Chapter 5 - Council meeting

Being on her own had been, for the most part, really goddamned boring.

Obviously the apocalypse meant no shopping, no movie theatres, no tv, no radios, no concerts, none of the fun stuff she used to enjoy. But the tedium had been amplified a hundred-fold when there was noone to talk to, either. After the first month, Tahlia was sick of the sound of her own voice. Sometimes she'd seek out walkers just for the company, although the conversation was a bit one-sided.

As were most things.

She had tried to play both sides of chess so many times that she started to worry she was going to end up with a split personality. So now, being back amongst a group in a seemingly safe enough location, she couldn't get enough of the people to talk to and all the jobs to do. It had been a few days since she'd arrived at the prison, and she had happily thrown herself into being useful and helping out wherever she could, including with the less desirable jobs, like carting loads of dirty laundry down to the troughs to wash, and mucking in with the never-ending cleaning. Whatever filled up her hours and tired her out so she could sleep soundly through the night again, she was glad to do.

"Here, take these ones too." Carol offloaded a bucket of rags to Tahlia as she walked past with a load of washing.

"Aye aye." she said cheerily.

"Damn, this world must be pretty tough for ya, huh?" Daryl couldn't help but call out as she passed by.

Tahlia flicked him a look over her shoulder. "How's that?"

"Wouldn't be used to getting your hands dirty - don't rich-ass folk like you normally have maids and gardeners and shit like that to take care of life for ya?"

Tahlia couldn't help but laugh as she kept walking. "Yeah, it has been soooo hard for me. I've had to learn to wipe my own ass and everything! What a learning curve!"

Carol snickered at Tahlia's response, then elbowed Daryl. "Leave her. She's nice. And she's getting stuck into more jobs than you are around here!" she teased.

Daryl huffed. "Oh yeah? You go out and bust your ass hunting for food then, and I'll just splash about down by the troughs."

His cheeky comment earned him a slap on the arm from Carol, and they grinned at one another.

"Ok, come on, Rick wants to get the council together."

Rick, Sasha, Hershel, and Glenn were sitting at a couple of the picnic tables in the courtyard.

"Hello you two, come take a seat." Hershel gestured to the empty seats next to them. "We thought we might check in with everyone, see how things are going, see what runs are coming up, see what else needs our attention. Rick, would you like to start us off?"

Rick nodded. "Sure thing. From a prison point of view, things are good – the animals are thriving, although we could do with some more; the crops are growing well, but again, could use some more equipment, seeds, cuttings, anything like that. Kara from Block B told me about a couple of farms she knows of up north of here that might still have some things that we could use. I think we should send a team to check them out."

"Naw." Daryl shook his head. "Ain't nothin' up that way. Been through those backroads."

"I think we should still go, we might be able to get some useful things for cultivating our gardens, maybe for the animals. Our needs have changed since we first settled here, we'd be keeping an eye out for different things now than when we first started around here."

"I'm tellin' ya man, ain't worth it. Shit is few and far between on the roads north of here, it'd just be a waste of gas. Better to head towards the settlements to the west, more to scope out there."

"It's all been picked over." Glenn said.

Daryl looked at him. "Not everythin', still places to check out."

Rick remained firm. "I'd really like you to go up to the farms. Find out for sure."

"That ain't our priority, man." replied Daryl, trying to keep his cool. "We gotta get fuel, supplies. Not go burnin' all our gas up for a 'maybe'."

Sasha glanced between the two men, wanting to put an end to their standoff. "Ok, how about we go to the Big Spot tomorrow as planned, see what we can find there, if we get a good score on gas then we can send a team up to the farm in a few days."

Rick smiled and Daryl glared.

"We don't have that many people to spare for runs at the moment." Carol spoke up. "We're getting some pretty big build ups of walkers on the fences. There're dozens more herding around Tower 3. They're putting a lot of pressure on the fences, and if we don't keep it under control, they're going to give way for sure."

"Definitely an urgent issue." agreed Rick.

Glenn nodded. "So, we need people down on fence duty, and we need to start clearing some of the bodies away, somehow."

"Well, surely we have other people who might like to get their feet wet on the runs." said Rick.

"Can't just take anyone." said Daryl resolutely. "Gotta be people we trust out there. Shit can go sideways in a second, don't want the risk of someone who might freak and put everyone in danger."

Rick shrugged. "Gotta take a chance with people though, gotta give them an opportunity to try."

"Naw, takin' chances ain't the way to go on runs."

"Surely you could try out a few others. What about Isaiah and Yohan?" suggested Rick. They seem like they'd be pretty capable out there."

"Isaiah?!" exclaimed Daryl. "Ya kiddin' me? That guy's a loose unit! Ain't ya heard him and his lady screamin' and cussin' at each other every damn day? He blows a fuse if ya just breathe in his direction. Ain't never gonna have his ass out on a run with any of us!"

"Gotta put a little bit of trust in people, Daryl." Rick's tone was light, but there was a commanding set to his expression that let everyone know he wouldn't be budging on his opinions.

"Easy for you to say." muttered Daryl. "Ain't your ass out there on the line."

The hunter was quietly flaming. He had followed Rick, since very near the beginning, happy to go with his decisions, happy to be his backup because he trusted the sheriff's judgement. He was, and always would be loyal to Rick, but since the sheriff had taken more of a back seat over these last months, Daryl and some of the others had really stepped up.

Having spearheaded the charge on the majority of runs while also doing nearly all of the hunting for the group for months now, Daryl felt like he'd proven himself as a decent authority on how things should operate out there, and was getting riled up that Rick was trying to call the shots when he'd hardly ventured beyond the fences in a long time. And he certainly didn't appreciate having his judgement questioned in front of everyone.

With a moody huff, he folded his arms and glared at the floor, too irritated to pay much attention to the rest of the meeting.