cassette tapes |d. dixon| [1]

50

"It didn't take long for the walkers to pile up again. We tried our best to lure them away from the fences on Daryl's bike, but nothing could keep them from the sounds of children playing android being grilled."

"YOU HEADING OUT?" CAROLINE ASKED, WALKING OUT INTO THE COURTYARD WITH JUDITH IN HER ARMS,

"Hoping to bring back a lot." Daryl nodded, looking down at the baby, "You be good for her now."

"I'm just waiting for Beth to take her then I'm heading out into the woods with Rick." Caroline stated, "Gotta check the snares."

Daryl sighed. She knew he hated when she went outside the fences, "I'll be with Rick and I'll have my gun. See you when you get back?"

He nodded, kissing the corner of her mouth before heading for his bike. She watched as they left, pausing to talk to Rick and Michonne before she joined them and left the prison fences.

Rick walked up the path as Beth took Judith away from Caroline, "You ready?"

Caroline checked the bullets in her gun real quick before nodding, "Yeah, let's go."

"The woods is calming. It makes me forget that I'm fighting to survive in a world full of walking dead people. With the sun beating down on you... the sound of bugs and birds chirping... it's peaceful."

The blonde tossed Rick a rabbit before he caught it and stuffed it in the burlap sack they brought with them. They came across another one of their snares, noticing a deer leg hanging from it.

But its intestines were scattered amongst the leaves. The walkers had already gotten to it.

They made quick work of getting the deer down before moving it, burying it amongst the leaves before moving onto the next trap.

The duo came across a wild pig, laying on the forest floor. Flies buzzed around it but Caroline knew it was sick.

"We shouldn't eat that." Caroline whispered to him, not wanting to startle the boar, "Don't wanna risk infecting anyone with it."

Rick nodded, taking a step towards the boar before they heard twigs breaking. He grabbed her as he noticed a walker stumbling towards the animal and they both hid behind a tree.

They both took a step away, not wanting to alert the walker, but Rick stepped on a branch, "Wait."

The duo paused.

That walker wasn't a walker at all. It was a woman.

"Please." She stood and raised her hand, "Please? Please help me."

The woman was covered in dry dirt. Her hair was stringy and greasy, hanging in her face. Her clothes were much too big. Caroline wondered if she purposely looked like that to blend in with the walkers, to keep them away.

"I know you don't know me. Okay, I know that. But can you please help me get this to my husband? We haven't eaten in days." The woman begged,

Rick approached her, leaving Caroline behind him in case the woman attacked. He took off his gloves, stuffing them into his bag before pulling out a sandwich that Carol had made for them, "Here. Go ahead."

The woman slowly approached him and took the food from his hands, "Thank you." She clutched the tin foil wrapped food to her chest, her eyes flickering back towards Caroline before back to Rick, "Do you have a camp around here?"

"Yeah." Rick answered,

"Could we possibly come back with you?" The woman asked, her voice cracking, probably from the lack of water, "We've been doing... very badly on our own."

Rick turned to look at Caroline and she sighed.

"Well, she wasn't lying. That woman looked too skinny, there was no way they had a constant food supply over the past how ever long this had been going on. I'd feel guilty if we didn't bring her back with us, leaving her out here to starve."

Caroline nodded and Rick turned back to the woman, "I'd have to meet him. I need to ask him some questions, both of you."

"What questions?" She asked,

"Just three. When we get there." He explained and she nodded, "You have a gun on you?" Rick asked and she shook her head, "Can I make sure?"

He walked behind her and began patting her down. He grabbed her knife from her waist and tossed it towards Caroline. The blonde picked it up before Rick stood and spoke to the woman, "Look, I don't know you, so I'm just gonna tell you this. You try anything, anything, you're gonna be the one who loses."

"I don't have anything else to lose." The woman whispered,

"No. You do."

Caroline walked over, handing the woman her knife back, "We all have something to lose."

The woman gave her one last looked before leading them towards her camp. Rick nodded at Caroline before they began to follow her.

"We were going to Puerto Vallarta for our honeymoon. When they shut down the airports, our connecting flight never connected." The woman, Clara, recounted, as she led them towards her camp where her husband was, "They wouldn't let us leave the terminal, so... we slept next to these huge marble sculptures from Zimbabwe. Then, on the fourth night, the things just came through."

Caroline felt bad for Clara. Their honeymoon bliss ended so suddenly and... darkly.

"There were a lot of us and..." She came to a stop and turned to them, "...now it's just Eddie and me. And I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for him. And it isn't that... he saved me over and over again or that he showed me the things that I had to do or... to be willing to do. If he wasn't still here... I-- I couldn't be. I just-- I couldn't." Clara began walking again,

"What were they?" Rick asked and she stopped and turned around,

"What?"

"The things you had to be willing to do?" He repeated,

"Um... eating whatever we could find-- animal carcasses and rotten fruit-- and... leaving people behind." She looked close to bursting into tears, "Hiding from people who needed my help. Unlike you."

"This is not charity." Rick explained as they began walking again, "You have to have numbers. People are the best defense against walkers or people."

"We help each other." Caroline stated, "We all contribute so our camp runs smoothly. Nobody left behind."

"You call them 'walkers'?"