AN: Here we go, another little chapter.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Daryl poked at the smoking embers in front of him with a stick. It could barely be called a fire given the fact that they had a theory that the Walkers could see their fires and could find them if they burned too high. Maybe that's what had always gotten Daryl, Merle, and Alice in trouble along the way…they'd never kept their fires too low.
Tonight, though, Daryl was distracting himself with the fire to keep himself from thinking about the fact that his throat was dry and burning like he was choking on those very embers that he was harassing.
Carol and Sophia were joining them at their little fire tonight and Carol was sitting close enough to Daryl that if he'd leaned to the side even the slightest bit he would have bumped her shoulder with his. Sophia was at her side.
But what made it even worse was at Alice and Merle were sitting across from him with shit eating grins on their faces.
And Daryl knew why.
Merle had been bugging him out in the woods about what he might think about Carol. He'd been asking him if he had a thing for her. Merle never had any concern about what Daryl thought about a woman unless his focus was on getting Daryl laid…and that had turned out bad for Daryl a good number of times. Because Merle trying to get Daryl laid almost always ended with Daryl wrapped up with some woman he wasn't even fond of for a night while she got more entertainment from harassing Merle Dixon's little brother than she did from any of the acts that she thought up for them to do.
Daryl wasn't fond of the practice and he didn't think that Carol looked or acted like the kind of woman that would be interested in it.
So it left him concerned about what in the world the two grinning idiots might be up to.
Daryl did like Carol. She was pretty and he thought her eyes were the prettiest eyes he'd ever seen. And she was soft and sweet…so unlike any of the women that he'd ever known.
But that's what made her intimidating in her own way too. She was so unlike anyone that Daryl had ever known. In addition she was also a mother and freshly widowed.
Daryl imagined that the same rules that used to apply in life didn't apply now, but the dramatically changing world was just another aspect that made him nervous about the possibility of even entertaining anything with the woman at all. The world was so crazy, how could there even be time for things such as that?
Merle would insist, though, that the very nature of this new world and the temporary nature of their lives now made it even more so relevant to "get it while you could". In fact, that's what he'd mentioned more than once while he'd been out with Daryl, picking his brain.
The whole thing had Daryl so wrapped up in his thoughts that he'd barely been able to focus on any of the conversation taking place around the fire. Carol was talking to him, but he could barely hold onto her words. All he really seemed able to do was watch her face in the firelight, think about how pretty she was…and how much he didn't even know how to talk to a woman like that, now and again finding himself angry at the man that was cold in the ground who had thought it was fine to lay his hands on her…and worry about what he was supposed to be doing if he decided that he was interested in knowing her better than he had come to know her so far.
As a result, Daryl had nodded at some things that she'd said, but he wasn't sure what he might have accidentally agreed to, and that worry only made his throat feel even dryer.
He was grateful, almost, to the blonde when she came over, smiling down at them.
"I brought you some more water over here," she said, offering around some of the refilled water bottles that the camp collected. She was thanked as they were accepted and Daryl watched as Carol opened a bottle and passed it to Sophia.
Daryl accepted one of the bottles himself and tried to wash down the nervous choking feeling he was suffering from.
"Can I join you?" Andrea asked, looking around at the people sitting around the fire.
Alice barked out a "sure" and scooted closer to Daryl. Andrea sat down, then, in her place beside Merle.
"It's a nice night," Andrea offered, her eyes darting from person to person.
"Not too many bugs," Alice tossed back at her. "That's a relief."
Carol laughed.
"I'm starting to feel like I'm one big mosquito bite," she commented.
In response to everything, Sophia scratched to illustrate the point that they had all been nearly eaten alive by insects.
"The fish were good," Alice declared. "Didn't y'all think the fish were good? Merle?"
Daryl hummed that he thought the fish were good, but he saw Merle shoot a look at Alice. It was likely a look that meant they'd go a few rounds in the tent before bed tonight.
Merle cleared his throat.
"Fish was real good," Merle commented. "Hell of a haul for one person."
Andrea smiled at the compliment.
"Not one," she said. "Amy helped."
Merle scratched at his face.
"She was out there," he remarked. "But…I reckon I watched that shit long enough ta know she ain't brought in a fourth a' them fish."
Daryl watched as Andrea smiled and watched the fire.
Was Merle going to get laid over a bunch of fish? Daryl's brother could find pussy in the desert, not that it would do him much good, but Daryl wondered if he knew that his usual methods of loving and leaving might not go over so damn well when they'd all play hell trying to outrun the blonde and the Walkers at the same time.
Daryl chuckled to himself and shook his head, hoping that Merle knew what the hell he was getting himself into.
"I liked the fish better than what we had yesterday," Sophia said.
Carol bumped the girl quickly.
"Sophia," Carol said softly, "that's not polite. You be thankful for whatever we have."
Sophia whispered something of an apology and Daryl felt sorry for the girl getting scolded when it was simply her honest opinion that she was expressing…an opinion that he was inclined to believe with.
"Possums ain't bad," Daryl said. "But they're hard ta prepare with what we got these days. They don't taste as good as some of the other food we can get."
Carol looked at him.
"I've never made them before," she said. "I didn't know how to prepare them."
Daryl's stomach lurched as he realized that she'd been the one to cook the rodents and he'd, accidentally, insulted her. He shook his head slightly at her.
"Weren't your fault," he said. "Weren't nothin' you could do different. They can't be done the good way. There just ain't time."
"Gotta pen 'em up," Merle said. "You gonna make 'em the best they can be? You gotta pen 'em up an' clear 'em out."
"Pen them?" Andrea asked.
Merle nodded at the same time that Daryl did, everyone at the fire looking at them with intense curiosity for the moment.
"Possum's'll eat damn near anything," Merle said. "Taints the flavor if you can't clean 'em out real good."
Daryl cleared his throat and washed down the feeling again with water as he realized that he was about to engage Carol in conversation again…it hadn't been difficult when he hadn't thought about it and now he was wishing that he could go right back to not even paying attention to it. But opossums were only so interesting and the realization had crept in for him.
"But it weren't nothin' you done," he said again. "It'd be better just not ta get 'em, but…it's eat what you can kill right now. Eat what the damn Walkers ain't got."
Carol smiled at him and reached a hand out, touching his arm with her fingertips.
"And we appreciate it," she assured him. "No matter what it is, eating is better than not eating."
Their quiet conversation was disturbed by the sound of laughter coming from one of the other fires where the cops and the woman and child were sitting. In all the mix of things that Alice had found during her searching of the trucks, there had been some beer and some wine. She'd damn near fought Merle tooth and nail not to let him have it, and she'd finally won that because Daryl had stepped in on her side.
He and Alice both would give up whatever their share of the liquid was simply to keep Merle from drinking and possibly having too much. In general it was dangerous to have too much and to let your guard down like that, but on top of that they had Merle clean, something Daryl could barely remember having seen at all in the past ten to fifteen years of his life, and they didn't want to give that up because of too damn much to drink.
So the rest of the camp was enjoying, in the moderation of a glass of wine or a bottle of beer each, but Shane and Rick had both insisted on having two…declaring that they knew their tolerance levels well.
Daryl didn't figure they were drunk, their body weight would keep that from happening with so little intake of alcohol, but they'd both had enough to lower their inhibitions just a little and certainly to raise their voices.
The other fire was louder than usual too, given that they were more relaxed than they normally were, but it appeared that Shane and Rick were unable to tell stories about their time as cops without doing it loudly and accompanied by raucous laughter.
"Cops are too damn loud," Merle said with a chuckle.
Andrea called over to Dale at the middle fire and asked him if they might pass on the information that their words were loud enough to drown out their conversation all the way over here. Dale got up from his fire and went to do just that and Andrea settled back down, wiggling as though she were trying to make the hard dirt more comfortable.
Amy walked by a moment later and Andrea hissed out at her.
"Where are you going?" Andrea asked when she had her little sister's attention.
"To the bathroom, am I allowed to do that?" Amy asked.
Andrea didn't respond, but Amy took that as her response and trotted off to relieve herself in the RV.
Daryl took a cigarette out of his pocket and tossed the pack at Merle who was holding his hands up to say that he was waiting to catch it. He tossed the lighter as soon as he had it lit, but Merle just pocketed the item, having already lit his cigarette with a small stick he got burning in the fire.
"They're talking about going to the CDC," Andrea said, directing her words toward Alice. "What do you think about that? Is it a good idea?"
Alice shrugged.
"I mean…they want answers and if you're going to get them, that's where you're going to get them," Alice said.
"You don't sound too damn convinced," Merle commented.
"I'm not," Alice said. "You know where the CDC is, right? I came from that area when all hell broke loose. I never really wanted to go back there. There were Walkers everywhere and the government was killing everyone."
"So?" Carol asked. "That means they're dead, right? The government killed the Walkers too?"
Daryl saw the woman put her arm around her little girl and draw her deeper into her side.
Alice shrugged.
"Maybe," she said. "I mean sure, that's a possibility. They killed everything…people and Walkers, but…"
"But what? Spit it the hell out," Daryl barked without thinking, regretting that he'd been loud enough to make Carol jump and probably make them be heard by the very people they'd asked to be quiet.
Alice stared at him.
"What if while those people were dying, injured, unable to get away? What if they got bit?" Alice tossed out. "Then that just means that there are probably thousands and thousands of Walkers between us and the CDC. I don't know how damn lucky I feel."
No one else got a chance to say how lucky they felt. They heard the first of the blood curdling cries ring out and everyone looked around stunned for a moment before Andrea got to her feet.
"Amy?" She screamed out, running toward where the RV was parked.
And then there was another yell…someone else who had likely gone to wait for the bathroom, or maybe they'd been engaged in a conversation…from the same direction.
As soon as Daryl heard Andrea scream and then heard the growling and other screams rolling through the camp, he realized what was happening. Their all-knowing leaders had been responsible for repairing the camp's protection…and now they were seeing the fruits of their labor.
In the darkness they were surrounded by an unknown amount of Walkers and they were caught so offguard they might as well have all had their pants down.
Finding his feet, Daryl snatched up the crossbow on the ground not far behind him and looked around for the Walkers that were hard to see in the darkness. In his efforts he got his hands on Carol, who was wrapped around her daughter, and pushed them behind him.
In the confusion he already couldn't tell where anyone else was or what they were doing. All he knew was that he had to the best he could to kill whatever was coming at him.
And then the sounds of screaming and shouting and of shots ringing out into the night let him know that he wasn't the only one fighting.
Now they could only hope that when the dust settled everyone was still standing.