7:50 PM
Shirewilt Estates
Daryl's motorcycle purred down the sleepy suburban street at the front of the caravan to Shirewilt Estates. He revved forward when he saw the gates to the development had been busted wide open, and he could almost hear the anxiety in the engine of the military truck behind him, which Noah now drove frantically forward.
When Daryl burst through the opening, bumping over the iron gate that now lay on the street, he could see a few walkers were rambling inside. Carol drew her throwing knife as Daryl neared one. Aiming with one hand and holding onto him with one arm wrapped around his waist, she flicked her wrist and sent a blade flying into the forehead of the approaching creatures.
Both of Carol's arms surrounded Daryl again as he jerked to a hard stop. Carol slid forward into him, and then let go before dismounting. She drew her hunting knife and slayed another walker. Meanwhile, Daryl swung himself off the bike and grabbed his crossbow from the luggage rack. He whirled, aimed, and sent an arrow flying into the head of a third walker. By now, the other vehicles had stopped and everyone was spilling out of them armed.
Other than the walkers, and the sounds of their slaying, the neighborhood was still and quiet. The absence of sound was eerie as Dianne sent and arrow wooshing through the air into the far distance and straight into the head of another ambling creature. Gavin's suppressed rifle let out a muted sound as he dropped a final walker.
It was Noah's yell that rose above all these smaller sounds of slaying as he ran frantically toward his childhood home shouting, "Mom! Isaac! Isaiah!"
Daryl walked cautiously over to Carol, who was recovering her throwing knife from the first slain walker. Dianne, neck craned, stood beside her. The stern woman examined the walker, raised her head straight, and called, "Gavin!"
The ex-Savior strode quickly to her side and looked down where she pointed at the slain monster. "Jesus Christ," he muttered.
That was the man's favorite expletive, Daryl thought, but why he had uttered it now, he couldn't guess.
"Your recognize it?" Carol asked.
"Yeah," Gavin muttered. "José . He used to be on the council at the Sanctuary. We kicked him off and fined him for trading his vote for sexual favors. He left the Sanctuary after that. We didn't know where he went. What the hell is he doing here?"
Noah now ran back out of his house, shouting the names of his family members. A door to a different house opened and Isaac came running out. "Noah!"
Noah ran to his brother and embraced him, and then he embraced his emerging mother. More people spilled out of the house. It seemed the entire town had holed up in there. They were armed not with guns, but various crude weapons from tire irons to kitchen knives and baseball bats.
Noah looked over his mother's shoulder at the faces in the small crowd. "Where's Isaiah?"
Mrs. Johnson's jaw twitched. She swallowed hard.
A man in the crowd stepped forward and put a comforting hand on Mrs. Johnson's shoulder. "I'm going to repair the breach," he said, "and then I'll help dig your son's grave."
Noah's mother burst into sobs.
[*]
Barbwire was strung in several lawyers across the now open front gate area—forming enough of a new fence to keep stray walkers out for a night, but hardly a permanent solution. Isaiah and three other slain members of Shirewilt were buried in the growing graveyard in the field outside the community's clubhouse. Two men were put on guard for the night, with borrowed guns from Noah and Gavin. After all that, the newcomers finally learned what had happened here. They congregated in the Johnsons' living room to hear her story.
"They called themselves the Saviors," Mrs. Johnson explained from her rocking chair in front of the empty fireplace. Her sons Isaac and Noah stood on either side of her, with a hand on each of her shoulders. "They plowed through that gate with an eighteen wheeler truck and tore it clean off its hinges. Mr. Harrison was on guard, but they had some kind of automatic guns, and they were just spraying fire everywhere. They took him out, but he still got one of theirs." She looked at Gavin. "That man you call Jose."
Shirewilt attempted to fight back, but after two more armed people were shot dead, they dropped their weapons and surrendered just to stay alive. Every community member ended up on their knees in the street. In retribution for killing Jose, the leader of the group executed Noah's little brother Isaiah in cold blood in front of all of them.
"And then they didn't even take that man's body to bury," Mr. Johnson said bitterly. "The one they supposedly wanted vengeance for! They just left it to turn. But they took all of our guns and ammunition. All of it. And half our food. They said they'd be back next week, and every week, for ten percent of whatever we gathered produced, once a week, forever, and if we don't comply, we'll lose another community member, every time."
"Do you think Jose started this group?" Dianne asked Gavin.
Gavin shook his head. "I don't think he was capable. He was lecherous but I don't think he was that brutal or much of a leader. My guess? That ex-Savior we banished may have started it, and Jose may have fallen in with his group for protection."
"You know these evil people?" Mrs. Johnson spat.
"I know their type anyway. I know how they operate, and that they won't stop until you have nothing left."
"Didn't you used to be one of them?" Noah asked, fire in his eyes as he looked at Gavin.
"I'm not one of them," Gavin answered.
"How many?" Daryl asked. "How many were there?"
"Ten. Heavily armed," Isaac answered. That young boy stood straight behind his mother, as if he had to be a man to comfort her.
"So nine now?" Carol asked.
"They intimated they were part of a larger group," Mrs. Johnson answered.
Dianne and Gavin exchanged a wary look. "Any indication of just how many?" Gavin asked.
Mrs. Johnson shook her head. "They just said a larger group. They could have been lying, but they had plenty of guns between them."
"Maybe it would be better if Shirewilt just disappeared," Dianne suggested. "Like Cyndie wishes Hallowbrant had thought to do sooner. If they'd only moved to Oceanside sooner, a lot of loss of life could have been spared."
"Vanish where?" Gavin asked.
Dianne raised an eyebrow.
"You know the Sanctuary can't take them. You know I've filled every room I've built."
"I'm sure King Ezekiel would agree to take a few," Jerry chimed in.
"King who?" Mrs. Johnson asked.
Tina smiled sympathetically at Noah. "We could take Noah's family. The Kingdom took me in with open arms, and after what you did for me, with the medicine - "
"- I helped bring up that medicine too!" Zach reminded her. Then seeming to realize his complaint might be inappropriate for the seriousness off the moment, muttered. "Just saying. But Noah's family should come back with us. He already knows people at Fun Kingdom. Beth loves him."
"She likes him," clarified Dixon, sounding perturbed.
"Fun Kingdom?" Tina asked.
"Is that a more fun version of the Kingdom?" Jerry grinned. "Because I didn't think there could be a more fun version of the Kingdom."
Dianne changed the subject by asking Gavin, "How many do you think Hilltop would be willing to take in?"
"What is this?" Mrs. Johnson barked. "We aren't splitting up! This community is family! And this is our home! This is where my husband is buried and where my baby, my youngest baby, is now buried!"
"You don't understand how these Saviors operate," Carol told her. "I understand your sentiment, I do, but we've had a run in with a crew of them at one of our old communities. That town doesn't stand anymore. We defeated them, but we lost so much in the process. So much. And we were far better trained, better prepared, and more numerous than you. We had an army. I don't know how big this group is, but even if it's just a dozen men? They're ruthless."
"We can disperse them among our communities," Dianne suggested. "Clear out what's left, and when those new Saviors come back…they'll find the place empty."
Gavin shook his head. "They know where the Sanctuary is. Where the Kingdom is. All of the communities. Obviously they aren't big enough to raid any of us yet, or they would have. But over time, they may gather more men into their group. They already had plenty of weapons and just got more from Shirewilt. They're a threat to us. If not today, then someday. We need to eliminate them before someday comes."
"You want to go to war again?" Dianne asked him. "After all we lost in the last one? I lost friends, Gavin."
"And I lost a sister. But we're building something now. The Sanctuary is working now, more or less. A functioning camp. And we," he waved a finger back and forth between himself and her, "we're building an Alliance here. Something bigger than just the Kingdom or the Sanctuary. A multi-community alliance. Shirewilt could be one of those communities, if we defend it. And if we stand our ground here, we eliminate the threat before they even know we've caught wind of it. They come here expecting a cowed community that will turn over ten percent of its things to avoid conflict. They aren't expecting us."
Dianne sighed.
"You disagree?" Gavin asked.
"No. I agree. And I hate that I agree." She shook her head. "I guess you never get more than a few weeks of peace in this world." She looked at Carol. "Will your people fight with us?"
"This ain't got fuck all to do with us," Daryl said.
"It kind of does," Carol said.
"They don't know where we are."
"No, but all these people do." Carol glanced around the room, from Gavin to Dianne to Jerry to Tina to Isaac to Mrs. Johnson to Noah. "And if they're defeated, and tortured for information about other communities to raid…"
"Give you guns," Daryl said. "A few, but that's it." He looked at Carol pointedly. "Got a daughter to get home to. Can't stay here another damn week. She'll think we're dead."
"I can take you to the Sanctuary tomorrow," Gavin told him. "When I go to recruit fighting men. You can use our radio to contact your camp and talk in whatever code you talk in…tell her you'll be delayed."
"Nah." Daryl said. "Brought you medicine. Saved you from a goddamn herd. We done enough. Taken enough risk for you. We ain't your mercenaries. Give you a couple guns. But we go home at daylight."
"Daryl…" Carol said. "We got a lot out of this trip. Trade goods, and all that loot from the sporting good store. And we could get more out of an alliance, in the long-term. Like the lion and the mouse."
"We the lion or we the mouse?" Daryl asked.
"Does it matter?"
"I'm in," Dixon said. "If this ex-Savior guy who is running this thing goes around trying to recruit? Trying to build a group like the one who attacked Woodbury? Someday it may come for us. I agree with Gavin, here. Nip it in the bud. Zach?"
"I'm with Daryl on this one. I don't think they're a threat to us. But.." He glanced at Noah. "Noah and I go back a ways at Grady. And he's a friend. And this is his family. His home. So…I'm in."
Tina raised a hand slightly. "Uh…I know I'm no warrior or anything. I'm always behind gates because of how sick I am, but…couldn't we do both?"
"Both…how?" Noah asked.
"Both vacate Shirewilt and fight back. Resettle the kids and anyone who can't or doesn't know how to fight in the Kingdom, Hilltop, Alexandria, Oceanside…leave people who are willing to fight behind. And…I don't know. Maybe even boobytrap the place."
"Blow it up you mean?" Mrs. Johnson asked. "Blowup our own community?"
"Not all of it. You could move back when it's over."
"Mom," Noah said gently. "This is home. I know. But Tina's idea is a good one. The safest one. You and Isaac and some of the others should go where it's safer. I'll fight for our home. I'll fight for Shirewilt, for the memory of Dad and Isaiah, and I will bring you back here. Back home. "
"When the oppressor is gone," Mrs. Johnson said solemnly and nodded.
"Daryl?" Carol asked.
"Fuck it," he muttered. "Fine. We fight. But if we're gonna be mercenaries, we're gonna get paid. Somehow. In something."
[*]
Tina was invited to stay the night at the Johnsons' house, and so Zach invited himself to stay there also, not wanting Noah to have an advantage of proximity when it came to flirting with Tina. The others were given Mr. Harrison's house to stay in, since Mr. Harrison now lay in the communal graveyard.
The furniture was still intact, though the place was pretty torn up by the looters who had cleared it of guns and ammunition and half the food in the pantry. (They'd be back for ten percent of what was left in a week, and ten percent of anything new Shirewilt had obtained.) They'd blasted through the door of the 800-pound gun safe in the garage with explosives, which had burnt up most of the garage as well. "Thought Noah's mama said he had a lot of guns?" Daryl said, looking at the fireproof gun safe that still largely stood, open, amid the ashes of the garage.
"Yeah, well," Gavin told him. "Mrs. Johnson said they cleared sixteen from that safe."
"Sixteen ain't a lot."
"Guns, government, and tobacco," Carol said. "Isn't that what Noah said were the three main industries in Virginia?"
"So you think there's more?" Dianne asked. "Hidden in the house somewhere? That the Saviors Part II didn't find?"
"He's saying there could be," Carol replied.
They did find more, behind a large Dukes of Hazard poster in the wall of what looked like it had once been a boys' bedroom. There was a cut-out in the wall there – a kind of secret room with a record player and baseball bat and balls and other evidence of the child that had once lived there, before dying and turning at the start. Now, though, the cubbyhole had been lined with guns. Guns the Saviors had overlooked. Guns, it turned out, Mr. Harrison hadn't even told his neighbors about.
"Guns he was holding onto for a rainy day," Carol said.
"Yeah, well," Daryl said as he hopped up onto the ledge and began to hand them down. "It's raining now."