Chapter 7
-Read the label-
A few days after the newcomer's arrival Emma had been asked to go on a run for the supplies. There was an auto-parts distribution company not too far away on the edge town that would have some of the items they needed. She'd done this run a few times; it wasn't going to be difficult.
It did seem like odd timing for the request. This was really a two or three person job but she would be going alone as most of the fort was busy with preserving the fall harvest. She didn't quite understand why it couldn't wait another week or two.
Archer was packed and standing over the sedan she'd take, discussing the run with Costas when Rick and Cap walked by.
"Headed out on a run?" Cap asked, approaching them.
"Yes. Auto-parts this time. Need to get in and out before the snow hits." Costas advised.
Rick looked puzzled. "Costas, I thought you said you stayed here?"
"I do." Costas frowned, it was a sore point with him that he was deemed too valuable to be allowed to leave. A butcher by trade, the Greek man was the only one in their group who had actually served in the military. That made him the de-facto head of defense for the fort. "Archer's going it alone. We can't spare anyone from the kitchens."
"Should be easy, it's on the edge of town and I've been there before." Archer was confident she could get the run done without incident.
"Remember." Costas emphasized to her. "The Dead are in the office building, keep to the main warehouse. Stay quiet."
"Right." She agreed. "In and out."
"It's different on your own." Costas warned. "This isn't the woods, it's more densely occupied. You must be cautious."
"Why don't I go with her?" Rick offered. "It might be helpful to have another gun handy."
"No guns." Archer advised. "I can't risk the noise. I'll be fine."
A thoughtful expression crossed Costas' face. "This job calls for quiet. How about that fellow with the Crossbow? Would you be willing to send him?"
"Daryl?" Rick nodded "I'll ask him. I'm sure he'll agree."
"Good then." Cap smiled. "It's decided. Let's find Daryl."
Emma watched the two men walk away and shook her head. "Costas, do you ever get a feeling that Cap plans these things?"
The corner of Costas' eyes crinkled slightly. "What do you mean?"
"Doesn't it seem awfully coincidental that he and Rick just happen to stumble across us while we're going over the run?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Costas turned back to the map, but not before she saw a slight smile cross his lips.
"Yeah. I'm sure you don't." Emma was certain this was another test for Rick's group. The depot they were headed to was not of any significant value to them, it was a good way to see how willing Rick was to help.
}.{
"So how come you don't carry a gun?" Daryl asked from the passenger seat.
"I'm a terrible shot." Archer turned off the main highway onto the road to town.
"Serious?"
"Serious. Costas spent months trying to teach me. Shotguns, rifles, hand guns… I have been declared hopeless."
"How'd you survive this long without one?"
"I'm pretty good with a stick."
"A stick?" Daryl was skeptical.
"Yeah. I'm low tech." That elicited another chuckle from Daryl. She liked to hear him laugh.
"Maybe I'll show you the bow. Maybe you're a better archer than gunman."
"Ha ha." She laughed at the play on her name. "We're close and everything's been quiet. I think we're good to park outside. No need to walk in on foot."
She pulled into the parking lot of the depot, ensuring that she left the keys in the ignition and the car facing their escape. There was a two story office building attached to a warehouse. She scanned her surroundings. "Something's different." She said as they got out of the car.
"Whaddya mean?" Daryl asked softly, his crossbow ready.
"I can't pin it down." Was that garbage bin there before? Was the door to the truck bay opened or closed last time she was there? "I think someone's been here."
"Think they're still here?"
"I don't think so. There's not much here." She headed over to the warehouse employee entrance and peered in through the small dusty window. "Damn." She whispered.
"What?"
"Someone's been here. The door to the office building is open. I don't see any walkers in the warehouse, but I'm betting they'll come if they hear us."
Daryl looked through the window. "Doesn't look so bad. Where's our target?"
"Do you see the storage room on the far wall? It's a red door."
"Yep."
"It's in there."
"You wanna leave?"
She thought about it for a moment. "No."
"Then let's go."
}.{
"Shit!" Daryl hissed from somewhere in the shelving.
"What?" She whispered back. Not taking her eyes off the crack in the door she was peering through.
"Fuck!"
"Daryl?" She glanced back into the darkened storage room behind her, but didn't see him. The sound of shuffling drew her attention back to the space she'd been watching outside of the storage room. There were more walkers now, getting out was going to be tricky. "Daryl, we've got a problem here."
"Fuck me!"
She heard something fall onto the concrete ground below. So did the walkers.
Archer quickly closed the door and stuck a broom in the handles to slow the walkers down. It wouldn't hold forever, but it would buy them time. After thinking about it, she added a mop too before running back into the storage room to find Daryl.
She saw him rubbing his eyes and cursing. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"Got somethin' in my eyes." Daryl's eyes were tearing. "Hurts like a bitch."
"Stop rubbing your eyes" She ordered, pulling his hands away from his face. "Do you know what it was?"
He slapped her hands away. "How the fuck should I know?"
She could hear a crack from the door, the walkers were coming. "How did it happen? Where's the bottle?"
"Grabbed somethin' on the shelf 'n got sprayed. Dropped it somewhere."
She looked down and spied the offending bottle immediately. It was punctured and its contents must have sprayed when he squeezed it. Tossing it into a plastic bag she had in her pocket she stowed it in her backpack.
Archer spotted a small high window with a sturdy shelving unit under it. She grabbed Daryl by the arm and dragged him with her. "We've got to climb Daryl. There are about five shelves, equal distance apart. There's a window at the top which we're going to jump out."
Softly cursing he scrambled up the shelves behind her. They made it to the top just as the walkers broke through the door to the storage room. She looked out the window and saw only two stray walkers.
"Okay, listen carefully. I'm going to break the window and jump down. There are a few walkers, so wait for me to call clear before you come through the window. It's only one story, but you're going to need to do a hang-drop 'cause we're pretty high. I'll lead you back to the car."
"Fuck this shit." Daryl cussed.
"For God's sake don't let the walkers inside grab your feet."
She broke the glass with a booted heel and cleared away all the broken bits as quickly as possible. She tossed her pack down first, dropping down after it. Archer found her footing just in time to come up swinging at two walkers. "NOW!" She yelled back to Daryl.
His pack came out and he quickly followed, landing on it and falling sideways. He issued another string of colorful expletives.
"You okay?"
"This fucking sucks." He got up, grabbing his pack and slinging it onto his back with the crossbow.
"No shit Sherlock." She muttered under her breath and grabbed his hand. "Come on."
There were no other walkers outside. When they reached their vehicle Archer tossed Daryl's pack in the back seat and stood him against the hood of the car. She fished through her pack for the bottle that had sprayed Daryl. In the daylight she was able to read the emergency instructions on the label.
"Okay, lean back Daryl, I've got to flush your eyes." She put a hand on his chest and pushed him backwards onto the hood. She leaned over him with a water bottle in one hand and used the other to pry open his eye.
"Don't need no nursemaid." He cursed, batting her hand away.
"Shut up and take it like a man." She elbowed his hand away. With one hand she held an eye open and gently poured a trickle of water into his tear duct, letting it run off the other outside corner of his eye. He stopped fighting her and settled his hands on her hips as she worked. She used the entire contents of one bottle on his eye, repeating the process on the second with another bottle.
"Any better?" She asked when she was done. His eyes were red and puffy.
"Some."
"Okay. Let's get back to Joel, see what he can do." She opened the passenger side door for him before getting in the driver's seat.
}.{
She was sitting in the infirmary while Joel inspected Daryl's eyes as he lay on the wooden table used for exams. Michael was at Joel's desk, reading the contents of the offending bottle carefully.
"Looks like some kind of concentrated form of cleaner." Michael said "It's not a name brand, so I'm guessing it's industrial."
"Shit." Daryl cursed.
"Well, I don't see any scarring." Joel turned out the light he'd been using and leaned back against the wall. "Do you see anything on the bottle that would suggest a strong acid or base?"
Michael shook his head. "I'm going to re-check my reference books to be sure, but I don't see anything alarming."
"That's what I thought too." Joel ran a hand through his hair. "There's some definite irritation. Daryl I'd like to flush your eyes with saline a few more times and keep up with the cool compresses."
"Shit." Daryl's eyes had swollen shut on the drive back. He looked pretty uncomfortable.
"Do you want a sedative?" Joel offered.
"Fuck that."
"I'll take that as a no." Joel grabbed a squirt bottle of saline and set about flushing Daryl's eyes.
"Is he going to be okay?" Rick was hovering by the door.
"I believe so." Joel was having a hard time keeping the swollen eye open. "Emma wash up and give me a hand here."
Archer cleaned her hands with the wash station Joel kept for that purpose and stood on the other side of Daryl's head. "What do you want me to do?"
"Hold his eye open for me, I'm going to try to get under the eyelid."
"Fuckin' shit." Daryl cussed.
Joel ignored him and kept working. "How long before you were able to flush the eye?"
"Not sure. Ten minutes?" Archer tried to remember.
"It's a good thing you grabbed the bottle, Em." Michael said. "Without it, we wouldn't know which treatment to use."
"That was good thinking." Rick agreed.
Archer blushed from the praise. "Anyone would have thought of that."
"I didn't." Daryl said.
"You had other things on your mind." Archer released Daryl's eyelid when Joel stepped back.
"All done for now." Joel wiped his hands on a towel. "I'm going to ask you to stay here for the day, Daryl. We'll keep a cold compress on your eyes to get the swelling down."
"Shit."
"Thank you Joel." Rick extended his hand to Joel.
Joel accepted it. "Hey, it's what I do."
"If you don't mind, I'd like to stay with him." Rick looked over.
"Sure. My room's next door over if you need me. I'll be back in an hour to check on him."
Michael left with Joel, leaving her alone with the other two men.
"It sure is nice to have a doctor around." Rick helped Daryl into a cot. "Do you know what he did before?"
Archer smiled "Joel started in Emergency but left to take over a family practice."
"That was fortunate; I understand that the hospitals were one of the first places to fall."
She nodded. "Before I head out, is there anything you or Daryl want? I can make a run to the kitchen for you."
"I'm fine." Daryl grumbled.
"You sure? Maybe a drink or something?"
"It's okay, you go." Rick smiled. "You've done enough. I can get anything if he changes his mind."
"Okay. See you both later." She headed out the door to find out what chores had been assigned to her for the afternoon.
}.{
The following morning Archer was reading in the kitchen when Daryl found her. Sundays were often quiet around the fort. It was generally agreed that a day of rest was needed, so only the most necessary work was done. Archer had seen to the animals early that morning and had the rest of the day free.
Daryl sat down next to her and knocked his booted foot against hers. "Hey."
"Hey yourself." She looked up from her page and scanned his eyes. They were red-rimmed and a little puffy, but otherwise ok. "Your eyes look much better."
"Yep. Doc says I'm clear."
"That must be a relief."
"Glad to be out again." He took a bite of the apple he'd snagged off the counter. "Don't like being cooped up."
She chuckled softly, he reminded her of her horse, Churchill. He hated stall rest.
"What's so funny?" He asked.
"Nothing." She closed her book and set it aside. "I hear Svetlana finished a new series of drawings. I think she has your portrait done."
"I ain't sat for no picture."
"She draws from memory. Aren't you the least bit curious?"
"No."
"Well I am." She got up. "Come check it out with me. Sunday morning service is almost over."
"You got religion here?" He got up and followed her into the square.
"Cap does a pretty good non-denominational thing." She shrugged as they headed up to the second story. "It's not perfect, but we generally try to do something for anything anyone wants to observe."
She took him to the room they used as a Chapel. Sure enough Cap had finished and people were filtering out. Sheila and her boys were there. So were Michael and Joel. They waved at her as they headed out.
"Cap's the priest too?" Daryl moved slowly around the room, looking at the portraits on the wall.
"A minister, actually." She spotted the new portraits and strode over to them. "He has a psych degree and worked for the armed forces dealing with PTSD cases." There was a brilliant drawing of Rick holding his daughter. Svetlana captured their expressions perfectly.
Next she spied Daryl's. "Found yours." She told him. It was a picture of Daryl sitting, polishing his crossbow. He was looking out from under his bangs at the viewer. It's perfect.
There was another of him leaning against a wall in the fort as if he were watching someone else. She looked over her shoulder at Daryl, he was staring closely at another image with a similar expression on his face. "Daryl? Don't you want to see?"
Daryl didn't move. She wandered over to where he was, curious as to what he was looking at. It was a picture of her sitting with Michael. She was leaning into him, her loose hair trailing on his shoulder, the pair lost in private conversation.
It was a good picture of Michael. She thought Svetlana had been a bit generous with her image. In real life her hair never cascaded nicely like that. She usually had it pinned in a crown of braids around her head.
"She's good, isn't she?" Archer commented. "I can almost remember what we were talking about."
"Yeah." He said quietly.
"Emma?" Michael poked his head back into the room. "Board games in the officer's mess. You in?"
"Sure." She smiled at her friend "Daryl you interested?"
"Think I'll stay awhile." Daryl said without looking at her.
"Suit yourself." She said. "See you later."