Gregory stayed behind with Rick and Shane, muttering away on his radio. "First squad up online… Dixon, get yours in a cordon. A- and watch the rear." Deanna's voice filtered over the radio telling Rosita to take point, telling them all to move up, telling Merle to run a bypass. Then Gregory was speaking again. "Second squad, move up. Flanking positions."

Another patch of silence, more voices over the radio. Deanna checking the status of the others, a hiss of a door opening, footsteps and dripping water. For once, Rick was glad to be bored, but that was mixed with tension as he took in the damage to the colony, each piece of dangling wire making him more nervous. He almost jumped when Gregory spoke again, telling Dixon to move his squad inside.

Deanna spoke again, voice crackly over some form of interference. "You seeing this? Looks like hits from small-arms fire." They kept walking. "Explosives damages, maybe seismic survey charges, too. You reading this?" Gregory didn't answer, so she spoke again. "Keep it tight, people."

Rick looked over at Dixon's video feed, watching as he climbed to the upper level. He half-heard Gregory saying, "Dixon brothers, use your motion trackers."

Dixon did indeed pull out his tracker, waiting for a bit before answering. "Got nothing."

Gregory gave another order, something about a search pattern, but Rick half-tuned it out, still watching the monitors. Dixon spoke again, breaking the short silence. "Michonne, Andrea… you're up." The radios went quiet again.

A motion tracker went off, Merle and Rosita edging towards the flashing white dot. Rick felt his heart rise into his throat, the tension increasing more as they slam open a door to reveal… Rats. Nothing but rats in a maze, and wasn't that symbolism amusing.

Rick might have laughed, but his attention was now caught on something he'd seen on Dixon's screen and he was fumbling for the headset, trying to put it on. It was a waste of effort, though; before he got a word out, Dixon was already crouched down, camera directed firmly at the burns. "Ya seein' this?" Dixon looked over at Abraham, and Rick watched through the redhead's camera as he gestured towards the ground. "Someone musta gotten one of Grimes's bad guys here."

Rick felt a wash of relief at the statement - at least Dixon had taken him seriously - and turned, hiding his increasing fear behind a look of satisfaction, an "I told you so" directed firmly at Shane, who met his eyes hesitantly. "Acid for blood, huh, man?" He passed his hand over his head. "Damn, brother."

Merle snorted. "Ya like that, you'll love this, Friendly." He looked upwards, and Rick could see - on both his camera and Rosita's - massive, gaping, dripping holes extending several floors in the ceiling and floor. Rosita pretended to push him, rewarded with a, "Stop fuckin' around, woman."

Deanna ignored the two, radioing Dixon. "Status, second squad?"

"Finished our sweep. Ain't no one home."

"Roger… Sir, this place is dead. Whatever happened… We missed it." Deanna kept her voice calm, little emotion coming over the line, and no camera was pointed at her, so Rick didn't get much of a sense of her emotional state.

Gregory sighed. "Then the area's secured. Let's check the computer."

Rick nearly dropped the headset in his haste to take it off. "That's-" He broke off, wanting to scoff bitterly but stopping himself just in time. Instead, he ducked his head and kept speaking. "That's not secured."

Gregory shook his head. "The area's secured, Rich." He turned back. "First team, head for Operations. Merle, get their CPU online."

Merle nodded, as evidenced by the bobbing of his camera. "Affirmative."

"Darren, meet me at the south lock. We're coming in." Gregory stood, heading away from the desk and towards the door.

He might not have been looking at the cameras, but Rick was, and he watched through one of the other cameras as a slight tinge of annoyance passed across Dixon's face - the same annoyance on Rick's because, really, did the man simply not care about other peoples' names? - heard Merle's muttered, "Dipshit's coming in… I feel safer already." and Rosita's "Pendejo jerkoff." Rick couldn't help smirking, fighting to restrain his laugh even as he felt a chill of fear run up and down his spine at the thought of entering.

The rumbling of the car distracted him for a bit, but Merle's voice over the intercom brought the situation flooding back just in time for them to walk into the pouring rain and get instantly drenched. "CPU's online, Loo, no problem."

Gregory nodded, shielding his headset from the rain as best as possible. "Good. Stand by in Operations." He turned to Shane and Rick, then moved ahead. "Come on, let's go."

Rick couldn't bring himself to enter right away, stopping in the doorway uncaring of the rain still pouring down on him. Unsurprisingly, Dixon was the first to notice, detaching from his conversation with Andrea and walking over. "You a'ight?"

Rick nodded. "Yes." He walked past the other man, ignoring the skepticism in his eyes.

The interior of the colony was even worse than the fear filling him from the car, awakening a horrible sense of deja vu. It was too familiar, the cramped hallways, the grating underfoot, the water dripping from the ceiling…. He was onboard the Atlanta and there was an alien and…

Except there wasn't a redhead on theAtlanta, was there? And now there was a man with ginger hair and a mustache right in front of him telling Gregory that, "-they sealed off this wing at both ends, welded the doors, and blocked off the stairs with heavy equipment." The illusion shattered, then, and he remembered where he was. He was on LV-426 and there might be an alien onboard, but at least he had support. Actual military support at that. He'd be fine, they'd all be fine. They'd solve the mystery and leave and be fine.

Abraham - that's the redhead's name, right, silly of him to have forgotten - kept speaking. "It looks like the barricades didn't hold."

Gregory seemed unruffled and unconcerned by the prospect of so many deaths. Instead, he callously asked, "Any bodies?" Abraham shook his head.

Andrea looked around, muttering, "Last stand."

Abraham nodded. "Must have been a hell of a fight."

Dixon nodded from where he was crouched on the ground examining… something on the ground. Rick couldn't see anything there, but he didn't bother asking. "Yeah. Looks like it."

Gregory walked towards a door. "Alright, Abraham, this way. We should be able to cut through the med lab to Operations."

The rooms were horribly dark, and Rick felt strangely out of breath, like the walls were going to close around him - odd… he'd never been claustrophobic before - and he had to fight to stay calm. The feeling only worsened when they reached the med lab and he saw three of those… things… those spider-like creatures suspended in some liquid in a glass tube. He stopped in his tracks, then, eyes pinned with dread on the creature even as, consciously, he realized that it likely couldn't get to him.

Dixon once again noticed his distress, carefully edging around Rick until he stood between him and the creature, effectively breaking the line of sight as he said, "Lieutenant." Gregory didn't seem to have listened, so he tried again. "Gregory."

Shane looked over at Rick. "Those the same ones?"

Rick nodded, watching as Shane walked over, sticking his face practically against the glass. If he weren't already on tenterhooks, Rick would have laughed at Dixon's incredulous expression. Instead, he bit out a warning. "Careful, Shane."

Sure enough, the thing moved, hitting the glass in an attempt to get at Shane. All three - Rick, sure, but also Shane and even Dixon - started at the motion, with Shane letting out a grunt of surprise. Dixon snorted at the other man's shocked expression. "Looks like love ta me." He stepped back, nodding at the creature. "He likes ya."

Jesus spoke to them, then, the first time he'd uttered a word in Rick's presence since the outburst in the cafeteria, picking up a book from the counter as he did. "Two are alive, the rest, dead." He read from the book, then. "'Surgically removed before embryo implantation. Subject Dunlap, Wayne L. died during the procedure.' They killed him taking it off."

The chiming of a motion tracker interrupted the conversation, and Andrea called out. "Dixon, I think we got something here!"

He walked over, glancing at the tracker. "Behind us."

Rick looked over his shoulder, noticing the way Dixon stiffened up at the close proximity. "One of us?"

"Dianne, where are your people? Anyone in D block?" The marines were too focused to correct Gregory, but Rick could see one or two roll their eyes before the response came through.

"Negative. We're in Operations."

Abraham surged forward, smart gun at the ready. "Talk to me, Andrea."

She nodded, focused on the device in her hand. "Keep moving."

Gregory knocked a thermos off the counter, and Rick jumped, whirling around instinctively until he realized the source of the noise. He was, at least, relieved to see that Dixon and the others startled, too, before quickly returning to their tasks.

Dixon nodded his head towards the tracker. "It's moving."

Abraham frowned, still shuffling forward. "Which way?"

Andrea's voice was a little higher-pitched when she spoke, but she stayed calm. "It's coming straight for us."