Author's Note: I'm considering maybe doing an arc to cover what may have happened during the winter between seasons two and three, but I don't think it'll be very long if I do. Please let me know what you think.

I own nothing but my OC.

Chapter 29: Looks Like Rain

"Hey. Carl, Beth." Sam said with a soft whistle to get their attention. "Come take a look at this. This is another good one." She told them, pointing to the patch of chickweed she had just found.

"What is it?" Beth asked as they squatted down beside her to take a better look. It had been roughly three weeks since that night they spent at the old mill, and Sam, with Daryl's help, had been teaching the others some of the finer points of living off the land while on the run from walkers. While Daryl took Rick and the other men hunting, she would stay behind and help keep and eye on the other women and teach them how to forage and build shelter.

"Chickweed." Sam replied, smiling. "It's an invasive species, but right now it's a good thing for us that it's become naturalized here, because it likes cool and humid climates and is hardy enough to keep thriving during the winter. Chickweed tastes good and is good for you with ascorbic-acid, beta-carotene, calcium, magnesium, niacin, potassium, riboflavin, selenium, thiamin, zinc, copper, and Gamma-linolenic-acid. And, unlike many wild edibles, the chickweed's stems, leaves, flowers and seeds are all edible. It does hold nitrates and people with allergies to daisies might want to pass it by. Only the Mouse-ear chickweed has to be cooked. The rest can be eaten raw, but I think it tastes better cooked. There are some reasonably close look-alikes, but three things separates chickweed from poisonous pretenders. Any guesses what they are?" She asked.

"No milky sap?" Carl guessed.

"Right." She said, smiling. "No milky sap." Carl and Beth smiled at each other, happy their previous lessons were paying off. They knew now that milky sap meant the plant was poisonous and the sap contained a form of latex that didn't exactly mix well with humans. Anything with milky sap was to be avoided and left alone, never consumed. "Next, it has one line of hairs on its stem, that changes sides with each pair of leaves. Lastly, if you bend the stem, rotate each end counter each other, and pull gently the outer part of the stem will separated but the elastic inner part will not and you will have a stretched inner part between the two stem ends."

"Are the leaves always curled up like that?" Beth asked.

"No, that's another nice thing about chickweed. It's also a backyard barometer. Its leaves fold up when it's going to rain. The leaves also fold up at night. Cute. Also, chickweed is not an early riser, blossoms open late in the morning." Sam explained as she began picking it and adding it to the bag.

"Does that mean it's going to rain?" Carl asked, glancing up at the sky through the trees.

"Yep. So we should probably get back and warn the others that it's time to take in the wash, don't you think?" Sam suggested.

"Yeah. Maggie's gonna be so mad if it starts raining on the laundry after all the trouble they went through scrubbin' it clean." Beth agreed.

"Aren't you gonna take it all?" Carl asked when Sam stood up and brushed herself off, leaving behind a couple of clumps.

"No, I know it's tempting Carl, but you've gotta remember to leave Mother Nature's share behind. If you take too much from one plant at a time, you could send it into shock, and it'll get sick and stop growing. It won't be there the next time you need it." She replied as they started walking back to the abandoned cabin the group was currently staying at. "Besides, the animals have to eat too. No one wants to chew on a skinny squirrel, do they?"

"I'd rather not chew on one at all." Beth replied, wrinkling her nose slightly in disgust. She missed all the pork, beef, and chicken they used to have on the farm. Carl laughed.

"Yeah, well I bet it's better than frogs." He said. "Shane used to say he'd teach me how to catch them…" The two girls glanced at him, concerned when he suddenly fell quiet.

"You still mad at your Dad?" Sam asked, putting an arm around each of their shoulders to comfort them as they remembered the terrible revelation Rick had made that night.

"I'm glad my dad didn't die… but I wish he hadn't killed Shane. He was my friend too." Carl said sadly.

"I know. I know." She said, rubbing his back. "I'm sure your dad didn't want to hurt Shane either, but even though he was good to you, there was something that made him turn on Rick. Whatever it was, it was enough to make him a danger to someone who was supposed to be his best friend. He was probably afraid Shane might end up hurting you someday too. It's okay if you want to remember Shane as the man who was your friend and wanted to teach you how to catch frogs, but don't forget how much you love your father and how much he loves you, okay?"

" 'Kay." Carl replied quietly, nodding.

"So… what are you going to make with what we found today?" Beth asked venturing a change of topic in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Well, that all depends on what your Dads and Daryl bring back for us." Sam said thoughtfully. "But I was thinking maybe we could make some 'trail onion soup' using those wild onions, Jerusalem artichokes, and cattails we found. It'll be nice warm, easy to make, and good for the baby. The rest of the stuff we can start hanging up to dry inside or put in a jar to pickle. We need to start preserving more of the food we find before it gets scarce."

…

"Damn it, not again." Daryl cursed when they discovered the deer they had been tracking was being munched on by a walker. It groaned at them as it raised its head. "Shut up." He told it, shooting it right between the eyes with his crossbow.

"This animal hasn't been dead for a minute. It's just one of the legs, maybe we can cut it off, save the rest of the meat." Hershel suggested as he examined the bite area.

"I like the way you think, old man." Daryl told him, pulling out his knife. "Rick?"

"Go ahead." Rick said, giving him the okay. He trusted their judgment. If Hershel thought it was okay, then it probably was, and they couldn't afford to be too picky since there wasn't any food in that cabin they found the other day. There wasn't much left aside from some salt, pepper, vinegar, a jar of peanut butter, and a couple of mustard packets. It had probably already been picked over by another group passing through. "I'll make sure Carol knows it has to be well-done, just to be on the safe side."

…

"Ugh." Lori said, grimacing, as she set down her mug on the counter. "I really hope they find something new today, because I don't know how much more pine needle tea and pine nuts I can stand." Maggie laughed and Carol smiled. They had just gotten back from collecting more water with Glenn, and now the three women were getting ready to cook whatever the others brought back from their hunting and gathering trips while Glenn and T-Dog kept watch.

"At least we have a way to get some form of nutrition." Maggie said as she began pulling out a pot to start boiling more water in. "And I have to admit, it tastes better than I thought it would. Though I definitely wouldn't mind eating some real meat again."

"Amen to that." Carol said as Sam, Beth, and Carl strolled in through the back door.

"What's all that?" Lori asked, surprised to see that they had returned with all three garbage bags nearly full.

"Mostly acorns." Carl replied as he proudly set his bag down in front of his mother. "But Sam says we can grind 'em up and turn them into meal for baking and stuff. It'll take a few days to soak the tallow out of them, but once we do, maybe we can have some acorn pancakes?" He suggested hopefully.

"You're kidding. Acorns?" Lori asked, smiling wryly, as she looked at Sam and Beth for confirmation.

"It's pretty good actually." Sam replied, shrugging. "Acorn flour has a nice, nutty flavor."

"And we also have wild onions and garlic, chickweed, Jerusalem artichokes, dandelions, cattails, and some Usnea lichen." Beth added.

"Lichen?" Carol asked dubiously while Maggie couldn't help but make a face at the thought.

"Believe it or not, it's high in vitamin C, and nearly everyone from the Native Americans to the Europeans to the Chinese have used it to dress wounds." Sam said reassuringly, setting her own bag down as she took a seat by the table so she could start sorting and prepping its contents for eating or whatever other plans she had for it. "Oh, yeah. I should probably add that it's going to rain soon, y'all might want to bring the laundry in before it gets wet."

"How—" Lori started to ask.

"The chickweed leaves were curled up." Carl said, grinning.

"Is there anything she doesn't know?" Maggie asked Beth as they went outside to help Carol take the laundry off the line.

"I'm starting to doubt that." Beth admitted, smiling wryly.

"Hey, look. The others are back." Glenn said when he saw the three men driving up in the grey Dodge Ram 1500 truck they had found at one of their last places, returning victoriously from the hunt with a stag in the back.

"Ha-hey!" T-Dog cheered as he went over to help Rick and Daryl drag it into the cabin. "All right, looks like we're gonna have us a feast."

"Praise the Lord." Maggie said, exhaling a sigh of relief. "For a minute there, I thought we might really end up having to Sam's lichen."

"Lichen?" Glenn asked, making a face.

"Don't ask." She told him, shaking her head. "Oh, crap!" She cursed when it suddenly started raining and rushed off to grab the rest of the laundry before it got soaked.

…

"We put down a walker about eight miles from her today." Rick announced as they were cleaning up after lunch. Everyone stopped what they were doing and glanced up at him.

"I'll get the chart." Sam said, about to get up, when Daryl stopped her.

"I got it." He told her. She needed to finish prepping those greens for drying and pickling.

"Does this mean we have to leave again?" Beth asked.

"It might." Hershel said as Daryl unrolled the chart they had made of known walker sightings with their number, status, and known locations on the table.

"That makes nine spotted within a ten mile radius over the last three days." Daryl informed them as they all gathered around to look.

"It's the same as that time a whole pack of them almost snuck up on us." T-Dog said. It wasn't exactly a full-fledged herd, but there had been enough of them to cause some serious trouble, and they were running low on ammo again.

"All right. We'll spend one more night here and hit the road in the morning." Rick decided after thinking for a moment. "That'll give us time to finish packing up and figure out our next destination."

"About that… I might have an idea." Glenn said, causing them all to glance at him. "Remember those keys we found that didn't fit any of the locks in the house? Well, I think they're for a storage locker. If this used to be someone's hunting cabin, then maybe that's where they kept their guns."

"If they're still there." T-Dog said.

"Even if that locker is empty, there could still be plenty of stuff left in the others." Daryl pointed out.

"But how would we get in without a key?" Lori asked.

"They'd have backups in the supervisor's office, wouldn't they?" Sam asked.

"I can't imagine too many people would've stayed around long enough to become walkers inside one of those place." Maggie added. If it was her, she would've gone home to be with her family rather than stay at work to guard who knows what.

"We probably won't find any food, but there could be clothes, blankets, furniture… some people put practically their entire homes in those things." Carol said. They glanced at her. "Ed used to watch this show called 'Storage Wars'." She explained.

"What if it's in a city?" Lori asked. "It could already be overrun."

"We can find one that isn't." Rick said. He was starting to like this idea. If those things were made to keep people from breaking in, then they might be able to keep walkers out. "It's settled. When we leave here tomorrow, we'll start looking for a public storage unit that isn't too close to the city. If it's secure, we can make runs to search other buildings and houses for food, canned goods that'll really last, start stocking up for the winter."

…

"I'm surprised you're not riding with Daryl." T-Dog remarked, glancing at Sam from behind the wheel of the truck. "What's the matter? You two get in a fight, or you just keeping an eye on your pickled greens and soggy acorns back there." Sam glanced back at the bed of the pickup where she had filled two drums up with acorns and water so they could start soaking the tallow out of them while on the move and the crate of mason jars full of pickled wild greens she had put together the previous evening.

"Sure, you make fun of them now, but we both know it'll be a different story once you're eating some hot and fluffy acorn bred fresh from the camp stove." She replied smartly. "There's nothing wrong. Daryl just needs space to be 'Daryl' every now and then."

"Well, he's got three whole car lengths now." T-Dog said with a chuckle and a shake of his head. "But I get what you're sayin'. We're always right on top of each other even when we're not on the road stuck in these cramped cars together."

"That's why you always volunteer to drive the truck, right?" Sam asked with a knowing smile. It was usually his chance to be on his own for awhile.

"Damn straight." T-Dog admitted, smiling. "Just don't spend too much time in here with me. I don't want to have to deal with a jealous, angry redneck on my ass."