It was a nice little park at one time, but without care the grass had gotten overgrown and there were more weeds than flowers in the bordering flower beds. The playground equipment had once been state of the art though, and safe, so with a little testing they were approved for use again. Carl was sitting on one of the swings, holding Judith, as his father and a few of the other adults plotted the route they wanted to take up to Virginia.
It wasn't that complicated if they took some of the larger roads, but there were places where Rick wanted to take more cautious paths to avoid some of the cities along their path. They had vehicles to get them there, but with so many people they were still limited on space for supplies and needed to plan for scavenging or foraging along the way. Noah had some knowledge of the journey so he was pointing out possible stops along the way and recounting what he remembered about some of the smaller towns.
Carol and Sasha were both helping Daryl clean the rabbits he had killed. The park area had several built in firepits for grilling, and Tyreese was clearing a couple that were close to one another so that they could use both at the same time. Carl had been out in the woods with Glenn for a while, gathering wood for small fires and the grilling, but they had finished their task and so he was taking a break by watching his sister as Glenn watched over Maggie. She hadn't been doing well after losing Beth.
Carol sighed, looking down at her hands, which were covered in blood from the rabbits. "I sometimes wonder if we'll ever really be clean again."
Daryl gave her an odd look, but continued skinning one of the small creatures. Sasha just shook her head, not bothering to look up, "Maybe someday when we can stop living day to day on the road. Maybe not for a long time though. We don't have the option of keeping our hands clean anymore."
"It's frightening, how normal this has become. I used to hate going camping, and now that's all we do." Carol grabbed her knife again, carrying on with their task.
"I had never gone camping before. Tyreese and I were city kids. The most we saw of the outdoors was at parks like this, or the neighborhood pool. I never imagined that I would be doing anything like this," Sasha gestured at the pile of rabbits, "But whatever it takes to survive."
Daryl gave them both an odd look again, shaking his head, "I forget how spoiled some of you people were before all of this." He smirked at Carol, "In some ways, not all."
"Hey, I had my share of dead animals to deal with before. I just didn't have to kill them myself." Carol's smile was slow to start but she didn't bother to hide her amusement. "We'd be pretty lost without you Daryl. Can you imagine the rest of us trying to track down a deer or a mess of squirrels? It would be like one of those old cartoons with us as the bumbling idiots running into trees and swamps."
Sasha laughed, "And then not being able to kill the animal because someone thought that it was too cute."
He shook his head at them again, "You'd have figured out something. This group is fulla survivors. You'd have found a way."