dear_mun | (no subject)

You should know better than to ask that. [ But it's more resignedly amused than scolding, by far. It's true, though--from what Carol's seen, asking 'what now' isn't so different from volunteering for the next unfortunate turn of events. ]

[Shrug.] Just wonderin' what kinda nutjob brings me all the way out here without a plan is all. Got a good mind to walk out before everythin' turns to shit. [Again, he almost adds, except that he's not so ignorant nor so cruel as to squash what little optimism they have left for the future under the weight of that one word. He settles for toeing at the dirt with the front of his boot instead, chewing anxiously at his cheek, crossbow slung loosely across his shoulders.]

Don't like that you're here neither. You're better off stayin' where it's safe. [Because he's a buzz-kill that way.]

Yes, well. [ There's not a whole lot that either of them can do about it, really. And while the 'again' may go unspoken, she knows it's there. And to be honest, she agrees--as optimistic as she tries to keep and as firmly as she clings to the belief that things will all end up fine this time, it's harder by the day not to give in and wait for the worst.

But Daryl doesn't need to know that. Carol pulls together a little positivity for his sake: ] Some of the others have found better places now. Places without the dead. [ Or so she hears, anyway.]

Rumors. ['Cause that's all they could ever be, right? They wouldn't just up and leave without so much as a thanks-for-keepin'-us-alive, would they? Daryl's got enough abandonment issues as it is..] Places like that exist, we'd have found them already. Just gotta keep fightin'. Gotta stay strong.

[There's nothing else they for it, is there?]

[ Well, it could very well be rumors, that's true. But then, they didn't just up and leave--the way Carol understands it, they don't have much choice in the matter. Like she and Daryl didn't choose to be here, wherever this is.

Carol believes these places exist. But for now, she'll leave it be. ]

Maybe you're right.

Most likely? Something awful. That tends to be the way of it, no matter where you go.

World's gone to shit, no doubt about that. [Daryl spits into the dirt, his crossbow loose about his bony shoulders.] Don't see how it could get any worse.

That's the spirit. [ Lips twist wryly. ] Onward and upward from here on out, then.

At a guess I'd say you wind up being lunch.

Other folks, maybe. [But Daryl's a survivor. Always has been. It'll take something a lot stronger and smarter than a couple of zombie fuckwits with a taste for southern meat to take him down, that's for sure.] Made it alright so far, ain't I?

So far. But it's not just the monsters that are hungry.