Barely Alive // TWD // Daryl Dixon

Chapter 06 -- Exiled

"We could never learn to be brave and patient

if there were only joy in the world"

― Helen Keller

Meanwhile, not many miles away, Rick and Carol had finished looking inside some houses for medicine and anything else they could need, including food. Luckily the pair had just come across a nice garden with fresh food, it had tomatoes, grapes, apples and other vegetables.

"How'd you put his shoulder back before? You learn that from Hershel?"

Rick and Carol had bumped into a young couple, a blonde guy and a brunette girl. They were pretty much not ready for this world. The guy had dislocated his shoulder and Carol had fixed it.

"Internet," she replied. "It's easier than telling an ER nurse I'd fallen down the stairs a third time."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Carol told him. "Just fixed what needed fixin'. I actually convinced myself I was happy with him, which wasn't all that hard to do considering my idea of happiness then was just not being alone. He made a decent living, he was charming when he wanted to be, especially those mornings after he'd come home piss-drunk and..." She sighed. "Stupid. Stupid."

Truth was that Carol's biggest regret was failing her girls when they needed her the most. To not step up when she should have and keep them safe.

"I didn't think I could be strong," she muttered. "I didn't know I could but I already was. I failed them, Rick. I failed ... her, I failed Cecilia too. She used to come to me when he was out at work and demanded me to do something as she showed me a new bruise and I did nothing, I just hugged her and told her it was going to be okay. She toughened up, got cold, got distant, she closed herself and that was my fault, it should have been me that had to toughen up. I should have given Cecilia, given them both the love and protection they needed but I thought I needed him to survive."

"Why don't you say her name?" Rick asked, noticing she only mentioned Cecilia's name.

"She's dead, Rick," Carol said, stopping gathering food. "Sophia. Dead. Somebody else's slideshow."

"Some mornings I still wake up half-expecting Lori to be there," Rick admitted. "Reminding me to pick up Carl after school or telling me breakfast is ready. Every Sunday she'd make us these pancakes that were just godawful." The two of them chuckled at that. "Clumps of flour that weren't mixed in right. Thing was she knew it was bad."

"Why'd she keep at it?" Carol asked.

"Well she wanted us to be the kind of family that ate pancakes on Sunday," Rick said simply.

Carol and Rick finished grabbing the fruit and some small vegetables into a plastic bag. They stood up and walked across the big garden, they still had a few houses to search. But they stopped in their tracks when they saw a basket and some fruit on the floor followed by red fresh blood on the grass.

They followed the trail to a fence, Rick pushed the gate and the first thing he saw was a leg with a tattoo, the girl had showed it to them earlier. On the other side of the street they saw two walkers feeding on her.

"We should get back," Carol stated. "Sam's probably waiting."

Rick and Carol went back to the first house they went in, Sam, the guy they found earlier, was supposed to meet them there. Rick had given him his watch, telling him that they were leaving in two hours. They waited some more time for him but they needed to get back, people were dying back at the prison, so they walked outside with the things they had found.