A/N: hey everyone (or no one xD) thought a second chapter was well deserved as I managed to write it quickly. Sad to see Beth go but such is a the nature of the show. Unfortunately we got more heartbreak here in this one which covers the events of s5 e9 and i completely forgot this existed as an episode, but I watch and write alongside and it was heartbreaking. Also took 2 long hours to write!

Thanks for the fave and follow from LeeteukkieLover! Can I tease an opinion out of you? But honestly this chapter is completely dedicated to you!

Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead etc etc etc.

Next chapter hopefully up by Friday if not Sunday. Enjoy this one!

We had been on the road a while. It was 3 weeks after the events of Atlanta. We buried Beth, we mourned for her like the rest of our fallen friends.

Noah talked about a town that he and Beth were going to, outside Richmond Virginia. An alleged survivors colony where hopefully it would be the last trip we'd have to take.

That's what Rick said anyways, I didn't have much hope that there would be much left but if we had each other, maybe. Just maybe we'd make it through.

"How far out?" Rick's voice snapped me out of sleep as I opened my eyes, they were pressed against a brown shirt. One of his hands were stroking my hair gently.

"Five miles." Noah replied.

I lifted my head up from Rick's shoulders and rubbed my eyes looking at the forest surrounding the roads. Tyreese drove the car so smoothly, almost like a lullaby pushing me back into sleep.

"Hey, Carol." His voice echoed into the walkie.

"I'm here."

"We're halfway there, just wanted to check the range." His voice spoke softly into the walkie.

He gave me a short smile as I turned to face him, it didn't quite reach his eyes. I leaned forwards and pressed a kiss to his cheek sitting up and stretching.

"Everybody's holding tight. We made it 500 miles, maybe this can be the easy part."

"God knows it's due. Give us 20 mins to check in." Rick replied.

"if we don't hear from you we'll come looking."

"Copy that."

I held my hand out for the walkie as Rick dropped it in my hand questioningly.

"Hey Carol it's Pol, could you kindly let Sasha know that she's about to owe me her leather jacket."

Michonne was smirking from the seat next to me as the others snorted in amusement. We waited a minute before the sound of static came through.

"Message received and Sasha would like me to tell you that it's there's no way you could've predicted us reaching here in 17 days and that it's just dumb luck." Carol sniggered.

"Copy that Carol, but tell Sasha to stop being a sore loser and that she should never bet against me." I smirked into the walkie.

Rick was giving me a half amused smile, I turned around and even Glenn was smiling.

I brought my head back to Rick's shoulder as he wrapped his arm around me bringing me into his chest.

Tyreese and Noah were talking but their voices faded into the background.

"I hope this is it Rick." I whispered into his chest.

"Because I don't know how much more loss I can handle." I clenched my fist into his shirt, stopping the tears from falling.

"Me too Pol." He kissed my hair.

"Two miles." Noah called out.

"Okay, pull over into the woods here, we'll go on foot." Rick instructed Tyreese who stopped the car.

I waited for Michonne and Rick to get out the car. He held his arms out to me as I rolled my eyes.

"I told you I can-" he dragged me from the car and picked me up. I held my arms around his neck and he brought me down to the ground, eyes trained on me the entire time.

"Walk." I finished glancing up at him, his blue eye gazing into my own.

"I know." He nodded, brushing my hair back as he began walking off.

I smiled at his back, forgetting how sweet and considerate he was. The hardened shell Rick liked to portray on the outside, the leader. That wasn't him at all, this was.

"Urgh how are you so happy after 17 days on the road." Michonne stretched her arms coming up beside me following my gaze.

"I'm happy you're happy." She nudged me, smiling.

"Michonne, I just haven't been in so long. And he makes me happy." We followed Tyreese, Noah and Glenn who had disappeared into the clearing.

"In this shitty shitty world. I never thought I'd be happy."

"You might be the only one." She scoffed holding a branch back for me to pass through.

"Well you and Rick. You guys are perfect for each other." She said.

"Are you not happy?" I looked up at her as she shrugged it off with a smile.

"I'm okay."

...

We all trudged along the forest following Noah, coming across a few walkers. We came across wires wrapped round the trees, creating some sort of barrier to anyone trying to pass through.

"Your people do this?" Michonne looked to Noah.

"Wanted to. They must have." He replied.

We pulled out our machetes just in case and played a game of limbo, weaving inbetween the sharp metal wires.

Once we passed through Noah was sporting blood on his forehead.

"You alright?" Rick asked.

"Yeah." He shrugged.

"Pol." Rick gestured for me to come over.

"What? You gonna make me walk all the way over there Grimes?" I put my hands on my hips.

Rick sighed walking over, a playful glint in his eyes. He (literally) swept me off my feet as I yelped in surprise and brought me to where Noah was standing. He placed me back down on the ground as I felt slightly disoriented.

Noah was looking at us with amusement.

"I was kidding you know." I brushed my clothes down, feigning annoyance at our leader. Inside I swooned and enjoyed it far too much when he carried me.

He shook his head and wrapped a hand around my head placing a kiss on my forehead.

I inspected Noah's face, which was bleeding along the top.

"Give it to me straight doc." He deadpanned.

"You'll live kid." I smirked as I shoved him forwards.

We continued walking through the forest as the sun rose higher in the sky.

"They have spotters? Snipers?" Rick asked Noah, looking troubled.

"We built a perch on a truck. Sometimes it's out front."

We came across to a small clearing in the woods where we met s main road. Just on the other side stood rusty metal walls with a tall spiked gate and an empty truck.

"Not today." Glenn gestured to the emptiness.

Sending something off we walked towards the entrance of the town. It was eerily quiet. Noah was ahead of us all, his face in a slight panic as he banged against the gate.

"You hear that?" Noah asked.

"Just wait " Glenn climbed to peek over the wall shaking his head he looked back to us.

My heart sank. There was no one there. We scrambled over the wall after Noah who was now looking distressed.

We travelled 17 days for this. It was an empty estate, there was furniture littered along the footpath. Burnt houses stood.

"Noah," I called after the kid who was limping away.

He broke into a run now as we chased after him.

"Noah!" Rick shouted.

There were dead bodies on the ground, a walker stumbling towards us. Noah broke down and fell to the ground, head in his hands sobbing.

I placed my machete down on the ground and joined him wrapping my arms around his huddled form.

"Shh," I rubbed my hand along his back, trying to fight away my own tears.

There was nothing here for us.

"Noah you're with us now. It'll be alright." I kept my voice from shaking.

I released Noah, sitting beside him.

"I'll get him." Michonne's voice was breaking as she follows the walker.

Rick kneeled down in front of us. My watery eyes met his hardened face.

"I'm sorry Noah. I truly am." He said solemnly, tapping him on the shoulder.

"Do you want me to sit with you?" I asked him tentatively, he nodded. His sobs subsided as we sat in silence.

"We should see if there's anything we can use and head back." Rick stood up talking to Michonne.

"Then what?" Michonne asked walking away.

"We could make a quick sweep." Glenn stated.

I looked up at Tyreese's worried face.

"Ty, you stay with him yeah?" I suggested as he nodded with relief.

I squeezed Noah's shoulder before standing up and walking over to Rick. Glenn and Michonne went off to search the rest of the town.

"Carol, you copy?" Rick spoke into the walkie.

"We're here."

"We made it. It's gone." Rick's voice broke on the last word, as he shoved the walkie back.

I placed my hand on his cheeks, forcing him to look at me. The emotion was coming through the cracks, his eyes were stormy and troubled as they looked into mine.

He nodded and placed a hand on mine. I took my hands off his face and held out a hand. He grasped it with his own as we followed Michonne and Glenn.

We were scavenging in the garage of an old house, looking for anything to use, any food or supplies we could take.

I walked over to Michonne who stomped through a glass case, the anger evident on her face.

"Michonne,"

"Clean shirt." She shrugged picking the glass out of it.

"Yeah and not much else." I sighed looking around.

"You're not too surprised." She stated.

"I had hope there would be something. But I'm not surprised that there's nothing here. More of our shitty luck." A sudden wave of anger tore through me as I punched the car.

I regretted the action immediately, holding my fist from the pain shooting through my hand. The knuckles were bloody and red, my hand shaking.

Rick was by my side instantly picking up the hand gingerly. He looked at me disapprovingly then with sympathy. I couldn't look at him, not with the tears pricking at my eyes and the embarrassment front doing something so stupid.

He bent down to kiss the knuckles, ripping the bottom of his shirt and began wrapping it around my hand.

"I don't know if I thought it would still be here." Rick spoke to me and Glenn.

"But Beth wanted to get him here. She wanted to get him back home. This was for her. And it could've been for us too." He finished wrapping the cloth and tied it up kissing my hand again.

"And it's okay to not be okay about it." He looked between me, Michonne and Glenn.

I met his eyes and nodded. His talk about Beth caused me to sober up.

"It still sucks." I kicked the ground looking up at Rick.

"Yeah, it does." Glenn squeezed my hand.

"I was thinking about that guy back at Terminus. In the storage container. How I made that guy stop." Glenn spoke directly to Rick.

I finished embedding my machete into another straggling walker and listened to the conversation. I had rarely heard any talk of Terminus. For good reason, the group never mentioned it.

"After the prison on my trip, I got Maggie back. Things went okay." Glenn begun.

"Losing Washington. Losing Beth, right after just finding out she's alive. I hadn't caught up with you yet." He bent down to pick up a baseball bat.

"If it were now. I wouldn't make us stop for this, we'd run right by and I would've shot that woman dead." Glenn emphasised.

"We need to stop. You can be out here too long." Michonne spoke loudly as Rick looked down.

And I never thought truer words had been spoken. We had been out here too long.

"Everyone split up and gather what you can from the houses, don't wander too far." He instructed.

I walked off to a house opposite the street, machete ready in my hands I knocked on the door. Hearing no sounds of movement, I opened it and was met with the smell of decaying corpses but it was one I was used to.

I walked through the small house, pictures of the happy family lined the walls. I walked into the kitchen and opened the cupboard. There were some canned foods, seemed like they stocked up. Thankful to whoever's house I was trespassing, I through them into the black binliner.

I found the stairs and walked up slowly, there were two bedrooms. I opened one where half a Walker's body was growling softly on the ground. It was a little boy.

The tears fell now as I took the machete and twisted it upwards from the neck into the head. The sobs quietly wracked through my body and I hastily tried to wipe the tears away.

This could still be a home. But would it be too painful for Noah? Was it too infested with Walkers? So was the prison at one point and the group had cleared that out.

I grabbed whatever clothes I could find until I found a fancy box on a bottom shelf. Dropping down to my knees I pulled it out, fingering the lilac bow seemingly untouched.

I lifted the lid off which revealed a beautiful white dress inside. Taking it out it was covered in lace and tulle.

This was a wedding dress. Now you might mock me but I seriously considered packing it with the other clothes. Without a second thought I put it in the box and shoved it into the binliner.

Somewhere someday we were gonna find a proper home and someone from our group was going to get married. Maybe Abraham and Rosita. I laughed at that. Maybe me and-

No. No way I scoffed. But I still didn't have the guts to put it back. I walked back down the stairs and out of the house, meeting Michonne, Rick and Glenn who were holding their own binliners.

Michonne looked in better spirits as she strided over to Rick.

"We could put some of the garage doors together agains the break. Park a car against them until we can brick it back up." She suggested.

Glenn and Rick both looked unconvinced but I was considering her suggestion.

"It could work." Michonne said firmly.

"It could." I nodded.

"But, we're surrounded by forest. No way to see any threats." I said sadly.

"Whoever and whatever could be on top of us without even knowing it." Rick added as we began walking back towards Noah and Tyreese.

"That's what happened to us." Glenn spoke.

"We could start taking down the trees. We use them to build the walls up." Michonne didn't give up.

I looked back at Rick who sighed.

"Look," Michonne walked off pass the break in the wall and into a small clearing.

There were half bodies and limbs littered at the entrance as she stopped talking. She stood for a while, talking in the scene and the weakness in the walls.

"Washington." She said finally.

"Eugene lied about a cure, but he thought of Washington for a reason." Michonne said.

"But he was lying." Glenn rebutted.

"Maybe he thought if there was anywhere we had a chance. It would be Washington." Realisation dawning on me as I spoke. I echoed Michonne's train of thought.

"We're close. What if there are people there? Huh? What if it's someplace we can be safe? We're 100 miles away, it's a possibility, a chance. Instead of just being out here. Instead of just making it. Because right now, this is what making it looks like." Her voice breaking.

"Don't you want, one more day with a chance?" She posed the question to Rick.

"Rick," I walked up to stand in front of him.

"This is a chance. What else do we have to do but take chances? I agree with Michonne." I said.

"We should go." Rick said as the sounds of snarling came towards us.

My hope dwindled and my heart sank at his words.

"It's 100 miles. We should go to Washington." He finished in a softer tone.

I looked up at him hopeful and threw my arms around his neck, burying my face into his chest.

"Thank you." I pulled apart as Rick smiled. Michonne and Glenn both looked hopeful.

"Rick! Pol! Glenn! Michonne!" Noah's cries for help echoed.

We ran as fast as we could back inside the estate. We found two walkers wrestlers to get to Noah who was hiding below a broken fence.

"Hold on Noah!" I pulled out the machete and sliced into the head of one of them, Rick taking down the other.

"Are you okay? Are you bit?" I helped him stand up as he shook his head.

"It's Tyreese. My house, he's been bit."

His words struck me like a blow to the stomach and I felt like I couldn't move. But Michonne pulled me along as we ran to where Tyreese was.

We approached the house and ran inside racing up the stairs.

Tyreese was slumped against a wall passed out. I checked his forehead, which was a burning fever. Checking his pupils were dilated. There was a sizable unmistakable walker bite on his arm and his hand was covered in blood.

"Okay," I got into medical mode.

"We need to cut his arm now." I said firmly as the 3 nodded.

"Michonne, I need your katana." She looked at me incredulously before wordlessly handing over her weapon.

"Rick hold his arm out straight now."

"Glenn when I cut, you wrap this around the arm straight away otherwise he'll bleed out."

"Ready?"

"Now!" Rick shouted as I sliced the katana through Tyreese's arm. The blood splattered into Rick's face.

Glenn was there immediately wrapping the cloth around the stump of the arm. Tyreese wasn't even conscious which worried me more.

Glenn and Rick through his arms over their shoulders as I held my machete out we ran out of the house and through the street.

We reached the gate where walkers were trying to push through the gap.

Noah held Tyreese as the four of us opened the gate to let the walkers through. We sliced through them, ensuring none got to Tyreese, their head rolling.

Rick was firing his gun off at them, not caring for the noise as we destroyed the last of them.

We ran over to Tyreese who was in and out fo consciousness. Rick and Glenn continued supporting him as we ran it towards our trucks.

"Stay with us Ty!" I shouted back as we kanoivred him over the metal lines.

"Come on man open your eyes." Noah begged.

"You gotta hold on man. Hold on!" Rick screamed at him.

We reached the car and got in as Rick threw the walkie to me.

"Carol we got to the car but we need to cauterise the wound and wrap it properly." I spoke handing it back to him.

"Keep Sasha and Carl away, they don't need to see this!" Rick barked into the walkie.

I jumped into the front seat as he struggled to start the car. The wheels struggled in the mud and I saw the panic on his face.

"Rick, push down on the clutch firmly then release slowly and rev." I said firmly as he nodded.

"Come on come on." He muttered as the car lurched forward, crashing into the back of another.

We drove out of the woods and onto the road back towards the highway. I looked back at Tyreese whose eyes were fixed out of the window.

"Ty," I said trying to get his attention but he didn't even register my voice.

I reached back to feel his pulse, it was weak and thready at best. He wasn't going to make it.

"What's the situation?" Rick took his eyes off the road for a moment to look.

I shook my head glumly as his jaw clenched. We were too late to amputate the limb not like with Hershel.

Hershel. He would've known what to do. I was a poor substitute. I closed my eyes and let the tears roll down my cheeks, sending a silent prayer that Tyreese's death was easy.

I looked in the back mirror and saw a small smile on his face. His eyes glazed over as he slumped back into the seat.

"Rest well friend." I whispered.

...

"We look not at what can be seen, but we look at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary. And what cannot be seen, is eternal." Father Gabriel spoke.

We buried Tyreese by a beautiful willow tree. I picked up the spade and placed some dirt over the grave, as we all had done. The whole group stood around, as the priest spoke.

I passed the spade to Daryl who finally gave it to Sasha, her face drowning in grief. She had lost so much.

I took Judith from Carl and held her to my chest tightly. Another member of our family had died. Sasha seems in a trance as she stumbled with the spade and dropped it to the ground, walking away.

I held the last piece of Tyreese in my hand. His hat. Looping it around the makeshift cross with Judith in my arms I stepped back and smiled slightly.

"Much better."

A/N: sad I know! Hope you liked it.