≻───── ⋆FIVE⋆ ─────≺

𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑, 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐔𝐏 the squirrels with a silent Daryl, I watched the little group leave for Atlanta. I was disappointed to watch Daryl take two squirrels with them, ones I didn't get to skin. It didn't leave us with a lot for the most of the group so I went through my bag in my tent, pulling out the cans I had left over from my time at my house.

I had a good variety that would help for now. I had two cans of peaches, one of baked beans, a small turkey and gravy cat food, and one of corn. I carried the little bundle with me to find Shane at the RV and when he saw me approaching, he crossed his arms with a smirk.

"Whatcha got here?" he asked, looking down at me.

"I had these with me before I got here," I said, setting them out on the table Dale liked to keep out. "This enough until they get back?"

Shane nodded with a grin, holding up one of the cans of peaches. "This is more than enough. Where all did you find this?"

"Had to start looting once I realized people weren't coming back," I said, picking up the lone cat food with a smile. "Lot of the houses kept their stuff hidden all the way in the back shelves like they didn't want someone to ever find them. It made it a fun game." I shrugged. "Never knew what I was gonna find."

"Rick mentioned you were on your own before finding him," said Shane and I nodded. He shook his head with a small sigh, a look of disbelief across his face. "Can't even imagine it."

I shrugged, stuffing my hands into my back pockets as I rocked on my heels. "Wasn't too bad, honestly." He gave me a 'really' look and I nodded. "I stayed in my family home so I just hunkered down and was fine."

"Do you think you would've still been there if things had been different?"

I shrugged. "Maybe?"

"What made you finally leave?" he asked and his curiosity surprised me. Wasn't he just the other night pressing me to answer his questions about whether or not I was a liar?

"I don't know if he mentioned it," I murmured, "but an old friend, Morgan Jones, and his son found me at my house. They were on a supply run and I just decided to go with them." I shrugged again with a smile. "Then Rick practically fell into our laps and the rest was history." I let my eyes run over his face and wondered why he kept looking for Lori because his eyes were searching and I knew better than to think he was looking for anyone else. "How'd you all find this place?"

Shane glanced back at me. "We had to get off the highway, off the roads in general. We found the old path off Interstate eighty-five."

"And you think this place will stay safe?"

His brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Will this be a safe place forever?" I asked. "Will you all want to stay here forever?"

He shrugged, leaning against the RV. "If the geeks stay to the city, maybe."

"You know they won't," I muttered, speaking the truth. There was no way all those walkers were just going to stay in the city when they had more luck finding food out in the woods and more rural areas. No place was safe.

"You don't think this place is safe?"

"We're out in the open," I said, stepping past him as I noticed some of the women down by the quarry washing clothes. Amongst them I could see Nancy. "We already had one walker wander in, what's to stop the others from following? The city is barren, there's nothing there that they're going to get unless whatever survivors that are left coming out of hiding but they won't."

"You've thought about this a lot," he observed, narrowing his eyes. "What were you before all this? An investigator? A professor?"

I grinned softly. "Wouldn't you like to know, deputy." 

I walked past him as he chuckled, leaving him to look after my rations and put them with the others. I headed down the small path to the quarry and as I neared, I could hear the women giggling over something being shared. Moments later Shane walked down behind me with Carl, the young boy running to the water.

"Sam, oh, Sam!" called Nancy, waving her hand towards me and ushering me over to the group. "Grab a wash bucket, we've got to try and get these blood stains out."

I nodded and took a seat on one of the overturned buckets as Jacqui handed me a small pale of soapy water. Nancy passed me a shirt and I held it up, noticing the spotting of red and brown sprayed across the sleeves and chest. I dunked it into the water as Carl splashed Shane and said something that made the older man laugh heartily.

"I'm beginning to question the division of labor around here," said Jacqui as Andrea came down from the campsite with more clothes. The blonde sat down between Amy and Carol and nodded to what Jacqui had said.

"We're women," I muttered with a sigh, "we were born to wash and cook, haven't you heard?"

"Like it's the damn forties," muttered Jacqui with a shake of her head. Her expression softened and she glanced at Andrea and said, "You were tellin' me about what you did before all this earlier. Lawyer, right?"

Andrea nodded with a small smile. "Civil Rights."

"Sounds more fun than being a Zoning Department Worker," Jacqui said with a shake of her head. 

"You can only imagine just how fun it all was in Florida."

"Florida?" I asked with a smile. "How the hell did you make it up here?"

"Taking Amy back up to school," said Andrea as she scrubbed one of the button ups in her bucket. "We got stranded in Atlanta when the outbreak started." She glanced back and smiled up towards the RV. "Dale found us and we decided it was better to stick with him then try to find our way on our own."

Amy sighed, rolling her eyes. "Would take my dorm over the stuffy RV any day."

"Oh, come on," chuckled Andrea, leaning over to nudge her sister, "you're sayin' you don't love camping every night?"

"And sweating and washing other guy's sweaty clothes?" urged Amy which earned a laugh from her sister.

"Come on," said Jacqui with a smile. "There must be something you miss more than your dorm room."

Amy smiled softly and wrinkled her nose as she said, "I miss my computer and texting."

"Well," said Carol in a soft voice, earning all of our attention, "I miss my Maytag."

I nodded as I eased on my scrubbing to rest my arms on my knees. "We wouldn't be sitting here on our asses washing their clothes if we had a Maytag, or three."

"I miss my Benz," said Andrea. "I miss having something that could just...take me away in the blink of an eye."

"Is the RV not bringing you enough speed?" joked Amy and her sister nudged her again with a laugh.

Jacqui stopped her washing to smile softly. "I miss my coffee maker I think the most. The one with the built in grinder."

"I miss wine," added Nancy which earned a couple nods and yeses from the others. "Not the super expensive kind, the cheap ones. I miss the ones you could get for ten bucks at the liquor store."

"Boxed wine, too," said Amy in agreement.

Andrea chuckled and gave the small group a sly smile before murmuring, "I miss my vibrator."

This sent the other women off and even myself into a small fit of laughter before Carol, sweet and innocent little Carol, looked around before whispering, "Me too."

Somehow, sitting around with these women I barely knew and reminiscing made my heart skip a beat at all that we truly were missing. There would be no more arcade games, no phone calls or texts, no trips to the movie theater with the popcorn and loads of butter, and there'd be no date nights at romantic restaurants with roses and candles on the table. Our lives were stolen from us and all we could do was laugh.

Behind us, the gravel crunched under heavy feet. "What's so funny?" came Ed's gruff voice as he approached. 

"Just swapping horror stories, Ed," said Andrea once the laughter died away.

I glanced behind and noticed Ed staring at us, one hand in his pocket and the other pressing his cigarette to his lips. The way he was looking at us made me want to get up and rip the cigarette away from him, and not just because I've been craving a hit since barely escaping the city.

Andrea frowned as Ed continued to stare. "Is there a problem, Ed?"

He glared and blew out a puff of white smoke. "None that concerns you. You should focus on your work, it's no comedy club."

There was so much about him that reminded me of John that it made me forget he was just some man I barely knew. He was just some poor woman's husband and I wanted to throw him bag like the trash he was when I noticed the downcast look on Carol's face.

Andrea stood slowly, balling up one of the shirts she had been in the process of cleaning as she said, "I'll tell you what, you don't like how your laundry's done, you can do it yourself." She threw the shirt at him and it hit his chest. He looked down at it for a second before throwing it back at her, the wet shirt smacking her in the face and she gasped.

"It ain't my job, missy," he snarled back.

"Then what is your job, Ed?" I asked as I stood. Nancy grabbed my arm but I didn't listen to her small touch of warning. "Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes all day?"

"It's not listening to some smart mouthed bitches," he snapped, glaring at us as if he was the warden coming to reprimand his prisoners. He threw a hand out to Carol, his expression going completely sour. "I'll tel you what, come on! Let's go!" 

Andrea stepped forward as Carol stood. "I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you, Ed," she said with a tight glare of her own. 

Ed didn't seen fazed. "I say it's none of your business." He looked past Andrea as if she were just a door in his way and snapped towards Carol, "Come on now, you heard me."

I glanced at the little woman and sighed out, "Carol."

She shook her head. She knew just as well as I did that only more struggling would cause for a bigger punishment later. 

Ed was not a man with patience. "Come on now or you'll regret it later."

"So she can show up tomorrow with fresh bruises?" snapped Jacqui, standing from her seat to turn on the man. "Yeah, Ed, we've seen them!"

"You're not very subtle about it," chimed in Nancy, her own voice shocking me. "We've all seen them, hell, we can even hear when you give them!"

Ed let out a bellowing laugh and it made my blood boil. He was so similar to John it was like looking at my father standing over me all over again. Abusers never cared. They never saw the wrong in what they were doing. He reached out and grabbed Carol's arm and she stumbled forward as he snapped again, "Now, come on!"

Andrea stepped forward and shouted, "No!" She tried to grab Carol's arm to pull her back but Ed's grip was stronger and the woman began to race forward. Even little Amy jumped up to start shouting as Ed snarled and hissed at us.

"I'll tell you what!" he cried out, like it was the only words he knew how to say. He rounded his hand back and struck Carol hard across the face, hard enough for the poor woman to fall back and into Andrea.

"You son of a bitch!" Andrea screamed as the other's did too in a frantic frenzy.

It didn't take long before I was rearing my fist back and striking Ed hard enough in the face for him to stumble back a step to clutch his nose. He erupted in yells, seething behind his hands and I went to go after him but Nancy reared me back with tough hands as Shane splashed out of the water from down the rocky shore.

"Break his nose, Sam!" cried Andrea but she didn't get another word out before Shane arrived.

"I'll beat you dead, Ed!" snarled the man, grabbing Ed by the collar of his shirt and wrenching him to the ground hard enough for us to hear the wind be knocked out of him. 

Shane sent his fist down into Ed's face and we watched as he kept going until the other man's face was bruised and bleeding. The skin around Ed's eyes was swelling already, red and puffy as his lip oozed blood down his chin. There was a split growing in his eyebrow and across his cheek as Shane kept going until Lori was crying out from up at camp for him to stop.

When he pulled back, his fist was bloodied and he was panting. He glanced up and I caught his eye and he gave me a single small nod before turning away and heading up to camp as Carol broke free of Andrea's grip and went running to Ed's side. I watched her bend down to help him sit up as he snarled at her and told her to back away with a sharp wave of his hand.

A hand touched my shoulder and I glanced back, watching the way Nancy frowned slightly. She met my gaze and murmured only to me, "It's hard seein' other people go through what I did."

"Yeah," I muttered, thinking of how she must've watched John raise his hand to his children over and over again and she'd sit there without a thought running through her pretty little head, "must be."

By the evening rolled around, the tension between what happened down by the quarry began to subside. People were back to their work, finishing up the laundry and preparing to get dinner ready. I'd stationed myself on top of the RV, having never gotten the chance to fully introduce myself to Dale.

He was a strange man but kind. He lost his wife to cancer before the outbreak and had been a pensioner. He enjoyed fishing and traveling and I often found him staring out at the small boat floating in the quarry that held Andrea and Amy as they fished.

"You're very handy with a gun," said Dale, lowering his binoculars to glance at me. "And a knife."

I nodded, spinning the knife in my hand. Daryl had finally coughed up the sheath before he left for Atlanta and although the knife had a place on my hip, it was in my hands more often then not. It felt good to spin it around, to flip the blade between my fingers. 

"Where'd you learn to do all that?"

"My father," I responded, not bothering to lie. I could've said I took classes, I had a friend in college who taught me, I learned from the internet, anything other than him but I was tired and the sun was going to start setting soon.

Dale nodded softly, brushing the rim of his hat so it'd get out of his eyes. "John, right?" I nodded again. "Nancy's mentioned him but, I hope you don't me askin', but you both aren't too concerned about him as you are the kid."

"And?" I didn't mean to sound rude but what was the point of this conversation? I knew Dale liked knowing everything, hell, it was why he took up station on top of the RV to watch over the camp. From up here, you could see everything.

"You want to find him too, don't you?"

"Want my honest answer?" I asked, shielding my eyes from the sun as he nodded. "I don't care what John does. If he's dead, great, whatever. I'm here for my brother."

"He's your father."

"He can take care of himself," I said with a shrug. I didn't need to get farther into this, I didn't need him knowing more about my relationships. I sat forward in my chair and frowned, pointing towards the small clearing up by the trees so Dale could see where I was looking. "Hey, wait, is that Jim?" Dale brought his binoculars up to his eyes as I asked, "What the hell is he doing?"

"Think we should go ask him?" he asked.

"I'll go," I said, standing and slipping my knife into my sheath. 

Dale grabbed a bottle from his small cooler and handed it to me as I passed. "Try and give him some, he's not lookin' too great."

I nodded and headed down the small ladder. I stalked my way through the camp and liked that Dale was watching me. It was nice to know I had backup. I was cautious to walk around the trees to reach the little clearing since we'd seen the walker here with the deer just the day before. 

"Hey, Jim!" I called out, feeling the sun beating down on my back and I wished I had sunscreen. "Whatcha doin' up here?"

He turned from his spot in the hole, a shovel in hand. He was covered in dirt and his shirt was soaked through with sweat, the fabric clinging to his chest. As I got closer, I could notice there wasn't just one hole but multiple scattered across like plots for graves.

I glanced behind me and towards Dale and held my hands up with a shrug and I heard him call distantly down to Shane. I turned back and faced Jim and he heaved dirt behind him.

"Jim," I said with a sigh, holding out the bottle, "you need to drink something, okay? It's, like, a hundred degrees out."

He shook his head. "No, no, nope. Can't stop."

"Come on," I urged and he continued to shake his head. His skin was pale and glossy and I could tell exhaustion was setting in but he couldn't seem to stop himself. "You're going to kill yourself out here."

"I have to dig!" he cried out, the sound of his voice startling me. I heard people come up the path behind me and I tried to keep my voice civil, this didn't need to get violent or angry.

"How about you just tell me why you're digging, hmm?" I asked in an even tone. I glanced back and watched Shane come up to stand beside me.

"Yeah, how 'bout you just tell us about the holes?" asked Shane.

"And if I don't?" snapped Jim. "Gonna beat my face in like Ed?"

From behind us, Amy scoffed. "You weren't there! You didn't see what we saw."

I lowered my arm with the water and sighed. With everyone here, it felt like an intervention. It didn't need to get complicated, the man just needed to put the shovel down and have a sip of something. He just needed to rest. "How about we just take a break, yeah?" I asked. "Have something to drink, maybe some dinner?"

"No," he snarled back, "I have to keep digging, okay? I–I have too!" He shook his head and said in a desperate voice, "I'm not hurtin' or botherin' anyone, okay? Please, just leave me be!"

"You're scaring the kids," said Lori and Jim continued to shake his head.

"I can't stop!"

Shane marched forward and Jim tried to swing the shovel at him to keep him back but Shane was quicker and yanked the shovel from the man before grabbing him by the arm and knocking him to the ground. With one knee on the ground, Shane pressed the side of Jim's face into the grass as the man struggled and wailed.

"The only reason I got away was because the dead were too busy eating my family!" he sobbed, jerking weakly against Shane but there was no amount of wiggling that could set him free. His limbs were weak from shoveling and he was dehydrated. "I have to keep digging! Let–let me go!"

I backed away as Shane yanked him up and instructed for someone to run and grab rope. Dale headed back down the path towards the RV as Shane restrained Jim. A hand grabbed my arm and I was pulled back gently by Nancy.

"Come on," she muttered with a shake of her head, "let's give them some space."

I nodded and allowed her to take me back down to camp. It turns out before everyone had gone up to see Jim, Andrea and Amy had caught us a good bundle of fish for dinner and I grinned wildly as I approached the fire. Morales was there, stacking rocks up around the fire and when he saw me he gave me a small smile.

"Now the fire can be bigger and higher," he said with a triumphant grin.

"It'll be perfect for our fish feast," I chuckled.

"You don't even like fish," said Nancy.

"I don't have much of a choice anymore," I said back. "It's not like I can just order up a steak instead."

Nancy rolled her eyes and took a seat in one of the chairs around the fire as I crouched down on one of the logs. "You remember when your father made salmon for dinner when you were younger? You tried one bite and pretended to keel over and die." She laughed softly. "You always were so dramatic with your hand against your forehead and your mouth hanging open."

I frowned. "Well, this might come as a shock but I'm allergic to salmon." Nancy's brows furrowed deeply and I nodded. "Yeah, I spent the whole night throwing up."

Carl, who was sitting in one of the chairs by Sophia made a face. He scrunched up his nose and shook his head. 

"But we used to eat it all the time," countered Nancy with a frown. "You were fine."

"Yeah," I nodded with a laugh, "I was fine because I wouldn't eat it. I'd make myself something else every time. You really not remember all those nights I'd eat peanut butter and jellies?"

Nancy pressed her lips together in a frown and looked like she was going to say something else but Shane was approaching and announced to us, but mostly me, that Jim was tied to a tree until he calmed down.

"You really think that's a good example of what we do to someone when they act out?" I asked. "It wasn't like he was really bothering anyone."

"How would you do it then?" asked Shane with a sharpness in his tone. 

I shrugged. "Maybe would've just got him to talk to us first. He had to of been doing it for a reason, right? Like, why just get up and start digging holes with no reason?"

"Maybe they're for hiding," said Carl as Sophia nodded in agreement. "Somewhere for us to go for, like, tornadoes, you know?"

I chuckled. "You think we're gonna get a tornado in the middle of this heat?" I leaned forward and lowered my voice just for the kids as I said, "I think they're for sleeping. The dirt can get really cold especially at night so it'd be like sleeping in a fridge."

"You're lying," said Carl with a laugh. "No way it's that cold."

"You wanna bet?" I urged and he was laughing with a furious shake of his head. 

When he'd calmed down slightly, he looked at Shane and asked with a smile, "Can we learn how to gut the fishes for dinner?"

"Of course you can, kiddo," said Shane and he glanced at me and then towards my knife by my waist. "You want to help too, officer?"

I rolled my eyes at him but nodded. "Bet I can gut a fish better than you can."

"Oh, really?"

I nodded as I pulled one of the fish free from the small pile. "How about you time me and we'll see who can do it the fastest?"

Shane chuckled and looked at Carl. "Want to see how the pros do it?"

Carl nodded and Shane pulled a fish free. We got our knives ready and looked to Carl who grinned. "On the count of three!" Sophia was holding her nose at the smell of the fish but Carl didn't seem to notice as he counted for us. "Three...two...go!"

"I hope this tastes better than it smells," muttered Carl as Shane showed him the proper techniques to safely gut the fish. 

Once he was finished with the last fish, Morales helped Shane start the fire as Carl and I strung the fish up to cook. It wouldn't take too long as I took advantage of the kid, sitting next to him as Lori sat with Carol and Sophia on the other side of the slowly growing fire.

"So, are you really not a cop?" asked Carl, earning my full attention.

"Sadly, no," I said. "Maybe in another life."

"I'm going to be a cop when I grow up," said Carl before his smile faltered and he said, "Well, I was gonna."

"What's stopping you now?" I asked as I cleaned my knife off with a free towel we'd been passing around the circle to clean out hands with after handling the fish. 

"Well, you know why," he muttered. "The dead."

I rolled my eyes. "Doesn't mean you still can't be a cop amongst us."

Carl frowned. "I don't even have a cool badge like you."

I narrowed my eyes at him and poked him gently in the side. "This isn't you trying to steal my badge, is it?"

"No!" he said but burst into a small fit of laughter as I poked him again and he blurted out, "Maybe."

"Hmph," I hummed. "Thought so, you greedy little thing."

Carl sat back in his fold out chair, gripping the armrests before looking at me under a curious glance. "Did you and my dad really ride a horse to the city?"

I nodded but bowed my head to look at my lap as I muttered, "If we had known just how bad the city was, we would never have taken it there."

"Was it fun, at least? To ride it?"

I nodded again. "You ever ride a horse?"

He shook his head but stopped to reconsider, his lips pursed before he exclaimed, "I did, once! A girl in my grade had a petting zoo birthday party where we could feed goats and pigs and take a horse ride." He drew a circle in the air with his finger. "We rode them around in circles in this tiny pen."

"Maybe," I whispered, careful that Shane or Lori didn't hear as I promised the kid something we would never get, "if we ever see one again, I can teach you how to properly ride one."

Carl looked at me and leaned over so we could whisper more. "When did you learn how to ride?"

"A long time ago," I told him and felt Nancy's eyes on me from my other side. "I even taught my brother how to ride."

"So, you're like an expert."

"Oh, yeah."

"Come on, you two," said Shane from where he stood by the fire and we turned to look at him. He'd come back from talking to Jim again and I could see the other man slowly making his way over to the campfire as Shane said to us again, "Come get dinner." 

I let Carl go first, grabbing his piece of fish which wasn't a lot since we had a whole camp to feed but it was perfect enough. Once I got handed my plate, Shane gave me a gentle smile that didn't seem quite right coming from him and he whispered, "You're good with him, the kid."

I glanced back to where Carl was sitting next to Sophia as they both tried their fish. "It's easy," I said with a shrug, "they have so much more to say than us."

"You ever have one?" asked Shane as he got himself a small piece. "A kid, I mean?"

I let my eyes run over Carl and wondered how much of a life this really was for him. Would it ever be worth it to bring something as precious as him into what we were facing now? I pictured him as Conner just for a moment because it was easy to lose myself in something so precious before looking back at Shane. "It must've been weird for you thinkin' Rick was dead," I said, ignoring his question. "Thinkin' you were gonna be this boy's father now."

Shane's brows furrowed. "You ever truly think about what you say before sayin' it?"

"Why?" I said with a small smirk fighting its way to my lips. "Did my question bother you?"

He scoffed and stalked past me to sit down. 

"Come on," I sighed, coming to sit down beside him and I could feel the strange eyes of Lori watching me as I did. "You never wanted kids?"

"Of course I did," he said as he brought his piece to his mouth and tore a good chunk out of it. He chewed softly and said to me as he did so, "I wanted a big family, one that I could come home to after the job."

"What stopped you?" 

He shrugged. "Never found the right person."

I let my eyes drift across the fire to see Lori and she met my gaze and quickly looked away as I said to Shane, "I'm thinking it was more right person, wrong time, huh?"

He glanced up at me and didn't answer me as he tore into his fish again. When he'd finished his small dinner and I was halfway through my piece he said in a low voice, "It would never work now. Things are going back to the way they were before and besides, bringing a kid into this world? It's a death wish."

"And if this world wasn't the way it was?" I asked, balancing my small plate on my knees. "If things were normal and you were just some deputy and she was just some housewife?"

He shook his head slowly and I saw him clench his jaw. There was so much going on inside his head it made me want to crack it open, to run my fingers over the grooves of his every thought. "It'd never work." He met my gaze and a sad smile came to his lips. "Right person, wrong time." He settled back in his seat and rested a hand on his thigh as he looked at me and for the first time it felt like I had his entire attention. There were no subtle glances at the other woman and there was no concern floating through his eyes of what other dangers could waltz into our camp. "You ever have that? The right person, wrong time?"

I let out a small breath that felt like a twisted laugh in my chest and let my eyes fall to my lap. I would've ended up with Him, if things had been different. If he didn't have a wife and if I didn't have the family I did back home. If we had met a few years later when things had settled and we were both open and ready for something raw and real but we had both been bleeding when we met. 

"Yeah," I said, nodding my head as I reached up to brush back a loose strand of hair behind my ear. I looked up and met his eyes and I nodded again. "Yeah, I have."

Behind him, the sun was setting and a darkness was seeping across the sky. With the small chatter going around the campfire, it felt like there was a growing uneasiness that hadn't quite settled over us. I ate the last bite of my fish and tried to forget how my stomach clenched as if anticipating something that would surely never come.

"You ever miss him?" Shane asked and his question startled me.

Of course I missed him. Of course I missed the very essence of him. I missed his hands, I missed how rough they felt in my own and over my body. I missed his voice and the deep rumble of his laugh. I missed the way he'd watch me, his eyes following me with such a strange endearment that it took me a while to get used to that type of affection. I'd had boyfriends before him, I'd had flings and hookups, but he was real. He was someone I'd wanted from the first encounter even though I didn't know how to navigate the world of something serious.

I nodded. "It'll be hard," I told him, "getting over her."

"You think so?"

I nodded again. "With the way you're always lookin' at her, I'd say it's going to be pretty damn hard."

He ran a hand over his head, his fingers working through his hair as he sighed. "Maybe you'll have to show me how to forget."

Before I could respond, from across the fire Amy stood and said loudly to Dale, "God, you're so weird." 

She handed her plate over to Andrea as her sister watched her begin to walk away. She called after her, "Where you going?"

Amy let out a loud laugh, turning to look at her sister as she said, "I have to pee!" She put her hands on her hips as she walked a step backwards. "Gee, I'm tryin' to be discrete around here." I looked back towards Shane as Amy walked towards the RV. From where she was, she called out to us, "We're out of toilet paper!"

"How about we go find a deck of cards, huh?" I said, standing as I looked down at Carl who was stacking his plate with Sophia's to help clean up. "We can go search the tent, someone's got to have some."

"Go fish?" asked Carl, standing.

"You think your mom will get mad if I teach you poker?"

"Um, yes!" said Lori with a chuckle.

I ruffled Carl's head as we passed our plates off to Shane. We stepped out of the small campfire circle but I noticed movement in the darkness around us and I reached out to grab Carl by the shoulder, pulling him into my side.

"Hey, what's–" He didn't get another word out before a loud scream erupted through the camp. The sound echoed through the quarry before a chorus of screaming chimed like shots going off. 

I moved quickly as the adults stood. I pulled my ax free of my waistband and pulled Carl behind me to keep his back to the fire so he would be able to still see as my eyes searched the dark. Through the black, there were bodies swaying and stumbling towards us and I fixed my grip on the handle of my ax and I snapped out, "Carl, stay close, okay?"

I felt his nod against my back as his fingers dug into the fabric of my shirt. Behind me, I could hear Lori crying out for Carl and the young boy saying, "I'm here! I'm with Sam!"

"He's safe," I spat out as gun fire burned through our ears. I glanced around, watching Nancy pull Carol towards her and Sophia. Shane had his rifle in his hands somewhere ahead of me and Andrea was taking off running towards where her sister had gone.

The walkers moved towards us from the tree line, and from down in the quarry where one of the other family's had setup camp, I could hear wailing. I made sure there were no walkers near me before grabbing Carl and pressing him into my side.

"When we get close to one of them," I said loudly so he could hear over the gun fire, "you move with me, okay? I swing to the right, you move to the right." He nodded and I pulled Daryl's knife from the sheath on my hip and pressed the handle into his hand. "This is not a toy. Do not touch the sharp part, okay? If one of them gets close to you, you yell and swing and I'll be right there to finish the job."

He nodded again and I closed his hand over the hilt. With that, we moved as a tiny unit. I know it was dangerous to keep him with me, but from what I could tell, the tents weren't safe cover and neither was the RV where Jim was swinging a bat at the collapsing face of a walker with fresh blood across his jaw.

The first walker to come at us was skin and bones. I struck my foot out, blocking Carl with the side of my body as I raised my ax and struck the walker in the face. The blade lodged deeply into its skull and its knee buckled. I kicked my foot out and braced it against its chest as I tore the weapon free. I needed to use it more, get used to the pull and tug of the weapon. 

"Your left!" cried Carl and we moved. He held his knife out and away from himself as his free hand clutched my shirt to keep with me. 

I switched my ax into my left hand and swung. It was a weaker swing but I couldn't swing with Carl pressed to my right as easily. The ax collided with the walker's neck and black blood shot out like a geyser stream before I yanked the ax free and sliced through the rest of the neck with a rough swing.

Carl pulled on my side and we moved to the right. "In front!" I could feel him shaking so I fought off the next walker faster. With carl shifting behind me, I could use both hands as I slashed through the air.

I was getting the hang of my ax better and the weapon cut through the weakened skull. Its head sliced in half and the top half of its skull scattered at out feet as the walker fell over face first into the dirt. 

"We gotta find my mom! And Shane!" said Carl and he was against my side again. "We need a–a gun!"

"I've got one," I said but I shook my head at the thought of using it, "but we can't waste anymore bullets. If we can take them out silently, it's better. We don't know how many more of these assholes are nearby, we don't want to bring anymore to us."

Carl nodded, taking in my words and I wondered how much he even knew. Did he know how to protect himself? He barely knew how to hold the large knife but at least he was holding it away from himself and not by his side. He's must've learned that from somewhere, maybe a video game or movie.

"Oh–oh my god!" exclaimed Carl and he pointed with the knife. I followed his gaze and watched the headlights of a car roll to a stop at the top of the hill before they were cut out. As if we were in a dream, we watched Rick, T-Dog, Glenn, and Daryl get out of the car and run down towards the fighting. "Dad!"

"Oh, thank god," I breathed as Carl tugged on me. "Let's get you to your dad–"

I heard a rustle behind us and I moved swiftly, pushing my hand out to move Carl and he stumbled in the dirt. I caught his arm as I swung the ax, keeping him from stumbling with the knife even further as I secured his wrist in my grip and my ax got caught in the arm of a walker. I tore the blade from the boy's hand and brought it down on the walker's head before it could reach its gnarly arm out and grab me.

When I pulled it free, I wiped the blood off on my jeans and handed it back to Carl as he secured his position against me. I then pulled my ax out of the walker's arm and we took off swiftly towards the others.

I scanned the playing field, watching Morales protecting his family as Glenn backed him up near the tents. I could see Jim and Dale fighting off walker's from the RV, and I could see Shane with Lori, Carol, Sophia, and Jacqui. Rick was fighting near them and so was T-Dog who was racing down to where the other families were. Nancy was with him, trailing down the path with a knife in her hands and I was glad to see her still up and fighting. 

By the RV, Andrea was on the ground cradling someone I could only guess was Amy. At the sight, it made me press a protective hand on Carl's opposite shoulder to keep him against me. There were at least a good handful of walkers already dead by the tents and the RV but there were more still trickling in by the trees and off where Jim had been digging earlier.

"Left, Sam, to your left!" snapped Carl in a small voice and we moved together again.

I swung my ax and cut through a walker's face, slicing through nose and eyes. Blood spurted out as it fell and it was only then that the smell of rot truly began to waft through the area. Rot and gun fire, smoke and death.

Carl screamed and the sound ricocheted in my head like a loose bullet. I spun around and slashed through the walker that had rounded on him. It hadn't touch him, hadn't even gotten close enough to get a finger on him much less a mouth, and it was dead a second later.

I bent down in front of him, taking him by the shoulders as tears spilled down his cheeks. He was shaking and I cooed to him, softly. "You're okay," I whispered, reaching up to brush the stray tears from his cheeks. He nodded but it was hard for him to catch his breath, I could hear it hitching in his throat as he panted. "I would never let one of those things hurt you, okay? As long as you're with me, you're safe."

He nodded again, this time more firmly as his breathing returned to normal.

I brushed his hair back as I stood and whispered again, "You're okay, you're okay." 

We surveyed where we were and once Carl took my side again and held out the knife, we moved and we didn't leave each other's sides until the sun rose and the dead were dead.

AUTHOR'S NOTE━━sam and carl have my heart <3333 dynamic duo. bffs. 

let me know what u guys think so far ahhhh and let me know who u like sam w the most rn!!

vote/comment and maybe i'll let sam finally b happy