A/N: This will and is expected to turn AU very fast. I'm feeding off of S5E5 into a reunion and alternate plotline to whatever is going to happen in this recent season. If I get dry or boring, please feel free to be all UHG SO BORING in the reviews or message me. Criticism of my writing style welcome and appreciated!

Chapter 1: No Clarity

The church was silent, so silent it hurt Carl's ears, but nobody dared to say a word. The only sound was the slow, hushed breathing of everyone in the group, gathered among the pews in an uneven circle. Nobody had dared to lift their eyes to one another. It was not out of fear, but out of reluctance, collective shame for Eugene. It was at Eugene that Rick had fixed his cold, wrathful stare.

"I'm going to need you to say that again," Rick's voice was steady, level with an edge to it that made Carl's skin crawl.

Eugene hesitated for a moment, staring down at his feet, "I'm not a scientist."

His voice was so low and quiet that it did not even manage to ripple through the painful silence weighing down on the room. Rick's chest rose with a deep inhale through his nose, out in a low, terrible hiss of breath through his mouth.

"You made me risk my people, risk our people, so you could do what? Go on a vacation to D.C.?!" Rick's voice rose, lifted by his rage.

Eugene stayed silent, probably the best course of action considering the circumstances. It was Abraham who intervened, much to everyone's apparent surprise. All eyes moved to him when he broke the stillness.

"He's been punished, Rick. He punished himself," Abraham's fist clenched and unclenched twice before he spoke again, "It's been dealt with. We don't have time for this, we need a new plan, we need to keep moving forward."

Rick turned his wrath on Abraham now, but the large redheaded man was a daunting prospect and he felt himself cool just a little, "Move forward to where?! Eugene was forward! What do you propose we do now, huh?!"

Abraham kept his temper in check and tried to inflate himself, feel bigger than the Georgian sheriff who stood closer than seemed necessary, "There was a town, only fifteen miles from here. It was pretty untouched, there was lots of stuff left," Abraham turned his gaze to circle the group, "I propose we start there. Get our resources replenished, fortify one of the buildings. It'll give us time to figure out what our next move is," he paused, "And maybe we need a break from all this running around."

Carl glanced at Rosita who turned her face away, but not before a small smile tugged at her lips. He was puzzled for a moment, like he had missed something between the two of them at some point. It didn't matter, Carl turned his attention back to his father. Rick's eyes searched Abraham's face, wandered around the group, fell on his only son.

Carl was careful before indicating his opinion, considering the options they had carefully. First, the option to stay at the church and hope for the best. Maybe erect a fence, fortify it, and keep hunting for food. Eventually, though, the church would fold. It was not built for this era, was not able to be fortified enough. A church was built to let people in rather than keep them out. Second, they could go to this town, this diamond in a pile of coal. Untouched, hardly tapped. A town was much easier to fortify than a single church, much easier to build up. A town could bring life with it. When the risks were weighed against the benefits, the choice was not really much of a choice at all.

Carl gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod of his head. Just once, but it was enough. Rick returned it and turned his terrible stare back to Eugene, bypassing Abraham, "We'll go to the town. We'll figure out what to do when we get there."

Rick punctuated his words by getting closer and closer to Eugene, until he was so close the charlatan had to turn his head away and lean back. Rick paused for a moment, let his rage seep into Eugene's skin, and then turned away. He walked to the back into Father Gabriel's office, his boots landing heavily on the wooden planks. When the door slammed, the crowd jumped in unison, the sudden noise jolting all of them out of their stillness.

Abraham looked around again and held his hands outstretched, "Let's get ready to go, then."

The group moved together, not really sure what they were supposed to do. Dusk was settling, so they all seemed to collectively assume they would go nowhere until the next morning. Quietly, conversation began to strike up in murmurs, eventually blossoming into a full hum. Eugene stood where he had been left, his posture slumped, the air around him reeking of despair.

It was Beth who broke Eugene's stillness, not to anyone's surprise. She placed a gentle hand on his arm and offered him a kind smile, "I could use help with dinner tonight if you want."

He seemed to pull himself back out of a daze and nodded reluctantly, "Yes miss Beth, I would."

Daryl watched her from where he sat, one foot propped up while he ran a knife over a small switch of wood. He let himself smile, just for a moment, before returning to his task. Carol held Judith and talked quietly with Tyreese, Sasha and Maggie busied themselves with taking an inventory and putting packs together. Father Gabriel helped as best he could, but seemed to be mostly in the way.

Carl sat down next to Michonne and stared into the fire, saying nothing. The group gathered slowly, all trying to pretend they were not acutely aware of the door behind which Rick still stood. The feeling of danger seemed to have passed, but the heightened awareness would not. Until Rick returned to the group, everybody would continue to be on edge.

Nobody was quite sure when they fell asleep, it just seemed to have happened. Abraham was the first to wake up, thanks to a gentle shove from Tyreese finishing his watch.

He got to his feet and ran his hands through his hair, blinking away sleep from his eyes. Tyreese remained, staring at him to gauge his state of alertness.

"What do we do now?" Tyreese asked, carrying the implication that Rick had not yet come out from the church office.

It was like a cue had been given and the door opened suddenly, Rick buckling his holster without regard for who he woke up. He stepped loudly and heavily over everyone and spoke loud enough to resonate in the cella, "If we want to make this trip, we better go now. No sense in wasting daylight while we have it."

The group stirred and began to move, a writhing, silent river of bodies zipping up pants, buttoning shirts, loading rifles, and picking up worn knapsacks. It took an hour, more time than Rick would have liked, but they were on the road again.

On the road again, he thought to himself as they moved in silence, passing around a cold can of soup and dried slivers of apple. Moving from place to place, town to town. Nowhere is safe.

Rick shook his head to banish the thought and focused instead on his own feet, one ahead of the other just like he always had when those thoughts passed through his mind.

Reaching the town did not take as long as he had expected, six hours by foot with only a few minor setbacks. They reinforced the same old bookstore for the night, not willing to expend more energy to setup a new base. Tomorrow was for setting up new things, for scavenging and rebuilding. For now, they would enjoy their rest.

It was that night that it happened. The next leg of their journey revealed itself.

Abraham stood at the lone open window with Rick, silent, watching the night move slowly overhead. Only occasionally did a walker make itself known, pausing at the window to scratch or bite at the glass in hopes of soft, fleshy reward. The walker would bore itself and pass, another would not show up for hours. This was a good sign, it meant not many walkers were left in this place. That would make it easy to clear out, easier to fortify.

"Don't keep hating Eugene," Abraham finally said, low and baritone.

"Why not?" Rick hissed, instantly defensive of his unspoken decision to hold Eugene in his ire for the rest of his life, "He's a liar and a fraud, he's a cancer."

Abraham nodded respectfully, "Yeah, but he's handy in his own way. He said it himself, he just...knows things. We could use a guy like that in a place like this."

Rick chewed thoughtfully on his lower lip and stared at his friend, "He needs to be punished. He needs to think he's on eggshells or he will never be useful to us."

"Is that all you think we are" Abraham asked quietly, not accusingly, "just useful?"

Rick sighed and shook his head. It was that shake of his head that brought something to his attention, some small detail that was suddenly out of place. He held up his hand and felt his whole body stiffen, his gaze locking on this tiny little thing. The flash of glass, small, a lens.

Somebody was watching them.

Rick signaled to Abraham who turned his eyes to the spot where the small glimmer of glass had been spotted. It disappeared suddenly, as though it had known it had been spotted. With brazen disregard, they watched a lithe, slender figure dressed in black leap along the close-fitting rooftops of empty businesses. Rick took it in quickly, moving along the windows. He signaled to Abraham to keep watch while he followed the movements of the figure as it leaped, sometimes awkwardly, along the silhouetted skyline.

Eventually he lost sight of it, jogging back to where Abraham watched.

"Did you see it? Where did it go?" It was hard for Rick to keep the frantic out of his tone, but he tried. It had not been so long ago that he butchered another group in the nave of the church, secretly Rick still feared repercussion.

Abraham nodded, but said nothing, staying fixed on the skyline of the town.

"What're we looking at?" Glen said suddenly, leaning his face between them to try and spot whatever it might be.

Rick and Abraham shared a look before they told him, "Someone is watching this place."

Glen's expression fell, tension took over and he tightened his grip on his rifle. He stared out over the roofs searching for the person, "What're we going to do? We can't just leave. Not now, we can't make everyone move around at night."

"They probably know more about this place than we do," it was Carol, listening from the darkness behind Rick. She spoke in a whisper, inciting panic was not on her agenda today, "Leaving at night would be a deathwish, we're better off where we are."

Rick watched her for a moment, rolling options over in his head. Carol acknowledged his transparent gaze, understanding he was not looking at her and rather through her. She moved around them and looked out into the blackness of the night, "We won't get anything done now. We'll keep watch, double up. Tomorrow we can take a look around and maybe get the jump on them before they get it on us."

Rick turned and looked at her, nodding absently. He had come up short, unsure what to do. He was tired and frustrated, unsurprised by this strange new development and yet too exhausted to be truly concerned, "Yeah. Anything you see out of place, you come and you get me. Don't wait, don't think it's too small."

Carol and Glen shared a nod and watched them both disappear behind the shelves. Rick rubbed his forehead and stopped when he reached his sleeping son. Carl stirred when his father lay down beside him and lifted himself up on his elbows.

"Everything okay, dad?"

"Yeah, Carl, it's fine. Just go back to sleep," but it wasn't fine. It was so far from fine Rick couldn't let himself drift off, waiting for the inevitable shake of his night watch team.

But it never came. Carol and Glen saw nothing, no other movement and no one strange figures moving around in the night. Nonetheless, Rick let himself pass his night staring at the blank ceiling without the solace of sleep to wash over him.

Someone was watching them. How long? Why? What did they want?

Questions filtered in and out of his mind powering a wheel that felt as though it would never stop running. It was like sunrise would never come.