A/N: A sequel of sorts to Lucky. This story is Rick and company centric with OC's. Some elements from the comics and some elements from the show mixed together with some elements from me.

Rick Grimes shook his head as he surveyed the destruction of Alexandria.

"What are we going to do, Dad?" Carl's worried question brought Rick up short.

Rick had no idea what they were going to do. He looked at the three people who were standing with him. "I don't know, Carl. I don't know." He sniffed and wiped his eyes. "Hilltop," he wheezed out, bent over holding his ribs. He knew they were bruised. Carl helped him into the back seat of the only car they had left, then held his own arm, Abraham was driving, Sasha and Aaron up front.

"You alright, Carl?" he croaked out.

Carl nodded and wiped his eyes. "Fine, Dad. Let's get to Hilltop. We can stay with Maggie while we decide what to do."

He hoped they were okay.

Glenn watched as Maggie kneeled on the ground crying at the destruction of Hilltop. He wanted to join her. His and Maggie's relationship had been strained ever since she'd backed Rick when he and Carol were going to take over Alexandria. He almost didn't go with her to Hilltop, but he was still so pissed at Rick. He turned, knife out, when he heard a car. He kept it out even when he saw Sasha, Aaron and Abraham walk over.

"Shit," Abraham shouted.

"Alexandria?"

"The same," Sasha admitted.

The flames were getting higher, attracting a lot of walker attention. "We need to go."

"Where?" Sasha shouted in anger.

"The Kingdom," he sneered. He left and walked over to his wife. "We need to go, Maggie."

She looked up with tears falling on her cheeks. "Where?" she repeated Sasha's question.

"The Kingdom. Maybe this didn't happen to Ezekiel." He held out his hand and she grabbed on tight.

"Okay. Maybe."

He jerked his head in the direction of the car to Jesus, the only other person they'd seen, alive, from Hilltop. Rick looked like he'd been hurt. Carl sat on Jesus's lap like Maggie was on his. As they drove away he put his head against Maggie's back and watched Jesus as he looked out the back window at a destroyed Hilltop.

"What the fuck," Sasha screamed as they sat in the car outside the gates of a burning Kingdom.

"Shit," Aaron shouted from beside her.

"Negan," Abraham growled.

"This wasn't Negan," Jesus snarled. "He needed us. Cowed and giving him food."

"He's right," Rick grunted. "He'd kill us, one at a time to prove he could, but he needed us."

"What are we gonna do?" Maggie whispered.

"We need to make a decision. Soon," Aaron pointed to the walkers that were now becoming interested in their car.

"Oh god," Sasha hissed.

"Dad," Carl yelled.

Abraham was out of the car and stabbed the walker in the head before he headed back to the car. "We gonna."

"Yeah," Rick cut him off. "When they go away. Just…drive, Abraham. Find someplace. We'll come back, see what we can scavenge."

"Then what, Rick?" Sasha turned with a sneer.

"I don't know, Sasha," Rick shouted back.

"Hey, I'm right here," Aaron raised his voice. "There's no need to yell." He closed his eyes and sighed. "Look, we're all just."

"We're pissed," Jesus cut him off sharply. "This? Screaming at each other? This isn't helping. Right now, we need to find a place, relatively safe, wait a few days and then go back to Hilltop, Alexandria and here. See what we can find. Then we need to think of something."

Abraham drove. As he looked for a place, he huffed out a harsh laugh, causing Sasha to side eye him. He ignored her. When he saw a sign for West Springfield he turned off. "Almost out of gas," he said. At the first hotel he saw he pulled in and got out of the car. He didn't wait for the others before heading to the lobby doors. Knocking, he saw a few walkers coming his way. He opened the door and shot them both.

"Abraham," Maggie hissed.

"Dead, aren't they?" he sneered and stomped inside.

"What are we going to do, Dad?" Carl whispered to his father in the dark. Glenn, Aaron and Jesus had cleared out a few rooms for them. After Aaron wrapped his dad's ribs and his arm with some towels, they each got in a bed.

"I don't know, Carl," his dad said again.

Carl was tired. He'd lost his mom, his sister. He'd almost lost his dad. He didn't want to be alone, but he was so tired of fighting.

"Do you think we should just kill ourselves?"

"What?"

Carl heard the other bed creak and knew his dad was either looking at him or sitting up and looking at him.

"Do you think we should just kill ourselves?" he repeated his question. "We could be with mom, like Judith."

"No, Carl, we shouldn't just kill ourselves," his dad whispered then sniffed. He knew his dad was crying. "This? This is bad, son, but we can't give up."

He sat up and looked in the direction his dad's voice was coming from. "Why not? We lost the quarry, we lost the prison and now we lost Alexandria. We lost Judith," he shouted. Then he started crying. The next thing he knew his dad was hugging him and Carl felt tears, from his dad, in his hair.

"I know this is hard, Carl, and there's nothang I can say or do to make it better. We can't just give up." He kissed Carl's head. "Your mom, she said you'd beat this world. Maggie told me," his dad hugged him harder when he twitched. "You are smart, strong and brave, Carl." His dad sniffed again. "I know I haven't been the best father to you, Carl. I made mistakes. But doing anythang I could to keep you and your sister alive, those weren't mistakes."

"Judith," he sniffled.

"Yeah. Judith. I'm sorry I couldn't, didn't, do everythang I could to keep her with us. I tried my hardest. I did. You did, too. It wasn't enough. We can't give up now. We need to be strong for each other. For your mom. For Judith."

Carl hugged his dad and they both cried themselves to sleep.

"Glenn?" Maggie whispered.

"Maggie?"

"What are we gonna do now?"

Maggie had cried her tears until she didn't have any left. Was it worth it to keep goin'? To lose constantly? Every time they made a home they lost it. She was so tired of losing. Her daddy, Beth, Shawn, Otis, Annette, the farm, the prison, Ty, Bob, Judith, Hilltop.

"I…don't know," he whispered back before he pulled her in arms and held her tight.

"Should we even try anymore?"

"Yes, Maggie, we should. We will. Maybe we should go back to the prison," Glenn suggested.

"I…couldn't, Glenn. Not after Daddy. Beth."

"We'll figure something out, but we shouldn't give up, Maggie. Hershel wouldn't want you to think like that."

"I don't know what to do anymore, Glenn."

"Live, Maggie. It's all we can do. Live."

"What should we do?" Sasha asked quietly. She and Abraham were sharing a room. She didn't want to be alone, but she didn't want to be with the others. Abraham was her choice.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I'd like to kill Eugene," he continued after a few minutes of silence.

She snorted. "Any particular reason or just because he went with Negan?"

"If I hadn't fallen for his bullshit I could be with my wife and kids right now."

She inhaled sharply. She'd thought of killing herself. After Ty. When the Wolves had almost destroyed Alexandria she got angry. It was her home, even though those people were weak and clueless. After Negan, when he killed Eric and Nicholas, she thought about it again. Then she got angry. She didn't have any anger or care anymore. She was empty. Going through the motions. Breathing because it was habit. They were the walking dead Rick had called them in the barn. Daryl hadn't known what the hell he was talking about.

"Any ideas?" Aaron asked Jesus, who was in the other bed. They'd decided to share a room. This was hard on everyone and as much as he wanted to yell, too, it wouldn't do any good.

Jesus sighed. "I…don't want to stay around here."

"Mm." He rolled to his side, faced the other bed and was grateful for the dark. "I don't either."

"Even if we find more people, Aaron, Hilltop was on fire," he shouted. "The Kingdom and Alexandria. We, it would be tough, to try and rebuild. Negan." He barked out a harsh laugh. "I hope this happened to him, too."

Aaron could get behind that.

Glenn made sure Maggie was sleeping when he got out of bed. He hoped he wouldn't see any of the others right now. He needed to be alone for a minute. As he made his way to the lobby he ducked behind the front desk and searched, coming up empty. They needed to find something to drink, at the very least. He remembered walking from Terminus with no water, eating dog. Until Aaron found them.

He knocked on the employee door, didn't hear anything and went inside. Empty. Like everything else. Closing it, he sagged to the floor, his back against the door and cried a little. He didn't know what to do anymore. Maybe Maggie was right and they should just…end it. The loss. The pain. He hadn't killed many people, he didn't want to kill people but he couldn't bring himself to commit suicide. This. It couldn't be like this all over. It couldn't.

There had to be places, civilized places, almost like Alexandria, out there. The Saviors, Wolves and Termites couldn't be all that was left. He wiped his eyes and pulled out the pocket watch Hershel had given him. "I don't know what to do anymore, Hershel." He sighed. "I'm tired. I'm tired of it all. I know you'd say to keep going. I don't know if it's worth it anymore."

It was a good thing he didn't expect an answer because he didn't get one.

Jesus stopped when he reached the lobby and heard a noise behind the front desk. Pulling his knife he went around and knocked on the door. The noise stopped and the knob turned. He was surprised to see Glenn. He noticed the red eyes but didn't comment.

Glenn cleared his throat. "Uh, nothing in there."

Jesus put his knife away. "We need to find something to drink."

"Yeah. Maybe try more rooms?"

"Worth a shot. I don't think we'll find much."

Glenn cleared his throat. "Maybe we won't, but we should still try."

He nodded and started down the hall opposite the one he came from. After searching ten rooms he and Glenn found two bottles of water and a bag of stale pretzels. He and Glenn took a few sips from one of the waters and headed back to the lobby. When they made it back Jesus saw the rest of them waiting.

"Where's Glenn?" Maggie asked in a panicked voice.

He turned and Glenn wasn't behind him.

"Glenn?" Maggie yelled.

"I'm right here, Maggie," his voice came from the hall and Maggie ran.

Glenn stared at the brochures before he tentatively touched one for Colonial Williamsburg.

"Glenn?" Maggie ran right into him and crushed him in a hug. "Don't do that," her muffled voice begged.

He mumbled a response of some type as he grabbed more brochures. He took one of everyone he saw.

"What are you doin'?" Maggie out her chin on his shoulder and watched as he did.

"Trying to come up with ideas where we can go."

"You don't want to go back?" she questioned hesitantly.

After grabbing them all he turned to face her. "I will if you want, Maggie. Even if this didn't happen to the Saviors, if we stay will anything change? Will it be worse?"

She didn't answer.

He smiled a little and put his arm around her shoulder. "Come on, let's go figure out what we're going to do."

When they joined the others Glenn waived around the brochures.

"You want to go on vacation?" Sasha shouted.

He frowned at her. "No. I mean yes, vacation sounds fantastic, Sasha," he scoffed. "We're going to follow Daryl."

"What?" Abraham yelled.

"Who's Daryl?" Jesus asked as he took a few brochures.

"We don't know if he made it, Glenn," Rick growled.

"And you're an idiot, Rick. If anyone made it, it would be Daryl and Michonne," Glenn snapped.

"You really think Michonne made it?" Carl croaked.

"Who's Michonne?" Jesus asked as he passed some of the brochures to Aaron. Aaron took a few and studiously ignored the others.

"Glenn's right, Rick," Maggie admitted in a small voice.

"You think they'll help us?" Carl looked at him.

"If," Sasha sneered, "they did make it and we could even find them after all this time, would they? I wouldn't help us," she ended with a hiss.

"Daryl's a good guy." Glenn shrugged. "Maybe." He glared at Rick. "What you wanted to do in Alexandria was stupid, Rick. Maybe we should try something else." Glenn seemed to deflate. It was the only word that fit and it scared Rick. He'd, after he'd come to his senses, after losing Judith, counted on Glenn to keep his head on straight. When him and Maggie left and started running Hilltop, he knew he could count on Glenn to keep them all going.

"Michonne liked Carl, Rick. If," Maggie stressed, "if they made it and if," she stressed again, "we can find them, I think she would. For Carl."

Jesus stared hard at all of them. "Who are Daryl and Michonne?"

"They used to be part of our group," Rick gritted out.

"Daryl's a good guy," Aaron finally spoke up. "I didn't know Michonne that well."

"Michonne left. My dad kicked Daryl out," Carl murmured.

Jesus raised his eyebrows. "Okay. I don't think I want to know."

"When we first got to Alexandria we…had some problems," Sasha said.

"That's a word," Aaron sneered at her and Jesus took a step back. He'd, not that he spent a lot of time with Aaron, but the guy seemed pretty laid back for living at the end of the world.

"No one carried anything for protection," Maggie said.

"Rick and Carol were going to take over," Aaron raised his voice.

"How?"

"I told him," Glenn cut Rick off. "He was one of the only ones that knew what it was like. I asked him to talk to Deanna."

Jesus saw Maggie look at the floor, Sasha stomped off, Abraham just watched and Rick? He was frowning at Glenn.

"It didn't work out. Other things happened," Glenn finished.

"Okay. Well if I was this Daryl guy I wouldn't help us either." Jesus looked the group that had a shitload of baggage. He had his own baggage, he shouldn't throw stones. "How do you know he found these? I mean, it's smart if you think about it. No one was vacationing. Some of these are good," he looked at what he had in his hand. "Assateague Island? They had horses. It may still have horses."

"He pulled them out of his saddlebags," Sasha snarled when she stomped back over, hands clenched into fists.

"I went and picked some of them up," Glenn was practically glaring at Rick now.

Rick looked hurt.

He lowered his eyebrows. "You know what? This is hard on everyone. I suggest we all take a deep breath and let go of the attitudes. It won't help. Anyone," he aimed at Sasha. "We found two bottles of water and pretzels. If Rick wants to go back and bury Carol then we should decide what we're going to do after."

"Are these the same?" Aaron waved the ones in his hand at Glenn.

"I'm sure some of them are. I don't know if I got them all. They're gone now," he said.

Jesus looked at the brochures he was still holding. "I think we should look these over. Take out the national monuments, maybe. They'd be too open. Maybe a museum?"

"Something along the Appalachian Trail?" Aaron suggested.

"Mountains? Shit. I should've thought of that," he snorted.

"Mountains are a good idea," Abraham seconded. It had been the only thing he'd contributed to the clusterfuck that was the current situation. "The terrain. Walkers aren't that coordinated."

"Could a tank get up to the mountains?" Carl asked.

His narrowed his eyes. "On a road, sure. Through woods? Dangerous if the terrain's steep. A good tank driver? Maybe. I doubt it. Too chancy."

Maggie took the brochures in Glenn's hand and put them on the front desk. "Let's look through these, go back, bury Carol and try and salvage something."

"It won't be better anywhere else, Maggie," Sasha retorted.

"Then stay here, Sasha," Glenn replied calmly. "I refuse to believe that everyone left on the damn planet is like the Termites or the Saviors or the Wolves or the Governor. Not everyone is like that. Hilltop people weren't like that. Yeah, they had a few assholes. The Kingdom. Carol seemed to like it there. And those are just the ones around here. There has to be other places in this entire fucking country that are trying to survive. Without assholes. Have we had shit luck? We have. Maybe, now that we have some time to think things out, we can decide where those people might be," he ended in a shout. "But if you don't have anything constructive to add to this conversation, keep your fucking mouth shut!"

Abraham doubted it. "Maybe we could stay around here," he suggested.

"No, not around here," Carl pleaded. "What about the prison? We were happy there. Before the Governor."

Maggie choked out a sob. "I couldn't, Carl. Daddy."

He could understand. It's why he didn't want to stay around here. Judith. He didn't know where Enid was. Maggie and Glenn didn't say. She was dead, too. "King County?" he looked at his dad. "Morgan? He had all those spikes, Dad."

"Too far, Carl," his dad replied as he patted Carl's shoulder.

Carl knew it was a long shot. He knew their house burned down, but he'd been happy there, too. Him, his mom, his dad. Shane, before he went crazy. Before his dad got shot. Before this.

"I don't know this Daryl guy, but I think he's pretty damn smart," Jesus commented.

Aaron had a ghost of a smile on his face. He'd never thought Daryl was smart in a strategic sense, but he was a good man. "You think he's alive?"

"Him and Michonne? Yes, they're alive. Daryl's with her," Glenn stated. "She made it how long on her own? Before she found Andrea? She left Woodbury. Merle shot her and she still found formula. And us. She's alive. She's found a place. Daryl? He went back to wherever she was."

"You think we're going to find them?" Sasha asked through gritted teeth.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Mountains are smart. The terrain. Snow. Daryl could hunt," Rick offered quietly.

"The Appalachian Trail is long," Aaron muttered. "I don't think we should count on finding them."

"We won't. But with these," Glenn held a few up. "We have a chance. We have a chance to make it. It might not be like the prison or Alexandria or Hilltop, but it could be close. Negan? If that asshole survived? He wouldn't think of looking for us in the mountains."

"I agree. He has, or had, his kingdom," Jesus sneered. "He won't leave it."

Aaron approached the front desk and laid the brochures he was holding down with the others. Jesus did the same. "Let's find a new place."

A/N: In the comics Judith and Carol both die. In this, Carl doesn't lose his eye. Glenn, Abraham and Sasha are alive