Daryl couldn't judge them for getting in over their heads. His people had been pretty cocky themselves when they'd wiped out that outpost by the satellite. They'd never imagined how many Saviors there were.

Tex sighed and looked down at the map. "And where's their base?"

"That, regretfully, I was unable to determine," Malik told him.

"I can show y'all." Daryl rose and walked over to the desk. Isaac moved out of his way. Visually, Daryl located Alexandria on the map, without pointing to it or revealing its location, and mentally counted eight miles east. Then he pointed to the spot. "'Round here. They call it the Sanctuary."

Tex circled the spot.

"Yer badly outnumbered," Daryl said.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Jackson muttered.

"But we're better shots," Tammy insisted. "And we just got a bunch more guns and ammo today."

"Not to mention the RPG," Isaac added. "And they're leaderless now. They'll be scrambling."

Tex looked up at Daryl. "How many RPG's you think they have?"

"Half a dozen, maybe, at the Sanctuary," Daryl said. "Maybe more at the outposts. Don't really know. Just guessin' here."

Isaac leaned back against a bookcase. "Who do you suppose will lead them now?"

"Man named Dwight was his right hand at the Sanctuary," Daryl answered. "And he weren't here today."

Isaac shook his head. "The new leader will probably be a man who runs one of the two outposts. He'll already be accustomed to solitary command of fifty to sixty men."

"Don't know who leads the outposts," Daryl said. "But I heard the name Simon a couple times."

"How many people does your camp have?" Tex asked him.

Daryl walked away from the desk and sat back down in the chair without answering.

"What are you afraid of? Our people should be allies," Tex told him. "We have a common enemy. And we just saved your life, or at least improved it."

Daryl said nothing.

Tex sighed. He had a heavy, masculine sigh, like a wearied football coach who his tired of his players' bullshit. "What else did you get, Malik?"

"They are extorting at least three other communities in Virginia in addition to ours. The Hilltop, Alexandria, and the Kingdom." He pointed to Daryl. "He is from Alexandria."

"What do you know about these other communities?" Tex asked Daryl.

"Been to the Hilltop," he admitted. He didn't see how it could hurt. They already knew where he was from, and they did seem like they would make good allies, as reluctant as he was to trust anyone after leaving Dwight alive. "Ain't never heard of the Kingdom."

Tex rolled his chair closer to the desk. "How many men do you have?" he asked again.

This time, Daryl answered. "Thirty who can fight, maybe. But we ain't got no weapons. Saviors took 'em all."

"And how did they manage that?" Jackson asked.

"They came to collect and…" Daryl shrugged. "They collected 'em all."

"You let them?" Tammy sat forward in her chair. "Take them all? Without a fight?"

Daryl clenched his teeth. "I weren't in charge," he muttered. "I's a prisoner then. Look, they blindsided us, beat two of us to death, took me captive. We's badly outnumbered. Rick must of done what he thought was right to keep our people alive."

"Rick? That's your leader?" Tex asked.

Maybe Daryl was saying too much, but Rick had rolled over because they were outnumbered. Alexandria needed friends. Friends with guns. Friends who could shoot. And all he had to offer these potential new friends was information and hope. "We took out one of their outposts awhile back," said Daryl, "and we can do it again. We just need weapons."

"And what about the Hilltop?" Tex asked. "Will they fight with us?"

"They ain't really fighters. They hired us to do their dirty work in the first place, take out that outpost."

"Hired you?" Tammy asked sharply. "Y'all are just mercenaries? You kill for the highest bidder?"

"Nah," Daryl said. "We needed food to live. We got women and children, just like y'all. Hilltop promised us food. Said Negan was extortin' 'em. We was tryin' to help them and help ourselves. Knew the Saviors was bad men, just didn't know what we was gettin' in to."

Perhaps they never should have killed those men, but Daryl didn't suppose they could have avoided tangling with them eventually. The Saviors were like locusts, devouring everything in their path.

"They have weapons?" Tammy asked. "This Hilltop?"

"Not many." Unless they were hiding them. Daryl sure hadn't seen many when they visited. Jesus was unarmed when they met.

Tex rapped his fingers on the desk. "So it's just us. We're the only community armed against the Saviors?"

"Perhaps this Kingdom?" Malik suggested from his perch by the door. "Perhaps if we find them – "

"- How are we going to?" Tex asked. "And we don't have time. The Saviors will expect Negan back at the base within twenty-four hours."

"Sooner'n that," Daryl said. He rose and looked at the map again. "Where are y'all?"

Tex pointed to their location.

"Ain't but a two hour's drive to the Sanctuary. Saviors might expect the collecting and loading to take three. Might wait an extra two hours when he don't show. Already been an hour. I reckon y'all got eight hours at most 'fore they's at yer gates."

"We have more time than that," Tex said.

"They were planning to spend the night," Tammy explained. "They were going to look over our entire ranch, because they've never been inside the gates before. And as part of the deal, in exchange for not killing us all, they were going to select three wives from among our women."

"Jesus," Daryl muttered and slumped back into his chair. He glanced at Tammy. "You was gonna be one of 'em. Negan said he was plannin' to take ya prisoner, try to bend ya like me."

"Well he had another think comin'," Tex said. "But when Negan doesn't show up back at the Sanctuary tomorrow, they'll send more armed men out here. They'll be here…" He glanced at the map, at the spot where he had circled the base. "By two p.m. tomorrow at the earliest. Four at the latest. We have to hit their base first." He stabbed a finger at the location of the Sanctuary. "Take 'em by surprise."

"Forget that, babe," Tammy said. "We're outnumbered, and we don't have time to form an alliance. We don't want to go into the hornet's nest, with all their men and all their weapons, and leave the children and elders unprotected here. We have to fight a defensive war."

"We don't want them firing RPGs on our ranch, darlin'," Tex replied. "We don't want them setting this place on fire. We want to take them out at a distance, where they sleep."

"Baby," Tammy said, "you know how you always used to lose to me whenever we played that board game Risk?"

"I just did that to get it over with quicker so I could get laid."

Daryl snorted. He hadn't meant to. He hadn't expected to. After all, he hadn't found anything funny in a long time. He immediately stifled his reaction. He felt bad that anything should be able to amuse him now.

Tammy rolled her eyes at her husband. "Like hell you did. You're as competitive as they come. You lost because you kept attacking positions that were too well fortified, and I kept building them up. Your armies just got smaller and smaller."

"Mhmm," Tex murmured. "Like my ego. Yeah, I remember now."

"When Negan doesn't show up back at the base," Tammy said, "they'll send a party to investigate. Might be bigger than the party they sent this time, but it won't be everyone. They can't leave their base undefended. Besides, they're arrogant. They haven't guessed what they're dealing with here. They think we're just farmers with a few guns. They won't be looking for a community that could take out twenty-three Saviors."

"They'll probably be thinking road trouble," Jackson agreed.

"They'll be looking for broken-down trucks," suggested Isaac.

"Right," Tammy said. "So let's give them two broken-down trucks, a mile from the ranch, where we've got those other two deer blinds. And then let's blow up those trucks right when they get there."

"Can y'all do that?" Daryl asked.

"We've got gunpowder and fertilizer," Tammy said. "We've got a chemist."

"And we've got a guy who used to be on the bomb squad for the Virginia state police," Jackson said. "Mikey."

"We put four of our best snipers in those blinds," Tammy continued. "The explosion will kill some of the Saviors. The rest will start running. When they do, our snipers go to work."

Tex nodded. "We pick off the search party, just like we picked off the collection party."

Tammy uncrossed her legs, letting both cowgirl boots rest on the plush carpet now, so she could lean forward in her chair. "And then when those men don't come back," she said, "they'll send another party to investigate. And we'll do it again. And again. For as long as it takes until they're all gone. We just wait. Good things come to those who wait."

Tex smiled. "So you used to tell me."

She cocked her head at him. "And I was worth the wait, wasn't I, babe?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And if they do send every man to fight ya?" Daryl asked. "If they make it past the trucks and snipers, and launch fire over yer walls?"

"We'll have three snipers back at the ranch," Tammy said. "One in each tower and one in the blind in the woods across from the gate. I don't think they're going to get an RPG off before one of our snipers takes out the man with the launcher. But we'll assign a bucket brigade and fill the buckets now, in case there is fire. Everyone capable of fighting will be armed inside the gates. We'll be ready."

Tex nodded. "Malik," he said. "Start organizing the bucket brigade and getting those things filled. Make sure we know where all the extinguishers are too."

Malik nodded and left the room.

"Isaac," Tex commanded, "go start on the bombs and get those trucks rigged up and get 'em out there. Get Mikey and Martin to help."

"Yes, sir." Isaac went out the study door.

"Jackson, spread the word. See that everyone is armed and ready. Assign positions. We assume them at noon tomorrow."

"On it." Jackson left the room as well.

Tammy stood. "I'm gonna go check on the baby."

She left the two men alone in the study.

"Y'all have a baby?" Daryl asked when the door shut. Tammy didn't look like she'd been pregnant anytime recently.

"One of the dairy cows had a calf. It's been sickly. Tammy's tryin' to save it." Tex folded the map on his desk. "How good a shot are you?"

"I'm best with a crossbow," Daryl said. "But I ain't bad with a rifle neither."

Tex chuckled. "Crossbow? Hardly seems like the ideal weapon for an apocalypse."

"It's quiet. Don't attract the walkers. It's served me just fine."

"Has it?" Tex asked. "You appear to have been taken prisoner."

Daryl gritted his teeth together, but he suppressed his animal impulse to respond to the light insult disproportionately.

"I suppose you were ambushed and there was nothing you could do." Tex laced his fingers together on the desk. "That's what happened to Tammy when our son was killed. Though I keep wondering, if I had been there with her that day…if I hadn't stayed home to break a damn horse…" He shook his head.

"Cain't second guess yerself like that," Daryl said. "Cain't blame yerself for the blood on someone else's hands." After he said the words, he knew they were a lie. You could. He did. He blamed himself for Glenn, for Maggie, and for their unborn baby.

"Well I can't give you a crossbow," Tex told Daryl, "but I can give you a rifle, if you're willing to shoot from the towers with us. Or the woods. You look like more of a woodsman."

"I need to get back to my own people. If this don't work out for y'all, and them Saviors see me here, they'll come down on Alexandria. And my people ain't got no guns."

"If they see you in Alexandria, they'll come down on your people, too. They aren't going to let an escaped prisoner go home. Stay here. Help us."

"Cain't. Got to get back to my people. Now."

Tex smiled and shook his head. "You must have a woman there. Can't blame you. I'd probably go back for Tammy, even if it was the most foolish thing in the world to do."

A woman? Daryl thought. What woman? Not Beth. She was dead. Not Michonne. She was Rick's. Not Tara. She was gay. Not Rosita or Sasha. Their hearts were in the grave with Abraham. Not Maggie. He'd killed her husband and the grief had put her and her baby in that grave he'd seen in Alexandria. And not Carol. They'd been close once, him and Carol, closer than he'd ever been to any woman, but she'd pulled away. Carol hadn't even been around when Negan had taken him to Alexandria to collect. Maybe she'd been off screwing Tobin. What she saw in that pansy ass man, Daryl couldn't begin to guess. Tobin was the anti-Ed, he supposed - stable, polite, even tempered, non-violent, non-demanding. Hell, maybe he was the anti-Daryl, too.

"Don't have a woman," he muttered.

"I find that hard to believe," Tex replied. "You have something back there."

Daryl felt like he had to give the man some reason. "Got a family. Rick's my brother."

"Any kids?"

"Yeah. Got a toddler named Judith, a teenage boy named Carl, and a girl named Enid. I got a bunch of sisters, too. Sasha. Michonne. Ro -"

"- That's a damn big family to survive the apocalypse together."

"Yeah. It is."

"Well good on you. Sticking together like that. Can't blame you for wanting to go back to that." Tex stood and pushed back his chair. "Unfortunately I can't let you leave."

Daryl stood also. "You gonna shoot me to stop me?"

Tex looked at him coolly. It was the first time Daryl had noticed the hardness in the man's eyes. His tone was so calm, but his eyes were the eyes of a man who had lost his only son and refused to lose his only home. "If we have to." He picked up his rifle and shouldered it. "It's nothing personal, but we can't risk the Saviors finding you on your way back, before they're surprised by us. They could torture you, get all sorts of information out of you."

"They done tried that. They couldn't get a damn thing out of me back at the Sanctuary. And I won't get caught."

"I'm sure that's what you thought the first time."

Daryl gritted his teeth.

"Listen, I'm a reasonable man," Tex said. "I'm just asking you to be equally reasonable. You can't help your people by going back now. Stay with us. Fight with us. Help us decimate their ranks. We'll keep 'em damn busy and away from your people. Once we've beaten them down, then you can go back. We'll even give you a car, some guns, and some ammunition to take with you."

"Why?" Daryl asked. "Why so generous?"

"Because there ain't many decent people left in this world," the rancher said. "You've got women and children, and you're the enemy of the Saviors…that's enough for me. And if you survive all this, and we survive all this, maybe our communities can talk trade. We have plenty of food, but we need medicines and other things. And we don't like to scavenge."

Daryl nodded.

"So you'll stay?"

"Don't sound like I got much of a choice."

"You'll fight?"

"Hell yeah," Daryl said. "Damn right I'll fight."

"Then let's go pick you out a rifle."