Chapter Text
The school wasn’t too far from the residential area. Daryl sat on the top of the cab of the truck with his feet dangling over the back glass. They broke up into groups, Shane and Lori went to the cafeteria, Daryl and Carol went to walk through the halls and classrooms. Each packing totes and a wagon, rolling down the tile floored halls.
“Do you think we’ll find a rug? A racetrack one maybe, Carl would like it too.” Daryl asked as he swung his bow to clear the first room. Carol pulled the wagon to a stop outside the door and grabbed a tote from their folded stack.
“Maybe, we could check the closets too. You look through the books, I’ll see what I can find.” Carol instructed. Lori and Shaen had two wagons given they’d really be the only ones bringing back useful things.
The first few rooms brought not much other than books on culture, food, and kinds of dogs and a few notebooks and pens. The next few had coloring books and a large tube of art supplies that the two put in the hallway to get on their way back. There was a larger room, a special education room by the looks of it, in the middle of the row of doors.
“Hey Daryl, why don’t you go look in the next room, I can look in here. We’ll be able to hear if anything comes in the hallway.” Carol said and the boy nodded and made his way to the next room down. Carol opened the door and went in. It was a special education room. There were three teachers' desks and lots of sensory toys and tools. There was also a shelf of books behind one of the desks. Carol quickly scanned them and found the one she wanted. “Helping Surviors Of Childhood Abuse, Sexual Abuse, and Mental Illness”, it was a rather thick book and Daryl probably wouldn’t be offended by the words he couldn’t read so she put it in her backpack. She found some fidget toys and bagged them, she then found some building bricks and a book of things to build from them. Carl and Sophia would like those too. She put those by the door on a child’s desk. Finally she looked over at the carpet, a plain blue one sadly, and found something she’d known Daryl would enjoy. A small bookcase of comic books and graphic novels. She picked a few, pirates, cowboys, and a few superheroes.
“I found a cookie jar!” Carol heard from the other room and she quickly stashed the picture books away in her backpack and popped the bin of blocks in the wagon.
When she turned the corner she found Daryl, sat down on the floor with his legs splayed open with a large cookie jar between his legs, stuffing his face.
“Daryl?” Carol said with a smile and an eyebrow raised. He looked up at her with the biggest, brightest blue eyes.
“No one needs to know. We can say it was half full.” He said and handed her a cookie which she rolled her eyes at and took.
“You’ll get a stomach ache. Now c’mon cookie monster, eat and walk.” Carol said and Daryl happily walked around the school, a bit more pep in his step, with the jar clear acrylic jar in arm.
They ended up finding quite a few candy and cookie jars. And most importantly a rug, a big racetrack rug. They pulled their wagon, full of toys and useless crap, back to the truck. Shane and Lori were sitting on the tailgate talking, behind them sitting a few very large cans of food and some pots. When they caught sight of Daryl, cradling a rolled rug and plastic tote in arms, Shane shook his head and Lori laughed.
“Hey buddy, what’chu got there?” Shane said and watched the boy put the tote down and unrolled the rug, holding it so it didn’t touch the ground so his arms were raised high.
“Racetrack. And cookies and books and uh building blocks and and candy jars.” Daryl listed off as he unloaded him and Carol’s wagon. Lori looked at Carol but she just shrugged and hopped in the back with Daryl for the ride back.
Carl was overjoyed at what was brought back. Especially the large cans of pudding and the building blocks. Him and Sophia immediately carried them to Grime Temporary residence.
Daryl was busy looking at the books he’d gotten himself while sitting in the kitchen. Carol said tonight he could work on reading, but really he knew she would read to him. He was looking forward to it. Since they brought so much back they didn’t have to do any more chores.
Daryl just flipped through the wildlife book. He looked at the pictures, then he looked at the words. He knew what some words looked like. The, a… Actually that’s about it. He could say the letters, there was a D and then an E and another E and then an R. But duh, eh, eh, er didn’t really sound like a word.
“Hey kiddo, you want a soda while we read this book?” Carol offered as she picked up the book from Daryl’s hands. Daryl shook his head and Carol chuckled.
“We’ll work on this book until you can tell me each word alright? You don’t have to read it but you have to tell me each word. I’m not making fun of you, remember that.” Carol instructed and sat down next to him. Daryl nodded and paid attention.
Carol read the book to Daryl, who was very content to stop her every other page to tell her about the time he hunted whatever it was. By the time they were done Daryl was yawning.
“How about a nap before dinner. You can help me wash the dishes before bedtime.” Carol really said, not leaving much room for discussion.
Daryl did sleep. He slept till the next morning when everyone was looking for him. Why couldn’t they find him? Because Daryl had decided to sleep in the safest place in the house, the most comforting. The closet. Rick found him, drool dried on his face and hair an utter disaster under his blanket.
“Hey kid, we’re packing up. We thought you mighta’ left us. Can’t leave withoutcha, buddy.” Rick said and got the boy to wake up and stand. Daryl yawned and realized it was morning.
“I’m sorry Mister Grimes, I’ll get our stuff-” Daryl started apologizing, grabbing his bow and starting for the stairs but Rick stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“We already packed up everything. You better go find Carol before she has a heart attack. Worrying her sick is what you did. Go say sorry and get in the RV.” Rick told him sternly and lifted his hand away. Daryl nodded and ducked away.
“Sorry.” Daryl mumbled as he hurried to find Carol.
“There he is”, “Found the kid”, and “He didn’t leave” all rang out as Daryl hurried toward the RV where he could see Carl and Sophia’s head. Carol was sitting in the passenger seat and Daryl looked at her sheepishly but she pulled him into a great hug.
“You scared the lights out of me! I couldn’t find you for dinner and thought you’d gone to do something but then I didn’t see you this morning and I had no idea where you had gone. Don’t you ever worry me like that again, Daryl Dixon, do you hear me?” Carol said with the flurry of motherly relief. Daryl looked down and nodded.
“I’m sorry Miss Carol, I just- I been- I was… I’m really sorry. I won’t do it again. I’m really sorry.” Daryl said and felt about two feet tall. Tears pricked at his eyes. Carol hugged him in, one hand cardaling the back of the boy’s head and the other rubbing his back.
“It’s okay. It’s alright. You’re back and we’re ready to head out. We saved you back some breakfast. Get settled.” Carol said forgivingly and pulled back to kiss Daryl’s forehead and send him to the body of the RV. Daryl sniffled and nodded, moving to sit on the bench behind the table where the two younger kids worked.
Soon everyone was settled and ready to go. There was a large factoried area an hour away and they had hopes of finding cannery or a food distributor. Somewhere they could lock down and take for a few weeks, a few months, for as long as they could.
They expected walkers, maybe even survivors, and factories of course. However the group did not expect to find a large distribution warehouse. There were no cars in front of it, no windows, and a solid roof. They had decided to check it out.
There were brown cardboard boxes for what seemed like miles. There was utter silence but they still looked for any walkers. Everyone was in awe. It was clean, sheltered, and perfect.
“This is it. We can build a fence, walls, we can make this permanent. This is… we can do this.” Rick said to the group as they got to the back wall. There were heavy duty locking doors, thick cement walls, steam beaming holding up all the roof, and of course room. Enough room to survive inside if they need to.
“This is fucking insane.” Is all anyone said. It came from the back of the group where Daryl was standing, bow in a slack hand at his side. Everyone laughed and agreed.
“Five bucks says I can find alcohol.” Daryl said and smiled. It was like a snapped rubber band, everyone rushed to the boxes. Shane, Rick, and Carol all looked at each other and shook their heads. They instead checked the doors and looked at the back side of the building.
Everyone was relaxed, joyous, happier than they had been since the world started to end. There was in fact a case of liquor in the big room they had cleared, one of many it seemed. Liquor and boxed mattresses and bed frames and snacks and sodas and juices and jerky and season salts and gardening supplies. There was just so much of everything.
Daryl had went away from the pack to look through boxes near one corner, he found containers and metal water bottles and rope and soap and jars of buttons. Carol and Sophia went off to decide somewhere to build their room, everyone had been rationed things, the basics: a bed, a frame and a ration of food.
Carol had caught sight of Daryl staring down at something in his hands, unmoving and frowning. He didn’t look disgusted or sad but rather… miserable. She approached him and looked at the clear plastic bag in his hands.
“What’s that Daryl?” Carol asked and Daryl dropped it back into the back and practically snarled at the offensive object. He huffed off but Carol looked. Small colorful stuffed animals. Cheap ones like they have at the carnival. She looked at the one Daryl had in his hands, a blue spotted dog. There were other colored dogs, farm animals, fish, birds, all sorts of small hand sized stuffed toys. Carol took the box to her stack that she was making walls out of but kept it to the side.
She took the blue dog out of the plastic and tore off the tag. She put it in her vest pocket and went back to going through boxes.
Daryl was moving empty boxes to one side of the room. It was methodical, he seemed to be calmer doing it. He took them and made stacks, sizes matching up.
“Daryl? Do you wanna help me make up a space for me and Sophia? It would be a big help.” Carol asked the boy who nodded and started making two walls in a corner. He worked quietly, a small smile on his lips. Empty boxes and some tape, that’s all it took for him to relax and feel content. Carol didn’t want to disturb him so she just went to help the rest of everyone put things together.
He made a rather large area, using the two walls of the facility allowed him to use the boxes to make the space bigger. He made a doorway and decided he was done. He then carried in the boxed bed frame and dragged in a mattress that was out of its box. He built the frame quickly and set the mattress on top. He made a cheap side table and put it next to it. He went to get Carol and Sophia’s things and carried them to the room. He looked into the last box and found the box of stuffed toys.
‘ Stupid thing to want. Dumb fucking toys. Shouldn’t want a thing for a fucking baby’ Daryl scolded himself as he carries the box to the corner. Carol’s standing in the doorway, a hand over her mouth in awe. Daryl dropped the box by the doorway and looked at her sheepishly.
“It’s perfect Daryl. You did more than you needed to. Thank you, Daryl. Really thank you.” Carol said and hugged Daryl tightly with a big smile on her face. He hugged her back and gave a little grin. She pulled back and reached into her pocket.
“We don’t have to tell anybody. This can be yours, and no one needs to know. I'm giving it to you as a thank you.” Carol explained and pushed the blue dog into Daryl’s hands. He flipped it around his hands for a moment before nodding and held it to his chest.
“Yeah. Yeah secret dog.” Daryl said quietly and smiled at Carol. Sophia then came running up with a pile of… colorful fabric things and Daryl excused himself to make his own area.
Everyone had their own areas.
Lori, Rick, and Carl took up the most space so they made walls out of shelves from the box truck and sheets. They had two beds, a larger one and a smaller one. Carl had taken a few posters and sheets with race cars on them. The bigger bed had soft silk sheets and a warm chic grey blanket.
Shane made a space toward the entrance of the building, he had found a large recliner chair and a green blanket and a bottle of rum.
T-dog had made a space which he was quite happy about, comfortable bed, food, water, and a few tiny tequila bottles. He had chosen to cover his box walls with some sleek grey sheets.
Dale had made a small space for himself opposite of Shane’s against the front wall. He just wanted to look out.
Glenn was happier than hell to have a room and had covered his walls in muscle car tapestries and squirreled away a bottle of wine.
Andrea and Amy decided to make one big room and split it down the middle with two sheets. They had taken the time to build clothes racks and made themselves little wardrobes, giddy about it almost.
Sophia had decorated their room mostly. She had found sheets with stars for the walls, a colorful rug for the floor, and blue sheets with cats for Carol’s bed and pink sheets with cats on them for her own. It was… the happiest place anyone had seen in a long time.
Daryl though… No one really saw a space for Daryl. There weren’t any other rooms built even though they could be. They decided to hang up a solar lantern they had found in the middle of the cleared area, it was bright enough to be able to find from any corner of the room. They wanted a final head count so Shane walked around passing out water bottles for the night and couldn’t find Daryl. Shane went back to Rick where he was helping Carl change into some real pajamas.
“Hey, I can’t find the kid. He ain’t in a room.” Shane said to Rick who quickly excused himself from Carl to talk to his best friend.
“What’d you mean? You can’t find him? Did you check with Carol, you know he hangs around her.” Rick asked and looked around to see if he could get a glimpse of the boy. Shane nodded.
“I checked. She hadn’t seen him for hours either. Now I don’t think making such a big noise in an unfamiliar place-” Shane started to explain but Rick already had his hands around his mouth like a megaphone. He called out Daryl’s name and everyone moved to stand in their makeshift doorways.
“What’s wrong? Where’s Daryl? What happened?” Carol said and hurriedly made her way to Rick and Shane. Rick shook his head and waited.
“Just want a head count and Daryl hasn’t come up.” Rick explained calmly. Carol was about to get a little bit heated over the fact they lost a kid but there were a few footsteps and a head popped out from around the main stack of unopened boxes.
“Um…. yeah?” Daryl said quietly and yawned. He’d been sleeping, he’d made a nice little place to sleep.
AKA; he took the box from Shane’s chair and squirreled it into the big stack of boxes. He built the pile around the large box so it was hidden, a tunnel of boxes leading to the much larger one. He’d dragged in pillows for a bed, some blankets, and had taken a small flashlight. He taped his knife to the side and had his little blue doggy. Everything was good, comfortable, safe.
“Hey, where were you? We all worried.” Carol said and gestured with her head to everyone standing in the doorways, they turned and went back to their areas. Daryl looked down at his feet, he’d replaced his boots with a pair of soft shoes, they were fuzzy on the inside and looked like regular shoes so he liked them.
“Made a space for me in the pile. ‘Was sleepin.” He answered and looked back at the mountain of stacked boxes. Carol smiled at the two officers and made her way to walk Daryl back the way he came.
Daryl stopped in front of the opening to his hideyhole. He looked ashamed almost, looking down, unable to catch the woman’s eyes.
"Daryl? Are you sleeping in a box?" Carol asked and looked at the hole. Daryl swallowed and nodded. He knelt down and nodded toward the opening, it was just big enough for him to be able to pull himself through on his back, which he did to Carol’s delight. She giggled and bent down to look through the tunnel. She could see the opening to the bigger box and Daryl sitting with his knees to his chest.
“Do what I did, I’ll help.” Daryl said quietly, so Carol did. She laid on her back and stuck her hands to find somewhere to pull herself in with but instead Daryl grabbed her hands in his and pulled her in.
“Goodness!” Carol said laughing as she sat up and looked around. She was glad to see he had gathered up blankets and made a nice little bed of pillows to sleep on. She was also very happy to see the little stuffed dog placed on the bed carefully.
"hi" He said and looked at her. She smiled and patted his knee.
"Did you see that Glenn found a whole big case of snack cakes? We're gonna organize everything tomorrow. There's even a stream a walkable distance behind the building. Maybe you could find one of the offices a nice place to sleep." Carol said and Daryl just looked at his feet. He knew eventually they would get rid of the box piles and he’d have to make a space for himself but until he found a nice small space for himself, the box was very good. Daryl just nodded he hadn’t heard about the stream but it made this place even better.
"We can divide and ration the food. We have more than enough of everything else for everyone. We found water filters and medical supplies and charcoal. This is a good place isn't it Daryl?" Carol said and moved to sit next to Daryl.
"Yeah." The boy said quietly and leaned his head on her shoulder. She leaned over and kissed his forehead.
"Are you tired?" She asked and he nodded his head after a moment.
"Yeah" Daryl said. He was tired even though he just woke up. He wasn’t really tired . He just felt… a lot. His brain was tired but his body wasn’t.
"Are you gonna go back to sleep?" Carol asked as she took in the way the boy’s body was all tense and the way his feet were fidgety like he was wiggling his toes around.
"I dunno." Daryl mumbled and shrugged and swayed his legs back and forth a little bit. He was tired but he was just so awake. It was a weird feeling. Like if he laid down he would just be too wiggly to sleep.
"Daryl, do you want to come with me and start organizing stuff in the other big room? I can't sleep either. Maybe we can tire ourselves out." Carol asked and bent her head to look at the boy’s face. She wasn’t really not tired but she wouldn’t like knowing Daryl was just sitting alone in what was basically a little cave.
Daryl started to nod but looked over at his dog. Carol just smiled and moved to pull himself out of the box tunnel again.
“The puppy can come too. We can get a safety pin and pin him to your pants.” Carol said with a smile as Daryl pulled himself out to follow Carol to the other large room in the building.
“Okay.” He said and had a hop to his step as he followed her.
When everyone woke up they were surprised to see that Daryl and Carol weren't where they left them. But soon Sophia woke up and said that her mom went to work in the other room. Carol had of course told her daughter, not wanting to stress or worry the kid.
Everyone had gone to the other space and was surprised to see many of the boxes moved into stacks which were categorized by labels that were written on the floor in green and pink chalk. The first half of the words were written neatly and the second half were… unique.
Food, Fabric, Hygiene, Hunting, Fishing, Ammo, Teknolje, Toys, Boocks, Shoos, and finally, drawn in big letters with stars drawn around it, Soler LIts. Some of the group giggled at the way the words were spelled.
Lori asked Sophia if she had come and helped out her mom but the girl shook her head and said she hadn’t even gotten out of bed.
"Carol?" Shane called out. It was best to know where the two went off to. There was a groan from behind one of the stacks in the corner and they all moved to peak around. There was a pile of colorful beach towels and Carol was sitting with her back against the wall and Daryl was laying on his side with his head in her lap. He had his little dog pinned to the hip of his jeans with one of his hands on it and the other in front of his face.
Carol yawned and rubbed her eyes, blinking largely. He looked down at Daryl, just checking him.
"Morning already? We did a lot in here so if you guys want, you can start with these and then we can tackle the other rooms. I think that would be best." Carol explained and yawned, she rubbed at Daryl’s shoulder to wake him up but he just scrunched his knees closer to his chest and made a complaining noise.
“Yeah?” Rick said with a smile. He was proud of the boy, he had been so helpful to the entire group. He felt like Daryl was turning into a very hopeful and helpful young man.
"Well Daryl did most of the moving. We make a good team. I opened them, went through them and he put them in their spot. We had to add more categories as we went along but, there is some great stuff here." Carol explained and there was a little sneeze from the boy. He sat up, yawned, rubbed the gunk from his face, and rubbed a fuzz from where it was tickling his nose.
Carol patted his back and stood up. She groaned and he looked at where Shane, Rick, and Lori were all standing looking at him. He ran a hand through his hair to smooth it down. Rick came over and pulled the boy to his feet.
"Hey trooper, Carol here says you're doing some team playing." Rick said and patted the young boys back. Daryl just blinked and yawned again.
"Yeah, should get first dibs. I wanna ‘nother cake." Daryl grumbled at the officer. The man laughed and pulled Daryl against his side in a hug.
“Absolutely buddy. Maybe we can whip up some pancakes this time around. We even found condensed milk, we can make a good cake this time around.” Rick said and Daryl smiled. He was excited to move more boxes and eat pancakes.
It was a pretty great place, for being the apocalypse. They built a good wall out of cars from the surrounding parking lots and found a few good vehicles to use. They had solar lights inside the building that charged during the day. They had made planters full of fruits and vegetables and edible plants. They had basic water towers for rainwater and the stream always provided them with water to filter.
Daryl grew to like living in the building. He had taken up a small control room that was built on the ‘second floor’, it was really just built high on the wall so he could look over the whole larger room. It was small but he’d ripped out the control panel and used it to build some of their wall.
He had been given gifts for being so helpful. He had a sleeping bag, a nice knife, coloring books, and plenty of easy reader books. Carol had been giving him lessons so he could read most of the words. He had a small desk, a chair, and a lofted bed. He liked his space. He put cool pictures of dogs over the windows so he could move them to see if he wanted but so no one could see him inside.
They had everything they wanted. Daryl taught everyone how to make traps for crawdads and small animals. New people joined them and they kept expanding. The walls grew safer and stronger. New people shared new techniques and they kept growing and evolving. Tree houses were built, and in a few months they had expanded so they had two buildings within the walls.
Daryl was happy. New people respected him because he was so educated in hunting and surviving. He usually stayed with Carol and the kids but he protected him. Everyone trusted him to protect the kids. He was happy to do chores and eat dinner with Carol.
He was even happier when a small family joined them.
There was an old man, Herschel, who became friends with Rick and one of the few doctors in the group. He was wise and nice and always had a good spirit. He was also very willing to snap his fingers at Daryl and tell him to go walk it off when he got huffy, or balled up on someone.
There were also two sisters. One older, Maggie, who in a few weeks started to sleep in Glenn’s room. She was a good shot and helped the group build a fence and bring in cattle and a few horses. She helped tend to the pigs and cows. The younger one, Beth, was… Daryl liked her. She was like sunshine. She had very pretty blonde hair and soft hands for a farm girl and she teased Daryl and he just. He liked her a lot. His face always got red and hot when she teased him and grabbed his arm.
Daryl and Beth usually hung out. They liked to help each other out, aka; Daryl liked to hear her talk. She liked to bring food up to the roof of the building and have picnics. She liked to brush his hair and remind him to wash it. He liked to bring her flowers because then she put flowers in her hair and that really made Daryl happy.
Daryl was just happy. Sure sometimes he was sad. He was sad thinking about Merle, he was sad thinking about his momma, he was sad thinking about himself. But once he was done being sad he could go out and be happy with people who cared about him.
Daryl liked his new home and his new family, even though it was the apocalypse.