"We came back from the run and saw the prison. I stuck my katana in his face," Michonne sneered. "Asshole. We got inside."
"Heard li'l ass kicker cryin' in one a the cells. Bob. Had to put him down," Daryl sipped.
Sasha closed her eyes and let out a shuddering breath. "Thank you," she said when she opened them again.
"We went to Woodbury," Michonne continued.
"Why?" Maggie frowned.
"Walls. Had solar panels, accordin' to 'Chonne," Daryl pointed his glass at her. He held it away when Judith grabbed onto it. "Too young," he chided her. She put her head on his chest and stared up at him. "Ain't gonna work, them puppy dog eyes." Judith smiled up at him.
Glenn shook his head at Daryl and smiled. He needed to see that. Looking at Maggie, Beth and Sasha, they did, too.
"Go on," Maggie smiled.
"It was burned down. The Governor," Michonne sneered again. "I wish I'd killed him."
"You and me both, 'Chonne," Daryl said.
"We went to King County the same day. Morgan was gone. Nothing was there. We couldn't stay there. No food. When we were there the first time, Morgan collected a lot. It was gone. We stayed a few days."
"Went back to the farm," Daryl continued. "No one there. Couldn't find a way to make it safe. We had li'l ass kicker," he ran his hand down her back again.
"We didn't know where else to look or even if you made it out." Michonne sighed. "We didn't even try and look for you among the walkers."
Daryl shifted.
"It's alright, Daryl," Glenn gave him a nod.
"'Chonne told me about Covet Island. We decided to try it. If this didn't work out we was gonna head for the mountains. Away from people."
"We had Judith," Michonne repeated.
"Found Sid and Hol's 'storage area'. Had walkers protectin' it."
"What?" Maggie frowned.
"The arms and jaws were cut off. We asked if we could come here. We had to help. With everything. We said yes. We've been here three months."
"Shit. Nice ass yacht. Nice ass hotel," Daryl breathed out.
Glenn sat back against the back of the sofa with his arm around Maggie. "It is. A nice ass yacht and a nice ass hotel."
"How are they?" Sasha refilled her glass.
"Good people. Smart. Very egalitarian," Michonne raised her eyebrows.
"Have a damn list. Everyone has a say on it. Includin' Trey and Monique," Daryl huffed out.
"They put up the solar panels we have in the roof. They have greenhouses. We've just started getting fresh food from the gardens."
"Garden's hell. Damn farm. Got animals," Daryl sipped.
"Cho," Judith called out and raised her arms. Daryl passed her over. Judith put her head on Michonne's chest.
"It's a miracle you found her," Beth breathed out.
"Why we didn't spend a lot of time trying to look for you. I'm not sorry for it," Michonne told them as she hugged Judith to her.
"We understand, Michonne," Maggie gave her a small smile.
"We're not real rigid around here. We have a watch. Not a good one and towers are on the list."
"Might have to move 'em up higher," Daryl commented.
"Two people at the dock and two people patrol the beach at night. During the day, we're all over."
"Need people," Daryl interjected.
"You have us. Now," Glenn raised his glass.
"We have you. We're happy you made it," Michonne gave them a small smile.
Sasha grinned right back. "So? You and Daryl?"
"Stop," Daryl groaned. "If this turns into a chick conversation I'm leavin'," he threatened.
"Problem?" Michonne raised an eyebrow.
"No problem, Michonne. I think you're cute together," Maggie smirked.
"Shit. You been talkin' to Hol?" Daryl grumbled.
"She does, too," Michonne told Maggie.
Sasha let out a surprised laugh. "She does, huh? I like this woman."
Michonne stood with a sleeping Judith in her arms. "We'll put her down and show you the storage area. You can get bedding and clothes."
Daryl got up and went to a closet they didn't see and opened it. Glenn got up and helped him put up a pack and play and watched as Michonne put her down.
"Isn't dangerous? Leavin' her by herself?" Beth questioned.
"We won't be gone long. We have a radio," Michonne held it up. "We can listen for her. Come on."
Daryl covered Judith up with a blanket and stopped when he looked up. "What?" he whisper yelled.
"Nothing, Daryl," Glenn grinned.
"Daddy's a good look on you," Sasha laughed.
"We're gonna tell her 'bout Rick and Carl," Daryl defended himself.
"We know, Daryl," Maggie patted his arm. "If Rick and Carl made it? Maybe they'll find us. Or we'll find them."
"Maybe we should put a note at the prison," Glenn suggested.
"We'll have to make one for Carol and Ty, too," Beth said.
"Yeah. Need to make one for all three of 'em," he agreed.
"Come on. Sheets and clothes," Michonne walked down the hall.
"The kitchen's nice," Maggie exclaimed as they passed it.
"It is. It's nice to cook with electric. The hotel was almost done before this," Michonne offered the information as Sasha went inside.
"It is. I can't wait to cook," Beth grinned.
"We eat there. We only have ten that do watch so we fit. When we get more people we'll have to figure something out," Michonne pointed to the large glass topped and chrome base table.
"Glass, chrome and white," Sasha whistled.
"It was supposed to make it look more open," a man's deep voice said from behind them.
"Ralph," Daryl nodded.
"Son. Just checking on my other grandbaby," he nodded back. "Luke's on his way. Got some big ones. He says," Ralph smirked.
"The boy can fish," Daryl conceded.
"More for the garden. Go on. I'll take them out back," Ralph offered. "Go put my Judy in a real crib," he directed.
"You okay with it?" Daryl looked at them.
"They're fine with it, Daryl. I have to meet my new family. Go on, boy."
"We'll be fine, Daryl," Sasha smiled at the old man.
"We're family here," Ralph explained after Daryl and Michonne left.
"Good way to be," Beth whispered.
"It is. It's how we make it these days. Come on. You'll all see this room too much," Ralph laughed and waited.
Ralph took them toward the clinic and veered left out another door. They stepped out onto the porch and followed him to a large building out back. He opened the door and stepped aside to let them in.
"Looks like a damn department store," Maggie gaped.
"Sid and Hol? They tried to think of everything. Clothes to the left, toiletries in the back. We have shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrushes, brushes, hair bobs. Basic medical stuff, band aids, hydrogen peroxide, cotton balls, tissues, toilet paper. Cleaning supplies, detergents. Shoes. Mostly hiking boots, combat boots and tennis shoes. Electronics. Not a lot of those. Some TV's and laptops. Bedroom stuff. Sheets, pillows, pillow cases and blankets. We have another room just for music and movies. We're going to build a library, it's on the list. Most of the books we use are in the house. We have some in one of the rooms on the second floor, if you're interested. They're with the books. The last room on the right. Second floor."
"Who keeps track of all this?" Glenn asked as he wandered around.
"We all do. If you take something you mark it off. We keep a laptop in the kitchen, under one of the counters, with a list of everything we have."
"Guns?" Sasha looked up from the clothes.
"Guns. We have hand guns, ammunition, rifles, automatic weapons, hand grenades, RPG's. Those are kept in the armory. Off the clinic. To the right."
"RPG's? How the hell did they get those?" Glenn gaped at him.
"Sid and Hol used to work for the ATF. They were tracking someone collecting a lot of weapons. Found his stash," Ralph grinned. "In a damn bunker. Took it all. We have more storage areas around. When something gets low we refill."
"How long have you been here?" Beth picked up a pair of jeans and put them against her legs. She nodded and took two more pairs. "They even got tags on some of this stuff," she noted.
"Since this whole thing started. They were going to open a few weeks after this. When shit started to go south? I took my grandson, Trey, and came here. Figured no one would look on this little island. I was the chief maintenance man."
"Someone did?" Maggie picked up toothpaste, toothbrushes, brushes, shampoo, conditioner and mouthwash. "Glenn? Let's get some good sheets."
Glenn moved to the sheets section. "What color?"
"Blue," she answered. "Michonne said washers and dryers?"
"Through here," Ralph opened a door in the back. Sasha whistled.
"Nice ones. Big."
"Brand new. We wash our own clothes. Once a week, whoever cleans downstairs, does the community wash. Towels for the bathroom downstairs, kitchen cloths," he explained.
"We can do that. Might need a lesson on how to use them," Beth pointed.
"We'll show you," Ralph said.
"Nice set up here," Sasha commented again as she picked out red sheets. Beth chose green. They chatted with Ralph as they went through the storage area. After they were done Ralph took them back inside and showed them the laptop.
After a quick lesson on the inventory system they went to their rooms.
Beth sighed as she laid down on her new bed. "Ahh," she moaned in joy. She almost wanted to take another shower. She decided she was going to. As she walked into her nice ass bathroom she got in the shower, shaved her legs and underarms and washed her hair. After getting out she brushed her teeth, used the mouthwash and put on her new underwear and clothes. When she went into the sitting room she tested out the furniture.
"Nice," Sasha repeated as she walked out of her room in her new clothes.
"Michonne and Daryl were lucky."
"We were, too, Beth."
"Yeah. We were, too," she smiled at Sasha. "Everything's so nice."
"Comfortable. And nice," she added when Beth rolled her eyes.
"Hot water. Showers. Working toilet. Electricity."
"It'll take some getting used to, that's for sure," Sasha admitted as she sat on the loveseat.
"Sorry about Bob, Sasha," Beth muttered.
She gave Beth a sad smile. "So am I, Beth. So am I."
"He saved Judith."
"He saved Judith."
Beth patted Sasha's hand. "Come on. Let's check out the armory."
"How does it work?" Sasha asked at dinner that night.
"God, this is so good," Maggie sighed as she ate fresh fish. Luke, a young black guy, nodded in acknowledgement.
"We all take turns cooking dinner. For everyone. The ones on watch, too," Soledad said. "We put it up in one of the refrigerators." She pointed to the two large stainless steel refrigerators. "Other meals are on your own as we're all over the place. Sid, Hol, Matt and Jace have tonight. We'll go through a rotation, so before their turns again. We help everywhere. Daryl gave us a lesson on butchering. You four will have to learn, too. Feeding the animals, collecting eggs, checking the food in the greenhouses and fields. Just rotate, I guess. If you're not sure if something's ripe we have books on growing food. Check them. We're learning on the fly."
"My daddy had a farm. We can show you," Beth volunteered.
"Cool. We haven't done bad, so far. Tomatoes, potatoes, beans, some spices. We have a drying house and a smoke house. We have bacon," Daisy added.
"We have a list of seeds. If you know how to grow something and we need something for it, put it on the list. The raiding teams take them when they go out. If we don't? Plant it and let us know," Luke told them.
"Everyone raids. We're just starting to take Trey and Monique. Sid and Hol got paintball guns to teach them how to use real guns."
"Why paintball guns?" Glenn looked up from his plate of fish and green beans.
"Won't waste ammunition," Ralph replied.
"We've killed biters before. With knives," Monique held hers up.
"Yeah. Nasty bastards," Trey wrinkled his nose.
"We try and have at least an hour a day with Trey and Monique for lessons. Math, reading, writing. The basics," Soledad smiled.
"Everyone," Ralph pointed his fork at them.
"We can do it," Sasha repeated.
"We'll show you the list later," Michonne ate some of her dinner as Daryl held Judith and fed her a bottle.
"Need to meet tomorrow before we leave for Wassaw," Daryl called a meeting. "It's important."
"Right after watch," Luke decided.
"Are we going?" Maggie asked.
"If ya want. We're cleanin' it almost like the Big Stop. Start a radio away from where we're clearin'. After a few hours we put up fences, prop 'em up. Take everything. We'll show ya how Sid and Hol showed us how to search."
"I'll stay with Judith and check the food," Beth volunteered. "Go over lessons."
"Good. Sid and Hol will be sleeping."
"Well, shit," Holly sat back against the sofa after her, Sid, Jace and Matt heard about the prison. "What an asshole. Probably had a little dick." She waved her hand. "Neither here nor there." She stood and paced. "If someone was onshore they could almost reach the island."
"How do you know?" Glenn asked.
"Army brat." She paced some more. "Gas. Car gas. Not diesel. Some of it's shitty any way. If we put car gas in a tank it can't go anywhere. After a while. It'll fuck up the engine."
"That won't stop anyone that already has a tank, Hol," Matt snorted.
"No it won't. Then we'd be screwed. Unless we find some anti-tank guns."
"We'd have to raid a base or something for that, Hol," Sid noted.
"We would. And we'd have to be damn lucky." She stopped, tilted her head back and sighed. "We could. Raid a base. All bases, army bases, have basically the same layout."
"That's insane," Soledad shouted.
"Very insane. If a base was loaded with biters?"
"Sid, we can't raid a base. We're good. Not that good," Luke protested.
"She's right. All army bases have basically the same layout. Munitions and weapons depots are the farthest away from the front gate," Jace added. "Anti-tank rifles. Not the big guns."
Hol rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding me, Jace? If we raid a base for guns we're taking everything. Landmines, anti-tank guns, grenades, RPG's. We could take tank shells, break them open, the ones with powder."
"NO," Ralph raised his voice. "Raiding a base? It would be suicide."
"Hm. I think we're getting ahead of ourselves. Raiding a base? No. I agree with Ralph. This was one instance. From what Sasha, Beth, Maggie and Glenn said this was personal. Aside from the hit and run, we've been left alone. We're cleaning up and burning the islands closest to us. Another thing to consider? Most of the things from the old world are falling apart, breaking up or spoiling. Gas. Food. We're kind of smart and planning. Not to say some asshole out there hasn't thought of taking over the world with a loose nuke. I'm sure some crazy fuck has. Could they do it? Possibly. I say we try and build towers while we raid Wassaw and Ossabaw," Sid reasoned.
"Towers," Matt held up his hand.
"Show of hands for towers?" Daisy asked.
After a show of hands, everyone, towers were bumped up the list. "Instead of burning we should take the houses apart and use the wood," Matt suggested.
"We'll need the ferry," Trey smiled.
"It'll take a long time. Longer than we spent on Tybee. It took us a month there," Jace reminded them.
"We need towers, no question. Is the wood safe? After all this time? Should we cut down fresh trees?" Soledad threw in.
Holly yawned. "I'm too tired to think about this. Next item on the agenda is taking houses down or cutting trees. We'll revisit tomorrow. The raiding party can check out the buildings on Wassaw and report back. Sound good?"
Sid laughed. "Who knew we'd miss Kenn G?" he said to Holly.
"Yeah. I do miss his weasel ass. He was one our CI's," she explained at the confused looks. "He was tapped into all kinds of crap."
Sid stood up and yawned. "We're going to bed. Barbeque chicken and we'll make some mashed potatoes. Maybe one of those brownie mixes for dessert. We'll grill. Night everyone," he waved as he pulled Holly behind him up the stairs.
A chorus of 'good night' followed them along with Jace and Matt.
"Interesting," Sasha said to Daryl and Michonne later as they'd congregated in their room.
"Yeah. Everyone does everything. Everyone has a say," Michonne repeated.
"Good policy," Daryl echoed.
"Shit yes. When we were on the road be barely fed ourselves. Sasha shot squirrels. Trying to cook them?" Glenn shook his head. "I really missed you, Daryl. We all did."
"Daryl has a lot of students now," Michonne softly teased.
Sasha broke out in laughter at the look on his face.
Michonne put Judith in a sling and carried her in front. "Come on. We'll show you the animals and the fields."
Sasha was really impressed the next day when they started cleaning Wassaw Island. She'd never have thought to look under beds or behind dressers for guns. Luke said it wasn't a contest. "Just do it thoroughly. Check your lists."
By the time they left, hours later and only part of the island cleaned out, they had a yacht full of canned food, guns, ammunition, baby formula, bottles, medicine, blankets, sheets, clothes, pillows, coffee, creamer, sugar, flour. Matt had found a house with a garden and they'd spent time digging up the plants. They now had carrots, more potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, basil, rosemary. Taking down the small greenhouse had been challenging.
She was bone tired by the time the yacht docked on Covet. They dragged everything up to the storage area but the plants. Beth took them and put them in some containers until they could be planted. The greenhouse was left near the other ones for someone to reassemble. Luke brought over a few more bikes and a few wagons.
She was showering later when she realized she was singing. Then she cried. She missed her brother. When she got out, hot water, she was wrinkled and ready for bed. She put on some sweats and headed downstairs. She could smell barbeque chicken.
"Hey," Sid nodded at her as he put the chicken on the island. "Help yourself. Everyone usually does."
"Thanks," she grabbed a plate and put chicken and potatoes on it. "Brownies?"
"Holly made them already. They're in the oven. We don't have assigned seating. Wherever."
She took some silverware that was sitting out and saw water was already on the table.
"Good, babe," she complimented Sid and he kissed her on the lips. "So, how was your first raid, Sid and Holly style?" Holly asked.