Who's Darcy-Ann Dixon? 》Rick Grimes

Chapter 5-Setbacks

Two days have passed since the C.D.C. We've decided to try for Fort Benning, cutting down on vehicles. Daryl left his truck behind, riding on our brother's motorcycle which has been strapped in the bed. Shane left behind his jeep. Another one or two cars were also left behind. That left Daryl's bike, the R.V., and Carol's yellow car.

We siphon gas, and transfer gear that was left in the cars into the remaining vehicles.

"Son, let's saddle up," Dale calls to Shane, urging him into the R.V.

Carol, Rick, Carl, Sophia, and I are squeezed into Carol's car, everyone else in the R.V. It was easiest to everyone, despite Rick and I's new hidden awkward tensions. We hadn't been alone together since the C.D.C. Rick took the driver's seat, the two children and Carol were in the back, and I took the passenger's.

At this moment in time, driving down the road, I wish I could have been in the back, with Carl, instead of in the front, partially awkward with his father, but Carol wished to sit with her daughter, and she looked content in the back with her daughter leaning against her shoulder. I couldn't tell her where to sit in her own car.

Daryl took the lead on the motorcycle leading us out of Atlanta, the R.V. following him, and us behind the R.V. The car was silent, only the sound of the car rumbling.

I stare out the window.

Rick is the one to break the silence.

"I was just thinking about our trip to the Grand Canyon," he says to his son, chuckling.

"I don't remember that."

"You wouldn't, you were just a baby. And we never made it past Fort Worth, you got sick. I never knew a baby could throw up so much." Amusement is obvious in Rick's tone.

"Ick," Carl responds.

"Yeah, ick," I say, thinking about it.

"Yeah. The doctor in Texas said you'd live. We turned around and drove straight home," Rick tells him.

"Well that sucks."

"No, it was a good trip," Rick disagrees.

"Can we go see it? The Grand Canyon? I'd like too," Carl states.

"I would too. Could we go?" Sophia asks.

"We'd never go without you and your mom. And Darcy. That's a promise." Rick says.

Carol smiles at Rick's promise, and everyone turns to look out the window or refocus on driving, the silence resettling in.

Rick starts to slow the car.

"Why we stopping?" I ask, then look ahead. Road block. "Damn."

Daryl drives ahead, then comes back out of the car jam and stops to talk to Dale. He motions his head back towards the cars, signalling something to Dale.

I roll my window down and flag him over. He comes to my side of the car, meeting at my window.

"What's up?"

"Roadblock, gonna try and make our way through," he says. I nod my head, and he circles the car, turning around, and takes the lead again, guiding the R.V.

I take in the sight around us. Cars are flipped over, drivin off the road, and there is even quite a few people sitting dead in their cars.

I hear fairly distantly the screechy sputter of the R.V. engine before I see the smoke start to raise up again. We come to another stop, right in the middle of all the cars.

"Carl, stick close," I warn him as we start to get out of the cars. I sling my katana over my body, and sling my crossbow over my arm. A weird set-up, but a convenient one that's not uncomfortable. There was also the pistol pressing against my stomach, stuck in my jeans, and a hunting knife I tried to always keep with me looped into my jeans (it's a basic knife with a wooden handle, the initials D.D. carved into it. I've had it for years).