Chapter 30-A Celebration
Daryl's P.O.V
Daryl walks downstairs early the next morning and finds Merle and Hershel in the main room decorating a tree. "The world has officially ended, new thought I would see the day you decorated a tree," Daryl says.
"I came down here two hours ago and found this son of a bitch bringing up decorations from the basement," Merle says.
"It's a winter resort, they have to have decorations," Hershel says. "They had a fake tree downstairs, figured if we're going to do this, might as well go all out."
Daryl smirks as he goes into the kitchen and finds a pot with coffee and looks at his brother and Hershel. "Rick wasn't kidding, still some goodies in that pantry," Merle says as Daryl pours himself a cup.
He walks into main room of the cabin. The room was large, there were stairs on both side of the walls, the stairs led up to a hallway. On both sides of the hallways was room. On the left side of the main room was a hallway that lead to kitchen and a pantry and a door that led outside. On the ride side was a door that led to a large basement, and a office. At the end of the hallway there was a small gym. If you walked straight past the stairs. There was two couchs and two chairs, a small coffee table, a fire place and a door that led to the back of the building. In the main room there was a large table, a fire place and the front door.
"You coming today?" Merle asks his brother who looks at him and nods as he sets his coffee cup down and sits at the table.
"Mmmhmm," Daryl replies as he stares at the cup.
"What's on your mind baby brother?" Merle asks as he stops decorating the tree and looks at Daryl who looks at him.
"Rick thinks we should leave," Daryl tells him. "After the generator runs out."
"You think differently?" Hershel asks.
"Yesterday I didn't, but I thought about it last night, it could work, this place is remote, we had trouble finding it, it will be hard but no impossible to reinforce the fence in the snow."
"Not if we got a snow plow," Merle says. "I drove a couple, doing some odd jobs to get some money for our other activities. Loot all the stores around, get some metal sheets, cover up the fence, reinforce that fence, maybe put them spikes in front of it to stop walkers. This place could be safer than the farm."
"You help lead this group Daryl, talk with the others, They will listen," Hershel says. Daryl nods as they hear footsteps.
"Mama, look, there's a tree," Sophia says as she comes down the stairs.
"There is, I see you're going all out, Hershel," Carol says.
"Well, Merle helped," Hershel says as he looks at Sophia. "Would you like to help me?" Hershel asks the child who nods as Hershel smiles.
"I'll get breakfast going, we're going to need it today," Carol says as he walks into the kitchen.
T-dog's P.O.V
The group sat around the main room eating. "So who's all leaving today?" Rick asks.
"I think mostly everybody, might as well hit this town quickly, Rick," T-dog says.
"I'll stay back, keep an eye on the place," Chase says. "I don't think many people are out right now."
"I'll stay too," Lexi says. Rick nods as the group continues to eat. Daryl looks at Rick, Glenn, and T-dog.
"Hey, can we talk for a second?" Daryl asks the other three men who nod as Daryl leads them into the kitchen. "I think we should think about staying here."
"I think he's right," Glenn says. "It's safe, why stay on the road for months hoping to find something better when we can make this place better, it's going to be cold for a while, walkers are slowing down and people are hunkering down for the winter, by the time winter ends, we could turn this place into a home, somewhere safe from walkers and people."
"Better than freezing out there," T-dog says as they look at Rick.
"Alright, it can't hurt to give it a chance, it will be better for the kids and Lori," Rick says hesitantly. The other three men could see that the former sheriff was not fully on board with staying at the resort, but knew that he was outvoted on the matter and would do his best to help.
"While we are in town, we'll look around, see what there is to help us reinforce the place," Glenn tells then and the other three nod as they walk down the stairs back to the main room.
Merle's P.O.V
The snow fell softly on the ground as Merle stopped his truck outside of the mall. Merle turns the truck off and opens the door. He could feel the bitter cold wind against his face as he looks at the entrance of the mall. He looks at the group as they slowly exit their cars. "Alright, let's try and make this as quick as possible, shop if you want but grab supplies," Merle tells everybody who nods as they walk up to the door. "We're going to need to pry the door open."
"Way ahead of you," T-dog says as he walks to the front of the group with a crowbar. He puts it in the middle of the door and pulls the door open enough for Merle and Daryl to grab it and pull it the rest of the way open. The group enters the mall shining their flashlights around the dark building. Merle walked with Ofelia, Glenn, Alicia, and Nick. The building was silent, trash laid on the ground and bodies were scattered throughout the building. Merle could smell the rotting flesh as he climbed the stairs. Merle enters the first store shining his flashlight, he stops when he sees something move in the back of the store.
"Glenn," Merle says as he points to the back of the store. The young Korean man nods as he sheaths his knife and removes his gun from his holster. The two men go to the back of the store. They get to the back room and find a three men one of them holding a little girl in his arms.
"We aren't looking for a fight, please, just leave us alone," One of them says.
"We aren't going to hurt you," Glenn says as he holsters his gun. He looks at Merle who lowers his. "I'm Glenn, this is Merle."
"Brian, this is my brother Philip, our friend Nickolas and my niece, Penny," Brian tells them. Brian was tall, standing at five-nine in height. He had an athletic build and dark brown hair, and blue eyes.
"You guys alone?" Philip asks.
"No, we got a whole group here, looking for supplies," Glenn says. "You guys look like shit."
"Been a hard couple of days, haven't eaten in a couple of days," Nickolas says. Glenn pulls his bag off his back and pulls out a sandwich and a bottle of water.
"Isn't much," Glenn says as he holds the sandwich out to Brian who slowly takes it and Glenn rolls the bottle of water to him. "Give us a second."
Glenn leads Merle out of the room and towards the other. "You wanna bring them back don't you?" Merle asks.
"Yes, I do," Glenn says. "They have a child, Merle. What's the point in having somewhere safe if we don't help people."
Merle looks at Glenn and nods. "Fine dammit. Only cause I'm not leaving a kid out in this shit," Glenn nods as the two men walk back to the small group. He saw Penny eating the sandwich.
"We got a place," Glenn says. "A resort we're going to turn into a home, you're welcome to join us."
"Why help us, you don't know us?" Philip asks.
"Because of that little girl and because we're all still breathing, means we are on the same team," Glenn says.
"Not everybody looks at it that way," Nickolas says.
"I know, we've met some of them, but we do," Brian looks at his older brother who nods.
"Thank you," Brian says as he stands up. "You won't regret it."
"Like I said, we're looking for supplies and...shopping," Glenn says.
"Shopping?" Philip asks. Merle smirks.
"We're celebrating Christmas," Glenn says shyly.
"You're serious?" Brian asks.
"Oh yeah," Merle says. "We're serious, don't worry, we're not crazy, just a little too optimistic," Merle says as he walks towards the entrance of the store.
Daryl's P.O.V
Daryl stood by the door to the mall waiting for the rest of the group with Hershel, Carl, Rick, and Travis. They see Merle's group first and then they see the new additions. "Find some stowaways?" Daryl asks as he grips his crossbow.
"Yep," Merle says. "China man offered 'em a place with us."
"You know I'm Korean asshole," Glenn says and Merle smirks as he stops by his brother.
"We'll introduce everybody when we get back," Rick says. "For now, I'm Rick, I help lead this group with Daryl, Glenn and another man named T-dog."
"Brian, this is my brother Philip, niece Penny and our friend Nickolas," Brian says as he shakes Rick's hand. "Thank you, we were pretty much screwed,"
Rick nods as they wait for the rest of the group in silence.
No one's P.O.V
The cabin
The group all sat at the table. The four new members had showered and had sat with the group. The group ate and talked among themselves as Hershel stood up. "I would like to propose a toast," Hershel says making the group look at him. "These last few months, they have been hard for every person in this room and the people out there, we all lost something when the world ended, but we found something as well. We found each, before the world ended, we may have just pasted each other on the street or in the store, never spoken a word to each other, never learned each others name. We have lost people, friends, family but I will say, if there is one thing to be grateful for after everything, it is the fact that we've found each other, we've become a family, a growing family, our pasts doesn't matter, who we were before, what we did, it doesn't matter anymore. We're family. So, to family," Hershel says as he raises his glass.
"To family," The group says as they join the other man. They group continued to eat. They got what presets could be found and the kids were sent to bed. The rest of the was scattered around the living room part of the cabin.
"I'm glad we did this," Glenn says. "Felt like for a minute the world didn't end."
"We might have to do it again, Christmas is pretty fun when you're with people who give a shit," Merle says from where he sat by the window with a glass of whiskey.
"You never celebrated Christmas?" Amy asks the older Dixon brother.
"Only present our Dad ever gave us was the scars," Merle says before he takes a drink. "So you make sure to give Daryl a nice present tonight."
Amy grabs a pillow and throws it at the older Dixon brother who catches it while the others laugh. "The old world, it did end, Glenn," Hershel says making the man look at him. "It does not mean we cannot build another, one where we are not scared of walkers, where kids can grow up and we can have Christmas."
"Sounds like a nice dream," Philip says.
"Doesn't have to be one," Hershel says. "The dead walk the earth, anything is possible," Hershel looks at Lori who sat by Alicia and Maggie. "New life is coming into this world, it gives hope. That's all we have now, hope."
"Maybe one day we'll make it a reality Hershel," Dale says.
"We will, this group will, I have faith in that," Hershel says before he takes a drink and they continue to talk. Enjoying the night.
Thanks for reading. Next chapter will skip forward another month and we'll finally check in with Daniel and Shane and show the progress on the resort, as always suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.
