AN: Here we go, another little chapter.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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Carol was still trying to wrap her mind around the turn of events that were now taking place. She was in the cab of the truck with Daryl, the youngest of the Dixon men, and Sophia was beside her. She'd given the girl the space next to the window so that she wasn't as crunched into the truck as Carol was, and so that she wouldn't feel like she was being constantly shoved into Daryl. As a result, Carol was shoved into Daryl.

And it wasn't entirely unpleasant.

Everything they owned, everything that made up their lives at this point, was crammed into the back of the truck and they were driving along in a line of traffic. Merle and Alice led the pack on Merle's motorcycle since he insisted he wasn't riding the whole damn way like the last dog in a dog sled team. People could look at his ass the whole way if they had a desire to do so.

Rick, Lori, and Carl were driving the Cherokee that had belonged to Carol and Ed. She wasn't sad at all to give them the car. She'd hated it and it was a reminder of Ed. It was a reminder of the woman that she used to be and the woman that she never wanted to be again. She wasn't sure that it was that easy to "change" who she was, but she was going to try.

Daryl was behind them and directly behind them was Shane with the RV following behind that and loaded down with everyone else in their group.

They were going to Atlanta. They were headed for Atlanta and for the CDC.

There they were supposed to find some kind of answer for this. They were supposed to find a safe place. According to Rick's beliefs about the whole thing, as they neared the place they were going, they were bound to encounter civilization beginning to spring up around them.

But that wasn't what it looked like while they drove toward the city, dodging Walkers here and there that didn't have the sense not to walk into the road and interrupt their caravan's movements. It didn't look to Carol at all that they were driving toward some kind of Promised Land. It looked, instead, like they were driving through a waste land that bore something of a resemblance to a world that they once had known.

When Carol thought about it, it made her shiver with fear. It made her shiver with a different kind of fear than she'd known before.

It was the fear that there wasn't a future for anyone. There wasn't anywhere to go, not really. There wasn't any way to really survive. They would all simply be waiting their turn to be like Amy…to be like Jim…to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And more than for herself, that terrified her for Sophia. She had dreams for her little girl, especially now that Ed was gone and she wasn't growing up in his shadow, to live a long and happy life…a full life…and she had a hard time imagining that could happen when they were promised that they were heading toward some kind of salvation and that's not what it looked like at all.

When the shiver ran through her, Daryl shifted slightly and glanced at her before returning his eyes to the road.

"You cold or somethin'?" He asked. He hadn't spoken to her since they got loaded into the truck and he asked her if she was comfortable.

As hot as it was today, and their bodies pressed together through the tight confines of the cab, Carol couldn't imagine that she could be cold if she tried.

"No," she said. "Just…I just got a chill."

It wasn't entirely true, but she wasn't sure that the Dixon men were men that would appreciate your confession that you'd thought yourself into a state of shivering with fear at a future that you couldn't imagine or didn't want to imagine.

"Heat an' air don't work on this thing," Daryl said. "Hadn't worked in damn near five years…but they's some blankets in the back. You can get one next time we stop."

Carol thanked him but refused the blanket. She busied herself with burrowing around in the bag she'd tucked in the foot of the cab by Sophia's legs.

"Are you thirsty, sweetheart?" Carol asked.

Sophia perked up.

"Yes ma'am," she responded.

Carol offered her some water.

"Just a sip," Carol said. "Make it last. It's got to last until we get to the CDC."

"When are we going to get there?" Sophia asked.

Carol looked around and tried, in vain, to figure out where they might be based on their surroundings. She had no idea. And honestly, even if she had known where she was, she wasn't certain where they were going and she wouldn't have been able to guess when they'd get there given the fact that they weren't able to move at the same speeds they would have once covered ground.

"I don't know, sweetheart. Tonight? Maybe?" Carol offered.

Daryl snorted.

"We ain't makin' it tonight," he said. "I reckon we're gonna have ta camp somewhere tonight. At least let Alice an' Merle in the RV with everyone else. Two a' them can't sleep on that bike all night and we don't need ta try ta drive straight through."

It was already getting late.

"What? We're going to camp? I thought we were making the CDC tonight. I thought that was the reason that we left today?" Carol asked.

She instinctively put her arm around Sophia, not really knowing what she was trying to "protect" her from but feeling the need to do it regardless.

"We mighta made it if we left first thing in the mornin'," Daryl commented. "Don't know if you ain't noticed, but we ain't exactly making good time. We'll make it tomorrow after a couple hours sleep, but we won't make it today an' it ain't no good tryin' ta move at night. They're worse at night."

As though their speaking about it got everyone else's ears burning, a horn blast behind them rang out. Daryl tapped his horn and Rick slowed in front of them, sending a signal to Merle who rode up a piece and turned around, bringing himself and Alice back toward the group before he stopped the bike to match the rest of them.

"Guess we're stoppin'," Daryl commented. "Reckon this is as good a place as any ta make camp."

"On the road?" Carol asked.

Daryl chuckled.

"You wanted the Holiday Inn?" He asked.

She made a face at him. That hadn't been what she'd meant at all, but she couldn't imagine making a camp right here. It just didn't seem like the ideal spot, even if she didn't know what the ideal spot might have been.

Daryl opened the truck door and dropped out. Carol took that as her indication, along with the fact that everyone else was starting to spill out of the vehicles, to get out.

"Sophia, stay in the truck, OK? Just until we know what's happening," Carol said before moving to slide out of the driver's side.

"I'm hungry," Sophia said. "Are we going to eat soon?"

Carol didn't know the answer to that. She could imagine the answer was most likely no, but she wasn't sure. Still, she could do without food to make sure that Sophia ate and she knew there were some granola bars in the bag in the foot, apparently designed to hold them over until they reached their destination.

"There's some granola in the bag," Carol said. "Eat one of them, but only one. We don't know how long it'll be before we get anything else."

Sophia nodded at her and went for the bag and Carol exited the truck and went to see what the others were discussing now that they were bunching around.

"What's going on?" She asked as she approached everyone.

"Jim's not doing well," Jacqui said. "He's bad…he's begging for us to…"

She stopped talking but Carol already knew what he was probably begging for and it was probably what any of them would be begging for at this point. She didn't know exactly how long it took to die from a bite when you weren't bleeding to death as well, like Amy had been, but she imagined that they didn't have a very long window of time to work with and he'd already been suffering for some time.

"That's what the hell we shoulda done in the first place," Daryl declared. "I already said he wasn't gonna make it."

"He could still make it," Rick said. "We can still make it to the CDC."

"The RV's overheated," Dale said. "I've got to find a better hose for it or we aren't making it anywhere with the RV. We can't move him."

"He can barely stand the RV as it is," Jacqui said, shaking her head.

"I'll go with Dale," Shane offered. "We'll go find a hose. There's got to be a place somewhere or something on the road that we can use."

And without waiting for words, the two of them walked off, headed for the Jeep that Shane was driving, neither looking back at the moment.

"So what are we going to do about Jim?" Lori asked. "If we fix the RV, can we make it to the CDC tonight?"

"Not a chance," Merle said quickly. "Getting' too damn dark ta see an' we can't just go drivin' into Atlanta when we can't see our damn hands in front of our faces. Don't know what the hell we goin' into."

Rick turned quickly toward Merle.

"We cannot just let him die!" Rick snapped.

"He's already fuckin' dead!" Merle yelled back at him. "He's bit! We ain't gonna make it to the CDC before that man dies. If we try ta go on now, we're all prob'ly gonna die…every damn one a' us…an' the fucker's still gonna die 'cause he's already bit!"

"This isn't going to get us anywhere!" Alice yelped out at the both of them. "Jim is going to die. The CDC might not even be there and it might not be running. The government shut down the hospitals with automatic weapons. Who's to say that they didn't shut the CDC down? Merle's right, though…we're not making it in time for Jim."

"We can't just let him die," Lori said, shaking her head.

"Sometimes…people die," Alice commented. "No matter how much you never want it to happen? Sometimes people die."

Lori shook her head.

"If that was you? You would have wanted us to get to the CDC," Lori responded.

"If it was me? I'd be realistic," Alice responded. "Just like Jim. If he wants to go, let me go in there. We've got some drugs that I could mix and match. I could make him go quietly."

"Kill him? You would kill him?" Rick asked.

"I would make him go to sleep and not wake up," Alice said. "You'd rather shoot him in the head?"

"Shootin' him's a better damn idea," Merle said. "Gonna have ta do it now or later anyway. Wastin' shit ta try ta kill him this way."

"We're all dead anyway!" Andrea said from where she was standing, off from all of them. "What are we even fighting for? Why are we even going on? We're all dead anyway…there isn't any hope."

Carol crossed the space and put a hand on Andrea's shoulder. The woman was still shook up over Amy and then, her sister barely in the ground, they were driving down the road headed for a place that might not even exist to save a man that probably wouldn't make it to the place of his supposed salvation. Everyone might be looking at her like she'd gone mad, but Carol could understand what was eating at Andrea.

"There's hope," she offered the woman, though she wasn't sure she believed her own words, "for you and for us. There is…Jim just…"

"He got bit," Daryl commented quickly, biting at his thumb. "Why don't we ask him what the hell he wants?"

"Let's wait until we can move on?" Lori asked, a hint of begging coming into her voice. "At least be able to move the kids? I don't want Carl…he doesn't need to see this…"

There were exchanged looks between them all.

"We let Jim decide," Rick said. "When they come back with the hose. We let him decide…and then we go on with whatever he decides."

Merle cleared his throat.

"Al and me," Merle said. "We'll stay…take care a' Jim. We can catch up."

Carol bit her lip and felt Andrea loop an arm around her, drawing her closer to her. It seemed that they already knew what was coming, and it seemed that decisions had already been made.

They'd make it to the CDC, if there was still a CDC to arrive at, but they'd do it with at least one less person in their group. And Carol hoped it was only one person less if they had to lose anyone at all.