Daisy | The Walking Dead

9. Vatos Ⅱ

~Day Sixty-one~

In the cramped booth at the back of the RV, the children sat together, dwarfed by towering shelves stocked with canned foods, gallons of water, and other life-saving supplies. Despite the limited space, they managed to make themselves comfortable amidst the clutter.

Under the midday sun, the RV's interior grew hot and humid, with a faint smell of sweat lingering in the air. Lori carefully opened the door with a gentle touch, but the rusty hinges screeched in protest, causing Daisy to jump.

A dim battery-operated lamp hung above, casting an eerie glow over the surfaces of the booth. The light mixed with the faint rays of sunlight filtering through the smudged windows, creating strange and distorted shadows on the walls. The atmosphere felt unsettling, as if the RV was a small, sealed-off world within the already isolated quarry camp.

Lori's eyes scanned the RV until they landed on Carl, who made no attempt to hide his irritation as he rolled his eyes and pouted.

"Carl, sweetie," Lori called out, beckoning him over. "Come out here, your dad and I need to talk to you."

"Ugh, Mom, do I have to?" Carl whined.

"Now, Carl," Lori replied firmly.

Daisy stood up, allowing Carl to squeeze past her and Sophia. He muttered a disgruntled "bye, guys" as he dragged his feet across the thin RV carpet.

The two girls gave half-hearted waves as Lori ushered Carl out of the camper. The Morales children followed them outside, arguing and clearly eager to get away from each other.

As they left, they didn't bother to close the door, and the rusting door prop fell and clicked into place. The girls left behind in the RV could hear the Morales siblings yelling at each other in a mix of angry Spanish and English as they walked further away, their voices carrying.

"Eliza is probably being a bossy boots again" commented Sophia, "That's why I don't really like playing with them anymore."

"It's always her way or no way," she continued as Daisy halfheartedly nodded along, lost in her own thoughts, "and Luis is always just so whiny."

Although Daisy was listening, she was preoccupied with a ribbon of her book bag peeking out from the passenger floorboard. She briefly considered reaching for it and grabbing one of her books to dive into a world of literature.

But the thought quickly vanished from her mind. She only had two books and didn't want to finish them too quickly. She wanted to savor the imaginary worlds and characters for as long as possible.

Daisy fervently hoped that Glenn would find the final book in the Skinjacker series soon. She could borrow one of Dale's books, but they were all ancient and uninteresting to her. She craved stories about magical worlds and supernatural abilities, not tales about a lunatic chasing a whale or a wealthy man searching for his ex-girlfriend.

Sophia carefully folded up the "survival pact," which had been drawn on the back of a half-colored page of an animate ice cream cone. Her eyes lit up, and she grasped Daisy's hands, "Wanna hit the water? My mom has some bathing suits in her car that we can use!"

Before Daisy could respond, Glenn and T-dog strode into the camper, their expressions conveying unease and distress.

Sophia sensed the tension and awkwardly stood up, stuttering, "Uh, I'll catch you later, Daisy."

She quickly excused herself past the men and gave a hurried wave goodbye to Daisy, who looked apprehensive.

"Hey, Little D," T-dog spoke first.