Several days had passed and the inhabitants of Hilltop and Alexandria got together at the Sanctuary. They made a plan how to fight against the Whisperers. The herd passed Oceanside and after destroying it completely, it stayed near the ocean. The group decided, it would be the best idea to split the herd up and Eugene came up with a plan to lure a part of the herd into the ocean. The community, where Rick was living in the past couple of years, possessed a lot of different maps, where they marked important spots in many states. Jadis made a map of many important spots in their area for them too and Rick was able to steal it. One of the spots was a fireworks warehouse. So the group planned to get the fireworks and also to find a boat. They intended to split the herd and lure a part of it into the Kingdom and another part into the Junkjard. Since the Kingdom had fallen, Ezekiel was ready to sacrifice it, so they could burn it down along with the herd. The Junkjard would serve as a good place to fight the other part of the herd. They also decided to make Sanctuary their basis and they wanted to fight the rest of the herd from there, if the Whisperers still didn't retreat after the other battles.

Carol and Ezekiel left with a group and went to the Kingdom to prepare the battle there. Cyndie and Rachel took a group to the Junkjard, while Eugene and Aaron went to search a boat. Daryl and Rick decided to go to get the fireworks. Tara's group went back to the Hilltop to prepare people for the battle and Michonne decided to go back to Alexandria. Connie stayed back with Lydia, Henry and some other people at the Sanctuary to prepare it as their basis.

Connie sat next to Daryl, while they were eating breakfast. She didn't like to let him go, but she also didn't want to leave Lydia. After what happened to Oceanside, Lydia was very quiet, mostly sitting in a corner and no one could get through to her, not even Henry. Connie was afraid, she would run away or do something desperate and she was watching her closely, together with Daryl. But with the upcoming war they couldn't both just sit around, and so she agreed to let Daryl go together with Rick to find that firework warehouse, while she was watching over Lydia.

But it hurt her deep in her heart, to let Daryl go. They were together all the time and splitting up right now was hard. When they were finished with their breakfast, it was time to say goodbye.

Daryl saw the sad look on her face.

"You okay with staying here?" He asked Connie.

She signed :"Yes, that's okay." She tried to smile, but it didn't come out right.

"Hey, I hate to split up too, I wished we both could go," Daryl said.

"Me too," she signed and wrote:

But we both know, somebody has to keep an eye on Lydia. She's taking it to her heart, that Oceanside was destroyed.

"I know," Daryl said looking in Lydia's direction, who was sitting on the stairs next to Henry with a depressed look on her face. Then he turned back to Connie.

"Please take care," Connie signed trying to hold back her tears, but she couldn't.

"I will, I promise," Daryl said, taking her face in his hands and wiping her tears away with his thumb. He pulled her closer and they shared a deep embrace. Connie held him tight, not wanting to let him go.

Rick came to them asking if Daryl was ready to go.

Daryl kissed Connie goodbye. It was a long tender kiss and neither of them wanted it to end.

"We'll be back soon, maybe even tonight," Daryl said, trying to cheer Connie up.

"I will keep an eye on him for you, don't worry," Rick told her.

Connie smiled and signed: "Thank you." And Rick nodded.

When they were sitting in the horse wagon and left the Sanctuary, Daryl looked back at Connie and waved her goodbye.

He turned back and saw that Rick was looking at him and smiling.

"It feels strange to leave her, we were together all the time," he told Rick.

"I know how it feels," Rick said. "It was the same with me and Michonne yesterday. She didn't want to leave and I didn't want her to. But we have to get ready for the war."

"Yeah," Daryl agreed.

"You being close with someone like that, that's still an unusual sight," Rick noted after some time.

Daryl said nothing just smiled timidly.

"I mean all those years, I never saw you being interested in anyone," Rick continued.

Daryl wasn't looking at him when he answered.

"Guess other things were more important the whole time. And then it just happened."

"Yeah, one day you just meet the right person," Rick told him and Daryl knew Rick was thinking about Michonne.

"So when this is all over, you're going to have a real wedding?" Rick asked him.

"Nah, nothing too fancy. We just wanna make something official, like exchanging rings, with some people present."

"And you have the rings already?"

"I had one, but I lost it during a dumb incident."

"Well, maybe we find you another one."

Rick retrieved his map. There was a spot marked with "Mall"

"Maybe there's something here."

Daryl looked at the map.

"Yeah, but let's get through with this first."

They arrived at the firework warehouse late in the afternoon. It was a big building, with colorful letters on it, which said: FIREWORKS. LARGEST SELECTION. LOWEST PRICES. They cautiously approached the building but couldn't see any walkers there. Daryl knocked on the door a couple of times and they heard some walker sounds inside. They gave each other a nod and while Daryl opened the door, Rick killed a couple of walkers coming out. After that, they went inside. The shelves were still filled with all kinds of fireworks.

"Seems like it's our lucky day," Daryl said and they started collecting them and loading them up into the horse wagon.

"Hope these babies still work," Daryl remarked when they were finished.

"We'll find out soon."

They rode back when it was getting dark already. On their way several walkers came out of the woods and attacked them. They had to stop under a bridge to fight them off. When they killed all of them, they heard some walkers up on the bridge. They both looked up just in the moment when two walkers were falling down and Daryl pushed Rick aside, because one of them almost landed on top on him.

Daryl fell on the ground when he was hit by the walker and he scraped up his arm and cheek. Rick quickly pulled the walker away from Daryl. He killed the walker and reached a hand out to Daryl.

"Thanks," Daryl said when he got up.

"No, thank YOU! That one almost got me. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Daryl answered, observing his bleeding lower arm. "But you should better stay the hell away from bridges," he added.

Rick gave him a friendly nudge.

"Come on, brother, lets get back and patch you up."

They came back late at night when almost everyone was asleep. Connie was still awake, though, and she ran to Daryl and hugged him when she saw him. She saw his injuries and gave him a worried look.

"I'm alright, don't worry," he told her.

She patched up Daryl's wounds and soon they went to sleep. Daryl was so tired he fell asleep immediately. He woke up some time later, when Henry was shaking his shoulder.

"Hey, guys wake up," Henry said.

"What is it," Daryl asked half asleep. Connie also woke up and rubbed her eyes.

Henry seemed to be upset about something.

"Lydia is gone."

Daryl felt like someone punched him in the gut.

"What do you mean, she's gone?" He asked with panic in his voice.

"I was sleeping and when I woke up, I found this." Henry showed them a note.

Please don't be mad at me, I have to do this. I have to try to prevent a war.
I don't want anyone of you to die, so I will go back and talk to my mother. I hope she will stand back.
I love you all.
Lydia