Carol had not forgotten about her promise to Maggie, and the granddaddy longlegs that she found cowering and half frozen in the kitchen cabinet was going to be perfect. He was just "deadly" enough to scare the pants off of Maggie, but he promised no real harm to anyone. Carol had trapped him there all day in anticipation of her attack.
They were all sitting around the dining room after dinner. So much body heat had made the room actually quite warm and no one really wanted to leave it, so random conversation had been their choice for the evening's entertainment.
Carol came in from the kitchen, having excused herself to go and make sure the fire was out completely and to take the dishes outside to be washed the next morning. When she came in, she shuffled her way around the crowded room, apparently making her way back to her seat. She stopped behind Maggie and put a hand on her shoulder. Maggie turned a little to look at the floor, assuming that Carol must be using her as a support to step over something.
"I've got a little something for you." Carol said, dropping the spider on Maggie's lap.
No one had expected Carol's attack, and they certainly didn't expect what happened next. Maggie in a terror stricken panic, shoved back her chair and tried to get up, screaming. She'd knocked Carol to the floor, who was laughing so hard that no sound was even escaping her. Maggie's foot caught on the chair and she fell back on top of Carol. Floundering hysterically and screaming "Get it off! Get it off!"
Carol couldn't breathe she was laughing so hard. She hadn't expected to end up on the floor with Maggie on top of her, hitting her in her attempts to get the spider, who was probably already dead from heart failure or had lumbered off somewhere, off of her. It was worth it, though, Carol thought, just for the absolute hilarity of the moment. No one had moved to help them or even ask if they were OK because everyone was still dying from laughter over Maggie's reaction.
Dora was finally starting to get her breath. She didn't know why Carol had put the spider on Maggie, but it had been the best show she'd seen in a while. She didn't know if this was just something Carol did from time to time, but Maggie had certainly not been expecting it.
When Michonne could finally get control of herself, she got up to assist the two of them. Carol still hadn't stopped laughing and was gasping for air. Maggie was jerking around frantically, still trying to find the spider, convinced that it threatened certain death for her if she couldn't locate it.
"Where is it? Where is it?" She said when Michonne reached down to pull her up.
"Probably dead." Michonne said.
"Probably dead? That's not good enough." Maggie said. Now her hysterics were calming a little, but she was starting to cry.
"Calm down, it's not on you. There's no way it's on you. It didn't survive your departure from the table." Michonne said. She pulled Maggie up, but she was shaking and kept jerking. Michonne quickly checked her over. By now Tyreese came over, helping Carol up, who still hadn't completely quit laughing.
"It's not on you." Michonne said. "You're clean."
"It was a daddy longlegs." Carol said, still giggling a little. "Not a black widow."
"I HATE you!" Maggie screamed, red in the face. Michonne instinctively grabbed Maggie's arms. Not sure if Maggie might react in a way that she'd regret once she calmed down. Maggie shrugged off her arms, turned and shoved past her, making her way out of the room. A minute later they heard the front door slam.
Glenn, who had been blankly watching the last part of the scene stood up.
"That was really mean, Carol." Glenn said. He was guilty of having laughed too, but now he felt really bad for Maggie. She was really upset because she did hate spiders.
"She'll be fine, Glenn." Carol said. "And she doesn't really hate me. It was mean, but Maggie needed to be reminded that we have to respect each other, especially about the things that frighten us, because even if it's not serious to anyone else, it's serious to that person. She knew it was coming."
Glenn looked mad for a minute, and then his face calmed. "Well," he sighed, "I guess I better go calm her down." He left the room without bidding goodnight to anyone.
"It was mean." Carol said, not really to anyone in particular. "I guess I'll apologize to her tomorrow."
"It was mean," Daryl said, "but it was funny as hell." He laughed again. "Man when she shot up from that chair it was on." Everyone laughed again.
"Does anyone know where the spider went?" Beth asked, looking around.
"Off somewhere to die from a heart attack." Carol said. Everyone laughed again. "Don't worry, Beth, I'm not going to do anything to you."
"See there," Sasha said, "I told Maggie that was bad karma, and bad karma always catches up to you!"
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The next day all was forgiven over breakfast. Carol apologized to Maggie, and Maggie, having finally calmed down had taken back her statement about hating Carol. She was still a little jumpy, though, every time Carol got close to her.
"I told you." Carol said when Maggie jumped as she put her plate in front of her. "I'm not going to do it again. Are you going to tease anyone about overreacting about their phobias anymore?"
"No ma'am." Maggie said. "I get it. You can't help how you act when you're faced with something you're scared of."
"You're a quick learner." Michonne said. Maggie snorted.
"Well at least you got your laugh at me. Don't think I didn't hear you laughing." Maggie said.
"Sorry, but it was funny. If I had flipped a chair and took Carol out I don't think I would have minded you laughing." Michonne said.
"Michonne," Carol said, interrupting. "Do you know of any stores nearby that y'all could make a safe run to for formula and really any kind of baby food stuff that you can get your hands on? We've only found a little bit in the houses so far. It doesn't seem like too many people around here kept much of that stuff stockpiled."
"If I remember correctly, there was a little mom and pop variety type store that shouldn't be too far from here. It's a short run, and unless it's been terribly picked over it should have some stuff for Judith." Michonne said. "Do you think baby food and all would still be good?"
"I honestly don't know. If they have powdered milk, can you get some of that too for making rice cereal? I'm almost out of it. I'll try the food before I give any to Judith." Carol said.
"You're going to voluntarily give yourself food poisoning?" Maggie asked.
"I'd rather I got it than she did." Carol said. "At least I could understand what was happening to me."
They'd run into the occasional problem with food, but luckily no one had gotten majorly sick over anything. These days it was just try it and hope for the best. Michonne thought they might be building up some sort of immunity to it, though, since it hadn't happened in a while.
"Glenn and I can go right after breakfast and get that stuff, if you want." Maggie offered.
"I'll go with you." Michonne said. "I can tell you how to get there. We'll take Beth so in case we see anything she can get a little more practice in."
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Glenn pulled up in front of the store that Michonne had directed him to. It looked to be like some kind of family dollar type general store. "I hope I don't get towed by parking here." He said, switching off the engine.
They'd seen quite a few Walkers, and some were ambling around the streets and parking lots around them. They were hoping that the cold weather might keep them from paying them much attention.
"OK, listen, it's a quick get in and get out." Michonne said. "No dawdling. When we get in there, Glenn you and Beth keep watch and Maggie and I'll get the stuff."
"Deal." Glenn said.
"Ok, let's go." Michonne said. They all got out quickly with their bags and rushed into the store, walking right through the doors that had been broken out.
The store had been looted, that was clear, whether it had happened when everything started or it had been done by a group passing through, but hopefully it hadn't been too badly looted.
Everyone took their places and Michonne and Maggie rushed to find what they needed. It took them longer than they anticipated to find the powdered milk and then they headed toward the baby aisles.
Beth and Glenn came barreling down the aisle toward them.
"We've got company! A whole lot of it!" Glenn said as he rushed by. Instinctively Michonne and Maggie dropped everything and ran after them. At the back of the store Glenn saw a door and said a quick prayer that it would take them out the back. He ripped it open and ran in, and the others followed him with Maggie shutting the door.
Once inside the door they searched around in the darkness hoping for some kind of exit. There wasn't any kind of exit. It was just a storage space, apparently.
"Well this is just fantastic." Michonne said. "How many Walkers are we talking, Glenn?"
"Enough that running into a storage closet seemed like a really good idea." Glenn said. "I don't know, at least as many as we saw that night…," he stopped for a second, "when we were travelling. It was like all of a sudden they just smelled us." Glenn was sure he'd been right before. They were moving faster than they used to.
"Do you think the others would come for us? I mean if we stay in here and wait?" Maggie asked. Beth was crying and it was grating on Michonne's nerves.
"Stop crying, Beth." Michonne snapped. The others would come looking for them if they didn't come back, Michonne knew that much was true, but it could take them forever to find them, and even then they'd have to take on the herd. Realistically that door wasn't going to hold out a herd of Walkers, they'd push through it easily, and then they'd just be trapped in the storage room with the Walkers.
"Do you think the door will hold until they get here?" Glenn asked.
For a moment Michonne felt sad. They were just trapped like rats here right now, and she desperately wanted to be back in the safety of their community. She wanted to hold her daughter, and she couldn't imagine what Daryl was going to do if she didn't make it back. She tried to shake the thought out of her head.
She wasn't giving up this easily. She'd be damned if she was going to just sit here and wait, like a sitting duck, for Walkers to get to them. Michonne unsheathed her katana.
"Is everybody armed?" She asked. Everyone responded in the affirmative.
"Then fuck this. We're going home. All of us." She said.
Glenn had frozen a moment when Michonne had opened the door and run out. Then he snapped out of it, running after her, his machete in hand.
Michonne had thought she had bitten off more than she could chew until she saw Glenn to the left of her, fighting right along with her. At least they were fighting. She hoped Beth was ready for this. She didn't know how many Walkers were in the store, or how many more were still spilling in, but at the moment she felt like she had when they'd walked out into the prison yard to find the Governor's collection ambling around. She fought furiously, trying not to think about where the others were.
At one point Michonne stepped backwards and her foot hit something, she didn't know if it was a fallen Walker or some discarded item on the floor, but she slammed backwards, her katana flying out of her hand. She scrambled to try to retrieve it, one Walker getting particularly to close for comfort. She was surprised, however, when the Walker fell dead on top of her, and Beth was standing there yanking her hatchet out of its skull.
Michonne scrambled to her feet and, having retrieved her katana, helped Beth with the ones closing in around them.
As it waged on, Michonne felt like they were playing some sort of fast paced Whack-A-Mole game with Walkers spilling toward them from the various aisles of the stores. She didn't know how many more were coming, but she prayed they were getting close to whittling down the numbers.
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They have been gone too long. Carol thought to herself. She was getting antsy, but she was trying to hide it from everyone else who obviously hadn't been paying attention to the amount of time that the group had been gone.
Carol had sent Tyreese, Sasha, and Dora out to get water and she tried to occupy herself by building a fire to boil the rest of the water that they had left.
They're going to want baths when they get back. Carol thought to herself. If they ran up with Walkers they'll be wanting to get clean. I'll make sure they come back to hot water.
When the water crew got back, and the group still hadn't returned, Carol got even more worried. It was getting late. They should not be taking this long. This was a ridiculously long time to be on what was supposed to be a relatively short run.
"They're not back yet?" Sasha asked, putting down her bucket and helping Dora with one of hers.
"No, not yet." Carol said. She was trying to hold her voice steady and keep her face relaxed. If they saw she was worried, they might freak out. Though she did notice that the three of them already wore slightly concerned faces.
"Does it usually take this long?" Dora asked. She didn't know what a "run" consisted of, though the group talked about them often.
"Hard to say." Carol said. "We haven't done many since we got here."
"When we were at the prison they could take all day." Tyreese said. He could tell that Carol was a little anxious and he wanted to calm her down, but he had to admit that he was worried too. When they'd done runs at the prison they had to go to other towns. This was a run that was supposed to be just a few streets away.
"We should start getting something to eat ready." Carol said. "They missed lunch and they'll be hungry."
"I can help you." Dora said.
Carol went with Dora to start getting cans of food ready. She had hoped the activity would distract her, but it really wasn't helping much. When Daryl found them, he had an unhappy Hope with him.
"She's gettin' fussy." Daryl said. He hadn't paid attention to the time until the baby had started to get restless. Now he was wondering where the group was.
"What do you want me to do about it, Daryl? I can do a lot of things, but I can't start lactating on command!" Carol snapped at him. She hadn't meant to snap at him, but she was on edge.
Daryl jumped back a little. Shocked that Carol had spoken to him like that. "I wasn't sayin' you needed to do nothin' 'bout it!" He snapped back. He could tell she was worried, and he was worried too. Michonne was out there, along with the others, and now his baby was letting him know they'd been gone too long.
"I'm sorry, Daryl." Carol said after a minute. "I just…I just…I don't know what to do right now." She took Hope from him and walked out of the house, leaving Dora to finish gathering cans. Daryl followed behind her.
"Where you goin'?" He asked.
"To get a pacifier." Carol said. "It's all I know to do right now." Carol said.
"Do you think we oughta go get 'em?" Daryl asked. Still keeping a few paces behind her.
"I don't know, Daryl. I don't know what to do." Carol said.
Now Daryl was really worried and really didn't know what to do. What he wanted to do was get in the car and go and find them. He didn't know where they were, but he still wanted to go and find them. He suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe. He didn't even know where they were and he needed to find them. He needed to find them alive.
Tyreese saw Daryl stop in the middle of the street. He looked like he was struggling to breathe. Tyreese ran over and put his arms on Daryl's shoulders.
"Take it easy, man." Tyreese said. "We're gonna bring them back. We'll get the car and we'll take a group and we'll bring them back." Tyreese wasn't entirely sure it was a good idea to take Daryl with him at this moment, but he knew that Daryl wasn't going to stay there if they went in search of the group. He knew that Daryl would be worried about Glenn, Maggie, and Beth, but his real concern right now was finding Michonne.
Daryl didn't say anything. He honestly felt like he couldn't talk at this moment, but Tyreese had sounded positive about what he had said and it was a little comforting.
"Let's see, we can go. We'll take Sasha, she's one of the strongest fighters we've got here. What about Rick?" Tyreese said.
"Yeah, Rick's good." Daryl said.
"Hey! Hey!" They heard Sasha yelling at them. They could see outside the car approaching. Both of them ran over to the gates to help Sasha get them open and to kill the Walkers that were trying to barge in.
Carol came out the house to see them opening the gate. She took off in a run.
"Are they all there, can you see all of them?" She called.
When the car stopped they were all crowded around it. Everyone climbed wearily out of the car. They were all covered in blood and every other disgusting thing imaginable, but they were standing. Everyone froze for a moment, just staring at them. They looked at them like they thought they were ghosts or some kind of vision they were having.
"You can get the bags out of the car. I'm beat." Glenn said meekly.
That snapped everyone out of it and despite the fact that they were filthy, they all found themselves being embraced.
"Bites? Scratches?" Carol asked immediately.
"No bites." Michonne answered. "I honestly don't know about scratches.
"I'll get water for everyone. Daryl, you help Michonne and check her for scratches. Maggie and Glenn, check each other out. I'll help you, Beth." Carol said, snapping into action.
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Daryl helped Michonne get washed up and he checked her thoroughly for scratches. While she was twisting at her hair. Finally satisfied that she was scratch free, Daryl hugged her.
"I was gettin' scared 'Chonne." He said.
"Believe me, you weren't the only one that got scared today." Michonne said. She walked into the bedroom and started getting dressed. She still hadn't fed Hope and that was terribly obvious to her right now. She was also starving.
"We was just about to come lookin' for y'all." He said.
"I knew you'd eventually come looking. Don't worry about it anymore. We're all here. Let's go get something to eat and I'll give Hope what she's been wanting, I know she's not happy right now." Michonne said.
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Everyone was sitting around, waiting for dinner to be ready. Glenn had been recounting the events of the day. The fight that, for them, had been an epic battle. They had all fought continuously, and it was only when they stopped coming and only a few were left that any of them even began to entertain the thought that they would make it out of there. Now that they were relaxing, Daryl had scooted his chair right next to Michonne's and had his arm around her, pulling her to him.
"I'm telling you." Glenn said. "It was like the herd the Governor let loose on us but it was just the four of us."
"They were everywhere. I couldn't even get my machete out of one hardly before another one was grabbing at me. It was terrifying!"
They were all exhausted, but Michonne imagined that if they felt like she did, they were somewhat energized as well. There was a lot of adrenaline still coursing through them. They would crash tonight, that was for sure.
"I never thought I'd get to say this, but Beth saved my ass out there today." Michonne said.
Beth was blushing. "I saw you go down. I didn't know what else to do."
"Well you did well, I'm proud of you." Michonne said. She had seen a side of Beth today that she hadn't seen before. Beth had fought, and Beth had fought hard. When her back was against the wall, Beth had the potential to blossom into quite the warrior for the group. Michonne was pleased. Finally Beth had found the drive to face her fears.
Carol brought in food and served the four of them first. They were all starving, so they accepted it gratefully. Most of the meal was silent, with a few comments thrown in here or there, and immediately after eating Michonne excused herself to go home and go straight to bed. A full stomach was enough to make her really realize how tired she was.
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"Go to sleep." Michonne said to Daryl. "I don't think you realize how dog tired I am right now. I don't want to talk."
This had been a sort of slap in the face for everyone. They felt safe in their little neighborhood. It felt like nothing could happen to them. They were living in their own little utopia here, but today had reminded them all that the utopia did not extend beyond the fences that surrounded the community. Outside the fences the chaos was still raging. It had gotten to all of them, and for Daryl it had been like someone splashing him with a bucket of ice water. He had a lot on his mind, and he wanted to talk about it, but Michonne wasn't interested in talking about anything right now.
"Fine," Daryl said. "Go to sleep. I guess it can wait until tomorrow." He snuggled up against her, holding her extra tight. "I love you, 'Chonne." He said.
"I love you too, Daryl. Goodnight." Michonne mumbled.