9:30 PM
Fun Kingdom

"I think this is viral," Dr. Stevens told Carol and Hershel, as she handed them each a thermometer and a bottle of alcohol in the living room of the House of the Future where Hershel had been sleeping on the couch. They were all three already wearing N95 masks from one of the park's emergency clinics. "The sooner we stop the spread, the less damage it will do. We need to quarantine and treat anyone with symptoms now. I want anyone with moderate symptoms - a fever of 99.5 to 100.3 or a moderate cough - in the Old Timey Theater. Anyone with severe symptoms – a higher fever or a bad cough or any blood in the cough – in the emergency clinic."

Patrick was already in quarantine in the emergency clinic, which had a single exam bed, two gurneys, and two spare cots they could use to cram in more people if their symptoms worsened. Dr. Stevens had given Patrick medicine to bring down his fever, forced him to drink Gatorade for hydration (the park had plenty of that still), and given him an antiviral medication that Hershel had helped her to find among the warehoused medical supplies. It was intended for animals and had been looted along with several other medicines weeks ago from a veterinary clinic, but the dosage had to be adjusted for humans.

"I'm going to go back to check on Patrick and give him an antibiotic, too."

Hershel appeared puzzled. "But you just said this was viral?"

Dr. Stevens nodded. "I'm fairly certain it is, but there are some symptoms more common of a bacterial infection. At any rate, the antibiotics will help to prevent a bacterial co-infection and maybe prevent an inflammatory response."

"Basically, we're just throwing the entire book at this thing," Hershel said.

"Yes," Dr. Stevens conceded. "And I know you're probably worried about blowing through too many of Fun Kingdom's medicines for one sickness. But Patrick is at death's door. This, whatever this is – erupted quickly. And if it spreads, it's going to be bad."

Carol dreaded the question she was about to ask. "Is it…could it be…what started all this? The disease that started all this?" They'd all be spared that. They hadn't died like the masses at the beginning, though they presumably had the disease within them.

"No, I don't think so," Dr. Stevens replied. "I treated a lot of patients at the start. The symptoms and trajectory or different. This might be a novel virus of some kind…but it's not that."

Carol nodded and got to work going door to door taking temperatures.

9:35 PM
Woodbury

Sasha cranked down the drawbridge for Rick, Tara, Rowan, Haley, and Eisenberg to cross. They were going to obscure themselves in the woods on the other side of the road opposite the gate, so that they could shoot from behind when the action began. Rick and Tara would lay prone at the edge of the forest, while Rowan and Eisenberg would use the deer blind one of the hunters had built. Haley would climb to a tree house that had been constructed before the collapse and use her compound bow and arrows to open fire through the trees.

As the drawbridge clicked into place, Tara sighed heavily. "We started by fighting nature. By toiling the earth and slaying walkers. But people are the real enemies now."

"Not the only ones," Rick said. "It was still nature that took Lori from me. At least we know these enemies are coming."

After they crossed, Sasha raised the drawbridge and joined Abraham on the fence's platform. Ladders had been placed all along the platform so soldiers could quickly take position when the time came. But for now, they were relaxing or sleeping in shifts. When the bird flew – whether later tonight or in the early morning - all would be roused to fight.

At a break table not far from the fence line, several soldiers sat playing Rummy 500. Rosita threw down a six of clubs to play off of Oscar's straight and then discarded. Tyreese drew a card as Axel joined them at the table. "Looks like we're going to have barbecue pork for dinner tomorrow," the ex-prisoner said.

"Yeah, why's that?" Oscar asked.

"Violet's gone on to greener pastures."

Rosita looked up from her hand. "What? That pig's not even full grown."

"Just keeled over and died."

"That doesn't sound safe to eat," Tyreese observed.

Axel shrugged. "The vet's looking at her now. I guess he'll know if we can. I would hate to see all that meat wasted, though." He nodded to the deck of cards. "Can y'all deal me in?"

9:40 PM
Fun Kingdom

When Carol stepped out of Glenn and Maggie's room – after checking both of them and the baby Judith who was asleep in the crib in their room – all of whom, thank God, had normal temperatures - Hershel was stepping out of the space room with all of the boys in tow.

"They're all going to quarantine," Hershel told her. Carl, Dixon, Luke, and Duane were all wearing Fun Kingdom bandanas over the faces now, and Carl was coughing on and off into his. Carol took a step back. Patrick had been in their room, planning to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor, and had been playing with them all day, so it wasn't a huge surprise, but all of them, so suddenly? And Sophia had spent the day with Patrick, too.

"Come on," Dixon told the boys. "Let's go."

As they went down the ramp, Carol hastened to her daughter's room to take Sophia and Mika's temperatures. She sat anxiously on the edge of Sophia's bed and waited for the electric thermometer to beep. She sighed with relief when the temperature read 98.9. Not high enough for quarantine. Mika's was fine, too.

"Is Patrick going to be okay?" Sophia asked.

"I'm praying he will be," was all Carol could promise her.

9:45 PM
The Kingdom

Tiki torches, along with the funeral pyre of dozens of Savior's burning bodies, lit the Kingdom as the sad work of the night was done. The six surrendered Saviors were locked in the principal's office with a guard out front. Their fates would be decided later. Hammers pounded as the torn-open front gate was replaced to guard against the entrance of walkers. Arrows wooshed from the fence's platform as the archers killed walkers drawn by the flames and the sounds of hammering and the earlier gunshots.

The wounded cried in pain as they were treated in the infirmary by Dana, the community's doctor, and Kurt, the Kingdom's emergency medic. The bodies of the Kingdom's dead were wrapped in sheets and lined up for later burial. The sobs of mourners filled the air, weeping even as they worked. Shovels shinked into earth as graves were dug in the Kingdom's cemetery, which, until tonight, had housed only the cross of Benjamin and Henry's father.

As Gavin helped with the construction at the gate, ignoring the ache from the shrapnel that had recently been removed from his leg, he could feel the hard and judging eyes of the Kingdom's citizens upon him, those who had lost friends or family because of the attack his choices had helped to bring down upon them. If they didn't judge him for rebelling and helping to ignite this battle, then they judged him for the role he had once played extorting them.

"My brother Colton is dead because of you," the man to his right muttered as he drove a nail into a plank. Kevin was his name, Gavin knew. He was a food distributor and a launderer and no solider. He'd been cowering in the basement when it all went down.

"And Richard," said the woman to Gavin's left, "one of the bravest men I've known."

"And Alvaro," the man continued his roll call of the dead. "And Benjamin's been shot. Who knows if he'll even live? He's only seventeen."

Gavin swallowed. The boy he'd betrayed Negan to help save might die anyway. The Kingdom would soon be forever free of the Saviors' heel – if Shane succeeded at the Sanctuary, if Woodbury toppled Simon - but at what cost? If Gavin had simply followed Negan's orders, instead of orchestrating Negan's assassination, how many more people would be alive today? He'd been stuck between Scylla and Charybdis, Ezekiel was right about that, but maybe he'd sailed into the worst of the two monsters.

"Enough," Dianne said firmly from the fence as she reloaded her bow in a pause between walkers emerging from the forest into the school's parking lot. She looked down at Kevin. "Gavin warned us and he fought to defend us. He's lost men, too. Over half his fighters."

Kevin fell silent but hammered harder. Gavin nodded his appreciation to Dianne, who returned her attention to the parking lot and drew back her string.

Gavin had lost men tonight, men he'd respected. Mark, who had left Amber a young widow. Gomez, who had left his sister, the outpost's former cook, behind. Quan, who left a grieving wife, the outpost's former maid. Jake, who had always been his loyal right hand at the outpost. Alden was still alive, and DJ, and Dwight. Dwight was in the infirmary now, with shrapnel still being dug bit by bit from a cheek that would be forever deformed. And Jennifer, Frankie, Sherry, Amber, and his civilian outpost workers had been kept safe in the basement.

But where they would all go from here, when the night was over and the morning sun rose again, Gavin didn't know.

10:25 PM
Fun Kingdom

Carol mounted the stairs of the castle tower slides. Daryl lowered the night vision binoculars and looked at warily at the mask on her face and the thermometer in her hand. "Hell's going on? Seen people moving around the park, out of the Royal Banquet and the house."

"Viral outbreak. We're quarantining anyone with a temperature. Patrick's in very bad shape. Carl's getting worse, too. Both are in the infirmary now. Dixon, Luke, and Duane are all in quarantine along with a dozen people from Woodbury."

"Soph?" he asked anxiously. "And Mika?"

"Eileen and her baby were the only other ones in the house running fevers. They're in quarantine now. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to who's developed symptoms and who hasn't. Dr. Stevens thinks some people must have more of a natural susceptibility, but we're all vulnerable the longer and more directly we're exposed. She hopes the quarantine will stop the spread. I need to take your temperature, too."

"'M fine."

She pressed the button on the thermometer and it beeped. "Just stick it under your tongue."

"Told ya. Feel fine."

"I can stick it somewhere else if you don't cooperate, Pookie."

He rolled his eyes and took the thermometer from her and shoved it under his tongue. When it beeped, she removed it, looked at the numbers, and frowned. She put a hand to the back of his forehead.

"I gotta fever?" he asked nervously.

"100.3," she answered. "Any cough?"

"Couple…maybe few times while I been standin' watch. 'S just the pollen. 'S March."

Carol grimaced. It wasn't just the pollen, and she knew it. "Come on, Pookie," she said. "We have to get you in quarantine." And then she needed to scrub her hands, which had just touched him. And then she need to fold those hands in desperate prayer for the boys in the infirmary and the others in quarantine.