Chapter Text
The place was no Smithsonian, and T-Dog knew a thing or two about the Smithsonian, but it had thick chains to lock the doors and an untouched staff break room full of stocked vending machines, so for the night, the little museum was better than the Taj Mahal. Wait, the Taj Mahal was a mausoleum, a tomb…Rephrase, this place was better than Petra, Jordan. Yeah, that sounded better.
“Where do you want to sleep tonight?” He prompted the others who were drearily unloading their gear. “Looks like we got Styrofoam pyramids from Ancient Egypt, a taste of Rome a la a miniature Coliseum, or…the Ice Age…I dunno how to make that sound good.”
“Somebody’s in a good mood,” Carol grinned, the only one showing any appreciation for where they were at the moment.
“We’re surrounded by history,” he held out his hands. “Actual proof that humankind moves on and perseveres. How are ya’ll NOT appreciating this?”
Lori smirked as she opened her bedroll, and Carl looked mildly interested in the area of the museum focusing on dinosaurs, but other than that, the atmosphere fell flat. T-Dog huffed at their dryness and decided to make his bed over by the poster of the Mayan calendar, chuckling to himself at the irony of that thing.
“Hey,” Maggie and Beth returned with two pillow cases full of snacks and drinks from the vending machines. “It’s mostly chips and crackers, but it’s something.”
So it was a quiet night, again, listening to everybody’s teeth crunch pretzels and stale Doritos. There were no windows in the place, so Glenn had to stand outside to take watch. T-Dog figured he’d take second shift, if he didn’t fall asleep first. If he did, well, it wasn’t like Daryl hadn’t had been sitting on pins and needles since they got here. He didn’t know what had crawled up that guy’s ass, but he was steering clear.
“Look,” Beth spoke suddenly, lying on her back beside Hershel and pointing up at the ceiling.
It looked like some high school art students had been commissioned to paint the solar system on the smooth, flat ceiling. Was it tacky? Hell yes, but it wasn’t a bad sight. It was better than lying on the cold, damp grass, with no roof over their heads, staring up at the real stars.
“They left out Pluto,” Carl noted aloud.
“Those bastards,” Maggie mumbled, and T-Dog wasn’t sure if she was serious or not.
They all stared up at the ceiling for a while, sans Glenn on watch and Daryl, who had finally meandered his way over to one corner of the room and was making noise in his attempt to make a fire. It was quiet. Dusty. Drafty. Smelled like old paper. You couldn’t beat a museum.
“How do you think history is going to remember us?” Beth spoke up again.
“Will they remember us?” Carl countered, and the room seemed to still with his words.
A long paused ballooned inside the room, and T-Dog pursed his lips, looking up at the burning yellow circle representing the sun.
“They will,” Rick finally responded. “And I hope they do so gently.”
Hershel smiled at that, and T-Dog saw Lori smile as well, chancing a quick look at her estranged husband. He thought they could all use a dose of remembering things gently…
At the other edge of his vision, he saw Carol cover her mouth and saw her shoulders twitch with a laugh. Nobody else seemed to notice, too wrapped up in their thoughts, but T-Dog caught her eye and lifted an eyebrow in question.
The woman lowered her hand, pursing her lips hard but her eyes were full of amusement, and she gestured to the corner of room where the smoke was coming from. Curious, T-Dog followed her point.
You couldn’t MAKE this shit up.
There was Daryl Dixon, in his ratty clothes and covered in dirt, squatting on his haunches beside a cluster of kindling and tender, literally striking a flint rock to try and start a fire…in the caveman exhibit. There was even a damn cave outline painted on the wall.
It was all T-Dog could do to just stare in slackjawed amazement at the irony. There was a God, and He had a sense of humor.
As soon as the flicker of a flame began to eat at the curls of paper in the fire hole, Daryl slapped the dirt off his hands on the thighs of his pants and looked up to find both Carol, T-Dog, and Lori (who had also noticed by that point) staring at him in unabashed amusement.
“The Hell ya’ll lookin’ at?” he snapped, only serving to get everybody else’s attention fixed in his direction.
“Nothing,” Rick remarked, making a short wave with his hand. “Just…y’know we’ve got a lighter. There’s no need to…reinvent the wheel…”
Maggie lost it at that, hiding her face in her sister’s shoulder. Daryl glanced from Rick to Maggie and then to Lori, who lifted her hands innocently.
“I don’t know what her problem is, but what are you gonna…yabba-dabba-do?” She said sweetly.
That one broke Carol and had her swatting Lori playfully on the arm. Daryl stopped looking confused and shifted into just pissed, narrowing in on Carl.
“What?” He demanded a straight answer.
Carl pointed behind him, “Turn around, dude.”
Daryl turned and soaked in his situation, while T-Dog and the others collectively lost the remainders of their shit. Even Hershel clapped his hands a few times as he chuckled at the man’s expense.
“You buncha…dammit…shut up!” Daryl stomped away from the little fire, fuming over to take second watch from Glenn early.
“Yeah, yeah, go cool off, ya redneck Neanderthal,” T-Dog snorted, waving him off.
He got a string of curses slung in his direction for that, followed by a slamming door and a confused Glenn stepping back into the room. Carol recovered herself first and went after him.
Glenn looked around at them all holding their sides and wiping tears of mirth from their eyes. “I missed something funny, didn’t I?”