Persephone Chapter 20
Lucy and Daryl listened to Rick as he explained the route that had been mapped out to Great Falls, MT where Tony and his group were camped with a much larger group within the now defunct Air Force base there. With many interruptions and exclamations from Daryl, he patiently explained that this was just a fall back plan in the event they needed one. For now, Tony was going to assist the town in scouting out a wider perimeter to gauge the threat level to them from herds and from unfriendly humans. Rick explained that the larger group at the Air Force base was far more secure, with plenty of room for thousands of survivors, supplies and weapons as well as having physicians and scientists working on an antivirus there. There was underground housing and facilities as well as housing and facilities above ground. Tony had given Rick a layout of the base as well as pictures of the housing and some of the apartments, etc underground.
"So, why would we go all the way out there instead of finding another place near here?" Daryl grumbled. He and Lucy stood in the doorway of Rick's living room, and he kept his arm around Lucy. Rick could see Daryl was agitated.
"Well, we don't have to go all the way out there. But it seems to me that out there is a lot safer than here in the more populated areas. They don't have the herds out there that we do here. They're also better equipped to withstand any attacks out there, as well as having the doctors and scientists working on the antivirus. It's a lot to think about, I know. We haven't been here two years even, but we've had constant trouble with attacks and walker herds. And now the number of walkers is increasing again. I'm not saying we need to pack and go now, but I'm saying we need to think about moving out there –"and here Daryl snorted in disgust, "after we get some real information about the actual conditions out there." Here Rick paused. He hadn't planned on talking about moving out to the base, but the thought of finally being somewhere safer than here to raise Judith and Carl was very tempting.
"So, are you going to send some people out there with Tony to see if he's telling the truth about the place?" Lucy asked quietly. Daryl glanced sharply at her and she shook her head –she wasn't volunteering to go anywhere without Daryl and she knew he wasn't about to fly across half the country to see if some base might be safe for them.
Rick sighed, relieved Daryl had subsided with his arguing for now. "Yeah, we're going to decide that the next few days. Some can fly with Tony, some will go in the caravan with his group. It'll take the caravan about a week of steady driving, barring any mishaps, for them to get back to the base. So whoever goes with the caravan will be someone who doesn't plan on coming back. Whoever goes with Tony can fly back with him and give us the information. It's coming onto fall, and out West in some places it starts snowing in October. So we need to jump on this and figure out who's going so the caravan at least can get on the road."
"Well, we ain't goin' so we don't need to be at no more of these meetings," Daryl grumbled.
"I understand," Rick said patiently, "just go about your regular routines with the dogs and Aaron and check in with me from time to time." Daryl nodded and he and Lucy headed out the door toward their house. Rick sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. He hoped he could talk Lucy into talking Daryl into going out to the base. Maybe not now, maybe they could hold off until spring. It all depended on what Tony told them from his survey of their surrounding area. If it looked like there was another build up of the herds, he was going to head out west. He didn't want to spend another winter worrying about their town being overrun and something happening to Carl and Judith. And now that he had Jessie and her boys to consider, he was giving the move west some very serious thought.