"Describe her." Maggie demanded, sitting on a chair in front of Abraham, who was reclining back in an armchair. "The girl you saw on the gun."
"Who? The Humvee gunner?" Abraham asked. Maggie nodded. "I already told you a hundred times, I didn't get a good look at her face; all I know was that the gunner was a blonde chick with a ponytail. That's all I know; that's all I claim to know. Nothing more, nothing less. Now can I please get some shuteye?"
"Fine." Maggie relented, going over to Glenn. He was asleep; what a long day.
Daryl slowly, groggily walked down the stairs a few moments later, stretching the whole way down.
"Daryl," Maggie stood up, looking him dead on, "I just wanted to let you know that you're right. I wasn't looking for Beth; I didn't look for my sister when she needed me. I'm- I'm sorry, okay?"
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." Daryl snapped bitterly. "Good luck with that, by the way."
He walked out into the kitchen, peeling an apple with his knife, an angry Maggie hot on his heels.
"Hey, I'm trying to make up for it, okay?" she snapped. "I get that you're mad at me, and I'm starting to get that you liked her a bit more than I thought, but I'm trying my best, okay?"
"Trying your best." Daryl hissed, spitting a seed onto the floor. "Wish you would've tried your best finding Beth."
They suddenly heard the sound of glass breaking in the basement, followed by a rustling sound. Daryl ran in and grabbed his crossbow, quietly stalking down the stairs.
He dispatched the first walker with ease, but was rather surprised to see that the second walker wasn't quite a walker. Rather, it was wearing an Atlanta Police Department uniform, a gun raised high above his head.
"Don't shoot!" the officer shouted. "I-I'm just here for supplies."
"You know Dawn Lerner?" Daryl demanded, his crosshairs firmly trained on the cop's head.
"Yeah. How'd you-" He never got to finish as Daryl put an arrow through his head.
"Why Daryl?!" Maggie demanded, running over to the dead cop, seeing if she could do something. "Why'd you kill him?! We could've used him to bargain our way out of this!"
"Oh right!" Daryl yelled. "Cause that worked out so well last time! Got your sister killed, for Christ's sake!"
"Daryl, just stop it!" Maggie shouted. "You act like you're the only one who cared about her!"
"I chased down a car for a day and a half looking for her!" Daryl raged. "What did you do, huh? Huh? Went on your honeymoon, that's what!"
"Hey!" Abraham's voice boomed from upstairs. He hadn't even moved from his recliner. "Shut up down there or I'm gonna come down and settle it for good! Daryl, she's dead! Move on!"
It took a few moments of deafening silence for the true impact of Abraham's words to sink in. That's when he fell to his knees and started crying again.
…
Beth had first watch; Shepard just passed out from sleep deprivation and Morgan was still too injured to do anything if walkers or the officers came back. The lighting was very dim from the gas lamp they had in the center of the room; almost like that last night with Daryl.
She was pretty tired herself- losing almost a quart of blood and getting into a fairly intense firefight would do that to you- but had to stay alert as she heard the walkers shambling about outside of Hogan Psychiatric Consultants.
How long would this all last? The walkers; they were dead. They had to decompose eventually, but when? In their time at the prison, Rick had explained a bit about what he had learned at the CDC from a doctor Jenner about the virus, but that wasn't much. Everyone was infected, you came back no matter what, and it only took hold of a person's brain stem, not the part that makes humans human, the conscious part. Well, it didn't matter much at the moment; they were out there right now, and weren't going to just drop dead- again, her subconscious added- before sunrise.
It was gonna be a long night.
…
"You see that?" Michonne asked. She was sitting out on top of the garage of the house, climbing out through the window.
"See what?" Rick asked, climbing out after her.
Michonne simply pointed across town to another building, what looked like an office. In the full moon, Rick could read the letters right off the building's roof: HOGAN PSYCHIATRIC CONSULTANT. On the top floor, a single window was illuminated by what looked like the faint glow of a candle.
"It could be their camp." Rick announced, going back inside.
"What are you doing?" Michonne asked, following him in.
"If I was them, I'd be changing positions every night so we wouldn't catch on. Now's our chance; it's their own damn fault for being so careless."
"But…"
"Michonne, they killed Beth and almost killed Daryl; I'm not gonna let them get anyone else." He started shouting through the halls. "Come on! Everybody wake up! Get your weapons; we're moving out!"
"W-Wha…?" Glenn asked, rubbing his eyes.
"We found them." Rick replied, tossing him his rifle. "Where's Daryl?"
He turned to see Daryl already fully loaded with his crossbow, an M249 and a bandolier of ammunition, a fiery rage in his eyes. Downstairs, Carl, Abraham, Rosita, Tara, Sasha, Maggie, Glenn, Noah- even Eugene and Tyreese- were getting ready to fight.
"I-I would much rather stay behind." Father Gabriel pleaded.
"No." Rick replied abruptly. "You say you wanna earn our trust; you're gonna have to fight. Better to learn how now than later."
"But your friend…?"
"I'll stay." Tyreese replied instantly. "Any of them come here, I'm more than able to keep Carol and Judith safe."
"Alright." Rick replied, turning to the group at large. "We've all been through a lot of fights; with the Governor, at Terminus. I'm asking you to go to war- again- for something more than our home, though." He paused for effect. "They killed one of our own; Beth. You all knew her; she was just a kid; eighteen years old, third youngest in the whole group. They killed her in cold blood, and now we're gonna avenge her."
He looked over and saw Daryl nodding, trying to contain his rage.
"Let's take 'em down."