A Place Just For Us (Rick Grimes)

Chapter Thirteen: Sandcastles

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❝ I can't go any further than this
I want you so badly, it's my biggest wish ❞

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There were scuffles of quick sounds as people in the distance rushed towards us. The questions that were being asked didn't quite make sense yet in reason of the wind rushing past my ears.

During our walk back to the camp, the weather had clearly turned a whole lot. The clouds above our heads were barely letting any sun through and rain threatened to fall.

It was Maggie and Glenn that were approaching us in a hurry, their voices still being disturbed by the rough and cold wind. Their words slowly started to make sense as they got closer to us, and their faces were dripping with worry.

"What the hell happened? We heard gunshots." Glenn panted heavily through his words, but somehow I could make sense of them.

Carl answered him before I could. "Walkers."

Maggie wrapped her arms around her father's neck only to remove them a second later and plant a kiss on his forehead.

"At my favourite fishing spot." Hershel added.

Glenn glanced up at the sky, and I copied his actions when he did. I could see clouds colliding, and they'd gotten even darker than before. Terrible weather meant a terrible living. The camper and our tents and the trees were the only shelter for the rain, and it was hard to make a good fire during bad weather.

"It seems like this area's attracting more of them for some reason." I said suspiciously.

Glenn nodded. "No idea where they're coming from, but I don't like it— exactly why we need to move and find a new place."

"What if we can't?" Hershel joined in. "What if the best that we can find is worse than this? We'll be stuck or forced to stay on the road— almost equally as dangerous if you ask me."

That was true. Sometimes the group forgot that there was a chance of not finding something better. It hadn't even crossed my mind.

"Right." Maggie sighed, resting her head on her father's shoulder with a worried expression resting on her face.

Carl looked down at his feet. I placed a hand on his shoulder. I didn't want him to be afraid even if there was a small chance that he wasn't. "Let's just go." I said. "It'll take some time to clean the fish."

"Yeah, we should." Glenn agreed. "The weather's getting worse and I'm sure Rick and Shane will be back soon as well."

Carl's head snapped up at the mention of his father. "Where did they go?" The boy asked.

"Hunting." Maggie answered. "They've been gone for a while. I'm sure they'll be back soon."

The five of us walked back to the camper and the tents surrounding it while discussing the next couple of hours and what should be done to prevent any possible danger that could easily arise. With Rick still gone, Carl was proceeding to come up with ideas to increase the safety— I had to give it to him— he really was a smart kid.

     Carol and Beth were chopping up vegetables and Daryl was silently cleaning his arrows— not that they needed much cleaning after not being used.

     "How's the leg?" I ask him.

     A smile crept across his face when he saw me, continuing to wipe his arrows with a wet cloth. "Doing just fine. How's the fish?"

     Carl showed him the inside of the bucket and Daryl took that as my answer. His brown eyes darted between us both, putting up an impressed face and he slowly got on two feet with the slightest bit of trouble.

     One of his arrows was caught between his fingers, and he rested one on my left shoulder. "I hereby officially declare that you, Hayley, are the fish princess of our camp." Then, he brought the arrow to my right shoulder as I tried to tame my chuckles.

Carl started clapping, and I think that was the first time that I had seen him truly laugh. So I bowed, playing along with them.

     Only a few minutes went by until I heard his voice. Regardless of the wind being loud and interrupting, we all heard it loud and clear, and spun around to see the man that we all looked at for answers when in need of them, the man that Carl looked up to— that I had dozens of mixed feelings about as I admired him just as much as the others did at the same time.

     Part of me wanted to walk away after having seen his face once, knowing I could barely handle a second time without feeling all sort of things, but my feet were glued to the gross when he approached.

     "Carl! Carl, hey— are you okay? Maggie told me what happened."

     He got down on one knee in front of his son, both hands grasping around the boy's face. "Yes— I'm fine. I'm fine, dad."

     "I should've gone with you." Rick mumbled as he wrapped his arms around Carl, squeezing him against his chest. "I should've gone with you— I'm sorry."

     "You can't be everywhere at the same time, Rick." Hershel quickly stated. "Besides, we were in good hands."

     Hershel's eyes flew to meet mine. I gave him a smile in return, keeping my eyes crossed over my chest as my back rested against the camper tiredly. I didn't say word during the family meeting, just watched as Rick ignored me completely— or maybe he was too busy with Carl to even take a look around. And I convinced myself I didn't need him to.

     Had he noticed the dark clouds? Must've. I noticed Shane eyeing the fences not too far away from us, pulling and pushing the metal to see if it'd hold.

     My first instinct was to go up to him, but after last night I couldn't bare to look him straight in the eyes yet. He wasn't even aware of what I knew— though I could've easily figured it out without having heard him last night.

     Just as I expected, questions were rolling in. Will the fences hold? How will we eat? Are we in trouble? What if the Walkers get through? And Rick seemed completely lost in thought as he had trouble answering them all and coming up with something at the same time.

Eventually, decisions were made. There would be four people watching the fences instead of two, and it was Shane's duty to help Carol keep the fire alive somehow. I heard him say something about creating some kind of wall to decrease the wind.

Beth and Carl had gotten the order to get the fish cleaned up and ready— but the youngest boy wasn't exactly satisfied with that and continued to wine about how he wanted to be on watch.

"There's responsibility for everything." Rick had said. "Even for the fish."

I decided to give the tents some stability seeing as the wind was trying to rip them away every now and then. And it didn't take long before I was slowly drowning in my own thoughts.

A/N: I hope this chapter was okay. I don't exactly like it but fillers are needed, you know. Plus, I needed to include the others some more. I promise the next chapter will be way more interesting. Way way way more interesting. (And lets also hope there aren't many spelling mistakes ha).

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