Daryl finds Henry leaned over the porch railing of the mansion, glowering. Daryl thuds back against the post a few feet from him. "Somethin' botherin' ya, kid?"

"Yeah!" Henry stands straight. "Elizabeth ran off to practice her flute with some Hilltop guy who's playing guitar at the reception. He looks about seventeen."

"Carter. Yeah. 'S only fifteen."

"I don't know now if Elizabeth came because I asked her, or if it's because Liam asked her to play flute for his wedding march. And if she plays at the reception, too, with that Carter guy - I'm not even going to be able to dance with her!"

"She probably ain't gonna play the whole damn time."

"Maybe," Henry says despondently.

"Listen, kid," Daryl says. "Carol wanted me to talk to ya."

Henry's eyes widen. He glances at the stairs as if judging his quickest path of escape.

"Nah. Ain't 'bout that," Daryl reassures him. "Carol says ya ain't been serious 'bout yer studies."

"I'm completely serious about training to be a knight." Henry stands a little straighter. "And a hunter. I just don't see the point of all this other b.s." He steps forward and leans in conspiratorially. "You get me, right? Liberal arts? Algebra? Geometry? Physics? When am I ever going to need that stuff?"

"A'ight, listen up. Gonna tell it to you like it is."

"Okay," Henry says a little nervously.

"Ain't gonna get no action without liberal arts."

Henry blushes, but he asks, "What do liberal arts have to do with getting action?"

"'Lizabeth plays the flute, yeah?"

Henry nods.

"So ya better study yer music."

"Well, I did join the choir," Henry says, "because she's in it. And I can kind of sing."

"There ya go. Literature's same thing. Girls like poems and shit. 'S the main reason Khalid keeps makin' it with Rosita."

Henry's flushing, but he's listening.

"Art…same thing. Rick got 'Chonne this dumbass metal sculpture once, looked like trash to me. But she went crazy for it. Probably got him a lot of action. See what I mean? Got to know yer basic liberal arts shit. 'N math 'n science, too."

The redness in Henry's freckled cheeks subsides somewhat as he allows his curiosity to get the better of his embarrassment. "How's math going to get me action?"

"Gonna get ya action 'cause 's gonna help ya hunt, 'n ya bring home meat, slap it on the table," Daryl smacks his hand down on the porch railing. "That gets their panties wet right then and there."

"How is math going to help me hunt?"

"Say ya got a target in yer sites. Say yer usin' a bow – "

"- I'm going to learn to hunt with a spear or a rifle."

"Fine, spear. As the target moves, got to calculate how much to raise the front of the arrow - spear - to compensate for its drop. Distance gives gravity more time to act."

"You do that? When you shoot an arrow? You sit there and you do math equations in your mind?"

"Not 'zactly," Daryl admits. "Don't know I'm doin' it. But I couldn't do it if I couldn't do it."

Henry blinks. "Oh….kay."

"Huntin's all 'bout math and science."

"Well, I know biology already."

"Ain't talking' biology. Talkin' physics. Takin' geometry n' algebra. Mass and aerodynamics. General flight of an arrow's a parabolic arc, right?"

"Uh…yeah, I guess."

"'That's geometry. 'N any parabolic arc can be expressed as a quadratic equation, yeah?"

"I…okay."

"That's algebra. With a spear, got to think 'bout transverse elastic vibrations. Gravitational pull." At this point, Daryl's just throwing out any science-sounding term he can think of. "Kinetic energy, potential energy. N that's physics. Now ya wanna talk rifle?"

Henry nods.

"A'ight, yer goal's to fire a round in a straight line from the barrel," he points to the tip of his finger, "to the center of yer target." He pokes Henry in the chest. "Little deviation at the barrel's gonna translate to a big deviation 'tween the bullseye 'n the round placement." He shifts his finger a few inches over on Henry's chest and then pulls it away. "So say the barrel's canted 0.276 degrees 'n the end is .029 inches off. That deflection over 85 feet, separation of the shot placement from the bullseye's center's gonna be 'bout 6.9 inches off."

Henry's wide-eyed now. "I have no idea what you just said."

Neither does Daryl. The concept's accurate, but he was just making those numbers up. He's not sure they would actually add up if he really did the math. "'S why ya got study yer math, kid. Get what I'm sayin'?"

"But can I still become a good shot if I can't calculate all that?" Henry asks with alarm.

"Yeah, practice'll make ya a good shot. But ya don't just want to be good, right? Wanna be the best badass shot ya can be."

Henry nods. "Yeah."

"So study yer math 'n science. The rest'll come natural."

"I never realized how much math was in hunting. Maybe I should be a cook instead."

"Aw hell, even more math in cookin'. Fractions 'n shit. Stick with the huntin'."

Henry lets out a puff of air and shakes his head. "Wow. You must have done really well in algebra and geometry in high school. Did you get like an A+?"

This is probably not the time to tell Henry he failed algebra in 9th grade, or that he squeaked by with a C- when he re-took it in 10th grade, or that he dropped out of high school three weeks into 11th grade. "Ya ought to go help Carol set up the reception."

[*]

Roland strolls in under the tent as Carol and Maggie are neatly arranging the glasses. "You've done a nice job here," he tells them. "Thank you for doing all this for my son."

"Well, I'm doing it for Enid," Maggie insists.

"Thank you nonetheless." Roland rests his fingertips on the bar. "You saw that stallion Liam was riding?"

"Yes," Maggie replies, "beautiful horse."

"Well, he's the Hilltop's now. It's Ezekiel's wedding gift to Liam. Even better than a rooster." He smiles at her.

"Did you talk him into that?"

"I wish I could say I did. But Liam helped capture and break that horse. And it's still a little skiddish with anyone but him. You can get it to plow though."

"Good. We could use another horse." Maggie takes a box of food off a cart, sets it on a snack table, and begins unloading it.

Carol wonders how Maggie would react if she found out Roland didn't want to tell her about the Temple.

"Are you here to help?" Maggie asks him.

"I'm here to drag you to the mansion. We need to get dressed, you and I. For the wedding. I've been told you're Enid's maid of honor?"

"Yes," Maggie replies. "I was honored she asked. I guess she sees me as a big sister."

"Well, we should go get outfitted."

Maggie looks at Carol, but before she can ask, Carol says, "I'll finish all this up. You go on."

As they leave, Henry enters the tent and asks if there's anything he can do help, and Carol puts him to work.

[*]

Everyone has gone inside the Temple. "Do you think we should head back to camp now?" Khalid asks. "Watch the roof?"

"Eleven o'clock!" Rosita cries anxiously, raising her voice more than she means to.

"What? Where? I don't see."

"Armed men. Spilling out from under that awning in front of the Temple."

Khalid focuses his binoculars.

Twelve men march forward clutching compound bows and wearing quivers. A thirteenth man has some strange, black, box-like object in his hands. All of the men stop suddenly halfway down the pavement and spread out into a straight line. The twelve archers load and ready their bows.

"Shit!" mutters Rosita. "Do you think we've been spotted?"

But the archers angle their bows and arrows upward toward the sky, not toward them. The man with the box slams his hand down on it. A deafening, horn-like sound blares out across the grounds and through the woods.

Rosita leaps in her skin. The evergreen tree rustles wildly above them. Birds scatter from the woods in confused flight across the Temple grounds. A dozen arrows soar, and then the line swivels a hundred and eighty degrees all at once while the men draw from their quivers and reload. A dozen more arrows fly into the air. Quail and crow fall to the Temple grounds like rain. The horn blares again. As the birds continue to flock frantically from the forest, the men swivel, shoot, swivel, shoot, swivel, shoot until all their arrows are spent and the last of the fleeing birds have vanished into the far distance over the Temple roof.

"Well all righty then," Khalid says. "I guess they aren't eating people for meat."

Now the trees behind them rustle. "Shit." Rosita rolls over onto her back while unsheathing her knife. "Walkers!"

[*]

The pews are packed, and people – including Carol and Daryl - line the back of the chapel where there are no pews. Kids sit on shoulders – Gracie on Aaron's, Glenn, Jr. on Tara's, Judith on Daryl's. But Carol doesn't see Rosita anywhere. She leans over and asks in a whisper, "Where's Rosita?" as Liam takes his place at the altar with Roland and his two other groomsmen.

"Scoutin' that Temple," Daryl whispers back. "Thought she was comin' back for the weddin' though."

"She probably ran into Khalid. Ezekiel sent him to scout until Sunday afternoon."

Daryl looks relieved by this news. "I'll worry if she ain't back by Monday."

The congregation falls silent as Elizabeth begins playing the wedding march on the flute. Maggie walks down the aisle as Enid's maid of honor, trailed by the Howell twin girls. The women all carry plastic flower arrangements assembled from old decorations in the historical mansion. They take their place near the altar across from the groomsmen. Liam shifts on his heels and smiles nervously as Enid begins to walk herself down the aisle.

Enid wears a white, ankle-length dress. Maggie and the Howell twins have on silky, royal blue dresses that are split at the leg, and Maggie looks almost like a model. Carol's not surprised Roland keeps smiling dopishly at her. Liam and all of his groomsmen are wearing matching suits – black with white button-down-shirts and silver-gray ties. Now Roland really looks like Cary Grant. "They're all so good-looking," Carol whispers to Daryl. "I feel under-dressed." She's wearing clean, dark jeans and a long-sleeve, pale peach blouse. She chose a button-down one, because she suspects Daryl likes undoing buttons.

"Ya look great," he whispers back.

Judith shifts on Daryl's shoulders and accidentally kicks him the chin. He grabs her legs and steadies her.

"Dearly beloved," Father Gabriel intones, looking out at the congregation and seeing, Carol imagines, only flashes of light. "We have come together in the presence of God to witness and bless the joining together of this man and this woman in Holy Matrimony. The bond and…"

Carol tries to pay attention to the wedding, but she can feel Daryl's eyes on her. They linger on her cleavage, rise to her lips, and then meet her eyes. She smiles at him. His lips twitch, and he turns his attention back to the couple and priest.

"….for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity…."

Carol steps closer to Daryl and slides an arm around his waist. Judith, from her perch atop his shoulders, reaches over and pats the top of Carol's head, saying, "Carol, Carol, my Daryl's Carol." Carol smiles and raises a finger to her lips to shush the little girl.

"…into this holy union Enid Hamilton and Liam Norton now come to be joined. Enid, will you have this man to be your husband; to live together in the covenant of marriage? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?"

"I will," Enid answers.

Liam rocks on his heels.

"Liam, will you have this woman to be your wife; to live together in the covenant of marriage? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?

Liam smiles and nods eagerly.

Father Gabriel leans forward slightly as if trying to hear. "Will you?"

"Yes," Liam hastens. "I do. I will."

"Will all of you witnessing these promises do all in your power to uphold these two persons in their marriage?"

"We will," the congregation – or most of it – answers.

"Didn't realize I had a line," Daryl whispers to her, and Carol covers her mouth so she won't laugh.

Father Gabriel launches into a prayer and then starts reciting a scripture about love being patient and kind. "…Love is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."

That last bit of the line strikes Carol like a slap across the face. Love keeps no record of wrongs. She looks at Maggie clutching her plastic bouquet of flowers and smiling at Enid. It's such a hard thing, she thinks, to keep no record of wrongs.

"Love does not delight in evil," Father Gabriel recites, "but rejoices in the truth. Love always protects." Daryl puts a hand on Carol's shoulder. "Love always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

A homily follows the scripture reading, and Daryl has to take his hand off Carol to steady Judith on his shoulders because she's becoming restless. The little girl starts to drum on his head. At the front of the church, the groomsmen and bridesmaids are shifting from foot to foot. Roland raises an eyebrow across the way to Maggie, who is clearly trying not laugh.

Finally, Father Gabriel wraps it up and moves onto the vows. Liam takes Enid's right hand in his. "In the name of God," he repeats after Father Gabriel's whispered words, "I, Liam Norton, take you, Enid Hamilton, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow."

Enid vows in the same fashion. Father Gabriel hands his Bible to Maggie, who tucks it under her plastic flowers, and then turns toward Roland, who takes the priest's hand and presses the rings into his palm.

"Bless, O Lord, these rings," Father Gabriel prays, "to be a sign of the vows by which this man and this woman have bound themselves to each other; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Father Gabriel opens his palm, and Liam removes one of the gold bands and slides it onto Enid's finger, saying, "I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you."

Enid does the same.

Father Gabriel gropes blindly for their newly ringed hands and joins them together. "Now that Enid and Liam have given themselves to each other by solemn vows, with the joining of hands and the giving and receiving of rings, I pronounce that they are husband and wife, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Those whom God has joined together, let no one put asunder."

"Amen!" the congregation shouts, and Daryl opens his mouth a beat too late.

[*]

Cold water splashes up as Rosita's boots hit the creek bed. Her rifle swings from her shoulder while she clutches her bloodied, gut-covered knife. She hasn't fired her gun for fear of drawing the attention of the Temple hunters, who were quietly collecting their birds when she and Khalid began to flee. They couldn't run toward the fence line without possibly being seen, so they had to run into the woods, weaving and stabbing their way through the walkers drawn by the horn. Now there's a herd of about thirty walkers after them.

Khalid's footsteps pound behind her. Her heart races and she pants for breath as she scurries up the embankment on the other side, using roots and forcing footholds into the earth to drag herself to the top.

The herd of walkers, lurching and growling, wades through the creek bed after Khalid. He turns, stabs the closet one in the forehead with his rapier, and tries to yank it back out. It sticks. The point must be lodged in bone. He lets go, kicks back the next walker, and turns and runs, throwing himself in a running leap against the embankment.

Rosita scrambles to her feet on the overlook above, looks down, and watches in horror as a root snaps off in Khalid's hand and he tumbles down the embankment. He lands hard on his back on the shore of the creek as the herd lurches closer.