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A woman's worth.	By : SpikesSlayer08 Category: S through Z > The Walking Dead Views: 4517 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own The walking dead or its characters. This is not for profit only fun.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Also a big thanks to Jaded79 for being awesome as always and going over this chapter for me. Hope you all enjoy and let me know if you love it or hate it?
Chapter 9
Safe place to lay our heads.
Carol wanted to slap herself; so much had happened since they fled the farm. Rick had confirmed what they all expected, Shane had killed Randall and led them out into the woods to kill Rick, saying he was a better leader than him and for other reasons Rick didn’t really want to go into. She had seen the way Lori had jerked away from Rick after they had a private talk alone and Carol couldn’t help but wonder if Lori herself is what had come between the two men.
The biggest blow had been when Rick told them Shane had turned even without being bitten; he had told them how Jenner from the CDC had told him they were all infected. Whatever this was, they all carried it. There had been gasps of shock, people asking why he would keep that to himself, people sounding so hurt. Carol herself had yelled at him, telling him he had no right to keep such a thing from them, he had tried to explain he had no reason to believe Jenner was telling the truth, the guy was a nut. She knew he was right but she couldn’t help but be angry.
As they sat around the fire that night, cold and exposed, she held her little girl to her, rocking her and trying to warm her. She looked at Daryl and all but begged for him to get them out of there, that they couldn’t trust Rick and that they were better for on their own but he had shaken his head; telling her they weren’t going anywhere, Rick was a good man, a man of honour and he was going to stand beside him.
She knew he was right, she knew she was acting silly but she was just so scared, scared for Sophia and scared for the group. Now she sat there, her daughter sleeping, head resting in her lap. They had one blanket between them but she had wrapped Sophia up in it. Carol looked up at the wall where Daryl sat, still refusing to look at her. She couldn’t blame him for being so angry at her; she had gone on like a fool.
An hour later, she watched as Rick rose from his spot with Glenn and headed over to relieve Daryl and T-Dog. Everyone else was sleeping but she knew no matter how much she tried, sleep for her tonight would not come. She heard him stop behind her and looked up at him. She patted a spot next to her on the ground hoping he would join them. He sighed before putting his bow down and sitting beside her, draping his blanket over the both of them.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered looking at him. He sighed nodding his head. “You’re right, Rick is a good man and he made the right decision not telling us about the virus being in all of us. He had no way of knowing for sure it was true and telling everyone would have just caused panic… it’s just, I think of this virus, this disease being inside my little girl and knowing there is nothing I can do about it… scares the hell out of me,” she explain moving forward. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, cupping her cheek.
“I know it’s scary but it doesn’t change anything, we still go on, we still fight to survive to not get bit or scratched cause even though we carry it, it can’t hurt us.”
“But it can,” she sighed tears burning her eyes. “It means no matter what, whether we die from a bite or natural causes, we will turn; Sophia will turn and become one of those monsters and someone will have to….” Sobs cut her off choking her at the thought of someone having to shoot her daughter to put her down.
“Hey, hey look at me,” he said tilting her chin and making her look at him. “I know it’s scary but you can’t think about it, you need to go on like it’s any other day and leave all that behind, I will keep you both safe, I promise you,” he whispered. She nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks. He moved forward kissing her gently before pulling back.
“Come on woman time to sleep,” he said moving to lay them both down. Carol snuggled Sophia to her front making sure she was facing the fire so she stayed warm. Daryl cuddled into her back kissing her neck, “I know it’s hard but sleep, please I need you alert tomorrow.”
“I’ll try,” she promised, “and I’ll apologise to Rick in the morning.”
“I’m sure he understands, goodnight woman.”
“Goodnight Daryl,” she whispered allowing her eyes to close now knowing and feeling safe wrapped up in his arms. When she woke in the morning, Daryl was already up and out hunting. Sitting up, Sophia opened her eyes and looked at her.
“Morning mamma,” she smiled. Carol couldn’t help but smile back.
“Morning baby,” she kissed her forehead softly, standing to pat the dirt off her legs she saw Lori and Carl together across the other side of the fire.
“Mum I’m hungry,” Sophia said standing next to her mother.
“I know sweetie, I think Daryl has gone hunting so it won’t be long.” Sophia nodded moving to sit next to Carl as the two talked and she moved to sit beside Lori.
“How are you this morning?” Carol asked sitting beside the woman.
“Tired, couldn’t sleep properly last night,” Lori sighed rubbing her face.
“Yeah I know the feeling,” Carol nodded. “Do you know what the plan is this morning?”
“No Rick and I… well we’re not talking at the moment,” Lori sighed briefly looking at Rick then back at the ground.
“Because of Shane?” Carol asked softly not wanting the children to hear. Lori’s head jerked up in surprise.
“You know?”
“It wasn’t hard to figure out… you know he had no choice right? Shane led him out there to murder him,” Carol reasoned.
“He wanted to kill him,” Lori spat.
“Well the man slept with his wife, I imagine most husbands would feel the same way.”
“I thought Rick was dead,” Lori tried to defend her actions.
“I know and Rick forgave you but you can’t forgive him from defending himself?” Lori couldn’t answer; instead she just looked at the ground ashamed. “It sounds to me like Shane took Rick out there to murder him so he could get you back, be the husband, the father, the leader and even after he made that clear, Rick still tried to get him to walk away… Shane left him little choice, whether he wanted Shane dead or not seems irrelevant,” Carol said standing from her seat and moving away. She heard Lori start to cry softly and just hoped she had made her see sense.
“Rick, could I have a word?” she asked softly.
“What?” he barked, turning to face her. She knew he had every reason to be upset with her so she decided to ignore his tone.
“I wanted to apologise for how I went off yesterday, I was out of line.” She heard him sigh but decided to continue anyway. “I was just scared knowing we all carry it, I was… I am so scared for Sophia; I’m sure as a parent you can understand.” He nodded moving forward to touch her arm reassuringly.
“It’s alright Carol, I understand and thank you.” She smiled softly nodding.
“I know it’s none of my business but when it comes to Shane, you did the right thing… he had been losing it for a while and was a danger to us all, you had every right to defend yourself.”
“I didn’t want to kill him,” he whispered looking down.
“I know that,” she said touching his hand trying to give him comfort. “But he was going to kill you, you had to defend yourself and I can see it’s eating you up inside… don’t let it.” He looked up nodding, eyes glassy.
“I wish Lori understood like you,” he sighed looking over at his wife.
“Give her time, she’ll come around.” He nodded looking out into the open area. He saw Daryl returning with a string of squirrels and rabbits on his belt and a caped woman with two chained walkers.
“Oh my god,” Carol gasped seeing them coming towards them.
“Stay here with the kids,” he told her. She nodded running over to Sophia and Carl keeping them both at her side. “T-Dog, Andrea,” Rick called directing them to follow him to Daryl, weapons drawn at the two walkers.
“Daryl?” Rick asked stopping in front of them.
“It’s alright,” Daryl reassured. “This is Michonne and her two friends.”
“Friends?” Andrea couldn’t help but almost laugh.
“I got pinned down by five walkers in there, Michonne saved my ass,” he told them.
“Then we are in your debt,” Rick told her. She nodded pulling the hood from her face.
“A hot breakfast and we can call it even,” she spoke for the first time.
“Of course,” Rick nodded as they headed back to the camp. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave them there; we have two small children in the group.” She nodded tying the walkers to one of the stone walls before moving to join everyone around the fire.
The women whipped up a hot stew using the rabbits and squirrels Daryl had caught and tin vegetables Carol had brought with her. Once she had realised they may have to leave the farm, she had grabbed what she could: tin food, sauces, rice, pasta, disposable plates, blankets and medical supplies; she was the only one who had thought to do so. Daryl couldn’t help but smile proudly when she had showed everyone what she had managed to put into the car when they had first seen the walkers coming.
“I have to ask, what is with the walkers?” T-Dog asked pointing at them.
“They smell,” she replied simply.
“No kidding I can smell them from here.”
“I have been alone since things started going bad and I figured out pretty fast that part of the reason they recognise us as food is because we don’t smell like they do,” she explained. “So I removed their jaw, teeth and arms so they couldn’t hurt me, covered myself with the cape and I can move through large herds unrecognised.”
“Gross,” Glenn said thinking of the day him and Rick had covered themselves in walker blood, guts and parts to get through a herd. “Smart but gross.” She smiled softly as she continued to eat her meal.
“Michonne is heading towards a prison about forty minutes from here, she has offered for us to join her, tall stone walls, bars on all the windows, not to mention a ton of canned food, bedding, beds, hot running water…” Daryl said but Rick cut him off.
“Wait, how do you know they have all this? For all we know it could be crawling with walkers.”
“My best friend Tyrese is a guard there, well was, when things got bad I called him, they were letting everyone go and he was going to stay there, lock the place down… he wanted me to head there, said it was safe and they had heaps of supplies, generators, beds, security, food, weapons… if Tyrese says it’s safe, then it’s safe,” she reassured them.
“What do you think?” Rick asked Daryl.
“I think it’s a good idea.” Rick nodded, agreeing.
“Alright, we finish breakfast and then head out.” Everyone nodded in agreement. Once they finished breakfast, they quickly packed up everything and headed off. Holding Sophia close to her side, Carol looked out the window at Daryl beside them on his bike and hoped this would be the sanctuary they so desperately needed.
- 8
- 9
- 10
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A woman's worth.