Chapter Text
Dinner that night was a quieter affair with Shane shooting both Rick and Daryl looks. Other members of the camp did the same but were more discreet about it. Dixon also kept a close eye on the group from where he sat at the edge of the fire.
Rick, Carl and Carol for their part sat close to Daryl, putting him in the middle of the group. Carl and Carol were doing most of the talking and interacting with the other members of the camp. Rick gave the occasional remark while Daryl didn’t talk to anyone.
It seemed that throughout the day Lori had talked to Carl and was more at ease around him. The two of them were doing most of the talking with Carl telling Lori about the cool things he found, or was gifted over the years.
It eased something in Rick’s chest seeing Carl happily interact with his mother again.
Noticing that Daryl had finished his food, some squirrels he managed to catch earlier today, Rick bumped his knee against Daryls and held his hand out for Daryl’s plate. Daryl glanced over and passed Rick his plate with a ‘thank you’ grunt. Rick stood and collected both Carl and Carol’s plates too, then went over to wash them in the tub. After he started scrubbing Rick heard footsteps behind him. He glanced back and saw Grimes standing with a stack of plates. Grimes shrugged his shoulders and gave Rick a small smile. Rick shuffled over so Grimes could put the plates down next to the tub.
Once Grime was by his side he said, “Sorry about Shane,” with the voice of someone who was used to saying those words. His voice was quiet and wouldn’t carry past the two of them.
“Daryl’s had worse. I think he’s more annoyed that I didn’t give him a chance to get more hits back,” confessed Rick as he scrubbed the plates.
Grimes gave a soft laugh, “I think the same can be said for Shane.”
“Oh definitely,” Rick agreed.
“I don’t know what that was about and Shane doesn't want to tell me. Will you?”
Rick stopped scrubbing and turned to Grimes, raising an eyebrow.
“Don’t give me that look, either you knew at the start or you know now. You and Daryl are close, I can see it. I’m sure he’d tell you the reason he got into a fight with our best friend.”
Rick looked down at the plates in the tub for a moment before he looked back to his younger self, “I’ll tell you, but not yet.”
Grimes gave him a long look, “Alright. But I’m holding you to that.”
Rick nodded and quickly finished up with his plates before leaving Grimes at the tub and returning to his seat between Carl and Daryl.
Carol chased both Daryl and Rick into the tent and declared that she and Carl would have first watch, and that both of them would be woken up by Dale for the last watch. Citing that it had been an exhausting day for the two of them and didn’t budge when Rick tried to argue he was fine. So Rick and Daryl had settled down in the tent and tried to take up as little room as possible so that when Carl and Carol got back they would have space to sleep. The tent was not made for three adults and one teen, it had just enough room for two adults and a child, or three adults if people didn’t care about personal space. The solution to their space problem was to have Daryl practically on top of Rick with them both squished to one side of the tent. Daryl was quite content to squash Rick with his own weight and Rick was happy to loop an arm over Daryl’s back and drop off to sleep.
Rick and Daryl both stirred when they heard the tent being unzipped. Carol poked her head through and saw both Rick and Daryl looking at her through half asleep eyes.
“It’s just us,” Carol reassured in a whisper as she slipped inside.
“Go back to sleep, everything's quiet out there,” said Carl when he stepped inside and saw the two men looking at him.
Daryl let out a grunt and Rick felt him relax again.
It wasn’t long before both Carol and Carl were settled for bed and when Rick heard their breathing settle he drifted back to sleep.
A soft tapping against the tent flap woke Rick. It sounded almost like someone was trying to knock.
“Sheriff, Dixon, it’s time for your watch,” called Dale softly from outside.
Daryl rolled off of Rick, letting him sit up.
“Coming,” Rick called back in a voice barely above a whisper.
Rick and Daryl quickly shoved on their boots, strapped on their weapons and left the tent.
Rick saw Carl shift and Rick let out a quiet shushing sound, “Go back to sleep.”
At the words, Carl seemed to settle and Rick left for his watch.
Watch was fortunately uneventful and when the first light arrived people started to slowly move around the camp. Rick saw Mrs Peletier rise from the tent she and Sophia had claimed as theirs. Mrs Peletier had given Rick and his group her tent since it was slightly bigger and she and Sophia had taken one of the recently vacated two-person tents. Mrs Peletier sat by the fire starting it up again and started to make breakfast for everyone. Rick saw Grimes make his way to the grassy side of the camp to radio Morgan again and he saw Amy practically skip over to Mrs Peletier to help, her hand clutching a necklace that Rick knew she didn’t have last night. A little later Rick saw T-Dog sit down and grab the first bowl of food Mrs Peletier dished. He saw Dixon take the next bowl and scoff it down before slipping into the forest.
The sound of someone climbing the RV caught Rick’s attention and he saw T-Dog climb onto the roof.
“You guys are good to go and have breakfast,” said T-Dog, thumbing in the direction of the fire Mrs Peletier was around.
“Thanks,” said Daryl as he adjusted his crossbow and walked to the ladder.
“Thanks, T-Dog,” said Rick following Daryl down.
Breakfast was much the same as yesterday with Carol and Carl joining them partway through. After breakfast Daryl and Rick went to check the traps Daryl laid yesterday and see if they could catch anything. They only had a few hours, they had to head off by midday and they needed to cook anything they found before they left.
They collected the traps and any animals snared in them. Daryl managed to grab an extra couple of squirrels, a rabbit and a rock dove during the hunt. The total was four squirrels and two rabbits and one dove, which was a good haul.
They got back to camp and both skinned the kills and cooked them. Rick left Daryl to cook while he went to see Jim. Rick remembered that it was around this time that Jim really started to feel the fever.
Rick walked in and saw Mrs Palmer caring for Jim. Rick gave her a nod and then turned to Jim.
“Hi Jim,” said Rick quietly.
“Rick?” asked Jim, his eyes seemed to lock onto Rick but Jim squinted then shook his head.
“Yeah, it’s me. We’ll be setting off in a couple of hours ok.”
Jim nodded slowly, “Ok, yeah ok. Just leave me under a tree or something. Maybe the same tree Shane tied me to?” Jim laughed but it was followed by a cough and a wheeze.
“Whatever you want Jim,” said Rick as he stepped forward and very gently placed his hand on Jim’s shoulder, “I just came in to let you know that we’re going soon,” Rick held his tongue from another apology.
“Please don’t give me that look. Both of you have given me so many apologies that I’m swimming in them,” said Jim with a wry smile.
Rick sucked in a breath then let it out, “Ok. I’ll come to get you soon and help you to find a nice tree, how does that sound?”
“That sounds great. See you soon Rick,” said Jim.
Rick let go of Jim’s shoulder and gave Mrs Palmer a small sad smile as he left the RV. Rick’s head was spinning slightly with the thought of leaving Jim again, but he pushed through and made his way over to their tent and started to pack it up. As soon as Rick had packed the tent and their sleeping bags in the car, Carol approached him with a map in hand.
“We need to plan the route,” said Carol, laying the map out on the bonnet of the car.
“I’ll get the others,” said Rick with a soft touch to her elbow as he walked past.
It wasn’t too hard to find the people he was looking for and Rick quickly brought back the group of people he wanted to contribute or know the route.
The group he brought back to the car consisted of Glenn, Dale, Grimes, Shane, Andrea, Dixon, Jane and Morales. They all crowded around the front of the car and Carol passed Rick a pen.
“Ok, so this is where we’re heading, this is the Greene farm,” started Rick as he found the rough location of the farm and circled it, “We need to figure out the best way there.”
"Just take the highway, it’s almost a straight shot there,” said Andrea.
Rick shook his head, “No, we’re avoiding highways. Hordes tend to follow them.”
“What are hordes?” asked Morales.
“A large group of walkers. More than we can handle. There can be hundreds of them. They roam around but they tend to stick to cities, highways, and large towns unless they get drawn away. They get more frequent once they run out of food in the cities,” explained Rick, “We want to take the backroads where possible. There’s usually pileups on the highways too and that makes getting past a lot harder.”
“Why don’t we go the way you went last time?” asked Grimes.
“We took the highway last time and ran into a horde,” said Carol, her voice neutral.
Glenn hummed, “If we get out of the quarry and travel on the highway for a few hundred metres then we can get onto thirty-six, and that road will get us halfway there,” started Glenn his fingers tracing the path, “But if we want to completely avoid the highway we can leave the quarry and head down this road. It's a twisted road and will add about an extra hour to the trip but we can get onto thirty-one from it, then we can travel on that till it intersects with thirty-six. The downside, other than the longer trip, is that we’ll have to go through a large town to do it.”
Glenn pointed to where thirty-six and thirty-one intersected, and sure enough, there was a town on thirty-one just before it joined thirty-six. Rick didn’t really want to test this group with a large town. They would probably reach the town by nightfall if they pushed it, and Rick really didn’t want to be in a large uncleared town. On the other hand, the highway was not somewhere Rick wanted the group to travel, but it was only a few hundred metres.
“We’ll take the highway. It’s a short trip on it so we should be fine, but if it looks like there’s a horde then we double back and get onto thirty-one,” said Rick.
Glenn nodded, “Ok so thirty-six has a few roads connecting to it and a lot of towns on it, but most of them are small towns, and there's a couple of back roads that go around some of the towns. I say we take forty next, that avoids any other major towns and gets us almost there. Then it’s just a few backstreets, Cunningham, Petree, and Kelly.”
Rick followed Glenn’s route and nodded. It was a solid route. They might run into problems in the towns, but they had to pass through at least some, if they wanted to avoid the highway.
“That’s good. We’ll do that. Everyone memorises the location and this route in case we get separated,” declared Rick, “We’ll stop at a small town to grab some gas, and stop at night, but otherwise we’re driving straight there.”
It wasn’t much longer before everyone was packed up and ready to set off. Rick went back over to the RV to help Jim and he was half surprised to see Dixon already helping Jim up. Dixon spotted Rick as he stepped forward to gently grab Jim’s other side. It was an awkward sideways shuffle to get Jim out of the RV. When they brought Jim outside he shut his eyes and turned away from the sun, opening his eyes in a heavy squint a few moments later. Everyone had gathered around the RV to give Jim a farewell.
“Alright Jim, your pick, which tree would you like?” asked Rick.
Jim gave a weak smile, “The tree Shane tied me to. It was a good tree to lean against.”
Rick looked over to Shane who led the way over to a particular tree. Slowly Rick and Dixon lowered Jim back against the tree.
Jim hummed, “Yes this is nice and comfortable, for a tree.”
Rick gave Jim a gentle squeeze on his shoulder and a small smile before backing off. Dixon looked at Jim for a long moment and Jim looked back. Then Dixon gave Jim a curt nod and went to the back of the group.
Shane crouched in front of Jim, “Hey Jim, you know it doesn’t need to be this.”
“No, it’s good. Everything hurts enough without being in that rickety RV when it's moving, and this breeze feels nice,” replied Jim, his breath heavy and strained.
Shane let out a breath, “Ok, alright,” he said, giving Jim a small pat on the knee.
Jacqui stepped forward with barely held back tears, “Just close your eyes sweetie. Don’t fight,” Jacqui then gave Jim a kiss on his cheek and moved back.
“Jim, do you want this?” asked Grimes as he crouched in front of Jim and held out a revolver.
“No. You’ll need it,” replied Jim with a smile, “I’m ok. I’m ok.”
Grimes gave Jim a pat on the shoulder and let him be.
Dale took a shaky breath before he stepped forward and knelt down, “Hey, thanks for fighting for us,” said Dale softly giving Jim a mournful look before he moved back.
“You did good, son. You did good,” said Mr Palmer and he slowly knelt down to give Jim a firm handshake.
After that everyone shuffled off over to the cars and gathered in a group.
Shane closed his eyes as he took in a sharp breath and blew it out again. Shake opened his eyes and spoke up, “Everybody listen up. Those of you with C.B.s we’re going to be on channel forty. Let’s keep the chatter down, ok? Now, you have a problem and don’t have a C.B., can’t get a signal or anything at all you’re gonna hit your horn one time. That’ll stop the caravan,” informed Shane, giving everyone the rundown, “Any questions?”
“We’re, uh, we’re not going,” said Morales.
“We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people,” said Mrs Morales.
“You go on your own, you won’t have anyone to watch your back,” said Shane.
“We’re going with them,” said Jane, “We’re not staying with this going on,” she said vaguely gesturing to Rick and his group.
“You sure?” asked Grimes looking at Jane and her husband.
“Yes,” she replied with no hesitation, her husband nodding along with her words.
Grimes turned to Morales.
“I’ve got to do what’s best for my family. We talked about it. We’re sure.”
Grimes looked over at the family then at the couple, “Alright,” he said softly.
Grimes reached into the weapons bag and took out two handguns while Shane pulled out two boxes of ammo. They both walked over and passed Morales and Jane a gun and a box each.
“The boxes are half full,” said Shane.
Rick heard Dixon’s scoff.
“Thank y’all, for everything,” said Mrs Morales just before Lori engulfed her in a hug.
Everyone said tearful goodbyes and Rick stepped up to shake the adult’s hands and ruffle the kid’s hair.
“I’m sorry,” said Jane as she shook Rick’s hand, “But too many strange things have happened and we don’t want to add more to that list.”
“Understandable,” said Rick, and he meant it. They never saw the Morales family after they left. They didn’t know if they were still alive, but he couldn’t force anyone to stay and Rick didn’t want to.
“Channel forty if you change your minds,” said Grimes.
“You know where we’re going now. If you can’t reach us we’ll try to be there for the winter,” added Rick, “If we’re not, try the prison near Woodbury. But avoid Woodbury, it’s not as safe as it seems.”
Morales nodded and so did Jane and her husband.
Rick gave Morales a final handshake and pulled him in for a hug, “Everyone’s infected, not just the bitten,” whispered Rick into Morales’ ear.
Morales pulled back and looked at Rick with wide eyes, “Does everyone-” started Morales quietly.
Rick cut Morales off, shaking his head, “They will, at the farm.”
Morale nodded, “Good luck.”
“You too,” said Rick with one final pat on Morales' shoulder.
“Come on. Let’s go. Let’s move out!” called Shane.
Everyone hopped into their vehicles.
Once they hit the road the Morales family and Jane and her husband split from the group, leaving the car Rick was driving at the head of the caravan.
Rick settled in for the long drive ahead. In the passenger seat, Daryl was looking out the window at the forest as it flew by. In the back, Carl had pulled his hat down and slumped in his seat trying to catch some sleep while he could. Carol had a book open on the first page and started jotting down notes. It was going to be a long trip to the Greene’s farm, but Rick was glad they had their family with them. They were going to get them to that farm and they were going to collect the other members of their family and keep them all safe. Rick knew he could. They’d already changed things and Rick wasn’t going to stop until his whole family was safe.