Chapter Text
The quarry seemed so calm compared to the state of the world. Birds continued to cheep despite the devastation that they saw happen to Atlanta days before. Bombs were dropped causing the city to be lit in an orange fire. The quarry was nice, quiet, and away from the city.
Lori came up behind him running her hands in his neck, “What are you thinking about?” she asked.
“What isn’t there to think about” Shane laughed turning to walk back to camp, “this place will do fine, it’s quiet”
“Yeah”
Sophia and Carl were drawing on some paper around the fire that an older guy named Dale was tending to. He came rolling up to their camp with two sisters earlier that morning. After Atlanta people kept rolling up with families or people they met looking for shelter and a group.
Shane wasn’t too keen on some of the members of the group like Carol's husband, Ed. He was smoking a cigarette with his feet up by the fire as his wife was cooking and chatting with others. There wasn’t much here but it’s the start of something.
“Carols making some stew” Lori brought him out of his mind again, “She’s a master with those cans, although we’re running low on food and might need to go in a run soon”
“I wouldn’t even know where to look”
“The new kid knows the area pretty well,” She said as they sat in old camping chairs, “Glenn, I believe his name is”
Carl turned around to show his mom what he was holding, “Look! I drew you, Sophia taught me how to draw eyes! She’s like a genius”
Shane watched as the two interacted, heart twisting with an emotion he couldn’t place. Patting the smaller boy in the back as he was handed a bowl with the finished stew from Carol. A small “thank you” slipped past his lips as he dug into the food.
Days passed the same, wake up, eat, chores so many chores, watch the tree line, eat, look after Carl and Lori, sleep.
Glenn had approached him that morning, “We’re running out of canned goods” the kid stated.
“I know” Shane fiddled with the radio in his hand, “what about it?”
“Oh, there’s a manor hood not too far out from here, a thirty-minute trip there and back” he raised an eyebrow at this, “we could grab some supplies from it”
Slapping his legs he stood, “Yeah? Who’s gonna go and be your backup when things go south?”
“T-dogs already agreed to go with me and we were wondering if you’d join us” the boy shrugged. He was young, not how Shane would describe Carl but in his early twenties, college age.
“Who’s gonna be looking out for the group if some of those damn things breach the borders?” Shane was now standing in a way that made him taller than Glenn despite already being taller by an inch or two.
“We wouldn’t be gone that long two hours max” he was now shuffling nervously obviously intimidated but standing his ground, “they’ve got Dale and Morales too. Plus most everyone here is strong but we’re not going to last if we don’t have supplies, food, medical stuff, batteries” Glenn gestured to the radio that was forgotten on the table in front of them.
Everything in Shane’s mind told him to say no, to let the two go out alone but he couldn’t help but remember the sad eyes on Lori when looking at the dwindling food supplies. Through his teeth, he agreed to grab his bag swinging it in front of him, and grabbed a knife from the front pocket.
“Here”
“A knife?”
“We need to save our amo”
The kid smiled, “Does that mean that you’ll go on the run with us?” Excepting the knife with a grateful smile.
“Yeah, we will leave in 20, I gotta say goodbye to Lori and Carl”
Lori protested, said it was too dangerous, and said it was too reckless. He didn’t listen because he already knew everything she said was true but he had to try for them, for Rick.
Glenn sat in the car waiting with T-dog and as the three drove away Lori's back was turned from Shane. The neighborhood was a mess, with things thrown in the streets. It sent a chill down Shane’s back as he followed the youngest lead into a house that was much bigger than the apartment he had just been living in a few weeks ago.
“We will go room by room, clear, search, continue” the ex-cop commanded.
In the first few rooms, the three didn’t find much except a small first aid kit which Glenn stuffed into his bag. They came across the kitchen which had nothing in it except a few canned goods and a fridge full of spoiled food. The next house gave them more than the last, Shane found some ibuprofen and batteries dumping them into his pack a yelp could be heard.
T dog was pinned against a door with a geek snapping trying to take a chunk out of his neck. Before Shane could move to his knife Glenn stabbed it in the back of the head letting it drop to the floor before pulling his knife out with an awful squelching noise.
He looked at Shane through his baseball cap now stained with specks of blood, “I told you I got this” smirking before patting Shane on the shoulder, “Let’s keep looking”
The house was much more interesting compared to the last, it held a big family as there were many pairs of shoes of all sizes strewn across the ground as if thrown there. He looked away when he thought about how the family probably didn’t make it in the chaos.
The stairs creaked as he made his way up it, in the bathroom he found some bandages and antibiotic ointment stuffed into the medicine cabinet. He grabbed a few bars of soap and a pack of toothbrushes and toothpaste.
“Shane!” Glenn called from downstairs which caused him to rush down the stairs before he stopped in his tracks in the doorway of the kitchen. Glenn and T dog were staring into the pantry. Stocked with cans, boxed food, bread, drinks, everything.
A breathy laugh escapes his mouth, “Holly shit, Jackpot” clapping Glenn on the back before opening his pack and stuffing their findings inside T dog and Glen joined in. They couldn’t grab everything but all the non-perishables were packed away safely into the backpacks of the men.
Heading back to the car was easy only one geek got in their way before Shane put it down. On the drive back Shane had a smile on his face that he couldn’t contain it, the first time he smiled genuinely since the whole thing happened about 2 to 3 weeks ago. There weren’t any competitions as they drove up the dirt path that led to the quarry.
Arguing could be heard as they pull in Shane’s smile dropped as he jumped from the Jeep landing on the dirt.
He couldn’t make out what the shouts were but a new vehicle was parked in the middle of the grass plane. Morales was in the face of an older man whose build was bigger than his own. The other guy was yelling alongside Moralas as Dale was trying to mitigate the situation. The others watched the interaction with a mixture of horror, anger, and a tiny glint of amusement.
“What the hell is going on here” Shane forces his way into the conversation pushing the two angry men away from each other. Before he could continue they both started to talk over each other.
“Shut up,” he said pointing to the new guy which made him quiet but left a dangerous glimmer in his eyes, “Morales what the hell is going on”
“This guy just rolled up in his shitty ass truck and started to act like the boss around here says all kinds of hurtful shit to everyone “ he shook his hands out gesturing to the man. He was wearing a wire beater stained with hell knows what with jeans and boots. Shane takes note of the gun in his back pocket and the knife stashed away in its sheath.
The stranger interjected, “I’m sorry all y’all sorry asses can’t handle a fucking joke”
Anger shot through Shane as he saw Lori and Carol usher their kids away at the violent language the man continued to spew. Shane took a breath attempting to keep his composure.
“Thank you, Morales” he pushed the man lightly away until he was face to face with the stranger who was the cause of the disturbance. Feeling the eyes of his group on the back of his head he kept eye contact with the stranger.
“What is your name?”
The stunned face on the man let Shane know he wasn’t expecting such a neutral question after what he witnessed, “Will, Will Dixon”
“Alight Will Dixon” Using the same tactic that he used hours before on Glenn he stood up straighter, “What are you doing here”
The anger reappeared on the older man’s face, “No, what the hell are you doing here?!” Will's eyes flickered to the police shirt Shane was wearing, “Pig”
“We’ve set up a camp here after Atlanta went to shit” His face hasn’t cracked yet, he knows the type of person Will is by looking at him, hell he’s probably arrested many men like Will in the past.
“I guess it’s so convenient for you city slickers when the world goes to shit you go tromping through my ground” Will spat.
“You own this land?” Shane raises an eyebrow unimpressed.
“No, this land belongs to Mother Nature but I’ve been huntin' on it since I could walk” Will's face continued to bore holes of pent-up anger into Shane, “I bet none of ya know how to shoot a bow or even a rifle correctly”
“You know how to hunt?”
“Only the one of the best” he boasted, “My son is an upcoming protégé”
Turning back to the car Will let out a sharp and quick whistle and the driver's door opened. Shane was so caught up with the older guy that he neglected to notice someone else in the car. A young boy with dark hair stepped out of the car. He couldn’t be older than Carl but his face seemed to have the same dangerous scowl his father wore.
“Daryl” Will called him over and with what seemed to be practiced ease he appeared at his father's hip looking weary at the strangers that were in front of him. Will clasped the young boy's shoulder with a forceful grip, “Go on introduce yourself, your mama raised you better than that”
The boy continued to look at Shane only to take his eyes away from him to look at his father with a panicked expression. Will's facial expression showed his displeasure,
“Daryl. Introduce yourself.” Will said with a much harsher tone than he had before.
“Hi” the boy's voice was scratchy due to not using it, “ ‘m Daryl”
He didn’t even come up past his father's shoulders, a little shorter than Carl is, skinnier as well.
“Nice to meet you Daryl, Will. My names Shane” Shane flashed a smile at the boy before looking back at the older Dixon, “If you're going to stay here you will play by the rules, you gotta carry your part to stay here, respect the families that are here, try not to make any noise or light after dusk the geeks get more active then”
“We know we already had to kill a few on our way here” Will laughs but quickly fades as Shane’s face is back to serious, “We’ll hunt, ain’t no way yer gonna catch me doin' no laundry for anyone. Us Dixons take care of ourselves.”
Shane’s gaze made its way to the younger boy again watching as his eyes flickered over the people behind them watching their every move. Shane couldn’t see behind him but he knew most people left, except it was enough to make the boy nervous.
“There’s a few kids here, four. I think two of them are about your age” Shane said to the kid.
“He don’t play well with others”
“What?”
Will elaborated, “My boy don’t play well with other kids, best to keep them away”
Shane was shocked glancing between the father and son both wearing the same stare, but Daryl’s was different from Will's before he could even think about what that meant the two were walking away.
“Just cause one needs to survive in numbers don’t mean we gotta do all that community bullshit”
With that, Will walked away pushing his son with him. Alarms were going off in his head but he put that in the back of his mind as he headed for his truck to unload the forgotten food.
Morales comes up behind him, “You're really gonna let that asshole stay here with us?”
“He can hunt and that means we can spread our non-perishables more so we won’t have to risk ourselves as much as we should, going out and leaving camp” Shane didn’t leave much room for discussion, “But he’s got a kid, can’t let them go out on there own to survive, at least not with a clear conscious”
The next time Shane saw Will's son was a few days after they arrived, he was sitting alone on a fallen tree that overlooked the quarry. He was throwing rocks or at least that’s what it looked like. Shane was walking with Carl to go check the perimeter, he was more or less using it as an excuse to hang out with Carl for a little while.
Carl leaned into Shane, “What’s he doing?” The young boy asked.
“I don’t know, why don’t we go see”
Despite Will's warning about his son he decided to not listen as he approached the kid. Before they could even make it within ten feet the boy ripped his head around at the noise from the two. The gaze softens as it lands on Carl before immediately straightening up at the sight of Shane.
The three just sit in silence before Shane decides he’s had enough of the awkwardness, “What are you doing up here by yourself?”
The kid turned around without talking to either of them. Now that Rick was up close he could see what the kid was doing, he had a pile of flat rocks.
Shane asks, “Are you gonna skip those?” Daryl looks up at him putting on the most unfriendly scowl he’s seen on a child, “You know kids shouldn’t be up here alone” The comment made his frown deepen as he went back to sorting rocks.
“Daryl!” Could be heard from the kid's dad across the field, “Getchyer ass over here and help me with these squirrels”
Scooping up the rocks he shoved them into his pocket before running off, eager to get away from Shane and Carl.
Shane continued to watch as the boy ran to his dads' side, not looking back. Will looked up to see him and Carl standing across the field, Shane threw up a friendly wave before Will harshly turned around grabbing his boy's nape to guide them to their tent.
“Well that was rude” Carl frowns, “He didn’t even talk to us, and he took the rocks!”
Laughing at the boy's concerns Shane urged them to continue trying to forget the hateful stares the boy gave him. The two trudged along the perimeter looking into the woods to see the leaves green and fresh, untouched.
“Why didn’t he talk to us?” Carl questioned again.
“I don't know”
“You think he doesn’t know how to talk?”
“No, he knows. Heard him with my own two ears a few days ago.” Shane laughs
“Then why didn’t he say anything just now?”
“Kid, you could spew theories all day, but it’s not going to answer anything cause we don’t know him” Shane pats the back of Carl's hair “Man you need a haircut”
Carl whips his head to look at him, “Don’t tell my mom that she’s gonna make me get one, and no matter how good she says she is it’s always uneven” he shivers at the memory.
“Kinda hard to cut hair with some dull scissors” They are reaching the end of the field towards where the Dixons were set up, “Maybe ask her nice enough and she’ll let you keep it long”
“Doubt it”
Looking up, Wills approaches him and Carl cowers behind slightly.
“What can I do for you two” Will starts
“Was just about to ask you that” Shane puts a hand on Carl's head, “We’re just checking the perimeter”
“Oh, y’all don’t need to do that round here me and Dare got it covered” Shane looked past the man and there he was, Daryl, with a too-big knife in his hand gutting squirrels they were probably going to have for dinner, “used to it with all the hunting we’ve done before”
“We’d rather be safe than sorry, ya know” Shane tries to smile but ends more like a grimace, “No need to pay much mind we’ll be out of your hair in no time”
They walk past the camp as Will makes his way back to where he was. Shane tried to catch the eye of the younger boy but his focus was drilled into what he was doing. Carl returned to where he was after they passes the camp.
“Wills kinda scary”
“Yeah, stay away from him” he glances at the boy, “Would ya?”
He nods as they finish up their walk and make their way back to camp and Carl jumps to his mom crushing her with a hug.
“Mom! We were walking along the edge of the quarry and we saw that boy” Lori gave Shane an unsure glance as he continued, “He was collecting rocks, but he was also really rude, didn’t even say a word and made a face like this” Carl scrunched his face to mimic Daryl.
She laughed pushing her son's bangs off his face, “Probably because he doesn’t know you yet”
“Or that he’s redneck trash”
Everyone’s head whipped around to Ed, holding a cigarette to his lips before blowing out the smoke that dissipated into the air, “I mean look at ‘em, the young one looks like he grew up in the woods for christ sake”
Tension grew in the air as Lori looked between Shane and Ed, “He gets us fresh meat and that's enough” Carol tried to ease the conversation earning her a glare from her husband.
A few hours go by Shane decided to busy himself with getting and prepping the water from the quarry which included boiling all of it and that took him hours. So when the sky was tinted with light he decided to call it a day and walked up to camp where food was being cooked. His mouth watered at the smell of whatever the girls had cooked up.
A loud booming laugh caught his attention, one that he did not recognize as any of the men he was familiar with. As he approached the camp he could see Will Dixon sitting amongst the people around the fire with his son next to him.
“Finally joining us to eat, hm?” Lori smiles as she pats a seat next to her.
Carl was in between their legs and right across the fire Daryl was sitting by his father's leg, on the right this time. His knees were up to his chest as he slowly ate what was in his bowl. He looked up when he felt eyes but Shane had already looked away casting his gaze on the older Dixon.
Same wife beater on but paired with a leather vest this time, same jeans, same boots. A jar of clear liquid was held in his hand and flushed cheeks. He was drunk.
“Shane?” Carol asked, holding out a bowl, “Did you want some?” He gratefully accepted the offering not realizing how hungry he must have been.
Carl scooted over to Sophia who was sitting by her mom, and Morales's daughter, Eliza. They were playing with some sort of doll and Carl was bored so he just watched. Eyes drifting over he could see Andrea and Amy sitting side by side while Andrea was engulfed by a story Dale was telling Amy watched the kids play with kind eyes, smiling of better times.
Glenn was poking the embers trying to get a little warmth from what’s left of the rest of the fire. The rest of the group were sitting amongst themselves chatting he caught sight of Will ruffling Daryl’s hair a few times as he mentioned his son in a wild hunting story he told.
The sound of glass breaking interrupted the conversation around the embers. The glass jar that was sitting next to him was now broken, pieces laying around the grass.
“I’m so sorry Dad” the kid tries to pick up the glass, “It’s not completely gone, I don’t think”
A hand resting on Daryl’s shoulders make him freeze looking up at Will with an expression that Shane couldn’t see, “Hey, Hey don’t worry about it”
Daryl doesn’t stop trying to pick up the glass, “Stop it Dare.” The same voice from the first day they met reappeared, “It’s just glass”
Carl's expression is what brings Shane back looking at the kid's face that just says ‘he talked!?’ Shane smiled at him before conversations began again as if nothing happened, Andrea laughing at Dale, Carl poking fun at Sophia and Eliza’s game, and Lori and Carol watching their kids.
Glenn was watching Daryl and he went back to his same posture picking at grass Will's hand still grasping his shoulder.
At some point in the night, Will and Daryl headed back to their camp so they trudged their way across the small field to their secluded tent near the tree line, Shane didn’t notice though because he let his mind slip back to Carl and Lori feeling the comfort of familiarity.
In the morning he realized that was a mistake.
After the day before he wanted to get washed up, he went down to the quarry with some of the soap he had snagged on his last run with Glenn and T Dog. It was a quiet morning and even if the water was mucky it felt good to get sweat and grime off his back. Before he could make it down Carl had run to join him, then Glenn did, and so did T Dog. There goes his relaxing dip he laughs.
As they made it down to the quarry they heard rustling in the water. Stopping in their tracks Shane put his hand up to make them stay grabbing his gun before cocking it he turned the corner pointing it at the figure in the water.
“Oh, shit” the boy threw his hands up playfully, “ ‘m not one of ‘em”
“I can see that” he puts his gun back, eyes immediately falling to the boy's face, a red splotch forming on his temple and the split lip now that he’s facing Shane.
“Quit staring’ ”
“I’m not-“ Shane stops himself, “What happened?”
Daryl got out of the water and picked up his bow that was laying on the bank. “It’s nothin’ you need to concern yourself with, pig” Daryl spat
Brushing past him Shane caught his arm accidentally yanking him back causing the boy to stumble, “What happened?” Daryl's eyes were trained to the ground unwilling to match his gaze. Shane used this to take in the scene in front of him, Daryl’s shirt clung to his chest showing his ribs as hair stuck to his forehead.
“Best let go of me” he yanked his arm forcing Shane to let go before he ran into the woods disappearing behind trees and leaves.
He didn’t even realize that the rest of the group was standing behind him watching the whole thing. Shane watched as Carl did more playing than washing in the water. Glenn came up next to him out of the water and sat on the warm stones that litter the bank of the Quarry.
“What did he say?” Glenn asked, “About the bruise?”
“He said that it was none of our concern” Shane rubbed his eyes thinking, “Something going on, I’ve seen cases like these all the time when I was working for Kings County”
“You think it’s his dad?” Glenn shifted to put his shirt back on, “Shouldn’t we do something?”
“Not much we can do, if we go and confront Will about it I’ll bet he’d be out of here before the sun hits the ground or go ballistic on us. You can never tell with men like Will Dixon” he laughed before running his hands down his face again, “God, I should have seen it, the signs were all there I just didn’t catch on”
“Hey, they’ve only been here like a week?” The younger slings his arm around Shane in some sort of attempt at comfort, “But you were a cop you said it yourself, you’ve dealt with men like Will, right?”
“Yeah, but that’s when I had a jail and the law behind my back now that the world is in total chaos’s nothing stopping him, legally at least” Shane stared at Carl who was now splashing T dog, “The best we can do is keep a watch full eye cause that boy doesn’t trust us.”
“More like he doesn’t like us”
“That could be possible,” Shane laughs, “He has the meanest glare I’ve ever seen on a kid”
Carl and T Dog came out of the water shivering immediately relieved at the warm Georgia air, “the waters cold” Carl said before splashing Shane’s feet with it.
“ If it’s so cold why are you splashing us?” Shane asked with humor dripping behind his voice which caused Carl to laugh and splashed Glenn and Shane again.
Carl looked up and into the trees pointing he asked, “Are those boots?”
A small pair of boots lay neatly at the bank hidden by the shade of the trees. Shane got up to investigate them. They were worn, but good quality they looked to be a bit too small for Carl.
“Maybe he left them behind when he rushed out of here” Shane picked them up.
“Daryl?” Glenn asked, “Would he really leave his boots here”
“I don’t know but let’s take them up to camp so he can retrieve them if he wants” Shane picks them up and the four head back to camp.
They returned to find breakfast already prepared and they sit down to scarf down whatever Amy had prepared that morning, hungry after their morning swim.