Azuraskye21: Of course! ^_^
Dun Dun Dun...
Even though they'd decided to go to Terminus, it had taken them longer than they cared to admit due to Rick's injuries. He and Merle had somewhat made peace with each other, Merle offering Rick a decent walking stick to help take some of the weight off his sore ankle. They'd made camp in the woods, off the tracks for a while so they weren't completely out in the open, planning on staying a night or two to let Rick heal. In the morning, they heated a couple of their remaining cans of food and passed them around. Sophia and Merle had gotten a couple squirrel the five split, but it wasn't enough to actually fill their stomachs, just hold them over. As Carl woofed down his food, Rick looked at him with a worried expression.
"How hungry are you, scale of one to ten?" he asked the boy.
"Fifteen," Carl said.
"Twenty eight," Michonne replied.
"Maybe seventeen?" Sophia thought out loud.
"I could travel to the moon and back," Merle joked.
"Yeah," Rick chuckled as they all shared a smile. "Well, it's been a while. Did you guys check the snares?"
"Left it to you, Friendly," Merle said.
"Alright, well, I'm gonna go check the snares then."
"Can I come?" Carl asked.
"Well, how else are you gonna learn?" Rick responded, earning a wide smile from Carl. As he put the fire out, he looked to Michonne. "Hey, you too," he told her, making her roll her eyes but grab her katana nonetheless. "You two gonna be alright?"
"Hell yeah," Merle told him. "Gonna go out, do some huntin' for more'n a damn squirrel. See what we can find. Maybe see if those bastards are still on our trail."
"Alright, you know that road a few miles up by the tracks? Meet us up there tomorrow. We'll wait by the first car we see," Rick told him when Merle nodded his head.
"Sounds like a plan. Take care, Friendly."
"Yeah, you too. We'll wait until morning. If you aren't there by then, we'll movin' on. You know where we're goin'."
"Alright. See you tonight," Merle said before ushering Sophia out into the woods, Carl and Michonne following Rick the other way.
"We're close now, right?" Carl asked as they walked through the woods.
"To Terminus? Yeah, we're close," Rick said.
"When we get there, are we gonna tell them?"
"Tell them what?" Michonne asked.
"Everything that's happened to us. All the stuff we've done. The people we've lost. Are we gonna tell them the truth?"
"We're gonna tell them who we are," Rick said plainly.
"But how do you that? I mean...who are we?" Carl asked.
A walker coming upon them cut off Rick and Michonne from answering, the three instead preparing by Rick and Carl pulling out their guns and Michonne unsheathing her sword. There was no fear in any of them as they stalked up to the walker, Michonne killing it with a single swing of her sword before they continued on their way. It was only a short time later that they came across the first snare.
"There you go!" Rick said as he spotted the rabbit. "It's a small one, but it'll do. So, this is just a simple slipknot. Tie one on both ends, then you tighten one end to a branch. Now, you see how the ground here is sort of like a funnel shape?"
"It's a trail?" Michonne asked.
"That's right," Rick told her. "Carl, you already know this from Ani and Merle. That's where you want to set the noose. Then you hide it in leaves and put sticks all around it so animals going by have to run this way. Right into the trap."
He was demonstrating how the trap worked on his wrist when a cry for help sounded from somewhere close by. While Michonne and Rick stood still, Carl took off after the cries. Running as fast he could, he ignored his dad's calls for him to stop and ran towards whoever was begging for help. Coming up to the tree line, he witnessed a man becoming surrounded by walkers. He aimed his gun, planning on taking the man out as there was little he could actually do to help with the number of walkers surrounding him. Before he could take the shot, though, his dad came up behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist, hauling back to the safety of the trees.
"We can't help him," Rick told him.
"We could give mercy!" Carl said, watching as the man's face was torn into and the man fell, still screaming as he was torn into.
"We have to go," Michonne said as one walker and then another noticed their presence.
Rick pulled Carl with him as the three took off through the woods. Pushing him ahead, Rick took place behind him and Michonne as they fled towards the tracks. They ended up stopping short just as they reached them due to another group of walkers were on the tracks eating something. Taking point, Rick grabbed his gun by the barrel and used it as a bludgeon to break the skulls of the walkers he could reach as Michonne struck down the rest. Carl had the gun Rick had stolen from the people who took over the house they'd been at, but no knife, so stayed back and let them handle things while keeping an eye on the horde coming up from behind. As the last walker in front of them fell, Rick ushered them faster, in the end taking them off the tracks completely. They were close enough to the meeting point with Merle that they decided to go there early.
"Thought maybe there'd be some houses up this way," Michonne commented as they walked further down the road than they'd expected to. "Maybe a store. There's gotta be some food around here somewhere."
"Merle and Sophia will be meeting up with us tomorrow. They're bound to have somethin'," Rick offered.
"Hey, look," Carl said, pointing ahead. "First vehicle on the road, right?"
"That's right," Rick agreed. "We'll b
Michonne went and dealt with the decaying walker lying on the ground on the side of the truck while Carl and Rick checked the inside. Even though there was nothing in it of use, it would at least be a shelter for the night. Rick left to get firewood as Carl prepped the rabbit from earlier. They had left their cans in camp, so they literally only had the rabbit to eat, and even less water. As night fell, Rick ushered Carl into the cab of the truck to get some rest while he and Michonne sat up talking and waiting for Sophia and Merle to return.
"That was one small rabbit," he commented to the woman sitting beside him as they watched the fire.
"It was something," Michonne gave. "Got to hand it to the thing. It travelled well."
"Have you noticed?" he asked. "That's all we talk about anymore, food. I forgot what this feels like."
"Me too," Michonne admitted. "I hope we're able to forget again soon."
"We're close," Rick assured her. "Just gotta make it through another day. If folks there are taking people in, they have to be strong. They have to have a system."
"I wonder if the whole thing is legit," Michonne admitted.
If Rick was going to answer, it was cut off by the sound of breaking branches. They both went on high alert as Rick stood, wondering if it was Sophia and Merle, but when no other sounds were made, he bent back down at the knee and continued speaking to Michonne.
"We let people in."
"We did," she agreed. "So did the Governor."
"Yeah, it's always the same, isn't it?" Rick admitted. "We don't get to know until we know. Maybe this place isn't even there anymore."
"Oh, dearie me," Joe said as he placed the barrel of his pistol to Rick's head. "You screwed up, asshole. You hear me? You screwed up."
Another man held a pistol to Michonne as seven more emerged from the trees, one leering at the inside of the truck where Carl was sleeping. He was the only one not holding a weapon on Rick and Michonne, much more interested in Carl than he was in the situation at hand with the others. Rick couldn't help but look ahead of him hard as he thought about how he was going to get his son and Michonne out of this situation and wondering if Merle and Sophia were going to show up in the morning to find their corpses. If they were insanely lucky, they'd show up sometime soon and help to even the odds. Three against nine was long odds, especially without weapons.
"Today is the day of reckoning, sir. Restitution. A balancing of the whole damn universe," Joe said as the man by the truck banged on the window to wake Carl up and then showed him the knife he was carrying. "Shit, and I was thinking of turning in for the night on New Year's Eve," he chuckled. "Now who's gonna count down the ball dropper with me, huh? Ten Mississippi. Nine Mississippi. Eight Mississippi."
"Joe!" Daryl's voice sounded from the other side of the truck. Rick and Michonne looked at him in shock as he walked up. "Hold up."
"You're stopping me on eight, Daryl," Joe chastised as Daryl walked closer, trying to figure out how they were going to get out of this mess.
"Just hold up," he said.
"This is the guy that killed Lou, so we got nothin' to talk about," one of the other men said.
"The thing about nowadays is we got nothin' but time," Joe countered. "Say your piece, Daryl."
"These people," he said quietly while staring Joe in the eye. "You're gonna let 'em go. These are good people."
"Now, I think Lou would have to disagree with you on that. I'll, of course, have to speak for him and all that 'cause your friend here strangled him in the bathroom."
"You want blood, I get it," Daryl said as he dropped his bow and bag, offering himself as a substitute. "Take it from me, man. Come on."
"This man killed our friend," Joe said. "You say he's good people. See, now that right there is...is...is a lie! It's a lie!" he yelled as one of the men hit Daryl with the butt of his gun. As the men began beating him, Joe yelled, "Teach him fellas! Teach him all the way!"
As they began to beat Daryl, the man tormenting Carl opened the truck's door and dragged him out. He started touching him as Rick shouted for him Carl to be left alone, feeling the rage boil inside him as he watched the man and his son. With Michonne being promised her turn was coming, Rick's only option left was to beg.
"It was me!" he cried. "It was just me!"
"See, now, that's rights. That's not some damn lie," Joe told him. "We can settle this, we're reasonable men. First, we're going to beat Daryl to death. Then we'll have the girl. Then the boy. Then I'm gonna shoot you and then we'll be square."
Carl was pushed down to the ground as the fat man got on top of him. That was about as far as he got as an arrow was embedded in his shoulder not a moment later before two of the men beating Daryl were shot. With the distraction that caused, Rick head butted Joe, causing him to fire his weapon. Even with the ringing in his ears, Rick was able to see as the man fell, another bolt finding its way through his eye.
There were five men left now, the one beside Michonne and the four still by Daryl. Two more gun shots fired out and two of the men dropped, Michonne quickly retrieving her sword and decapitating another of the men as Daryl punched one of the men beating him away. Rick shot that man as Michonne stabbed the last remaining man in the chest. The man with the arrow in his shoulder begged and pleaded for his life, threatening to kill Carl if they didn't let him leave. That didn't deter Rick as he marched up to the man who all but cowered and raised his hands in surrender and gutted him, literally ripping his stomach open with his knife and stabbing over and over again until he was well and truly bloody.
~x~
"Come on, girly, let's go," Merle said, handing the girl her bow as he picked up his rifle. "Let's see how stiff that shoulder still is. Healin' up well, but gotta get back to usin' your bow sooner rather than later."
"Right!" Sophia said with conviction as she followed him into the woods. "I don't want to be rusty when we get Ani back."
"Damn straight, girl."
"Do you think we'll find her?"
"Didn't you just say when we get her back?" he deadpanned, turning to the girl.
"No, I meant, we, you and me. Us. Do you think we'll be the ones to find her?"
"Who knows, girly? Who knows?" he said, turning back around and looking at the forest floor. "Let's go. See if we can't find us a trail."
They walked in silence, passing up a few squirrels along the way while looking for a decent trail to follow. Sophia held her bow at the ready while Merle lead them through the woods. It was peaceful for both of them and reminded them of when they'd go hunting at the prison. Before long, Sophia whistled to Merle and indicated the ground for him to check. Smiling big, he ruffled her hair and praised her.
"Good spot, girly. Little small, but that's definitely a deer!" Merle said excitedly. "It'll feed us a couple days, anyway."
They followed the tracks for about an hour before they simultaneously halted, Sophia dropping down to one knee as Merle slightly hid behind a tree. Standing about a hundred feet away, a small doe was munching on the greens the forest floor had to offer. Nudging her with his stump, Merle gave the go ahead for Sophia to take the shot. Adjusting her aim and lining up the sights, Sophia squeezed the trigger after preparing for the knock-back. Thankful she hadn't given herself another black eye by having her grip wrong, she smiled at Merle in triumph after the deer crumpled. Walking up to it, Merle couldn't help but whistle out his impress.
"Damn, girly! When did you become a sharpshooter?" he asked Sophia as her removed the arrow from the thing's eyes, the arrow having gone through one and out the other.
"I have you to thank, Pops! You're the one who taught me. Though, why didn't Ani?"
"Honestly?" Merle asked as he mused it over himself. "Prolly to keep both of us out of trouble. Knew I had a soft spot for kids and taught Daryl most everythin' he knows. Knew you needed somethin' to do with your ma always bein' on the fritz. What's that about anyways? You know?"
Sophia got really quiet, the excitement about the deer completely forgotten. "Pops?"
"Yeah?"
"Your dad was mean. He beat on you and Daryl, right? Did he beat on your momma too?"
"That he did," Merle admitted. "Used to pound on her all the time. I mighta said a lot of really stupid shit when I was younger, before I came to know Ani's past. Never thought much about women 'cause of how my daddy treated my mom and she just stayed. But that is one thing I will never do. Hit a woman. Aside from once with Ani, and damn if I don't gotta apologize to her for that yet. Deserved that beatin' she gave me for doin' that. Now, where's this comin' from?"
"Were you wanted?"
"Come again?"
"Did both your parents want you? As in, you know, have you, when you were a baby?"
"As far as I know."
"I don't think I was," Sophia admitted quietly as they walked through the woods, back towards their camp.
"Now why in the world would you say somethin' like that?" Merle asked, shocked at the little girl's line of thinking.
"Because dad always told me mom never wanted me, he forced her to have me and that she'd resent me someday. And now, I mean, she doesn't want me now that she has Mika and Lizzie, so he was right, wasn't he?"
"Now you listen to me, Phia," Merle told her in a stern voice, stopping them both and making her look at him. "You don't listen to a word the past tells you. You don't even look back. Only look ahead. Whatever happened in the past happened. You can't change it, you can't stop it. Somethin' Ani helped me see. But you look ahead? Nothin' but possibilities around every corner. So you look ahead. Not behind. And whatever the truth about your mother be, you'll always have your Pops. Now, let's get goin'. We got mouths to feed."
They walked in silence until they reached the camp around high noon. No one was there, and it looked almost as if it had been abandoned, the things that had once been neatly placed strewn about with the walker warnings torn down. Collecting what little was left in the area, he and Sophia headed straight for the rendezvous point he and Rick had agreed on. It was already nearing night by the time they found the road. Merle urged Sophia on, finding a number of non-walker tracks in the woods leading to the roads, and they weren't Rick's or Michonne's. They heard the commotion long before seeing it, Merle motioning with his hand as he left the deer in a tree hopefully just out of walker reach if they even noticed it. Splitting up, Sophia took the left side of the road while Merle took the right. Sophia held her bow at the ready while Merle held his rifle.
Even as they lost sight of one another, they counted in their heads to sixty, something Merle had trained Sophia in as a military tactic for just such a situation. At one, she took aim at the man that was on top of Carl and fired. At the same time, on the opposite side of the road, Merle took aim and consecutively fired on two of the men in a group beating a man against the truck. Firing again, he killed the man beside Michonne and one of the others as he watch Rick headbutt the man behind him, a gunshot ringing out and making Merle worry whether one of theirs had been wounded. Sophia took Rick's headbutt distraction as a means to take aim and fire once again. The ensuing chaos Rick and Michonne left in their wake was worthy of everything they'd been through.
"Well I'll be damned!" Merle said as he emerged from the woods behind Daryl, Sophia from near Carl.
"Are you okay?" Sophia asked Carl as she helped him up and hugged him, Michonne coming over to hug the children too.
Carl said nothing, just stared at the body of the man that had been trying to grope him, horrified and traumatized by what had transpired and what he'd seen his father do. Merle walked up to Daryl and checked on him, making sure he was alright before clasping the boy around the shoulders and giving him a good squeeze. Daryl, for everything in him, couldn't stop the sob that came from him as he broke down in his brother's arms, throwing his arms around the older man. He was ready to die for his friends, ready to sacrifice his life and any chance to see Ania again and for the first time ever, when he needed him, Merle actually showed up.
"Now, now, Darlyina, you're fine," Merle said as he patted his brother's back a bit awkwardly. "Let me go get the deer little miss hunter brought down and we can get outta here. Pretty sure these are the last of those pricks."
"They are," Daryl said as he released his brother and pulling out the dagger as Michonne ushered the kids inside the truck, Carl clutching tightly to Sophia's hand. "Ania, she, they said she might've been with y'all. Have you...have..."
"Sorry, little brother. We ain't seen her since she told me to get Phia outta there back at the prison after she'd been shot. Phia, not Ani. Far as I know, Ani was fine when we skedaddled out of Dodge," he said handing Rick some water and a rag. "Clean yourself up a bit 'fore you scare the kids."
"She was headin' this way, they thought, until last night. Those two," Daryl said, pointing at the corpses of Jacob and Elliot, "they chased her a different direction. I didn't know what they were, not really. Not 'til last night. Wasn't sure when to lit out."
"How'd you wind up with them?" Rick asked from beside him as Merle walked down the road to retrieve their hunt.
"I was with Beth. We got out together. I was with her for a while," Daryl said, looking down at his hands that were folded on his knees.
"Is she dead?"
"She was just gone," he admitted, a pained expression on his face. "After that, that's when they found me. I mean, I knew they were bad, but they had a code, and they were chasin' some wild child. Thought it might be Ania, thought I might be able to find her. Then found out they were chasin' a guy with a couple of kids when one'd already said somethin' about little ones and I had to make a choice. Last night, they said they spotted him. I was hangin' back, gonna leave to look for Ania. But I stayed. That's when I saw it was you three. Right when you saw me. I thought I knew what they could do, but I didn't think..."
"It's not on you, Daryl," Rick told him. "Hey," he said when Daryl refused to look at him. "It's not on you. You bein' back with us here, now, that's everythin'. You're my brother," he said when Daryl still refused to speak.
Daryl looked at him then, shocked at the revelation, especially after last night. He closed his eyes and sighed, leaning his head back before speaking again, "Hey, what you did last night..." he paused, "anybody would have done that."
"No, not that," Rick denied.
"Somethin' happened. That ain't you."
"Daryl, you saw what I did to Tyreese. It ain't all of it, but that's me. Ani saw it, that's why she stepped up as leader and forced me to step down. That's why I'm here now, that's why Carl is. I want to keep him safe. That's all that matters."
"You know, Ania wasn't too nice in what she did either. She, uh, left 'em to change, cut off their dicks and stuffed 'em in their mouths. What you did? You lost control. I don't think she did. She knew what she was doin' when she did it," Daryl told him.
"That's..." Rick started, his face going pale. "That's pretty twisted. Not sure I want to get on her bad side. Ever. What did they do to her?"
"They claimed her," Daryl said. "Sick bastards tried to claim her, wanted to pass her around like some sort of lot lizard. Didn't work, and three of 'em got killed. Caught up with her the night before last. She's down to a dagger, Rick. Maybe less. I should've gone lookin' for her. I should've listened to Beth and went lookin' right away. 'Stead I sat and threw a pity party and needed a seventeen year old girl to put me in my place," he said as he began breaking down. "I abandoned her."
"I don't think Ani will see it that way," Rick said. "You really think she hasn't been tryin' to find you? And she will, somehow. We'll find her. If she's out there, she won't stop until she finds us. Might be with one of the others right now. Heck, maybe even heading to this Terminus place."
"Only hope we got," Merle said as he walked up with a field dressed deer. "We'll do this up in the mornin' and then head out. Right now, the two of ya need some shut eye. I'll take first watch."
The night was uneventful after that, Merle taking first watch before waking Michonne. They each got a few hours of sleep, letting the kids sleep the most. Rick nor Merle could help the small smile that formed when they caught Sophia and Carl tightly clasping each other's hand even as they slept when the men had gotten up in the morning to start addressing the deer. The kids were red-faced with embarrassment when they woke and realized what they'd done, even if it was just holding hands. Merle teased them for a while, but it ended with both kids pinning him down while the trio laughed, momentarily forgetting the events of the night. After a hearty meal of fire-roasted venison, they gathered all of their things and whatever was useful from the Claimers before heading back out on the tracks.
"You did the right thing," Merle told Daryl as they hung back with the kids.
"What?"
"You did the right thing, hangin' back, comin' out when you did. Saved Rick's life doin' that," Merle said.
"I gave up findin' Ania to 'hang back'," Daryl spat at his brother. "No tellin' where she is now."
"Well, we know where we're goin'. Could always leave her a sign," Merle suggested as the two in front of them stopped, Rick bending down to wipe a sign off.
"With what?" Daryl asked, Merle smiling brightly and producing a Sharpie from his back pocket.
"Go write a love letter to your girl," he said, shoving the marker into Daryl's hand and giving him a nudge towards the knocked down sign.
Bending down to pick it up, he wrote a short and simple "Ania, go to Terminus" on it before propping it back up on the posts it'd fallen from and saying, "We're gettin' close. Be there before sundown."
"Should head through the woods," Merle suggested. "Get a look at 'em 'fore they see us."
"Just what I was thinkin'," Rick agreed. "We don't know who they are."
"Alright," Daryl said as he lead them through the woods.
He and Merle saw the fence first, Rick dropping his bag and cautiously approaching it. Looking through the links and past the overgrown shrubbery and vines, a large building with the name Terminus painted in big, black letters against white brick stood in a large plot of land. It was obviously a rather large train yard, several sets of tracks laid out on one side with abandoned locomotives while the building had several train cars on the other side of it. There appeared to be fencing around the entire building and part of the tracks with several plots of land made up for farming. Rick and Merle considered it for a minute before looking at each other and nodding.
"We'll all spread out," Rick told them. "Watch for a while and see what we see. Get ready. We all stay close." As Daryl headed off along the fence line, Sophia and Merle went in the opposite direction. Rick asked Carl before he passed, "You wanna stick with me?"
"It's alright," Carl said as he walked past his dad, guilt causing him to be unable to look at his dad in the eye.
He walked away with Michonne, not even realizing his dad followed along a short ways away. Carl was having a hard time processing the events of last night. First, he was almost raped by a fat dude who damn near squished him. Then he was saved by Sophia of all people, marking the third or fourth time she'd covered his butt. He was fine not knowing how to hunt, but he was supposed to be the one to protect the girl, not the girl protecting the boy. Though, if he had to admit it, he was happy she'd been the one to stay by his side last night, her and Michonne both. He'd ended up falling asleep on Michonne's lap after watching what his dad did to the man last night. The reason he was having a hard time looking his father in the eye wasn't because of that, like he was sure the others thought. It was because he wanted to do so much worse to the man than just gut him and then damage the brain. He would have just let him turn and be done with it, or thrown him to a pack of walkers to be ripped apart. Ani was right that it runs in families, he though ruefully to himself, looking down at the forest as he walked beside Michonne.
"Why didn't you go with your dad?" she asked him. He remained silent and shrugged, so after a few steps and a heavy breath, Michonne started talking again. "When I told you about Andre, you never asked how he died," she mused.
"I knew why."
"Yeah, but the how is important," she insisted. "We went to a refugee camp. Andre and my boyfriend. Mike. Andre's father, and our friend Terry. At the camp, it just got worse and worse. People were leaving. People were giving up. But I didn't. I was coming back from a run," she said as she broke down. "I saw the fences were down. I heard the moans. It was over. And Mike and Terry, they were high when it happened. They were bitten," she said, a hard look on her face as she reminisced those moments when her world fell apart, the shock on Carl's face clear. "Could have stopped it. Could have killed them. But I let them turn. I made it so they couldn't bite, couldn't scratch. I tied chains around their necks. It was insane. It was sick. It felt like what I deserved, dragging them around so I'd always know. I found out that they kept me safe." She looked around before scoffing at the realization she'd had so long ago, "They hid me. The walkers didn't see me anymore. I was just another monster. And I was. Me. I was gone for a long time," she emphasized. "But then Andrea brought me back. Your dad and Ani brought me back. You did. I see how you've been looking at your dad," she said as she watched Carl look down, seemingly in shame. "You don't have to be afraid of me or him."
"He told me the other day that he was proud of me," Carl said quietly after looking up at Michonne's face and then back down in shame. "That I was a good man," he whispered. "I'm not."
"Carl," Michonne tried to interject.
"I know more now," he whispered. "About what he wanted from me. And I tried, but...I still have these thoughts. Ani said it runs in families. There's a genetic factor in it. I see it now. I'm not what he thinks I am. I'm just another monster too."
Michonne didn't know what to think about that, just bringing the boy in for a hug. She wasn't sure what he meant, but she had talked to Ani about Rick's issues. Blind Rage Syndrome, she'd called it, brought on by a severe psychotic break upon losing his wife. It wasn't really a proven thing, but it was something that had been in the process of being studied and Rick had all the symptoms of it. He tended to overreact to insult, especially physical, had the amnesia like quality Ani had of seeing it through someone else's eyes in memory, was abnormally strong, and only attacked the being that enraged him. Michonne had to admit that she could see those qualities in Rick, but according to Ani it didn't start until his wife's death. So how was it that Ani knew to warn Carl about problems?
"What did Ani say to you?"
Looking at the woman in the eye, Carl tried to recall what all Ani had said over the months at the prison, "She said that mom's death changed dad. That I might change one day too. Said that even if I do, it doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's only bad if I look at it bad."
"She's right about that. You're a good person, Carl. Don't ever doubt that," Michonne said as they made their way back to Rick and the others. "Even Ani saw it, which is why she told you that. She wanted you to know that even if you do change like your dad, you're still a good person no matter what. That's something she could've been afforded more, being told she was still who she was, even with her being a bit different."
"I miss her," he admitted.
"We all do."
Rick had dug a hole in the ground to bury the better part of their weapons. Even having pulled all the equipment off the Claimers, he wasn't willing to risk everything they had if they needed to leave Terminus quickly. Contemplating taking an extra firearm, he decided against it as Merle, Daryl, and Sophia walked up to him. Zipping up the bag, he looked up at them and quirked his head.
"Just in case," he said before he began covering it with dirt.
In short order, he was done with his task and the five made their way to a lower part of the fence that was closer to the building itself. Rick jumped over the fence first, double checking the perimeter as Michonne hopped down next. Daryl and Merle helped Carl up onto the fence, where he perched precariously as they helped Sophia up, helping to keep her stable as she went up and over the fence herself so as not to hurt her shoulder too much. Michonne helped her down before helping Carl down, both Daryl and Merle following suit over the fence shortly thereafter.
Keeping their weapons at the ready, Daryl took point, followed closely by Rick and Michonne, Merle bringing up the rear to keep the kids protected. They entered the first building they came to and quietly made their way inside, listening as someone spoke about maps at the crossroads and how Terminus was a place for all and a place to survive. Walking through a door, Daryl was the first to enter and see several people milling around. They walked in slowly, not being noticed until Rick walked up and interrupted the woman who was speaking into the CB.
"Hi," he repeated louder after interrupting her.
Everyone stopped in their tracks, only for a man in a jean jacket to look down and sigh, "Well, I bet Albert is on perimeter watch." He put down what was in his hand and walked closer to the group, "Are you here to rob us?"
"No," Rick answered before taking a few steps forward. "We wanted to see you before you saw us."
"Makes sense," the man said with a nod of his head before he walked even closer. "Usually we do this where the tracks meet," he said before clearing his throat and opening his arms in a welcoming gesture. "Welcome to Terminus. I'm Gareth. Looks like you've been on the road for a good bit."
"We have," Rick said quietly. "I'm Rick. That's Carl, Sophia, Merle, Daryl, and Michonne."
Gareth raised his hand to say hi before shrugging and in a friendly enough matter said, "You're nervous! I get it. We were all the same way. We came here for sanctuary. That what you're here for?"
"Yes," Rick said with a nod of his head.
"You found it," was the response he was given. "Hey, Alex." A scrawny man with a tan overshirt stood up and smiled at them. "This isn't as pretty as the front. We got nothing to hide, but the welcome wagon is a whole lot nicer. Alex is going to ask you a few questions," he said as the man walked up to them. "Uh, but first, we need to see everyone's weapons. If you could just lay 'em down in front of you."
Everyone looked to Rick, Merle, Daryl, and Sophia feeling uncomfortable at parting with their weapons. However, Rick slowly looked over to them and nodded, kneeling down and beginning to take out his weapons.
"I'm sure you understand," Gareth told them.
"Yes, I do."
Daryl pulled out all the weapons he had on him but Ania's dagger. Not knowing what Terminus had to offer, he had left it in the bag, wrapped in his red rag, and tied his ring on a string around his neck, hidden from view of these people. If she wasn't here, or if they took their things, he would still have that, hopefully, and at the very least, he'd still have her dagger. As he stood up, he saw Gareth going to pat Rick down and raised his hands, refusing to look at the Alex guy as he patted him down.
"I'd hate to see the other guy," he said, taking in Daryl's battered face and black eye; it was all he could do not to deck the man.
"You would," Rick said lowly as Alex moved on to Merle.
When one of the guys approached Sophia, Merle stepped in between them and all but demanded, "I don't mind the menfolk touchin' the menfolk, but you find a girl to check our girls. I ain't lettin' no man check my kid."
"I can understand that," Gareth answered. "Cinthy, will you do the honor?"
"Sure," a sweet looking younger woman said, coming up and patting Michonne, then Sophia, down.
"The people who did this to you," Alex asked as he moved on to Carl. "They deserve what they got?"
"Yes," the boy responded resolutely, remembering the way the fat man's hands had felt trying to rub at him.
"Just so you know," Gareth said. "We aren't those kind of people. But we ain't stupid either. And you shouldn't be stupid enough to try anything stupid," he warned. "As long as everyone's clear on that, we shouldn't have any problems. Just solutions. Okay?"
Alex bent down to pick everyone's weapons up, Daryl snatching up his bow having had enough of people touching it, before he shrugged and said, "Well, follow me."
Leading them out of that big factory and back outside, Daryl asked Alex, "So how long's this place been here?"
"Since almost the start," he answered. "When the camps got overrun, people started finding this place. I think it was instinct, you know? Follow a path. Some folks were headed for the coast, others out west or up north, but they all wound up here."
"Hi," a woman said as Alex lead them to a wide open area where they looked around, noticing a man in riot gear and Daryl's poncho on a woman. "Heard you came in the back door. Smart. You'll fit right in here."
"Hey, Mary, would you fix each of these new folks a plate for me?" Alex asked.
"Why do you do it?" Michonne asked. "Why do you let people in?"
"The more people become a part of us, we get stronger. That's why we put up the signs, invite people in. It's how we survive. Here," he said, handing Carl a plate of food as Daryl, Merle, and Rick shared similar looks to say they'd seen the same thing; a bag that was Glenn's, one of Ani's band shirts.
As Alex went to hand Michonne a plate of food, Rick stormed up to him and grabbed the gun that was clearly in the pocket of his cargo pants. This caused everyone to become on high alert, Merle, Daryl, and Sophia raising their perspective weapons and keeping Rick protected. Michonne unsheathed her sword as Carl dropped his plate of barbecue and drew his gun. With the gun that Rick pulled out, Hershel's pocket watch hung in his hand.
Grabbing it and showing it to the man he asked rather calmly for the situation, "Where did you get this watch?" The man was obviously quite frightened as he stood shaking in Rick's grasp. "Where the hell did you get this watch?"
"You want answers? You want anything else? You get 'em when you put down the gun."
"I see your man on the roof with a sniper rifle. How good's his aim? Where'd you get the watch?" Rick whispered as Carl and Sophia stood back to back with their respective weapons trained. When Alex refused to answer yet, Rick yelled, "Where did you get the watch?!"
"Don't do anything! I have this!" Alex yelled to the man on the roof. "You just put it down. You put it down! You're going to listen to me," he told Rick. "There's a lot of us."
"Where did you get the watch?" Rick repeated after sighing.
"I got it off of a dead one. I didn't think he'd need it!" Alex answered.
"What about the riot gear? The poncho?"
"Got the riot gear off a dead cop," Gareth said, coming out to try to handle the situation. "Found the poncho on a clothes line," he deadpanned.
"Gareth, we can wait," Alex tried to reason.
"Shut up, Alex."
"You, talk to me," Rick said.
"What's there left to say?" he asked. "You don't trust us anymore."
"Gareth," Alex tried.
"Shut up," he was told forcefully as Gareth raised his hand.
"Gareth, please."
"It's okay," he said gently. "It's okay. Rick, what do you want?"
"Where are our people?"
"You didn't answer the question."
The movement that happened was almost too fast to comprehend. One minute, they were talking, then Gareth raised his hand in just a way that made Rick whip around right as Mary pulled the trigger on her gun. Alex ended up being the one to take the bullet, dropping like a sack of bricks with his blood splattering the concrete behind him. Even as the gunfire began, they were cut off by shots to their feet, forcing them into a large garage type building. Every exit was locked but one, forcing them to come back under fire as soon as they exited. Merle shouted that they were being herded; this was a trap and he knew it. As they ran past the train cars, they could hear the sound of people yelling for help, causing Daryl to pause a moment. Merle forced him to move with his stump to the man's shoulder, the group running into what could have once been a gymnasium.
The place was filled with what looked to be mementos and monoliths with names printed on the floor beneath, causing Daryl to ask, "What the hell is this place?"
"These people, I don't think they're trying to kill us," Michonne said.
"Gee, ya think?" Merle said sarcastically. "Firin' only at our feet, shoutin' out to keep us goin' this way or outta that. Did you see that area we passed? The one with all the guts and bones? Them weren't animal bones."
"What are you saying?" Rick asked.
"I'm sayin', it's a good thing we didn't eat the barbecue," he said with a sense of finality.
"Come on, there," Rick said pointing to a door that was slammed shut only a moment later.
Leading them to another door, Daryl ran ahead only to be fired at once again, the group being herded yet another direction and cornered in. Behind them, on the roof of the factory, several men stood with their rifles aimed at them while on the other side of the fence, four more people stood locked and loaded. This was where they'd wanted them to go all along. With tight jaws, Rick and Merle looked over at Carl and Sophia, both of whom were rightfully scared and it showed on their faces.
"Drop your weapons! Now!" Gareth yelled. "Now!" After they dropped their weapons, Gareth addressed Rick, "Ringleader, go to your left! The train car, go. You do what we say, the boy goes with you. Anything else, he dies and you end up in there anyway." Rick considered his words for a minute before looking at Carl and heading to the train car. "Now the archer," Gareth said as Daryl looked on past the snipers in disbelief. He slowly walked to the train car, looking back and up every so often to make sure he wasn't seeing things, "Now the old guy." Merle had half a mind to bitch the man out, but he was also in shock by the same thing Daryl had seen. "Now the samurai," Gareth called. Michonne gave him a cold glare as she left Carl and Sophia standing. "Now, little girl." Sophia slowly moved towards the door, looking back at Carl every so often. "Stand at the door, ringleader, archer, old guy, samurai, little girl, in that order!"
"My son!" Rick yelled.
"Go, kid," Gareth said. As Carl was walking up to the place the four were in, Gareth called out, "Ringleader, open the door and go in."
"I'll go in with him," he called back.
"Don't make us kill him now!" Gareth threatened.
Rick gave a dirty look but climbed the steps anyway, opening the door and slowly climbing in, Daryl, Merle, Michonne, and Sophia entering shortly after. It took another moment or two for Carl to enter, Rick double checking that he was okay. As the door was closed from the outside, a thud from the opposite end of the train car alerted them that they weren't alone. The light was limited, but the voice that called out was unmistakable.
"Rick?" Glenn asked.
"You're here," he said. "You're here. Where's Ani?"
"Outside," Merle said.
"What?"
"That fuckin' wild child is up on their power pole, hidin' in plain sight!" he said excitedly, as more people popped up behind Maggie, causing the five to bristle.
Maggie popped up, "They're our friends. They helped save us."
"Yeah?" Daryl asked. "Well, now they're friends of ours."
"For however long that will be," the big redhead said.
"No," Rick countered, smiling at the fact that Ani was not only alive, but already at Terminus. "They're gonna feel really stupid when they find out."
"Find out what?" the big redhead asked.
"That they're screwin' with the wrong people," Rick said.