into the wild.

He listened intently as she recalled what had happened in the hospital. Shane licked his bottom lip, "I mean, we need to find somewhere more safe. Something that can be a little more permanent, ya know?" All Shane really knew was they needed to keep moving on until they were able to settle down and be protected.

---

Dakota shrugged her shoulders, not wanting to put anymore emotional stress on Daryl, she knew he didn't need any extra baggage at the moment. She swallowed her food, "Jus' thinkin' about some stuff."

She nodded a little,"Sounds like a good plan, sure there are some empty farm houses out there in the country - used to drive past'em on the way to work all the time," she said to him then looked to rick with a small smile. Constance had missed Rick more than she could even say, he was her rock - he had basically raised her to who she was today and it scared her to think that he had almost never came back.

"What kinda stuff," he asked as he looked up from his food to see what it was that she was thinkin about. He could see her emotions written on her face, he wasn't dense he knew how people thought he just didn't like to say so.

@ Holden Caulfield.

"Maybe a few of us can get out tomorrow and start scouting out some areas," Shane suggested. "Try 'nd see where we can go or what we can clear out to get into?"

Rick nodded in agreement, "Sounds like a solid plan. We need stability, somewhere out of the open where we are right in harms way."

---

Dakota shrugged and mumbled quietly, "Jus'... Jus' thinking about what I would do if you weren't around, ya know? Tryin' not to think about it really... I'm sorry."

She nodded a little,"It'd be a good idea to know whats around," she said as she looked at them, "Something further away from the city,"

He looked at her,"It's why I wanna teach you those things, so you can do it on your own if you ever have to - not in my plan to let you out of my sights ever," he said to her lightly.

Shane nodded, finishing off his food. He was steadily growing more and more exhausted, realizing he really hadn't had that much sleep still. He stood up with his plate, stretching his limbs slightly. Maybe he could talk Daryl or someone else in to taking watch for that night so he could get some sleep. Lord knows he needed it. He looked around, noticing that one of the others camp fires were growing too large. Ed. He narrowed his eyes, really not having the patience to deal with the man. He walked over, "Hey buddy, ya might wanna get that down a little bit. Not trying to get the Walkers on this side of the hill okay?"

Ed raised an eyebrow, laughing at Shane. "It's damn cold out here, man. We are all trying to stay warm."

Shane shook his head, picking up a canister of water, spraying the fire down a bit. "Like I said, not trying to have Walkers in the camp. Ya'll have a good night, okay?"

---

Dakota nodded, resting her forehead against his shoulder briefly. Daryl had taught her a lot of useful things. She was better with a knife than she had been in years. Her dad hadn't even been able to make her as good of a shot with a pistol as Daryl had. On top of that, he was still teaching her to track and how to work with minimal materials. She pressed her lip to the bare skin on his arm, "I'm cold and I'm exhausted." She sighed. "I wish we could get a solid six or eight hours."

Constance sighed a little,"I'm gonna to bed soon," she murmured softly and rubbed her neck a little, "I'm real tired and it's been a long long day," she said as she stood up and stopped when she heard Amy scream. She cursed and looked for Carl as she saw a swarm of walkers come into the camp. She wrapped her arms around her nephew and picked up a baseball bat the kids had been playing with, "Carl stay behind me," she said to him since she knew Lori was there too.

Constance swung the bat and hit a walker in the face as she did so - she had never been so scared in her life.

Daryl cursed and picked up his gun and cross bow, "Get in the truck!" he told her as he shot a walker in the face, and then continued to pick them off as they went.

Shane cursed loudly, "Aw, Goddammit." He scrambled to get one of the shot guns in his hands to take out more of the walkers. The screams of the few of them, especially Amy, who were being torn apart at the moment snapped him back into reality. He began firing away, killing walker after walker. His eyes scanned around, quickly trying to find Constance. He laid his eyes on her, seeing her fighting off a few of the walkers with nothing but a baseball bat. He aimed at a few that were ganging up on her, clearing a path for her to get away. "Rick!" he shouted, grabbing his partners attention. He pointed to where they were pouring in from, "I could use a little help here!"

---

Rather than listening to Daryl, Dakota drew her pistol and her knife, helping clear out the walkers. She knew Daryl would grip about it later, but they needed help and she was going to do as much as she could. She felt something grabbing her from behind. She looked down, seeing the undead hands, and swung her knife backwards and drove it into the skull of the walker. She made her way towards the truck, hoping in the back of it and aiming her gun, picking a few more off.

Constance shoved them back with the bat using it like a bar then swung it to hit them again, "Lori get in the RV!" she said to her shoving them behind her and kept carl behind her as well," She used the end of the bat to slam into the head of the walker. She cursed quietly and gasped when she saw the walker fall dead in front her; she was sure she had been about to die.

Rick cursed as he shot the walkers surrounding his sister - where had they even come from? They hadnt' even heart them coming'.

Daryl looked around once he noticed it was settling down and shot some of the ones wh ostarting to eat on the dead ones.

@ Holden Caulfield.

When everything went quiet, Shane looked around. "Dammit," he whispered to himself. He looked over to Rick, "Do we know what drew them in or where they came from?" He looked around, trying to see where they had come in at, but there were too many trails to try and figure it out. "We gotta do something with all these bodies, man."

Rick nodded, "We need to get them out of here and get everyone calmed down. We should probably bury the ones we lost. We need to get a solid game plan to get out of here."

Shane furrowed his eyebrows, he figured they could stay at the camp a little while longer before they decided to move on. He was afraid if they moved out too quickly, if the government came looking in the city for people to evacuate, they would be looked over. "Rick, we can talk about that later. I figured we would stay a couple more weeks before looking for somewhere more protected to move on to."

---

Dakota rested against the wall of the moving truck, feeling her pulse all over her body. She hadn't been caught off guard like that in weeks. She took a big, shaky breath in. She peeked her head out, looking at everyone holding each other or shaking their heads for the ones they had lost. She spotted Daryl and jumped down from the truck, making her way over to him. "What the hell... How did this happen?"

Constance stood there and closed her eyes as she fought the urge to look around, "We can't stay here, Shane," she said softly, "This could happen again the city is too close," she said to him softly as she looked at him. She didn't believe help was coming, she never did but she didn't want to ruin Shane's hope for the future - sure things could get better but not in the amount of time that they needed it. Glenn had been going into the city almost every day- that was too dangerous.

He shook his head,"don't know they're leavin' the city - not enough food prolly," he said as he looked at her.

@ Holden Caulfield.

Shane huffed, kicking a pile of dirt next to him as he placed a hand on the back of his neck. He glanced sideways at Rick, who was currently staring him down. He sighed and looked at Constance, "I can keep you safe, though. We just need to tough it out just a little while longer--I mean it can't be long before they start looking for survivors."

---

Dakota sighed, still feeling her heart beating in her chest. "That scares me, Daryl. Scares me a lot..."

She sighed a little, she understood wanting to hold out for help; she really did. It just seemed irrational, "Do you remember at the hospital when you came to get me, how they shot all those patients and doctors in the hallway?" she said to him softly. Constance sighed and rubbed her face, "I don't think help is coming,"

---

He nodded a little,"I know, ain't good to be this close to the city huntin' is slim as it is with the dead walkin' round they're gonna be less of'em," he said to her.

@ Holden Caulfield.

Shane furrowed his brows and bit his lip slightly as he removed his eyes from her gaze. He exhaled slightly, looking around them. How could help not be coming. How long had it really been. A few weeks? Surely the governemt was busy helping others first and they would be on there way sooner... They just had to hold out a little while longer. However, he could feel Rick and Constance's eyes burning a whole in him; he didn't want to put up too much a fight and get on Constance's bad side when they were trying to repair what little they had left. He turned on his heel, mumbling a small "Whatever."

---

Dakota licked her bottom lip, reaching out to pull on his vest slightly. She sighed, bringing her hand back to claps her other arm. She looked around, seeing some crying and the Grimes' having an intense conversation with Shane. "What are we going to do?" she whispered. "None of this can be good."

Constance sighed and walked away from her brother to follow Shane; she wanted to believe help was coming but she didn't know if she could. Not with how she'd seen things handled at the hospital, but she hated that she had to crush that hope for him, but the fear that more walkers would move into camp scared her more than anything. She didn't want anything to happen to Shane or Carl - or her brother who she'd just gotten back. "Shane," she said as she walked up behind him. "Please don't be mad at me," she said to him softly.

---

He shook his head, "I don't know," he said to her lightly as he looked around seeing what everyone else was going to do. He knew that after everything they had been through staying here just wasn't a safe option anymore, despite how badly he wished they could stay here by the water where fishing was an abundant option; with the city so close it didn't seem like a good idea.

@ Holden Caulfield.

Shane huffed, still looking down at the ground. He wasn't necessarily mad at Constance... He was more mad at the entire situation. He was made that they were making him seem stupid, almost, for wanting to believe that help was coming. It had only been a few weeks, a month and a half at most, since everything had happened. Surely things would be looking up and people would start making rescue teams... He hoped. He looked up at her, his eyebrows furrowing slightly, "I'm not mad." He grumbled. "This is all just so fucking stupid."

---

She looked around, pulling her blonde hair up into a pony tail. "Where else could we go?" She questioned. There wasn't really a place that seemed like a viable option for them at the current time. Everything seemed to be going straight to hell in a hand basket-- and she wasn't sure if there was much they could do about it. All she knew is she would continue to fight to stay alive as long as Daryl stayed by her side.

She looked at him and chewed on the inside of her cheek unsure of what to say, she knew the situation sucked but she couldn't help what was happening to them anymore than he could. Taking a deep breath she grabbed his hand, "Hey, look I know this isn't ideal but I.. I don't want to risk anything, you, Carl... Rick - I.. You're all that I have and if the government wants to find us... they will," she said to him softly as she stared at him for a moment, she wanted him to understand this but she didn't know how to word it - how to make him feel better because the situation was shitty.

---

"No idea but we can't stay here'less we want to get eaten alive," he said to her as he shook his head then sighed, a little, "Lets wait'n see what they do first then, if we wanna go with them we will if not we'll go somewhere else,"

Shane scanned the grounds, looking around at the bodies. One of those could have been her, he though solemnly. He shook his head, turning and facing her. He licked at his bottom lip and ran a hand through his unruly hair. "I don't know, Con." He stated as he rested his hands on his hips. "I mean, if this is what ya want.... I guess we need to bury our dead and move on?" His eyes flickered to the ground, the defeat apparent in his voice. He knew this would happen if Rick had come back--Shane would go back to being put last, as usual.

---

"Do you really think we could last just the two of us?" Dakota questioned quietly. "I think it is better if we stay as a group--just for now at least... After what just happened, Daryl, I don't know. I can't even think straight right now."

"I'm not takin' his side, I'm the one who suggested we leave," she said to him softly, "he agreed with me and we offered it up for opinions, I just want you to know that I still want to hear what you have to say. I'll always want to," she said to him as she looked at him with a small smile. Constance wasn't sure how to comfort Shane - they had never gotten to that part of their relationship before he had ended it. "I don't care what Rick says half the time you know, most of the time it's just random big brother shit about how I should do the right thing, it's kinda creepy," she teased.

---

He nodded,"We could but they wouldn't," he said as he looked down, "They'd starve," he told her as he licked his lips. He knew this group couldn't survive on their own and hell if he would't feel guilty for leavin' a couple kids behind to starve - he wasn't much like Merle. He mostly wanted to go but the thought of people dyin' when he could've kept'em fed and alert struck something in him.