We hadn't done much living since the farm was over run. We'd found a few places to stay, nothing long-term. The longest we'd ever stayed somewhere was this backwater hotel we found once. We managed to hold out there for a month, but that too was run over.
It had been a nearly 8 months since the farm, Lori was big now, read to pop and Rick was growing more desperate to find a home for us. We'd squatted in random houses we found out in the boonies, none of them as secure as Hershel's place. If we managed to stay longer than a week it was a miracle.
While Daryl and I were out scouting we'd stumbled upon another farm. It was pretty out of the way, inconspicuous, only one road in or out. It seemed like a feasible home, even if it was temporary. We told Rick and immediately we went out to secure it.
We walked up the front porch hastily, Rick first. The grounds were quiet, save maybe a walker or two, but we had no idea what the inside looked like. Rick turned to Carl, T-Dog, Daryl and Myself.
"I'll kick it in on the count of three… 1… 2… 3!" I readied my bow as Rick kicked down the door. Two walkers stood waiting for us, but they were no problem. Daryl and I took them down easily, one arrow between each of their eyes. Daryl and I went left, quickly clearing our side of the house.
We reached a dark hallway before entering what appeared to be a den of some sort. The room was empty, the only thing left to check was the door on the far side. I nodded to it silently and Daryl crossed to it quickly, placing his hand on the handle.
We both took a deep breath, steeling ourselves for what lay waiting on the other side. The handle began to jiggle and Daryl raised his bow, taking a step back. I nocked an arrow, holding it ready to fire. The door swung open and I was immediately blinded. Despite my better judgment I dropped my bow, shielding my eyes.
I heard Daryl chuckled and I looked up at him. Rick stood in the doorway, on the other side was a through and through closet that led to the rest of the house.
"Holy shit." I breathed shakily, laughing quietly. Rick smiled at us, glancing past us.
"Hows your side looking?" He asked.
"It's all clear," I replied, again glancing around. "Quaint." I said hopefully. To be honest I was tired of moving and I liked this room. I had plans of claiming it for Daryl and myself. Rick smirked at me, knowing how much I desperately wanted to stay and he shrugged.
"Look's promising so far, lots of space, but we'll see." Rick said, leading us out of the closet. I saw stairs to the right, so did Daryl, and cautiously he moved to them, training his bow up the incline. It was dark up there, so I clicked my flash light up the steps once, allowing him to see where he was going.
I followed him silently, T-Dog behind us, taking the stairs quickly, not wanting to be caught on them. They creaked under us as we walked. T-Dog took the room on the right while Daryl went straight ahead. I turned to my left, raising my bow, and threw the door open, quickly checking my corners.
The room was empty and I breathed a sigh of relief, looking around at the bedroom. The familiar twang of a crossbow came from down the hall and my heart dropped. I sprinted towards it, hearing a thud, throwing open the door to the second bedroom.
Daryl stood in the middle of the room, stowing his bow, looking at me like I was a mad woman. I watched him silently, glancing from him to the dead owl on the floor before narrowing my eyes.
"Are you for real?!" I asked him. T-Dog ran up behind me to see what had happened, and when he saw the bird on the floor he began to laugh. I slapped T-Dog's shoulder, my stony gaze again drifting to Daryl. He bent over, taking the bird in his hands and studying it.
"What? I caught us dinner." He replied matter of factly, only causing T-Dog to laugh more.
"You gave me a heart attack!" I scolded him. Daryl walked over to me, smiling at me widely, before walking past me, back to the stairs. He began to pluck the bird as he walked, and I watched him grimacing.
"Like you aint never plucked a chicken before, farm girl." He smirked at me.
"That's not a chicken." I grimaced again, kicking one of the feathers away that had fallen on my boot.
As we reached the bottom floor, Maggie and Glenn were already moving the body of the walkers we took out when we entered the house. Carol, Lori and Beth had started bringing in our supplies. I looked over to Daryl and he shrugged, gesturing outside, still plucking the owl.
Everyone had reconvened in the large sitting room. Daryl nearly had the owl plucked and I sat on the floor next to him, grabbing up the feathers and tossing them in the air. He smiled down at me as I watched them float to the floor, and the next handful he plucked he threw into the air. I grinned at him, leaning over to kiss his hand when Carl ran in.
The boy sat down quickly on the floor, brandishing two cans of food as he did. He reached into his bag, pulling out a can opener, one of life's essentials, taking it to the cans. I frowned, finally able to read the label. It was cat food. I glanced up at Daryl, then down to the owl, which suddenly seemed delicious.
Rick, who had been standing quietly in the corner until now, walked over to his son. He picked the can up that he was opening, studied it briefly, before chucking it to the side. It hit the wall loudly and flinched. Daryl stopped what he was doing, looking up from his bird at the sheriff.
We all sat quietly, looking around at each other. Rick shook his head, staring at the floor and my eyes drifted down to the can of pet food that was now laid out all over the floor.
"Psst." T-Dog hissed, gesturing to the window. I looked outside, a horde of walkers heading towards the house. Quickly everyone's things had been packed up and Daryl grabbed our bags.
We made a hasty exit, not wanting to be caught inside that house when they arrived. We hopped onto the bike and Daryl quickly started it up, taking off first, leading the rest of the group away.
I turned in my seat, glancing back at the house that at one time seemed so promising. I felt my stomach rumble and I winced, wrapping my arms around Daryl's midsection, holding on to him tightly as we drove away.
We pulled up to a stop a few miles away, getting prepared to begin another search. Daryl and I jumped from the bike, placing our rucksacks in Glenn and Maggie's car. We stared at each other long and hard and again my stomach grumbled. Daryl frowned at me, but I forced a smile. This was normal for us now, going hungry included.
"When this heard meets up with this one we'll be cut off, we'll never make it south." Maggie said quietly. She had pulled out a map and we all gathered around the car to look at it.
"Would you say that was about 150 head?" Daryl asked. I grimaced as he used a term for cattle to ask about the walkers, almost certain I'd lost my appetite.
"That was last week, it could be twice that by now." Glenn interjected. I rubbed hand through my hair, frustrated.
"This river could have delayed them." I said, pointing to the map. They all looked down at my finger and Hershel glanced up at me. He nodded his head in agreement.
"If we move fast we may have a chance to tear right through there."
"Yeah, but if this group joins with that one they could spill out this way." I watched T-Dog gesture over the map at the red circles we'd drawn on them. We were trying our best to monitor walker movements but we'd run into so many that now our map was a huge blur of circles and lines.
"The only thing to do is double back at 27 and spring towards Greenville." Rick said.
"We picked through that already…" I mumbled.
"It's like we spent the winter running in circles." T-Dog explain. I shuddered, thinking about the past months. It wasn't that cold of a winter, would've been pleasant had we not been running for our lives through its entirety.
"I know, I know. At Newnan we'll push west, haven't been through there yet." Rick offered. "We can't keep going house to house. We have to find someplace to hole up for a few weeks."
"Alright." T-Dog said, giving in. "Is it cool if we get to the creek before we head out? We gotta fill up on water. We can boil it later?" Rick nodded and we all broke away from the car, T-Dog heading back to the truck where our jugs were.
My stomach rumbled again and I grabbed for it, groaning. He frowned at me, catching Rick's attention.
"While the others are out washing their panties, lets go hunting." His eyes flickered to me and I nodded. "That owl didn't exactly hit the spot."