove in the kitchen. It was a modern marvel; it took very little wood and produced enough heat to cook a meal on it. Two men had shown up while they were unloading. They lived on around the ridge and had been partners with her grandmother in a small distillery. They insisted that they were not moonshiners, but honest distillers of scotch whiskey. Sam and Dave had brought a gift of a dozen eggs as a house warming present and promised to visit tomorrow to show the men how everything worked. Carol and Michonne overlooked the blatant chauvinism because they were too excited over real eggs.
Carol wanted to take an evening walk to the family cemetery just up the hill. She took a pistol, Zak, and Daryl who refused to let her go alone. Carol marveled at the beauty of the mountains stretching before her. Daryl walking beside her felt as if he was in some sort of dream, he had woken up this morning in a steel building hundreds of miles away and now he was here in these mountains. He was walking on new ground indeed. Daryl stayed at the entrance of the small graveyard while Carol went inside. He waited until she was ready to leave. It was getting darker and the blue of the hills was turning gray. They started down the hill and she took his arm. He realized that she was worried that he might stumble because he was still weak. He could have shaken off her hand but he was finding it more and more difficult to pull away from Carol. It just felt so right to be close to her.
They locked everything up as they went in. The house had been airing some and Michonne had dusted the living room. The front door was reinforced with steel, there were steel grates on all the first floor windows, and steel shutters that closed from the inside on every window. The place was Fort Knox.
Supper was a happy occasion. They ate the eggs, canned bacon, and biscuits. Michonne had made coffee. The spring fed water tank had enough warm water for quick showers and they took turns cleaning up.. Michonne and Carol did the dishes together, planning what they would do to the house tomorrow. They had closed the shutter in the kitchen, it felt strange to feel safe, and they didn't trust it yet.
Everyone went to bed early. Tyreese and Michonne went upstairs. Daryl said that he didn't feel like climbing the stairs and that he would sleep on the living room couch. Carol knew that Daryl was sleeping downstairs to make certain that she was safe. He checked every window and door before he went to bed with his bow and pistol on the floor beside him.
Carol went into the living room to tell Daryl goodnight and to tell him that when his memory came back that she would go with him to get every member of their group and being them back here. She left him then and he lay there smelling the soap and shampoo that she had used in her shower. He was relieved that Carol didn't seem to know how much he wanted her; he didn't know what had happened during those lost months, but he did know that he got a hard on anytime he got near her today.
Carol went back to her bedroom with a certain lilt in her step. Tyreese was recovering well and Daryl was getting back to being himself. Daryl had been awake part of the time his head was in her lap and he had played possum to stay close to her. He was back to making eye contact and not flinching when she touched him. And he "woke up" from his nap on her lap when his erection became plainly visible. He had a hard on right now and part of her wanted to go back into the living room and take advantage of his weakened state to have her way with him. The other part knew that Daryl needed to concentrate on healing so that he could remember where the others were. Nothing was more important than that,
