Carol appeared at the doorway, smiling at the two of them as she leaned against the wall.
"I haven't had a chance to say, I'm glad you came back."
"To what? All this?" Daryl motioned at the cell that's seen better days. He loves these people, but they can all agree that this place isn't a 5 star hotel. It's barely even a motel that you'd probably find a serial killer at.
Carol took a seat next to the bed. "This is our home."
The corner of Daryl's lip quirked up in slight pity for the sentiment. "This is a tomb."
Eve pursed her lips, dead serious and eyes shining. "Does that mean we're tomb raiders? Cause I'm fine with that."
Daryl and Carol both snorted and Daryl knocked his shoulder against Eve's. She beamed at him and the moment of light faded back into silence and Eve sensed that Carol wanted to talk to Daryl alone.
Carol is to Daryl as Glenn is to Eve. They're together but they still have other people they're close with, so Eve stood up and motioned at the door, letting him know she was gonna take her leave.
Daryl nodded gratefully — after spending a day with his brother, he's even more grateful that they don't need to speak to understand and called after her, "Let me know how the kid's doin."
Eve flashed another uplifting smile and waved to Carol before leaving. She's got some stuff to do anyway, and like Daryl predicted, she wants to check on Randall.
Carol smiled after her and spoke up after they were alone. "He's your brother, but he's not good for you. Don't let him bring you down."
"After all, look how far you've come." Carol motioned at him and at the door where Eve just left. She's a remarkable person and Daryl helped her become it, just as she helped Daryl get to where he is today. It would break her heart to see him backslide because of his brother.
They shared a moment of tacit silence, both struggling to hold back smiles before they finally snorted. Daryl's ears were a little red and Carol's heart warmed at the little smile on his face.
Coming down the stairs, Eve found most of the group back from their tasks, Rick crouched over the bag of guns that has come just as far as they have but looking emptier than ever.
They nodded to each other in tacit understanding that it's almost time to have one of the most important and difficult conversations of their lives: What should they do?
Eve went to Randall's cell and found Hershel still inside. She nodded to him when he looked up and he got his crutches together to stand.
Randall was on the bed, breathing deep and slow, almost peaceful if it wasn't for the layers of gauze on his leg and the drying sweat matting his fringe to his pale forehead.
The group was waiting for them already and Eve glanced up to see those upstairs leaning against the rails too, it seems everyone already understood to gather up once Eve came down here.
Eve did a quick headcount to make sure everybody is here, and she wanted to make this fast because they have no one on watch right now.
She doesn't think they'll be attacked again tonight; it would be odd and illogical if Woodbury decided to, but she'll never accuse human begins of being logical again. They've been surprised once already; she won't make the same mistake again.
Hershel updated everyone on Randall's condition. "He's asleep now but if he pulls through, it'll take weeks for him to heal. Same with Tiny." Hershel motioned at the big man whose arm has been properly stitched up and treated.
Eve waited until Hershel sat down on the stairs before starting. Their options are few and simple, but simple does not mean easy. She didn't waste time by beating around the bush or using more words than necessary.
"We have three options. Majority will rule even though we'll prepare for all three, but be advised, our decision could change at any moment when the cards start to fall. If it gets too hairy, I'll pull the plug and we'll abandon the prison."
Everyone nodded, even Merle on the other side of the locked cell-block gate gave his undivided attention like a soldier to a commanding officer.
He ain't stupid, he realized black cherry here is in charge as soon as they showed up here. When she took over the reins, he had no idea, but Daryl didn't mention it, and before Daryl came with him, it looked like Rick was still in charge so who knows.
Eve looked around the room as she spoke, "We can stand our ground, take the fight to them, or flee."
Nobody needed an invitation to give their thoughts on the matter and the first to get there was Rick, followed closely by Glenn and Hershel. Then the arguing of opinions began, as anticipated, while Eve stood quietly and listened.
They went back and forth for a long time, everyone expressing their opinions, their concerns, and most importantly their ideas.
In this circumstance, Eve personally was inclined to leave this cursed cinder block — or tomb as Daryl put it — but she doubts half the group will let this go, even if they make a clean getaway from this fight.
The four strongest voices in the room though were Rick & Glenn advocating to stay, and Hershel & T-dog advocating to leave.
"We can't stay here." Hershel punctuated for the last time.
"We're not leavin'." Rick pushed back.
"What if there's another sniper? A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds." Maggie made a good point.
"We can't even go outside." Beth joined.
"Not in the daylight." Carol tacked on.
"We're not running." Glenn argued.
"Nah. Better to live like rats." Merle sarcastically agreed.
"You got a better idea?" Rick sassed as most of the room's attention cast down that way.
"Yeah, we should'a slid outta here last night, lived to fight another day, but we lost that window, didn't we?"
"I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now." Merle leaned on the door with one elbow, his hand languidly dangling through the bars.
"We ain't scared of that prick." Daryl spoke up for the first time.
"Y'all should be." Merle unexpectedly refuted in a serious manner. There aren't many people that Merle shows any form of respect to but that alone was enough to prove how wary they should be.
Eve sighed, slotting her teeth together; not quite clenched but not relaxed either.
They've really made their nest out of brambles this time. However, Merle made a good point and Eve's attention shifted to him, unexpectedly, waiting for him to continue. As if he needed an invitation.
"That truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he's got the guns and the numbers, and if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot," Merle shook his head, lip curling in disdain. "He could just starve us out if he wanted to."
"Let's put him in the other cell-block." Maggie angrily twisted the cloth in her hands, nervous and agitated but Daryl — who has clearer sight about his brother — refuted.
"No. He's got a point."
Maggie turned to face Merle and got louder as she spoke, almost to the point of shouting. "This is all you, you started this!"
"What's the difference whose fault it is. What do we do?" Beth got tired of the merry-go-round they've been doing for the last ten minutes and looked to Eve.
It would be a lie if Eve said she hadn't considered starvation and other factors like it. It's why she wanted to take another look at their supply lists again. She disregarded the idea when she first thought of it yesterday, because she didn't think Woodbury was that capable or had that many more cards to play but after this ambush, she wouldn't put anything past these people. They'll get pushed into an inescapable box if she's not careful.
With that in mind, every consideration, speculation, and theory she dismissed was put back on the table. A single glance at this mental table and she had to withhold another sigh. There's too many to consider, much less plan for. It's too complicated, she needs to simplify the problem.
She needs a better idea of who she's up against, she needs information. That means…
Eve's eyes turned to Merle again.
Daryl took notice of Eve's gaze and watched for a moment, seeing if he could read the gears turning in her head but it seems they're turning slowly right now, and he wasn't able to decipher it. He was able to see that it had something to do with Merle, which was unexpected.
Eve's gaze unknowingly slid to the floor, the deeper she thought, the arguing getting more heated without her notice.
"I said we should leave. Randall and Tiny were shot, Randall was almost killed. We can' . ."
"This place is like a maze of the dead. We stay here any longer, we're gonna end up becoming part of it." T-Dog agreed.
Eve's eyebrows suddenly relaxed. A maze of the dead...
Eve looked up suddenly and patted her pockets before looking around.
"What do you need?" Daryl asked above her.
Eve tilted her head back and he almost didn't hear her over the rising arguments.
"Notebook."
Eve went for the stairs as Daryl quickly went around Carol to their sleeping area and dug into Eve's bag, grabbing her notebooks and a pen.
As soon as he had them, he carefully tossed them one at a time to her over the heads of everyone on the stairs. Eve caught them in succession, the only thing she didn't manage to catch was the pen and it bounced off her hand and rolled off. T-Dog picked it up quickly and handed it to her before she straight away sat on the floor and started writing.
By then several people — not including those involved in the heated arguments — noticed her madly scribbling, pausing to think every so often and twirl the pen around her fingers like a tangible representation of the gears inside her head. When the pen went faster, she was thinking, when it became slower it wouldn't be long before she started writing again.
Daryl got down the stairs and stood above her, leaning over her with his hands against his knees and for the first time, he realized how awful her handwriting is when she's thinking too fast and not trying to make it legible.
He couldn't recognize a single letter; he wasn't even sure those were letters.
Eve's mind cycled through their options, coming up with and discarding plans one after another within a single thought. Not enough bullets, too many walkers, too many variables, too risky, not enough information, too many people, not enough cars, don't know the area well enough, again not enough ammo, and so on.
The group finally reached one agreement while she scribbled away on the floor. Most of the plans they made yesterday are still usable, in fact if they had been in place before the ambush, they wouldn't have been hit this badly.
Their mistake was underestimating Woodbury's initiative. They didn't anticipate the Governor taking the risk to attack so soon with the little information they had.
It was a damn risky play for them to just roll in like that, not knowing what they were up against on the chance that Glenn had lied about what he told them – which was more likely given that torture never gets credible info. They took the gamble though and unfortunately, it paid off for them.
At least Woodbury were forced to retreat before they got a chance to strike while the iron was hot.
As much as Eve hates to admit it, that crashing through the fence thing was clever.
Weaponizing walkers; twisted but effective.
They burned through most of their bullets this fight. Traps will certainly help but they won't cut it anymore, and they've lost a lot of their advantages being caught unaware.
Eve rubbed her forehead with a deep sigh. Every good idea she's had to discard seems to come down to one thing: not enough of something, and most of them are firepower and information.
Naturally, her mind steered towards answering that question.
Where and how can they get this stuff?
Eve ran her hands through her hair vigorously, scratching her scalp. The tip of the pen tapping the paper.
Several strategies for all their options stuck with her and she wrote them down, pros and cons lists. They were her best and brightest but all of them were lacking something, even if they were feasible there was a considerable amount of risk involved. Without more resources, someone would have to be willing to die to make these work.
Eve was a little shocked with herself as she realized that if this had happened while they were at the farm, she would have accepted the risk herself without much further thought, but now… she's not willing to put herself in that position or let anyone take the risk.
She's not sure when exactly she changed — when she became unwilling to take the gamble herself. She hasn't lost faith in her abilities, she just...
She couldn't help glancing at the man next to her, Glenn across from her and Randall asleep in the cell behind him, at the kids (Carl, Beth, and Judith) sitting on the staircase.
Inside she already knew the reason she wasn't even considering taking the risk even though it seemed like the only way out of this, and it had nothing to do with her or her faith in herself.
That valuable lesson she learned from Glenn came back to her for the second time. You don't die for those you love; you live for them.
Eve has known for a long time that she would die for anyone, but she only just realized that she won't live for just anyone.
Whether she should be concerned for the lack of value she placed on her own life and what that meant about her own state of mind, was a thought for another day.
Seeing Eve's mind consumed and the gears turning, Rick and Daryl both shared a look and nodded to one another.
It's too dangerous to continue this, so they dispersed the discussion, and everyone who wasn't really participating anymore — just listening — went back to what they should be doing. No one really had any complaints, they weren't blind. They could see things were well in hand and that everyone who was still involved would keep working on it.
Eve's behavior gave them some peace of mind. She wouldn't opt out of listening if it were not important. It's getting easier for them to tell when she's got something because she goes into her own little world, barely aware of her surroundings.
Eve only looked up and noticed that people had left when Daryl tapped her on the shoulder.
"Come on." He motioned at her, picking up her other notebooks and helped her up, moving her to the back end of the cell-block where only the few who were still involved in this discussion were gathering up to have a more civil discussion amongst themselves.
Eve didn't feel good about tuning out of the whole thing when she had an idea, what with her new position of responsibility, but old habits die hard and it wasn't like she was spacing out. Like Daryl said though, no one said she had to lead alone, perhaps the only real change necessary was bringing down the Ricktatorship and transferring the power of final say over to her.
A more than one leader system seems to be the most effective, looking back, that's how they've made all their best decisions in the past. Too many voices clog the pipes, like they experienced with the debate over Randall's life, but not enough voices led to Rick cracking like a walnut. It's all about balance.
If you think about it, throughout history it's worked the same way. Even monarchies still had advisors and courts to help rule and provide information to make decisions. The captain may decide their heading and steer a ship, but it takes a first mate and a whole lot of others to set sail.
Their little group runs more like a pirate ship than a governing body. They don't have enough people for that, and they made the mistake of trying to use methods that are meant to manage large groups of people, not small ones. Which is why it kept breaking down.
Why did she have this revelation seemingly out of nowhere? Only the heavens and the earth would know, but she's glad she did. It shifted her mentality towards her position of leadership just enough that as she sat down on the other side of the staircase, the weight on her shoulders lifted a noticeable degree.
Nobody bothered her as she was thinking even though they were very curious as to what she had come up with. Whatever it was, it seemed complicated but for some reason instead of being intimidating, it gave one a sense of hope and surety.
A few minutes later Eve reached a standstill and with good timing, Rick came back from who knows where, followed closely by Daryl coming down the stairs behind her. She hadn't even noticed that he'd gone up, but he no longer had the notebooks she wasn't using in his hands.
"Fields filled with walkers. I didn't see any snipers out there, but we'll keep Maggie on watch." Rick returned a rifle to the cell Glenn was crouched in before they both came over.
"I'll get up in the guard tower, take out half them walkers, give these guys a chance to fix the fence." Daryl suggested/volunteered.
"Or use the cars to put the bus in place." Michonne suggested.
Eve immediately shook her head.
If they use the cars to put the bus in place they'll really be trapped in here; boxed in of their own accord.
The turtle-shell method would indeed be incredibly effective in a place like this, but only if they were a snapping turtle, capable of defending it, not the squishy pet they are right now.
Hershel slowly shook his head as well. "We can't access the field without burning through our bullets."
"So we're trapped in here. There's barely any food or ammo."
Not necessarily. We can use the cars to get out if we need to. If we go slow enough, we'll be able to bump walkers out of the way, or we could use Daryl's motorcycle to zip between them and lead them out. Eve shook her head to herself. Too risky if the roads are being watched.
"We been here before. We'll be alright." Daryl absently said it, like it was a sure thing and the corner of Eve's lip unconsciously quirked up.
"That's when it was just us." Glenn argued. "Before there was a snake in the nest."
Daryl looked at him. "Man, we gonna go through this again? Look Merle's stayin here. He's with us now. Get used to it."
"Hey." Rick tried to step in and reach out to Daryl's arm, but Daryl stepped away and continued.
"All y'all."
Daryl went up the stairs fast, but Eve didn't go after him. She looked at Glenn with disapproving eyes.
"Seriously, Eve. I don't think Merle living here is really gonna fly." Glenn was angry. He had every right to be after everything Merle has done to them.
Eve wouldn't even humor someone by saying that Merle is not directly at fault for this mess, but it seems she's the only one who remembers what he used to be like.
She's never seen him even try to get along with others, even if that just meant keeping his mouth shut over adding fuel to a fire. Yet she's noticed several times now that he's largely been keeping quiet. Trying to play nice. It's obvious that he's aware he's on paper thin ice here but he wants to stay. More precisely, he wants to stay with his brother.
It was alarming at first to see him not spraying lighter fluid over sparks and it would be a lie if she had said she wasn't a little suspicious, but after watching him for a little while, she's starting to figure out what's going through his head. Thank goodness Merle isn't the type who is good at concealing how he feels.
However, the problem at hand isn't Merle and Eve has been aware of that from the start. The problem is Maggie. Specifically, what happened to her while they were imprisoned after Merle captured them.
Eve doesn't know the details, but she knows that that's the real reason Glenn is upset.
Eve stood up and looked at Glenn seriously so he would know that she's not taking his and Maggie's feelings lightly. "We need him. He's the only one who knows how Woodbury and the Governor operate."
"I wouldn't ask you to live with Shane after what he did to you and Rick."
"Merle has military experience. He may be erratic, but don't underestimate his loyalty to his brother." Hershel backed her up and it seems he noticed Merle's behavior too, despite never having met him before.
"What if we solve both problems at once?" Glenn proposed suddenly. "Deliver Merle to the Governor. Bargaining chip. Give him his traitor, maybe declare a truce."
Eve shook her head. "He won't let us go. He's not the type."
She looked Glenn solidly in the eyes, knowing he wasn't thinking this through clearly, he was blinded by his desire to get rid of Merle and vent his anger on something. Get some sort of justice even if it's small.
"Answer me honestly. Would you or Maggie be able to live with the knowledge that the Governor was still nearby, even if we declared a truce?"
Glenn had nothing to say. He looked down, clenching his teeth and fingers until both ached like they were going to crack.
"I know you want revenge. I know you want it so badly that you're willing to take anything you can get right now, but nothing you do to Merle, whether he's here with us or not, will be able to scratch that itch."
"We're in for a fight. This psychopath isn't gonna honor any deal we put forth. Even if they offered us one, I doubt they would honor it. We kicked over the gas can when we moved into their backyard and Merle just so happened to be the spark that ignited it, but sooner or later something would have."
"This isn't a problem that's gonna be solved by negotiating. If someone else oversaw Woodbury, then maybe, but we've seen how this guy operates. Merle knows he thinks, and thanks to Michonne we know the kinds of things he does. These are not the actions of a stable mind. Weaponizing walkers is one thing, but this Governor is even more erratic than Merle, and twice as ruthless." Eve shook her head. "He won't let this go even if we offered a complete surrender."
Her eyes turned to the other end of the cell-block, where Merle was no longer standing at the gate.
She may not know exactly what to do right now, but she has an idea of how to figure it out.
She looked back to Glenn. "I know it's not gonna be easy, and I'm sorry that I have to ask this of you but stay away from him for now. Right now, he's of use to us. Once we deal with the Governor and Woodbury, we'll talk about what to do with him."
Glen clenched his teeth, glancing at Merle and then back to Eve. "You swear?"
Eve held up her pinkie. Glenn almost rolled his eyes, and the corner of his mouth would have quirked up if he weren't so angry. Instead he wrapped his pinkie around hers and was satiated for now. Eve never breaks a promise, and she doesn't make promises she can't keep.
"Go cool off and then talk to Maggie. I know you've been fighting."
Glenn's eyes widened a little in surprise and Eve gave him a look, like really? The blind would have known things have been in a rocky spot since they escaped Woodbury. "Go. Work things out. I can't stand your awkward vibes anymore."
Glenn scoffed with more amusement than he thought he was capable of right now. With just this talk it felt like the lid had been cracked on some pressure pot. He was still steaming but he didn't feel like he was gonna burst anymore. Not now at least.
Glenn left and Eve "dismissed" the rest of this conversation, motioning Rick & Michonne to come with her as she walked away. She has an idea she wants to run past him, but first she needs to go talk to Daryl.
"Meet me by the tombs, grab T-dog too."
Rick nodded at her simple orders, knowing as soon as she had put her hand on the staircase rail that she was going to talk to Daryl.
"I've got to hand it to her. Woman's good at putting out fires." Michonne commented to Rick privately as they walked. Eve may have been talking to Glenn just now, but he wasn't the only one who cooled off after that convincing little speech. Michonne's never met someone so clear sighted, and from what she could tell, Eve's not even angry that Merle also took her and got Daryl captured.
Michonne was mistaken in this though. Eve was angry, she just has far more tolerance and greater control over her emotions. Something that only comes with practice, and in this case, motivation.
For Daryl's sake she will tolerate Merle, she'll even carve out a space for him in the group no matter how difficult it is, but it's doubtful that she'll ever like the man. They don't have the privilege of getting to choose who they live with anymore.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you next chp!
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