Hi readers!
First off, please allow me to apologize for the long absence. I have joined a US police academy since the posting of my last chapter, which consumes the life of a cadet. Seriously. Like 19/20 days, 10 hours a day MINIMUM are spent at the academy, not to mention homework and additional training, as well as department interviews. It's, in essence, insanity.
In addition to this, I am planning my wedding, which is coming up in less than 7 months now, and we are buying a new home in another town to be closer to work.
SO, that is my excuse for not updating as frequently as I had been at first. Every of the three spare minutes I have in a day have been spent kicking myself for not writing more. So, here is my attempt at tying ya'll over until I graduate in mid-December.
Thank you for your patience and thank you for your continued support. As always, onwards and upwards!
A soft knock jolted Star out of a deep, dreamless sleep. She groggily blinked the blur from her eyes, but her arm immediately shot out to the spear laying to the left of the mattress.
The bedroom door cracked open, and short auburn hair appeared in the gap.
"Oh, Maggie," Star sighed, dropping her weapon back to the floor. "Hi. Come on in."
"Sorry to wake you," Maggie said from the doorway. "There's a meeting at Deanna's in five minutes."
Star was on her feet already, pulling off her pajamas in the corner as Maggie turned her gaze away.
"About last night?" she asked.
"No, something Rick found out in the woods," Maggie responded. "Don't know what yet."
Star nodded in acknowledgement as she got her long-sleeved, black running shirt over her head, adjusted her tan BDUs, and kicked on her running shoes. She looked down at the bed, and the missing entity suddenly came to her.
"Daryl's already there," Maggie noted, reading her mind. "He was up earlier, helping Rick with the bodies."
Star nodded again. "Thanks for waking me up," she said as she passed through the door. Her leg protested against her sudden movement, and she gasped slightly as the pain hit her.
"Here," Maggie insisted, handing Star a pile of pills, a full water bottle, and a peanut butter sandwich.
"Man, you are on it," Star admired as she heavily limped down the staircase, Maggie lingering at her side.
"Didn't get much sleep, so I've had some time to get things together," Maggie noted.
The two women exited the house, crossed the street, and made their way down the block in silence, each still reeling from the previous two days' events, and mentally preparing for what the world was going to throw at them next.
"They're from another community," a young man with dreads and glassed informed a very sweaty Rick as Maggie and Star entered the living room filled with community members. "There were only a few of them stuck in there then. The sounds must have drawn more."
Star saw Daryl leaning on a wall of the room, closest to Rick. She quietly crossed the room as the young man continued to fell Rick in on the demographic of this issue. Daryl turned to nod at her as took her place to his right.
"What's going on?" she whispered.
"Big herd stuck in a quarry. Seems like they from other communities, or was," Daryl quietly filled her in.
"The big rigs there are about to fall off the ledges, any day now," Rick told the community. "If they get out, they'll be coming straight at us."
"Jesus Christ," Star muttered under her breath. Daryl looked at her sideways, swaying slightly as she balanced off of her injured leg. He straightened up from the wall and extended his arm to her subtly. She leaned slightly against him, trying to be careful not to draw too much attention from the issue at hand.
"So what do we do?" an Alexandrian Star recognized as Betsy's husband asked.
"I'm thinking we draw them away," Rick recommended. "Use the supplies for the wall extension and set up borders to control their movement. Use some cars as bait, and draw them away from the town. Let the herd wander away and keep going."
A dead silence hung in the air. Rick's group seemed to accept the plan right off the bat, all nodding or looking like they were chewing over the tactics. The Alexandrians, however, seemed alarmed and bewildered.
"Isn't that dangerous?" Barry finally spoke. "Just unleashing a herd and hoping we can control them?"
Star felt herself caught between the two theories of thought again. She agreed that an entire quarry filled with a herd posed a huge threat to the community, especially with the already tumultuous tension within the walls. However, releasing that many and trying to control the mindless undead seemed far-fetched.
"We do what Rick says," Deanna said, staring out a window with her back to the gathering.
Rick launched off of her affirmation before anyone else had a chance to undermine the call. "We start building the barriers today. Set up checkpoints and establish teams. A few of my group will remain to keep the town defended. Maggie, Carol, Tara, Eugene, you'll remain here. Deanna, select a few members to remain behind that are good with weapons. The rest of us are out in an hour."
The group dispersed to their respective jobs. Daryl turned to Star. "Ya should stay here," he told her, indicating to her leg.
She scoffed at him and began to limp towards the front door. "Not a chance, Daryl. I'm not sitting around while everyone else does the work."
She got onto the front porch before he managed to shoulder his way past some stragglers and maneuver himself in her way. 'Star…" he growled in a low warning.
"Daryl…" she responded in kind.
"Ya can barely walk," he argued. "Ya won't be any help out there."
She kept trudging her way back to the group home. "Last I checked, you don't need to be able to run to dig some holes."
"I ain't messin'…" Daryl started in, but Star cut him off by grabbing his arm and pulling him into her. She firmly pressed her lips against his, cutting off his protests. His arm went rigid but his head tilted slightly to deepen the kiss.
She pulled away after a few seconds, and steadily held his surprised gaze. "Daryl, I am going. Deanna will be here to keep the peace, but the townspeople still aren't set on following Rick. We need a mediator out there. I'm still the closest we have. But I hear what you're saying. I need your help."
Daryl's brain was still buzzing from the intimate embrace out in the open, but he was able to gather the generalities of her statement. She wasn't backing down, and she was going to help with the herd.
"Fine," he relented. "But ya stay with me."
"Deal," she agreed.
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The group re-convened at the quarry at mid-morning. Star gaped at the sight before them from the back of Daryl's motorcycle.
"Holy shit," Daryl agreed quietly.
At least 300 of the walking dead were mulling around in the cavernous hole. They thoughtlessly bounced off each other and collided with the crumbling walls. Four semi-trucks had been parked to block the ramps out of the ditch, but Star could see where Rick's concern was: one of the trucks was balanced precariously on the decaying edge of the ramp, and if it fell, it left a significant path for the biters to stream from the pit.
Rick laid out a map on the hood of one of the vehicles, and began strategizing with Abraham, Glenn, and Betsy's husband. Daryl and Star dismounted the bike, and Daryl began to listen in on the discussion. Star approached the trucks loaded with fencing supplies and scanned the haul.
"Think we'll have enough to pull this off?" she asked Michonne, who was doing the same.
Michonne shrugged. "The wall doesn't really matter. I'm more worried about the biters following the bait."
"Ok, guys, here's the plan!" Rick called them all in. He briefed them all on the plan and the route, as well as everyone's role at each stage. Star was grateful that her injury had not impacted the tasks assigned to her; Rick instructed her to build the fence along with everyone else.
Several hours were spent digging out the posts along the marked intersections, setting up a 12-foot wall in the path to direct the flow of the walkers once they were uncaged. It reminded Star a little of reinforcements to rivers to control the path of the current. Some of the larger vehicles were retrieved from the town to use as longer sections of the straights, and a few of the people who remained in town came out with the vehicles with water and food.
"Thank Carol," Star smiled, as the older woman handed down a refilled water bottle. "Appreciate it."
"Well we appreciate you being out here in the hot sun, digging all day," Carol chirped. Star almost laughed. Now that she had seen the no-nonsense, aggressive side of Carol, the "den mother" charade was comical. She understood the tactical use of the personality, but it made the flowered print shirts and cookies even more hilarious.
"My pleasure ma'am," she farced back, and Carol gave her a half-second of a playful glare. She placed another water bottle and a bag of applies and carrots next to Star.
"Get that to Daryl, see if he'll eat," Carol told her. Star saluted, adding, "yes, ma'am." She gathered up the items and made her way around the holes and mounds of dirt to where Daryl was lifting posts into the completed holes with Rick.
"Break time, guys?" she asked. Daryl paused but Rick picked up another beam from the pile.
"Guys, break time," she stated decisively and loudly. Daryl shot a glance in Rick's direction, and Rick gave her an irritated look but dropped the end of the post. Star walked past them and sat down in the shade of the nearby woods.
"Careful," Daryl cautioned her as he plopped down to the ground next to her. "Rick's not in th' mood."
"Rick's about to collapse," Star observed. "That won't do anyone any good."
Daryl didn't respond as she handed him one of the water bottles. He chugged down three quarters of the bottle and laid back in the cool soil.
"How's th' leg?" he inquired.
"Fine," she responded. In truth, the low-dosage pain meds that Maggie had given her earlier were starting to wear off, and a low throb of pain was pulsing through her lower extremity. But she was determined not to let it show.
They sat in a strange silence. They felt at complete ease with each other, but the feeling of being on the edge of so many precipices was weighing down the autumn air. Star felt a slight weight and warmth right above her knee, and looked down to find Daryl's hand resting there. She smiled and wrapped her fingers around his hand.
"I guess it all came together nicely, despite all the shit hitting the fan," Star commented. Daryl gave her a questioning look.
She gestured around to the intermingling members of Alexandria and the family, helping each other move dirt piles and planning out sections. "We're all trying to work together. And we armed a few Alexandrians back there. Just like we planned."
Daryl looked around, and saw the same things she did.
"Guess so," he assessed.
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Just past noon, the fence had been erected successfully at the major intersection. The group decided to trek back to the quarry to check in on the status of the trucks and finalize a day to set their plan into action.
They got a guestimate of the number of walkers, and double-checked the map to ensure that all the fences were properly placed. The color-coded check points were all in place as well.
"Alright, folks, let's talk about who's doing what," Rick said. "I need one driver in one of the junkers. It'll make enough noise and is disposable, so that'll be one of the bait vehicles."
"I'll do it," Sasha immediately chimed in.
"I'll go with her," Abraham volunteered.
"Good," Rick approved. "Daryl, you'll be with them. Pick up any stragglers that start to fall away."
Daryl nodded.
"We'll need a team to take out one of the semi's," Rick continued. "Michonne, I want you t…"
His instructors were cut off as a loud, mechanical groan was heard. Every head swiveled to face the east end of the quarry, where the crumbling ledge of the ramp was falling in a storm of dust, taking the semi to the bottom of the rocky pit. Walkers immediately began to bump and push past the remaining semi on the ramp, leading to a slow but progressive shuffle to the open road.
"WE HAVE TO DO THIS NOW!" Rick roared. Sasha and Abraham made for the old green car closest to the group, and Daryl made a dash for the bike. Star took off with him, unsheathing her spear.
"Star go with them!' Daryl yelled at her.
"I won't be able to keep up! I'll keep them off your tail!" she hollered back, jumping onto the back of the bike and unsheathing her spear from the back holster. She wrapped one arm around Daryl's waist and kept the other loose at her waist, holding the spear parallel to the bike. Daryl pulled a long blade from a makeshift sheath on the handlebars as the bike roared to life and flew down the road. Sasha and Abraham pulled up next to them within a few hundred yards, and together the bait team made their way to the incoming tide of walkers.
Thanks for all your patience and support! Reviews, as always, are welcomed and read over somewhat obsessively.