Walking Dead Wizard
Chapter 26
"What?" Glenn managed to get the question to leave his lips without squeaking.
"At the CDC, Jenner told me, whatever it is, we all carry it," Rick admitted never once meeting anyone's eyes.
"And you never said anything?" Carol questioned Rick.
"Would it have made a difference?" Rick tried to play it off.
Harry shook his head, decided against getting involved. Of course, it would make a difference, he had no doubt quite a few people had lost a lot of respect or perhaps all respect for Rick at his duplicitous actions. He wasn't the leader, it wasn't up to him to tell them anything, he'd merely gone along for the ride. Then when Rick came along, he merely wished to see whether he could trust Rick to lead. If he was a good leader then fine, he would have had no problem going along, but unfortunately Rick was solely lacking at leadership skills. Given that it was the end of the world he'd given him chance after chance.
"You knew this whole time?" Glenn spoke, his face filled with betrayal.
"How could I have known for sure? You saw how crazy that…" Rick defended himself.
"He wasn't crazy, he'd just given up hope," Harry pointed out, not liking anyone saying anything about Jenner especially when he couldn't defend himself.
"That is not your call. Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told for the good of everyone," Glenn was still trying to comprehend this new piece of information and toiling especially with the news that it had been kept from him.
"Well, I thought it best that people didn't know." Rick stated sharply.
Silence met his words.
"It's not safe here, we have leave," Harry said eyeing the walker that was around ten feet from them slowly making its way towards them. Well, it wasn't for long as Daryl swiftly shot it through the middle of his head in a perfect shot. He immediately stalked over to the now permanently killed walker and snatched his arrow back wiping the blood off with a rag. "This is the direction the walkers came in so it's safe to say there might be more of them."
Everyone still in a state of shock, both at Rick's pronouncement and what had just happened and the resulting conversation, made quick work of getting back into the cars. Harry and Daryl got back into Daryl's truck, Merle and Luna continued on with Merle's motorbike. Lori, Rick, Carl, Sophia and Carol slid into Carol's Cherokee, Amy, Andrea, Jimmy, T-Dog, Beth and Dale went in the RV. Maggie, Glenn and Hershel rode in Hershel's car. As it always was, Merle led the way in his motorbike, only this time he had a passenger.
They drove for what felt like days, before someone honked the horn, which was the way they'd decided on how to stop everyone - for whatever the reason. It was Rick, they soon realised as they piled out of the cars, still ominously silent. Anubis quickly dashed over the rail and did the toilet, his amber eyes on Harry the entire time.
"You out?" Hershel was the only one to speak.
"Running on fumes," Rick said, as he marched up to the front of the group.
"We can't stay here," Maggie pointed out, there was nothing but trees out here and empty road. Trees in which walkers could come out of any second, and with news that Randall had a group somewhere nearby it was little wonder she was apprehensive about staying out in the open.
"We can't all fit into one car," Glenn added, more interested in getting out of there.
"We'll make a run for gas in the morning," Rick decided.
"Spend the night here?" Carol was aghast by the suggestion, like Maggie worried about walkers and this unknown heavily armed group.
"I'm freezing!" Carl complained his teeth chittering, he had only a t-shirt on.
"We'll build a fire yeah?" Lori said, using her hands to try and warm up her cold son, all the while cold herself.
"Carol there was an extra jacket in the stuff I gave you that's roughly Carl's size…did you bring it?" Harry asked the mother, who wordlessly nodded and made her way to the trunk of her Cherokee to find it. Sophia was already wrapped up warm in winter clothes, thanks to Harry and his forethought to gather winter clothes for both of them, her and Sophia.
"If you go out looking for firewood, stay close." Rick commanded, just about to remove his own jacket to give to his son when Carol handed over a thick woolly jacket for him.
"Thank you," Lori said, putting a hand on Carol in gratitude.
"It was Harry," Carol explained, seeing no need for her thanks.
"How are we on ammo?" Rick said glancing around the group.
"Not enough," T-Dog said grimly.
Merle snorted, "That's an understatement," playing along, he knew damn well Harry had more ammunition in that trunk of his.
"We can't just sit here with our asses hanging out." Maggie told them, it was freezing cold, they had no shelter whatsoever, they would be screwed if another herd passed through.
"Watch your mouth. Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick." Hershel stated firmly.
"Alright, we'll set up a perimeter. In the morning we'll find gas and some supplies." Rick said in a steadfast voice. "We'll keep pushing on."
"Glenn and I can go make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas." Maggie suggested.
"No, we stay together. God forbid something happens and people get stranded without a car." Rick brushed off the idea.
Harry narrowed his eyes, while he understood why Rick wanted to keep the group together and safe, his excuse was feeble at best. They were already stranded in a manner of speaking without a car, some of the cars still had gas though. It was as if the man wasn't interested in listening to anyone else thoughts and had one single minded narrowed focus. He was obviously still reeling from the fact they'd just lost the farm and they were no longer safe.
"Rick we're stranded now," Glenn tried to reason with Rick, thinking along the same lines as Harry.
"I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other." Rick said, "I wasn't sure, I really wasn't, but we did. We're together. Keep it that way."
"Wasn't sure?" Harry stated in a whisper, surprised, arching an eyebrow, well that meant Rick obviously didn't trust him the slightest. He'd put his own life on the line to get to Rick and Carl, well not really but they didn't know that, since when wasn't that enough? He'd been away from the group for all of twenty minutes before they'd met up on the highway. Way to dramatise things for Merlin's sake. He was close to becoming a proper leader though, he was putting his foot down and apparently not changing his mind, but another point of leading people was to hear their opinions and giving honest answers if they didn't collide with their own ideas and thoughts.
"We'll find shelter somewhere. There's gotta be a place." Rick said, pacing back and forth, trying to keep it together but it was obvious to everyone there that he was slowly unravelling.
"Rick, look around, okay? There's walkers everywhere. They're migrating or something." Glenn urged Rick to agree with him, to let him and Maggie go and get more gas.
"There's gotta be a place not just where we hole up, but that we fortify," Rick sounded more desperate now, "Hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a life for each other. I know it's out there. We just have to find it." his voice was getting louder as he spoke.
"Even if we do find a place we think is safe, we can never be sure for how long." Maggie sighed wearily. "Look what happened with the farm. We fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe."
"We won't make that mistake again," Hershel promised, a pained look on his face, the loss of the farm weighed heavily upon him.
"We'll camp tonight over there. Get on the road at the break of day." Rick commanded, pointing over to the ruins of something they couldn't quite make out. A bridge? An unfinished house? An old house that time had broken down? With that Rick moved away from the still accusing eyes of the group. Lori went with him, everyone watched them for a few moments before Harry moved off gathering firewood to build a fire to keep the group warm.
Before long the fire was going and everyone was sitting around it trying to get at least a little bit warmth in their bones. Sophia curled up beside Carol sleeping, Carl curled up beside his mother, Amy sitting next to Andrea and Dale, and Beth curled up in her dads arms, Jimmy right next to them still haunted by what happened to Patricia. The days events obviously too much for the youngsters in the group. Glenn and Maggie cuddled into one another, Merle and T-Dog were on watch at opposite sides of their little encampment. Daryl, Harry and Luna sat near Carol and Sophia, Harry and Daryl adding to the fire now and again to keep it going, but not too high not wanting any attention drawn to them.
"Need to have a look at that map and see if there's anywhere we can go," Luna whispered thoughtfully, petting Anubis who lay sandwiched in-between them, dead to the world, trusting them to keep him safe.
"First thing tomorrow," Harry murmured in agreement, Daryl obviously could hear everything they were saying.
"Do you think he'll listen?" Luna asked doubtfully.
"I honestly don't know," Harry continued, "He might just need to come to terms with what happened, but he seems too on edge for just losing the farm…if you know what I mean? it reminds me of how I was in my fifth year," the anger, the frustration, not listening to anyone, the desolation. He'd learned from it though, not everyone was like him admittedly.
"I noticed, he was only on the farm for just over a week and Hershel spent most of his life there and he isn't even angry like that," Luna pointed out, "That anger doesn't just disappear overnight." Luna watched Rick as she spoke, shaking her head.
Harry grimaced, "You've got that right," Harry murmured.
"We're not safe with him. Keeping something like that from us?" Carol said. "Why do you need him? He's just gonna pull ya'll down?"
"I don't need him," Harry pointed out, wondering what she was meaning, did she want to walk away? Or was she just desperate to get her daughter somewhere safe? "What is it you want, Carol?"
"A man of honour," Carol replied after a few moments.
"Rick has honour," Harry and Daryl said, before Harry added, "If he didn't he would never have gone after Sophia without a second thought. Although I'm not quite sure what honour has to do with it."
"I think we should take our chances," Maggie said to Glenn after listening to the others talk.
"Don't be foolish. There's hardly any food, no fuel, no ammo." Hershel dissuaded them, just as rustling could be heard in the distance.
"What was that?" Glenn said tensely.
"Could be anything," Harry said, standing up, retrieving his gun from his holster.
"Could be a raccoon, could be a possum." Daryl said, crossbow at the ready.
"Or a walker!" Glenn added to the panic that was beginning to sweep over the group.
"We need to leave. I mean, what are we waiting for?" Carol said, worried for her daughter and herself.
"Which way?" Glenn asked.
"It came from over there." Luna spoke.
"Back from where we came." Daryl added.
"Yeah," Harry nodded in agreement.
"The last thing we need is for everyone to be running off in the dark." Rick warned, Harry agreed with that one, feeling the first stirrings of respect for the cop. "We don't have the vehicles. No one's travelling on foot."
"Don't panic," Harry cautioned them, "Panic gets you killed."
"I'm not sitting here waiting for another herd to blow through." Maggie said to the group.
"We need to move, now." Glenn said.
"No one is going anywhere." Rick stated sharply.
"Do something," Carol said, trying to remain calm, not wanting to wake Sophia up.
"I am doing something!" Rick yelled through gritted teeth, trying to keep quiet but unable to do it properly, "I'm keeping this group together, alive. I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this!" quickly coming undone. "I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!"
Harry straightened up at that pronouncement, not the words themselves but the fact he had the audacity to try and lay the blame at the feet of everyone in the group. That pissed him off severely, he had killed in the past but he had never EVER blamed anyone else for his own actions - not even once. In fact he'd taken upon himself to take the blame of Voldemort's own actions on to his shoulders.
"You saw what he was like, how he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us." Rick continued his diatribe as Harry began to get really angry. "He tried to put a bullet in my back! He gave me no choice! He was my friend but he came after me! My hands are clean!"
Harry turned to stare at Luna his green eyes glimmering, Luna nodded she was with him, no matter what like always.
"Maybe you people are better off without me! Go ahead. I say there's a place for us, but maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you go and find out yourself? Send me a postcard! Go on, there's the door, you can do better? Let's see how far you get!"
Everyone else just stared in stunned silence as Rick completely lost it, they weren't sure what to say or what to do.
"No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight, if you're staying, this isn't a democracy any more." Rick added bitterly.
Harry abruptly stood up, Anubis sensing the moment got to his feet too, without a word he picked up his backpack that had been dropped near a rock and flung it over his shoulders. Then he grabbed his compound bow and slung that over his left shoulder, he tended to keep his right hand clear it was his wand hand after all. "I could have tolerated a lot, in fact I have tolerated a lot from this group, but I'm done, you have absolutely no right to throw Shane's death at our feet as if we were the problem that forced you to kill Shane, you killed him to live, to survive. That and you have no right telling me that I don't have the right to voice my own opinions." Harry told him coldly. That and he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Rick after his last statement. It wasn't a democracy anymore, in other words he wanted everyone to follow him obediently, blindly without a thought of their own or even voicing them, it how Voldemort wanted his Death Eaters. Kneeling down, the commotion hadn't woken Sophia up, he brushed her hair away from her face and spoke to Carol softly, "You take care of her, remember what I've told you, what I've shown you, you'll be fine I know it."
Rick just stood there his chin jutting out defiantly; he wasn't going to go back on his own words. Of course, he swallowed thickly when he realized Harry wasn't leaving alone. He was taking the other two hunters with him. They would be fine, he and Glenn could scavenge what they needed to, and the Dixons had always been more trouble than they were worth anyway.
The others sat stiffly, watching Harry getting ready to leave, utterly torn, while Harry was right, Rick had no right saying what he did, surely Harry could bear it? More than one set of eyes widened when Luna, Daryl and Merle moved to leave with him walking in sync as if they'd rehearsed it a million times. They were losing four fighters, the best fighters they had.
"Wait," Carol said, "Let us come with you, I know I'm a burden, ya'll deserve better…but please," she had to give her daughter her best chance of survival and it was with Harry and his group. Harry had found her daughter, kept her safe for three days, Daryl and Merle had looked for her day and night trying to find both their friend and her daughter. Harry was also teaching her and Sophia how to defend themselves. They were hunters, the chance of them being able to find more to eat was also on the long list of reasons why Harry was the better option.
Harry glanced at Daryl and Merle who were situated to his right, communicating silently, both of them agreeing, Carol was the most agreeable one of the entire group. "You're not a burden, Carol, but are you sure you want to leave the group?" Harry asked seriously, she had come with them at the start of all this after all.
"I have to do what's right for Sophia," Carol said trembling in relief that they weren't outright denying her, she'd been so worried they'd say no and Rick…who knows how Rick would react lately to her asking to go with the others.
"I would never deny you your right to choose," Harry sighed softly, not like Rick was doing at the moment, but he certainly hadn't expected her to want to come with them.
"We're coming," Andrea stated strongly, standing up.
"Andrea!" Dale cried out in shock, looking so conflicted.
"I'm sorry, Dale, I'll never forget what you've done for us, but I need to keep the only family I have left safe," Andrea looked close to tears as she stared at him, she was fond of him, he was like a grandfather to them all.
Amy knew her sister was right, Harry was the best bet, it didn't mean she had to like it. She was very fond of Beth, they were best of friends and now she was going to have to leave her behind. She stood up, grabbing her and her sisters bag, they would need to get the rest of their things from the RV.
"Andrea," Dale pleaded following her and Amy to the RV talking to her, trying to get her to change her mind.
"Shit," Harry muttered, why did everyone want to come with him so suddenly? He knew why though, Andrea was strong, less likely to bow down to Rick's demands. Carol truly saw him as the best chance for her daughters survival. "We don't have enough cars for this."
"Ain't gonna matter soon," Daryl pointed out, they were low on gas.
"True," Harry muttered, only Carol's Cherokee was completely drained, the other cars all had some gas left in them. "Merle, Daryl, I have a map, can you search out somewhere safe for tonight nearby, preferably with four walls and a roof? That and somewhere that will have plenty of gas?"
Both brothers nodded grimly, only then did Harry remove his bag and dig out the map and hand it over, he trusted them impeccably. Being a leader meant delegating tasks to someone who could do them better, and there was probably nobody who knew Atlanta better than the Dixons. Daryl put the torch on as Merle spread the map over Carol's Cherokee.
"Carol you can put your things in the RV," Andrea called out quietly, Dale was coming with them wasn't said but certainly implied.
The Dixons, Harry and Luna looked over the map while everyone else said their tearful yet determined goodbyes.
"The car dealerships will have gas," Carol pointed out quietly, her voice hushed as she joined them. "When Ed test drove a car, he had to pay for the gas, one of the men filled it back up with gas from a canister."
"Even if there ain't any left chances are some of the cars in the area will have gas themselves, good idea," Merle nodded in agreement, silently impressed with her. Maybe he had her pegged wrong after all, the only liability in this new group was probably Dale. He honestly didn't care about the others coming, he was just too high from seeing the look that was permanently etched into officer friendly face. He'd been waiting for this to happen, and he'd known from the second 'Democracy' had left his lips that it was going down tonight. He'd been beyond pissed himself, ready to say what he was sure everyone was thinking when Harry had stood up distracting him.
Carol flushed at the praise, she certainly wasn't used to it and definitely not from Merle Dixon.
"Do you want to put the motorbike in the truck or drive it?" Harry asked.
Merle smirked, he'd used to ask that all the time before everyone came to the quarry. "Better off quiet, ain't risking it," he wished he could really, riding with Luna had been more….relaxing than expected although he was quite frankly baffled as to why.
"Alright, let's go!" Harry called out, glancing at a sleeping Carl sadly, feeling like a bloody arse but he had to do what was best for himself, before Rick got him killed or worse someone he cared about. He'd already nearly killed Daryl and Merle, leaving Merle on the roof and Daryl by allowing Andrea to go on watch when she hadn't even used a rifle or shotgun before. He had to get them somewhere safe, he would just hate to prove Rick right. No, they were relying on him so he would do it.
Maggie, T-Dog and Glenn watched them go with regret, they badly wanted to join them in getting the hell out of there. Unfortunately Glenn wouldn't go without Maggie, and Maggie wouldn't leave her father or sister. T-Dog wasn't sure he'd be welcome, the Dixons had made it more than clear they hated his kind. Although his mind conjured up the picture of Daryl Dixon saving his neck...perhaps that hatred wasn't all that bad. Either way it was too late now, he thought as the RV and Daryl's truck drove off soon encompassed in the darkness.
Rick hadn't moved from his position since Harry first stood up, he honestly looked as though a feather could and would knock him over.
Would you prefer to go without seeing any Rick's POV's until/or/if he comes back into it? Or would you like to see full coverage of what both groups are doing? That is entirely up to you since I am fine with either way! and if any of you can come up with any Merle-ish quotes please do me a huge favour and review them? :D I'm having trouble getting any 'talking' time into the story! I honestly cant wait till they're 'safe' so I can realistic work on that! :D although its probably going to have Merle/Luna happen first! I'm hoping to have some talking time between both sets during 'watch' in the next few chapters so fingers crossed :D I really did want Maggie and Glenn to go as well but i knew it would be unlikely, hell its unlikely that Dale is with them lol but he does care a lot about Andrea and Amy! first people he let in since his wife died...R&R PLEASE and if there's anything you want to know about the story thats in the story let me know so i can add it in before its too late...like i'll need to remember to write about why Shane started in on Luna!