Back at Camp

New chapter is live.

Settle in, take your time, and let's see what waits in the dark 🖤

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"What's that sound?"

"Rick, someone's coming!"

The camp stirred at once.

Rick's hand tightened around the Colt Python. He scrambled to his feet on top of the RV and stared into the darkness.

Then the revolver slipped from his hand and hit the roof.

Without a word, he jumped down and ran toward the sound.

"Hey! Rick?" Merle shouted as he crossed paths with him near the trees. "Rick!"

Merle had just come back from the woods. Seeing Rick run like that, he cursed under his breath and changed direction, dragging his rifle along as he followed.

"What... what's happening?"

Inside the tent, Lori opened her eyes. Her lips had almost no color. The noise outside had pulled her out of the feverish half-sleep.

Carol ducked in and touched Lori's forehead and cheek.

"Rick ran out for some reason," she said gently. "Daryl and the others went after him."

Carol sighed.

Evan had not returned. She had been planning to thank him properly for saving Sophia, to show it through what she did rather than what she said.

And now that terrifying, impossible man might have fallen somewhere outside.

"World doesn't care what we owe people," Carol murmured.

Lori heard enough to start struggling upright.

She pushed herself out of the sleeping bag, and under Carol's stunned gaze, staggered toward the outside of the farm.

Carol hurried to support her.

"Lori, what are you doing?"

"Carl... Carl..."

Lori did not answer. She kept saying her son's name, eyes fixed straight ahead, as if Carl might appear if she stared hard enough.

Somewhere beneath the ringing in her ears, she thought she heard him calling her again and again.

"Mom."

"Mom?"

The world blurred. Everything split into doubled shadows.

Her eyelids finally gave out.

She collapsed as Carol cried out and caught at her.

Elsewhere, music played inside the red brute.

Evan and Carl moved with the beat as the fire truck rolled down the road.

The apocalypse did have a few advantages.

No one was left to pull Evan over for how he drove.

The music drowned out everything outside. Evan raised his voice over it.

"Carl!"

"We're almost there!"

"You ready to see Rick and Lori?"

"Ready!"

Carl's pale face flushed red. He copied Evan's energy and shouted his answer with all the strength in his chest.

Evan laughed, loud and free.

The last few days with Carl had gone strangely well. Looking at the boy now, Evan could almost understand how Shane had slipped so deeply into the role of caring for Lori and Carl while Rick was gone.

It was easy to start feeling like the kid was yours.

"Evan," Carl said suddenly, leaning forward. "Is that Dad?"

"Hm?"

Evan narrowed his eyes and turned the music off.

Ahead of them, a man in a pale shirt was running straight toward the truck. He stumbled more than once and did not seem to care.

The brakes hissed.

Evan stopped the red brute on the farm road between two fields.

He jumped down from the driver's side and smiled as Rick came at him.

"Rick, what kind of welcome is this? Told you I'd bring Carl back safe and--"

Evan opened his arms for a hug.

Rick ran right past him.

He reached the passenger door, pulled Carl down, and crushed the boy against his chest.

Rick kept one hand cradled behind Carl's head and held him there, refusing to let go.

Only after he breathed in the scent of his son did the hollow place inside him finally settle.

The weight in his chest dropped.

"You're back," Rick kept saying. "You're back."

It sounded as if Carl was not the only thing that had returned.

He was the last thing still holding Rick up.

Evan watched the scene and clicked his tongue.

Then a fourth voice came from behind him.

"Brother, you finally decided to come home?" Merle said, panting as he arrived. He threw an arm over Evan's shoulder. "Have fun out there? Forgot camp existed?"

"Get off."

Evan knocked Merle's hand away.

"What happened while I was gone?"

Rick looked wrong. Not just worried. Worn down.

Merle did not bother lowering his voice.

"Nothing major. Shane found a whole mess of walkers in the barn after you left, then we cleaned 'em out."

On that issue, at least, Merle stood with Shane.

"Then we kept training. Rick and Lori started worrying about you. Well, mostly about Carl. Then everything turned into what you see."

He shrugged, almost careless.

Merle was an old bastard at heart. Before this, other than Daryl, there were very few things he truly cared about.

If the old man who had been their father ever stood in front of him as a walker, Merle would put a round through his skull.

And because that old man had been a bastard too, Merle might even show mercy by smashing the head afterward with the rifle stock until there was nothing left.

Evan understood enough.

'Seven days with Carl, and this is what happened.'

He raised Carl's importance to Rick another level in his mind.

Then he dragged the Stone Sledgehammer up and moved behind Rick.

The hammer flashed down.

A walker collapsed before it could reach them.

"Forgot to mention," Merle said behind him, grinning. "More walkers have been wandering around the farm lately."

"Next time wait until Rick gets bitten before telling me."

Evan did not even want to waste a proper insult on him.

He put the hammer away and touched Rick's shoulder.

"All right, Rick. Let's get back to camp. Carl survived the outside. Don't strangle him here."

"Sorry," Rick said quickly, loosening his arms. His eyes were red. "Sorry, Carl."

Holding his son again made him look alive in a way he had not a few minutes earlier.

"Get in," Evan said, opening the rear compartment.

When they returned to camp, everyone except Lori came out to meet the fire truck.

They watched it stop near the yard.

Glenn reacted first. He ran to the rear door and pulled it open.

Rick stepped down with Carl in his arms, the boy still wearing wooden armor.

Smiles spread through the camp before anyone could stop them.

"I thought our arrangement was about to die right here," Hershel said quietly as he approached Evan.

Then he walked past, leaving Evan with only the sight of his tired back.

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