Daryl gets up early the next day. I feel him move off the floor and try to gently release my arm from around him. "Where you going?" I whisper, trying not to wake the others.
"Just around. See ya in a bit." He responds and I hear the sounds of him getting his shoes on before leaving through the front door. I roll over and fall back asleep. When I do get up I grab something to eat and make my way to find Daryl. It doesn't take long, as he's right outside the house "hey sleeping beauty."
"Hey" I say back wide awake now. The sun is shining in the mid autumn day but it's still brisk outside. I wrap a sweater around my legs as I take a seat on the porch of house 101. Daryl leans against the concrete on his knees, tinkering the motorcycle. "whatcha doin?" I ask, oblivious to how motorcycles run.
"Just tuning this up a bit." He answers me without looking, focused on what he's doing.
I stay sitting there, just watching him work and enjoy the peacefulness of the morning. I know behind closed doors things aren't pretty, but right here, right now, it looks good. Another 15 minutes or so pass by before the door to the house opens. I turn my head to look over my shoulder and see Rick. "Good morning." I say with a smile.
"Morning Sadie." He returns back to me.
Daryl then looks up from his work and asks "So, is he okay with it?"
"It was pretty much his idea. He gets it." Rick responds.
I tilt my head to the side, not getting what they are talking about. Daryl comes back to him with "It's got a bed and a bath, but it's still a cage, you know?"
"He gets it." Rick says again. "He told me what happened out there with the trucks."
"Wait, what?" I say from where I am sitting away from them. Daryl didn't mention anything about trucks to me.
"He tell you about those guys he met? The Ws." Daryl asks him pointing to his forehead. I stand where I was sitting with my hand on my hips listening to the conversation unfold.
Rick nods, his face covered in bandages "like that walker we saw, yeah. We need more watch points. And I'm gonna tell Deanna we don't need to go looking for people anymore." He adds on. I feel relived that he says that but I don't want to show Daryl, I don't think he feels the same way. Daryl just stands there, looking at him before moving a few steps away. "You feel different about it?" Rick asks him.
"Yeah, I do." Daryl answers back biting his nail.
"And you?" Rick asks looking to me now.
Daryl looks to me as well through the hair in front of his eyes I can see he wants me to back him "I'm uh-- I'm more partial to agree with Rick." I shrug lowly.
Rick nods with a small smile " people out there, they got to take care of themselves, just like us." He tells Daryl. Daryl doesn't answer him though so he just says "I'm gonna get him out. Shouldn't leave him in there any longer than we have to" and walks away.
"What happened out there?" I ask him now, stepping down off the steps and closer to him. "Why didn't you tell me?" I ask trying not to get mad.
He shakes his head "didn't want you to worry." He shrugs a little but I give him a look to tell him I'm not buying it. He sighs "really," he pushes on "after what went down here, I didn't want ya to worry about somethin' else." He comes over and puts a hand on my shoulder, leaning in closer to me "I was gonna tell ya later." He kisses me on the cheek.
"Tell me now." I say after he does.
He sighs but starts to give into telling me the story of how him and Aaron tried following a man they saw wearing a red hood. They came across these 18 wheeler trucks from a food company and went to look inside. Once they opened one, all opened together and out piled the walkers, all marked with the same W engraved into their head. "and before all that we saw this women--" he looks away and pauses "she was naked, tied to tree and left to die. Rotters ate her alive.."
"That's terrible." I put my hand to my mouth. The people at Terminus were awful, and these people seem possibly just as bad. They could be even worse.
"See, that's why I didn't wanna tell yew." He puts his arm from my shoulder to my waist and wraps me into a hug "everything is iight Sadie-Mae. Don't worry." He tells me, trying to sound confident.
"Ya, sure. Now I agree with Rick more about not going back out to look for people." I say as he holds me.
He pulls apart then, looking me in the eyes "naw, there's still good people out there." He tells me sternly. I just give him a small smirk in return and he releases me to work on the motorcycle some more.
That evening, Rick calls everyone together in Deanna's house for a meeting. He explains that earlier in the day, he came across a crater in the ground swarming with walkers. The different exits it has currently blocked off by big semi trucks. He goes over a plan, one I can tell many people don't agree with. Heath explains to Rick, what he knows about it "My team, we saw it early on, back when we were on one of those first scouts, finding out what was around here. There was a camp at the bottom. The people, they must have blocked the exits with one of those trucks back when everything started to go bad. They didn't make it. They were all roamers. Maybe a dozen of them."
"No one's been back since?" I ask them from where I'm sitting next to Daryl at the window. He's leaning against the window and my legs are stretched out over his.
Heath shakes his head "DC, every town worth scavenging are all in the other direction. And I never really felt like having a picnic next to the camp that ate itself."
"So all the while the walkers have been drawn by the sound and they're making more sound and they're drawing more in." Michonne says lowly, but still loud enough so everyone can hear.
"And here we are," Rick offers out "now what I'm proposing, I know it sounds risky, but walkers are already slipping through the exits. One of the trucks keeping the walkers in could go off the edge any day now. Maybe after one more hard rain. That exit sends them east. All of them. Right at us." When he stops, no one says anything so he goes on "this isn't about if it gives, it's when. It's gonna happen. That's why we have to do this soon."
Carol jumps in to add a comment "this is-- I don't even have another word for it. This is terrifying. All of it. But it doesn't sound like there's any other way." I try not to smirk, as she plays her role as a clueless Alexandrian very well.
"Maybe there is." Carter speaks out "I mean, couldn't we just build up the weak spots? I could draw up plans. I worked on the wall with Reg. Construction crew-- we can try and make it safe."
Rick declines the idea "even if we could, the sound of those walkers is drawing more and more every day. Building up the exits won't change that."
"We're gonna do what Rick says, the plan he's laid out." Deanna says, staring out the window, turned away from everybody.
"I told you all, we're gonna have Daryl leading them away." Rick says. I look to Daryl, who nods to his friend.
"Me too." Sasha pipes in. "I'll take a car, ride next to him. Can't just be him. I'll keep 'em coming, Daryl keeps 'em from getting sloppy." She suggests. There is no one to disagree.
"I'll go with her. It's a long way to white-knuckle it solo." Abraham adds on.
I speak up as well "I'll go too." I say. I can see Daryl give me a look from the corner of my eye but I don't look in his direction. If they are going with him, I am too. I'm too worried about what's out there to stay back and wait.
Rick nods "We'll have two teams. One on each side of the forest helping manage this thing. We're gonna have a few people on watch from now on." He names off whose on watch "Rosita, Spencer, and Holly. So they're out. So who's in?" He gives everyone else the floor.
"Me." Michonne comments with an arm shrug.
I look around at everyone in the room. Our group looking at people from their group and they are looking at us. Glenn and Maggie have a short conversation before Glenn speaks up "okay. I'm in."
"I'd like to help as well." Father Gabriel offers.
"No." Rick instantly shoots him down, "who else?" No more people volunteer. "We need more." He says.
Carter responds "there's got to be another play. We can't just control that many."
Rick explains "I said it before, walkers herd up. They'll follow a path if something's drawing them. That's how we can get 'em all at once."
"So, what?" Carter huffs out "we're supposed to just take your word for it? We're all supposed to just fall in line behind you after--" He pauses.
"After what?" Rick encourages him to continue in a low tone.
"After you wave a gun around screaming, pointing it at people. After you shoot a man in the face. After you--"
Deanna interrupts him "Enough!" She yells out.
"I'll do it." Heath offers.
"Me, too." Another one pipes in.
Tobin agree's as well "whatever you need, I'm in."
Deanna asks everyone else "now who else?"
A moment passes before I hear "I'll go," come from my side. It's Nicholas. "We have to do this. I need to help." He says looking over towards Glenn and Maggie.
"You sure you can handle it?" Rick asks him, eyeing Glenn, knowing something was off there.
Nicholas responds "You need people."
"We'll make this work." Rick tells us all, "we'll keep this place safe. Keep our families safe. We will."
"The plan." Carter says, looking down at his fingernails. "Go through it again."
"Man, he just said it." Daryl snarls at him from the window seat.
"Every part again. The exact plan." Carter demands and Rick obliges him.
