Chapter 45

With a thrum the bolt left the crossbow and buried itself behind the front shoulder of a small doe. She bolted, her white tail flashing brightly as she bounded between the trees. Daryl lowered his bow and waited for the wound he'd just inflicted to do its work. She wouldn't get far.

Trudging off in the direction she'd run, Daryl collected his arrow, wiping the pink, frothy blood onto his pants and loaded it back into his bow. It had been awhile since they'd had a deer, and it sure as shit beat the dog they'd eaten the day before.

He found her dead, about 150 yards away. For the amount of noise she made crashing through the trees in her frantic bid to escape, Daryl was surprised there wasn't a walker on her already. His bow still in front of him he cautiously scanned the trees, watching for movement, straining to hear the sounds of a groan or a decaying foot being dragged through the fallen leaves on the forest floor. Nothing. Satisfied, he bent to grab her legs when the peak of a green pitched roof caught his eye from between the branches.

The roof sat high on top of an old, narrow hunting cabin encircled by the trees and only accessible on foot. There were no roads maring the wilderness here. If it hadn't been for the path of the doe, Daryl wouldn't have wandered this deep into the woods himself. Dragging his kill behind him he approached the cabin cautiously.

He had left the cellar that morning with the sole purpose of finding them a place to get off the road. Nothing permanent, that could take awhile, just a place they could sleep for a few nights, rest and recuperate from the last few days and say goodbye to those moving on to DC without them. They'd started the journey from Georgia with 17 and now Hershel and Tara were dead. Sasha had left that morning, slipping into the trees wordlessly. Daryl doubted they'd ever see her again. It was probably for the best, he wasn't sure if they could all forgive her for killing Tara like she did, even if he understood why she did it. They'd barely survived the last few days and he'd blame himself forever if something happened to Kate. She begged him last night to get them off the road and that's exactly what he planned to do.

It hadn't taken him long to find something he thought would work. A small brick building that, before the dead, had served as a Visitor's Center for a Civil War battlefield. Old canons and monuments dotted the overgrown lawn around it and on the walls inside hung paintings of the battle that had been fought here. It was more conspicuous than he'd hoped and it certainly wouldn't be their long term solution, but he thought it would do. Then he saw the doe and he thought how they could all use something good to eat, and maybe it would soften the blow when the rest of them found out he and Kate weren't continuing on to DC.

Now standing in front of this old log cabin he was hoping he'd found something better to offer her than the visitor's center, something more permanent. A home.

The cabin was very old and very rustic. There was no evidence that it had ever seen electricity or indoor plumbing - for all the good those things did these days. It sat up on stilts, that kept it level on the sloping land. From the front porch the ground laid a good six feet below, which Daryl thought could be excellent in keeping the walkers away.

He climbed the narrow, wooden steps that stood on the left side of the porch. The front door was newer than the rest of the building and a large deer skull hung over it, its antlers branching widely. He knocked loudly. Silence. He tried the handle and it didn't turn. He eyed the single window on the front of the cabin, but didn't think he'd fit. An old worn welcome mat sat in front of the door and Daryl flipped a corner of it up with his boot, revealing a silver key on a red plastic keychain. Daryl smirked and bent to pick it up.

The inside of the cabin consisted of one narrow room, probably no more than 12 feet wide. On the wall to the left was a wood burning stove and on the long wall across from it was a crude, but sturdy counter. Crossing the well-worn floorboards he examined what had been left when the last deer hunter had closed it up for the season. The shelves that hung on the wall were lined with a variety of items - an old oil lamp and a jug of KleanHeat oil lamp fuel, a half used roll of paper towels, two bottles of rye (one mostly finished) and a box of sticky mouse traps. Underneath the wooden shelves were hooks where several mismatched coffee mugs, a cast iron pan and a metal spatula hung. Kneeling down to look beneath the counter, he found a bottle of 409, some WD40 and an empty trash bin that sat next to a plastic bucket with some more cleaning supplies.

Aside from that it was pretty bare, no furniture except for a couple of old dining room chairs. There was a small window on each of the four walls and Daryl was pleased to see they each had a sturdy shutter, the type of shutter that was helpful for more than just keeping out the light. They'd have some work to do, but it wouldn't be hard to secure it.

There was no ceiling, and you could see past the rafters to the insulation that lined the high pitched roof, except for about a third of the space at the far end of the cabin where a small loft had been built. Daryl climbed the ladder to find an old feather tick mattress spread out over a space that was about the same size as their cell back at the prison. In the corner two plastic bins were stacked on top of each other and Daryl pawed through them finding sheets, a quilt, pillows and some towels.

Climbing down he crossed the cabin and walked out the front door, making sure to lock it behind him. Instead of returning the key to its place under the mat, Daryl slipped it in his pocket.

The journey back to the group was long and difficult. He'd tracked the deer further than he'd realized and with the added burden of dragging it back with him, on a tarp he'd snatched from the cabin's woodpile on the porch, it was exhausting. He passed the time imagining the possibilities for the cabin. The trickiest part of the place was how remote it was, how hard it would be to get supplies in with no access road. But that was also the best part of it and Daryl knew it was a small price to pay for the security.

There had been fishing poles leaning next to the door inside the cabin, so he thought there was a pretty good chance that there was a stream or lake nearby. There was certainly game in the woods and he'd found the black and white striped feather of a turkey in the leaves when he was field dressing the deer. The prospect of telling Kate about what he had found kept him moving quickly towards the cellar where he'd left her that morning and by mid-afternoon he approached the devastated farmhouse, still pulling the doe behind him. He let up a shrill whistle to announce his return and was greeted with the site of Kate as she came out of the trees fifty yards away, her heavy, blonde braid swinging out behind her as she broke into a jog as she drew near.

He dropped the doe and Kate fell against him, hugging him around the waist and pressing her cheek against his chest. It didn't matter how many times they'd reunited like this after Daryl was out on a run, it still thrilled him that someone cared that he ever came back. He kissed the top of her head and she tilted her face up so he could reach her mouth.

"You got a deer!" She whispered quietly against his lips, smiling briefly before kissing him again.

"Mmhmm." He smiled back, not trying to hide how hopeful and happy he felt in this moment. He couldn't help it. "I got something to tell you."

"I've got something to tell you too." She said.

He stilled at the serious tone in her voice, something had changed since he'd been gone.

"You first." He said.

"There's a man over there with the others. He's the one that left the water for us."

Daryl's entire demeanor changed in an instant. Stiffening, he started to move towards the trees, his arm reaching back for his bow.

"Wait, Daryl." She said, pressing her open hand against his chest to prevent him from charging over.

He stopped, his jaw grinding his teeth together, his lips in a tight line.

"Just listen to me first, ok? He says he has a community. They have walls, homes, food. He brought more water, canned food and apple sauce from trees they have. He wants to bring us there."

"Why?" He said, his voice full of the anger and fear he felt balling up in the middle of his chest.

"They need people. Says he knows we're good."

Daryl snorted. "He don't know us."

"Daryl, we are good people."

He looked at her darkly.

"What'd Rick say?"

"I think he's waiting for you. He doesn't like the idea, but, Michonne wants to go, I think some of the others do too, but if you said you didn't trust it…"

"I don't Kate." He said, cutting her off. "Don't make any sense."

Kate looked up at him desperately and he realized in that moment what this was about. What she was asking of him and his vision of a life in the cabin crumbled.

"I know. But Daryl, please, I want to go."

Kate

Daryl left the deer on the ground and stalked over to the trees. Kate had to walk quickly to keep up. As soon as she'd mentioned a stranger in the camp he'd transformed into the angry, primal version of himself that everyone who met Daryl got to know first. Rejoining the group, he ignored the questions about the deer and narrowed in on the man like a predator.

Rick, who himself had never looked more like a wild animal than he did now, with his bushy beard and his wild blue eyes shining out of his sun-browned skin, still stood menacingly over Aaron who was sitting on the ground with his hands tied behind his back. He exchanged an ominous look with Daryl, who crossed the forest floor to stand next to him. His brother in arms.

Both men stared down at Aaron, who looked out of place with his clean, button down shirt tucked neatly into his pants. Kate thought he looked like a man on his way to church, even his hair was neatly trimmed as if he'd been running errands over the weekend and stopped into the barber shop for a cut. A stark contrast to the men who stood above him, unkempt and dirty. The only thing out of place on Aaron was the purplish bruise on the corner of his mouth where Rick had knocked him out.

"Says he has a camp." Rick said, in way of introduction. "Wants us to join him. He's been following us."

"It's a community really, not so much a camp." Aaron interjected a little too cheerily for a man tied up. "It's Daryl, isn't it?"

Kate cringed inwardly. Daryl wouldn't like the unearned familiarity.

Daryl answered with a glare.

"It's just him?" Daryl asked, his voice gritty and deep.

Rick turned his back to Aaron and spoke to Daryl in a low voice.

"Says he's got a man with him, but we haven't found him. I've got Abe and Rosita out looking. He told us they parked an RV and a car down the road. I sent a group out earlier and it's like he says. We've been patrolling in groups, haven't seen anyone else."

Daryl sighed and paced in front of Aaron, chewing the inside of his cheek. He spared one frustrated look at Kate. She knew she was asking him to go against his instincts. Instincts that had kept them alive all this time.

"I have photos, if you want to see them." Aaron tried with Daryl again.

Kate spotted Aaron's pack on the ground and dug out the big envelope with the black and white photos of the walls and the houses. She'd been looking at them all afternoon and she hoped that if Daryl looked at them too he would feel the hope that she did. She handed them to him. He glanced dismissively at the photo on top before tossing them at Aaron's feet where they scattered in the dirt.

Aaron was undeterred.

"Those walls," He started motioning with a nod of his head at the photo closest to him. "Solid steel. Fifteen feet high and 12-feet wide. They were found at an abandoned construction site. A man in our community, Reg, he's an architectural professor or he was anyway. He designed it. Nothing can get in without us allowing it."

Daryl ignored him.

"How far is this place?" He asked Rick.

"He said if we leave soon we could be there in 3-4 hours."

"What's the call?" He asked Rick.

"We need to do this." Michonne interjected. There was icy determination in her voice, and desperation too. She wanted this as badly as Kate did. "So we're going. All of us."

Rick looked at Daryl and Daryl shrugged.

"Nothin' else for us out here." He lied.

Rick shook his head in frustration.

"Fine." He conceded. He turned to face Aaron. "But first we're gonna need your man."

Daryl

There was a flare gun in Aaron's bag and Rick stood in the middle of the field and shot it into the air. Satisfied with the result, he jogged into the trees and crouched down next to Daryl and waited. They still weren't sure that the flare gun wasn't meant to call in whatever army Aaron might have lurking nearby and so the rest of the group waited a mile away in an old barn with strict orders to keep an eye on Aaron at all times.

Rick's plan to coax this man out of the woods had elicited more fear from Aaron than anything that had happened to him in their company so far, so Daryl was confident there would only be a single person running to meet the signal, but still they waited, their weapons ready.

"When we first got to Terminus, when we were outside of the gates," Rick asked without taking his eyes off the field. "What did you think?"

Daryl remembered when they first came up on the fences, full of hope that it was here that they'd find their group. That he would find Kate. He had expected a bustle of activity, but they'd first found the sprawling grounds empty.

"I wondered where the hell everyone was. The signs said community."

Rick looked at him and nodded.

"What about the prison? When you'd come back from a run, did it seem like a community?"

The thought of the prison caused Daryl pain. Coming home, to the only home he'd ever had, was always a good thing for him. He pictured Kate kneeling in the garden, standing to greet him when she'd hear the car or the roar of his bike return. There would always be people at the fences putting down walkers and manning the gates. If you watched long enough you'd see others eating in the courtyard and kids running around the grounds.

He nodded.

"I asked Michonne the same thing." Rick explained. "I guess that's what we look for when we get there. We don't go in if it's like it was at Terminus."

Before Daryl could answer a man came tearing across the field.

"Aaron!?" He shouted in a frantic and frightened voice. "AARON?!"

Rick and Daryl emerged from the trees, pointed their weapons at the man and he turned to run.

"Drop your weapon. On your knees." Rick boomed.

Daryl and Rick returned to the barn and threw the man on the ground.

"Eric!" Aaron gasped, his voice breaking. "Oh God are you hurt?"

He tried to get up and go to his friend, but Rick shouted for him to stay on the ground.

Eric nodded his head, turning a painful wince into a smile. "I'm fine. Twisted my ankle."

"The idiot tried to run when he saw us and got caught up in a gopher hole." Rick explained.

"When I saw the flare, I was frightened." Eric said to Aaron. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's ok." Aaron said gently. "It's not your fault. They're good people, they're just trying to protect themselves."

Daryl watched the exchange between the two men with curiosity. Aaron, who'd tried to stay so calm and disarming throughout his time with them, suddenly seemed nervous and protective. Eric hardly seemed battle tested and yet this was who Aaron had backing him up as he introduced himself to groups of armed strangers. The situation was making even less sense to Daryl than it did before.

"Alright." Rick addressed the group. "We stay here for the night. Glenn and Maggie, you've got watch."

Kate

The sun had barely come up and they were already on the road. There had been some discussion as to who would go in which vehicle, with Rick first asking Glenn to drive the car while Maggie was in the RV. Glenn had refused. He and Maggie had spent enough time apart after the fall of the prison, they weren't going to risk being separated again.

In the end, Carol slid into the driver's seat of the old, white grandmotherly car Aaron had brought.

Rick led Aaron to the backseat, and acting every bit the cop he had been a long time ago, roughly pushed his head down as he forced him into the back of the car. Michonne slid in next to him.

"Follow at a distance." Rick instructed Abraham, as the rest of them piled into the RV. "If something happens to us on that road, you get the hell out of there. Get everyone to a safe place before you come after us. We all know where to meet up if we get seperated."

Abraham nodded and climbed up into the driver's seat and started the beast up.

The tension in the RV was palpable as they rode for miles in silence. Kate watched as Daryl paced until finally Judith started to fuss and Carl mercifully placed his baby sister in Daryl's arms. Carl, happy to have the freedom, sat at the dinette where Eugene had just finished a game of solitaire.

"Do you know how to play 7 card stud?" He asked the boy.

Carl shook his head and Eugene launched into a tedious explanation of the rules.

Across from them, on the small couch, sat Gabriel and Eric. Both men looked miserable and out of place. Kate left the small bedroom at the back of the RV where she'd been hiding out with Maggie, Beth and Glenn and took a seat between the two outcasts.

"How's your ankle?" She asked Eric. She still hadn't forgiven Gabriel for the things he had said to her, but she felt bad for Eric who looked frightened surrounded by strangers.

"Purple." He said, lifting it a few inches off the ground. His sock and shoe were off and his pant leg rolled up revealing his swollen, discolored joint.

Kate winced. "Do you want some aspirin or something?"

"Maggie gave me some this morning."

He smiled, but she could tell he was uncomfortable.

"It's going to be ok, you know. We really are good people."

Eric shook his head, but she wasn't sure he was convinced.

"We just have had bad luck with people promising one thing and then trying to kill us."

She said it lightheartedly even though it was the truth and Eric laughed.

"We're good people too." He said. "None of this is necessary, but I guess I understand."

He adjusted the black and white scarf that was tied around his neck. She was sure it was more fashion accessory than anything else and that simple fact alone was fascinating to her. Like Aaron, Eric was dressed in clean clothing, khaki pants and an olive green jacket, free of tears and fading. She looked down at her own clothes - stained with mud and blood and marvelled at the fact that these men looked untouched. It was like they were time travellers from before everything happened and she wondered how it was possible.

"So what's it like?" She asked.

"Alexandria?"

"Is that what it's called?"

He nodded. "It's really nice actually. It was this upscale, planned community before the sickness. When we're home it's easy to forget how bad it is out here, so getting tied up by strangers every once in a while is a welcome change."

It was her turn to laugh.

"How long have you lived there?"

"Aaron and I arrived there very early on. We were working in DC and trying to get to my parent's home when the army stopped us on the road. They directed us to the housing development. They were using it as a safe-zone and had set up some supplies, but they never came back."

"So you knew Aaron before?"

"Yes, we met at work." He paused. "We've been together for about 7 years now."

"Oh." She said, the realization that they were a couple made their interactions together make so much more sense.

"Aaron didn't mention we were a couple, did he?"

Kate shook her head.

"He worries. Not everyone is accepting."

"I get that." She said. Pointing to where Daryl stood at the kitchenette Kate added. "Daryl and I met after."

He looked over at Daryl as he stood holding Judith, dangling a silver key in front of her. Judith was giggling and reaching up her fat baby hands to grab it.

"He's cute."

"He's a girl." Kate corrected. "Judith."

"I meant Daryl."

They both laughed.

"Is she yours?"

"No, she belongs to Rick. We lost his wife in childbirth."

Eric's face fell. "That's terrible. I'm so sorry."

"It was awful." Kate agreed, looking nervously over at Carl. "Do you have a doctor at Alexandria?"

Eric brightened. "We do! Dr. Pete. He was a surgeon, he does amazing things for our community."

"That's good news. How many people do you have?"

"At last count we had 82, including the children."

"Wow! That's a lot."

"Hey you?" Rosita called out from the passenger chair. "What's your name? Eric?"

Eric looked alarmed, but shook his head.

"Come look at this map and tell me how much further we are."

Kate helped Eric up and he hopped on one foot to stand between the captain's chairs and leaned over to study Rosita's map. Kate joined Daryl in the kitchenette, giving Judith a tickle.

"Did you hear what he was saying about the community? They have a doctor and…"

He cut her off. "And 82 fucking people."

She gave him a questioning look before he continued on.

"Why the fuck does a community with that many people claim they need to recruit more?"