Daryl wasn't sure what to think about Rick being made into a constable. Even though he knew he used to be a sheriff, he didn't see him that way. Daryl had spent his entire life on the outside of the law and he wasn't sure if he could live within it now. Especially with the rules laid down in Alexandria. Rules made by people who had no clue about the kind of world they were now living in. These people had almost got Glenn and Tara killed.

Then he thought about Kate. She belonged here so whether he liked it or not he'd have to find a way to fit in. And he'd have to find that damned boar. He threw his crossbow over his shoulder and started to head out of the gate. At least hunting would keep him out of trouble. Miss Uppity had disappeared this morning and he didn't want to spend the whole day waiting on the porch for her to come back. Well, he certainly didn't want to admit that to himself.

"I'm looking for Kate, you seen her?" Spencer asked.

"Why?"

"She left her book in my apartment last night, tell her to come over for another coffee if you see her," he smirked.

Was this arsehole for real? Daryl could smell the bullshit from a mile away. He laughed and squared up to Spencer "ya don't tell Kate what to do." Then he turned on his heel and walked away. Half the town was watching him after what had just happened with Nicholas so he didn't want to start a fight.


Spencer had hoped that he could have provoked the redneck enough to make him hit him and prove to everyone that he didn't belong in Alexandria. He walked back over to this mother. "I've asked him to leave Kate alone but I don't know if it's enough."

"I was planning on giving her a house to make into a school. We could do that today, then she can be away from him." Deanna replied.

"You're just going to let him get away with harassing her?"

"Spencer, it isn't that easy to exile people. He's a valued member of their group. When she's in her own house hopefully the issue will resolve itself."


Zach wasn't interested in hearing Kate's apology so she decided to give him a little time before she tried again. She knew he wasn't a child, but he was a teenage boy and sometimes they acted more sullen than three year olds.

She thought about what Abraham had said about her pent up frustration and felt irritated all over again. Maybe he was right, she was never usually so temperamental. Kate recalled Pete telling her to talk to Olivia so now she found herself in the pantry trying to act casual as she perused the stockpile of supplies.

She spotted a big box of tea bags and picked them up in disbelief. Alexandria had everything. "Take them," Olivia said. Kate was so excited she almost forgot what she wanted to ask the other woman.

"Thank you... I'm actually looking for contraception…"

"You know you're the third person that's asked me that," Olivia raised one eyebrow.

"There's nothing left?"

"There are condoms, I offered to barter for them… but if you can get me something first then they're yours."

"What do you need?"

The door to the pantry opened and in walked Spencer. Kate cleared her throat and shook her head when she caught Olivia's eye. She certainly couldn't continue this conversation now.

"I have a surprise for you," Spencer said as he held the door open waiting for her to join him. She took her tea, thanking Olivia again and followed him reluctantly. At least the trip to the pantry hadn't been entirely wasted.

Spencer led her to a house with a huge rose garden out front. He picked one of the flowers and passed it to her. "Welcome home…" he smiled.

Kate looked at the big picturesque house and felt confused. This was for her? Why? "I don't understand."

"What's to understand? This house is yours now. Do you like to garden?"

"I'm not very green fingered." Also known as 'I've killed every plant I ever owned'.

"That's a shame, I love to garden, I could help you…"

Kate clutched her box of tea. What was going on here? How could he talk about horticulture when the world was falling to pieces? "Let them die," she threw the rose in her hand back to the bush.

"That's a little dark."

"Is it? I've killed more than flowers… maybe I'm a little dark."

He caught her eye and laughed nervously before hopping up the steps onto the porch and swinging the front door open "then you're gonna love this."

Kate stepped inside the house and it was like a Cath Kidston showroom, everywhere floral and ditsy. It was quite possibly the most cheerful house a person could find themselves in considering the end of the world.

She went to the kitchen and placed her tea on the counter before she ran her hands over the wood, there were no marks or stains. This place had barely been lived in. Yet it was full of possessions that she knew had belonged to the original owner. But everything was so shiny and new that she could almost forget about that. She picked up the stove top kettle and filled it before putting on the hob.

While the water boiled Kate moved from room to room admiring all the light and space. When she went upstairs she counted 4 double bedrooms. This house was huge. A far cry from the tiny cottage she had squeezed into with Ryan and Harry. 'No room to swing a cat' had been the phrase she used to describe that house with the books and toys filling up every square inch of 'unavailable' space.

"And we're neighbours," Spencer walked to the bedroom window. "That's my house over there," he pointed to the building across the street. "So if you ever need a cup of sugar, or something stronger…"

"I'll take that into consideration," the sound of the kettle whistling caught their attention and they made their way back into the kitchen. Kate took the kettle off the hob and made a mug of tea. If she didn't let Daryl have a cup after he had brought her what seemed to be the last two teabags on earth, she sure as hell wasn't going to let Spencer have one, even if she did now have a box of 40. She cast a sideways glance to Spencer and decided he was quiet pampered enough and he was being too nice which made her uncomfortable.

"So this will be a school house as well as your home… until we expand and get an actual school that is… but the sitting room and dining room can be for classes… which still leaves plenty of space for you."

She mulled over his last point, plenty of space. This house was huge, enough space for the whole group. It was just yet another example of how the Alexandrians had never truly been touched by the outside world. But if Deanna wanted to give her this house for a school she was hardly going to turn the offer down.

Deanna had already explained to Kate that she wanted her to organise some adult learning and get everyone sharing their skills. As for the children of Alexandria, Reg would continue to teach science while Kate would give lessons in English, literature and History. "We need these children to be thinkers as well as survivors," Deanna had told her last night and Kate couldn't agree more.

The last thing society needed was to forget how to be civilised and fall into some sort of Dark Age. Then what could be darker than the dead walking the earth? She laughed internally. There didn't seem to be a right way to approach this world, it had to be something in between.

"What do you think?"

"This is a lovely house."

"Good, I thought we could get a start on sorting out the classrooms," Spencer leaned his hand on the doorway Kate was standing in and his breath tickled her face.

"Okay," she sipped her tea and took a step back. "I'll fetch Zach and he can give us a hand."

"What about his injury?"

"Well he'll at least like to see the house, might cheer him up to have his own room."


Kate convinced Zach to come over to her house and she gave him the tour while Spencer was busy clearing things from the living room. Now they were in the kitchen and she was wiping the film of dust off everything while Zach continued to sulk.

"Look I know I embarrassed you but… come on? You can't stay mad forever, why do you care what Tobin thinks?"

"I don't," Zach rolled his eyes, "why don't you sort out your own problems?"

"I don't have problems."

"Oh really? They why are you moving me into this house, and not Daryl?... and why's he here?" he nodded his head towards the living room where Spencer was.

Kate wiped the kitchen counter down and looked away. Zach was such a little shit sometimes. She couldn't ask Daryl to move in. Could she? "I don't know where Daryl is."

"If two people love each other they should be together... Then you could get off my back… you're not my sister and you're not my mum." Zach picked up his bag and limped out of the house. "I can take care of myself… I'll prove it."

That sounded vaguely familiar. But what did he mean love each other? Where the hell did he get that from? She scoffed and threw the cloth she was cleaning with into the sink. It missed and hit the window instead, leaving a watery smudge on her new perfect house. "Zach," she shouted and made to follow him.

"Let him go," Spencer sauntered into the room carrying a box filled with oddments. He set the box on the table and stroked his hands down Kate's arms, "he'll come around… we have plenty to do."


Spencer and Kate worked all afternoon clearing the new school rooms of anything superfluous and brought in extra chairs and tables as well as books, paper and pencils. She was regretting accepting her new role a little bit. All the organising it was going to take to get lessons going was a skillset she had long since used. It all seemed a little pointless and she wondered where Daryl was, what would his role be in Alexandria?

Kate sighed heavily and stretched her aching arms from moving all the furniture. Maybe Daryl could put everyone through his mountain man training. Or maybe just her. She was so lost in thought imaging her favourite redneck that she jumped when Spencer placed his hands on her shoulders and began to knead the aching joints.

She spun around, "don't do that… I think we're done for the day here. I should go and see if Zach has forgiven me now," she half smiled and retreated outside.


When Kate got back to the house there was no Daryl or Zach. She asked Carol if she had seen the teenager but he hadn't returned back to the house all afternoon. A small knot of panic gripped her stomach and she tried to tell herself she was being dramatic. Kate walked out of the house and looked left and right down the idyllic streets. It was probably nothing, there were a million places he could have gone to avoid her.

It occurred to her that she might embarrass him again by running around the town shouting his name yet she found herself jogging down the road asking anyone she came across if they had seen the boy. She spotted Olivia next and called her name, "you haven't seen Zach have you? He's…"

"I know who he is," she adjusted her glasses and smiled. "Are you still interested in bartering?"

"No…yes… what about Zach?"

"He checked out a weapon a couple of hours ago, said he wanted to go hunting…"

"He what?" she shouted. "You let him?"

Kate didn't wait for her answer before she started to run to the gate. What the hell was Zach thinking? He'd been out there for hours? She felt sick. This was all her fault.

Spencer was standing by the gate with Aiden when she reached it. "Zach's out there…" she panted from the dash across Alexandria.

"It's getting dark…" Spencer said.

Kate looked at the sky and wondered where the hell Daryl was. "Give me your gun," she said to Aiden and he refused.

"You shouldn't go out there like this," Spencer put his arm on her shoulder and tried to steer her away from the gate. She shrugged him off and gripped her sword in frustration.

"I want that fucking gun," she grabbed the assault rifle hard out of Aiden's hands.

"You're gonna let her get away with that?" Aiden shouted to his brother but Kate couldn't care less and opened the gate to let herself out.


"Why do you care so much about Zach?" Spencer called out as he joined her, armed with his brother's handgun. "I mean you didn't know him before all of this did you?"

"He's a good kid, we all need someone looking out for us… whether he likes it or not," she held the gun ready and scanned the trees for any signs before deciding to go straight ahead along the most obvious foot path. "Zach," she called in hushed tones every so often and held her breath as her ears strained to pick up any sounds.

"We should go back," Spencer said as he looked around the trees nervously.

"Go back if you want, but if you want to lead… then you have to lead. It isn't always easy… in fact it never is."

A twig snapped and Kate spun around to face a single walker clawing towards them. She threw the rifle on her back as she unsheathed her sword. She eased the blade through the walkers' right eye before swiftly extracting it and carrying on. Spencer grimaced and looked away.


She didn't know how far they had walked or how much time had passed but the woods were getting darker and she was unsure of what her plan should be. Then she heard it. "Kate," a pained voice called. Her heart stopped beating as she tried to distinguish which direction the sound had come from. "Kate," Zach called again and she started to run towards him.

She was running so fast she stumbled straight into the arms of a walker. The momentum sent her and the creature tumbling down a hill. She landed on top of the dead man and they butted heads. Adrenaline set her heart racing as she pulled her face away from its teeth. The walker clutched her arms and pulled her closer to its snapping mouth. Kate pushed her hands against its chest in an effort to force her body away and her fingers sank in to the sticky putrid flesh.

She pulled one hand from its chest and lodged it under the walkers jaw to push its head upwards. The wet popping sounds of tissue and sinew ripping encouraged her and she planted one foot between the walker's legs to give her the extra force needed to rip the dead man's head from his body. It came away with a satisfying squelch and she rolled it away like a macabre bowling ball. She moved off the walker to see Spencer meandering down the hill.

"Kate...over here," she heard Zach shout again and she turned her head to the sound.

"Shit," she gasped as she caught sight of the countless number of dead moving through the trees. They must have been drawn in by Zach's calls for help.

"Zach," she shouted as she scrambled to her feet. She heard him call her name again before she spotted the large hole in the ground.

Spencer stood over her shoulder as they peered in and found Zach at the bottom of it. "It's okay,"she told him before surveying the approaching dead. Kate took her assault rifle off her back and told Spencer, "You get him out and I'll hold them off."

"There's too many," he grabbed her arm and started to pull her back. "We've got to get out of here."

"I'm not leaving him," she shouted pulling herself from Spencer's grasp. She aimed her rifle and shot the three closest walkers.

"You have no choice," Spencer grabbed Kate hard, over powering her as he pulled her back up the hill. She could hear Zach screaming "don't leave me" and tried desperately to fight against Spencer.

"No," she shouted and brought her rifle around, hitting him in the face.

"I'm trying to help you," he shouted holding his busted nose and then grabbing her again.

"Get your fuckin' hands off er," the sound of Daryl's voice shocked them both and Spencer immediately let her go.

Kate was so relieved to see the redneck. "It's Zach…" she called as she ran back to where the boy was trapped shooting two more of the dead as she moved.


Daryl looked down at the boy and then at the ever increasing number of dead being drawn by the noise. He sighed heavily as he gripped his freshly killed boar. What were the fuckin' chances?

Kate's tear streaked eyes met his, waiting for him to do something. She had no damn idea what he was about to do. He reluctantly dropped the boar on the ground before disembowelling it. Then he threw it towards the crowd of walkers, sacrificing it as a distraction. They ate the creature up greedily and Daryl cursed the lot of them. Then he looked at Zach, the kid was going to owe him big time.

Kate picked off any dead that got close and Daryl told Spencer to "grow some fuckin' balls an' help me get the kid outta here."