We had to ditch the blue truck a few miles from the highway. The gas had run out and it wasn't useful anyway. The only person who chose to take the truck was T-Dog. After pulling over and saying our final goodbyes to that beat up thing, T-Dog hitched a ride with Rick in the red and white truck.
We had no idea where we were going. We were just driving, trying to avoid any herd that could be around. We couldn't handle another, not today at least.
I didn't watch the trees zip by as Daryl drove. Instead, I just kept my face buried in his back. My eyes were closed, not wanting to see anymore destruction.
A honk came from behind us. Daryl pulled the bike over and I was forced to remove my face from his back and to open my eyes. Thankfully, the only thing around us were more trees. Many of them had fallen leaves.
Everyone got out of their vehicles and jogged over to the front of the line. Rick was ahead and Daryl looked to him. "You out?"
"Running on fumes," he answered.
"We can't stay here." Maggie was right. We were left unprotected here. Anything can come up and get us. It may be walkers or may be other people. Either way, we didn't have the resources to deal with it. We were sitting ducks on this road.
Glenn stood next to Daryl's motorcycle and helped me over. Sitting like that was starting to hurt my legs. "We can't all fit in one car," he added.
"We'll have to make a run for some gas in the morning." Rick stared at the road ahead, searching for any sign of a gas station.
"Spend the night here?" Carol wasn't fond of the idea.
Carl hugged his mother. "I'm freezing."
When Carl mentioned it, the cold air hit me. A sudden shiver burst through. I didn't have a jacket. I didn't have the time to grab one. My long sleeved shirt wasn't enough. The winter was going to kill us.
"We'll build a fire, yeah?" Lori started rubbed her son's arms, trying to warm him.
"You go out looking for firewood, stay close," Daryl instructed to anyone who was listening. "Only got so many arrows. How you doing on ammo?"
Rick tossed his jacket to Carl. "Not enough."
"We can't just sit here with our asses hanging out."
Hershel didn't like Maggie's language, "Watch your mouth. Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick."
Rick had his gun out, ready to fire at any none friendlies. "All right, we'll set up a perimeter. In the morning, we'll find gas and some supplies. We'll keep pushing on."
"Glenn and I can go make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas," Maggie volunteered.
"No, we stay together. God forbid something happens and people get stranded without a car."
The cold was starting to get to me. I guess fear was, too. I leaned my head against Daryl's shoulder to try and warm my ear. I didn't want him to think that I was cold. Daryl didn't need another thing to worry about right now.
"Rick, we're stranded now." I gulped at Glenn's announcement.
I had to give Rick credit. He really was giving it his all right now. "I know it looks bad, 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. We keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere. There's gotta be a place."
"Rick, look around. Okay? There's walkers everywhere. They're migrating or something." Glenn was challenging Rick every chance that he got.
"There's gotta be a place not just where we hole up, but that we fortify, hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a life for each other. I know it's out there. We just have to find it." I wanted Rick to be right. A place like that sounded wonderful, but I doubt we could find it. It just seemed that it was only a dream.
"Even if we do find a place and we think it's safe, we can never be sure. For how long? Look what happened with the farm. We fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe." Maggie was still clearly shooken up from last night.
Hershel supported Rick. "We won't make that mistake again."
Rick used his gun to point to a small hodge podge of rocks. "We'll make camp tonight over there, get on the road at the break of day."
Daryl and I didn't say anything to object. Carol thought we should have. "Does this feel right to you?"
Beth had pulled herself together from earlier. "What if walkers come through, or another group like Randall's?"
Daryl finally spoke up. "You know I found Randall, right? He had turned, but he wasn't bit."
"How's that possible?" This was probably the most I had heard Beth speak ever.
"Rick, what the hell happened?" Lori wanted to know where her husband and her ex went to.
When Rick didn't answer, Daryl did. "Shane killed Randall. Just like he always wanted to."
"And then the herd got him," Lori assumed.
Everyone stared at Rick. We needed him to say something. He was supposed to be our leader. He always had something to say.
He looked around at all of us. His breathing was deepen before he revealed something huge. "We're all infected."
Daryl pulled away from me. "What?"
"At the CDC, Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it."
Oh, my God. We were all dead. This was it, just like Jenner said. This was our extinction event and that's how it's going to do it. My body was no longer shivering from the cold. I was terrified of everything all at once. I had so many questions. Was my baby infected? What would happen if I die during birth? Would I be a danger to her? I needed to sit down. My legs couldn't hold me. They gave out right from under me.
Luckily, Daryl hadn't wandered too far away. He caught me right before my hands hit the ground. "Woah, woah, woah. Are you all right?"
"Yeah. That's just a lot to take in."
He gently placed me on the ground. "You need to sit."
Everyone seemed to ignore my current mental break down. "And you never said anything?" Carol asked.
"Would it have made a difference?"
I couldn't hold my tongue. "Yeah, it may have."
Daryl placed his hand on the top of my head. Now wasn't the time to start fighting back. We needed to figure this out before people start throwing fists. I grabbed his hand. I needed something to squeeze.
"You knew this whole time?" Glenn had nearly dropped his gun in surprise.
"How could I have known for sure. You saw how crazy that mo-"
"That is not your call. Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told for the good of everyone."
"Well, I thought it best that people didn't know." When no one had anything else to say, Rick turned and started walking down the street. I guess he thought he should get away before someone hit him.
Daryl leaned down to reload his crossbow. "Are you all right?"
I scoffed. "'All right?' How could I be all right? We're all carrying it. That means she is to."
He dropped his bow in front of me and sat next to me. He opened his arm and welcomed me into a hug.
Without hesitation, I wrapped my arms around his torso and rested my head on his chest. I started sob, but my eyes refused to release any tears. My fears were again taking over me and my life. I had more trouble fighting them this time. "I'm scared, Daryl."
He rested his chin on my head. I heard him speak quietly to me. "I know. I am, too. But we'll make it through this."
I pulled away from him and looked him right in his eyes. "How?" I doubted this was going to end pleasantly. We were going to be on the run for the rest of our lives. How in anyway was that making it through?
Daryl's blue eyes shined as he stared into mine. "Together. That's how."
Night came quickly. None of us were able to get a wink of sleep. We were too wound up from the farm and Rick's news. Instead, we all sat around a fire that Daryl had built, trying to keep warm. T-Dog kept watch on the front end. Hershel held his grieving daughter close to him while Glenn and Maggie sat together. Carol sat next to Daryl as he stirred the fire, not wanting it to go out. I sat on the other side of him, trying to keep it together while we figured out our next move. Lori joined us with her son by her side. Rick had gone to make sure this place was secure and probably giving everyone space and time to cool down.
Carol saw an opportunity and leaned over to Daryl and I. "We're not safe with him - keeping something like that from us. Why do you need him? He's just gonna pull you down."
I hugged my legs and stared at Daryl. "Carol's right. It's insane staying with him like this."
He continued to poke the flame. "No. Rick's done all right by me," he looked over to me, "and you, too."
I couldn't see what Rick has done for me. He was a great man when we first met, but now he's someone else entirely. I didn't feel safe with him around me or my unborn child, especially with that crap he pulled.
"You're his henchman and I'm a burden. So is Rosalyn." I hated being called a burden, but Carol was right. He looks at the two of us as extra weight. "We all deserve better."
"What do you want?" Daryl snapped at her.
"A man of honor." That's when I dropped out of the conversation. Daryl was clearly getting pissed that Carol kept speaking badly about Rick.
"Rick has honor." He dropped another stick into the fire and stood back up to get away.
Maggie agreed with us, too. "I think we should take our chances."
"Don't be foolish," Hershel told her. There's no food, no fuel, no ammo."
A rustle of the leaves silenced all of us. Daryl held his crossbow up and stepped in front of me. After not seeing anything, he lowered it and backed away once again.
"What was that?" Beth questioned.
"Could be anything. Could be a raccoon, could be a possum." Daryl's possibilities didn't sooth anyone. All of us simultaneously stood up and stared at the surrounding forest.
"A walker," Glenn added.
"We need to leave. What are we waiting for?" Carol's panic was getting everyone riled up and ready to go.
"I just want to feel safe again, Daryl."
"We are safe, Rose." He wasn't really paying attention to me. He was just trying to keep everyone calm, but wasn't succeeding.
"Which way?" Glenn asked.
"It came from over there," Maggie pointed out.
"Back from where we came from?" My breathing sped up with fear. Beth noticed that sound was from the direction of the farm. The herd could have migrated and found us here, defenseless.
A deep, run down, southern voice sounded from behind us. Rick had finally rejoined us. "The last thing we need is for everyone to be running off in the dark. We don't have the vehicles. No one's traveling on foot."
"Don't panic," Hershel added.
Maggie couldn't take the stress anymore. "I'm not sitting here, waiting for another herd to blow through. We need to move, now."
"No one is going anywhere." Rick was trying to control us, tell us what to do, but this group wasn't in the mood to listen.
"Do something," Carol demanded.
"I am doing something! I'm keeping this group together, alive. I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this. I killed my best friend for you people for Christ's sake!" That was it. Rick had dropped the ball. Shane wasn't dead because of the walkers. Rick had took his life himself. I didn't like Shane, but this is murder. We were safe? I don't think so. "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. My hands are clean," Rick claimed.
Carl clung to his mother and wept. Shane was his friend and now he was gone. The story was just traumatizing him more.
I felt as if I were going to collapse again. I grabbed onto Daryl's shoulder and squeezed tightly. I needed something to support me before I lost balance again.
"Maybe you people are better without me. Go ahead. I say there's a place for us, but maybe - maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe - maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you - why don't you go and find out yourself. Send me a postcard. Go on, there's the door. You can do better? Let's see how far you get." After about another moment of silence, Rick continued. "No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight - you're staying, this isn't a democracy anymore." He left us with that. He basically flat out said that he was now our ruler, our king. Anything he said was what goes. I wasn't comfortable with that, but none of us had a choice. We were stuck doing it his way. Hopefully his way is the way that will keep us alive.
