AN: Here we go, another little chapter.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Carol had checked on Sophia, but the girl was either asleep or doing a good job of pretending to be, despite the noise that had been going on outside. She was tucked up in the bed above the cab of the RV and Carol decided not to wake her. If Sophia was pretending to be asleep, even, she'd come down when she felt like she was ready to ask what was happening.
Carol sat down on the bed in the back of the RV and tried to sort out how she felt. It wasn't as easy as simply putting her finger on an emotion. She could spin the wheel of emotions, but "happy", "sad", "terrified", none of them fit what she was feeling. None of them even seemed like real emotions at the moment. They seemed like empty words.
Her nightmare, or at least what had been her nightmare for longer than any of the reality that she could barely believe was real now, was over in something that happened as fast as a thunderclap. Ed was dead.
And part of her felt relieved for that. Part of her almost felt happy that he was gone…like seeing his body crumple to the ground in a pile of blood and disgust was one of the best things that had ever happened to her.
But another part of her felt terrified.
Carol considered herself to be a person of many fears, though many of them had been related to the psychological torture that her husband had subjected her to for years. Her two greatest fears, though, were losing her precious daughter and being alone.
And one of those was closer to coming true than it had been before because, for no matter how much she'd hated Ed, he'd kept her from being alone. Admittedly, that was why she'd stayed with him. She'd sacrificed so much to keep from being alone, just like he promised her that she'd be if she ever dared to leave him.
She'd sacrificed her dignity, her pride, and even her self-respect. She'd given it all to him to keep him with her so that she at least had him, no matter how sorry the prize at the bottom of her Cracker Jack box of life was.
And she'd kept her daughter safe. He'd never laid a hand on Sophia. Carol never had to even think about it. If Ed so much as got mad at Sophia for something, she flung herself into his line of fire and reminded him that it was her fault. It was all her fault. She'd even taken, on more than one occasion, full blame for Sophia even being born when it had gotten under Ed's skin. She'd ignored entirely his part in it all because her daughter was hers…she was her responsibility…no matter how she'd been conceived.
And Ed had very nearly cost her Sophia. He had successfully cost her any other chance she might have of having another child, but he'd very nearly cost her Sophia. In the end, though, she'd kept her life and she'd kept her daughter, very nearly the same thing in her opinion, and she'd vowed to herself to protect the girl with everything she had.
She'd kept that promise.
But now she was alone and she was alone in a world that she could barely even recognize. She had no idea how she was going to make it and how she was going to keep Sophia safe in this world.
Carol heard the door swing open to the RV and she heard the sounds of Dale and Alice talking as they brought things in. She listened to their low conversation, making out the fact that Alice was saying something about them staying until she and Sophia had settled down some and Dale agreed with the woman.
Carol hated to know that she was putting any of them out. The thought that she might alienate herself and Sophia from these people any farther, especially now, just renewed the cold fear inside her and brought out another round of the tears that she wasn't in control of at the time and she couldn't even explain in any definitive manner.
"Hey hey," she heard Alice say to her, keeping her voice low as she came into the back room of the camper. She sat down on the bed beside Carol and put an arm around her shoulder before she held out a bottle. "I want you to take one of these, OK?"
"What is it?" Carol asked.
"Good for you," Alice said. "It's going to make you sleep."
Carol shook her head.
"I've got to help with…" she started. Alice cut her off.
"You're off duty today," Alice said. "And when Sophia gets up I've got it. I had a little babysitting practice in my life. We'll keep her safe just long enough for you to get a little rest that you need."
Carol shook her head.
"You've got my word," Alice said. "I swear to you…if I can stop it, nothing will happen to that little girl. She's safe. You're as safe as you can be. Just take this and sleep and you're going to be…like…an amazing new person. OK?"
Carol sighed and accepted the pill that Alice shook out of the bottle. She watched as Alice passed her the bottle of water she'd carried in and then buried the bottle of pills down in her bra. She didn't ask why Alice was hoarding what were apparently either sleeping pills or anxiety pills. She assumed the doctor had her reasons for doing what she did.
Carol swallowed down the pill and Alice pushed her back toward the bed as she stood up.
"Sleep?" Alice asked.
"Do I have a choice now?" Carol asked.
Alice chuckled.
"Hey," she mused, "how about that? A sense of humor…that looks good on you. It won't make you a Walker…or a…whatever they are. It'll just make you sleep."
"Please? Don't let Sophia…" Carol started.
Alice cut her off again.
"Nothing but playing with guns, swimming without supervision, and eating questionably poisonous mushrooms," Alice declared. "I promise."
She winked at Carol.
"I need to talk to her about Ed," Carol said.
Alice nodded.
"And you will," Alice said. "But…I think she probably already knows and I don't think she's going to ask. I will wake you up, though, drugs and all if she does."
Carol sighed and nodded at the woman, feeling herself already growing artificially relaxed to the point that she was finding it difficult to worry. Her eyelids drooped when she rested her head against the pillow and when she forced them back open, Alice had disappeared.
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Part of the group had up and left. They were going on a run, that's what Daryl heard.
For all the reaction they'd put behind the initial death of the man that they'd buried, they didn't seem too concerned with it at the moment. Once he was in the ground it was like the whole lot of them had simply shrugged and decided that it didn't matter anymore. Shovels down and dirt thrown, they didn't give a shit about the man that they'd maybe considered killing Daryl, his brother, and the woman that he'd come to be more attached to than most of the people he'd known before all this shit happened, for his murder.
The eldest of the sisters was gone, the black woman and the man that Daryl suspected to be her husband or boyfriend or something, and Glenn, one of the few whose name Daryl actually knew. They'd gone off in the truck that Daryl and his companions had followed into camp.
But also gone were the police officer and the bird woman, though they hadn't gone on the run.
"Let's go huntin'," Merle said, walking toward Daryl. "Alice is plenty damn busy now that she's got herself a play pretty."
"So we stayin'?" Daryl asked.
Merle sucked his teeth.
"Looks a whole lot like it," Merle responded. "Hell…I don't give a damn if we stay or we go. We gonna start haulin' that woman an' her kid around with us, though, we gotta think about that shit. It's hard enough ta move when they was just the three of us."
Daryl could agree with that. They'd nearly died and they'd nearly lost Alice too. It wasn't like they were really equipped to be anyone's heroes in all of this.
Staying would be the best thing they could do when it came to thinking solely in terms of safety. This camp was established. The people had done a decent job of setting it up. It had things they needed. They needed water and there was plenty of that. They needed food and the woods and water would offer that up as well. The camp was about the best that they could get at the moment.
And as much as Daryl might hate the idea of the numbers, they would go a long way too in helping them out when it came down to it.
"We'll stay," Daryl said. "First sign they gonna lose they minds again, though an' we out. I'd rather take my chances with the damn Walkers than I would with people that can't make up their minds. At least you know what the hell you're up against when it comes to the freaks."
"Let's hunt," Merle offered as a response.
Daryl followed him toward their tent to get his crossbow and waved at Alice as he saw her crossing the dirt expansion between the RV and the row of tents that were set up.
"You get her calmed down?" Daryl asked.
He knew that Alice was armed with a veritable arsenal of drugs. She'd told him that she had found Merle's stash and that she'd kept anything out of it that she thought might be useful. And she'd told him she was keeping it hidden so that Merle didn't decide to have a party with what might very well be crucial to someone else for simple survival.
Alice nodded at him as she approached.
"I think she'll pull through," Alice said. "Sophia too. What are you two assholes doing?"
"Huntin'," Daryl responded. "That fucker's in the ground an' some a' the people's done took off for Atlanta. Turns out that when he's in the ground they don't give a damn about him."
Alice stood in front of him, smacking at mosquitos that were trying to suck her dry, and twisted up her lips.
"Maybe they'll get the hell over it then," Alice said. "It would make it a lot easier on all of us if they'd just accept us. Dale seems cool. Jacqui and Amy. Andrea'll come around. I don't know about the rest of them, really. I'd say keep an eye out on the sheriff and his skinny little girlfriend, but I think as long as you don't stick your nose in their efforts to get poison ivy on their privates then they'll leave us alone."
Daryl heard Merle snort from where he was standing and waiting to get the show on the road.
"You gonna be alright? If we step out?" Daryl asked.
Alice smiled.
"Please," she said. "I'm more worried about you two than I am about me. I know how much you need me to watch out for you."
Daryl shook his head at her.
"I'll be fine," she offered. "I'm going to babysit. Do some laundry. I'm going to get my domestic thaang going on."
Daryl nodded and leaned close to her.
"Anyone starts anything with you? Before we get back? You kill 'em Al…don't fuck around," he growled at her.
She nodded her head.
"I'm way ahead of you," she responded. "Go get something good to eat…see if you can't shoot me a cheeseburger."
Daryl chuckled and turned without another word to head for the tent and step out through the woods with his brother.