Rick, Carl, Jessie, Sam, Ron, Gabriel, Michonne and Baby Judith had successfully managed to pull off a trick that would have Houdini rolling over in his grave. Alexandria's watchtower had collapsed onto it's protective walls, allowing walkers to invade the community and separate it's residents across the safe zone. Left with no other choice, Rick had led a group of survivors out into the horde, covered in walker guts. So far, the plan was working perfectly.
The group was linked together, hand in hand, and approaching the edge of the town's lake. The sun was setting rapidly; it would be pitch dark soon, and that would mean serious trouble for whoever was left in Alexandria.
The current plan was to make it to the armory, grab some weapons, and draw some of the walkers away. But now that Rick had seen the sheer amount of walkers, he realized that he had underestimated the odds of winning.
There was just too many of them to fight.
So, the new plan was simple. Escape the safe zone, walk to the quarry, and come back with the vehicles that had been abandoned there earlier. Then, the group would use the cars to lead the walkers away. Gabriel would take Judith to the community church and keep her safe until the walkers were gone. Jessie tried to get Sam to join him, but Sam declined, claiming to be brave enough to keep going. The quarry would be a long walk, so Rick needed the group to get to the armory first.
Rick approached the door to the armory and set it open, calmly ushering the rest of the group into the building and quietly closing the door behind him. He saw nobody, and heard nobody all throughout the journey across the safe zone. That made him feel safer and yet more vulnerable at the same time.
"Alright..." Rick said, looking around to make sure nothing else was in here. The group stood inside of the armory, nervously examining the weapons on the walls. Ron faced the floor, seemingly the most uncomfortable one in the room. "...we all need a weapon." He said, approaching the armory's bench and gathering up the majority of the handguns lined up. He looked at the kids, Sam and Ron, and glared. "Everyone. Nothing too big. Small enough to carry on your side, we don't want to draw attention."
"I have a gun." Jessie proclaimed as Michonne began scavenging the weapons. "I can protect them if something happens."
"And what if something happens to you?" Rick asked sharply.
Ron glared back at Rick, his face expressionless, and his eyes lost in space. He bit his lower lip, as if fighting an urge.
Rick grabbed a box of bullets - the very same box of bullets that Ron had stolen from earlier in the day - and passed them over toward the teen. "Put some in your gun. You don't know how to use it right yet, but you're gonna need to." Rick grumbled. Ron looked at Rick and took the box of bullets, his gaze still
locked on Rick.
"Here." Carl spoke, walking over to Ron's side and exposing a small handgun in front of everybody; the gun that Ron had tried to assassinate Carl with. "I know you gave me your gun back...cause you said you weren't ready..." Carl said, raising his eyebrows as if to say "Go along with this, or my dad is going to find out that you tried to kill me."
"...but you have to be." Carl said, placing the gun on the bench in front of him, and sliding it toward Ron. "No more kid stuff." Carl said.
Ron appeared more innocent toward Carl, and hesitatingly picked the weapon up under Rick's judgmental
eye.
"Here, Sam." Rick said calmly, handing a M1911 handgun toward him. Sam looked at the gun with curiosity, similar to a group of children eyeing a dangerous fish from behind aquarium walls. "Don't be scared. It's just a thing. Something you need to survive." Rick began.
"I..." Sam started, but Jessie was quick to put herself in between herself and her youngest child. "You're not giving him that." She nearly snapped. "NO..." Jessie said, raising her voice. Rick was giving her his famous tilt of the head, beads of sweat falling down his 5
o'clock shadow.
"Jessie, he...he needs to learn."
"We're just going to the quarry and back...nothing can-"
"Someone shot my boy." Rick said as he abruptly cut her off.
Jessie looked toward Carl, who bad begun to shake his head. "Dad, that was-"
"An accident, yeah, I know." Rick replied. "But what if it wasn't?" Rick asked, looking first at Carl, then back to Jessie. "Anybody...anythang could come and kill you. Kill your boys...and maybe
even worse."
"What's your point, Rick?" Jessie pressed. Both Sam and Ron watched anxiously.
"You can't protect them forever." Rick said sharply.
Ron's lip twitched, and his eyebrows furrowed downward as he took a small step toward Rick. "Shut up." Ron said. He was half confident with his voice, so it almost came out as a whisper.
Rick cocked his head toward the boy, his eyes stone cold. "What?"
"Ron." Carl said, stepping in between him and his father.
"I can protect myself." Ron growled, clenching his fists under the blood soaked sheets.
"No...you can't." Rick growled back.
"You-" Ron started, but Jessie was quick to stop this.
"HEY!" She snapped! Both Rick and Ron ceased argument, and recoiled at the sudden outburst. "Ron, you stay right in this room, and don't move." Jessie commanded, before turning around to Rick. "Rick, you need to look around for some food...take whatever you need to. But give us some room." Jessie demanded.
Rick and Ron exchanged a mutual glance of disgust with each other, and Rick motioned for Carl sand Michonne to follow him into the back of the building, where the pantry was.
_
Jessie closed her eyes and took a deep breath, controlling the internal rage that she had been holding in for longer than she would have liked. It began with Pete, and now, she was coming unhinged, little by little.
"Mom?" Sam whimpered, his eyes looking up at her. "I don't want the gun." He said fearfully.
Jessie turned toward her son and Nodded, kneeling down beside him and giving him a hug. She made Sure not to coat his face with any of the walker guts that she had on her body.
_
"Rick, he's just a kid." Michonne hissed as soon as they were alone in the back of the building. "He doesn't know anything about the way things work out there."
"That's why he needs to have a weapon!" Rick argued, glaring back. It wasn't the type of glare that he had given past enemies, it was a glare of mutual respect. "I'm trying to SAVE him, Michonne!"
"But that is not your call! If it was Carl - maybe, if it was Judith, maybe - but..."Michonne hissed, pausing for just a moment. "Those are her kids in there, not yours."
Carl rapidly collected cans of food around the pantry, stuffing them into various backpacks that were also in the pantry.
"Look...I'm not gonna give you a gun." Jessie said, looking into her son's eyes. "I know you're not ready."
Sam nodded in agreement, a slight smile of relief on his face. "Okay..."
"But we'll tell Rick that you took it. Okay?" Jessie persisted. "Just so he can stop talking about it."
Sam was less supportive of that idea, but he nodded anyway. He could lie - He's done it a lot of times before.
"God...you're great." Jessie said, planting a kiss on her son's cheek. "I love you..." she said, standing up and motioning for Ron to come over.
"Dad..." Carl said, putting the last supply of food into a bright blue backpack. "They're with us...they'll be safe." He reassured. "I got a good feeling about this."
Michonne nodded and flashed a persuading smile at Rick. "We'll get the walkers away from here, and rebuild this place...that's what Deanna wanted. That's what we're gonna do. For her, and for everyone else that's still here."
Rick exchanged glances with both Carl and Michonne, doing his damn best to find common ground with them. He did want a life with the others - He wanted to live without fear, and hardship - But he knew that a world like that had already come and gone. This was the new world. And nobody seemed to understand it other than him.
Now that Rick thought about it, he had known somebody who understood the new world. Someone he used to call his best friend.
Ron slowly shuffled over to the rest of his family, and the three of them exchanged a bloody, smelly group hug. They were all very quick to break it up.
"I need you both to hear me...we're gonna make it." Jessie said to her son's. "We will...this...this is not what our life is going to be like." Jessie continued, squeezing both of her son's hands.
Ron's eyes were switching between the floor and his mother's face. "I know that your father...he..." Jessie stuttered. "...he was...a good man." Jessie said, and that was true. A very long time ago, Pete had once been a very charming and nice guy. But Jessie was unfortunate enough to be blessed with very beautiful looks, which Pete had to defend at all costs.
"Ron...Rick is not a bad guy." Jessie continued. "Hey." She said again, prompting Ron to look up from the floor and at her face.
Ron looked up, small tears in his eyes. "He..." he started, but stopped quickly.
"He's not." Jessie confirmed. "He's going to get us out of this...and when the walkers are gone, we can work this out." She said. "I'm going to help you both adjust...because we've made it this far, and we're going to keep going." She finished, lightly pinching her son's cheeks.
"Mom!" Sam giggled.
"Ugh!" Ron scoffed, smiling for the very first time in a long time. Their smiles brought about another one on Jessie's face, and for a moment, their family seemed very normal.
"Alright..." said Rick from further beyond the room. He had come back with Carl and Michonne, with the men carrying backpacks full of supplies for the road. Rick eyed Jessie, as if asking "Did you do what I told you to do?"
Of course, Jessie had gotten that look a lot of times from her dead husband. It gave her the creeps - bad.
"I told him what to do...he's gonna be fine." Jessie said to Rick, smiling at him in the best way that she possibly could.
Ron stood closest to the window of the armory, silently hoping that his mother might realize that Rick isn't the man that he says he is. He could see it in her face - she was beginning to crack. And when she did, Ron prayed that she would keep her hands off of the Grimes family. For good.
Rick gave Jessie his signature nod/tilt of the head, and brushed past the rest of the survivors. Be approached the door to the armory, and motioned for everyone to move. "This is it...same plan as before. Don't draw attention, and don't make any sudden movements." Rick commanded. He offered his hand out to Michonne, who took it without hesitation.
Rick held onto Michonne, and Michonne held onto Carl, and Carl held onto Jessie, and Jessie held onto Sam, and finally, Sam held onto Ron.
"Lets go." Rick said, one hand with Michonne, and the other hand on his hatchet. He slowly opened the door, and prepared himself to enter the cluster of walkers ahead.
Unfortunately, it was already pitch dark outside.