David sat quietly as Rick stared him down with such an intense gaze that it sent a shiver down his spine even though he was sitting in a warm house. Upon being accepted into the large community, David was apprehensive about the group's leader. The burly man had such an air of authority around him that it rivaled his former group leader; it was almost terrifying. Green eyes scanned the house that they were in, a large modern three story home that held original furniture, possibly from before the outbreak and he sighed in relief at the familiar feeling.

Rick eyed the young man and scratched his beard. How did this boy find their safe place without being brought to it by one of their own? They haven't had an outsider walk up to their gates in sometime and he was kicking himself at letting him in so easily. In truth he was just a frightened boy who wandered from the woods like an injured deer and Rick didn't have the heart to turn him back, no matter what hardships his group has faced.

"Are you sure you're not hungry? We have plenty of food to offer." His southern drawl stirred David from his thoughts and a light blush to his cheeks as his stomach growled at the mention of food.

"No sir." He mumbled and held the poncho tighter to his body. "I'm alright, I don't want to intrude."

Rick laughed at the boys answer and leaned back against the couch with his arms crossed. It was just the two of them in the home, the lone house being used as an interrogation place for new comers to the community. Since bringing David in, he had shown nothing but frightened politeness that it caused Rick to worry for the boy's mental stability. He had not mentioned where he came from or how he survived this long or what he possibly went through in his journey and Rick was damned sure to find out.

"Alright then but I need you to hear me out." He leaned forward and rested his elbows to his knees, grasping the boy's attention with the swift movement. "I don't know you and you don't know me; I get that but for the sake of my people and our homes, I need to know exactly where you came from and how you survived this long."

Rick leaned an inch closer, making David inch further back. "You also haven't answered my questions yet and I've let you sit quietly long enough." David swallowed a lump in his throat and sighed as he let his shoulders fall, waiting for Rick to ask the same questions once more.

"How many walkers have you killed?" Rick asked with a clench to his teeth as he laced his fingers together and focused on the boy.

"Too many to count." David sighed and straightened up before the imposing figure before him.

"It's hard to keep up with now-a-days." Green eyes found blue and watched as Rick nodded in understanding to his answer. It was true, it was hard to keep a number on killing the dead; just so damn hard now.

"I get that." Rick agreed and eyed the boy once more. "How many people have you killed?"

David treaded this question. Even when she asked them he didn't want to answer it, he wanted to forget that piece of his life, the piece where he tore apart an innocent survivor just so the Saviors could welcome him into their group. It was a piece of his history that he had to live with and it ate him from the inside out.

"Just one." He mumbled and fingered a bit a thread at the end of his poncho. "Just only one."

Rick saw something flash in his green eyes and his eyebrow rose with his next question.

"Why?"

David closed his eyes as flashes of memories lit up his mind of that poor old man's screams and cries for mercy as he hacked him away into nothing. Hacking the poor old soul with his own eyes closed in hopes of blocking out the image of his shredding body but it was of no use, it was burned into him just as the laughing of the Saviors who watched was burned into him.

"To be a part of a group that found me in Richmond." David swallowed another lump as he locked eyes with the bearded man. "It was an initiation to be in the group, to be accepted and all I wanted was to be accepted but it haunts me to this day."

Rick leaned away from David as the boy dropped his eyes and held the cloth closer to his now shivering body, processing what he was just told. He didn't like that answer, not one bit but to see someone show remorse in this day and age and to also to it was refreshing would be insulting to the life he took; to be a part of a group? This world was getting more barbaric by the second.

Rick sighed and wiped his face. "I don't like that answer." Looking toward the boy who now held his head down and shoulder still, he groaned and leaned back into the couch. "I don't like that one bit, was it an innocent?"

David nodded. "An older man who was looking for sanctuary after losing his group to a herd, my group picked him out for me on a run; said he would be an easy kill and gave me an axe." David lowered his head and covered his tear stained face with his palms, squeezing his forehead in hopes of pushing the memories away.

"Please, don't make me talk about it anymore." His voice broke which caught Rick's attention.

"I have nightmares about it every day." David raised his green eyes to lock onto the hard blues of Rick. "If you don't want me here I understand but please, I can't survive out there on my own."

This wasn't the first time he's begged for his life but this was the first time he begged before someone who wasn't laughing at his weakness. When he begged to be among the Saviors, he was laughed at and pushed around before they accepted him to do the initiation which he now believes was for their own amusement, to be entertained as a teenager bludgeoned an innocent man to death. David closed his eyes and sighed, clearing his head before looking up to Rick who still had a thoughtful look to his face.

But this man, he may look just as rugged as the saviors, so hardened by this new world but he seemed so much more human. There are people who have not lost their sense of morality. Her words rang through his mind and it was then he saw that Rick Grimes was the embodiment of those words, his whole group was and David was now ashamed for not finding them sooner.

"Can I tell you something, Mr. Grimes?" David asked, shocking Rick from his thoughts at the polite questions.

Rick dropped his hand from his chin and relaxed his position in front of the boy. "Of course you can."

David cleared his throat and focused on the black fleece poncho he still wore. "I was asked those questions before, the ones you asked me about why I killed the monsters and people; I was asked those same ones before I was brought here."

That grabbed Rick's attention almost immediately. "You were brought here? By who?" He didn't mean it but his words came out defensive and almost panicked that it startled David into choosing his words better.

"I uh I just meant that someone else asked me those questions too; like she wanted to ask me them first before she lead me here." David stumbled and licked his lips. "Like, she wanted to deem me worthy of being a part of your group."

"And who is this she?" Rick bit out as he eyed the window where Daryl had stood diligently the entire time he was talking with the young boy but his words were sparking recognition with the sheriff and he wanted to see if his matched someone else's.

David shrugged. "I honestly don't know, I was wondering if you knew since she asked me your questions." David saw that Rick had no idea what he was talking about so he continued.

"My group left me tied to a tree for a laugh, saying that there was a witch in the forest and after the night fell, she saved my life against the walkers as you call them." Rick cocked his head at the tale the boy was telling him but decided to let him continue.

"She saved me and asked me those questions, at the time I thought she was insane but I answered with the same way I asnwered you and she just brought me here." David twiddled with a frayed hole in his jeans before locking eyes with Rick.

Rick rubbed his face and sighed. "And why do you think this woman would bring you here?"

David sighed. "A second chance after I told her everything. I suppose she could see that I could not brave this world on my own, she must have seen you before to know what to ask." He smiled and played with the poncho once more.

"She saved my life and gave me another chance to do right in this new world." Green eyes locked with blue. "So I'm begging you, please give me a chance like she did."

Rick processed what the boy had said throughout their conversation and he knew that if he did throw him outside the gate, he would likely not survive the night and the time the woman put into saving him would be wasted. That woman . . . it was the second time he had heard about her, the lady who ran in the woods with the walkers.

The family he had saved the day before, the ones he found in that same forest spoke about a lonely woman who protected them and fed them while they were in her woods for weeks. Devin had said that she would appear when his daughter would cry, either from food or the cold it didn't matter, she would slink from behind the trees and hold food out to them until they took it like startled animals.

They could never see her face as it was always obscured by the hooded cloak but they didn't need to see her face as they felt her kindness. Rick was mostly interested in the group that had followed them, the group that had killed their own and sent the small family scrambling into the woods in the first place. Devin said it was like she knew when they would be close, darting from tree to tree and taking what little they had and scurrying further into the forest; forcing them to follow and ultimately not being detected by the searchers.

That had went on for weeks before Rick and his group found them.

Rick thought it was absolutely amazing how one person could do this and now knowing that this boy had also been in her company, the thoughts of trying to find her were all he could think about. If he could get her to be a part of the safe zone, they would have another mean of protection.

But Rick had one more question and he just hoped that David would give another answer than to what he was thinking of. He prayed even.

"I have one more question before I show you where you will be sleeping." Rick started and grasped the boy's attention once more. "What was the name of the group you were with?"

"They're called the Saviors." David mumbled and he stiffened when Rick inhaled sharply through his nose.