Journey
Daryl made a last minute check of the supplies and turned to say goodbye to Carol. He knew that the other team members were waiting for him to get in as team leader. Carol had been circulating among the team hugging everyone goodbye but was standing quietly now watching him. He kissed her goodbye gently and said "Be safe" and she answered, "Nine lives remember". She squeezed his hand and he kissed her palm and then closed her fingers around the kiss. She smiled at him and said, "Forever". Daryl stared at her intently for a few heartbeats as he tried to memorize every detail of her face. Carol handed him a map of North Carolina with a heart drawn around the McAllister Mountain area. There was an arrow pointing to the heart and the inscription read, "Don't forget your way home". Daryl laughed but there were tears in his eyes as he opened the door to a Humvee. Carol stepped back and the others began to get into their vehicles. There were cries of "Goodbye" and "See you soon" and then the Humvees and the truck passed from view and the realization that they were gone began to sink into those who stayed behind.
Andrea and Carl turned and walked back into the house to check on Judith. Alyssa and Caleb went back to the barn house to move their things back to the big house. Carol walked Dave part of the way back to the distillery. She offered him a place to stay at her house. She knew that he would be very lonely back at his house and Dave said that he had work to do with at home but he would think about staying there or at the barn house.
Carol walked back to the house alone; she needed a few minutes to pull herself together before she went back. She had a house full of people who were as scared and lonely as she was and they needed her to be strong. She would keep everyone busy and before you knew it those vehicles would roar back up the mountain road and Daryl would jump out and this would be over.
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Sam drove, Rick had shotgun, and Daryl took a back seat. He folded Carol's map and put it in the inside pocket of his jacket next to his heart. Daryl knew that he had to concentrate on this mission and not dwell on his loneliness. He needed to get this done and then he could go back up this mountain and open the front door to his home and see Carol cooking supper or reading by the fire.
Rick and Sam were discussing the route. It was a wide arc that kept them out of Charlotte and other large cities in North Carolina. They were following the mountains northward and then there were secondary roads that would lead to I-77. It was all unknown territory and any route they took was like walking through a mine field. You would be in deep shit before you knew and there might not be a way out.
The first three hours were slow going. There were trees down from the recent storm and they had to move some trees here and there. There were walkers, but Allen and Michonne kept them at bay. They stopped for an early lunch somewhere at a wide spot in the road and tried to mark their progress on the map. They found few vehicles with any diesel fuel and that added to their anxiety. Daryl gathered water from a nearby stream and filled his water filtration bottle. Each team member had one and even though they had brought water with them Daryl wanted them to make it a habit to collect water before it was needed. The rest of the team followed him and filled their bottles. They ate sandwich from home and looked at the map again. It seemed as if they had gone such a little way in three hours.
The truck started to develop all sorts of problems by the fourth hour and they stopped to work on it. Sam and Tyreese worked for a while on it. Finally, they gave up and loaded everything into the Humvees and Michonne moved into the Patrick-Jamela-Sam Humvee and Tyreese moved in beside Daryl. The land was mountainous and forested. There were few houses and vehicles around. Daryl looked at the sun; it was still reasonably early but he wanted to find someplace safe before dark. It took another hour before they found a log cabin situated far back from the road. Daryl and Rick went in first and found that the roomy cabin was a rental unit and it must not have been occupied that week because it was dusty but there weren't other's people stuff scattered around. There was no food but they found sizeable stream beside the house. They carried water so that the commodes could be flushed. Michonne and Jamela took a bedroom upstairs and the men decided to sleep downstairs.
They used their camp stove to heat up hot water for coffee and ate MREs for dinner. They blocked off the windows to keep light from going out and posted watches for the night. They had gotten as far as they wanted and they had lost the truck but nothing terrible had happened.
Jamela and Michonne had twin beds and they joked about having a slumber party. They went to bed early and found that they could sleep.
Rick had first watch and he found it easy to stay awake. He missed Andrea and his children. He thought about their last night together and how they had eaten by the stove in their new home. He wished he was there now; he wouldn't even complain about Andrea's cold feet.
Daryl fell asleep and dreamed that Carol had taken all of the covers from their bed. In his dream, he was cold and couldn't find Carol or the covers. He woke up to the reality that the house was freezing cold and it was his turn for watch. He got up and relieved Rick and tried to think of a place to store Carol's map. He wanted to keep it by his heart but if he got captured that same map might lead trouble back to the people he loved. He couldn't bear to just throw it away either.
He was still moping about the map the next morning and Sam asked what was wrong. He showed him the map and told him that he was afraid that the map showed where their families were. Sam was going to say, "Tear it up and throw the pieces away" but he caught the look on Daryl's face. Sam sighed, "Give it here and bring me your run bag". Tyreese drove and Sam fiddled with Daryl's run bag until he had the map hidden in it. The map was on an 8 ½ sheet of paper and he rolled it up and attached to a corner of the bag. Sam sewed it back up and no one could tell the difference.
The morning drive was cold and uncomfortable. They found themselves going through a couple of small towns with abundant walkers and stalled vehicles. At one point Tyreese and Sam drove while the others mowed through walkers pushed vehicles out of the way. It was a perfect place for an ambush and they were on high alert. Daryl figured that the ambushers had either been eaten years ago or they had moved on to better pickings. It rained all morning and they were soon cold and wet.
They stopped to have lunch at a lookout lot at the top of a mountain. They could see the road from both directions and the hill so steep that couldn't imagine walkers making their way up. There had been trees and branches all over the road on the hill and they couldn't guarantee an open road down the hill but they stopped and used the camp stove to heat up hot water for tea or hot chocolate. Lunch was peanut butter sandwiches and some apples. Daryl ate watching the road behind them and listening for suspicious sounds. Allen took some pictures with his digital camera of the scenery and soon they were going down the hill. The trip down went faster, and the next part was through a long valley. They passed a small farming compound with a palisade log fence in the center. Sam said, "I think they have their houses and barns protected by fences and they go out during the day and farm". There were several of the log palisade compounds in the valley, and they drove on by. Their spirits were lifted by the thought that other groups were finding ways to survive.
They stopped that night at a barn and took inventory of their supplies and how far they had to go. They had at least two more full days before they would be close to the storage facilities and they needed to find some diesel. It was a somber bunch that stretched out on hay that smelled more like mildew than a hot summer day.
Tomorrow they were leaving the mountains and going through rural but more populated areas. Daryl knew that the danger level would be ramped up tomorrow, but he was going with that every mile brought them closer to getting what they needed and then once they had these last pieces of the turbine puzzle every mile would bring them that much closer to home.
Rick took first watch and looked out at the wet cold night. Daryl was doing a good job leading and he needed to tell him that in the morning. Rick had a feeling that things were going to be dicey tomorrow. He wondered what Andrea and the kids were doing tonight. Andrea would have Judith asleep by now and she and Carl might be in the kitchen making up dough for the morning bread. Andrea was teaching Carl how to bake and the boy loved it. Rick felt the tears form in his eyes and he let them fall. The Rick that kept everything bottled up was no more; he was homesick for his life on the mountain.
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It had been a long two days up on McAllister Mountain. The weather had turned cold and rainy. Judith had the sniffles and was fussy. The house seemed too empty during the day and too noisy in the middle of the night. The old house seemed creak a lot more when Rick and Daryl weren't there. Carol and Andrea worked in the green house and the long tunnels as a way to keep busy during the day, but the nights were long and lonely. On the second day Ashton brought over three men who were volunteering to work on the new house. Carol welcomed them into her house and was going to politely decline any help on the house. She offered them some coffee and they politely declined. Ashton said, "John, you better tell why you want to help with the house."
The oldest of the three men nervously cleared his throat and said, "I want to show you something". He pulled out a digital camera and showed a picture of a newborn baby. "That is my baby girl when she was just an hour old." He thumbed through some photos and showed Carol and Andrea another photo, "This was her when she turned two". He showed them a photo of a curly headed baby with big brown eyes. John thumbed through some more and then showed them a slightly older little girl laughing in a pile of autumn leaves. "That's my little girl two days ago".
John seemed to have gained momentum and confidence by showing the pictures and he went on, "Two weeks ago my little girl was in the hospital with pneumonia. The doctor told us that they didn't have the right medicine to treat her and that she was losing ground. We needed to make our peace with what was going to happen. Someone came up and got the doctor and he left in a hurry. He ran back in a few minutes with some medicine and started giving it to my little girl. She was dying and we thought that it was too late. My wife and I sat beside her bed all night thinking that we would be there when she passed. The doctor stayed with us and he had promised that he would do what would have to be done when she died. The medicine worked and by morning she was much better. We took her home two days later and she is fine now. I asked the doctor where the medicine came from and he said that your family would go on runs and bring the medicine back to the hospital. My little girl is alive and I want to pay you back. I used to sell cabinets and install them. My brothers and I are here to put your kitchen together in the new house. I have some nice cherry cabinets that are going to waste in my storage buildings. Please let us do this; I want you to know that we appreciate what you do for people you don't even know".
Carol turned to Andrea, "Well, do you want your kitchen installed?"
Andrea said, "Of course I do, Rick will hang the cabinets upside down and then get mad when they don't work". Carol laughed because Rick's carpentry skills were meager at best.
John and his brothers walked over to the house and measured the kitchen. They left and came back in an hour and began to install cabinets, appliances, and lights in the kitchen. Andrea brought over coffee and doughnuts and gave them free rein to create a kitchen. They took three days to get it finished but in the end it was beautiful. They left at the end of the third day with more baked goods and an invitation for dinner when the house was finished.
Carol and Andrea went on a tour of the kitchen with Judith. Andrea liked to bake and the kitchen was designed for use and beauty. They sat at the new dining room table and talked about how their lives had changed in such a short time. The dining room window had a magnificent view; it was raining again and mist was rising from the distant mountains. Carol found herself staring at the somber landscape and praying that all their loved ones would be back soon.
