The group had become accustomed to the rhythm of the current and the days on the boat had taken over the routine. Every day you fished. With the end of civilization and large-scale fishing, the freshwater fauna seemed to multiply. Each time you lowered the bait, the hook appeared a little later with an attached fish. You all ate so much fish that they could not stand it anymore. When Judith first saw the group of caught fish, she began to cry as she saw the animals desperately fighting and hoping for survival. Since she already ate whatever they ate, they still hadn't told her that their meals consisted largely of the animals that once gasped for air. Even if Michonne was searching for a way to tell her without angering her or getting her to become a vegetarian. Every morning they collected the water from the river and boiled it to purify it, and they cooked fish on the remnants of the embers. It had been at least a couple of weeks since you had traveled this way, and Rick had decided to set up camp again on the edge of the river.

"We need more food, red meat, carbohydrates, vegetables, we have plenty of water and we don't use it, we could cook something to make it last longer..."

"And Judith needs new clothes.", Maggie pointed out.

"She has nothing to do, I'm afraid that if she starts exploring the boat she will only have weapons and knives to play with, she could get seriously injured.", Glenn added.

"You're right, Glenn. Anything else?"

You raised your hand as if you were in class and Rick was the teacher.

"Towels."

"Okay." The man looked around. Carl shifted his weight from one foot to the other and glanced at you.

"Carl?"

"Maybe we could get some books-...", he finally said. "...-for Judith."

Carl didn't think it would ever really use anything, but the school was missing. Still, it was different. He would give everything for an hour at school.

"School books?"

"Yes." Carl looked at you. "Maybe you can help me choose which one."

You smiled and approached him. "What were your favorite subjects?"

"None really, but don't tell my dad, even if it does not matter anymore..."

You two went around, and before you disappeared on the other side of the boat, you put an arm on Carl's lean shoulders, who was a few inches taller than you. You looked like an older sister with your little brother, tall and relaxed, yet Daryl wondered to what extent he could be jealous of a boy like Carl. You wanted to be with Carl. One thing that undoubtedly made you pathetic, at least in Daryl's eyes.

An approaching group of Walkers roamed the schoolyard and prevented entry. "There are too many, we can't kill them all."

"Maybe we could find a side entrance."

"Or maybe a city library, something else."

You snapped your lips. "I don't want to risk returning home empty-handed, I promised Carl I would bring him something to read, it's nice he wants to learn, he'll teach Judith everything a survivor needs to know."

Daryl watched the Walkers they had noticed. They were so rotten that it didn't seem possible to realize that they were once human beings.

"Why would anyone want to know what it was like before? It's damn depressing."

You gave him an annoyed look and approached the fence. You stepped against it to attract the Walkers, they came from everywhere, in large quantities. Civilians, but also several in uniform, some of those who looked like teachers. They must have been there for a long time. Many didn't even have skin on their bones.

"Holy shit." You walked around the fence to find a flaw, but the living dead were everywhere. Daryl and you went to the back of the building and found out that one side of the gym was facing the street. However, access was prevented by a security door that can only be opened from the inside.

"Any idea?"

Daryl went to a window and looked inside. The windows were thick, but if he found something suitable, he could break them open. "We need a big rock, a tough stick, anything, we have to break those windows and enter." You both started to look around. It took longer than expected, and Daryl struggled to split the glass. The corridors were deserted, except for a few Walkers you sometimes crossed, luckily not as many as outside. After some research, you found the school library and stopped. You boldly wandered around the shelves, pulling out books and putting them back in their place. Daryl had to kill some Walkers, who were like parodies of bored students in the corridors. After he saw how a Walker suddenly appeared to attack him, Daryl decided to close the library door for more security. After a few minutes, he reached your desk and put a stack of books beside her. "And what's that stuff? Physics? Biology?"

"Looks like you're intelligent.", Daryl said, as if that was an answer to everything.

You began to leaf through the books Daryl had brought you to make a stack next to you.

"Did you like the school?"

Daryl looked absently at the books, didn't touch a single book and pretended that all these volumes were just something to look at. "No, hated it, left early because of Merle."

"Who is Merle?"

Daryl pursed his lips and turned to keep you from looking at him.

"Was my damn brother."

You didn't say anything and after a few minutes Daryl piled the books in his arms. The man laughed a little, as he had not done for some time, but tried to nip it in the bud, but without success.

"I bet you were one of those girls who just got good grades and who enjoyed having time for textbooks and probably your first boyfriend was one of the football team players."

You looked back at the books, a slight smile on your lips. "It's sadly true, I loved going to school and I got good grades, but I didn't like athletes.",you said, glancing at Daryl with a sidelong glance."So it was more practical and I could focus more on my career and on myself.", you smiled and went back to the desk, leaned against some books and watched Daryl thoughtfully. "I have so many, we have to at least halve them, the backpack is pretty heavy. I don't think there are other crazy people like us who are in search of literature during the Apocalypse. Apart from Travis, probably... ", you added in a low voice.

Daryl picked up a book from a pile. "Boring."

"How can you say that, did you read it?", you asked, sitting on the desk next to him, holding the book in your hands. "Don't know."

"You can read them if you want, books are things that are worth remembering the old world."

"What's this shit?" Daryl grabbed another book from the pile and started examining it. He was leaning on the desk and getting even closer to you. He hadn't realized it immediately, but when he saw you, he had to admit that he liked this recurring intimacy. It wasn't like two simple acquaintances with each other or just like two friends who were together. It was another kind of contact he liked to share with you. You kept your eyes lowered, but when you didn't hear him speak, you raised your head. You both looked at each other. His first instinct was to go away, but before he could, he remembered the moments in the basement of the store while you both were both locked up there. He had touched you gently... It had been a caress, as if he wanted to comfort you. It was time to kiss you, Daryl knew it. He should do it without much thought or he wouldn't try again. But what if you didn't want it? The man immediately rejected the thought from his head. You both don't come so close by chance... But to avoid the risk of a bad impression, it is better to be careful. He put a hand on your face, halfway between cheek and neck. He approached you easily, but without filling the space between you completely. The lips of you reached him a little later and formed a chaste kiss, which you stretched out as long as you could. You turned away from him, bit your lower lip and looked him in the eye. A few seconds passed and Daryl lost himself in this sensual movement. He kissed you again and in that moment he realized that he still held the book you talked about. He dropped it to the floor with a dull thud. He clasped your face with one hand, the other clutching your pelvis. You seemed to forget all the concerns you had had so far. First you had your hands on Daryl's chest, then you slid them over his back. You sat in front of him, surrounding him with your thighs to make her hug tighter. Your lips were soft and sensual. Daryl broke the kiss just to see it again. He ran his thumb over your lower lip, watched its fullness and then kissed you again. He clung to your hips as if to save you from this brutal world. Daryl put his hands over yout torso and stroked your breasts, your nipples stiffening immediately and this sent him a wave of arousal through his body. He ran his hands back to your hips and, without stopping to kiss you, he laid you slowly on the desk. From that moment he hesitated. He was excited, but he didn't know how much he should go to you. He was afraid that you didn't want it or that you hadn't considered it an erotic situation. Maybe it was just romantic kisses for you that exchanged, but he had a different impression. Daryl looked at you and noticed that your lips parted, an expression that seemed amused and satisfied. As if you had already left the most pleasant sensation in the world. And you chose him... He leaned forward to kiss the neck of you and you offered it to him and arched your back. For the first time, a light groan escaped your lips, nothing but a sigh of joy, but enough to excite Daryl even more. He pressed his pelvis against you. His erection was so obvious that you would probably recognize it immediately. He looked up to see your reaction and realized he had a half-open mouth as he considered the situation. You responded immediately with a small moan. "Daryl..."

"Do you want me to stop?", the man asked in pale imitation of your previous conversation.

"No...", you chuckled. Daryl sneered as well and lowered himself to kiss you again. But the sudden sound of a fall made you both jump up. You looked up the door but saw nothing and exchanged a look. "We should go.", said the man laboriously, moving away from you and turning away, suddenly overcome with embarrassment.

"Yes..." You arranged your bra and top, threw another pair of books in your backpack, ignoring the titles, and you both were preparing to leave.

It passed a few days before the borders of the river along which you sailed were thinned to show a different landscape than before. Carl looked up from a book and approached the parapet. "That's not possible...", he murmured in confusion, noticing that what initially looked like an open sea ended in the distance. Behind the water, the mountains stood out, but the morning mist didn't allow you to see them at first glance.

"There are still a few miles to the sea.", Michonne said, flanking him.

"That's a lake.", Glenn finally said.

The whole group had gathered on the bridge to see the lake. The lake opened before you, as if to give a taste of what the ocean would be like. For Rick and the others, it seemed too spacious, used to the troubled but relatively closed banks of the river. You breathed in fresh air and smiled. You weren't afraid, it reminded you of good times.

"We have to start the engine.", Rick said, heading for the cab. Until then, you had been driven by the current, following the logic that the river would bring them to the sea themselves. You had fuel on the ship but didn't want to waste it. So far, you have only used it when you had to move fast or when you had to navigate in shallow water. The group moved slowly to the rhythm determined by the currents. After all, you were in no hurry to get anywhere.

"The lake is shallow, the currents are deep, it is better to drive the engine, it will take less time and we will not risk running aground in the water." Carol took the helm after talking to Rick about the route. You came from a tributary and had to take another route. No one knew this lake, but you thought that if you were not very far from the coast, you would have found a way to continue your journey, a river that came out of the lake elsewhere. On the left side was a small island. Not much bigger than a field and overgrown with dense vegetation that rose in the middle.

"How will we know where we will end?", Carl asked.

"That's not important.", Maggie said.

Daryl moved some food between his lips from left to right. "The current is already leading us in the right direction, we are landing in the Gulf of Mexico or something."

The boy looked excited. "So that means we will live on an island?"

"Forget it!", you said quickly. "We will not think what it's like to spend our time on an island where you can drive around in half a day."

Carl snorted. "And where are we -...?" A violent thrust suddenly dropped everyone to the ground. Carl was face down on the deck of the boat.

"What happened?" Rick straightened and ran to the captain's cabin. "Did we hit something, did we get stuck?"

"No." Carol gestured to herself and didn't need another word. You had just wandered around the small island when a swarming mass of Walkers swam and growled in the water. Many did nothing but remain compassionately there, looking up to the sky and emitting their inconveniences. Others moved, especially when they collided. Some tried to go up the coast to climb the mainland. But many couldn't even get up. The rotting flesh was torn as soon as the water support left it. It was a grotesque sight.

"Is everything safe?", Rick asked when you were within earshot.

"I guess so. The Walkers can not climb, they are already completely decomposed. We can overcome them without danger, but it is better to avoid them. If one of them gets stuck in the engine, we have a problem. Personally, I have no idea how to fix it and if we get stuck in the middle of the lake... Well, it will be difficult to swim ashore."

At these words, Carol turned around and moved away from the Walkers. Carl, who had gotten up, had taken the binoculars to make sure that the living dead wouldn't attack or damage the boat, but suddenly lowered it again. "Dad, there's someone back there!"

Rick, who wanted to go on deck again, turned around.

"Come and have a look!"

The man approached the parapet and took the binoculars out of his son's hands. On one of the shores of the island, a group of several survivors tried to deal with the Walkers, which emerged from the water like ugly caricatures of sea monsters. They turned their backs on each other to protect each other, but it was clear that they were at a disadvantage. If they couldn't find a quick escape route, they wouldn't survive.

"What are we going to do?"

Rick hesitated, the usual sense of disgust in his stomach that he already knew well. There had been many of these moments since the beginning of the Apocalypse. Should he decide whether he addresses strangers, offers them shelter and trust and is human? Or should he choose his group, his family, his survival and be a murderer? Each time it was a dilemma, each time the decision was different and there was no way to learn from past mistakes. It was just a matter of luck. How should he know if they were good people?

"Nothing."

He didn't know it and nobody dared say anything. Apart from the Walkers below, they remained silent and turned away from the survivors on the island. The only one who didn't move was Carl, who left his binoculars and looked at the island with an undecipherable expression on his face.

"Can I?" You reached for the binoculars but the boy held it tight.

"Maybe it would be better not to look."

"When it's time to pay for my sins, I'll let you know what we're talking about here." You raised the binoculars to your eyes and after a second you sobbed. You started to move to the bottom of the ship to keep an eye on the island. You almost ran, but stopped at the top.

"Travis! Alicia!"

The group turned and looked at you, astonished and alarmed at the same time. The only one who understood the situation was Daryl. He ran to you and saw a look of serious anxiety on you face.

"Y/N... No."

When he reached you, you had already pushed him away. But the next moment you grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him to you. Your eyes were ice cold and determined.

"Trust me.", you said and jerked Daryl away, staggering backwards, realizing that the gesture was absolutely justified. He had no time to regain balance or notice what really happened. You used those few seconds to regain balance and jumped into the lake.

Disappeared in the sea of ​​the living dead...