"It's reality." You ain't a happy drunk at all--she can just about hear Daryl's voice. (The humid Georgia weather remains stubbornly far from reach, along with the sense that she'll see her people again soon.) People expect you to be an optimist or a pessimist, but both of those are great ways to end up underground. You have to see things for what they are and try to make the best of them.

The way Byerly puts it isn't how she would--truth be told, she's getting kind of tired of excitement--but she can see the truth of it nonetheless. She nods, watching his face in the shifting light. "Nothing good ever happens when you're dead. Trust me."