Salinabear12, guest, Nellie, and Cemmia. Thank you for the reviews! I am going to attempt to add a chapter once a week or at least every two weeks.

It's just been a hectic semester and just when I begin understanding things, the semester is almost over...oops

Lily is my OC everything else belongs to whoever makes the Walking Dead these days.

Thanks for reading.

The two of them tossed the food down in a pile before going back for a second armful. Once that was done, Lily lit the fire to keep everyone warm. Daryl tended to it while she lie back against a wall of the stone house.

"We're not safe with him— keeping something like that from us," Carol whispered.

"He was just doing what he thought was best. Should we be angry at him for doing that? What would we do with the information anyway? Stop dying?" Lily whispered back.

"I don't appreciate that tone of voice," Carol said casting Lily a sour look. She turned her attention back to Daryl as if Lily wasn't there at all. "Why do you need him anyway? He's just gonna pull you down."

"And I don't appreciate being ignored," Lily retorted.

"No," Daryl interjected stopping the two from any farther argument. "Rick's done alright by me."

"You're his henchmen," Carol said.

Just as Lily was about to stand up for him, he held out his hand in a gesture that only she understood. He told her to calm down, that he had everything under control.

"And I'm a burden. You deserve better."

"What do you want?" Daryl asked almost sounding angry.

"A man of honor."

"Rick has honor."

'Who was she talking about? A leader or a man in her life?' Lily had never felt so confused.

Other chatter of leaving reached her ears. Yes, she was angry with Rick but not enough to leave.

"What was that?" Beth asked shortly after their conversation had ended.

"Could be anything," Daryl said jumping to his feet. "Could be a raccoon, or a possum."

"Walker?" Glenn asked.

"We'd have heard it growling by now," Lily said also jumping to her feet.

"We need to leave," Carol said her voice shaking. "What are we waiting for?"

"The last thing we need is for everyone to go running off in the dark," Rick said. "We don't have the vehicles. No one's traveling on foot."

"Don't panic," Hershel said.

"I'm not," Beth said. "I'm waiting for another herd to blow through."

"We need to move, now."

"No one is going anywhere," Rick said with a sinister tone in his voice.

"Then do something," Carol said.

"I am doing something! I'm keeping this group together, alive. I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this! I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!"

Silence filled the campsite. That's why Shane was gone. Rick had killed him. That's why he looked at her the way he did at the traffic jam in the highway.

"You saw what he was like, how he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing. led me out to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no choice."

Rick had begun to terrify her, but she knew that she wouldn't make it without him or Daryl with her. The only way to survive this apocalypse was in numbers.

"He was my friend, but he came after me." Carl could be heard crying in the background. "My hands are clean. Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say there's a place for us, but maybe—maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe—maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you—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. No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight—you're staying, this isn't a democracy anymore."

End of Season 2

*dramatic pan up to to see the prison in the distance beyond the lake*