"No!"

Daryl didn't even realize, that he was screaming. He almost got his arms free, but it was too late to safe Lydia. Alpha came to him and said: "Psst!", putting a finger on his lips. But Daryl, whose arms were finally free, put his hands around her neck and started chocking her. His anger was driving him and giving him the power, he watched how her eyes widened and out of surprise she dropped her knife. Three Whisperers came towards them and took their knives out. One was approaching Connie. Daryl let go of Alpha, who breathed in heavily. He picked up the knife and stabbed her leg. She fell on one knee. Daryl quickly cut the ropes and got free.

"Kill them all," Alpha said holding her bleeding leg. Daryl threw the knife at the Whisperer who was approaching Connie and hit him in the head. The Whisperer fell on the ground and dropped his knife. Connie tried to reach the knife with her foot, but it was too far away. In the meantime Daryl was fighting another Whisperer. Daryl received several cuts, before he could get the upper hand and kill him. Daryl took his knife. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Alpha stood up and was trying to get away. He considered going after her and killing her, but he couldn't leave Connie and Henry with the last Whisperer, who would kill them. So instead he picked up another knife from the dead Whisperer and fought the last whisperer with two knives, finally killing him by stabbing one knife into his throat. After that he helped Connie and Henry to get free. Connie hugged him quickly but then went to Lydia, who was lying on the ground in a big puddle of blood, holding her bleeding wound. Her eyes were closed, but she was still breathing. Connie sat on the ground and lifted Lydia's upper body carefully and placed Lydia's head in her lap, so she would lie in a more comfortable position. Henry was on his knees, holding Lydia's hand. Daryl was just standing there, he couldn't move and for a moment he thought that everything that he saw wasn't real. It couldn't be. There was a numbness inside him and his sight became blurry.

Lydia opened her eyes.

"Hey," she said faintly. Connie pulled the hair out of Lydia's face, caressing her cheek and crying.

"Hey, you're going to be alright, everything is going to be okay," Henry mumbled. He was crying too.

Lydia tried to shake her head.

"Don't be sad," she brought out. She had difficulty speaking.

"Thank ... you … for …for... being my… fami-" She didn't finish the sentence, her eyes fell shut and her head rolled to one side. Her hand slipped lifelessly from her wound.

"Nooo! Please no," Henry sobbed, bending over Lydia's body and putting his arms around her. Daryl felt that the numbness inside him was suddenly replaced by a sharp pain and tears were rising in his eyes. He felt guilty that he couldn't safe his girl. They all were silent for a minute, then Connie kissed Lydia's forehead and stood up. She went to Daryl and they hugged, comforting each other in their pain. Henry was still holding Lydia. Daryl looked to Lydia and then to the knife in his hand. He knew someone had to do it and the pain at the thought of this was unbearable, but he didn't want that Henry or Connie would have to go through it. However, before he could release Lydia from the fate of being revived as a walker, they heard rustling sounds and saw a walker herd approaching.

"Shit!" Daryl shouted out. He and Connie grabbed Henry, who was still holding Lydia's hand and they ran. They were all devastated and exhausted, Daryl thought for a moment that they wouldn't make it. But then he heard a loud noise behind him, which sounded like an explosion. And then again and again. The herd behind them seemed to be irritated and some of the walkers broke away and went back into the direction of the sound. Daryl, Connie and Henry were still running from the herd, when Daryl suddenly saw Dog running to him. And behind Dog there were horse wagons and Rick, Michonne, Tara and Gabriel with some other people standing there. Daryl petted Dog's head, still too devastated about Lydia to be happy about Dog being alive and then he went to Rick.

"Good thing, your friend showed us where you were," Rick said pointing at Dog.

Daryl wasn't able to speak, his eyes were still filled with tears.

"What happened?" Rick asked him.

"Lydia." It was the only thing Daryl could say.

Rick gave him a compassionate look.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry… I…" Rick couldn't speak either.

Daryl turned away and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

"So, our plan is working?" He asked then.

"Yeah, we're trying to split the herd," Rick told him.

"We also found a boat, so when it gets dark we'll lead part of the herd into the ocean."

"That's good."

They were standing there, waiting for the herd to approach. And when it came, they started to fight off the walkers and Whisperers and retreating now and then to lead them into the direction of the ocean. The herd became thinner, since the other groups were doing the same, managing to split it up and lead parts of the herd to the other points of the battle. When it started to get dark, Tara and Gabriel got into the boat and took a load of fireworks with them.

"Good luck," Michonne told them.

"Thanks, we gonna need it," Tara answered. They were lucky, the ocean was calm, so they moved further out and fired a firework rocket. A couple of walkers started to walk towards the water. Daryl, Rick and the others were still fighting the rest.

Gabriel and Tara succeeded to lure a couple of dozen walkers into the ocean but then a high wind came up and with it the waves became bigger and bigger making the boat rock from side to side.

In the meantime the others were fighting the walkers. Connie saw Alpha in the distance. She had her mask on now, but Connie still recognized her. She started to fight her way through the herd to get to her.

"Connie!" Daryl shouted, but she wasn't looking at him, so she didn't notice it. Daryl wanted to run after her, but then he saw a couple of walkers closing in on Rick. He ran to him and fought off two of them. The last one was above Rick, but Daryl quickly got this one too.

"You alright?" Daryl asked Rick and helped him up.

"Yeah, thanks," Rick answered holding his shoulder. Another couple of walkers started to come to them. The herd was still big and they had to retreat.

"You go, I've to find Connie," Daryl said. Rick nodded and he and Michonne started to lead the herd towards the Sanctuary.

In the meantime Connie almost lost Alpha out of sight, but then she saw her standing on a small hill. She found a way to sneak up on her from behind and aimed with her slingshot at her head. But then Alpha turned around and shot at Connie. Connie was able to dodge, but the shot grazed her left hand, and a stinging pain drove through her body. She held her bleeding hand for a moment, but then Alpha threw her shotgun on the ground and approached her with her knife out. So Connie took her knife out too. She dodged Alpha's first attack and managed to cut her arm, then Alpha placed a hit with her knife on Connie's shoulder. They were fighting each other, cutting each other with their knives and dodging attacks. For the first time in many years Connie used her voice. She was screaming. She didn't realize it first and she also didn't hear its sound. She didn't know how it sounded, but the scream came out of her like she was an animal. The anger about Lydia's death was driving her crazy. After some time they fought each other with their fists, because both lost their knives during the fight.

"You made me kill my daughter, you will die," Alpha said. She got the upper hand and started hitting and chocking Connie. Connie was on the ground, but she was hitting Alpha too, trying to get free and she was pulling at her mask, which finally slipped off Alpha's face. Then Connie placed her thumbs over Alphas eyes and started to push her fingers in. She didn't knew if the blood which was dripping down on her face was coming from her own bleeding hand or from Alpha's eyes. Alpha cried out and let her go for a second and Connie punched her in the face. Alpha was holding her eyes and Connie was able to get up. She hit her knee against Alpha's chin so hard that Alpha fell backwards. She lost the balance and rolled down the small hill, landing in front of several walkers. Connie looked down and could see how the walkers closed in on Alpha and started to bite out the flesh of her shoulder and cheek. Alpha tried to get away, but it had no use, there were too many walkers and this time she couldn't hide. Connie watched how the walkers devoured her and then she saw that one of them was Lydia. She fell on her knees an began to cry.

Daryl saw Connie on her knees on a top of a hill he ran to her. He lifted her on her feet and hugged her. Her beautiful face was covered in bruises and blood and she also had several cutting wounds all over her body, just like he did. It was painful to see her like that, but he was happy that she was still alive. He couldn't take it to lose her too.

When Daryl looked down, he could see several walkers devouring someone, who wasn't recognizable anymore, but he figured out that it had to be Alpha. Then he saw Lydia with the walkers. Daryl put his crossbow up and aimed, but Connie lay a hand on his crossbow and he put it down again. Then she picked up her slingshot, aimed and hit walker Lydia's eye, whose lifeless body fell on the ground. She started sobbing and Daryl hugged her again.

They caught up with the group, which was headed to the Sanctuary and even though Alpha was dead, the Whisperers and the walker herd were still following them. Enid managed to quickly patch them up on the way while some of them still were trying to fight off the herd. When they arrived at the Sanctuary they picked up their weapons and prepared to continue to fight. When Daryl was standing next to Rick he noticed the bloody spot on Rick's shoulder and wondered why Rick didn't let Enid to patch him up. Then they looked at each other and Daryl shivered as he read the reason in Rick's eyes.