Glenn and Rick had their guns out as the walked cautiously through the door. "Ariel? Hershel?" Ricked called.

Hershel wasn't facing them like I was. "Who's with you?"

"Glenn," Rick answered. He started walking our way as Hershel kept talking.

"Maggie send him?"

"He volunteered. He's good like that." Rick reached the bar and seemed to totally forget that I was there. He looked to Hershel. "How many have you had?"

"Not enough." Hershel stared down at his drink, not paying Rick any mind.

That's when Rick turned to me. "Did you bring him here?"

"No, as a matter of fact, I didn't." Rick wanted more. I sighed. "I wanted out, a place to go. I stumbled upon this place and thought a drink would be nice. Hershel, here came in later. Happy?"

"Daryl and Shane wanted to look for you. By doing this, you could've gotten them killed." Rick was stern, not appearing to be in the mood for my sass.

"Yeah, no shit. I realize that now. I was gonna go back until you two came in here."

Rick gave me the stare of death before he turned back to Hershel. "Let's finish this up back at home." When Hershel didn't answer, Rick gave him a very good reason to get off his ass and go with them. "Beth collapsed, is in some sort of state. Must be in shock. I think you are, too."

This grabbed the old man's attention. "Maggie's with her?"

"Yeah, but Beth needs you."

"What could I do? She needs her mother. Or rather to mourn... like she should have done weeks ago. I robbed her of that. I see that now." I didn't know how the death of his wife really affected him. He was too busy giving me a stern talking to for me to see that he was the one with the real heartbreak.

"You thought there was a cure. Can't blame yourself for holding out for hope." If anyone knew about that, it was Rick. He was always the one to try and keep hope alive in the group.

"Hope?" Hershel put down his drink and looked at Rick for the first time. "When I first saw you running across my field with your boy in your arms, I had little hope he would survive." Didn't we all.

"But he did." Rick leaned against the bar as he listened to Hershel.

"He did. Even though we lost Otis. Your man Shane and Ariel here made it back and we saved your boy." The sound of the man's name that Shane killed sent shivers down my spine. I took a drink from my glass to try to forget every moment of that night. "That was the miracle that proved to me miracles do exist. Only it was a sham, and bait and switch. I was a fool, Rick. And you people saw that."

Rick didn't have anything to say in response, so Hershel carried on. "My daughters deserve better than that." Hershel took another drink.

Rick nudged his head to signal Glenn and I to join him outside. The two of them came out here to get him and it seemed like they were going to need my help to do so.

"So what do we do? Just wait for him to pass out?" Glenn asked.

Hershel overheard Glenn's question. "Just go. Just go and take Ariel there with ya."

"I ain't goin' nowhere without ya, Hershel," I told him.

"I promised Maggie I'd bring you home safe," Rick informed Hershel.

The old man chuckled. "Like you promised that little girl?" Even I thought that it was a bit harsh. I wasn't Rick's biggest Fan, but he did try to save Sophia. We all did.

Rick ignored it. "So what's your plan? Finish that bottle? Drink yourself to death and leave your girls alone?"

What Rick said made Hershel finally pay attention. He stood up and walked towards Rick with anger and pain in his eyes. "Stop telling me how to care for my family, my farm. You people are like a plague! I do the Christian thing, give you shelter, and you destroy it all!"

Glenn and I hung back by the door. We thought it best to let Rick and Hershel work this thing out on their own.

"The world was already in bad shape when we met."

"And you take no responsibility! You're supposed to be their leader!"

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" Rick was always a patient man, but that trait in him was quickly slipping away.

"Yes." Hershel turned slowly back around to his chair. "Yes. Yes, you are."

I sat down in one of the bar stools. I was starting to become anxious. I really wanted to head back to that farm and take Hershel's advice, even though I was scared shitless. To me, this was a waste of time. Even Glenn started to pace.

"Come on," Rick asked again. "Your girls need you now more than ever."

"I didn't want to believe you. You told me there was no cure, that these people were dead, not sick. I chose not to believe that. But when Shane shot Lou in the chest and she just kept coming, that's when I knew what an ass I'd been, that Annette had been dean long ago and I was feeding her rotten corpse! That's when I knew there was no hope. And when that little girl came out of the barn, the look on your face- I knew you knew it, too. Right? There is no hope. And you know it now, like I do. Don't you?"

I had enough of this waiting game. "Hershel, if ya say there is no hope, then why did ya tell me to go back? To go back to Shane? When you said that we were made for each other, what's the point if there is no hope, hm? I know deep down that ya still think there is some hope left. Even if it's the slightest bit. Ya wouldn't have told me that otherwise."

"No, I told you to go back so you can spend your final days with the one you love. Not alone and stupid like me. There is no hope for any of us."

I knew that he was lying to us, but I said fuck it. If he wants to die here, then let him. This shit was getting old fast. If we were going to stay here any longer, then I was going to need a drink. Glenn followed me to behind the bar. I looked for something, anything to make this go faster.

"Look, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore, cleaning up after you. You know what the truth is? Nothing has changed." Rick thought that maybe giving it to Hershel hard would work. He was running out of options. "Death is death. It's always been there, whether it's from a heart attack, cancer, or a walker. What's the difference? You didn't think it was hopeless before, did you? Now there are people at home trying to hang on. They need us, even if it's just to give them a reason to go on, even if we don't believe it ourselves. You know what? This isn't about what we believe anymore. It's about them."

Hershel knew that Rick was right. For maybe the first time since Rick became leader, I saw what he was trying to do. So did Hershel. Rick was a good man and his final attempt to get Hershel home had worked. He flipped over his empty glass and agreed to go.

It was too late, however. Two men stepped through the door of the bar. One was fat and a bit shorter than me. The other was tall and skinny. They caught all of our attention. The skinny one spoke first. "Son of a bitch. They're alive."

"Shit," I mumbled under my breath.

After standing in shock, Rick woke himself up. He offered them a seat and got them some drinks. I stayed behind the bar and Hershel stayed in his seat. The skinny guy introduced himself as he sat down at a table. "I'm Dave. That scrawny-looking douche bag there is Tony."

The fat one chuckled at his friends remark. "Eat me, Dave."

Dave raised his glass at Tony. "Hey, maybe someday I will." He looked over at Rick and then to the rest of us. "We met on I-95 coming out of Philly. Damn shit-show that was."

Glenn stayed by me, but smiled at them. "I'm Glenn. It's nice to meet some new people."

Rick introduced himself as as well. I thought 'what the hell.' "I'm Ariel."

"Well, that's a pretty name," Dave said to me. I could feel his eyes look me up and down before he looked to Hershel. "How about you, pal? Have one?"

"I just quit," Hershel told him.

Dave's smile never faded. "You've got a unique sense of timing, my friend."

"His name's Hershel," Rick informed them. "He lost people today, a lot of them."

Dave nodded. "I'm truly sorry to hear that." He waved his glass around. "To better days and new friends. And to our dead, may they be in a better place."

Rick had poured Glenn and me a glass of our own. Rick and I joined in the toast. Glenn looked down at his glass, confused. I nudged him slightly on the side. He nodded back and swallowed it hard. The look of disgust on his face made me smile and laugh silently to myself.

Dave leaned over to fill his glass, but stopped and caught Rick staring at his gun that hung out the back of his pants. He pulled it out for all to see. "Not bad, huh? I got it off a cop."

Rick didn't keep his eyes off of him. "I'm a cop."

"This one was already dead." His answer made me uneasy. I didn't like these people. I may have never been a people person, but there was something about these two that I just didn't trust. I kept my hand on my side, on top of my gun.

Rick changed the subject. "You fellas are a long way from Philadelphia."

Tony spoke this time. "It feels like we're a long way from anywhere."

"What drove you south?"

"Well, I can tell you it wasn't the weather." Dave took another sip of his drink. "I must've dropped thirty pounds in sweat alone down here. No, first it was DC. I heard there might be some kind of refugee camp, but the roads were so jammed, we never even got close. We decided to get off the highways, into the sticks, keep hauling ass. Every group we came across had a new rumor about a way out of this thing."

Tony again jumped in. "One guy told us there was a Coast Guard center in the Gulf, sending ferries to the islands."

"The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the country - Kansas, Nebraska."

"Nebraska?" Glenn was surprised to hear that state. Even when there were people around, that place wasn't mentioned much.

Tony looked to Glenn. "Low population, lots of guns."

"Kinda makes sense."

"You ever been to Nebraska, kid?" Dave asked Glenn. When he didn't answer, Dave carried on. "The reason they call 'em flyover states." No one laughed at his joke, except Tony. "How about you guys?"

"Fort Benning, eventually," Rick said.

"I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer, but, um, we ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning. He said the place was overrun by lamebrains." Dave's term for the walkers made me giggle a bit. They didn't notice though.

"Wait, Fort Benning is gone? Are you for real?" Glenn was such a kid some times.

"Sadly, I am. Ugly truth is there is no way out of this mess. Just keep going from one pipe dream to the next, praying one of these mindless freaks doesn't grab ahold of you when you sleep."

"If you sleep," Tony added.

Dave exhaled quickly. "Yeah, it doesn't look like you guys are hanging your hats here. You holed up somewhere else?"

Rick didn't answer for a second. He came up with a lie real quick. "Not really."

Dave didn't look away from Rick. "Those your cars out front?"

Rick nodded, but Glenn spoke. "Yeah. Why?"

Dave shrugged. "We're living in ours. Those look kinda empty, clean. Where's all your gear?"

"We're with a larger group," Hershel joined in. "Out scouting, thought we could use a drink."

"A drink? Hershel, I thought you quit?" Hershel only looked at Dave. "Well, we're thinking of setting up around here. Is it safe?"

"It can be," Glenn said. Rick looked back at him and so did Hershel. I kicked him slightly on the side of his leg, forcing him to see that he was saying too much. "Although I have killed a couple of walkers around here."

"Walkers? That what you call them?"

Glenn nodded. "Yeah."

Dave liked our term for the bastards outside. "That's good. I like that. I like that better than lamebrains."

Tony agreed. "More succinct."

"Okay, Tony went to college," Dave noted.

"Two years." That surprised me. That chubby bastard didn't look like the college type.

A silence fell over us. Rick didn't want to tell these guys where we were stationed. That was obvious to us, but Dave was determined to find out. "So what? so what, you guys set up on the outskirts or something? That new development?"

Tony got up and headed for the corner. "Trailer park or something? A farm?"

Rick's look to Hershel gave it away. Dave sang the lyrics to 'Old McDonald' as Tony chuckled. "You on a farm?"

Rick didn't say anything. He might have of the sound of pissing didn't come from Tony. That asshole decided that the bathrooms weren't relevant anymore. He didn't even know that everyone, beside me, was staring at him. That's not something that I wanted to haunt me at night. "Is it safe? It's gotta be."

"You got food, water?" Dave was interested in the important things.

Tony on the other hand, not so much. "You got cooze? Well, besides that fine lady over there. Unless, she considered it already."

Fucking asshole. "I'm taken."

"I'm sure he won't mind. Ain't had a piece of ass in weeks."

"Well, if this piece of ass's boyfriend finds out someone like you touched me, let's just say you'll be wishin' that ya were bein' eaten by the walkers." I still didn't like referring to Shane as my boyfriend, but how else was I going to strike fear into that prick's eyes.

Tony shook off and zipped his pants back up. "I like her. She's feisty."

Dave rubbed his eye. "Listen, pardon my friend. City kids, they got no tact. No disrespect." He knew that really damaged their chances. He knew that Glenn was the weak one out of all of us, so he tried his luck with him. "So listen, Glenn-" But Rick cut him off.

"We've said enough."

Dave wanted in so badly. "Well, hang on a second. This farm, it sounds pretty sweet. Don't it sound sweet, Tony?"

"Yeah, real sweet," Tony agreed.

"How about a little southern hospitality? We got some buddies back at camp, been having a real hard time. I don't see why you can't make room for a few more. We could pool our resources. our manpower."

Rick stopped him again. "Look, I'm sorry. That's not an option."

Dave thought for a few seconds. "Doesn't sound like it'd be a problem."

Hershel backed Rick up. "I'm sorry. We can't."

"We can't take in any more," Rick supported.

Dave chuckled and rubbed his head. "You guys are something else. I thought, I thought we were friends. We got people we gotta look out for, too."

"We don't know anything about you." Rick was stalling this conversation.

"No, that's true." Dave re-positioned himself in his chair. "You don't know anything about us. You don't know what we've had to go through out there. The things we've had to do. I bet you've had to do some of those same things yourself. Am I right? 'Cause ain't nobody's hands clean in what's left of this world. We're all the same. So come on, lets, let's take a nice friendly hayride to this farm and we'll get to know each other."

Rick wasn't going to back down. "That's not gonna happen."

Tony didn't like where this conversation was heading. "This is bullshit."

"Calm down," Rick commanded.

"Don't tell me to calm down. Don't ever tell me to calm down. I'll shoot you three assholes in the head, take that girl, and take your damn farm!" That was the icing on the cake. There was no chance in hell that these guys were coming back with us. If Rick wasn't going to shoot that mother fucker, I will.

Rick stood up and was ready to restrain that fat mother, but Dave stopped him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Relax. Take it easy. Nobody's killing anybody." Wanna bet? Dave hopped over to the other side of the bar. I had my knife in hand just encase he decided to make his way toward Glenn and me. "Nobody's shooting anybody. Right, Rick?"

Rick touched his gun at his side. Tony grabbed his, but Dave wanted to calm down the situation. He took his out and set it on the counter. "We're just friends having a drink. That's all." I slowly reached for mine and pulled it out. Someone was going to die and I was going to make damn sure that it was no one from my group.

Dave looked around the bar. "Now where's the good stuff, huh?" He clapped his hands together. "Good stuff, good stuff, good stuff. Let's see." He reached down for a bottle and Rick's hand was right on the handle of his gun. Dave held his hands up. "Hey, look at that. That'll work." He sighed as he opened the bottle. "You gotta understand, we can't stay out there. You know what it's like."

Rick nodded and agreed. "Yeah, I do. But the farm is too crowded as is. I'm sorry. You'll have to keep looking."

"Keep looking. Where do you suggest we do that?"

"I don't know. I hear Nebraska's nice."

Dave laughed at Rick's remark. "Nebraska. This guy."

The next few seconds happened so quickly, it was hard to catch everything that happened. Dave reached for his gun on the counter, but Rick was ready. Before anyone knew it. Dave and Tony were both down and blood was splattered on the walls behind them. Rick shot Tony a couple times to make sure he was dead. I would have done the same.

Glenn, Hershel, and I stared at the dead bodies in awe. I honestly didn't know that Rick had it in him to kill two people. He always seemed like the good guy, the guy that would always try and find another solution. This changed my opinion of him totally. He still sucked as a leader, but he would do anything for any of us. I knew that now.