Chapter 5-Their Arrival
After
Shane stood with his back against the truck when Alicia came over to him. "Can we talk?" Alicia asks him. Shane nods. Shane walks with Alicia away from the others, and once they were away. Alicia hugs him. Shane hugs her back. "You know, right?"
"Yeah, I heard the radio, and I saw the fire," Shane tells Alicia, who nods.
"How did you get out. We saw you got cut off, and you were blocked. We thought you died," Alicia says.
"I barely did make it out. I was able to make a small enough opening to just slip through the small herd around me. By that time, you were gone, and the stadium was gone, and so was Madison," Shane tells her as he lets her go.
"And how did you find them?" Alicia asks.
"I got shot by a small group of people. Al saved me, and I decided to travel with her. I didn't know if you made it. We saved Daryl, John, and Morgan from a group," Shane tells her.
"Your friend is more interesting than you let on," Alicia says.
"He's changed a lot," Shane says. "Come on, we should get back," Shane tells Alicia, who nods as they walk back to the van.
Before
Shane, Madison, and Alicia look at the woman in the water. "It's okay. We'll get you out," Madison says. The woman lets out a yell.
"Get the hatch open," Shane says to Alicia. The woman stabs two walkers. Shane and Madison jump down into the water. They come out of the walker and kill a walker as the woman backs into the wall. The three of them start to fight together.
Outside, Strand tries to open the hatch door. "It's rusted shut," Strand tells Alicia and Luciana. Inside, Shane, Madison, and the woman put their backs on each other.
"Stay close," Madison says.
"I'm trying," The woman says. The three stab walkers. The hatch opens the water-coming walkers with it. Strand and Luciana kill two walkers. Alicia, Strand, and Luciana kill the walkers around them. Luciana helps the woman up. Alicia climbs inside and coughs. They hear a walker growling. Shane stabs it and walks over to Madison, and helps her up.
"Come on," Shane says as they leave.
After
Daryl stood with his back against the van as Shane and Alicia come back. "How did he die?" Alicia asks him. Daryl looks at her. "You're brother. How did he die?" Shane looks at Daryl.
"I don't have my camera," Al says to him.
"I'll tell you again later," Daryl tells Al, who nods. He looks at Shane and Alicia as the other three stop what they are doing. "After Lori died and Judith was fed, we cleaned the Prison. One day Glenn and Maggie went on a run and didn't come back. Merle took them. He was working for a man called the Governor,"
"Sounds like a nice guy," John says.
"He wasn't. We got help from a woman named Michonne. Rick and her ended up together later. She took us to a town called Woodbury. We broke Maggie and Glenn out killed a few people. We lost one of our own named Oscar. He caught me and put me in a ring with Merle, and he wanted us to fight to death. Rick got us out, and when they wouldn't let Merle come back because of what he did to Glenn. I left with him. I saved a family on a bridge and I realized I belonged at the Prison, so I went back. He killed another one of us named Axel. Andrea came not long after, and we set up a meeting. When we were in Woodbury. Michonne took the Governor's eye and killed his daughter, a walker he kept locked up. He said that if we gave him Michonne, he'd leave us alone. When we declined, Merle did it. He let her go and went after him himself. The Governor killed him. He shot him in the chest and let him turn. I found him as a walker, and he stared at me, and I knew he was gone. I stabbed some many times, and I didn't get to bury him until after. The Governor is the reason Andrea died, and he killed Hershel in front of all of us. Maggie, Beth, Carl, Rick. He destroyed the Prison," Daryl says. He wipes the tears that were in his eyes.
"He's dead, right?" Nick asks.
"Yeah, he's dead. Michonne stabbed him in the back," Daryl says. "Tara's sister shot him in the head,"
"Who did you get out with?" Strand asks.
"I'm not talking about that," Daryl says.
"It was Beth, wasn't it?" Morgan asks. Daryl looks at him and nods.
"Yeah, it was Beth, and now she's dead too. Like Hershel, Merle, Glenn, Carl," Daryl says. "It doesn't matter," Daryl says as he turns around.
"It does. You said it yourself. She showed there was still good in this world, and John reminded you of that," Morgan says. Daryl doesn't say anything before he walks to the side of the road and stands. All he could hear with her voice again.
"You're gonna miss me so back when I gone, Daryl Dixon," Daryl thinks about when she said those words to him. He did miss her.
Before
It was now night as they all stood around the car beside the walkers. Luciana grabs a book and wipes the dust off from it. The book was the little prince. "Madison, who on God's earth did we risk life and limb to save this time?" Strand asks.
"I didn't get a chance to ask her name when she had me at gunpoint," Madison says. Strand shakes his head. "Hey. No one's gone till they're gone," Strand nods.
"Naomi. My name is Naomi. I'm sorry. I wasn't going to hurt you," Naomi says.
"Well, somebody led them into the tank. Any idea who?" Shane asks.
"I just camped there last night. I'm not from here?" Naomi says.
"Where are you from?" Alicia asks.
"It's been a long time since I've been from...anywhere," Naomi says.
"You've been traveling this whole time?" Madison asks.
"The whole time," Namoi says with a sigh. They hear growling and banging on the walls.
"We should leave," Luciana says.
The Diamond
Nick lights a match and throws it into the barrel that had the turnips. He starts to put more in. Nick hears growling and the gate and music in the distance. He walks towards the gate as the walker tries to reach inside. He goes up top and finds Douglas and Viv. "You heard that music?" Nick asks.
"Yeah," Douglas says.
"We've got to do something," Nick says.
"Like what?" Viv asks.
"I don't know, go out there and figure out where that music came from. Maybe it has something to do with why they're not back yet. You know? Maybe it was them trying to signal us," Nick says.
"Look, I know you're worried about your family, but let's just wait, see if we hear it again," Douglas says before he walks away with Viv. He looks at Charlie, who was beside him.
"I need you to open the gate," Nick says.
"I can do that," Charlie says. Nick nods as he goes down to the gate with Charlie, who opens it. Nick takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. He drives the car out, and Charlie shuts the gate. Walker hit the car and start to surround it. Nick presses on the gate and drives into a pole. He looks at the walkers outside of the car, and one of them is shot. Cole shoots another one.
"Nick get back here," Cole says on the radio. Nick opens the door and starts to walk. A walker comes behind him but is hit by Alicia.
"Nick, what are you doing?" Shane asks.
"You know, just taking a stroll. What happened to you?" Nick asks.
"Get in," Luciana says. Nick climbs in the truck with Naomi. A little bit later, Madison walks over to Charlie, who was sitting down.
"Charlie, can we talk for a second?" Madison asks as she sits down.
"It's okay. I know you didn't find them," Charlie says.
"I'm sorry," Madison says. "I've gotta ask you another question, though. It's not an easy one. What happened at your camp? Do you know who did that?" Charlie looks at Madison for a moment before she looks down. "We can talk about it another time," Madison says before she leaves.
After
Daryl sat at the side of the road holding Beth's knife in his hand. He heard walkers earlier and knew that the others dealt with 'em. "Were you two together?" Alicia asks. Daryl looks at her.
"God damn, you're nosy," Daryl says. "Why don't I ask a question?" Daryl asks in anger. "Who have you lost. Parents? Boyfriend? Best friend? Huh?" Daryl looks at her. "Yeah, that's what I thought," Daryl says before he walks back to the van and sits down as Lucian goes to the car.
Before
Nick sat with Naomi, who was cleaning his head.
"Thanks," Nick says.
"Least I could do," Naomi says.
"You a nurse or a doctor?" Nick asks
"Nurse," Naomi says.
"What kind?" Nick asks. Naomi inhales.
"Last answer. No more questions. Er, then ICU," Naomi says as Madison comes down.
"Hey, how'd she take it?" Nick asks.
"I don't think it was a surprise," Madison says.
"All right, I'll go check on her. Thank you," Nick says to Naomi before he leaves. Madison sits down.
"You didn't tell me your camp was a baseball stadium," Naomi says.
"You didn't believe I had a camp," Madison says.
"How many people live here?" Naomi asks.
"Forty-eight. Forty-nine if you decide to stay," Madison says. Naomi chuckles.
"I pulled a gun on you," Naomi says.
"So did Shane when I first met him, and now I'm dating him, and you didn't shoot. I've done a lot worse when I was out there. We all did. I thought I lost my kids for good because of it. But I found 'em, and then we found this place, and we built it up together. We are who we are because of it," Madison says.
"You don't even know me," Naomi says.
"And you don't know us. So we're both takin' a chance. I know it's a lot. Why don't you see how you feel after a shower," Madison says.
"A shower?" Naomi asks.
"Uh-huh," Madison says.
"Is the water-," Naomi says.
"Yeah. But you gotta turn the knob all the way to the right to get it really hot," Madison says before she leaves.
Strand and Douglas push the truck as Cole drives. "Hit them if they get within 50 feet of us," Cole says on the radio.
"Copy," Luciana says.
"You know I could have helped you guys out there," Cole says on the radio. "If he'd let me come along,"
"We had Shane. The car was full, and I don't think that's why he didn't want you to come," Luciana says.
"You had a trunk, so what's the deal? He acts like he doesn't want to get to know me," Cole says.
"It might be the other way around," Luciana says.
"Does he really think that's gonna stop me?" Cole says. "Luce?"
"You guys need to get inside right now!" Luciana says.
"Why? What's wrong?" Cole asks.
"Ditch the truck! Right now!" Luciana says. They stop when they hear engines and see trucks. Cole gets out of the truck, and they run to the stadium. "Lock the gate,"
"Who the hell is that?" Luciana asks.
"Get to the armory. Bring everybody," Luciana says as trucks stop outside. A man steps out of the car as everybody stands with guns. The man grabs a bike and starts to ride it as music plays. Walkers try to bite him as he rides the bike. They pull a wrap down, and the man goes into it. The walkers follow him inside, and they shut it, locking it as the man gets out the front. Another man unloads a chair as the man spray paints 12 on the truck.
"You picked one hell of a night to join us," Strand says to Naomi. The man goes to the blue car and starts to unload it. The gate opens, and Shane and Madison walk outside. They walk towards the man sitting in a chair drinking.
"There a problem?" Shane asks.
"We're good," The man says. "You want one?" He asks as he holds a drink out to them.
"We got a lot of people inside with a lot of guns," Madison says.
"That's a hell of a welcome," The man says
"We saw what you did to that camp by those tanks," Shane says.
"You think we did that?" The man asks.
"Well, your flag was flyin' over it," Madison says.
"Yeah. Because we had to clean up their mess, you see, the thing no one thought about when they built a camp between those giant metal drums is what would happen if the bleeder value got jammed on one of those things. We warned 'em, but...they didn't listen, "The man says before he imitates an explosion.
"What do you want from us?" Shane asks.
"We want you...to listen. 'Cause you have a mess of your own out here. Don't you? A...bad batch of turnips, from what I hear. You should tell Nick to check the rest of his crops, too, because the weevils are a bitch to get rid of," The man says. They look at him.
"How the hell do you know his name?" Madison asks.
"Come here, kiddo," The man says. Shane and Madison look at the gate as Charlie walks out. The man stands up. "Hey, come here," Charlie walks up to him. "Hey, how you doing? They take care of you? Huh?" Charlie nods. "I'm so sorry we were late. Just had to clear the road of the fallen back there so we could chat out here uninterrupted. But...I got you some new records on the bus," Charlie smiles. "Go on, get in there. Good girl," Charlie goes into the bus. The man sighs. "God, she's a good kid. We found her a while back. Turns out she has a real knack for finding the good stuff. Boy, she...she hit the jackpot here,"
"You're not takin' anything from us," Shane says.
"People always say that. You see, we're not taking anything from anyone. Anyone's who alive, anyway. You see, look-I've had this conversation a hundred times. We know you're good people. Yeah? Look, 27 machine guns, six rifles, 14 handguns, six dozen hand grenades, and until recently, a great crop yield, but there is a natural cycle to a place like this. Okay? And yours is about to run out. So there's two ways this can go-either you give us your stuff and live. I mean, hell, you can-you can join us, you could become one of us. Or we wait for you all to die, tryin' to make things work. But either way, I end up with that gun on your hip and whatever else I want. That's not a threat. That's just...the way it goes. Oh. I'm Mel, by the way," Mel says.
"We're not going anywhere," Madison says.
"Yeah, I've heard that before too," Mel says.
"We've lived like you. Movin' from place to place doing whatever it took to make it. We're not going back to that life," Shane says.
"You saying you're better than us?" Mel asks.
"He's saying we found a better way," Madison says before they start to walk away.
"Because you live in there in those walls, you don't have to do the sorts of things we have to? Let me tell you somethin'. You just haven't been tested yet. But you're about to be," Mel says to them as they walk away. "You change your mind. We'll be out here waitin'," Shane and Madison walk back inside. The next day Nick starts to dig up plants. Shane stood with Strand, Alicia, and Cole and looked at the men. Nick sees that the plants were down. Shane walks away from them and walks to the dugout where Madison was. He grabs gloves and walks down, and starts to help her. Alicia follows him. The others slowly follow. Luciana walks away and leaves. She had the book in her hand as she left the diamond. She looks at Charlie and sets the book down before she leaves. She comes back and starts to work.
After
Nick hits a hammer against the van and walks back to the others. Nick looks at John's bag and pulls out candy. "Hey, help yourself," John says. Nick grabs Al's bag.
"Leave that be," Al says as she stands. Alicia puts her barrel to her neck as Daryl grips the crossbow. Luciana comes out.
"You're with them," Luciana says. She shows them the flag.
"With who?" Daryl asks as he looks at Shane. "What haven't you told us?"
"The Vultures," Strand says.
"I don't know what that means," Al says as Daryl looks at Shane.
"I didn't think it mattered," Shane tells him.
"Maybe if you assholes put your guns down, we could help each other. Who put that flag up?" Al asks. "What did they do to you?"
"How about you answer our questions?" Alicia says. "The flag isn't yours?"
"No," Shane says to them. "It's not any of theirs,"
"All right. Show us where you found it," Alicia says as she grabs Al and Strand grabs John. Nick pulls Morgan up. Morgan lets out a groan.
"I got him," Daryl says to Nick, who nods. Nick walks to the car with Luciana. Daryl looks at Shane. "You want me to trust you?" Shane nods. "We don't tell them everything. Only a little. We take our chance, we tie them up, and we all get what we want. We talk. They aren't thinking straight. They want revenge. You know what that's like," Daryl says. Shane nods as they go to the car. Daryl helps Morgan before he sits down by Morgan, and they are back on the road.
Alexandria
Rick walks into the room where Negan's cell was. He looks at Negan, who was sitting in the bed. He grins at Rick. "Look at you, Rick. Bring me my food usually, you have Gabby boy, or one of your other people do it, and they won't answer my questions," Negan says.
"Neither will I," Rick says as he puts Negan's food in his cell. He turns to the door.
"I heard that Daryl is gone. But that was never made clear. Did a walker finally do him in, or did one of my men decide revenge was the best option," Negan says.
"Neither, Daryl left because I kept you alive and because of Glenn," Rick says.
"So Daryl left? By himself?" Negan asks.
"No, he left with Morgan," Rick says.
"How is the widow doing? She lost her husband and now Daryl," Negan says. Rick ignores him and leaves the room. Rick watches as the gate opens and Maggie comes in with Carol and Jesus. She walks over to him.
"Anything?" Maggie asks.
"No," Rick tells her as he walks away.
"Daryl and Morgan will be back," Jesus says before he walks away. Maggie sighs as she goes to help unload supplies with Carol.
A house in Texas
All she sees is light as she opens her eyes. She sees a man in front of her. "I'm assuming I'm dead," Madison says as she stares at the man.
"Nope, your not dead, Maddie," The man says.
"I killed you," Madison says.
"Correction. You almost killed me, Madison," Troy Otto says. "I was surprised when I woke up,"
"I was trapped," Madison says.
"Yet you fought. I saw the flames, and I saw part of the wall was down, and I saw walkers going down. I didn't expect to find you," Troy says. "You tried to kill me, and I saved you. Kinda ironic, isn't it," Madison tries to stand out and feels pain in her body. "You did not get out of that fight uninjured. You were burnt, Madison. You will need time to heal,"
"I need to find my kids. They think I'm dead," Madison says.
"They should. You won't be moving for a while once you are healed. We will find them," Troy says.
"We? How do you know I won't try to kill you?" Madison asks.
"Like you said on the radio. No one's gone until they're gone. Also, you owe me," Troy says.
"I thought you said you didn't know it was me," Madison says.
"I didn't," Troy says as he throws her water. "We have a lot of catching up to do, including how I survived," Troy says as he stares at the woman who almost killed him. Madison stares right back.
Thanks for reading. I have a ton of plans coming up with seasons 4,5 and 6, and I'm excited. One of them involves The Walking Dead, so there will be a small plot with that group to set it up. There is a twist. Both Troy and Madison are alive. I have had this idea from the first word. And it will be an interesting one as Madison will be fun, and so will Troy. If you don't think they could have lived. Good for you. I believe there is a small chance, at least for Madison. Troy a little smaller. I'm so excited to continue forward. We all know what happens next episode, and you guys will find out what I will be doing. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.