"Them guns are worth more than gold. Gold won't protect your family or put food on the table. You willing to give that up for that kid?" Daryl asked Rick, who was preparing his gun, while Will stood nearby, deep in thought. With the way the situation was starting to escalate, Will was starting to wonder whether it was such a good idea to keep helping this new group of people. Sure, he felt he owed them for being partly responsible for Glenn being taken, but there was only so far a person could go before self-preservation started to kick in. If Will was being perfectly honest, it was stuck on the fence for where to go next, weighing his options to decide what would be the best course of action, something he was thinking about while the others continued their conversation.
"If I knew we'd get Glenn back, I might agree. But you think that vato across the way is gonna hand him over?" T-Dog questioned, seeming to agree with Daryl more so than Rick.
"You calling G a liar?" Miguel asked, looking up at T-Dog in slight anger, only for Daryl to turn on him, having his own bit of anger to give.
"Are you a part of this? You want to hold onto your teeth?" Daryl questioned angrily, slapping Miguel on the side of the head.
"You don't have to keep hitting the guy," Will told him, turning his gaze away when Daryl gave him a death glare.
"Question is; do you trust that man's word?" T-Dog asked, looking to both Rick and Daryl for an answer, even sparing a glance at Will, who wasn't sure if he should give his own opinion, after the look Daryl had given him.
"No, question is what are you willing to bet on it? Could be more than them guns. Could be your life. Glenn worth that to you?" Daryl asked, walking over to stand in front of Rick again, waiting for his reply.
"What life I have I owe to him. I was nobody to Glenn, just some idiot stuck in a tank. He could have walked away, but he didn't. Neither will I," Rick replied, putting his gun into his holster, looking back at Daryl.
"So you're gonna hand the guns over?" he questioned in annoyance.
"I didn't say that. There's nothing keeping you two here. You should get out, head back to camp, take the kid with you," Rick told them, gesturing to Will, who shook his head at Rick's words.
"I'm not going anywhere, I want to help," he said, refusing to back down from his decision.
"Neither am I. Besides, what would we tell your family?" T-Dog questioned, looking to Daryl for confirmation, who looked to Rick and nodded his head. With that, Rick picked up a gun and handed it over to T-Dog, while Daryl picked up his own gun, offering another one to Will who shook his head.
"If you don't mind, I think I'll stick with my bat and knife. I have this thing with guns," Will told him, pulling his knife from his back pocket while picking his bat up with his other hand.
"Suit yourself. You can watch the kid," Daryl told him, going back to loading his own gun.
"Come on. This is nuts," Miguel started to say, standing up from his seat on the floor, only for Daryl to stop him. Without a word, he points to the nearby chair, which Miguel reluctantly sits in, seeming quite upset, a pleading tone coming to his voice. "Just do like G says."
"I don't think that's going to happen." Once they had finished loading their guns, they gagged Miguel and tied his arms up behind his back, leading him out of the building and back to where Glenn was being held. Before long, they arrived, moving together closely as they went up to the building, with Will leading Miguel forward as the doors opened to allow their group entry.
"I see my guns, but they're not all in the bag," Guillermo said, glaring at Rick, who remained as stone-faced as ever as he and the others entered the building.
"That's because they're not yours. I thought my friend here mentioned that," Rick pointed out, gesturing to Will, who only smirked at Guillermo.
"Pretty sure I told him that," Will said, keeping a close eye on all the men surrounding them, starting to wonder why he had offered to stick around and help.
"Let's just shoot these fools right now, ese. All right? Unload on their asses, ese," Felipe growled, the gun in his hand waving around too much for Will's liking.
"I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation," Guillermo told Rick, looking to Felipe to back down a little.
"No, I'm pretty clear," Rick admitted, nodding his head to Will, who stepped forward with his knife and cut Miguel free, pushing him towards the waiting arms of his friends, Guillermo's anger rising by the second. "You have your man. I want mine."
"I'm gonna chop up your boy. I'm gonna feed him to my dogs. They're the evilest, nastiest man-eating bitches you ever saw. I picked them up from Satan at a yard sale. I told you how it has to be. Are you woefully deaf?" Guillermo questioned angrily, moving up close to stand in front of Rick threateningly.
"No, my hearing's fine. You said come locked and loaded? Okay then, we're here." Rick pumped his shotgun and aimed it at Guillermo's head, while T-Dog and Daryl prepared their own guns, Will starting to regret his personal rule against guns as the room filled with the sounds of guns clicking in their owner's hands, all pointed at the group. Before anyone had a chance to make a move, Will noticed movement behind all the men, and a small, old woman appears, weaving through the men to reach the centre.
"Felipe! Felipe!" the woman says desperately, quickly moving over to him, barely taking notice of all the guns around her.
"Abuela, go back with the others, now," Felipe ordered, his aim never moving from Rick and the group while looking back at her.
"Get that old lady out of the line of fire!" Daryl ordered, impressing Will a little that he actually does care about who he harms.
"Abuela, listen to your mijo, okay? This is not the place for you right now," Guillermo said, agreeing with Felipe, barely moving an inch as he turned his head to look at the old woman.
"Mr. Gilbert is having trouble breathing. He needs his asthma stuff. Carlito didn't find it. He needs his medicine," Abuela begged Felipe, refusing to go back to where she had appeared from.
"Felipe, go take care of it, okay? And take your grandmother with you," Guillermo told Felipe angrily before turning back to look at Rick angrily.
"Abuela, vas conmigo, por favour," Felipe said, making Will wish he could remember his Spanish lessons, even if he got the general idea of what he was saying.
"Who are those men?" Abuela asked Felipe, pushing past him to get a closer look at Rick and the group, all of them backing up slightly.
"Ah, por favor, vas conmigo," Felipe repeated, moving to follow his grandmother, to get her to leave Will assumed.
"Don't you take him," she ordered angrily, looking to Rick, probably assuming he was there as a sheriff, not a rescuer.
"Ma'am?" Rick asked in confusion, his face seeming to change slightly, making Will think he had changed into sheriff mode.
"Felipe's a good boy. He have his trouble but he pull himself together. We need him here," Abuela begged, managing to make Rick lower his gun at her words.
"Ma'am, I'm not here to arrest your grandson," Rick informed her, looking to the others like he had an idea.
"Then what do you want him for?" she asked in confusion, her gaze never leaving Rick.
"He's… helping us find a missing person. A fella named Glenn," Rick told her, looking past her briefly to look at the men gathered behind her.
"The Asian boy? He's with Mr. Gilbert. Come. Come, I show you. He needs his medicine," Abuela informs him, gesturing for Rick to follow her. As she started leading him to the back, Guillermo stood aside in defeat, looking back to his men as Rick continued following Abuela.
"Let 'em pass," Guillermo announced to his men, all of them lowering their weapons as Daryl, T-Dog and Will followed Rick, moving out of the room to go outside.
"Of all the scenarios I was running through my head on how we were getting out of that, I wasn't expecting this to be one of them," Will admitted to T-Dog, who was walking beside him, as the group stepped out into a grassy area, with a few men scattered throughout the area.
"How many of those scenarios involved us being dead?' T-Dog questioned, turning to look at the teen.
"Most of them," Will admitted, making T-Dog chuckle as they reached a set of stairs, which led them into another building, which looked like a retirement home that had been converted into a hospital of sorts. At least, that's what Will thought as he followed Rick down the hall, looking into each of the rooms as they went. Each of them contained an older man or woman, with someone younger taking care of them, whether it involved giving them medicine, reading them a book, or just having a conversation, either way, there were quite a few people there, more than Will had expected. Soon, they made their way into a large, opened out area, filled with a lot more people, sitting around and talking, while Felipe and his Abuela moved over to a nearby man in a wheelchair, who had the most people surrounding him at that current moment, one of those people being Glenn. Felipe stepped up to who Will assumed to be Mr. Gilbert and put an asthma puffer to his lips, pressing the button on top to dispense the fluids into his mouth, to help him breath better. Will had needed one of those when he was younger, having had asthma attacks more often than he cared to admit, a fact that stopped him doing any real sports until he was at least twelve years old.
"What the hell is this?" Rick asked Glenn, who finally shifted his gaze away from Mr. Gilbert to look at the group.
"Asthma attack. Couldn't get his breath all of a sudden," Glenn replied dumbly, not understanding that wasn't the question Rick had asked.
"I thought you were being eaten by dogs, man," T-Dog snapped at Glenn who turned his head to look behind him, gesturing to a basket filled with a trio of Chihuahuas, one of them barking when he noticed the group of strangers.
"They're so cute," Will said, smiling at the dogs, noticing out of the corner of his eye the frown Daryl was giving him. "Shutting up."
"Could I have a word with you? You're the dumbest son of a bitch I ever met. We walked in there ready to kill every last one of you," Rick growled when he pulled Guillermo aside, gesturing to all the people in the room.
"Well, I'm glad it didn't go down that way," Guillermo told him, backing up a little from Rick.
"So am I," Will muttered, noticing Daryl glaring at him again.
"Do you ever not talk?" he asked in annoyance, glaring at Will.
"Rarely," Will admitted, gesturing to Rick to continue his conversation, since he was looking at the pair, seeming annoyed himself.
"If it had, that blood would be on my hands," Rick continued on, turning his focus back to the guilty Guillermo.
"Mine too. We'd have fought back. Wouldn't be the first time we've had to. Protect the food, the medicine, what's left of it. These people, the old ones, the staff took off, just left 'em here to die. Me and Felipe were the only ones who stayed," he informed Rick, gesturing with his hands to all the people in the room in turn.
"What are you, doctors?" Rick questioned, probably thinking it's the only way they would want to stick around.
"Felipe's a nurse, a special care provider. Me, I'm the custodian," Guillermo replied matter-of-factly, not backing down from Rick's glare. With an exasperated sigh, Rick nodded his head, gesturing to a nearby room for them all to go to, Will following closely behind as they went over. Once the whole group was inside the room, Rick took the bag of guns from T-Dog and placed them on a nearby chair, not seeming to be done questioning Guillermo just yet.
"What about the rest of your crew?" Rick asked, his previous anger having faded away already.
"The vatos trickle in to check on their parents, their grandparents. They see how things are and most decide to stay. It's a good thing too. We need the muscle. The people we've encountered since things fell apart, the worst kind, plunderers. The kind that take by force," Guillermo answered, looking at the rest of the group, who still had their weapons in hand, except for Will, who had already stored his away in his bag.
"That's not who we are," Rick told him, glancing back at his group, who all nodded their heads in agreement, Daryl seeming to do so reluctantly.
"How was I to know? My people got attacked and you show up with Miguel hostage. Appearances," Guillermo told him focusing his gaze on Rick again.
"Guess the world changed," T-Dog said, only for Guillermo to shake his head.
"No, it's the same as it ever was. The weak get taken. So we do what we can here. The vatos work on those cars, talk about getting the old people out of the city. But most can't even get to the bathroom by themselves, so that's just a dream. Still it keeps the crew busy, and that's worth something. So we barred all the windows, welded all the doors shut except for one entrance. The vatos, they go out, scavenge what they can to keep us going. We watch the perimeter night and day and we wait. The people here, they all look to me now. I don't even know why," Guillermo admitted, lowering his head a little in shame.
"Because they can," Rick told him, gaining his attention once more. Without a word, Rick offered up his shotgun, stock end first, to Guillermo, who graciously took it with a smile on his face, while Rick got more guns out of the bag to give him. Before long, after Will had had a quick visit with the trio of dogs, the group were out of the building and walking away down the street, back to the group's vehicle. As they walked, Will realised that he had gotten so caught up in helping Rick's group, that he had lost a lot of the day, time he could've been spending finding supplies for his trip out of town. Now that he started to think about it however, he wasn't sure anymore what his next plans should be, whether he should stick to his original plans, or think about making new ones.
"Admit it, you only came back to Atlanta for the hat," Glenn laughed, pulling Will out of his thoughts to listen to the conversation.
"Don't tell anybody," Rick told him in equal amusement, stealing a glance at Will, who looked away when he noticed his gaze on him.
"You've given away half our guns and ammo," Daryl growled, annoyed that they had lost so many weapons to the vatos.
"Not nearly half," Rick corrected him, ignoring the anger in Daryl's voice.
"For what? Bunch of old farts who are gonna die off momentarily anyhow? Seriously, how long you think they got?
"How long do any of us?" Rick questioned philosophically, the group walking around a bus to reach their vehicle, which meant it was almost time to part ways. At least, that was what Will thought, until they reached the other side and there was nothing there, just empty space, which seemed to surprise the group just as much as it had Will.
"Oh my God," Glenn groaned, looking around the area for any sign of their van.
"Where the hell's our van?" Daryl questioned angrily, has hand going to his crossbow as a look of understanding appeared on Rick's face.
"We left it right there. Who would take it?" Glenn agreed, having noticed Rick's realisation as well.
"Merle." The group all looked at him as the name escaped his mouth, realisation dawning on all of them as the gravity of the situation finally became clear to them.
"He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp," Daryl pointed out, instantly turning to start running down the road, with T-Dog and Glenn not far behind, the only one staying with Will being Rick.
"What about you, what are you going to do now?" he asked, looking to the rest of the group as they stopped their jogging, looking back at Rick and Will, waiting impatiently.
"I was planning on just going back, finding myself some supplies, and moving on. I've been surviving by myself this long, can't be that hard to keep doing it by myself right?" he questioned with a half-hearted laugh, his smile disappearing when he met Rick's hard gaze.
"I know we're strangers to each other, and normally that means you avoid each other, but as a father, I can't let a kid run around all by himself, I might as well feed you to those things myself," Rick told him, crossing his arms over his chest, watching Will, who absentmindedly kicked the ground, feeling a little awkward under the man's gaze.
"But you're not my father, so you shouldn't really feel an obligation to want to take care of me. I am sixteen after all, I can take care of myself," Will pointed out weakly, knowing how unsure his own words sounded coming out of his mouth.
"You're still too young to be by yourself. Come with us, we'll take care of you, there's plenty of room for one more," Rick offered, looking to the three men nearby who all nodded their heads, even Daryl, which surprised Will a little.
"I don't want to be a burden," Will said, staring down at his shoes, already knowing where he wanted to go next.
"You won't be." Will looked up from the ground and stared at Rick, his gaze seeming almost fatherly, a look Will hadn't seen in many years. After looking between Rick and the rest of the men standing nearby, he looking back to Rick and nodded his head, having finally come to a decision.
"Okay, let's get going then."
Not long after Will had accepted Rick's offer to come back with him and his group to their camp, the group of five had started to run out of the city, trying to make quick progress back to their camp before it got too dark to see anything ahead of them. Before long, they came onto a road that apparently meant they weren't far from camp, the group hoping that Merle wasn't already back there, wreaking havoc on the group, in his search for the people that had left him stranded on a rooftop back in Atlanta. As they all continued to jog back to the camp, Will started to wonder what it would be like to be with other people again, having not seen any real people since he had left his uncle's town two weeks before, no other people having really jumped out at him until now. Being a part of this group, living in their camp, it could be his chance to survive, to live long enough that he might one day find the last remaining members of his family, so he wouldn't be alone in the world any longer. Just as the last rays of the sun disappeared on the horizon, Will was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of distant gunshots and screaming, which could only mean one thing. The undead were attacking the camp. The group shifted into a quick run, moving as quickly as they could to get back to the camp to save the survivors there, hoping they would get there in time to save the people living there. Before long, they ran into the camp, seeing the undead roaming around in every direction, the rest of the group firing their guns as soon as they saw them, while Will moved into the fray, swinging his bat at anything that got too close to him or the others. Together, they slowly mowed down the surrounding undead, multiple bodies falling to the ground in a matter of seconds, until the only things left moving in the camp were the living.
Once they were all gone, a nearby crying boy ran up to Rick and leapt into his waiting arms, wrapping his own around Rick's neck while he comforted who Will assumed to be his son, while he walked over to a nearby woman, who must've been his wife. Will looked around at the carnage surrounding him, his thoughts of a happy group of people in a wide open space vanishing as he looked around at all the dead bodies, undead and previously living alike, until his eyes landed on something that made him freeze. On the ground near what looked like an RV, was a woman on top of a teenager, around Will's age, whose neck was bleeding all over the woman's hand, probably having been attacked during the undead invasion. As much as he wanted to avert his eyes from the scene, Will watched as tears fell from the woman's eyes onto the girl's face, the girl seeming to slowly fade away as her eyes flickered shut, all life leaving her, as the woman silently cried over the death of the girl. As he looked around at the distraught group of people, Will started to realise the irony of the situation he had gotten himself into. He had left behind a city of the dead, it's street filled to the brim with the undead, only to end up in a group that looked like the walking dead themselves. What were they going to do now?
"I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes," one of the men said cryptically, Will taking barely any notice of his words as he made eye contact with Rick, who only stared back sadly at him. If there was at least one thing Will knew about his current situation, it was that his future seemed just as dark as the night sky, clueless to what might happen next, now that his one chance at survival was gone, making him wonder how, after all this time, he still had the will to live.
And here is the third chapter chapter of the story, and the final chapter of Vatos, ready for you all to read.
I know the last bit is mostly description, but since there isn't any real talking on Rick's end of the episode, I just felt it would be easier to end it the way I did, without adding in any awkward conversation, that probably wouldn't have fit in, given that they were jogging most of the way home.
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and are ready for the next one, where I tackle the next episode, Wildfire.
Next on The Will to Live: Will tries his best to integrate into the group after a terrible tragedy, finding a connection with a certain young Grimes boy, and helping someone through the death of someone close to them, all before making his way back to Atlanta, in search of the CDC, so that he might finally stop moving and find time to rest.