Azuresky21: I did that on purpose...XP Don't worry, they'll be fine...

ChildishAssassin: I don't see Ani getting on too much with Father Gabriel...she's technically pagan with a particular dislike of the monotheistic deities/religions due to her mother being very religious. It gets touched on later on in the story, to be honest. As far as Eugene, I feel like he will definitely build a bigger backbone with Ani around and helping him. And, yeah, I have plans involving both Tara and Abraham being friends with Ani...I have a whole list of sarcastic remarks I'm just waiting to use for her against 'Red'...XD

Bob had left the church to mourn the fact that he was never going to make it to DC. While the run to the food bank had been immensely successful, that damn walker in the water. He'd finally found someone he was head over heels for and now it was just gone. Slipped through his fingers like water. But there was no going back from a bite to the shoulder, not on the collarbone. He was sobbing when the back of his head took a hit and his world went black.

He came to slowly, seeing some people sitting around a fire before a voice echoed in his ears, "You waking up?" Gareth's face came into view, the man spoke again, "Ah, you're back with us huh? Good news is, you're not dead yet. That's a relief, right? Don't try to read too much into the word 'yet' there. It'll just drive you crazy, Bob." Bob looked at Gareth as he knelt down next to him. "I want to explain myself a little," Gareth told him. "You see, we didn't want to hurt you before. We didn't want to pull you away from your little group or scare you. These aren't things that we want to do," he said seriously. "They're things we gotta do. You and your people took away our home. That's fair play. Now we're out here like everybody else, tryin' to survive. And in order to do that, we have to hunt."

"Didn't start that way. Eating people," Gareth explained. "It evolved into that. We evolved. We had to. And now we've devolved into hunters. I told you. I said it. Can't go back, Bob," he told him with a scoff. "I just hope you understand that nothing happening to you now is personal. Yeah, your group put us in this situation and it is almost kind of a cosmic justice. If we had that Rambo girl, it'd be poetic. But to be honest, we would do this to anybody. We will. But at the end of the day, no matter how much we hate all this ugly business," he intentionally looked down, causing Bob to look down and notice that his right leg was missing from the knee down making him start to hyperventilate, "a man's gotta eat." Gareth finished his speech by taking a bite of what Bob knew was his own flesh. "If it makes you feel any better," he said sarcastically, enjoying Bob's anguish. "You taste much better than we thought you would."

"It's probably pretty stupid to be here," Gareth said, just talking to himself more than anything else. "Dangerous. I don't know, maybe not. You can see the threat. That's something. Looking at them makes me feel better about things. My mom used to say that every day above ground was a win. Doesn't really apply anymore, but you can still get some perspective." He walked up to the door window walkers were banging against and placed his hand on the glass. "The glass is gonna break sooner or later. Nothing lasts too long anymore. You know, we marked our way here so we could find our way back after. So stupid, right? I mean, back to what? Your little girl made a mess of our home," he said as he came back over to Bob and knelt in front of him once more.

"It wasn't just a trap. It was gonna be a choice. You join us, or feed us. You know, bears," he cleared his throat. "When they start to starve, they eat their young. If the bear dies, the cub dies anyway. But if the bear lives, it can always have another cub. That was part of the pitch," he said. "You know, Greg and Mike came this close," he told Bob, showing him pinched fingers, "to nabbing that gray-haired queen bitch who killed my mom. Her or that little one that killed nearly a third of us herself, we really want to taste them. They both drove away with the archer, though. Greg saw them pull away. Can't wait to try them. I like women best. Most of us do. My brother Alex has-" he stopped and sighed. "-also currently dead because of Rick, he had a theory that it was because of the extra layer of fat women have for childbearing? Even the skinny girls have it. Like that pretty one, Sasha? And that Rambo woman. I think pretty people taste better too."

Bob began sobbing as Gareth kept running his mouth, "We're gonna get all of them. But for starters, you'll do just fine. We did a good job on your leg. We've had practice. When we started, it was about making it slow." When Bob didn't appear to be listening because of his breakdown, Gareth got upset. "I'm being a human being here. I'm talking to you. Perspective, Bob. You're above ground. At least you're better off than them."

Bob's sobs turned into maniacal laughter, prompting the three by the fire to join Gareth, one of the men saying, "Well, he lost it."

"Lasted longer than I thought he would," the woman said. "Then again, traveling with that freak that told us eat our own with a bon apetite, I should've known he wasn't going to break easily."

That caused Bob to howl with laughter before he calmed down, "You...you idiots."

"Okay, keep it down," Gareth said as Bob continued to hackle.

"I can shut him up," one of the guys suggested.

Bob just kept laughing before stopping for a moment and pulling his shirt down, showing them the bite he'd hidden from Sasha, "I've been bitten you stupid pricks! I'm tainted meat," he chuckled as the rest began throwing up.

"Let's just kill him now," the one in the baseball cap said, storming up to Bob only for Gareth to catch him.

"No, no, we need him!" he insisited.

"We might as well be eatin' one of them," one of the men said angrily.

"What the hell's gonna happen?" the youngest of the group asked in a shaky voice. "Are we gonna turn? Are we just gonna die?"

Gareth looked at them and tried to regain control of the situation even as Bob continued laughing on the ground in front of him, "Albert, calm down. We cooked him! Everything is going to be fine."

"Why the hell didn't you check him first?!" the woman spat at Gareth.

"'Cause he was fine!" the one in the baseball hat defended.

"Tainted meat!" Bob yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Shut up," Gareth said.

"You eatin' tainted meat!" he yelled even louder.

"I said shut up!" Gareth screamed before kicking Bob in the face and knocking him out again.

~x~

Sophia and Merle were standing watch while others went out to look for Bob. He was missing, and so was Carol, Daryl, and Ani, as well as the kittens she seemed to take everywhere with her. Both the hunters were worried about the fact that the other two had disappeared, but assuming they were together, they would be safe. As Rick, Tyreese, and Sasha walked back up to the church, they all clamored back in after Sasha who walked right up to the priest.

"Stop," she told him. "What are you doing?" He didn't say anything, just looked around at everyone scared out of his mind. "What are you doing?" she repeated. "This is all connected. You show up. We're being watched. And now four of us are gone."

He scoffed while looking around again and said, "I don't...I don't have anything to do with this!"

Sasha pulled out a knife causing Michonne to shout, "Stop!"

"Sasha, put the knife away," Tyreese chided.

"Who's out there?" she pleaded with the man, ignoring everyone else in the room.

"I—I don't have anything to do with this," he repeated.

"Where are our people?" she asked, a threat in her voice and the way she leaned towards him.

"I don't have anything to d-"

"Where are our people?!" Sasha screamed at him, cutting off his repeated blabbering.

"Please, I don't have anything to do with this," Gabriel insisted. "I-"

He trailed off as Rick pulled Sasha away from him, a menacing look in his eye as he quietly asked, "Why did you bring us here?"

"Please, I—I," he stuttered.

"Are you workin' with someone?" Rick asked.

"I'm alone." He insisted, "I'm alone. I was always alone."

"What about that woman at the food bank, Gabriel?" Rick asked. "What did you do to her? 'You'll burn for this'? That was for you. Why? What are you gonna burn for, Gabriel?" Surprising the man, Rick grabbed him by the lapels of his coat and held him up a bit. "What?! What did you do? What did you do?!" he yelled at him.

"I locked the doors at night," Gabriel said before repeating, "I always locked the doors at night. I always locked the doors at night. I always..." He started breaking down, taking a deep breath and looking past Rick as if he was seeing what was happening all over again. "They started coming, my congregation. Atlanta was bombed the night before and they were scared. They were—they were looking for a safe place, a place where they felt safe. And it was so early. It was so early," he repeated as if he was pleading for understanding. "And the doors were still locked," he said before breaking down as he said the next part. "You see, it was my choice. There were so many of them and they were trying to pry the shutters and banging on the sidings, screaming at me. And so the dead came for them. Women...children. Entire families calling my name as they were torn apart. Begging me for mercy," he sobbed. "Begging me for mercy. Damning me to hell. I buried their bones. I buried it all. The Lord sent you here to finally punish me," he said, falling to the ground. "I'm damned. I was damned before. I always lock the doors. I always lock the doors," he reasoned as he sobbed.

A whistle from outside announced the fact that someone was outside causing Glenn and Maggie to go to the door and windows. "There's something," Glenn started before correcting himself, "There's someone lying in the grass."

Sasha ran to the door, throwing it open even as others told her not to. She screamed as soon as she saw him, causing the walkers in the area to be drawn to the church. As Maggie stopped short, commenting about Bob's leg, which was missing when Merle looked over from defending against the walkers. Together with Glenn and Rick, Merle helped keep the dead away as Sasha, Tara, and Maggie carried Bob into the church, a gunshot ringing out when a walker got too close to Rick causing him to fire blindly into the woods.

"Stop that, Friendly!" Merle shouted. "Wastin' bullets we ain't got and could hit Ani or Daryl if they're out there! Get into the church!"

After a flurry of movement, they finally had Bob laying down in the church as he explained what happened, "I was in the graveyard. Somebody knocked me out. I woke up outside this place," he said, heavily leaning on Tara as he tried to sit up. "It looked like a school. It was that guy, Gareth. And five other ones. Ani got the other survivors. Told 'em to have a good meal when she did it." He began to breath heavy as he spoke, "They were eatin' my leg right in front of me. Like it was nothin'. All proud like they had it all figured out."

"Did they have Daryl and Ani?" Merle asked, noticing Sophia's look and adding, "Or Carol?"

"Gareth said they drove off," he told them before he started moaning.

"He's in pain," Sasha told Rosita. "Do we have anything?"

"I think there are pill packets in the first aid kit," the woman said, going to get up to get them.

"Save them!" Bob told her.

"No!" Sasha protested.

"Really," Bob assured her before breaking down and sitting up, showing her the bite on his shoulder. The entire room went quiet as she stared at it in horror while he explained, "It happened at the food bank."

Sasha forced a smile, telling him it was okay as he laid back down. Less than a week, she'd gotten less than a week with him, barely any time at all, and he was being taken away. The attraction had been instant, she had to admit, but trusting him and opening her heart to him had been difficult with everything that she'd been through. And now that she finally had, was finally happy, Sasha's world was being ripped in two. As he groaned again, she couldn't help the sob that escaped her lips.

"There's a sofa in my office," Gabriel offered. "I know it's not much, but..."

"Thank you," Sasha told him after a moment's silence.

"I got him," Tyreese said, standing up and walking over to the man.

"I'll help ya," Merle told him, clapping his shoulder and taking position on one side.

"Do you know the place Bob was talking about?" Rick asked Gabriel as the others moved Bob into the office.

"It's an elementary school," the father said while nodding his head. "It's close."

"How close?" When Gabriel didn't answer, Rick reiterated, "How close, Gabriel?"

After debating with himself for a moment, Gabriel relented, "It's just a ten minute walk through the woods from here, due south of the graveyard."

Judith started fussing, so Carl and Sophia took her with them to a corner of the room that was a little darker so she could get some sleep. All the talking had kept her awake and she was getting fussy. Sophia hummed her one of the songs she'd heard Ani singing to herself when she walked around the prison or was on guard duty alone in the tower. In fact, Sophia had gotten so good at being able to get by unnoticed that Ani hadn't noticed her until three days before the illness was found. Ani had been waiting for Daryl to get done with whatever he'd been doing at the time and walking the fences singing when she'd turned sensing someone watching her. She hadn't been able to see anything until she strategically walked into the guard tower and waited at the bottom of the stairs for whoever it was that was following her to enter, that person being Sophia. It made the girl smile proudly at the memory as she hummed and helped Carl calm Judith as Maggie came back out of the office.

"Does he have the fever?" Rick asked.

"He's just warm," she said. "I wish Ani was here. I don't know the right herbs to help him."

"Jim lasted almost two days before we left him," Glenn recalled. "Don't know why we didn't help him with herbs back then. Might've lasted longer.

"Ani didn't think about it until later. Told me hindsight is 20/20 and she was too in her head from everything that happened at the camp to think about helping Jim," Sophia informed them. "It's something she said she regrets."

"Got a lot of those," Merle said sadly, nodding his head along with his words.

Taking in everything that was going on and wondering about what the hell they even meant when talking about the little shrimp warrior, Abraham stood between the door and the others and said, "Time for a reality check. We all need to leave for DC. Right now."

"Daryl, Ani, and Carol are gonna be back," Rick said even as Rosita grabbed her bag and started toward the door. "We're not goin' anywhere without them."

"I respect that, but there's a clear threat here to Eugene," Abraham countered. "A threat made even bigger by the absence of Tiny. I need to extract his ass before things get any uglier. So if y'all won't come, good luck to you. We'll go our separate ways."

"You leavin' on foot?" Rick asked.

That made Abraham stop, "We fixed that damn bus ourselves!"

"There are a lot more of us," Rick threatened quietly as he walked up to the tall man.

"You wanna keep it that way?" Abraham asked him, not at all threatened by this man. "You should come."

"Ani saved your life. Carol saved your life. We saved your life."

"Well, I am trying to save yours! Save everyone's!" Abraham yelled, cutting off whatever Rick was going to say and feeling guilt at the fact that he was, in fact, trying to leave the group he owed by right.

"We're not goin' anywhere without our people," Rick repeated.

"Your people took off!"

"They're coming back."

"To what?! Picked over bones?!" Abraham roared, his anger getting the best of him so he didn't notice as Merle crept behind him.

"You're not taking-" Rick started, going to grab Abraham's arm.

"Do not lay hands!" the man yelled menacingly, going to get up in Rick's face only for an almost equally tall man to reach out from behind him and place him in a standing rear naked choke hold.

"Now, Ani taught me all kinds of moves back at the prison when all we had was time," Merle whispered threateningly in the man's ear, even as he tried to break the hold. "So you're gonna listen, and you're gonna listen good else I'm gonna put ya to sleep 'stead of just holdin' ya. Now, my baby sister and brother are out there. They'll be back. And you're gonna wait the night for 'em to get here. They ain't back by noon, well, they know our headin'. They'll come after us. Me and the girl will go with ya, soldier to soldier, man to man. She's a damn good hunter and knows some about herbs and how to use 'em, so she'll pull her weight. What do you say?"

"Do you really think that you're gonna be any safer leaving right now in the middle of the night?" Glenn tried to reason with the now still redhead as had Merle applied more pressure to stop his struggling.

"Yeah," Abraham breathed heavily as he fell to his knees, Merle still on his back, but easing up the pressure.

"We need each other for this," Glenn said as he knelt down to look Abraham in the eyes. "We need each other to get to DC! We can get through all of it together!"

"I'll go with you, too," Tara said, walking over to Abraham who was finally released from Merle's hold bent on one knee with one hand on the floor. "If you just stay one more day, I'll come too. Okay?"

After a few heavy breaths, Abraham said, "Glenn and Maggie, too."

"No," Rick said.

"Good luck, then. I'm not interested in breaking up what you have here. Rosita, grab your gear."

"Abraham," she tried, not really wanting to leave in the middle of the night.

"Now! Eugene, let's go," he said, hollering the man's name when he refused to move. "Move it."

"I don't want to," Eugene said, wanting to tell everyone the truth so that they wouldn't leave, but scared of the consequences; as Ani had said, Eugene was going to be one righteous fire of fury once he said it.

"Now," Abraham growled, instantly making Eugene give in and get up.

"You aren't taking the short bus," Rick said as the three began heading towards the door.

"Try to stop me," Abraham threatened.

"You really wanna go through that all again, son?" Merle asked the man.

"You had the drop on me last time, you one-hand asshole," Abraham said while stomping towards the older man, who simply rounded his shoulders and prepared for a fight.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Glenn yelled as he got in between the two, giving Merle and Rick both meaningful looks before turning to Abraham. "You stay. You stay and help us, and we will go with you," he said, pointing to Maggie and himself.

"No," Rick said.

"That is not your call! Just like Merle going!" Glenn told him. "You stay, help us."

"Half a day. Come high noon, we're taillights," the man said. "I'm not waitin' for the other damn shoe to drop. Even if it means bringing Tiny along."

"We will leave with you," Maggie enforced.

Abraham stood still for a moment to let his head clear of the fog his rage was before nodding his head in agreement. "Twelve hours. Then we go."

He went to sit back down but was blocked by Merle, "You know, Ani, she would've kicked your ass too. She won't put up with this bullshit you've got goin' on."

"And what bullshit is that, pray tell?" Abraham huffed angrily.

"Not dealin' with your bullshit, that's what. Whatever it is that makes you fly off the handle like that. She's gonna make you tell her, and then she's gonna bug ya 'bout it 'til the cows come home. So you might as well start practicin' restraint now," Merle said with a shrug before smacking him on the shoulder. "You ever need a sparrin' partner, you let me know. A good fight is always helpful to get the stress out, and we soldiers love a good fight."

Abraham just watched Merle's back with a quizzical expression, wondering just who the man thought he was to just come over and give him advice like that. Then again, he did say he was a soldier, so it was probably just friendly advice. If Tiny did make it back and they all took off together and she'd trained Merle to do that, he could only guess what she was fully capable of. He knew she was a fighter, there was no denying that. And good with a gun. On top of that, she was a trained psychologist, according to Rick, one that knew how people think and could plan ahead. It wasn't just that she could read people in general, but that she could read situations and manage risk assessment quicker than a tornado can flip a house. Honestly, he'd rather wait until she got back.

As everyone sat around thinking about Bob in the other room, Rick spoke to the group, laying out a plan to draw Terminus out. "They think they're in control," he told them, bringing is his idea to a close. "We're in here and they could be anywhere. But we know exactly where they are."

"Plan's got stones, I'll give you that," Abraham told him.

"Make our move before they do," Glenn summarized.

"That's right," Rick agreed. "They're not counting on us thinking straight."

"Are we?" Rosita piped up, thinking this was the stupidest move they could make and just wanting to wait the night out in the church. "I'm just making sure. It's a big play."

"Remember what these people are capable of," Rick told her.

"Your Ani seems capable of worse," she chided.

"No," Abraham denied, surprising everyone. "Might be cookier than a cockatoo, but I don't see her goin' cuckoo for human crispies. Girl's carryin' around kittens, for Pete's sake."

"Didn't realize you were such a big fan," Rosita said with a raise of her eyebrows before looking down and crossing her arms.

"Tyreese?" Rick asked.

"Yeah?"

"You up for this?"

Sasha came out of the office then and readied her rifle, "I'm going with you."

"You should stay with Bob," Tyreese commented.

"No," she said. "I wanna be out there. I wanna be a part of this."

She walked back into the office, Tyreese following along behind her to give her a piece of his mind. "I know how it feels," he said, coming to a stop and watching her as she looked on at the man she'd given her heart to. "But this right here, the time you could have with him, you can't throw that away. I wish I had it with Karen," he sighed.

Sasha looked at Bob before looking at the wall, trying to put all her thoughts into words that would make her brother understand. She had to do this. She just had to. She knew who had hurt her man, knew where they were and what they were going to do. She couldn't just sit back and watch it happen or hide when there was nothing she could do for Bob other than wait for the end. And she didn't want to just sit around waiting for that to happen. She needed to do something.

"Do you remember," she began, "how it felt? What you wanted to do?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "It made it so I couldn't see it. Forgiveness. That's facin' it."

"I should forgive them?" she asked him incredulously. "For hurting him? For trying to kill us? What the hell is wrong with you? You think we have a choice?!"

"Not all of us," he said quietly. "Just you. When he opens his eyes, the only thing he's gonna wanna see is your face."

Sasha didn't listen to him anymore, just stood on her feet and pulled out her knife handing it to him, "Take it. If he stops breathing..."

"Sasha."

"...you put it through his temple," she told him. "That's what Bob would want."

She walked back out into the church. Together with Rick, Michonne, Glenn, Maggie, Merle, and Abraham, they made it seem like they were heading out and into the woods towards the school. Tyreese sat beside Bob as Eugene and Rosita sat on the back wall, Sophia and Carl standing watch on opposite ends of the room, one by the door, one by the window, while Gabriel simply sat looking worried. It couldn't have been more than five minute after the larger group left that they heard the sound of the church door being broken open. Carl pulled his gun and aimed it at the door, Sophia bringing her crossbow around and taking aim as well.

"Well, I guess you know we're here," Gareth's voice called out. "And we know you're here. And we're armed. So there's really no point in hiding anymore."

"It's gonna be okay," Carl whispered to Sophia.

"I know," was his reply.

"We've been watching you," Gareth's voice rang out once more. "We know who's here. There's Bob, unless you've put him out of his misery already. And Eugene. Rosita. Martin's good friend Tyreese. Carl. Sophia. Judith," he finally said. "Rick and the rest walked out. With a lot of your guns. Listen, we don't know where you all are, but this isn't a big place. So let's just stop this now before things get more painful than they need to be." The doorknob started rattling as Rosita knelt to get better aim herself.

"Look, you're behind one of these two doors and we have more than enough firepower to take down both. Can't imagine that's what y'all want." They hear the cocking of guns as Gareth called out, "How about the priest? Father, you help us wrap this up, we'll let you walk away from this. Just open the door and you can take the baby with you. What do you say?" Gabriel sat with his hands clasped in front of him praying as Judith began wailing due to the tension in the room. "I don't know. Maybe we'll keep the kid," they heard Gareth mumble as Carl scrambled to quiet Judith down.

"It's your last chance right now to tell us you're coming out," Gareth said after a few minute's pause.

"Are we done?"

"We'll hit the hinges," Gareth told the man next to him.

They took position only for the two closest to the door to go down with the sound of a silenced gunshot followed one right after the other. Turning around, they could barely make out Rick's outline where he stood with his gun raised, though it had been Merle who had taken the shot from the door. His little girl was in that office and he'd be damned if he was going to wait for some signal when the rest were already in position anyway. They thought he was alone in this, that much Merle could see as they refused to lower their weapons and even took more careful aim towards the door.

"Rick, we'll fire right into that office, so lower your gun-" Gareth said while pointing to the door, causing Merle to fire again, taking off his fingers and causing him to fall to the floor in shock.

"Put your guns on the floor and kneel," Rick said as he entered the sparse bit of light that fluttered through the shutters.

When the people from Terminus refused to put down their weapons, Gareth ordered them to. "Martin, there's no choice here," he told the man standing next to him in the baseball cap.

"Yeah there is," Martin said, still thinking it was only Rick; Rick was thankful for Merle's presence as he couldn't shoot that well in the dark.

"Wanna bet?" Abraham asked, coming out of the dark from beside the men, the others also making themselves known with Merle coming to stand next to Rick, his own rifle raised.

As Sasha, Michonne, Abraham, and Rick walked up to the four remaining member of Terminus, Merle made his way over to the office and knocked on the door, "Stay inside for a few more while we finish up out here, got it?"

"Got it!" came Carl and Sophia's shared reply.

Gareth raised himself to his knees and at least had the dignity not to cry or weep, even with fingers missing, as he looked up at Rick, "No point in begging, right?"

"No," Rick said.

"Still," Gareth said. "You could've killed us right when you came in and you didn't. There had to be a reason for that."

"We didn't want to waste the bullets," Rick told him flatly with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"We used to help people," Gareth informed him. "We saved people. Things changed. They came in-" he groaned and scoffed. "After that, I know that you've been out there, but I can see it. You don't know what it is to be hungry."

"You're right," Rick agreed. "We had people who know what they were doin'. People we couldn't've survived without."

"You don't have to do this. We can walk away," Gareth reasoned, thinking he had hope with the fact that Rick had agreed with him. "And we will never cross paths again. I promise you."

"But you'll cross someone's path," Rick countered. "You'd do this to anyone, right? Besides, I already made you a promise."

It was a damn blood bath was all Merle could describe it as as Rick landed blow after blow to Gareth's head. Sasha took her knife and started stabbing Martin over and over again while Michonne bashed in the woman's head with the butt of her rifle. Abraham took pleasure in using his rifle to beat the other man to death, spraying himself in blood. Merle heard the office door open and whipped around to chastise the kids, only to see Tyreese standing there looking horrified. Merle couldn't help but feel sorry for the man as he walked back into the office defeated.

"It could have been us," Rick reasoned.

"Yeah, Friendly, it could've," Merle said before walking into the office himself to check on the kids.

He passed Gabriel as the man made his way out, those in the nave standing and staring in shock as the man saw what had happened. "But this is the Lord's house," he cried.

"No," Maggie said, realizing now what Ani had meant the one time Maggie had tried talking religion with her so long ago. "It's just four walls and a roof."