The Darkest Storm

It appears as an endless vista; beautiful, ocean-blue, with rolling blue skies and drifting clouds. A spec, a dot of light, appears on the horizon. The mark of a new day is hovering; teasing the world.

Crossing the grounds, a sprawl of camping tents is revealed; their un-zipped windows are flapping along with the short, humid breeze. Smoke from a late-night campfire still floats in the air. All seems well in the eerily quiet surrounding.

But, there is a faint droning of flies. Spanning closer, a body is focused. Half-eaten, half-torn to shreds. An eye dangles from it’s socket. Slightly-dried blood is pooled underneath it.

Shane appears; haggard, exhausted. He stumbles out of his tent with a yawn, shielding his eyes against the sun. He sees them; all of them. A huge sprawl of dead amongst the grounds. It looks like the world’s biggest, and most creative, Halloween display.

He sighs, rubbing the back of his head whilst his eyes still try to adjust to the sight in front of him. He spots a particular tent to his right, intentionally placed close to his, and purses his lips. Happy, yet unshakably disappointed.

Shane starts to walk when he spots another tent. This time, it is purposefully on the outer edge of the group, just under a tree. A fire pit lined with squirrel skins hangs limply amongst the rocks. Spare arrows and ammunition are set strategically along the tent’s front.

For a moment, he is awed by the quiet sense of desolation. Then, rustling of the rest of the camp awakens, as if they all felt the urge to get up and move on.

Shane raps quietly on the tent’s entrance. He hears the two inside groan inwardly to themselves and he can’t help but do the same. Waking up Daryl was not his favorite thing to do. In fact, anything that ever involved the two Dixon’s was a struggle; he could only sit and pray that Darcy was a bit more civil.

Daryl spots Shane standing on the other side of the thin tent fabric; sleepy, but making his authoritative presence known by raising a brow at the two who haven’t made the effort to move.

“It’s that time.” He says, rubbing his face with a calloused hand. “We’ll be on the move soon.”

To his right, with one foot out of her sleeping bag, hair tangled in a frenzy, and one hand aimlessly searching the floor for her own bow, is Darcy. “Just need Daryl’s help movin’ the bodies.” He says in her direction.

“Thank God.” She mumbles within her pillow.

“Darcy, need you in charge of breakfast.” Shane tells her, hearing an odd sort of whimper come from her direction before she sits up slowly with an ache in her shoulder.

Shane gives a thankful look, “Andrea and uh - Amy – had a whole lotta luck with fish last night. You can try the Quarry. We don’ want anybody straying too far, you hear?”

Darcy listens with little interest while she slips on her boots and grabs her bow. “That’s where I’ll be then.”

Shane sighs before standing up and out of the tent to let Darcy pass. He follows her for a few seconds when he says, “We all appreciate you stayin’. Our odds would have been a lot worse if you weren’t here. Wish ya’ll had never left but we sure are grateful you came back.”

“You don’t think we should’ve gone?” Darcy’s question hangs in the air tensely. She keeps her eyes straight ahead.

Looking at her with raised brows, Shane says, “It ain’t my call.”

Darcy swiftly turns on her heels to come face to face with Shane. He stops just short when she holds out her hand to him – grazing his chest when she does.

“Listen, just so we’re clear, whatever trouble you got going on is between you and Rick.” Shane places his hands on his hips, raising his head for a swift second before looking back at her with a raised brow. By that time, Daryl had come out of the tent with his boots in hand. He sees her stern look and watches them carefully.

“As long as it doesn’t get me killed, I don’t give a shit who’s in charge.” Darcy blatantly shrugs. She doesn’t wait for his go ahead or to see if he’s going to respond before she leaves. It’s just in time before Daryl reaches Shane’s side.

“You just found her in the woods?” Shane asks with a slight laugh – slight, but nervous.

Daryl nods and rubs his eyes. “Damn near killed me.” He walks away with a scoff, trailing right behind him is Shane, stretching to know more.

“In my experience?” Daryl turns unwillingly. There is no care in his eyes when he listens to the cop. “Never met a woman who knew how to turn off a light.”

“That right?” Daryl’s mouth line thins. They both turn to see Darcy picking her arrow out of a tree further down the road – lodged into the trunk tightly – on the other end, a squirrel. “Tell her that.”

-

Her mind is whirling. It’s Amy – then Jim. Fort Benning – then the C.D.C. And all she did was disappear for a few hours for only a few bits of scrawny fish.

Darcy gives a slight ‘huff,’ tossing the string of fish on the ground next to the campfire. She soon follows suit by sulking into the lawn chair beneath her; fingers to the bridge of her nose, eyes squeezed shut to tune all of the arguing out.

“What if the C.D.C is still up and running?” Rick questions.

Shane shakes his head. “Man, that is a stretch right there.”

“Why?” Rick asked.

Darcy sits up, resting her elbows on her knees and stares into the small embers. “The C.D.Cs just outside the city. There’s no way it wasn’t either overrun, or abandoned just like everywhere else in this place.”

“If there’s any government left, any structure at all, they’d protect the C.D.C. at all costs, wouldn’t they?” Rick argues. “I think it’s our best shot. Shelter, protection –“

Knowing there was no point of arguing, Darcy sits back again in the chair while Shane speaks again. “Okay, Rick. You want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they’re at the army base. Fort Benning.”

“That’s a hundred miles in the opposite direction.” Darcy mumbles.

“That is right,” Shane points. “But it’s away from the hot zone. Now listen to me, if that place is operational, it’ll be heavily armed. We’d be safe there.” Shane looks at the ones standing in the small circle.

“The military were on the front lines of this thing.” Rick says, shaking his head. “They got overrun, we’ve all seen that. The C.D.C. is our best choice, and Jim’s only chance.”

And so, the decision was made. Rick shrugs the conversation off, walking away with no chance of anyone with a difference of opinion to challenge the suddenly appointed ruthless leader’s mind.

Darcy hasn’t noticed Shane take a squat beside her. “You don’t think the C.D.C. is a good idea neither?”

Darcy sighs and wipes her forehead with the back of her hand, now holding the knife loosely since she was ready to skin the fish. “Seems Rick’s made up his mind, no reason to fight him.” She looked up at him. “Don’t think Fort Benning’s a good idea either, mind you.”

Shane scoffs; “If the place is operational-“

Darcy meets his eyes with a sternness that Shane wasn’t expecting. “If – you people need to understand that if isn’t good enough anymore. We need definite answers – not more questions.”

Darcy looks down at her fish. “You expect to be leadin’ this group but all you’re doing,” She points at him with the knife, “All Rick’s doing, is putting everyone in more danger. Jim’s not gonna survive this trip with either which way we choose – and even if he does – he’s got no chance.”

“How can you be so sure?” Daryl asks quietly, overhearing the conversation.

“After everything that’s happened, everything we’ve been through-“ Darcy’s voice goes quiet, desperate even. “After seeing our own government fall and die…”

She shakes her head. “I’ve accepted that there is no cure. I’ve accepted that we will have to fight to survive for as long as we can and lose those we care about in the process.”

“And you’re okay with that?” Shane asks.

Darcy shrugs her shoulders as Daryl sits down next to her, “We don’t have a choice.”

-

After the burial, what was left of the camp resided around the campfire. The sun was starting to set, and it makes them all grateful to give them a break from its non-stop sultriness.

Darcy sits on a lawn chair, once again, and picks at one of her arrowheads growing impatient for Shane and Rick to return from their sweep. Daryl sits next to her of course, prodding the cooking filets Darcy had caught earlier that day. The smell was intoxicating, and Darcy’s stomach might as well have ripped through her skin to lunge at the large amounts of food she used to be familiar with on a regular basis.

Daryl flips one onto a plate, handing it to Darcy before anyone else. Their eyes met again, and she couldn’t help but smile at the country boy for a glimmer of a moment.

Returning after what felt like hours, the two cops where finally back. Shane approaches the group first, scratching his head and setting down his gun before proceeding with the final plan of action that had the entire camp on edge.

“So uh- I’ve been thinking about Rick’s plan.” He starts, “Now look, there are no – there are no guarantees either way…” Shane specifically looks to Darcy, “I’ll be the first one to admit that. I’ve known this man a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning.”

-

Unstrapping his belt with their backs facing each other, a question throbs at the base of his skull. They stand in the tent quietly, each with burning thoughts running a mile a minute about different things and different people.

He takes a slight glance over his shoulder. Darcy faces away from him still, holding something in her grasp that he can’t quiet see. But he takes in her beauty silently anyway. He notices the posture in her shoulders, the smooth, tone muscle on her back, her long, lean legs…she is absolutely breathtaking…and it scares him.

He coughs; making those thoughts stray away and focusing on the slight nagging question resting on the back of his mind once again. “Ya don’ really believe those things you said, do you?”

Darcy doesn’t move to face him, but gives a weak sigh. “I don’t know.”

Daryl shifts his body to slightly turn towards her. His voice is soft, and quiet, “Can’ think like that. ‘S what’ll get you killed.”

Darcy faces him, “What do you think then?”

Daryl shrugs, “Bound to be someone out there who knows somethin’.” He meets her eyes, and it sends both their hearts leaping. “Just gotta find ‘em.”