The next morning, Connie had been assigned to taking Glenn's new car apart, along with Jim and Morales. He was less that thrilled, but she'd be damned if she disobeyed Shane.

"Yeah go on, strip it clean, you vultures," Glenn yelled.

Connie turned to face him, a tire in hand and a smile pulling at her lips. "That's what we're doing, Glenn," she chuckled. She heard the man beside him — Rick — let out a quiet chuckle. "Why don't you come help us?"

Connie heard Glenn scoff as she dropped the tire next to the other three, and snickered quietly. "Is Holly awake?" He called. "Carl and Sophia were looking at her."

Connie shook her head. "Amy said she'd watch her and help her with bath, so she's either down at the lake or still in the RV procrastinating," she answered back, wiping her hands on her jeans. Glenn nodded, and Connie went back to pulling his precious car into pieces.

"The generators need every drop of fuel they can get," Dale mused as he walked up to them. "We've got no power without it, sorry Glenn."

Glenn let out a small sigh as Dale patted his shoulder. "I thought I'd get to drive it at least a few more days," he muttered, and Connie laughed again.

"Sure, but I'd be driving it before you," Connie told him with a smile.

"Maybe we'll get to steal another one some day," Rick offered, patting Glenn's shoulder.

"I think we've got it from here, Connie," Morales told her.

"You sure?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"I'm sure. I think Holly wants you anyways," he chuckled. Sure enough, she could see Holly frantically waving her arms, a piece of paper in one hand. She let out a quiet laughed but nodded, wiping her hands off on an old rag before tucking the end of it into her back pocket.

"Hey, baby," she chuckled as Holly flung herself into her mothers arms. "Watcha' got there?"

"Amy helped me write my full name!" Holly squealed and waved the paper around again. Connie looked up to where Amy was sitting at the table, smiling.

"Did she really? Let me see." Holly practically threw the paper at her, a wide grin on her face. Spread across the paper was Holly's name. She had written with each letter being a different colour. She could see the letters in the corner that Amy had written to help Holly, and she smiled. It was messy, but Connie had never felt more proud in her life. "It's amazing," she smiled, pressing a kiss to Holly's forehead.

A loud scream pierced the air, and Connie stood up immediately.

"I need you to go back to Amy, sweetheart, don't leave 'til I come get you." She ushered Holly towards the blonde girl, who immediately pulled her into her arms. Connie ran the few feet to the bed of her truck, pulled her lacrosse stick from the end. She had taken the net part off, and now only had the long metal handle.

Connie rolled her shoulders and followed the screams.

She could hear Sophia and Carl screaming for their parents, and she ran faster then she ever had.

Connie arrived first, and immediately pushed the two kids to their parents, who came in shortly behind her. She followed Rick, Glenn and Shane into a small clearing, where she immediately grimaced at what she saw.

There was a walker.

It was hunched over a dear, too focused on eating it to even realize there was anyone there that was alive. Quiet growls echoed from its throat and chest, and Connie curled her upper lip in disgust at the smell.

It was awful.

There were two arrows sticking out from its hind legs, and Connie immediately knew what that meant. Daryl had been hunting it. Which meant that he would already be angry for Glenn, or T-Dog, or Rick, or whoever would be the one to tell him about Merle.

He would be murderous.

When she saw Amy out of the corner of her eye, she raised her brows. RV colouring with Jacqui, Amy mouthed to her, and Connie nodded, her body flooding with relief.

When it finally stood up, Rick and Connie were the first to react. She landed a hit to its right side, enough to make it stumble back, and Rick hit it's shoulder. Connie stepped back to stay in front of the kids, ensuring that they would be safe as the men beat it to the ground.

She gagged slightly when Dale cut its head off, but didn't have any other reactions. She had grown used to this. The blood and carnage had become a common thing. The head rolled to rest by her foot, but she paid no attention to it. Her black hunting boots were thick enough to keep anything out.

"That's the first one we've had up here," Dale spoke breathlessly. "They never come this far up the mountain."

Connie allowed the lacrosse stick to fall to her side, but still kept a tight grip on the handle.

"Well, they're running out of food in the city," Jim muttered.

"We're going to have to move again," Connie sighed, catching everyone's attention. "Soon enough they're going to start venturing out looking for meals. When that happens, we need to be as far away as possible. The hoards will be huge."

"She's right," Andrea agreed. There were a chorus of quiet agreements, and Connie let out a tired sigh. Branches began to crackle to the left of everyone, and Connie raised her stick again. As the footsteps neared, she let out a shaky breath but stepped forwards.

She stood next to Shane, who had his gun raised. When she saw the familiar crossbow peak out from behind a rock, she let out a sigh of relief and lowered her weapon.

"Son of a bitch," the familiar voice of Daryl Dixon snarled as he rounded the corner. "That's my deer!"

Connie stepped out of his way, but the two shared a discrete nod. That was his way of saying that he'd gotten something bigger for Holly, who was starting to grow again.

"He really isn't happy, Glenn whispered as he walked forwards, and Connie shook her head.

"Look at it. Gnawed on by this—" he began to kick the headless body in anger "—filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!"

"Calm down, son, that's not helping," Dale sighed. Daryl scoffed quietly as he walked forwards.

"What do you know about it, old man?" He snapped as he brought his face closer to Dale's. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond, huh?"

"Hey," Connie warned lowly, and he grumbled quietly before moving back to the deer.

"I've been trackin' this deer for miles," Daryl muttered, ripping the arrows from it's backside. Glenn and Connie shared a look, but neither made a comment. They knew it would be a long day. "Was gonna' drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think, do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?"

"I wouldn't risk that," Shane told him with a shake of his head. Connie ran a hand through her hair that now hung loosely down her shoulder blades.

"That's a damn shame," Daryl sighed. "I got some squirrel, a dozen or so. Got a rabbit for Holly too." He avoided Connie's eyes as he said that, and she smiled faintly. She knew Daryl wouldn't admit it, but he actually liked the innocent, oblivious, question asking six year old. He had a soft spot for her. "I guess it'll have to do."

"Oh god," Amy gagged, and Connie followed her gaze to the walkers head that was still chomping right next to Connie's foot. Andrea pulled her sister away, back towards the camp.

"Well that's extremely disgusting," Connie muttered, pursing her lips through a grimace. Before she could move her leg, Daryl pulled her out of the way.

"Come on people, what the hell?" He fired an arrow into the eye socked of the skull, shooting her a discrete nod before addressing everyone else. "It's gotta' be the brain." Connie grimaced. "Don't y'all know nothin'?"

As Daryl walked towards the camp with everyone in tow, Connie walked up to Rick and patted him sympathetically on the shoulder. "That, my friend, is Daryl Dixon. Have fun." She heard Rick let out a quiet sigh as he followed behind her, and she chuckled to herself.

This was sure to be an interesting conversation.

"Merle!" She could hear Daryl holler, and she picked up her pace to a slow jog as she arrived at the camp. "Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up!"

"Daryl," Shane interrupted. "Slow up a bit. I need to talk to you."

"About what?" Daryl asked in confusion, and Connie stepped up to stand beside Shane.

"It's about Merle," she told him vaguely, then stepped back and allowed the others to take care of the rest of it.

"What do you mean?" he asked again, and Connie could almost see the anger building up.

"There was a problem in Atlanta," Shane sighed, rubbing his mouth.

"Is 'e dead?" Daryl asked gruffly, his fists clenching slightly at his sides.

"We're not sure," Shane answered carefully.

"That was the wrong things to say," Connie muttered quietly to herself. She still had a tight grip on her stick. The only way to get to her truck was to either go around the RV, which would gain Holly's attention, or go through the mess unfolding in front of her. Frankly, she didn't want to do either of those things.

"He either is or he ain't," Daryl snapped, tilting his head to the side.

"There isn't an easy way to say this," Rick but in, "so I'll just say it." Connie grimaced as she watched him step forwards, knowing that this would make the situation at hand about ten times worse.

"Who the hell are you?" Daryl scoffed, his gaze flicking back and forth between the two ex police men. He looked over at Connie for a brief moment, who discretely shook her head, clearly saying one thing; don't make this worse then it has to be. Naturally, he ignored her.

"Rick Grimes," Rick answered calmly.

"Rick Grimes," Daryl mocked. "You got somethin' you want to tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all," Rick told him calmly. "So I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Out of the corner of her eye, Connie could see T-Dog slowly approaching the crowd carrying an armful of firewood.

"Hold on," Daryl muttered while forcefully wiping tears from his eyes. "Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof, an you left him there?" Connie winced at the volume he used, and felt a hand slip into her own. She glanced down at Sophia, who smiled lightly at her.

"Yeah," Rick answered shamefully. Daryl threw the string of squirrels at Rick, only to be tackled to the ground by Shane. Sophia moved her grip to Connie's shirt, and the older woman pulled her into her side.

"Watch the knife!" She heard T-Dog yell, and Connie let out a sigh.

"Sophia, Holly's in the RV colouring if you want to go and wait in there for us there, alright?" She whispered, and before Connie knew it, Sophia was running in that direction. As she stepped forward, Daryl brought the knife back, nicking her arm. Connie grunted quietly and covered it with her opposite hand, but picked the knife up as Shane managed to pull it from Daryl's grasp.

"You'd best let me go!" Daryl screamed as Shane pulled him into a choke hold, but the dark haired man only shook his head.

"No," Shane grunted. "I think it's better if I don't."

Connie cursed under her breath when she felt blood trickle between her fingertips, but there was nothing she could do to cover it up.

"Choke hold's illegal," Daryl muttered as he fell to the ground, and Shane scoffed.

"Yeah, well, go file a complaint." Daryl thrashed around some more, but Rick stepped closer. "We could keep this up all day, Man," Shane sighed.

"I'd like to have a calm discussion about this topic," Rick tried again, and Connie almost snorted. Daryl Dixon wasn't capable of calm. "Do you think we can manage that?" Rick repeated his question before him and his partner shared a look, and Shane threw Daryl to the ground.

"Is your arm okay?" Carol asked her faintly, and Connie shot her a fake smile.

"Yeah, it's fine, but would you be able to fix it up after all this?" She grimaced, and Carol nodded silently. "Thanks."

"Your brother does not work and play well with others," she heard Rick tell Daryl, and she scoffed under her breath.

"Yeah, I think that's a bit of an understatement, Rick," she called. Shane shot her a look. "What?" she muttered. "I'm just saying."

"It's not Rick's fault," T-Dog sighed. "I had the key, and I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl scoffed, staring up at him.

"I dropped it down a drain," T-Dog corrected himself lowly. Connie squeaked quietly as Carol tired a piece of old cloth over the small cut, but then shot the woman a smile.

"Thank you, Carol. Because of this, I will actually help you wash clothes later." Carol smiled weakly and tried to argue, but Connie promised the woman that she would. "I know that I'm not very good at it, and my oily clothes don't help, but I'll do my best."

"Alright," Carol whispered. Connie noticed Daryl wandering around again, throwing small pebbles at the ground out of frustration.

"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it don't," he scoffed.

She could hear them quietly conversing as Carol began to clean at her arm, but she didn't pay attention to what they were saying. She already knew that they would be going back to get Merle, but she would stay at the camp. Holly had already lost her father to this world, and Connie would be damned if she lost her mother to it too.