Suddenly...Gone

Chapter 28

The next few days the people of Alexandria concentrated on enriching their food supply. Losing the van full of food hurt the community; so many more people were out on supply runs than usual. They found they had to go further and further out to find what they needed. It took a lot of food to feed the fifty plus people inside the walls, and every day it was getting harder and harder to do that.

Daryl was one of the people who normally didn't do the supply runs who was out daily trying to bring back food. Emma worried every time he left and didn't breathe a sigh of relief until she saw him exit the vehicle he had left in.

Emma had volunteered to go on a run, but Daryl vehemently denied her. He didn't want her to have a chance meeting with any if the Saviors and be recognized. There was no way he going to lose her again. Emma was not happy with his overprotectiveness, but she put up with it, as she knew it came from his love for her.

On any given night Emma was cooking for anywhere from six to a dozen people just within their group, then she had up to ten others that she cooked the evening meal for. She was feeding almost half the population of Alexandria on some nights. Cooking kept her busy and made her feel useful.

One afternoon she took a walk around through the streets and noticed a plant that caught her attention by a vacant house. When she got closer to it, she recognized that it as a chive plant, and in fact, there were three of them all lined up in a row. Emma was excited. Fresh herbs would help her favor her meals that at times really needed help. She kept checking the planting bed and found a large sage bush along with a tarragon plant. These were even better finds.

Emma hurried home to grab a pair of shears so she could cut some of the chives for breakfast. This would make the powdered eggs they had found so must tastier when she cooked them in the morning. No oatmeal for everyone tomorrow, this would be a big treat.

After cutting the herbs she wanted to take back with her, Emma was on her way back to the house when she saw Maggie walking down the front steps to the sidewalk. Glenn and Maggie had finally returned, but Maggie was still quite depressed about losing the baby. Emma hoped to get to know her better as Daryl considered her a close friend.

"Hey Maggie, wait up," Emma called out.

"It's Emma, right?" asked Maggie. "What can I do for you?"

"Daryl told me that you've been trying to grow vegetables without much success. Could you show me where? I'm doing so much of the cooking here, having fresh vegetables will help. Look I just found herbs growing down the street." Emma showed her the newly cut chives and tarragon she still held in her hand.

"Sure," Maggie said. Together they walked to where Emma saw white PVC pipe set up to be used as a trellis, but there wasn't anything growing below it. Maggie sighed sadly, "See nothing grew."

"The seeds must have been old. Did everything come from the same place?" Emma asked.

Maggie smiled softly as she remembered when Glenn had given her the seeds he had found. "Glenn found then during a run. Nothing grew from any of them. Not the tomatoes or the cucumbers or the squash."

"There was definitely something wrong with the seeds. We need to have the people going on runs keep an eye out of any type of vegetable seeds. Once we get this going, it'll feed us well," Emma told her with a friendly smile. "I'll ask Daryl to spread the word."

"What you girls doing?" asked a voice. When Emma turned around, she saw it was Maggie's husband Glenn.

"Talking vegetables and coming up with a plan," Maggie told him. "We need new seeds, and Emma's going to ask Daryl to have everyone keep an eye out for them. I hope they can find them. Maybe we can enlarge the garden..." Maggie kept on talking to Glenn, but there was finally life back into her eyes. She had something she wanted to do. Emma quietly left the couple, but not before Glenn mouthed the words 'thank you' to her.