Daryl thought briefly about the possibility of being shot as they rode up on the clearly established little camp around a rock quarry. He hoped that a woman openly leading them in on a motorcycle might deter them from being killed, but he wasn't entirely positive that would be the case.

It was clear from the state of tents, laundry hanging out to dry, an RV, and vehicles parked around that there were at least a handful of people here.

Daryl pulled the truck to a stop when he saw that the truck they were following stopped. Alice stopped the motorcycle and got off, leaving it in the same condition as she'd found it back where they'd left them both behind. Daryl and Merle spilled out the truck and Daryl found Alice before he saw anyone get out of the truck and caught her around the shoulder.

"We thought you were dead," he offered, smiling in spite of himself to see that he'd been wrong.

"No thanks to you assholes and I would have been," Alice responded.

She was filthy, clear signs of having come up against her fair share of Walkers, but she was standing and that's all that mattered at the moment.

Merle came around, joining them with nothing more than a swift, hard knock on the back for Alice and some muttered comment about what he'd do to her if she fucked up his motorcycle, and then they saw a young Asian man drop out of the truck in front of them.

"Who the hell are you?" He asked.

"Could ask you the same thing," Daryl responded. "I'm Daryl…this here's Alice…an' that's Merle, my brother."

The Asian man looked perplexed. He looked back, deeper into their camp, but at the moment no one had made it there to come to his rescue.

"I'm Glenn, but I'm not in charge here," he said.

"Then we want to see whoever's in charge," Alice offered. "I'm a doctor…we're looking for a nice place to stay. We might be able to offer a trade of services."

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Remembering the names of everyone in the quarry would have been impossible for Daryl given the amount of time that they'd had to get to know them. The group had a tent to spare and a few blankets and one sleeping bag. Daryl set the tent up and spread the sleeping bag out so that it covered the entirety of the tent floor and let Alice go about arranging the blankets for the three of them to sleep in the tent together.

"I'm sure we could find you something more suitable the next time that Glenn goes into Atlanta," the skinny woman that looked almost like an exotic bird to Daryl had offered when he'd come out of the tent from spreading out the sleeping bag.

"This is better'n we're used to," Daryl said. "Reckon we'll manage."

"We'll be cooking soon," she said. "There's not always a lot to eat, but we do our best and Glenn brought a decent amount of supplies back."

Daryl nodded.

"We'll hunt," he offered. "We aim ta pull our own weight around here. We aren't lookin' for charity past tonight."

Alice came bounding up a few moments later and stepped around the bird woman.

"The…uh…the woman with the clothes," Alice said. "She had some stuff we can change into and we've got soap. I'm not sleeping with BO tonight."

"That's Carol," the bird woman offered. "I'm Lori."

Daryl tried his best to record the names into his mind, but it was going to take more than one introduction and a couple of hours to know who the hell anyone was there. The excitement of the day, now over, had also left him ready to sleep and it had left him fuzzier in the brain than he wanted to admit.

He reached and took the stuff out of Alice's arms.

"Let's go get washed," he said.

And Alice, speaking a quick thanks to Lori for the supplies she'd probably already thanked Carol for, followed Daryl down to the water.

In one far corner of the water, they'd done their best to set up something of a bathing house. Really it was more or less shower curtains on poles rammed into the ground. Daryl stepped into the area and stripped down, washing himself with the soap while he listened to the sounds around him and tried not to be aware of the fact that anyone with half a mind to see it could see his bare ass.

He, Alice, and Merle had learned to be comfortable with each other's nudity…but that had come from necessity and quarters that were tighter than anyone had ever desired. He wasn't anxious, however, to share everything he had with everyone around.

When he was done bathing, he found Alice and Merle sitting near each other in the edge of the water and bitching over something that was probably idiotic. He threw the soap at them and watched as Alice dived into the water after it while Merle howled something about it being Ivory soap and floating if she'd stop splashing around like a drowning cat.

They were both idiots in their own way, but Daryl was relieved that both of them had survived the day.

He carried his clothes up toward his tent, trying not to make eye contact with the people that were making him uncomfortable by staring far too hard at him…probably judging him just like everyone else had done, and he very nearly ran into the small woman that Alice had taken to calling the laundry lady.

"I can take those," she offered. "Wash them for you and tomorrow they'll be ready to go."

Daryl tried not to notice that her arms were speckled with bruises that he knew had to be the result of hands grabbing far too roughly on skin. He wondered if it had been a Walker, but his gut told him it hadn't been. He nodded slightly and offered her the clothes.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"Carol," she said.

"Carol…" he repeated. "I'm Daryl."

"I know," she said with a quick smile. "I'm good with names."

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"Damned uncomfortable," Merle growled when they were alone in their tent.

Daryl might have imagined his brother was referring to the state of the tent or even the hard ground beneath them that they could feel through the sleeping bag and the flimsy tent floor, but he knew better. Merle was no stranger to sleeping in uncomfortable situations and he wouldn't have bothered to waste his breath bitching about something that he would have insisted only a little bitch would have complained about.

Merle was bitching about the new group that they'd found themselves in the middle of.

They'd eaten off from the others, not really feeling welcome to join any of the small groups bunched around low burning fires. The rest of the people hadn't warmed up to them yet, which was more than to be expected, especially given the fact that Merle could be awful hard to warm up to, and it was a pretty uncomfortable situation.

It felt like the three of them were some kind of sideshow at a circus with the way they were being watched…the way they were being stared at by everyone.

"Tomorrow'll be different," Daryl offered. "We'll hunt…Alice here'll offer ta patch some damn body up…we'll show 'em we're worth our salt an' they'll back the fuck off us."

"Lookin' at us like we're damned criminals," Merle muttered back.

"An' you ain't never done no time?" Daryl asked.

Merle didn't respond.

"Daryl's right," Alice said from where she was lying crammed between the two of them. "Tomorrow will be different. We'll walk around. We'll talk to everyone…we'll find our place. Before you know it, we'll be part of the group, just the same as everyone else is."

Merle scoffed in the darkness.

"We ain't gonna fit here," he growled. "Not me an' Daryl. You might…they'll prob'ly be your society. Your people…that it?"

Alice chuckled.

"What the hell, Merle? I thought you were my people?" Alice responded. "I'm hurt…I thought we were sticking together in this. You know, especially after your worthless ass left me for dead."

"Thought you was dead," Daryl remarked, feeling strangely like a broken record. "We ain't leavin' ya ass again."

"Was in a bad damn way," Merle commented. "Wouldn'ta left my bike given the choice…you didn't say you'd ridden bikes before."

"You never asked," Alice responded back. "Shows you what making assumptions does."

"Fuck you," Merle hissed. "Don't you touch that shit again…I'ma kick ya ass you…"

"Shut the fuck up! Both of ya! Damn it!" Daryl spat. "I don't wanna hear ya bitchin' back and forth. That ain't gonna exactly keep people from starin' at us with the two a' you goin' at it all damn day long back and forth. I'ma beat the hell outta both of ya!"

Silence. There was silence for one precious moment in the tent. Then it was followed by Alice's laughter which inspired Merle to actually snort a little to himself.

"You know what the hell we oughta do," Merle commented. "We oughta clean this damn place out. Fuckers gonna look at us like damn criminals, we oughta be criminals. Get the hell outta here an' haul everything we can take with us. Wait'll that damn cop guy ain't lookin' an' knock his ass out or wait'll he leaves for some shit."

"An' the others?" Daryl asked. "What the hell we do with them, Merle? The women an' children? Shoot 'em?"

Merle chuckled.

"Hell…ever' damn one a' us picks us a piece a pussy…you want you a young'un grab it…we'll take that shit too. Hit the road an' be damn near into the sunset 'fore anyone even thinks about doin' somethin' about it," Merle remarked.

Daryl knew that Merle wasn't wholly sincere. He wasn't wholly insincere either.

Merle didn't like being judged too much. He'd been judged all his life, just the same as Daryl, and it had a way of getting under his skin. When he was out of his skull on drugs, his inability to act like he should in the face of someone "disrespecting him" had landed him in a few spots that caused him to be even more disrespected. Clean, though, he could think through things a little better. He'd shoot off at the mouth, and even make plans for things they weren't likely to do like rob the quarry and run off with all their shit and their women, but at least he wasn't as likely to act on things when he was sober.

"We ain't robbin' shit, Merle," Daryl responded. "We're gonna do whatever the hell we gotta do…live with these damn people…"

"How the hell long you wanna do that, Daryl? Followin' around that arrogant ass cop?" Merle asked.

"However long it keeps our asses alive," Daryl muttered. "Right now all the hell I wanna do is sleep."

"Daryl's got a point," Alice offered. "We should stay with them. There's strength in numbers and they're clearly doing better than we were doing on our own. When we got here we didn't have anything…what? We've got a few weapons, but that was it. Now we've got something of a roof over our heads and we ate tonight…my clothes actually don't smell for once in a long time."

"You do smell awful damn nice, sugah…" Merle hummed in the darkness.

"Get that off my leg, Merle, if you want to keep it," Alice snapped back.

Daryl chuckled.

"Fuckin' shit! Go ta sleep!" He commented again, suddenly feeling like he was raising two toddlers.

His outburst got a giggled from Alice and another snort from Merle.

But they did fall silent and it wasn't long before Merle was snoring and Alice was shoving around, complaining about his snoring and trying to root her way into his body or Daryl's for whatever comfort she was seeking there.

And Daryl closed his eyes, wondering even as he fell asleep what might end up coming of this new group and all the faces that flickered and danced behind his eyelids with names he couldn't match to them.

At least, though, it got them off the road long enough to regroup and get themselves together again.