It ain't that long after I climb up onto the RV with Dale that we hear the CB go off. I guess I've been up here with him for a couple hours now, 'cause the dark clouds that had looked so far away before seemed to be much, much closer. I hope it rains. I really, really hope it rains, 'cause it's too hot and ain't nothin' better than a big storm on a hot, summer day. I like the way it makes my stomach feel. Anxious and exhilarated at the same time. Plus, maybe if it starts raining, my dad will decide to come back to camp early. 

I told Dale this earlier, when I first saw them dark storm clouds. Dale told me that he likes the rain, too, but he hopes it doesn't rain because that would make it harder for our group in Atlanta. It sorta made me feel bad that I didn't even think about them at all when I said I hoped it'd rain. But Dale said no worries, because he won't tell a soul. I believe him. 

Anyway, the radios going off, and for a moment, no one's doing anything about it. But then Shane gets up, because he's in charge, and he goes over to the CB. Once he's rushing over to it, Lori is, too, and that makes me wanna rush over it, too, because I don't wanna miss out on nothing. So I quickly climb down from the RV. I wish I could just jump down, but Dad saw me do that once and he got real mad. He said if I broke my leg, jumping down from the RV, he'd leave me behind when the walkers came. I don't think he meant that. He just wanted me to listen.

"Base camp, this is T-Dog," I can hear the Radio squawking. After my feet hit the ground, Dale climbs down, too. Jim's by the RV, now, too, and soon Carl comes running up. Carl's running so quick that he almost knocks into Uncle Merle's motorcycle. Merle would be real mad about that. Good thing he ain't here. "Anybody hear me?" T-Dog's asking.

Shane gets to the CB before anyone else does. He picks up the radio, which is squeaking and squealing like a dying animal. "Hello? Hello? Reception's bad on this end," Shane says into the walkie. "Repeat. Repeat."

"Is that them?" Lori's asking. I nod, because I can hear T-Dog, but I don't think Lori notices my nod. 

"We're in some deep shit," T-Dog's voice asks, all quick and scrambled with the static. Then, more static and white noise, which sounds like when the TV goes to the wrong input and has the salt and pepper fuzzy screen. I don't think none of us can really tell what he's trying to tell us, but we can make out the words trapped and department store, which ain't really good news at all. 

"He said they're trapped?" Shane asks, his eyebrows all scrunched with worry. He runs his hand through his curly, brown hair, which is something I've seen him do about a thousand times. The CB starts cracklin' again and we can make out the word surrounded. It's like a little puzzle. We just gotta put the pieces together to get what is probably some real bad news. "T-Dog, repeat. Repeat," Shane says into the walkie. 

There's no answer. Just more cracklin' static and squealing. I think the thunder clouds might be messing with the radio.

Shane runs his hand through his hair again and Amy looks up at the sky with the most worried look I ever seen. She's real worried about her sister, I bet. They're very close. Sometimes I wish I had a sister or a brother, but I know that won't happen. Dad's already got his hands full with me, I guess. He always reminds me. Best be grateful, he says to me, it ain't easy raisin' you on my own. And I always tell him that I really am grateful.

Lori's standing next to Carl with her hands on her hips. "He said the department store," she says, but I'm a bit distracted by the necklace she's wearing. It looks like a locket, like the one that Litte Orphan Annie has, and I wanna ask Lori whose picture she's got inside. I don't how people can even fit pictures in necklaces that tiny. Anyway, I know that's not important right now, so I look away from her and back at the radio again. 

"I heard it, too," Dale says, nodding his head in agreement. I nod, too, because I also heard T-Dog say department store. 

Then, there's some strange silence that feels bad. Like the air is thick and our hearts are all beating a little to fast. I look at Carl, and he's looking up at his momma with worried eyes. Lori's looking at Shane with worried eyes. 

"Shane-" Lori says, stepping closer to him. 

"No way," Shane says. I don't even know what he's saying no way to, but I can tell he really means it because of the serious look on his face. "We do not go after them. We do not risk the rest of the group. Y'all know that," Shane says. It doesn't really sound like he wants to say it, though. People gotta do a lot of things they don't wanna do, nowadays.

"So we're just gonna leave her there?" Amy asks with a sharp, dangerous tone that means business. She gets that tone from her sister, I think. 

It makes me nervous, but I wanna make her feel better, so I say, "They'll all get back. They gotta. My uncle Merle's there and he'll do what he's gotta do to get back."

Even though that was meant to make her feel better, Amy doesn't look very reassured. Her eyes get a little bit wider and her face gets a little angrier. "I'm sorry, but that doesn't make me feel better," she spits, her tone sharp like glass. I should've expected that. I know most people 'round here don't like or trust Merle, and for good reason. It probably isn't that comforting to know that Merle's there with their families. 

I think Shane can tell that Amy's gettin' more worked up. He puts his hand on my shoulder and lightly pushes me toward Lori, away from Amy, 'cause he wants to deal with this, 'cause he's in charge, after all. "Look, Amy, I know that this is not easy-" he starts to say, fiddling with his cap. 

"She volunteered to go," Amy says. She's real frustrated and angry, but I know it's just because she's worried about Andrea. "To help the rest of us."

"I know," Shane says with a nod. He looks down and gets this strange look on his face. His eyes are wide but his eyebrows are a bit furrowed as he mutters, "And she knew the risks, right?" I think he didn't wanna say that, but he had to. Amy glares daggers at him. "See, if she's trapped, she's gone. So we just have to deal with that. There's nothing we can do."

Amy looks sad for a moment. Her eyes are wide and her lips form a frown. But then her sadness morphs into anger and she practically snarls at Shane. "She's my sister, you son of a bitch," she spits before running off. 

Lori goes running off after Amy and Carl looks like he wants to follow. Shane's trying to act like Carl's dad, 'cause Carl don't gotta dad no more, so Shane puts his hand on Carl's head, ruffling his hair. "It's alright, buddy," he says. 

I look over at Dale. "You think they're comin' back?" I ask him.

"I'm not sure," Dale answers honestly. That's another thing I like about Dale. He doesn't lie to try and make me feel better. My dad never lies to try and make me feel better, either. So when Lori or Carol say some lie to make me feel better, I can always tell it's a lie. But Dale's telling the truth, and I like that. "But I know that if they don't come back, you've still got a lot of people around that care about you," Dale tells me with a comforting sort of smile. 

I smile back, even though I'm still worried about Glenn and Merle and Jacqui and T-Dog and all the other people stuck in Atlanta. I'm grateful for Dale. He says things that can still make me feel better without lying to me. He's good like that. 

After that, Dale ruffles my hair like Shane ruffled Carl's. "Have you had anything to eat?" he asks me. I shake my head because, no, I have eaten nothing all day long. "Well, I think I've got some pretzels left inside the RV, if you'd like any," he offers me.

"Yes, please. Thank you," I say, because I'm real, real hungry. 

"Go ahead and grab them. They should be in the bottom left cabinet," Dale tells me as he heads back for the ladder. His job his keeping watch all day long, so he's gotta be up there. I like helping him keep watch. The first time I talked to him it was because I saw him up there all by himself all day long and I worried that he got real bored up there all alone. So I went up there and sat with him. He asked me about school and my favorite books, and I decided that I'd keep watch with him more often.

"Thank you," I say one more time, just so he knows that I'm really, really grateful. And I am. I've had this bad feeling in my stomach for almost an hour now. I was gonna wait for Merle to get back to ask for anything because I feel bad asking anyone else, but since Dale offered, I might as well take the pretzels.

I go inside the RV and look around. I've been in there a few times, but not very much. Dad prefers I keep away from most of the others at camp. He doesn't mind if I go sit with Dale sometimes, as long as I don't go telling anyone our business. But he says I should stay outta other people's tents and Dale's RV, because I shouldn't be snooping around their stuff. But since Dale gave me permission, I don't think this counts as snooping around his stuff.

Even though I don't know for sure, I think my dad doesn't want me hanging around everyone else because he doesn't want me to get close to any of them. He thinks I don't know 'bout his and Merle's plan to rob this camp, but I do. Sometimes I think he forgets that, even though I'm quiet sometimes, I can still hear and see everything. Guess he just forgets I'm there if I don't say anything. Anyway, I don't want Merle and Dad to rob this camp. I don't think Dad really wants to, either, but he'll do whatever Merle says. There's nothing I can do to stop them, which sucks, but I guess I'll just have to- like Shane said- deal with it. 

The inside of the RV is just like how you'd expect. It's got a little table with a little booth. It's got a counter and some cabinets, and it's got a toilet and a sink, and even a little bedroom in the way back. But I just stop at the cabinets. He said bottom left, so I open the bottom left cabinet. I don't see no pretzels in there, but I see three rolls of paper towels and one roll of toilet paper. Guess we're gonna be running outta toilet paper real soon here. 

Dale must've been wrong about where the pretzels were, so I close the bottom left cabinet and open the bottom right cabinet instead. And there they are. The bag of Snyder's pretzel sticks. I take the bag and bring it outside. I climb up the ladder at the back of the RV and sit down criss-cross next to Dale's chair. 

I hate opening bags like this. It's so loud and squeaky that I feel like everyone's staring at me, but I know they aren't, really. I open the bag anyway, real fast to minimize the noise. I look up at Dale to see if he's looking, but he isn't. Once the bag is opened and I eat one pretzel stick for myself, I hold the bag up to Dale to see if he wants any. 

"Oh, thank you," he says, taking a pretzel stick for himself. 

One thing that I think is a bit funny is that whenever I eat pretzel sticks, I think about kindergarten. When I was in kindergarten, we were learning about beavers, and my teacher brought pretzel sticks to school and we got to eat 'em with our two front teeth, lookin' like a bunch a' beavers. It must've looked real funny. I think about telling Dale this story, but I decide against it, because I'm kinda enjoying the quiet we've got right now. 

Summer is the best time for being quiet because, when you're quiet, you can hear the cicadas buzzin' in the trees and the mourning doves hootin'. I also like being quiet in the fall, but especially when I'm walking home from school, because I can hear my feet swish, swish, swishin' through the leaves on the ground. Winter's alright, but I wish I could live somewhere where it snows more. It snows sometimes in Georgia, but usually not that much and usually not very often. But I wanna go somewhere that has enough snow for me to make a snow fort and hide inside of it because I heard that snow takes away all the sound and everything is silent. It's hard to even imagine that. 

Me and Dale sit on the top of the RV, being quiet for quite some time. I can hear Carl complaining to Lori about having to get a haircut. I can hear Louis and Eliza bickering and their momma tellin' them to be nice. I can hear clinkin' and clankin' below me as Jim fixes up some part of the RV with the little tools he's got right now. I can hear- wait. I can hear something wailing. That ain't a person. It sounds like an alarm. 

"What's that?" I ask Dale. He shoots up out of his chair with his binoculars in hand. I stand up, too, because I wanna see.

"Talk to me, Dale!" I hear Shane shout from behind me and Dale. Everyone else must be hearing the alarm, too. 

"Can't tell yet," Dale says, gazing through the binoculars. I stand on my tiptoes to try and see over the rocks in the mountains, but I can't see nothing. But then, a glimpse of bright red, moving fast. That's a car. Not big enough to be holding the whole group in Atlanta. 

"Is that them? Are they back?" Amy asks, all hopeful and worried. 

"I'll be damned," Dale murmurs, lowering the binoculars. He hands them to me and I look through, too. I can see the car better now. It's swerving and kicking up dirt, driving all crazy. 

"What is it?" Amy asks. 

"Stolen car is my guess," Dale answers as I hand the binoculars back to him. 

The car is moving fast and the wailing's getting louder and closer. Whoever's in the car must know we've got a camp here. Maybe it's part of our group. Maybe something happened to the truck and they had to take two cars back to fit everyone. But I don't see or hear another car just yet. The red car drives right up to our camp, taking a sharp turn and pulling up into the front drive, where all the cars are kept. When the car skids to a stop, spitting up rocks, I climb down from the RV in a hurry. 

As I get closer, I can see that it's Glenn getting outta that car. No one else is inside, but Glenn's smiling all wide, so everyone must be okay. I've never seen him so excited. 

"Holy crap. Turn that damn thing off!" Dale scolds as Glenn gets out of the car, jumping up and down. 

"I don't know how," Glenn says, holding his arms out to his sides. He looks proud, but soon he's not lookin' so proud because everyone starts screaming at him, shoutin' pop the damn hood! Shut it off! And Amy's right in his ear, asking a million questions about Andrea. I know Glenn's overwhelmed, so I don't ask anything about Merle just yet. I put my hands up to my ears, pressin' my fingers into them to make everyone's yelling and the car's screaming a little bit quieter and more bearable. "What? Ok, ok! Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Glenn shouts, getting in the car and popping the hood.

Shane lifts up the hood of the car while Jim runs over with one of his mechanic tools, since he knows what he's doing. He cuts some wire and, finally, the loud alarm stops blaring. 

"Why isn't she with you?! Where is she?! She's ok?" Amy's asking, all rushed, even though Glenn's already told her that Andrea's just fine. 

"Yes!" Glenn shouts, finally getting everyone to shut up. 

I let my hands drop back down to my sides and approach the car, looking inside the hood. There are lots of parts in there. I wanna learn about 'em and be a mechanic, like my Dad. My dad teaches me sometimes, but he ain't that patient, so usually he shoos me away before we can finish what we were supposed to be fixing, so he can do it by himself. 

"Yeah, fine. Everybody is," Glenn says once everyone is quiet. Amy takes a deep breath and Glenn looks down at his shoes. When he looks up again, he's lookin' at me. "Well, uh, Merle, not so much," he murmurs. I furrow my eyebrows. What does that mean?

"Are you crazy, drivin' this wailin' bastard up here? You tryna draw every walker for miles?" Shane scolds, leaning over the hood with an irritated look on his face. But no one else seems to be concerned about what Glenn said.

"I think we're okay," Dale says, trying to get Shane to calm down. 

"You call being stupid okay?" Shane asks. 

I'm still thinking about Merle. Merle, not so much. What's that mean? He's not ok? Maybe he's hurt. Maybe he's got an injury and that's why they had to take two cars, because Merle couldn't get to the other with his injured leg or foot or something. Maybe Merle's just coming in another car. 

"Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source," Dale says. Shane slams the hood shut and turns to look at Dale with his hands on his hips. "I'm not arguing. I'm just saying. It wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?" he says to Glenn. 

Glenn nods awkwardly. "Sorry," he murmurs. Then, he gestures to the car. "Got a cool car."

Before I get the chance to ask Glenn where Merle is, a big white truck pulls into the drive. That must be where Merle is. He said he'd be back before I know it. He's back. I look around at everyone. Amy goes running to Andrea and Morales's family goes running to him. Carl's talking to his momma, I think because he misses his Dad. Carol's hugging Sophia, holding her tight against her side. I'm standing by myself, waiting for Merle to get outta the truck. 

"How'd y'all get outta there, anyway?" Shane asks the group as they give out hugs. 

"New guy. He got us out," Glenn answers. New guy? Who is this new guy? Maybe he's in the truck with Merle. 

"New guy?" Shane asks, furrowing his eyebrows. New people make him nervous. It's hard to trust people nowadays. 

"Yeah. Crazy vato just got into town. Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello!" Morales shouts. 

Then, I hear the door to the truck shut. A man comes walking towards us all. He's wearing a cop's uniform. Maybe he and Shane will be buddies. Cops probably get along with other cops. I bet Merle didn't get along with him well. I bet Merle's gonna be all grumpy about a new cop joining our camp. 

The cops starts staring behind me and I don't know why. I turn and I see Carl and Lori staring at the cop with big, wide eyes. Carl tears himself from his mother's arms and starts sprinting towards the cop, screaming, "Dad! Dad!" The cop picks up Carl and squeezes him right, and I think he's crying. He kisses Carl's head and holds him like a baby. My dad never does that. And thinking about my dad has got me thinking about Merle again. 

Where is he? Where is Merle?

Glenn said he's hurt, so maybe he just needs help getting outta the truck. So, I walk past Lori and Carl and, apparently, Carl's dad. I go to the truck and look into the passenger seat. Merle's not in there. Maybe he couldn't get into the passenger seat, 'cause he's hurt. He's probably in the back. 

I walk around to the other side of the truck. The sliding door is already wide open. But no one is in the truck. That's weird. Maybe Merle's coming in his own car. But if he's hurt, then how can he be driving a car? Maybe he ain't hurt that bad. Maybe he hurt his arm, and he got mad at everyone, and he decided he didn't wanna be in the truck with them, so he got his own car. 

That's probably it. I sit down on the gravel behind the truck and I wait. I'm waiting and I'm picking at the sand and rocks in the gravel and I'm not hearing no more vehicles approaching. The sun's going down and I can still hear Carl and Lori crying happy tears. But I'm waiting for my uncle Merle and he's not here. I don't get it. Where is Merle? 

After waiting, sitting on the ground with my knees tucked up to my chest for what feels like forever, I start to hear footsteps coming around the truck. The gravel crunches and I can hear the person sighing. I know they're gonna tell me something I don't wanna hear, so I try to prepare myself. I don't wanna start crying, because then they'll feel bad. I don't wanna get mad at them, either. 

I'm expecting to see Dale or maybe Lori, but instead, I see Carl's dad. He comes around the truck and kneels down in front of me, and then Shane shows up, too. Shane's standing behind the new guy with his arms crossed, and he's looking away, like he doesn't wanna look at me while the new guy's talking. 

"Hi, Juniper," the new guy says to me. Lori must've told him my name, or else he'd be calling me June. "I'm Rick Grimes. I'm Carl's dad," he says. 

 "Hi," I say quietly, trying not to let my voice shake. 

"I understand that Merle is your uncle?" Rick asks, raising his eyebrows. I don't say anything because I'm scared I'll start crying. "I know you might feel confused right now, and I would like to tell you what happened, but I feel that is your father's decision. Do you know where your dad is?" Rick asks me. 

"Huntin'," I squeak, looking at my shoes. 

"Do you know when he'll be back?" Rick asks next. I wish he would just tell me. 

"Merle said he'd be back 'fore my dad gets back. But Merle ain't here," I murmur. 

"Your uncle is still in Atlanta. He's alive, but he won't be coming back tonight. We all think it'd be best if you come and join us around the fire," Rick tells me. He's got this calm, gentle tone to his voice that makes me feel a little bit better about all of this. He's probably had to tell a lot of kids bad news before, being a cop and all. "I know this is frustra-"

"June, you're smart. I know that," Shane interrupts, finally looking at me. Rick looks back at him and Shane gives him a look that says I got this. "You know your uncle ain't so fond of everyone at this camp. You know he can cause problems. And that's exactly what he did. He caused a problem in Atlanta, and my friend Rick, here, had no choice but to handcuff him to a pipe. He's safe and he's alive, but he's not coming back," Shane explains. 

My eyes get watery, but I try not to show it. "Ever?" I ask, my voice wobbling up and down. 

"We're gonna figure out what to do when your dad comes back," Rick assures me. Oh, Dad's gonna be so, so mad. He's gonna raise hell. "Do you know when your dad is coming back?" Rick asks me once again. 

"Tomorrow, probably," I answer. Rick's waiting for my dad to come back, but he should really be hoping my dad doesn't come back. 'Cause my dad's gonna try to kill him.