HEART FOR BRAINS • the walking dead

030: ups and downs of storytime

"No kid. He does not."

"Are you sure? I think he does." Rio asked as Carol led them further away, over to where she wanted them to see.

"Positive." Daryl grumbled watching as the woman's laughter slowly died down.

They reached the fence, looking out to the fields and Carol started talking. "About today, I don't know if we're gonna be able to spare a lot of people for the run."

"This place is good to go. We're gonna move on it."

"Yeah. Thing is we had a pretty good buildup overnight." Carol gestured to the bunch of walkers reaching through the fence, the flimsy metal threatening to break if the weight wasn't lifted.

"Shit." Rio exclaimed, looking out at the walkers that surrounded the perimeter.

"You know, Carl's your age and he doesn't swear half as much as you." Daryl muttered.

Carol almost smiled. "I don't think he swears at all."

Rio thought for a moment before just shrugging. "I'm no Carl."

"Damn right you're not." Daryl snorted.

Carol then looked over at them seriously. "It's getting as bad as last month. They don't spread out anymore." She said, looking back to the build up of walkers. There was an especially large group around tower three.

"With more of us sitting here, we're drawing more of them out." Daryl sighed. Then he pointed towards the fences, where people poked at the walkers. "You get enough of those damn fence-clingers, they start to herd up."

"They're pushing against the fences again." Rio frowned. "Do you think it'll hold? It doesn't really look that strong."

"It's manageable, but unless we get ahead of it, not for long." Carol replied. She bumped her shoulder against Daryl's. "Sorry Pookie."

He scoffed, shoving her back. Rio let out a laugh. "Pookie..." he muttered.

"Why don't you go and find Glenn and Maggie?" Daryl asked as they walked past, Patrick waving to him again as he left his bowl behind.

"Uh, no thanks." He replied curtly.

'Why not?' Daryl signed back. The man had started copying Rio's habit of speaking and signing simultaneously.

"I don't wanna see what I saw last time." Rio gave a fake shudder, breaking character to let out a small laugh.

"You're laughing. It can't have been that bad."

"It wasn't, but I like to take the piss out of them for it." The boy admitted, getting caught off guard by a nudge to the head.

"What a wonderful brother you are." Glenn said, sneaking up behind him. Daryl let out another short chuckle from beside them.

"Michonne's back." He said suddenly, looking over at the two boys.

"You going out today?" Glenn asked.

"Yeah." Daryl responded, shuffling awkwardly. "Gotta start getting ready."

"Alright, I'll see you later." Glenn replied, giving him a nod.

"See you later."

"Bye!" Rio shouted after he'd begun to walk away, watching as Daryl rolled his eyes and turned back to wave. "Are you going too?" He then asked, looking up at Glenn.

"Not sure." Glenn replied, squeezing his shoulder. "I do have to go though, I just came to get breakfast."

"Okay." Rio sighed as Glenn headed off. He ran over to the stables, waving at a defeated looking Carl.