Better Days

Chapter 263

Author's Note: Thank you for all the new readers who are not scared away by the massive chapters! And thank you for all my regular readers. Thank you thank you and thank you. I suffered from Post Partum (Undiagonesed) and still suffer from PSTD so Jewel will be experiencing both. But of course they all are suffering from PSTD.

As always, reviews motivate!

RV Group POV:

Beth glanced over to David as she held Hope. "You know you can hold her right?"

David shook his head. "Nah, it's quite alright."

"If he doesn't want to hold her, he doesn't have to," Carol said. "Not everyone is comfortable with babies. There's enough of us that if things get bad to hold Hope and Judith without making someone who is uncomfortable with it, do it."

"Jewel was going to make me do it back after Terminus," Eugene pointed out.

"Because you're absolutely useless," Mitch told him. "Even more so now," he added.

"Mitch, manners," Mar said then looked up at Eugene. "But he's right," she added as the RV came to a sudden stop, causing people to hold onto things.

"Abraham? What's going on?" Summer asked.

"Is everyone alright?" Ronnie asked as she got up.

"Lot's of dead in the road, they're taking the worst of it," Abraham told them.

"We just can't leave them!" Maggie exclaimed as she stood up.

"Maggie, we've got to play it safe," Beth told her sister.

"Open the door, we've got to talk to the others!" Summer said.

"Rick said that you stay in the RV if something happened, and you're staying in the RV," Carol told her as there was pounding on the door.

Rosita opened to the door to find Jes, Phoebe and Daryl standing there. "You see what happened?" Daryl asked.

"Lots of walkers', caught them off guard," Rosita told them.

"We turn around, head back to the barn," Jes told them.

"We're leaving them out there?" David asked.

"They'll know that we'll turn around, they'll do the same when they can," Daryl responded.

"Eric will be looking for us too, he'll send us a signal," Phoebe told them. "You know your people, I know mine," she told them.

"Whatever we do, can we do it fast? Before we get surrounded?" Tara asked.

"We're going to have to back up," Abraham told them. "I don't have room to turn this thing around here."

"You'll need to be guided out," Summer said as she got up. "Don't even think about telling me that to stay in the RV, Carol. We do this together or we don't survive. You all know this," she said as she told them.

"I'll get behind the car, lead it back," Phoebe told them.

"I'll be between the car and RV," Summer said. "Just don't hit me Abraham, mom and dad wouldn't be happy," she said as she walked down the stairs.

"David you go out with Phoebe, watch for walkers'. Tara you do the same for Summer," Daryl instructed.

Both grab weapons and go to do it. "Slow and steady," Jes told Abraham as she motioned for him to close the door.

"Summer's to much like Jewel," Carol told them.

"You make that sound like a bad thing," Beth told them.

A few minutes later:

Summer looked at Tara after they got the RV turned around. "Did you just see that?"

"That was the flare," she said as David and Phoebe came up to them. "Was that your person?" Tara asked Phoebe.

"Eric, it has to be," Phoebe answered.

"What are you all waiting for?" Daryl asked as he got out of the car.

"There was a flare, water tower," Summer told them.

"Could it be our people?" Joey asked.

"Or Eric," Phoebe said. "Either way, it gets us to a safer place then out here. Those dead are going to be coming this way, so I'd rather not be standing or sitting ducks. If this was some kind of trap to separate you,, I'm sure we could have came up with lots and lots of dead ones in the road. We tried to tell you this was a bad idea. We tried to tell you this road wasn't clear, that it was insane to try and take it at night. But you did it anyway, and here we are. Now are you going to listen or are we just going to wait for those things to come and tear us apart?" she asked them.

"For a little thing, you're a spitfire," Abraham said from the drivers' seat of the RV.

"I don't want to die tonight. I don't want any of you to die tonight," Phoebe told them.

"We don't have anything to lose, if it is a trap they don't have any idea what they are up against," Summer told them.

"Let's go, if this is a trap," Daryl started to say.

"If this is a trap, it isn't by us," Phoebe told him as she got back in the car. "You people are unbelievable. I understand the whole not trusting people thing, I've been there. But man if I was as stubborn as you all were right now, I'd be dead, my nephew would be dead," she told him.

"We're not dead because we are cautious. Others are dead because we weren't cautious enough," Joey answered as the others got into the car.

At the water tower:

Phoebe got out of the car with the others and looked around and started to walk from the car.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jes asked.

"To look for Eric. You want to stop me? Shoot me, put an arrow in me, put a knife in me, but that's the only way I'm not going to look for him," Phoebe told them.

Jes raised her gun as Phoebe turned around. Daryl shook his head. "She aint gonna do anything, Jes. We'll stay with her make sure she doesn't do anything signal anyone," he told her.

Phoebe went over to a car and opened the door. "Eric's been here, he must have used this when we took the other cars," she said as they all heard noises. "Eric!" she called out.

"Came from over there," Axel said.

Phoebe didn't wait for anyone to respond as she ran off. "Eric!"

"Phoebe?" Eric called out. "Over here," the man said as he laid on the ground surrounded by tires.

"What did you do you klutz? Help me!" Phoebe yelled at the group. She bent down and pulled him out after the group removed the tires. She hugged him immediately. "Aaron will be so glad we'd found you. We got separated, but hopefully they'll find there way here."

Eric looked up at the group. "Thank you. The supply room is pretty clear, if you all want to go there…" he told them.

Phoebe tried to help Eric up. "This is my trap, right here. Mr. Klutz himself. Eric Raleigh," she said as he tried to balance himself. "Eric what's wrong?"

"He might have broke his ankle," Ronnie said as she walked over to help.

"Axel, Tara, Rosita, Beth and me are going to go check out the supply room. Abraham, Jes, David, Carol, Sasha,, look around, check for anything suspicious. Rest of you wait, Summer call if you need anything. Five minutes, let's go," Daryl instructed.

"Let's sit him down, so I can see what I'm dealing with. Mar get me some supplies," Ronnie instructed.

Phoebe hugged him again. "You had a fight with tires, and lost. Only you, Eric," she said.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Eric asked as he looked at the group. "Thank you for taking care of her."

"Don't have to thank us, it's what we do," Carl said.

"You alone out here?" Joey asked.

"The storm messed up our plan to bring the cars closer, Aaron wanted to make contact with you, find Phoebe. I saw you all coming to check out the cars. When you took them all, I found that one, was looking around, got scared and a whole lot of tires fell on me," Eric explained.

"Aaron and Phoebe keep saying that they know we are good people, that this place needs us. But how do you know?" Summer asked.

"Every time we come out here, we never know what or who we are going to run into. We know if we make contact with the wrong people, we might die. It's the chance we take because if we don't, people like your group will be dead, or you turn into the kind of people that you've been fighting against," Eric explained. "They didn't listen to the safe route huh?" he asked Phoebe.

"No, they are quite suspicious, I get it," Phoebe answered.

Ronnie looked at him. "Ankle's broken."

"It's sort of like a volley ball injury," Maggie explained.

"We'll have to elevate your ankle," Mar said.

"Thank you. You're a DR?" Eric asked Ronnie.

"Yeah, I was, before the world ended. Now, I just do what I can," Ronnie answered as the group came back.

"It looks pretty clear," Carol said.

"Now what?" Lexi asked.

"We set up base in the supply room, we wait for our people," Daryl said.

"How long do we give them?" David asked.

"As long as we need to," Summer answered. "They'll come back. They always do," she said.

Daryl and Mar's POV:

Mar opened the door to go outside, pulling her jacket around her.

"Everyone alright?" Daryl asked as he smoked his cigarette.

"Yeah, between Beth, Summer and Mika, they got Hope to take a bottle. I hope they get back soon," Mar said.

"They will. Like Summer said, they always do," Daryl answered.

"They've been telling the truth so far. Do you think this is for real? That this is the real thing?" Mar asked.

Daryl shrugged. "Don't know."

"But we have to give it a chance, don't we? I mean….if something goes wrong, we're stronger then any other group we've came upon," Mar told him.

Daryl kissed the top of her head. "We have to give this a chance, for the kids, for everyone. We don't let our guard down," he told her.

"Never," Mar answered. "Never again," she said as she turned her head to a sound. "Daryl?"

Daryl held up his hand for her to be quiet and listened to the sound again then responded with a bird call of his own and went out to show himself. "It's them."

Mar pounded on the door to let the others know they were back as the door opened and the group started coming out.

"Dad!" Carl said as he ran to Rick, and Summer ran to Jewel with Hope in her arms.

"Everyone alright?" Rick asked as he hugged him then Summer.

"Yeah, yeah," Carl answered as he went to hug Jewel. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"Just twisted it. I'm alright," Jewel said as she hugged him then Mika.

"Good to have you back," Carol told them as he hugged them. "Ronnie's going to want to check that out."

"Eric?" Aaron called out.

Phoebe ran to the door and hugged him. "He's in here, come on," she told him. "Come on," she told him.

Rick watched them and he started to go after them.

"Rick what are you doing?" Jewel asked as she took Hope who was fussing.

"Easy with the wrist," Mar told her.

"I've got it," Jewel answered as she adjusted her. "Rick?"

"It's not good for the three of them to be alone," Rick told her.

"Then I'm going with you," Jewel told Rick. "Phoebe and Aaron are both unarmed, and I'm pretty sure they unarmed Eric. So, we'll play it safe, but we'll play it safe together. I mean, I look pretty scary with a wrapped wrist, and cradling a baby," she teased as she touched his face. "We do it together."