Men of Honor

End of season 2

"Where are we?" Armageddon mumbled as she looked around the best she could while holding onto Daryl and not getting in his way as they rode on. She met Carol's scared eyes for a second, who sat behind him, before looking to the right and watching the trees pass them by.

"We're goin' to the highway" Daryl told her loudly enough to be heard through the roar of his motorcycle.

"Mac's dead" She said and a sob escaped her throat once more as the realization hit her. She met Daryl's eyes for a second before tears started blurring her vision.

"Shh" He said and patted her back. He didn't say anything more, but she knew he was just as devastated as she. Armageddon had hated Mac, she had hated him with every fiber in her body. He had been a selfish prick who preyed on others and didn't care about nothing and no one but himself and getting what he wanted. But, that didn't mean that he had still sacrificed himself to let her live. He had always shown nothing but contempt and lust towards her, always treating her like an object or a servant, but in his final moments, he had showcased true goodness by saving her and she liked to think it was because he knew that she had more to live for and would be missed more than him. She was the one who was carrying his baby, so he realized that she had more of a right to live. He had most likely done all of this because of the baby that neither of them seemed to have wanted, and that really tore her heart apart in both sorrow and assuagement.

"We can't go back there" She mumbled and sniffed, trying to tone down her sobs to sound audible. "We can't."

Daryl said nothing and she knew he didn't take her seriously. "Daryl!" She exclaimed and felt kind of bad for it since her mouth was right by his ear, but she brushed that thought away. "We can't go back, that's where the walkers came!"

"You don't know that" He muttered and increased their speed.

"I do and I know you do too!" She insisted. "Why should we go back there?"

"'Cause that's where the others will be!" He finally answered.

"I thought you said-" She started, but he cut her off.

"You said it yourself you don't want to lose more people. The ones who made it will be there."

She pursed her lips and stared at him, not knowing what to say or think. She wasn't sure about his plan, but she had nothing better to bring to the table, so she just looked at him for a while before resting her forehead on his leather-clad shoulder and closing her eyes once more.

After driving for about an hour after the sun was up, they finally made it to the highway and the first faces they saw there were Rick, Carl and Hershel. Carl's gloomy face lit up when he saw Armageddon and he ran over to her as soon as Daryl stopped the bike. She hugged him and felt a bit better having someone to hug and show that they were happy she was alive, but that was short lived when she realized that the three guys were the only guys on the highway. "Where are the others?" She asked when he finally let go of her and looked from him and to Rick and Hershel.

She had just finished saying those words when a blood-stained car came to her vision and she could see Glenn and Maggie's distraught faces inside. After them was Shane's blue car, but there was no Shane inside, only Lori, T-Dog and Beth. Everyone rejoiced and embraced each other and Armageddon found herself standing beside Daryl, watching everyone reunite, while holding onto his hand tightly, interlocking their fingers and enjoying how his large hand practically ate hers up. Their eyes met for a few seconds and they shared a look before looking back to the others. So many people were still missing; Andrea, Patricia, Jimmy. She had to assume that all of them were dead on the farm, just like Mac.

"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl asked Rick when things had settled down.

"We're the only ones that made it, so far" Rick answered and met his eyes before meeting Armageddon's.

"Shane?" Lori asked. Rick's answer was a shake of the head and Armageddon saw how Lori's heart broke in her eyes after hearing those news. She must have really loved him.

"Andrea?" Glenn asked.

"She saved me before I lost her" Carol told him.

"We saw her go down" T-Dog chimed in, making everyone frown and some people even got tears in their eyes.

"Patricia?" Hershel asked dreadfully.

Beth shook her head and fought the tears that formed in her eyes. "They got her too" She said before her voice broke and she started crying. "They took her away from me. I was... I was holdin' onto her, Daddy." She cried in her father's embrace before turning to her older sister. "What about Jimmy? Did you see Jimmy?"

"He was in the RV. It got overrun" Rick told her somberly.

"You definitely saw Andrea?" Carol asked desperately.

"There were walkers everywhere" Lori told her with a heavy sigh.

"Did you see her?"

"I'mma go back" Daryl suddenly spoke up and let go of Armageddon's hand before climbing onto his motorcycle.

"I'm coming with you" She said and followed in suit.

"No" Rick said and stopped them both.

"We can't just leave her!" Daryl insisted.

"We don't even know if she's there" Lori reasoned.

"She isn't. She isn't, she's either gone or she's dead" Rick said coldly and shut them all up.

"So, we're not even gonna look for her?" Glenn asked surprised.

"We gotta keep moving, every place is crawlin' with walkers."

"I say we head East" T-Dog suggested strongly. Armageddon heard a growl in the distance and saw a walker slowly approaching them.

"Stay off the main roads. The bigger the roads, the more assholes like this one" Daryl said before picking up his crossbow and shooting it right in the head.

"Why are they everywhere?" Armageddon mumbled despairingly to no one in particular. "Why can't they just all die?"

Daryl met her eyes and flashed her an empathetic look before taking her hand in his and squeezing it a little bit to reassure her. They soon left after that, gathering all the supplies they could find and Daryl even brought her a couple of paperbacks he had found in the abandoned cars and a large hoodie to keep her warm. She had forgotten most of her stuff when everything went down on the farm, so she was grateful for his acts of kindness. She was also grateful to remove her current jacket, which was blood-stained and reeked of death to replace it with the hoodie Daryl brought her. It was comforting and even reminded her of the time before the apocalypse hit when she would wear her husbands' large hoodies on cold days and revel in the large and soft material.

They had been on the road for an hour when Rick, whose car was the last one, suddenly honked his horn and made everyone come to a stop. "You out?" Daryl asked when Rick approached the rest of them.

"Runnin' on fumes" He answered.

"We can't stay here" Maggie said.

"We can't fit everyone in one car" Glenn pointed out afflictedly.

"We have to make a run to get more gasoline" Rick told them all.

"So, we stay here?" Carol asked dubiously.

"I'm freezing!" Carl exclaimed and moved closer to his mother, who took him into her embrace.

"We'll build a fire" She assured him and kissed the top of his brunette head.

"I'm gonna go look for firewood, stay close" Daryl said and met Armageddon's eyes before turning away and heading into the forest, which had stayed on both their sides ever since they left the farm. It was an ominous sight, which brought them walkers once in a while, but it hadn't mattered while they were on the move. Now, however, now it became even more menacing. "I only got so many arrows. How you doin' on ammo?"

"Not enough" Rick told him and shook his head somberly.

"Well, we can't just sit here with our asses hangin' out" Maggie said impatiently.

"Watch your mouth" Hershel mumbled. "Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick."

Armageddon did not like the way Hershel said those words and how everyone now was leaning on Rick for guidance for everything, but she was too numb and too depressed to say anything. Even if she did, she didn't have any better suggestions since everyone was too agitated to make their own decisions. "All right, let's set up a perimeter" Rick said and took the charge, just like everyone hoped he would, with a brave face and buried his feelings. "In the morning we'll find supplies and gas and we'll keep pushing on."

"Glenn and I can go now and get some gas" Maggie suggested and gripped the rifle she held tightly.

"We stay together. God forbid someone gets stranded without a car" He said and shut that idea down permanently.

"Rick, we're stranded now" Glenn begged to differ.

"I know it looks bad" Rick said and sighed. "We've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other. I wasn't sure, I really wasn't, but we did! We're together and we'll keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere, there must be someplace."

"Rick, look around" Glenn said hopelessly and met his scared blue eyes. "Okay? There's walkers everywhere, they're migrating or something."

"There's gotta be someplace!" Rick insisted strongly. "Just to hold up, to fortify. Hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a life for each other! I know it's out there, we just have to find it!"

"Even if we do find a place, we think we're safe, we can never be sure for how long" Maggie said gravely. "Look what happened at the farm. We fooled ourselves into thinking we were safe."

"We won't make that mistake again" Hershel insisted and seemed like he was full of hope, despite everything they had gone through.

"We'll make camp tonight over there" Rick said and pointed to some kind of stone ruins that now were only a couple of walls. "Then we continue at the break of day."

"Does this feel right to you?" Carol asked Daryl and Armageddon who listened quietly and kept to themselves.

"What if walkers come through?" Beth asked. "Or another group like Randall's?"

"I doubt there's anything living here for miles" Armageddon commented quietly and crossed her arms.

"But, what if?" Beth reiterated. Armageddon did not know what to say that would not sound pessimistic in her ears, so she just shrugged.

"You know I found Randall, right?" Daryl said to Rick and captured his attention completely. "He'd turned, but wasn't bit."

Rick narrowed his eyes at him before looking away. "How's that possible?" Beth inquired.

"Rick, what the hell's going on?" Lori asked distressfully. "What the hell happened?"

"Shane killed Randall, just like he always wanted to" Daryl told her in a matter of fact tone.

"And the herd got him?" She asked and kept her eyes fixated on her husband.

Rick refused to meet her eyes and pursed his lips before answering. "We're all infected" He told everyone. "At the CDC, Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it."

"Holy shit. Oh my god" Armageddon mumbled and started walking away from them. "Shit, fuck, oh no!" She felt overwhelming fear wash over her as his words processed in her mind and she could only think about one thing. The baby inside of me is dead and it's gonna eat me alive from the inside out. "Oh my god! Fucking hell, holy shit!" She exclaimed, her heartbeat quickened and her breathing became shallow. Her lungs didn't get enough air and she soon started hyperventilating; she was having a panic attack.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" Daryl asked anxiously and put his hands on her shoulders. He tried to meet his eyes, but she was too distracted by her panic attack to register anything except for the fact that she was carrying a disease that would make the baby inside of her eat her alive like in the beginning Rosemary's Baby. It became harder and harder to breathe and her hands and feet started shaking like crazy.

"What's wrong with her?" Someone asked in the background as she fell to her knees and wheezed loudly.

"Armageddon?"

"She's having a panic attack" Hershel announced and walked up to her before grabbing her chin and meeting her eyes. "Follow my lead," He told her before inhaling deeply with his nose. He held his breath for a few seconds before exhaling slowly through his mouth. He did this a couple of times and encouraged her to do the same and soon she started catching on. "Everything's okay, we'll be okay."

"No, we won't!" She disagreed and lost the breathing tempo, thus falling back into wheezing. "We're all gonna die, starting by me."

"Why do you think that?" He asked calmly.

"'Cause the baby's dead and it's gonna eat me alive."

"Nonsense."

"Yes, it fucking will!" She exclaimed at the top of her lungs.

"Calm down" Daryl told her.

"Don't tell me to fuckin' calm down" She said and jumped up to her feet before shoving him, her panic turning into white rage. "You have no fuckin' clue what I'm goin' through-"

"Armageddon, quiet down!" Rick exclaimed. "You're gonna attract walkers."

"Fuck you!"

"Hey, look at me" Daryl said calmly and grabbed her shoulders once more, turning her around so that she was facing him before meeting her eyes. "That baby's not dead and it's not gonna eat you alive. You're gonna be just fine, I'mma make sure of it."

"How can you know?" She asked softly and shook her head in despair, trying her best to fight the tears that formed in her eyes.

"'Cause Hershel's a doctor and if the baby would be dead, he would have noticed it and let you know."

She stared into his eyes for a while before looking behind her shoulder and meeting Hershel's eyes, mentally asking him if Daryl was right. "He's right, I would've" He assured her and nodded. "And you would've, too. You may not be far along, but you would definitely notice if the fetus was dead."

Armageddon inhaled deeply and pursed her lips before meeting Daryl's eyes right when tears started streaming down her face. "We're still gonna die."

"No, we won't" He told her softly and wiped away her tears with his thumbs. "We're gonna be just fine."

Glenn argued with Rick that he should have told them this a long time ago, but Rick did not listen and insisted that he had thought everyone would have been better off not knowing. Armageddon saw how everyone's views on Rick changed after that fact was revealed and now less people seemed sure of trusting him.

The night got even more chillier and Armageddon wished she hadn't thrown away her old jacket as she sat as close to the small bonfire they had built and tried to keep herself warm. She sat huddled up beside Daryl and tensed up as she tried her best not to shiver. He tried to get her to eat, but she refused as she had no appetite and told him if she tried, she would only hurl it all out. "You feelin' sick?" He asked her softly and wrapped his arm tightly around her shoulders, embracing her and trying to warm her up.

"I never stopped" She told him through clenched teeth.

"How you doin' now, though?"

"I'm okay."

He met her eyes. "Would you tell me if you ain't?"

She pursed her lips and nodded. "Yeah" She answered quietly.

"We're not safe with him" Carol said softly and snapped both their heads in her direction. "Keepin' something like that from us. Why do you need him? He's just gonna pull you down?" She asked and directed her words to Daryl.

"We gotta stick together, no matter what" He answered just as quietly. "That's how we stay alive."

"Not with someone like him leading us."

"Then you take the charge" Armageddon said softly in a matter of fact tone. "No one's oppressing you and we're all grown adults who can make our own choices."

"I'm not fit to lead" Carol told her and shook her head weakly before meeting Armageddon's eyes once more. "But you are! You're strong and you're righteous."

"I'm the loudmouthed pregnant lady, nothing else."

"That's not true."

"She's right, you ain't" Daryl told her sincerely.

"This is not the time to be having this discussion" Armageddon said and shook her head. "Let's just all do what we can to survive and if you don't like Rick bossing you around or following him like a lost puppy, then don't. But, please, don't leave. We're not safe all by ourselves."

"You're his henchman" Carol said and directed her words once more to Daryl. "And I'm a burden."

"Keep talkin' like that and we're all burdens" Armageddon told her in a matter of fact tone.

"We deserve better" She begged to differ.

"What do you want?" Daryl asked and furrowed his brows at the older woman.

"A person of honor."

"Rick has honor."

A rustle sounded off and everyone's attention went in the direction of the sound. "What was that sound?" Beth asked and her voice was laced with fear.

"Could be anything" Daryl answered and stood up, wielding his crossbow and got ready for whatever it was out there. "Could be a raccoon, a possum-"

"A walker?"

"We need to leave" Carol insisted and jumped to her feet. "I mean, what are we waitin' for?"

"Which way?" Glenn asked ignoring Carol's words and focusing on the sound they had heard.

"It came from over there" Maggie answered and pointed East.

"Where we came."

"Yeah."

"The last thing we need is everyone running in the dark" Rick said exasperated. "We don't have the vehicles and we're not traveling on foot."

"Don't panic" Hershel chimed in in a loud whisper, loudly enough for everyone to hear.

"We're not" Maggie said calmly. "I'm not sittin' here while another herd passes through. We need to move now!"

"No one's going anywhere!" Rick exclaimed quietly and was steadfast on his words.

"Do something!" Carol hissed.

"I am doing something!" He retorted harshly, startling her. "I'm keeping this group together. Alive! Like I've been doing all along. I didn't ask for this! I killed my best friend for you people for Christ's sake! You saw what he was like. How he pushed me. How he compromised us. How he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no choice! He was my friend, but he came after me!" Carl could not take it anymore and hugged his mother tightly before sobbing into her chest. "My hands are clean."

He stopped for a moment and took a good look around before he continued. "Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say there's another place we can go to, maybe that's just another pipe dream. Maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you go out there and find out for yourself? Send me a postcard!" He exclaimed and met every person's eyes who dared to look at him. "Go on, there's the door. Let's see how far you get!" He waited a couple of moments and when nobody showed any signs of leaving, he spoke up again. "No takers? Fine. If you're staying, let's get one thing clear; this isn't a democracy anymore."

Daryl met Armageddon's eyes and he could see how she disagreed with Rick, but she never said a word. She just kept quiet and ultimately looked back to the fire before her and watched the flames dance around.

Later that night Daryl and Armageddon ended up sitting with their backs against the nearest stone wall, Armageddon with her knees pulled up to her chest and Daryl with her huddled against his chest. He had his arms around her and tried his best to make her feel at peace, considering their circumstances. She still hadn't stopped trembling and it was starting to bother him, as he feared that it would eventually hurt or affect the baby in some way. "Does anyone have a blanket, or something?" He suddenly spoke up and captured everyone's attention. The group was still so tense and afraid after everything that all he got was a shake of the head. He sighed before taking off his jacket and wrapping it around Armageddon.

"Don't do that, you'll get cold" She insisted and tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen.

"I won't get cold."

"Yes, you will."

"You'll get warm and then you'll keep me warm" He bullshitted in a matter of fact tone and she finally let him do that. "Sleep, you need it." She said nothing, just rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Soon, she her breathing became rhythmic and she stopped trembling.

Armageddon awoke by Daryl twitching. She figured that he was fighting to stay awake and as she opened her eyes and looked around, she saw that he wasn't the only one. It had gotten a tad warmer and she wasn't sure if it was because he had given her his jacket or if it was the atmosphere. "How long was I asleep?" She croaked out quietly, hoping not to wake up the lucky ones who still slept.

"A couple of hours."

"Okay, your turn" She said and handed him his jacket.

"What?"

"I've gotten my fair share, now it's your turn."

"No, you go back to sleep. Don't worry about me" He said dismissively.

"Daryl, you're gonna need to be well rested for tomorrow or else you won't be able to do anything" She told him in a matter of fact tone. "It's okay, I'll take watch and we both know I'm not the only one awake and alert."

He eventually nodded and she let him rest his head on her shoulder. She put her arm around his shoulder and buried her fingers in his dirty, brunette hair and gently played with it and massaged his scalp, calming him down until he fell asleep.

He only let himself sleep for fifteen minutes at a time, sometimes for a shorter amount of time, but never for longer and he was finally settling for a good night's rest when it was time to leave. "Daryl" She whispered softly into his ear, snapping him awake and almost getting his elbow in her face.

"What?" He grunted and hastily looked around, only to see the group waking up and scrambling to their feet.

"It's time to leave" She told him softly. "I would offer to drive so that you can sleep for longer, but I don't know jack-shit about motorcycles."

"Ain't no way I'm lettin' you drive Merle's bike. He'd kill me if I broke it" He mumbled and rubbed his tired eyes before a shadow crossed his face.

"Fair enough" She said and stood up before stretching her arms and legs, wallowing in the sweet relief she got for a few seconds before snapping herself into reality and feeling a shiver go down her spine as the cold hit her. She had no idea how long this day would stay cold and she was tempted to get into one of the cars with the others, but she knew she would only get carsick, so she stuck by Daryl's side and let him ride her into the sunset with the others.