Chapter Twenty Six

The next morning, David went to work with Abraham and his crew. Abraham told him that they had to get more sheets for the wall because they recently discovered a significant dent in one of the reinforcements.

"After the wolves did their cockblock thing and ran their trucks through the wall, it caused some areas to splint a bit," he told him. "It weakened the reinforcement. So far, we've only just managed to keep it up with another long pole. But it won't hold for long. We need to get this mother fucker fixed before the next herd comes by."

They spent the day gathering the leftover sheets from the hardly built mall, but David knew this wasn't going to last. If they had to make metal, they would have to either melt down the metal they already have or break the ground for its ore. He didn't say anything to Abraham. He figured he would tell his sister and Rick about it.

He wasn't too sure what to think of the community yet. So far, they seemed all right. But Glenn had him worried. Daryl had told him last night of how he let Nicholas live despite the fact that the asshole tried to kill him by throwing walkers at him. David would never have let him live. Daryl admitted that he thought it was the right thing to do at the time; but now, it got him worried.

"After all the shit he pulled, and after what happened with me and Dani, I can't take chances no more. Not with pricks like him," he told him, hearing the guilt in his voice.

He liked Daryl for a variety of reasons, and it wasn't because he was with his sister. He liked the fact that he hunted and scavenged long before this world went to hell. He could fix cars and he rebuilt that motorcycle of his. He did make mistakes, but he learned from them. And he understood how hard it is to give people second chances, even though they don't deserve it. He was impressed by how Daryl had helped him take out the Saviors outpost and his willingness to help others. This guy would definitely last the apocalypse going on the way he has. It was why he wanted to team up with him in the first place.

And he couldn't believe how much Dani had changed. How determined and strong she got after he last saw her. How she marched up to Luke, made her little speech about dick heads and blew his head off! Damn! Dad would be so proud of her! She had to adjust quickly when she was out there on her own, scavenging and hunting, finding fuel for the challenger, hiding from walkers and bad guys. What it must have been like that for her to be out there by herself, thinking she was the only one left in her family.

They collected the many sheets, metal braces and bags of concrete they needed and got in their trucks to head back to the safe zone. As they drove on the dirt roads, they were cut off by another van that pulled up in front of them, speeding away. "Shit," Abraham bellowed. "That's one of ours!"

David did notice the van earlier today, being driven by Glenn going on a run with Tara and a few others. He wondered what was making them drive that fast down the road. The van came to a stop, and Abraham slowed his truck down to a stop. He immediately jumped out of the truck and marched up to the van very pissed off.

"Son of a dick," he yelled. "What the fuck are you doing, Glenn? You could've killed us!"

Glenn got out of the van, looking very afraid. David got out of the truck and ran to the van. "Something happen," he asked him. Glenn was panting a bit.

Two men he never saw before exited the van. One was wearing glasses and kept his beaded hair in a band on his head. The other was bald with a small mustache. Both men looked weary and scared.

"I found these men outside of DC," Glenn told him.

"He saved us," the beaded man said. "If it weren't for him, we'd still be stuck in that building there."

"Okay. That's no reason to drive like your ass is on fire," Abraham yelled. "Just what the fuck were you driving so fast for?"

Glenn pointed to the direct they came from. "The walkers…..there's thousands of them. We thought we lost them, but…..look!"

Abraham took out his binoculars, pissed as hell and used them to look out in the distance. He stopped to view something out there, and slowly brought is hands down in shock. "Oh dear Mother Lord," he intoned, his face covered in shock.

"Lemme see," David grabbed the binoculars from him and saw for himself and it made his blood run cold.

In the distance, coming up the road, were thousands of the walkers stumbling towards them. At first glance, he thought it was just scenery of a distant forest, but as he saw decaying arms and legs and growling faces, he knew what it was. It was the whole population of DC coming after them, more than he had ever seen before!

"We are in trouble," he said. "We gotta warn the safe zone!"

And then he remembered the damage to the wall. And his heart sunk.

….

Dani and Daryl left the zone and went to their lookout post a few miles out. Their lookout was a large rock facing the road west of the safe zone. They would be out there for a few hours overlooking who comes and goes. They had their radios handy as well.

As they kept their watch, Daryl would sometimes kiss Dani on her cheek, trying to be sweet to her. She would merely smile and remind him they had a job to do. But she loved the gesture. She loved him.

"Outlook 2, this is Safe Zone. Come in," Daryl heard Rick's voice over the radio. He answered it.

"This is Outlook 2. So far, all's well," Daryl told him.

Daryl continued to talk to Rick on the radio as Dani peered with her binoculars towards the east end of the safe zone. So far, there were only a few walkers at the wall. Nothing to be alarmed about. She then raised her gaze over the safe zone and saw very large black trees in the distance close to DC, stretching for miles. She saw how their branches swayed against the wind.

But it wasn't windy. And there wasn't a forest between DC and that area by the safe zone. She strained her vision to see what she can, and she froze.

Those weren't trees.

"Daryl," she called to him. "Look at this! Out there!"

Daryl was still on the radio with Rick as he raised his binoculars toward where Dani was pointing. Fear immediately crept up his spine. He raised his radio to his mouth.

"Rick, there are thousands of walkers coming for the safe zone," he stammered in the radio.

"Oh fuck," he heard Rick intone. "How much time do we have?"

"I guess hours."

"All right. Come back to the zone. We need to get ready!"

…

Rick called an emergency meeting at his house. All of the residents of Alexandria gathered around in his living room. Deanna and Spencer sat by Maggie and Glenn, waiting to hear what Rick had to tell them. Dani and Daryl had just arrived in time and entered his house. Her brother and Abraham had just gotten back with Glenn and the two men he had found earlier. They quickly introduced themselves as Heath and Scott, and told them what had happened.

"It was an accident," Heath said. "We were scavenging this old warehouse just outside of DC. At first we thought it was safe, but when we went inside…damn! There were hundreds of them."

"We tried getting away and we did, but we tripped some sort of alarm as we got out," Scott mentioned. "It was stupid."

"We heard the alarm," Glenn told them. "We saw them run out of the warehouse. That's when I noticed a lot of the walkers from DC coming for us. I thought we were able to lose them. But when I stopped to take a look….."He lowered his head in defeat. "Thousands of them. What we saw were thousands of them coming up the road. The sound of our vehicles attracted them to us. They're on their way now."

"And there's more," Abraham spoke up. "I told you all about the wall needing to be fixed. Although we fixed most of the structure, there's a problem. One section of the wall must be replaced. It is kept up by reinforcements, but I doubt it will hold against the many walkers on their way."

Everyone gasped and groaned. One man stood up, seething in anger directed at Rick. "This was all your fault," he screamed. "You brought this on us!"

Deanna stood up, looking defiantly at him. "No he didn't. This would have happened anyway. Besides, he knows what to do." She turned to face him, determined. "Do you, Rick?"

Rick nodded. "We've handled situations like this before. In the past, we always ran, losing our homes. This time, we don't do that. This time, we can fight them. We will survive this. And we will teach you how."

The man looked incredulously at Rick. "Fight them? Are you crazy? Fight a thousand walkers?" He turned to the residents, who were equally scared. "We're outnumbered, our walls are unsafe, and we don't have the manpower to fight them. I say we leave. While we still can."

"And go where, exactly," Rick asked him with anger in his eyes. "Out there? In the wastelands? We've been out there for way too long, and I tell you now, you won't find anything else. It's just the dead out there and the living that will kill you for what you have. There is no other place to go." He took a deep breath. "This is all we have left. Just this place. And we can keep it safe. We can kill those things." He then turned back to his audience. "We know how. We're smart. They're not. All they know what to do is eat. They don't know how to pick up a weapon and shoot us. They don't know how to open doors or windows. They can't think like us. They're not us. We tell ourselves that. We have that advantage they don't have. And that's why we will defeat them."

"He's right," Maggie said, standing up. "We could have made my daddy's farm safer. We could have made the prison we had safer. But we ran each time. I don't want to run anymore." She patted her stomach, looking worried. "I'm scared, but I'm not going to run away again."

"Me too," Glenn spoke up, standing next to his wife. "I've killed maybe thousands of them myself. I can kill thousands more just to keep us safe."

Morgan stood up with Michonne, looking confident. "It's not going to be easy," he said. "But we can do it." Michonne agreed.

"It's not just about being strong or brave. You just think about why you're doing this," she said. "You think that, you'll live."

Dani and Daryl looked at each other and nodded. David in turn approached them, silently nodding to them, making them remember their promise to each other. Daryl then faced Rick. "Hell, we got nothin' better to do anyways," he attempted a joke, which was received by a few shrugs.

"So, we don't have much time," Carol began, cocking her rifle. "Let's get started now."

….

Sasha returned to her tower with her radio, rifle, and a couple of day's worth of food and water that Carol had given her. She wasn't worried about the approaching walkers anymore. She wasn't worried about anything anymore. Since she lost Bob and her brother, she still felt that dead feeling inside, as if she were already dead and her body was just going through the motions. Being up in the tower gave her some sort of hope. Not much, but it was all she could do to keep alive.

She also felt a twang bit of guilt for hating Dani because her brother came back to her alive. She didn't mean it. But she couldn't help but think how lucky that girl was, finding her brother out there alive in the wastelands. Why did she have to lose her only family left? Why did she have to lose Tyreese, the sweetest man who ever lived? A gentle giant with a good heart? Was it because he was a good man that he died? It was just so unfair!

Last night, she wanted to scream at Dani for being so lucky. She wanted to yell at her, demanding to know why she lost Tyreese and Dani gets her brother back. It was on the tip of her tongue when she confronted Dani, but all she could do was turn away and walk back to her tower. It wasn't Dani she wasn't angry with. Not anymore now.

Just then, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around with her rifle ready and found Spencer there, looking a bit hopeful at her. "What are you doing here," she demanded. "I man the tower myself."

Spencer shrugged and then looked at her concerned. "I was thinking, with the walkers coming, we don't have much time."

"Time for what," she asked him annoyed. "I have to man the tower and keep as many of our people safe from them."

"That's just it," Spencer said. "We may not be able to keep them safe. We'll lose all of our ammo and people to them. I was thinking," he approached her slowly. "I was thinking that we get away together. Right now."

Sasha looked at him in disbelief. "What the hell are you talking about, Spencer?"

"I'm saying that we should leave right now, while we still have a chance! Rick doesn't know what he's talking about. Those walkers will tear us apart. And we don't have a chance. If we leave now, we can take our chances out there together." Spencer smiled at her. "I've been thinking a lot about you, Sasha."

Sasha shook her head. "Stop that. Stop that now. There is no way….no way I'll ever consider this, Spencer. What about your mother? You would just leave her behind? Just like that?"

Spencer gave her a cold look. "She made Rick the leader, not me. She's weak now, ever since my father and brother died."

Sasha was shocked. This man would let his own mother die to save his skin. Because she made Rick leader and not him. What an asshole.

"Leave me alone, Spencer," she said. "Stay the fuck away from me." She briskly walked to the tower, feeling repulsed for talking with him. The man was a coward, maybe even worse.

….

Dani, Daryl and David prepared the gun turrets on the towers. Unfortunately there wasn't a tower by the damaged wall. But if those things get in, they'll be prepared to shoot at them. But she still worried. After they had just cleaned up the mess from the wolves, now they have to deal with a lot more this time.

Daryl gave Dani and assuring grip on her shoulder blade. Then he noticed how much her hands were shaking.

"You all right, Dani," he asked her worriedly, holding her hands. She nodded.

"It's nothing," she told him. "Don't worry about it."

He held her hands tightly, looking at her with hope in his eyes. "We can beat this, sweetheart," he told her. "We will."

Dani knew she couldn't hide her fear and frustration. "It took a lot for us to come here. And for the first time since this all started, I started to feel safe here. When those bastards the Saviors took us, I kept pining for the safety of this place." She looked up at him with worry in her eyes. "We won't lose it, will we?"

He leaned in and kissed her forehead. "Nah, honey. We won't. We gotta fight, and we'll beat them. I promise."

"Hey guys," her brother interrupted them. "I've managed to secure the turrets, supplied them with plenty of ammo. Let's get a move on."

All three stepped down the platforms and walked to Rick's house. Dani could see Abraham and his crew trying to fix the wall, but with little time and resources, it wouldn't do much. The walkers will come either way. The residents were hammering boards to the first floor windows. Olivia was greeting people by the armory, handing out supplies, weapons and ammo. The ladies of the pantry were giving out boxes of food out. She noticed that one of them, Barbara, waved at her, smiling. Despite the fact that she didn't really like her too much, it made her feel a bit better that she wasn't on Barbara's shit list anymore. Rick greeted them on his porch.

"We got the turrets ready," Daryl told him. "We also made sure the platforms and walk ways are secure."

"That's great," Rick nodded to them with approval. "We can fire at them from the upper windows too. I've told people to barricade their doors from the inside." He then stepped down the steps, looking serious. "This isn't the same as last time. That was only a few hundred walkers then. This time…..its worse."

Dani nodded. "We know. But we're getting ready. We're preparing for the worst."

Carol walked up to them, handing Rick an extra rifle. "I always knew it would come to this," she told them, handing another rifle to Dani. "Before, we just ran to another place to stay. We don't get to run anymore."

Daryl agreed. "I'm sick of it anyways. We can do this."

David then stepped forward. "You know, despite everything, and there could be a chance a lot of us doesn't make it, I just want you all to know I am so glad I came here." He then looked at his sister with confidence. "We're going to be okay."

"I'm sick of the dead winning anyways," Dani spoke up. "Let's do this."

"Right. Now, I need you guys to pay attention," Rick alerted them. "David, I'll need you with Abraham since you are a good shot and good at construction." David nodded and walked to Abraham, giving a furtive glance to his sister. "Dani, I want you to stay with Carl, Carol, Jessie, Enid, Ron, Sam and Judith. I'm going to need you to keep them safe, and also to shoot at the incoming walkers from the top floor." He put his hand on Daryl's shoulder. "Above all else, I trust you the most to keep them safe. " He then turned to Daryl, who looked worried about the assignments.

"Daryl, I need you to stay with me at all times," he told him. "If I fall, you take over. Do you understand me?"

Daryl didn't speak, he didn't' need to. He simply nodded.

"Okay then. Everyone get to their positions."

Daryl walked right up to Dani and kissed her hard, as if it were the last time he would kiss her. He didn't care about others looking. He only cared about the only good thing he had left in his life. He felt her fingers fisting his hair, the low moans escaping from her lips unto his. She worried for him too. He broke away and looked at her one last time before he joined Rick.

"I love you, Dani," he whispered to her, and she saw a tear form in her eyes.

"I love you too, Daryl," she told him as she quickly kissed him again. They both walked away from each other, but still turned to face one another, giving each other worried glances.

He saw Carol nodding toward him, assuring him she will be safe. Dani walked with her back to their house while Daryl walked with Rick.

"She'll be all right," he told him as they reached Glenn and Maggie's home. "Don't worry."

"Fuck, Rick! I have to worry," Daryl intoned, stopping in his steps. "After what happened out there, we were lucky to get away! And now this!"

"I know," Rick tried to assure him, patting his back. Daryl shrugged away from him.

"It's always the same now, Rick. Always. We find a place and it gets harder to keep it."

"So, are you saying there's no difference now," Rick asked him, cocking his head at him.

Daryl nodded. "It don't matter either way. We win just to live for a while. Then we lose again. It's always the same."

Rick approached him, furious. "That what you think? Have you lost your nerve, Daryl? Because that girl you got there, she's willing to fight for us. That woman loves you. And now you're saying it's pointless?"

"I ain't sayin' that, Rick. We lose Sophia, Dale, Patricia then the farm. We lose Andrea, T-Dogg, Merle, Patrick…Hershel…then the prison. Then….Beth," he paused. "Beth, Bob and Tyreese. Now this. Fuck, I can't take this shit no more!" He took a deep breath. "And Dani? I almost lost her out there. I can't do that again. I can't feel for someone and just have them slip away again."

Rick nodded, understanding what he said. "Daryl, I think of them too. Every day I think of Hershel and Tyreese. I think of my wife, and how I promised to find her a safe place for Carl and Judith. It's because of them we're doing this." He leaned into Daryl and grasped his shoulders. "All the people we lost, it keeps us going. What would Merle say to us right now if he were here?"

Daryl thought for a moment. He knew exactly what he'd say.

"He'd say, 'C'mon, Darlena! Don't be such a goddamned pussy and get right on that shit!'"

Rick nodded. "Lori would say to me, 'whatever it takes, you can do this. I know you can.' That gets me through. Think on that." He patted his arm, looking confident. "We will make it. Just don't give up. We need you."

Daryl thought to himself, and realized what he was feeling was just worry. He was afraid of the same thing happening again, but this time, it was different. They were getting ready. They were more prepared than ever.

C'mon Darlena!

He nodded to Rick. "Okay. Let's do this," he told him, shaking off the doubt he just had.

I knew you had balls somewhere between them legs of yours, little brother!

…

David looked over the wall on the platform he was standing, and saw them come closer. He grabbed his radio and called into Rick. "I see them," he said, his voice serious. "They're about three blocks away."

Rick ordered everyone into their homes and barricaded their doors. Everyone complied. David took one last look on the wall, and shook his head.

"Shit, thought we'd get this fixed," Abraham called out. "I don't know if it will hold. Let's just hope they don't come by here."

But that was wishful thinking. Abraham and his crew ran to the turrets and waited.

…

Dani and Carol bolted the doors with wooden boards while Enid and Carl looked after Judith. Ron just sat there with his brother and mother. Jessie looked worried.

"Don't worry," Carl told her. "My dad knows what he's doing."

"Like hell he does," Ron intoned.

"Ron, quit it. I'm sick of listening to you complain," Jessie spoke up. With that, Ron ran upstairs and slammed a door shut. Jessie shook her head.

"I'm sorry about that," she told them. "He's still mad about what happened."

Carol and Dani didn't care. They had to make sure the house was secure.

Dani prayed they would make it.

….

Sasha looked over and saw the great hurricane of walkers coming closer. For the first time, she really felt the fear set in.

"Oh Dear Lord Jesus," she whispered. "Get us through."

…

Tara and Eugene ran up the platforms with their rifles and watched how the walkers came towards the walls with their arms outstretched, snarling and growling. The both looked at each other and worried. There were so many of them. Way too many of them.

…

Rosita hung by with Maggie in an upstairs room, loading her guns. Maggie was helping. Deanna walked in to the room, worried.

"I can hear them," she spoke in frightened tone. "They're just outside."

…..

Rick walked to the back of Glenn and Maggie's house and pressed his head against the wall, and gasped.

He could hear the sounds and scraps of the dead by the thousands, moaning, snarling and scratching at the walls.

He looked over his shoulder and saw Daryl motioning him to come inside. He ran to the house and met up with Morgan and Michonne who gave him the same looks of panic.

….

All throughout the safe zone, everyone huddled together in their homes, waiting for the inevitable. Checking their weapons, making sure the windows and doors were secured, their children safely hidden in their rooms. They waited. It was all they could do.

…..

The sound of metal tearing pierced through the safe zone. Dani froze and looked at Carol, who in turn looked so frightened. They found the breech!

"Oh, Daryl" she whispered to herself. "Be safe."

…

Daryl took his position upstairs by the window and saw the small section of the wall come down, spilling the many walkers into the street. He closed his eyes and did something he hadn't done since he was a kid.

Pray.

…

Michonne looked outside the slit of boards to the window. She froze. She turned to the others, scared.

"They're inside," she told the worried people. She looked back and saw the dead rotting corpses lumber into their sanctuary. She felt fear and adrenaline race through her body.

"Here they come."

I hope you all enjoyed this one! And I hope you have a great weekend! I'll try to write more soon. Please let me know what you think so far!