The Dead Walk the Earth

Chapter 15: The Things We'll Carry

Charlie sat in passenger's seat as Rick drove away from the sanctuary that was Hershel's farm. Hershel himself sat in the very back and watched as his farm vanished before his eyes as the car drove away. They all sat in shock, the vehicle silent, as Rick made his way for the highway.

"We - uh - we should go to the place where we left stuff for Sophia. The other's might have the same idea." Charlie's voice soft and breaking on Sophia's name. She saw Rick slowly nod in her peripheral vision and flick his eyes to her. She brought her legs up and held her knees to her chest and turn slightly.

"The others... did they make it?" she muttered. "Lori... Carl... Shane..." she paused, "Daryl... did you see?"

"Didn't see anything. Too many walkers." He replied. The car was silent again and they finally arrived to the spot they'd stopped at on the road.

Carl, Rick, Hershel, and Charlie piled out of the car, "We have to go back." Carl told Rick, "What about mom? We have to go back!"

"We can't go back. There's nothing to go back to." Rick told him in a low voice as a walker came their way. They ducked behind the car and walked quietly around it while it passed.

"Rick, you have something to protect. Get your boy and your niece out of here, to safety." Hershel insisted.

"Where's safe? We thought the CDC was safe, we thought the farm was safe. Nowhere is safe." Charlie said finally. "We've got nothing left."

"Nothing but each other," Hershel told her, raising his eyebrows a bit and tilting his head down. She sighed and looked back into the wise eyes that looked at her and just as her hope was dying and she went to make a snappy comeback, the sound of tires on pavement and a motorcycle engine came slowly towards them. Charlie's eyes lit up. They all ran towards the people that came towards them, Carl and Rick to Lori and Maggie and Beth to Hershel. Charlie went for Lori and Carl before a hand pulled at her wrist and she was wrapped in Daryl's arms. The embrace was long enough to grab attention, but that wasn't the shock factor. Daryl, probably in the spur of the moment, pulled away from the hug and kissed her. Her first thought was to pull away, but in that moment she didn't care who knew. Either he or herself or both of them could've died and this way of life was too short to hide this stuff.

"About time," Lori said and she looked around to see smiles all around. She smiled in returned, then turned back to Daryl and kissed him once more.

"Are you alright?" He asked me, her face in his hands.

Charlie nodded, "Yeah, just rattled." she said and pulled away to look around, "Where's Andrea?" she asked.

"I saw her go down," Carol said. Hershel and Beth and Maggie asked about their family, Patricia, and Jimmy, Beth's boyfriend, hadn't made it out and apparently neither had Andrea. They all took a moment to process the news. They'd lost so many in the past few days and it was a lot to take in. Their grief was interrupted, however as yet another walker came their way.

"We should get off the road. We're too exposed, in the open." As everyone piled back in their cars, Charlie on the back of Daryl's bike once again, she stopped. "Where's Shane?" she asked Daryl.

He looked at her, confusion on his, "Dunno. Maybe we lost him too." she pondered that for a moment and then proceeded to climb onto the bike, arms wrapped tight around Daryl. He took off, taking the lead and weaved through the cars, leading the group away from yet another destroyed sanctuary. They headed East, though what they'd find there was unknown. They were hoping to find a boat, get to an island where we'd be safe from walkers and people like Dave and Randall, the men Rick, Hershel, and Glenn came in contact with. They drove for hours, would've kept going accept one of the vehicles ran out of gas.