Hate to say this but...I'm feeling a little discouraged by the lack of reviews this story has gotten. Is the story that bad?

Chapter 6

"No." Andrea said with a shake of her head as we all sat around the floor of the house we had spent last night in. We were tossing the decision whether to help Kayden, the captor who had begged for his life and later our help to free his sisters from Dick's encampment, to a vote amongst all of us. The only ones not here to vote were Dale, my Daddy, Lori, Carl, and Patricia.

Leaning back against the couch arm beside where my sister and Glenn sat I looked around the room at the people who had seen me laying on the ground just a few hours ago being taunted and tested and couldn't help but feel ashamed that I had had to be rescued. "I vote yes. Just from the words Dick spewed at me I can only imagine what his sisters are going through. We have to save them. They don't have to come back to the farm with us but we have to get them out of there." I whispered as tears came unbidden to my eyes. Maggie placed a hand on my shoulder to comfort me.

"I agree with my sister. We have to get them out of there." Maggie said with a squeeze to my shoulder.

Glenn followed in our lead which seemed to get more people to agree. Out of the 17 people sitting around the room we ended up with 13 yes's and 4 no's. "If we all can't get on the same page we're not going to do this. Those of you that voted no please explain your reasoning." Rick said as he sat in one of the chairs he had pulled from the kitchen.

Andrea: "He helped hold all of us captive in the driveway taunting us and this could just be a ruse to get us back to his encampment so he can extract revenge on us for killing his friends."

"He showed us his license and the pictures of his sisters. They're just kids." I argued from my spot as I sat up straight. Have some compassion and think of someone other than yourself for a change." I snapped angrily at her.

She rolled her eyes at me before shrugging her shoulders. "I still stick with my original vote of no."

Tara: "While I feel for the little girls and what they're going through, we don't know anything about this camp except what Kayden has told us. If my experience up north taught me anything it's to not go in without all the information."

"That's a valid point, Tara. It is dangerous but with Captain Dick dead maybe we can talk this out with the remaining community dwellers. We'll talk more with Kayden tomorrow morning to see if there were more people like Dick or if he was the leader."

She nodded in agreement. That was another yes on our side.

Aaron: "It's dangerous and could backfire in ways you can't even imagine. So many of my friends got killed in retaliation. Trust me, while I fell sorry for what those girls most likely suffered at the hands of Dick and his friends, the repercussions of getting them out outweigh leaving them in there. I say we send Kayden back to his camp alone and if he gets his sisters out then he can find us later."

"How would he find us later?" Maggie asked softly. "Isn't it just as dangerous to tell him where our farm is as it is us for us to go in and suffer the repercussions? I would think that is even more dangerous."

He nodded back at her. "Maybe we tell him we will meet them back here in 30 days. That should give him enough time to get his sisters out and back here. Maybe we could even leave enough supplies here to last the four of them for a month."

"What if a month isn't long enough?" I asked because if things were rough back at Kayden's camp then maybe a month wouldn't be enough time to extract his sisters and get back to this particular house.

"We can set up some kind of timetable that allows us to come back every so often until they get here." Michonne suggested.

Eric: "I'm just going with my loves decision. We discussed our vote and agreed on it but the idea of setting this place up for Kayden and his sister until we can get back to collect them is a good plan. It protects us and gives him a safe place to run to with his sisters. I won't go into an unknown camp and fight because like Aaron said, we've lost so much already because of retaliation and I refuse to let either of us live through that again. If you decide to go to that camp then Aaron and I are in agreement that we will resume our journey to the beach for our own sanctuary."

"There's no need to do that, Eric." Rick said as he looked around the room at everybody. "Beth, would you be amenable to setting this place up for Kayden and his sisters until we can come back and get them?"

I looked up at Maggie who smiled at me and nodded slightly. "Yeah, can we send him back with a fueled up vehicle and extra weapons? Would that be too much?"

Rick smiled at me. "I think that parts a given, Beth. The ones that came from Virginia are rightfully cautious and we should heed their words and experiences. But, leaving three innocent girls defenseless in that camp doesn't set right with me either so using this house as a safe house so to speak will give the four of them a leg up in this hellish life we find ourselves living in these days."

"It does."

~*~LUCKY~*~

It was five days after leaving the farm before we pulled back up with all of our scavenging finds. I jumped out the still moving truck when I saw my daddy and Patricia coming down the porch steps. "Daddy!" I called out as I raced towards him.

They both wrapped me up in a group hug as I sobbed against my daddy's shoulder. "What happened, Bethie?" Patricia asked as she stroked the stitches Rosita had put into my cheek after our captors had been killed, except Kayden who was now on his way back to his camp to retrieve his sisters.

I shook my head because I really didn't want to rehash the awful experience of running into living people outside our gates. "It doesn't matter, it's over now." I muttered as I switched my hug to Patricia as Maggie approached behind us.

"She was strong and absolutely amazing when we ran into some trouble with a group of idiots." Maggie explained as she wrapped our Dad up into a tight hug. "My little sister was and is a badass."

I blushed at her words as I pulled away from Patricia. "Mrs. Higgins is gone but her store was untouched." I told Dad and Patricia because they had done regular business with the woman my entire life. That is where we got all of our seeds, feed, and supplies from because my Mom believed in helping local business owners instead of big corporations.

Both Dad and Patricia both shook their heads sadly. "That's unfortunate but this world isn't really meant for elderly people anymore." My dad said which caused Maggie and I to look at one another which caused both of them to laugh at us before guiding us to the vehicles to begin unloading them from the supplies we had scavenged. "Patricia rearranged the house while you guys were gone to accommodate everybody for the winter months."

Maggie and I both raised our eyes at that because when Rick and his group first came onto our property Dad was adamant that they wouldn't be staying much less staying in our house. "That's good. Especially since Lori's pregnant."

As we unloaded the vehicles Patricia showed me what she had done to the house. Our house had a massive add-on wing that we always kept the doors shut to because our family had always fit in the main house but my grandparents had been fortunate enough to have 10 kids which meant the extra rooms were needed. Dad's office had been turned into a bedroom with two twin beds in it. "I think Carol and Michonne will be okay in here even though it's kind of small they doesn't strike me as the type to need much space." Patricia explained as we stood in the doorway to the room that my Dad had spent so much time in managing both the farm and his veterinary practice.

"I'm sure they will appreciate it." I said with a nod as we headed down the hallway to the next room. Room by room she explained why she picked each room for that person or couple. "I'm certain all of them will love what you've done for them." I said as we headed back outside to help unload the remainder of the supplies.

Grabbing the bassinet that we had gotten from the Fort Museum I carried it over to Lori who busy taking inventory of the items that we had all stacked in the living room and dining room. "Lori." I called her name softly as I held up the bassinet.

When she raised her eyes to see why I had called her she gasped loudly before tears pooled in her eyes. "It's beautiful." She whispered as she made her way around the stacks of stuff towards me. "Thank you so much." She said as she placed a hand on her small baby bump.

I shook my head as I handed her the handheld straw basket that was in near perfect condition. "Rick is the one that thought to bring it back for you." I explained, embellishing a little bit on what actually happened.

She smiled sadly at me. "I doubt that but thank you for saying that anyways. This will come in handy once this one gets here."

"Want me to put it in your room?" I asked with a small smile on my face, my stitches kept me from smiling too broadly at the moment.

"My room? Not sure you can count a tent as an actual room." She said with a roll of her eyes and a chuckle.

Again, I shook my head. "You don't know? Patricia set all of you up with bedroom spaces since winter is almost here." I explained but she shook her head and stared at me with wide eyes. "Come. I'll show you." I told her as I took the basket and headed towards the kitchen and through the doorway off of it.

"She didn't have to do this, you know. We would have been fine outside. Daryl and Rick have set up tarps and stuff to help keep the wind out of the tents. We even discussed moving into the hayloft in the barn during the winter months." Lori rambled as she followed along behind me as I led her to the garage turned family bedroom.

She gasped when she stepped down into the space that still needed mattresses and personal touches but other than that it was set up for the small family. "Dad put the small wood heater in here to keep y'all warm during the winter months." I said pointing to the small potbelly wood stove that was exhausted out the exterior wall. "And we've got mattresses to put on the bed frame too." I said pointing to the old wooden frame that didn't need a box springs. "We set Carl up in the storage room at the back here, it's tiny but he'll at least have his own space." I explained pointing to the door that led to the cleaned out storage room.

"Where did you put everything that was stored in here at?" She asked as she walked over to the antique bedframe that used to be my great grandparents that we had stored in the attic.

I shrugged my shoulders because I really had no idea. "You'll have to ask Patricia those questions. You were here the entire time so how did you not know all of this was going on?" I asked curiously as I sat the baby bassinet down near the foot of the bed.

"I've been really sick the past few week so your dad told me to take it easy and just rest until I got to feeling better. I guess that was his way of keeping me out of the main house." She explained as we headed back to the living room.

Later that night after a light supper of a salad, fried squash, and cabbage soup I headed up the stairs towards my bedroom when I spotted a familiar figure sitting at the top of the stairs. "What are you doing up here?" I asked Daryl as I stopped a few steps down from him.

"Your pa and Patricia ga' me Shawn's ole room." He said softly as he stared at the treads of the stairs. I gasped as I stumbled back a few steps and almost slid off the stair I was standing on if it wasn't for the hand that quickly reached out grasping mine. "Careful." He muttered. "I'm not sleepin' up there." He whispered as I regained my balance.

I shook my head at his words. "Nonsense. He's not here anymore and has a perfectly good bed in his room."

"Still…" He said before trailing off with a shake of his head.

Taking a deep breath I stepped forward, placing my hands on either side of his face to tip his head back so he would look at me. "Take the room, Daryl. I was just surprised is all. Take the room." I whispered before releasing his face, stepping around him, and going to my room. I stepped into my room but before I shut my bedroom door I chanced a glance towards the stairs where Daryl sat with his fingertips against his cheek. With red cheeks I ducked behind my bedroom door and clicked it into place.

~*~LUCKY~*~

Over the next few weeks many changes took place around our farm house.

Everybody except Dale, Jesus, and T-Dogg moved into the actual house. Dale opted to stay in his camper while Jesus and T-Dogg set up tents in the hayloft of the barn despite our urgings that had the space inside the house.

The modern stove in the kitchen was replaced with the antique wood burning cook stove.

A wood burning heater was placed in the upstairs hallway to help keep it warm since running the central heat and air would take too much electricity and we only had a few panels to run the basics such as the refrigerator, the freezer, the hot water heater, and the well pumps.

All of our extra space around the house became impromptu bedrooms. Andrea and Tara slept in the living room space. Carol and Michonne took over Dad's study. Rosita and Abraham turned our old game room into their bedroom. Tyrese and Sasha turned the formal dining room into their own spaces. Eric and Aaron slept in the parlor just inside the front door.

The basement was officially stuffed to capacity with our supply storage while the attic was cleared out except for the two beds and two dressers we had set up just in case Kayden and his sisters came to the farm when it was time to go check the house. We still had four days until the thirty days we agreed on was upon us and we would have to leave the farm again.

"We might as well go on another run while we are checking the house for Kayden and his sisters." Rick said as we ate a breakfast of bacon and eggs. Dad had slaughtered one of the pigs a few weeks back which we stored in the freezer that now worked thanks to Glenn and Dale getting the solar panels up and running.

My Dad was immediately shaking his head. "We already have so much." He said firmly. "There is no need to be greedy when there are others out there trying to survive."

"There are things that are running dangerously low and eventually will be too hard to find. It's better to find it now and stock up on it." Rick argued as he leaned back in his chair.

I kept my comments to myself because after what happened last time I had no desire to go on another run so I tuned out the conversation around me. "We need survival books." Patricia said as she pushed her plate away.

"Why?" Andrea asked snootily. She was always questioning Patricia's motives and suggestions.

"Because eventually that canned food you want to depend on will become toxic in those metal cans. The medicine you depend on when you are sick or hurting will be so far past its expiration date it will no longer be able to do its job. Because the clothes you wear will wear out and unless you plan to go around naked we are going to need to figure out how to make some out of animal hides or the wool we shear each spring." Patricia paused for dramatic effect and to catch her breath. "Because I want my family to live a long happy life and learning how to survive off the land is essential to that."

I couldn't have been more proud of Patricia for standing up to Andrea for something as important as our futures. Biting my lip to hide my grin I leaned back in my chair to watch the normally very opinionated and snooty Andrea flounder under Patricia's steady gaze. Maggie was the one that broke the silence with her snickers. "Guess we're going to the library then. Beth, which library is most likely to still have the old card catalogue's?" Maggie asked me as she turned in her chair to look at me.

"Last time I was at the one in Denton it still had the old card catalogue but I'm almost certain they stopped adding to it years ago. It was mostly there to teach the little kids how things used to work before computers took over." I said softly, nervously. Andrea was a hateful person and I didn't want any of her nastiness to be turned on me.

Guess I said the wrong thing because Andrea huffed in annoyance, stood from the table tossing her cloth napkin onto her empty plate, and turned to look at me and my sister. "So we're going to put our lives into the hands of the little farm girl, huh? Not me, not this time." She seethed before stomping out of the house, the screen door slamming behind her.

Feeling my face flame from embarrassment I ducked my head, letting my ponytail slip forward, partially hiding my face. "Maybe the library's not such a good idea. What do I know?" I muttered as I scooted my chair back from the table. "Excuse me." I whispered before quickly escaping to the stairs and up to the roof where nobody except my sister, father, and Patricia knew to find me.