The Darkest Storm

From This Valley

"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."