Red River Blue

Chapter 20

Carol was organizing the pantry where most of their limited food supply was kept. There was a run planned for later in the week and as far as she was concerned it couldn't come soon enough. They were running low on almost everything. She had a milk crate out, loading it up with the last of the canned potatoes. They would go well for dinner with the pork roast from the boar that Harley and Daryl brought back.

As she was reaching for the last can, Carol felt someone seize her by the elbow, pulling her roughly to her feet. Her instant reaction was fear, but when she spun quickly in place she saw it was only River grabbing at her.

"Don't ask me any questions, jus' come on," the woman told her, pulling Carol along with her whether she wanted to go or not. Carol was on guard, looking for any possible sign of danger, but the body language of everyone else that was still lingering around inside was far too casual for anything to be wrong.

River's moved her hand down from Carol's elbow, tugging her along by the hand instead. Her long ponytail swung as she walked and Carol could see the black lace of her bra showing through the thin white tank top she had on. The tank top was dingy white and had a rip in the armpit but on River it still looked sexy instead of dirty trashy. Or maybe it was a strange mix of both, which was somehow even more appealing. Carol had never considered herself sexy, not even when she was younger. On her a dirty old ripped mens undershirt would just look like a dirty old ripped undershirt. Homeless instead of trailer park chic. She had spent most of her adult life trying to blend into the background and keep from catching her husband's attention. Not that she wanted a man to notice her, Carol had no idea where to start.

Outside the light was blinding for a moment, but her eyes adjusted quickly. Carol saw a small crowd of people gathered in a loose cluster near the corner of the brick wall. Karen and Sasha was there, standing next to Maggie and River's daughter Wren.

"Did I miss anything?," River asked. Karen shook her head and side stepped closer to Sasha so Carol and River would have room to squeeze in. Carol thought about asking what was going on, but instead she just followed the gaze of the other women. There was a ladder leaning up against one of the tall poles that had a loudspeaker on the top of it. The speaker had been shot out when that prisoner had snuck back in and tried to sabatoge them.

Rick was on top of the ladder, swinging a broomstick at the speaker. He wasn't even gettting close to it. It was at least fifteen feet away from the long end of the broom. Carol raised an eyebrow and continued to watch. Several of the other men were standing around near the base of the pole, offering up their advice.

"Are they trying to get to the top of a forty foot pole with a ten foot ladder?," Carol asked. River nodded her head and bit back a smile, wrapping her arm around Carol's waist. Maggie had her arms crossed under her breasts, shaking her head. This was masculine dumbassery at it's finest. Now Rick was climbing down so Tyreese could climb the ladder. It appeared that Glenn was going to try to climb up onto Tyreese's shoulders and reach the speaker that way.

"They have been trying to get the generators going," Sasha explained, "the speaker at the top of that pole was sparking and making some kinda noise, so they think that's where the short is." Then she shook her head like she was looking at the dumbest ass thing she had ever seen in her life. Glenn was trying to climb up her brother's back. The other men were so worred about yelling at him and trying to tell him what to do that no one was holding the ladder. It started slowly sliding back. Daryl and Rick rushed in to try and stop the men from falling they all ended up in a jumbled pile on the ground. River snickered, noticing that instead of rushing in to help the falling men, Merle had darted his ass out of the way.

"How long are you going to wait before you tell them you can climb that pole?," Wren asked her mother. River shrugged. This was about the funniest thing she had seen in quite some time.

"I 'spose when I get done lookin' at their butts up on that ladder," River informed the girl, making everyone else giggle. The ladder was returned to it's rightful position and now being held in place by Rick and Merle so that Daryl could climb up it and try to reach the speaker. Since he was the same height as Rick, it didn't look promising for him. Carol looked down, kicking at a pebble near her shoe as she felt the blush rise up in her cheeks. She had never really been one for checking out men's asses, but if Daryl was going to put it on full display up on a ladder she decided it wouldn't hurt anything for her to take just one small peek.

She could see the muscles in his back bunch up as he reached above his head, swinging the broom in about the same way Rick had. His shirt was pulling up, revealing a small sliver of skin above the waistband of his pants. Her tounge flicked out, wetting her lips and then she was swallowing hard. To say his jeans fit him well would be an understatement. She was willing to bet his ass was as firm as the rest of his body looked.

"Yer all gone fall off that ladder and die!," River hollered at the men, screaming almost right into Carol's ear, breaking her out of the daydream she was having.

"Shuddup River!," Daryl hollered back from the top rung of the ladder. Merle grasped the ladder firmly, giving it a healthy shake. Nobody told his wife to shut her trap except for him. Daryl started cursing and trying to steady himself by wrapping his arms around the pole. Then he hurled the broom down at his brother, who ducked partly under the ladder to dodge it.

River must have decided she had enough because she took off across the pavement towards the men. Her daughter went chasing after her. Carol and the other women held their ground and watched. River walked over and a small dicussion started up. Mostly about what they were trying to do with the speaker in the first place. Glenn explained that there had to be two crossed wires in the speaker that needed to be uncrossed. The men had quickly figured out that they weren't going to be able to uncross the wires, they had decided on trying to whack at the speaker in the hopes that it might rattle around and uncross the wires. They had figured out which breaker led to the speaker, and it was the same one that ran the power in the shower area, which is why they were trying to fix it in the first place.

"Watch and learn," River announced, motioning for the men to back up and give her some room. Daryl was shaking his head at her, looking half amused and half annoyed. Everyone else looked more curious than anything.

The first thing she did was send the very inadequate ladder slamming to the ground. Then she toed off her pink converse sneakers and lifted one foot at a time to pull her socks off. She was wearing the white tank top Carol had noticed earlier and a pair of cutoff jeans shorts.

"I'll be damned," Sasha mumbled under her breath. Sasha felt she had a lot of skills, but bare legged pole climbing wasn't one of them. River gripped the pole with her hands and thighs, crossing her ankles to keep her legs from slipping. And up the pole she went like a human inchworm. From the practiced way she moved, it was clear to everyone that hadn't already known about her varied pre-apocolypse professions that this was not her first time with a pole between her legs. River wasn't really worried about that. Her problem was once she got to the top, she wasn't sure what to do. All the guys were trying to yell at her at once and she was yelling back at them to shut up and for one of them talk at a time.

River shifted her body and peeked inside the shot up speaker, not really sure what she was even looking for. But deep inside she saw a red wire and a black wire that were tangled up together with the metal copper insides showing. She figured that had to be the crossed wires the guys had been blustering about. Reaching in, she untangled the wires and made it so the metal parts were not touching each other, wishing she had a few peices of electrical tape to wrap around them. There was a piece of splintered wood inside, so she used that, tucking the two sections of wire each under a splinter to keep them from getting tangled up again.

"I think I got it," she yelled.

"Good get the hell down from there," Merle yelled back up at her. River was a lot higher off the ground than he felt safe with. Not that he didn't like the view, but just looking up at her was making him feel sick to his stomach. Heights weren't really his thing. He had used his hand as an excuse but he hadn't even wanted to climb that ladder. And that was only about 10 feet up.

Using the same techinique that got her up the pole, River wiggled and slid her way back down. She went as quickly as safety allowed. The metal pole was hot between her thighs and the muscles in her legs were starting to quiver. She decided she was seriously out of shape. Once her feet were on the ground she wiped her hands off on her shorts. Wren started clapping for her.

"Yay Mom!"

That Daryl laugh. A sound that was more rare to come by than it had been before the end of the world. River laughed along with him as she wrapped her arms around Merle and tucked herself into his side. Glenn had gone running inside the prison to flip whatever switch he needed to flip to test the power in the shower room. A few minutes later they could hear people inside the prison cheering. Glenn came running back out shouting that it was working. They had lights in the shower room and the other cellblock. And lights meant power, which meant a running water pump for the rain barrels in the shower room.

"Uh, good climbing," Rick remarked, not really sure what to say about River's display of monkey-like stripper climbing abilities, but feeling like he ought to say something. He had been dangerously near the point of being so frustrated that he was ready to start shooting at the stupid speaker with his gun again. And he was legitimately grateful to her for helping.

River just gave him a smile and a shrug like what she did was no big deal at all. Just another day of life no different from any other. She left Merle's side and plopped down on the concrete where she started pulling her shoes and socks back on. Rick's slimmer shadow was replaced by a larger one. River put her hand up to shade her eyes as she looked up at the only man who's hulking form was giant enough to shade her entire body from the sun.

"That was good climbing," Tyreese told her. His voice rose at the end of his statement, indicating that he was gearing up to ask her a follow up question. She could tell from the look on his face that the hamster wheel inside his head was turning. He watched her shimmy up that pole and now he was putting two and two together. River gave Tyreese her prettiest fake smile and braced herself for whatever the man was about to ask her. No doubt it would be something unintentionally insulting or just plain embarrassing. She wasn't ashamed of how she had supported her family, but it wasn't exactly her favorite topic of conversation either. And with Merle standing a few feet away, the situation had the potential to turn ugly if this man asked her something her husband didn't appreciate.

But none of that happened. Instead of asking her where she used to work or how much she charged to take off her clothes, Tyreese asked her something that made her laugh so hard her face turned red.

"Were you a firefighter?"