White smoke was rising from the prison towers. I stood atop the big hill that overlooked the massive building. I didn't feel particularly sad anymore, just kind of numb. Sam was keeping watch from behind me, carrying the hunting rifle. Rick's watch clung loosely to my left wrist. It was almost too big for me, but I was determined to hold onto it for Rick. I'll give it back to him when I see him again.

The prison was still in a state of ruin. Dead bodies cluttered the courtyard, a few were in the yard itself. Walkers had claimed the prison as their own, and the giant hole in the fence was letting them all in. From where I was standing, I could see the corner of the yard where we had buried our dead. Lori, T-Dog, and Axel were all buried there. I hoped that, wherever they were, they couldn't see what had become of the prison.

"Terry?" Sam called. I turned my back on the prison and rejoined Sam. "You think it's worth going back in there?"

I sighed. "I don't think so. Let's start towards Terminus. Who knows? Maybe my group are already heading that way now." Sam nodded and led the way towards the nearest set of train tracks.

"All of the maps are along the tracks, so if your friends find one, they can just follow the tracks." Sam explained.

"We could end up meeting them somewhere along the way," I said hopefully. I followed Sam, not even going to allow myself once last look at the prison. We walked through the woods for a long time in silence. Sam had had the last apple this morning and I had had a granola bar. We were going to save the rest until we couldn't stand it anymore.

It took several minutes of walking to find a set of tracks. I didn't remember ever coming this way while we lived at the prison. Sam looked at his map for a brief moment before deciding to walk down the tracks that went right past the prison.

"This way, Terry." Sam said. I couldn't help but hear the flicker of doubt in his voice when he said that. I hoped he knew where he was going. The last thing I wanted to do was go a long way only to turn right back around.

We started down the tracks, and after a while, it got pretty boring. There wasn't much to do except for walk down the tracks, and there wasn't much to look at except for woods. Occasionally Sam and I would say something to each other, but we were both kind of tired from the restless night before. Neither of us had slept well; I had been too anxious about Daryl stopping by, and Sam kept waking up from nightmares. By the sound of it, it was the same one. I kept hearing him mutter Ana's name while he slept.

The sun had started climbing in the sky when we came across the first sign for Terminus. It was a lot more detailed than the map Sam had made. This one had all of the tracks in Georgia highlighted blue, green, and red, all of them pointing towards Terminus, which was somewhere around the center of Georgia. I tried to find Clarkesville on there, and my post-college town was marked through with red. I vaguely remembered the trains that used to pass by.

"Oh, there's Toccoa!" Sam said suddenly, reaching up and pointing at another dot ran through with red.

"What's that?" I asked.

Sam shrugged. "Ana was really into history. She once dragged me to Toccoa because it's where some World War Two soldiers were trained. She thought it was pretty cool, and I guess it kind of was. I was never really into history. I liked math and science better."

I pointed out Clarkesville and told him about it being my post-college town. Sam said that he had gone to Georgia Tech. "That's where I met Ana." His happy expression faded away and he got that sad-puppy look in his eyes again. I patted his shoulder and turned away from the map.

"Well, it looks like we're heading the right way. Let's get a move on. The sooner we get to Terminus, the better." I said, looking down the tracks. By the looks of it, the tracks just kept going on and on.

"Don't you wanna stop and rest for a bit?"

"Not unless you do."

Sam blinked and sighed. "Let's keep goin' then." We once again started walking, leaving the first sign behind.

As the sun rose higher into the sky, I started wishing that I had a hat. The late summer heat started to burn my scalp and face. "What I wouldn't give for a damn cloud." I said, wiping the sweat from my face once again.

Sam huffed in amusement. "I've got a hoodie in my backpack. I don't know if it'll help much."

"Yeah; the hood'll keep the sun off your face, but will the heatstroke be worth it?"

We took a break when the sun was in the center of the sky. And despite my wishes for some clouds to show up, the sky remained very clear and bright blue. As Sam and I ate granola bars, I thought back to when we lived on Hershel's farm. How Daryl and I spent every day tracking in the woods. The memories made me feel sad, and I sighed heavily.

"You missin' Daryl?" Sam asked. I had told him more about Daryl and the rest of the group this morning. I nodded. Sam gave me a sad smile. "You'll get to see him again. I know it."

"Thanks for that, Sam." I said. I looked over at him and opened my eyes wide. "How does my eye look?"

Sam looked at my right eyes for a moment. "Still pretty red. But it's getting better. Not as bad as it was yesterday."

"Hopefully it'll be better by the time we reach Terminus. I don't wanna show up with a blood red eye: that could throw people off."

We started moving again, and this time we continued until the sky started to turn pink. We found another sign, and after inspecting it in the dying light, we figured that we were still a few days from Terminus.

"Let's try and find some shelter off the tracks." I said. "We don't want strangers coming up on us during the night." Sam nodded in agreement. We went into the woods and couldn't find an actual house, so we settled for a small clearing surrounded by trees. "I'll take the first watch." I said after our tiny camp was all set up.

Sam yawned. "Alright. But wake me up in a few hours. It's not fair for you to stay up all night."

"Oh, don't worry. You'll get your turn on watch." I said. Sam smiled sleepily and laid down into the leaf mold, burying his face into his backpack. I leaned against a nearby tree and started my night watch.