Red River Blue
Chapter 67
Since Carol was back, River gathered everyone together that wasn't still on their way back from the fire, inviting them over to her house for family dinner. Carol expected it to be horribly awkward. She was surprised by how quickly she was able to relax. The kids were horsing around, stealing food off each other's plates and squealing in laughter. Even the ones that were taught proper manners at home seemed to know they could get away with animal-like behavior at River and Merle's dinner table. Merle held them back long enough for Lydia got what she wanted. But once she retreated to her bedroom with her plate, total chaos ensued.
Carol could see the tension in Daryl's body. Instead of fighting his nephew for the last of the fresh tortilla chips, he was sitting stiff against the back of his chair, casting nervous glances in her direction. Like he was worried that Dixon family dinner was suddenly too much for her. When he saw that Carol was smiling at the kids' antics, he finally relaxed.
Once the food was gone, Carol and Daryl headed back to their house. The walk was quiet. They showered off the soot and smoke before dinner, so they headed straight for bed. Though it was their first time sleeping in their own bed together after nearly eight months, after staying up all night putting the fire out, they were both too exhausted to do anything but snuggle under the blankets. Dog curled up on the foot of the bed near Carol's feet. And with the heat of Daryl's body next to her, Carol was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Carol hoped that the warm comforting presence of her husband's body beside hers might be enough to hold off her nightmares. But she was wrong. In the early hours of morning, her dreams came for her. Like they always did. The nightmares were always a variation of the same thing. Carol was in the barn where Sam and the others were killed, forced to stand mute and helpless as she watched each one of them die. In the worst of her dreams Sophia's reanimated form would appear, ripping Carol's loved ones to pieces and sinking her rotted fangs into their flesh.
Carol woke in the midst of a terrible panic attack. And while his touch was usually a comfort to her, the way Daryl's arm was locked around her waist was only increasing her uncontrollable terror. Carol eased out from under his grip, sitting on the edge of the bed until she managed to catch her breath.
Her robe was still hanging on a hook on the inside of the closet door, right where she left it. Seeing it there was somehow reassuring and sad at the same time. Carol pulled the garment on over her underwear and t-shirt, tying the belt around her slim waist as she headed for the door. She sighed when she noticed Daryl had an empty beer bottle balanced on the doorknob. If she'd gone for the door while it was still completely dark out, she would have broken the bottle and woke him. Carol felt an ache deep in her chest as she glanced over at his sleeping form. He must have been afraid that she was going to run out on him in the middle of the night. After her behavior as of late, she couldn't blame him. But it still made her sad. They used to trust each other in a way she'd never trusted anyone in all her life. Carol told herself that they could get back to that eventually. It was just going to take some time.
After a trip to the bathroom, which needed a thorough cleaning just like the rest of the house, Carol got herself a drink of water and let Dog out before she headed back to bed. She snuggled down into her pillow, knowing she needed a few more hours sleep. But the moment Carol closed her eyes, the panic began to rise in her chest again. She was afraid to sleep, knowing there was a chance her dreams might return. Easing back out of bed, Carol fumbled through her bag. She found the bottle of small white pills she scavenged during her offshore fishing boat expeditions and twisted the cap off. Tossing one down her throat, she chased it with a sip of water before she settled back down into bed.
The book she was working her way through before she left was still sitting on her bedside table. Carol reached for it, along with her purple sparkly reading glasses, and opened it up to the page that was marked with the photo she was using as a bookmark. It was a small black and white one that Aaron took years ago of her and Daryl on their wedding day. They were standing on the front porch of what was now River and Merle's house with their arms around each other. Mika had a big grin plastered across her face, standing on the step below them with a small bouquet of wildflowers in her hands. Carol ran her fingers over the picture, longing for the girl and her high pitched girlish laughter. The grief of losing her son seemed to have cost her a daughter as well. Carol felt guilty for not being there for her. Mika faced just as much loss as she had over the years. Carol hadn't thought of Lizzie in years. But she could still picture the girl's face clearly in her mind, along with all the other innocent lives Carol failed to save.
Shaking off those intrusive thoughts, Carol forced herself to focus on her book. She made it through about half a chapter before Daryl began to stir beside her. He reached for her, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her body closer to his. He was resting lower on the pillows than she was, putting his head at her chest level. And he took full advantage of this, rolling towards her and tucking his head against her chest so he could use the softness of her breasts as a pillow. When Carol felt his sleepy hand creeping up the inside of her thigh, she tucked her picture back into her book and tossed it, along with her glasses, onto the bedside table. It amused her slightly to see that Daryl seemed to be employing the same strategy to win her back as he used to convince her to marry him in the first place. Daryl wasn't good with words and had no idea how to even begin to express his feelings verbally. Which meant that his chosen method of negotiation was to have sex with her until she couldn't think straight anymore and then convince her to do whatever it was that he wanted. It was obviously effective. She'd married him after all, despite her insecurities about their age difference and her concerns about her inability to give him a child of his own. But this time was a little different. Sex wasn't going to negate the conversations they eventually needed to have. But Carol was still eager to lose herself in his touch and simply not think at all for a while.
Daryl nudged her thighs apart with his hand, his fingers grazing over her pussy through her cotton underpants. When she bucked into his hand, he was quick to rip the fabric aside and delve his fingers into her. She hissed at the sudden intrusion, her thighs instinctively clamping down with his hand between them. He withdrew his fingers, changing the angle of his hand so he could rub his thumb against her clit as he forced his fingers back inside her. He slid his head up, sucking and licking her neck as he fingered her. She felt his teeth graze the cords of her neck. And as he moved his fingers in and out of her, he began sucking her neck hard enough to leave a mark behind. It wasn't until he moved further down her neck and started sucking there that Carol realized he was marking her neck up on purpose. To what purpose, she didn't know. And with how close she was to the edge of her orgasm, she didn't care.
Carol cried out as the waves of pleasure washed over her. She felt the blankets being tossed off. And then her underwear was dragged roughly down her thighs. Unlike her, Daryl fell asleep with his clothes on. And he didn't bother to do more than unzip his pants before he settled between her legs. Her insides were still rippling with the aftereffects of her orgasm when he thrust his dick into her. She gasped, her body arching at the small nip of pain that only served to intensify her pleasure. Bending her knees, she planted her bare feet against the mattress so she could rock her hips into him from underneath. Daryl moved his lips to the other side of her neck, biting and sucking on her tanned flesh. When he finally moved his mouth from her throat, he growled into her ear, encouraging her to come.
"I'm so close oh fuck come for me I wanna feel it."
Daryl's throaty dirty talk put her over the edge. As he found his release deep inside her, she came gasping and digging her fingers into his back. She rocked her hips into him one more time, drawing out a low moan of pleasure from his throat. He kissed her softly before he rolled off, collapsing on the bed next to her. Distracted by their postcoital bliss, it took them both a moment to realize that the alert sirens were going off.
Since Daryl was already dressed, he was up and flying out the front door while Carol was still scrambling desperately for her clothes. He was already at the gates by the time she was running down the street. Olivia and Eugene were outside the armory, handing out loaded guns and ammunition as fast as they could. Carol took one of the larger rifles, gripping it tightly as she headed for the gates. No one had to tell her what was happening. The reason for the sirens was immediately obvious. There was a giant mess of walkers at the gates. Too many, at least in Carol's opinion, to have just wandered up to the gates on their own. Alexandria was under attack.
They had the fire power to hold off the herd. But most of their experienced combat fighters were still on their way back from the fire. And there wasn't a ton of room on the guard platforms for people to stand and shoot. They couldn't fire through the wall. And there were too many of the dead outside to open the gates. Especially since all the metal shields they fashioned for use in just this situation were left behind at Oceanside after the group training.
The walls were moving slightly, shaking the people on top of the platforms and making it harder for them to aim their guns and bows. Even though they'd all trained and prepared for this eventual possibility, people were starting to look worried. Maybe even panicked. Carol was approaching one of the ladders when she heard Merle's loud baritone ring out above the gunfire.
"Don't you fuckin' do it!," he screamed.
Carol followed his line of sight, looking up in time to see River fly by overhead. She was gripping the handlebars that hung from the zipline trolley. She disappeared from Carol's view when she flew past the metal walls. But from the reactions of the people on the platforms, Carol knew River must have made it to the belltower. The trolley was quickly reeled back. And Connie went next, flying out over the herd and past Alexandria's high walls.
Carol was climbing the ladder when she saw the people above her duck down behind the wall. She wrapped her arm around the rung, clinging tightly as a loud series of explosions on the opposite side of the wall rang out. She waited, making sure River and Connie were done lighting off Eugene's homemade fireworks before she climbed the rest of the way up and eased herself onto the platform. The loud explosions served their purpose, diverting part of the herd away from the walls. Carol watched as River lit fire to a rag that was sticking out of a glass bottle and hurled it as far as she could. It hit a walker and exploded, lighting the creature and several that were surrounding it on fire. The fire itself would take too long to destroy the creature's brain stem. But that wasn't the purpose of the flames. They were meant to divert the herd and keep them from piling up against the walls. And it was working. Some of the dead reversed course and headed for the bright lights and noise of the fire. But Carol could see there were still too many pushing in against the walls. More and more were squeezing in between the old run down cars they had parked around the perimeter of town as a sort of second layer of protection. Merle was aiming there as he fired, hoping to pile the bodies up in the gaps between the cars and make it harder for more of the dead to push through.
They were making some headway against the herd. But it still wasn't enough. Too many walkers were smashing against the walls, pushing hard enough to shake them and possibly loosen the supports. If it got much worse, Carol knew they would have to cut and run for the sewer tunnels where father Gabriel was hiding with the children. But no one wanted to do that. They would live. But if the dead came through town, the destruction it would cause would take them months to repair. And they would undoubtedly lose horses and livestock that they couldn't afford to part with.
Carol heard a loud whistle coming from the opposite direction of the belltower. And when she spotted the source of the noise, she cheered right along with the rest of her companions on the platform. Harley and Rick were back. They had Negan and Carl with them, along with the woman Carol recognized as the one that hugged Daryl near the gate when she arrived back home. And while Carol had nothing nice to say about the little homewrecker, she couldn't deny the woman was skilled at hand to hand combat. Not only was the small group taking out walkers left and right, they were yelling and whistling as they went, turning the herd away from the walls and towards them.
Merle slid down the ladder, moving towards the gate. Tyreese and Aiden shouldered up next to him. They waited on Daryl's signal. And the moment the gates were clear enough, they opened them and surged out. Rosita took the zipline across to the belltower to help River and Connie. And as the herd was slowly thinned and pushed back, more people slipped out through the gates to help.
"Hey Angel," Merle drawled, pulling Harley into a tight hug. She hugged him back in her usual way, with one quick intense squeeze before she quickly jerked away. Wren blew him a kiss as she rode through on her horse, leading the rest of the animals behind her carefully through the mass of fallen bodies.
"Carol!," Harley exclaimed, sounding like she hadn't seen the woman in years even though they just spent the entire night before fighting the fire together. When she moved in for a hug, Carol knew she was up to something without her even having to say it. "We've gotta talk," Harley hissed. "...but maybe later. 'Cause those skins are on their way here right now with anotha fuckin' herd."