Other than stopping long enough to eat some of their meager provisions, the three and Dog had searched for Henry nonstop, following, losing, and picking up again his tracks through the night. Once the sun was up, they didn't have much issue following him, but he'd had a hell of a head start.
For the most part, their travels had been silent, only speaking to inform the others of what they may have found. Connie was surprisingly skilled at finding and following tracks. Dog seemed to like her, too.
Daryl walked ahead of Anna and Connie, Dog circling around them periodically as they made their way through the woods. From the corner of her eye, Anna could see Connie pull out her notepad and scribble something on it, holding it out for Anna to read.
What about the girl?
Anna pursed her lips, glancing at Daryl a moment before shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders. As they continued walking, Connie tapped Anna on the shoulder and held out the pad more urgently.
What about the girl?
Anna furrowed her brow, and with a sigh took the pad from Connie who handed her the pen. Anna furrowed her brow and exhaled heavily through her nose. Finally, she wrote out I don't know in careful letters and passed everything back, walking ahead to end the conversation.
Dog barked, and they came to a stop above a dried-out creek bed. They looked around at the ground, spotting the tracks overlapping each other. Clearly there was a struggle.
Connie held out her notepad.
He caught up w/ them.
Daryl squinted at the page before nodding. Anna climbed down into the creek bed.
"Yeah," he said. "There was a struggle."
Anna looked up to see Connie gesturing to Daryl's lips, then pointing at her eyes and then back to his mouth.
"They caught up to him," Daryl said, this time making sure she could see his mouth.
Behind her, Dog panted as he ran up and Anna turned. He gave a bark, sniffing at the familiar black stick.
"Good boy," Anna said, picking up Henry's stick as Daryl jumped down into the creek bed.
"They went that way," Daryl said, pointing southeast when Dog began to growl.
The three looked over to see three walkers stumbling toward them. Daryl lifted his crossbow as Connie raised her slingshot, and they took out two walkers.
"I'll get the last one," Anna assured, taking Henry's stick in both hands.
With two swift motions, Anna knocked the last walker to the ground and jabbed the end of the stick through its skull. She pulled it out and grabbed Daryl's bolt, pulling it out with a disgusting squelch.
"Let's go," she said, making sure Connie could see her mouth as she gestured southeast.
.
Hiding behind some bushes, they watched a small herd circle in the field. Two Skins dragged a heavy tarp out into the field, another Skin in a poncho meeting them halfway. After what seemed like a few words, the first two Skins set the tarp down, laying out two bloody bodies before turning and leaving. They could see even from this distance that neither body was Henry or Lydia.
The poncho Skin gestured with his body and the small herd started toward him, falling over the bodies. The poncho Skin stood to the side next to his companion, watching the feeding frenzy.
Daryl gestured for them to move back further into the trees. Anna and Connie followed him until they were sure they wouldn't be spotted.
"Their camp can't be far off," Anna said.
"How do we wanna handle this?" Daryl asked.
We can sneak past them at night, Connie suggested.
"Out in the open like this," Daryl said, shaking his head, "they've gotta have more than just those guys on lookout."
Anna hummed and Daryl looked to her, which prompted Connie to look at her as well.
"Maybe," Anna started, nodding slowly. "Maybe we take a page out of their book. Take out those Skins in the field, and take their masks. We can walk right into their camp if they think we're one of them."
"We can use the walkers, too," Daryl said. "Lead 'em into the camp as a distraction to get Henry out."
What about the girl? Connie asked.
"What about her?" Daryl snapped. "We're here for Henry, not the girl."
"So, we just leave her?" Anna asked.
"You know if we take that girl, Alpha's gonna attack," Daryl said.
"She's probably going to anyway—especially after we attack her to get Henry," Anna reasoned.
"We don't gotta make it a guarantee," Daryl huffed, stalking off.
Anna let out a heavy sigh and shook her head until she noticed Connie writing something on her notepad.
We can't leave her, she said.
.
.
Jessie set a basket of apples down in the cart, a grin on his face. They were finally doing what they should have been doing all along—preparing to go to the fair. He adjusted the basket so that it fit better among all the other produce Alexandria was sending with the delegation and then closed the back of the truck bed.
He wished he was going with Rosita and the rest of the delegation, but he needed to finish the radio first.
He glanced into the church where the council meetings were held and saw Michonne sitting alone, elbows on her knees. She was clearly thinking of the revote she'd allowed, no doubt concerned about the results. Jessie made his way into the church.
"Hey," he said as Michonne sat back in her chair.
"Hey," she said.
He scratched the back of his head as he walked over to the table, sitting against it and sighing.
"I'm going to finish the radio and head out after," he said. "You should come with me."
"I can't," Michonne said. "I'm needed here."
"Aaron and Laura can handle things here," Jessie insisted.
"It's better if I don't go," she said.
Jessie pursed his lips and shook his head.
"It's good that we're doing this," he said. "I hope you know that."
"What if this is a mistake?" Michonne asked, shaking her head.
"Then it's a mistake we'll make together," Jessie shrugged.
"That's not really comforting," she said, rolling her eyes at him.
"You can't control everything, Michonne. Shit just happens sometimes, and we deal with it like we always have," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "There's always going to be risks in everything that we do. But we can't let that stop us from living or cut us off from the people we care about. And with the radio, we won't feel so far away anymore."
"But what about those Skinwalkers?" Michonne challenged.
"We'll deal with them," he assured. "Together."
.
.
The three had spent the last part of the day watching how the Skins led the walkers in a circle, studying for their roles. The moment it was dark, Anna and Daryl put their plan into motion. They'd left Connie with Dog, Anna's spear, Henry's stick, and Daryl's crossbow at a rendezvous point in the woods. It was easy getting the two Skins away from the herd, luring one away and then the next. Daryl donned the poncho and mask while Anna took the other disguise.
She put on the dirty white shirt that was just a little too big for her. Then she pulled the mask off the dead Skin and pulled it over her head. It was leathery and smelled like death, sending a shiver through her body as it pressed into her skin. She gagged; the smell was so potent she could almost taste it.
Finally, they gathered the walkers the way they'd seen the Skins do it and started into the woods. They picked up some tracks and followed them easily enough, the walkers growling behind them.
After some walking, keeping a good distance between them and the walkers, Anna and Daryl came upon a camp. There was a gathering of Skins, standing in a half circle around a large man holding Henry. Alpha stood beside a crying, knife-wielding Lydia.
"Don't be weak," Alpha hissed, "like your father. You know what happened to him."
"Yeah, I know what happened to him, Mother," Lydia said, her voice strained and angry.
Alpha stared at Lydia, expressionless, and nodded toward Henry.
"Kill him," she ordered. "Or he'll kill you both. You decide. Go on."
In that moment, Anna had never been happier to hear the snarls of walkers as they caught up and filtered into the camp.
"Guardians!" Called a Skin, screams of terror and pain breaking out across the camp.
All around them, people either hastily pulled on their masks or were attacked by the dead. Alpha and the large man disappeared within the crowd. Daryl started forward and Anna followed, keeping a slow pace to avoid unwanted attention as they approached Henry and Lydia.
Daryl came up behind Henry as Anna circled around to protect the other side.
"Keep your head down," Daryl instructed, startling the teens. "We're leaving."
"Not without Lydia," Henry challenged.
"No. The girl stays," Daryl said.
"Then so do I," Henry insisted as a walker started toward them.
Anna quickly dispatched it with her hunting knife.
"Henry," Lydia sighed.
"No," Henry said with finality. "I'm not leaving you. I won't."
"I'm not arguing about this," Anna snapped. "We're taking her with us. Now, let's go."
She grabbed Lydia's hand and tugged her along, vaguely hearing a 'damn it' from Daryl as she made a beeline through the walkers and terrified Skins until they made it out of camp. The moment they were clear, the four broke out into a wild sprint. Anna quickly fell to the back of the group, keeping a slower pace than the others to maintain her breathing.
As they ran, Anna ripped the mask from her face and threw it to the ground before pulling herself from the dirty shirt and tossing it over her shoulder. They continued the way they'd come until they found their way back to Connie and Dog—the latter of which gave a single bark at their sudden and loud appearance. They only stopped long enough to get Connie running with them, hoping they weren't being pursued.
Something snapped, and Henry flew forward, landing hard on his stomach.
"You all right?" Daryl asked, crouching beside the boy.
"This isn't the way back to Hilltop," Henry said instead.
"Tara made a deal with those assholes. We broke it," Daryl explained. "We ain't goin' back to Hilltop."
"He's right. There's too many of them," Lydia agreed. "Alpha would destroy Hilltop to get me back now."
"And why didn't you tell us there was that many of them?" Daryl asked, glaring at the girl.
"You kept me locked in a cage," Lydia snapped. "What did you expect? I wasn't going to betray my own people!"
"Well, maybe you should go back to 'em," Daryl spat. "Henry didn't know what he was gettin' his ass into, but you sure as hell did."
"I thought I could go back," Lydia said, shaking her head. "But I can't."
"Well, you ain't comin' with us," Daryl said flippantly.
"Daryl," Anna said, frowning.
"Hey," Henry said, patting Lydia on the arm. "We could run. Me and her. You guys go back, and—and we keep running. They can't blame Hilltop if we just disappear."
"Henry, we can't," Lydia said.
"Let me fix this," Henry pleaded.
"No," Daryl said finally. "There's no way in hell I'm lettin' you run away with this one. No way. Think of your mom!"
Connie stepped over, making wild gestures with her hands in either direction.
"She's right, we need to keep moving. We'll discuss this some other time," Anna said, starting toward Connie until she veered right.
"This way," Daryl said, pointing to the left.
Connie moved her hand over the group and pointed right.
"This way," Daryl repeated, slower.
She gestured for them to follow again before turning on her heel and jogging away, Henry, Lydia, and Dog following after her. Anna looked to Daryl and shrugged.
"Maybe she knows some place closer," she suggested, starting after them.
She could hear Daryl grunt and follow.
.
It was early morning by the time the group made it to an apartment complex just on the outside of a small town. Based on the construction trucks left scattered around the parking lot, Anna assumed the place was still being built when the world hit the hard restart. Connie pointed at each of them and then made a 'going up' motion toward the nearest building.
"Take the high ground?" Daryl mused, looking up at the building and nodding. "Yeah."
Connie took out her notepad and wrote a quick word before holding it up for them to read.
Chokepoint.
"Good idea," Anna said before they all started toward the building.
"I don't understand," Henry said.
"They use walkers to protect themselves, right?" Daryl asked, glancing back at Lydia. "So, we go up. Someplace the walkers can't go." He pointed toward the top level of the building.
"We separate the living from the dead," Anna nodded.
"They travel in a herd but there's only like five or six of 'em in the middle, right?" Daryl asked, pointing at Lydia.
Lydia nodded.
"Yeah, but if we go up there, we're trapped," she warned. "Alpha's not gonna send an army 'cause she doesn't have to."
They paused and looked to the girl.
"She'll send Beta."
Daryl grimaced.
"I'm sick of runnin'. This Beta—he their best?" He asked.
Lydia nodded again.
"Good," Daryl said. "Kill him first."