Alexandria

"He had a picture of you," the girl said, pointing to RickyJo. Everyone turned to look at her, making her feel shy and embarassed again. The older woman that had been taking to the woman that helped her escape came over and took her hand. She set the girl down in a chair next to RickyJo.

"What's your name?," Deanna asked her. She had to think about it a minute, which made her feel crazy. Those men had been calling her girl. But that wasn't her name. She swallowed hard.

"Kim," she said. That was what her mother called her, before those men had raped and killed her.

"Hello Kim," Deanna said, trying to make the girl feel more comfortable. "I'm Deanna, the leader of this group. It would help us if you could tell us what you know."

"Those men that took me," Kim said, "they found a backpack with pictures in it. Black and white ones. She was in one of them, holding that baby." She pointed to RickyJo.

"Aaron's pack," Daryl offered, "right before we found Morgan and Jess, we got swarmed by a herd and he dropped it. Had the pictures inside." Deanna nodded. Now this was starting to make more sense. RickyJo had been insisting the man was stalking her, but she had also insisted that she had never seen him before, which wasn't making a lot of sense. If it had been anyone else, Deanna would have thought she was just being hysterical.

"I fucking told Aaron I hate having my picture taken," RickyJo announced. Deanna tried hard not to laugh at that. This was clearly not Aaron's fault for taking her picture, RickyJo just liked to think of reasons to hate him for asking Daryl to go on the road and help him with the recruiting. Kim was looking at RickyJo again.

"He said you were his life mate," Kim told her. This kicked Merle off again. He had already been ranting and raving a few minutes before and Deanna had to scream at him to shut him up so she could hear RickyJo talk.

"Life mate? That fucker's life is over. I am going to stick my foot so far up his ass he is going to taste my feet. I am going to kill that fucker and let him turn then kill him again," he hollered. Deanna had heard just about enough of that to last her the rest of her life.

"Well then go on and go get them then," she suggested. The men looked surprised at first and then they started getting pumped up. They knew the group they were after was only four people and one of them was a woman. Rick started taking volunteers and putting together groups when RickyJo started yelling again.

"No!," she said, "he might already be inside the walls, waiting for you all to leave and go look for him." That creep had already snuck inside her house once, and even though the house had already been searched, she was afraid he might get in again. They had not seen the mad look in his eyes. That Derek guy was a few bricks short of a full house and there was no telling what he would do. After some debate, it was decided that everyone remaining in town was going to go to Deanna's house or stay at RickyJo's house. Abraham was staying at RickyJo's, with the kids and the girls, most of whom were also armed. And Tobin and Francine were staying at Deanna's to keep an eye on the people there. Everyone else was divided into two groups. One group was hunting the wolves, and the other group was looking for Sasha, who was still not back. Bob went with that group and Rosita with the other, so each group had a medic in case they found Sasha and she was hurt.

RickyJo would have been happier if Daryl or Merle would stay with her, but the two of them were practically foaming at the mouth to get out there and kick some ass. She knew Abraham wouldn't let anything happen to her. And she had Jessica there, plus Beth, Eugene and Carol. The kids were all staying too, although a few of them were angry to be treated as babies, especially Carl. He was a better shot than Michonne, and she was going. It just wasn't fair. Sammie felt the same, although she believed RickyJo when she said she thought the man was coming for them. Staying here and waiting felt just as scary as going out to hunt the other group.

Noah was watching the new girl. After Deanna had got done talking to her, she had moved over by the fireplace and was looking like she wished she could melt into the carpet and disappear. All the yelling had not scared him, but he knew these people. Merle always yelled, and Rick wasn't much better. Kim had looked at them like she was terrified, her eyes getting wider and wider as they yelled louder. She also looked like she might be have been pretty, before someone worked her face over for her. And she looked skinny. Too skinny. Like they had all looked when they had first gotten here. Noah walked over and tapped her on the shoulder. The girl just about jumped out of her skin.

"Sorry," he said, "I just thought you might be hungry. There's food in the kitchen." She gave him a blank stare for a minute and then got up. He took her hand and led her into the kitchen. Duane and Carl were already in there, scarfing down anything in sight and trying to talk Carol into making them something else to eat. Sammie was playing cards at the table with Cassie and Desiree. Carol looked at Noah questioningly. "No one bothered to offer her anything to eat," he told Carol, "she looked hungry."

"You hungry?," Carol asked the girl. She nodded her head. "Go on and sit down at the table then," Carol told her, "I was just about to make something anyway." Duane and Carl fived each other.

"Will you make us cookies too?," Duane asked her.

"No," Carol told them firmly.

"Please?," Duane begged her. Carl was rubbing his head on her, making little puppy noises. She smacked at him, but he jumped back out of her reach.

"I don't have any chocolate," she told him.

"We can go get some," Carl offered.

"No one is supposed to leave," Desiree reminded him. Duane gave her the finger and mouthed shut up at her.

"We will be really quick," Carl added, ignoring Desiree, the little scare baby.

"We will take our guns," Duane said hopefully.

"I can go too," Noah offered, not wanting to seem scared in front of the new girl or Cassie.

"You better be back in ten minutes or I am telling Abraham you are gone," Carol told them. Now Duane was jumping up and down like a prarie dog. They all took off out the back door before Carol could change her mind and make them stay. Sammie laughed at them. Silly boys trying to act big and bad, going to steal some candy so momma Carol would make them cookies. Cassie poked at her under the table. Now that the boys were gone, she had a question for Sammie.

"You let Carl do it to you yet?," she asked her. Sammie turned bright red almost instantly. Carol looked at her. The answer to that question had better be no, but judging by the look on Sammie's face it might not be. She had been meaning to talk to Sammie, but she hadn't been in a hurry since she thought they were a little young to be going that far already. Carol walked over to the table and gave Sammie a serious look.

"You haven't been having intercourse with that boy, have you?," she asked her. The girls all looked at her and then all of them except the new girl burst into laughter. But the new girl did crack a smile. "What the hell is so funny?," Carol demanded. This made them laugh harder, since it was obviously the word intercourse that just sounded ridiculous. Cassie put one foot up on her chair, spreading her legs and throwing her head back.

"Next time I see Spencer," she said, "Intercourse me baby!" Desiree was staring at her sister with her mouth open and Sammie was laughing so hard now her face was turning even redder than before.

"For christssakes," Carol grumbled. These girls were all nothing but boy crazy. She tried to remember if she had been that way at that age, but she didn't think so. Tossing her hands up in defeat, she went back to the casserole she was making. They could all hump their little brains out for all she cared. It did irritate her a little to think that a bunch of fourteen year olds were getting more action than her. Maybe that Tobin guy had not been so bad after all. Sammie looked at the new girl, Kim was her name if she heard right before.

"You were with the bad guys?," she asked her. Kim nodded. "They do that to your face?" She nodded again. "They rape you too?" Desiree sucked in her breath. No one had really told her what rape was, but she knew it was something bad that men did to women. Kim looked down at her hands.

"Yes," she said quietly. Sammie put her arm around the girl.

"Some men raped me too once," she told her, "but RickyJo and Daryl saved me. Some other people helped them... but they are all dead now." Kim felt her eyes start to fill with tears. It was the first time she really let herself think about the things those men had done to her. Sammie hugged the girl close and rubbed her back. "Have you had a shower yet?" Sammie asked her. She remembered that washing up had made her feel a lot better after her ordeal. Kim wiped at her face and shook her head. Sammie looked at Carol, who nodded to let her know they had plenty of time for the girl to wash up before they ate.

So Sammie took Kim by the hand and led her upstairs. Cassie and Desiree found some clean clothes for her. She was closest in height to RickyJo. RickyJo was sleeping on her bed with MJ in her arms, but Jessica said it was more than fine for them to take a few things for the girl. Cassie got her a soft pair of pants and a tank top, plus a big flannel to put on over it. Then she got some underwear and a bra from her own things for her. Even Jessica got involved, fixing Kim's hair and cutting her bangs so the marks on her head wouldn't show. When she looked in the mirror, Kim didn't recognize herself, but at least the girl looking back at her was starting to look like a normal person again.

Duane, Carl and Noah booked it down to the storage building. RickyJo's horse followed after them, sniffing at the boys and trying to decide which one it liked best. It seemed this person was Carl, since it started nibbling at his head and neck, knocking his hat off his head. Sammie rode the horse a lot and her scent lingered on the boy. Carl swatted at the horse, trying to get it to leave him alone. They were trying to move fast and sneaky and having a big noisy horse following them around wasn't helping. It followed them all the way to the storage building and then smelled something it must not have liked and took off like something bit it.

The place was locked up, but Duane jimmied the door so they could get in. He had seen his dad do it a thousand times before when they were looking for supplies. The boys ran in a got the chocolate out of the freezer. But there was a strange knocking sound coming from one of the closets. Carl moved to open the door, but Noah yanked him back. He had heard a lot of walkers, and that sounded like a walker.

"Get ready first," he said. Duane and Carl got their knives out. Noah pulled his and then put one hand on the door. He pulled it open about six inches and then jammed it with his foot. He could see an arm poking out, grabbing for them. "Who is it?," he asked. He was worried it was Sasha.

"It looks like that fat lady that always sits in here," Duane announced.

"Its not very nice to say she's fat," Noah told him, "especially if shes dead." Duane shrugged. Fat was fat and not saying it didn't make her any skinnier. And she looked like she was pretty far past caring about what anyone said anyway. Carl stepped forward and plunged his knife into the top of her head. Noah let go of the door and she spilled out onto the floor in front of them. Duane poked at her with his boot to turn her over onto her back.

"Yeah," Carl said, "that looks like Olivia. And someone carved her head up like that girl Kim was carved up."

"I bet the wolves did it," Duane said, excited to have figured out the mystery. Noah was looking like he might be sick. Knowing who killed her didn't make her stink any less.

"I think we better get back," Carl told them. Both boys nodded and then ran back to the house like someone was chasing them. They burst in the backdoor and almost scared Carol half to death. How three out of breath boys managed to all yell at her at the same time, she didn't know. But the gist of the excitement was that they had found Olivia dead in the storage building and the wolves had done it. Abraham had come into the kitchen doorway to listen.

"You think they might have just done it?," he asked. Noah thought about it and shook his head.

"She stunk pretty bad," he said, "I bet they did it yesterday when they were sneaking around here." Abraham nodded. He felt bad for the woman. No one had even noticed she was missing. And he was scared for Sasha. Things were looking worse and worse for her. But he was more worried that the wolves had been in the storage area where they kept all their guns and ammunition. One more reason why it was a bad idea to have all that stuff in one place. At the very least, they were all well armed now, with more than knives and guns with no ammo. And at the worst, they had disabled most of the weapons in the locker or screwed with the ammo somehow. He hoped they weren't that smart, but they had clearly been smart enough to sneak in there in the first place. Either way, there was nothing he could do now except sit tight. If there was a chance the wolves were inside the walls, he wasn't going to leave these people unprotected.

Rick followed behind Merle and Daryl. He couldn't see anything, but they looked like they knew were they were going. To them the trail was probably as easy to read as a street sign. Rick was having a hard time keeping his mind on the task at hand. He kept thinking about Beth being back at the house and whether or not it was safer to leave her there or bring her with him. She wanted to stay with Judith, so he had let her. It was probably safer there anyway, but he always felt best when she was with him and he could actually see her. Maybe it was because he was afraid they might get separated again like when the prison had fallen, or maybe he had just gotten used to keeping her close when they were on the road here.

Merle stomped into the campsite, cursing under his breath. Wherever those fuckers went, they were not stupid enough to stay here long after RickyJo got away. Just to be safe, he looked up and checked the trees, noticing that Michonne was doing the same. Daryl spotted a little blood on the gound next to the tree. It was dark and dried up by now, but it made him happy. RickyJo said she had gotten a few good ones in on those freaks before she ran. Guess she made at least one of them bleed. It made him a little sick to think about them holding her here against her will and what might have happened if she had not been able to get away. Merle kicked at the rabbit skins with his boot. Besides all the other crap these assholes did, they had ruined his hunt and ate his fucking dinner to boot.

The wolves had been walking in and out of the camp and all around the area, so it took a while to find the trail they took to leave. The first trail they followed looked like someone had been dragged down it. But what they found at the end of it was not the wolves, but something so terrible that Merle had to walk away behind a bush so he could sick up without everyone seeing him. Sasha was tied naked to a tree, her arms bound behind her. She had struggled so hard to get away that one of her shoulders was pulled out of the socket. There was a W carved into her forehead that had plainly been put there while she was still alive. A walker was crouching on the ground in front of her, still gnawing on a piece of her that it had ripped off while she was still alive. Now she was one of the undead, her eyes glassy, struggling at the bonds that held her to try and get to the people that used to be her family and now were only warm flesh to her.

It was Rosita and Michonne that had the stomach to put her down and cut her off the tree. None of the men could do it. They laid her down on the ground and covered her face with her shirt, which they had found a few feet away. Taking her back to camp and burying her would have to come later. Now more than ever, they needed to find the men that did this.