The Darkest Storm

Somewhere in the deep woodland of Georgia, just on the edge of the Greene’s farm, Darcy found herself slowly sinking into the black and gooey knee-deep mud.

“Glenn,” she muttered dryly, “When this is all over, remind me to explain to you the difference between a river and a swamp of doom.”

Glenn, who asked her to help him scale the river closest to the farm, held his rifle over his head with his tongue sticking slightly out of his mouth in concentration, trying to wedge his way forward with no luck.

“That’s what it said on the map.” Glenn gave a nervous smile back at her and she couldn’t help but laugh at their current state.

“See if you can grab that root.” Darcy pointed just to the left of Glenn, who was closest to the embankment of the ‘river.’

“Alright, hold this.” He reached back, giving Darcy the rifle so he could make a better attempt at lunging for the root.

With a pathetic leap, mostly because of the suction the mud actually had on the two, it was remarkable that Glenn was able to reach it and pull himself up out of the green water.

He stepped up on the bank and heaved himself up before turning around and reaching out a friendly hand to Darcy behind him. Darcy grabbed his hand and finally inched herself over to the side where he stood. Feeling the intense sound of the mud eating her foot, Darcy reached and pulled with both hands on her leg before the mud finally gave way and caused her to fall back into the dirt and twigs behind her.

“What are we looking for again?” Darcy lay on her back, collapsed and smelling of the foul gunk that stuck against her clothes.

Glenn shrugged and scratched his forehead beneath his ball-cap, “Nothing. I felt like we needed to check the perimeter before Rick and the others got back.”

“I don’t know what’s keeping their farm un-touched but it seems the perimeter is fine to me.” Darcy groaned. “Can we go back now? We’ve been at this for hours.”

Glenn checked his watch, “We’ve been walking for ten minutes.”

Darcy arched an eyebrow at him as he held a slightly amused smirk. “You have got to be kidding me. I must be seriously unfit.”

Glenn sighed, sitting down next to her. “You had to take a few days off is all, it probably wore you out.”

Darcy ignored his comment and put herself in deep thought as she laid back and sprawled out in the dirt. She stared at the sky, “What if Hershel has like, this stash of walker parts just laid out around his farm to make any that come near turn around because they can only smell the bits and pieces and not his chickens or cows, you know?”

“It’d be a good idea.” Glenn let out a small nervous laugh. “But I can’t picture him doing something like that, just hacking bodies apart? And he would need hundreds of walkers, his farm is huge.”

Darcy shrugged and stood up, wiping the beads of sweat from her forehead. “Let’s head back. The others should be at camp by now don’t you think?”

“I don’t know, maybe.” Glenn shrugged, getting up as well and following her around the swamp, something they didn’t see before. “You seem to be asking about them a lot. You worried something will happen?”

“Are you not?” She asked, bringing a hand above her eyes and blocking out a sun-ray.

“Well, we haven’t seen many walkers…only four or five total since we’ve been here, so I’m worried yeah, but I know those guys can handle it.” Glenn stepped on a twig that made a loud ‘snap.’ “But I think if it were someone like Maggie-“

“You like her don’t you?” Darcy gave a knowing smile and watched Glenn blush.

“Yeah,” He nodded, “But that’s what I mean. Sure, I care for the group but if she was in danger I would want to make sure I was back when she-“

Glenn stopped, looking at Darcy with a blank stare as she made a face like she knew what was going to happen next, squinting her eyes and biting her lip like she didn’t want him to find out, but there was no use hiding it from him.

Darcy looked down at the ground and Glenn then dropped his jaw in realization. “Daryl?”

“Don’t make a big deal out of it Glenn.” Darcy tried to walk away but Glenn grabbed Darcy’s shoulder and pulled her to face him.

“You and Daryl? What’s going on, is something going on?” Darcy shrugged, not really knowing what to say exactly as Glenn continued to have a small panic attack.

“I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. I mean, you guys share the same tent…you are always going on watch with each other..” Glenn counted on his fingers, “You are always talking, he’s always asking where you are..” Darcy rolled her eyes and walked away, “He wanted it to just be you and him to stay with the RV that one time…”

“Glenn!” Darcy turned around and grabbed his shoulder. “Stop.”

“Is it true?” Glenn said quietly. “Are you and Daryl..”

“No, Glenn.” Darcy put up a hand and started to walk away again.

“But do you like him?”

“God, you’re such a girl right now.” Darcy mumbled.

Glenn took a step forward, “Well, do you?”

Darcy stopped as she reached the edge of the wood, seeing that Rick and the others were in fact back, but Daryl was not in her sights.

Darcy turned and shrugged as she leaned on one leg and put her hands on her hips. “I don’t know Glenn.”

“You don’t know?” Glenn furrowed his brow, “How could you not know?”

“Because I don’t, Glenn.” Darcy rubbed her face with both hands. “I feel like, if I do, if I say it out loud…it will ruin everything. And, I don’t want to be constantly afraid of whether or not we’ll both survive tomorrow.”

Glenn sighed and was about to say something but Darcy stopped him, “Drop it, Glenn. Let’s just go back to camp and change, I’m starting to get sick from the smell of that swamp.”

He nodded, “Okay.”

As the two walked back to camp, Rick gave Darcy a quiet nod before she returned it and hid in her tent. Within a few minutes, she emerged freshly dressed with her dirty clothes in her hands. Darcy walked over to the RV, where Andrea sat on top of the vehicle on watch and a smug look on her face at that.

Still frustrated at the blonde, she tossed her dirty clothes into the bucket where they are usually put and placed her hands on her hips. Darcy looked off into the direction where Andrea was looking, and saw that it had been quiet for the time being.

Carol then came out of the RV, saying hello to Glenn and Dale as they walked inside. She saw Darcy out of the corner of her eye and went over to meet her.

“Hi sweetie,” Carol gave a weak smile. “I’ve got something of yours.”

Darcy looked over to her with interest and shook her head with a smile as she was handed her bow. “Daryl give this to you?”

Carol nodded, “For safe keeping. Just until you were better.” She smiled. “I think you deserve it back now, you seem better to me.”

“Thank you.” Darcy said, throwing her old friend over her back along with the quiver, loving the feeling of security on her shoulders again.

“We’re cooking dinner for Hershel and his family tonight. Would you like to help?” Carol asked.

Darcy sighed, looking back towards the woods, hoping Daryl would soon show up. “In a bit.” She nodded.

Carol smiled and looked to where the girl’s eyes were glued. “Take your time. He’ll be back soon.”

Darcy shook her head again and gave a small laugh, ignoring the constant comments she was getting that day and just crossed her arms and walked over to a tree so she could lean against it as she waited.

“Finally got that back, huh?” Rick came up beside her and kept his gaze towards the horizon that began to slowly set.

“You knew?” She raised her brow.

Rick nodded and smiled at her, “Yes ma’am. I try to keep up with everything that goes on in this camp.”

“You’re doing a good job so far.”

Rick remained silent for a moment, before tilting his head and looking over to her. “You think this is right?”

Darcy blinked at the man, “Is what right?”

“Looking for Sophia.”

“What else would we be doing?” Darcy asked.

“I’m just,” He sighed heavily and looked at the ground, “I’m just getting a few people’s opinions. Some think she’s a lost cause, others-“

“’Some’ meaning Shane?” Darcy darted her eyes over to campfire where he sat.

Rick scoffed. “Yeah.”

“Do you think we should look for Sophia?” Darcy asked straight-out.

Rick shuffled on his feet, “I think it’s plain and simple it’s what we should do.”

Darcy nodded and looked forward again. “Then that’s what we do.”

Rick smiled, nodding with her in agreement and with appreciation that she respected his judgment. “Thank you, Darcy.”

“Walker!” Andrea shouted. “Walker!”

Rick and Darcy both turned at the sound, seeing off to where they first kept their gaze a stumbling figure making their way slowly directly for their camp. Darcy lifted her bow off her shoulder as Rick made his way calmly over to Andrea.

“Just the one?” He called up to her.

Andrea stood up and brought the binoculars to her eyes, only getting a glare in the lenses just like everyone else. It was clear there was only one, but the body of the figure was clouded by the gleaming light of the sun setting.

“I bet I can nail it from here.” Andrea said, picking up the rifle without a second thought.

“No no, Andrea. Put the gun down.” Rick held up his hand to her, he knew Hershel wouldn’t allow guns on the property and it could cause their visitation to run shorter than planned. He turned to Darcy, “Can you make the shot.”

Darcy didn’t even bother lifting her bow to see, “No, the distance is too far.”

“You’d best let us handle this.” Shane, T-Dog, and Glenn came out from the tents with weapons in hand, walking with determination towards the threat still too far away to do any damage.

“Shane, hold up. Hershel wants to deal with walkers.” Rick stepped towards them.

“What for, man? We got it covered.” Shane continued anyway, getting a nod from T-Dog and Glenn before starting to run off quickly towards the walker up ahead.

Darcy watched as Rick followed suit, grabbing his gun from inside the RV and catching up with the others. She walked over to where Dale was standing on the ladder of the RV, Andrea still holding the rifle loosely in her hands.

They watched and waited, seeing the four men catch up to the walker and suddenly stop in front of it, none of them moving any more. It was when Darcy heard the faint ‘click’ of the gun from above her head that made her heart leap something was wrong.

Darcy watched Andrea raise the gun and point. “Andrea, don’t!” Dale said to her.

“Back off Dale.” She grunted, laying on the RV and focusing on the figure again.

“Andrea!” Darcy yelled, “They have it, leave it alone!” Andrea shuffled her body for a slight second, putting her finger on the trigger.

“I’m doing what needs to be done, Darcy.”

Taking a sharp breath in, Andrea fired her weapon.