"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."— John Steinbeck
Construction on the wall was completed around early afternoon the next day. Georgie had stayed back in Alexandria, helping Carol around the main house; simply cleaning up the breakfast dishes, doing a few loads of laundry, changing bed sheets and looking after the children. When Tristan was returning home from morning class at the schoolroom, Carl had gone off to the afternoon class. Shortly after that, Georgie had decided to take Judith for a walk in her stroller and when Tristan claimed he didn't want to go, Carol said she'd stay with him. Both women could tell there was something bothering Georgie's son and he wouldn't talk to her about it. It had been going on for a few days, ever since Jake had died, so she suspected it more than likely had something to do with that.
Regardless of the man Jake had become and the things he had done while on the road, he had never laid a hand on Tristan, and was a good man to him. That had been his only saving grace in the end. He had been a decent father and Tristan was probably just in mourning over his loss.
As she walked along the road with Judith, she smiled politely and waved at a few of the Stepford Housewives on their porches talking to each other. They smiled back at her, out of politeness, but Georgie could see them turning and whispering to each other the moment she passed their houses. She could see them out of her peripheral vision and sensed they were talking about her. It wasn't that she was paranoid. She had been at the center of the drama that had taken place recently. After all, she had arrived with a rag tag group of survivors and moved right in with her legitimate husband and their son, only for her husband and her lover to violently throwdown in the street and for the lover, who happened to be the constable, to wave a gun at people while covered in blood. She had then publically divorced her husband and spit on him, and moved her and her son into the main house. She was Rick's biggest champion and gave terrible stink eye to anyone who contradicted him. She supposed that made her hard to befriend. She had played the part while living under the same roof with Jake, but after the fight with Rick, Georgie had stopped pretending to be the demure housewife.
That was a part Carol had more patience to keep up with.
When she turned the corner by the solar panels, she saw a tall woman with short blonde hair unlatching the gate. She had only conversed with her once, but Georgie had known her name to be Holly, and she was pretty sure she had remembered that Noah had been stealing glances at her the night of Deanna's welcoming party.
Georgie frowned then, remembering Noah and hearing about how he died, and it made her sad for a moment. He had been such a lovely young man who had already lost his entire family and then suddenly seemed so happy when they arrived to Alexandria. He had found someplace where he could make a life for himself and it was cruel that he had had that taken right out from underneath him because Nicholas had acted like a little bitch.
As the gate slid open, a few vehicles drove inside and Georgie noticed Rick in the passenger seat of one of a truck. She had waved at him, but he had been looking forward and not seen her and Judith. She knew the truck would be circling around to pull into one of the garages underneath the townhouses, so she took the shortcut, walking up the narrow road that went past the garage which was used as the school as well as Gabriel's church. She peered in briefly and saw Carl joking around with Enid, and Nicholas' son Mikey. The woman who was their teacher was biting her lip, trying to get their attention, to no avail. The teens seemed to have only bothered going to class to socialize and, as far as Georgie was concerned, that was perfectly fine.
This wasn't the world before and there wasn't much more for the teens to learn. The simple fact that they could just relax with others their own age and live somewhat normal lives in a normal community was all anyone could ask for. It's what all the kids deserved.
It's definitely what Carl deserved.
Continuing up the narrow road between school/church and the townhouses, Georgie slowed down when she saw Rick hopping out of the truck. As he slammed the door shut, he called out to Tobin about something or other and laughed. When he turned around, he came face to face with Georgie and smile warmly at her.
"Hey," he called out, walking up to her. When he was near enough, he placed his hands on her shoulders and pressed his lips against hers in greeting. "How's your day gone?"
"It was pleasantly uneventful," she replied, wishing his lips would've lingered a bit longer.
"Is that just another way of saying 'boring'?" Rick teased, leaning down and pulling Judith out of the stroller.
"No. I wouldn't have said 'pleasant' before 'uneventful.'" She watched him situate his daughter on his hip and kiss her cheek. Judith began jabbering away, clutching at his shirt with her tiny, chubby fingers as she squinted from the sunlight. "I think Tristan's still upset about Jake. I think that's what's been giving him the nightmares. He barely talks to me. Thankfully he seems to feel comfortable around Carol. She stayed back with him at the house instead of taking her shift at the pantry. Maybe she can get him to talk about what's eating at him."
Rick nodded solemnly. "We've all been so busy the last few days with the wall that I've barely had a chance to even talk to Carl long enough, let alone Tristan," he remarked. "I hope he's not too upset with me about what I had to do."
"I think he understands what had to be done with his father, but Jake had always been kind to him, even if he wasn't to me in the end, and even though Tristan was aware of what his father had done in Greensboro." Georgie shrugged. "A boy losing his father; that's some hard shit to deal with, I guess. But we have so many men in both houses that he can look up to now; good men. Yourself included, right up there at the top of that list, of course."
Rick smirked and snaked his free arm around her waist. "Well, I do try," he muttered, placing a kiss to her temple.
"Is the wall finished?"
"It is," he confirmed with a nod. "Tomorrow's the dry run, so it's a good thing we got done early. We can all relax for the rest of the evening. Eat a good meal and go to bed early so we're ready to go in the morning."
"When are we doing the actual herd removal?"
"Day after tomorrow, preferably," he replied. "I don't want to wait too much longer. The risk is too great."
She watched the way he seemed slightly agitated by something. She wondered if it had something to do with the dry run the following day or something else. "What's up, buttercup?"
Rick snickered at her and cast a side glance at her. "Morgan."
"What about him?"
"Just what he said to me yesterday when we took out those walkers because Carter just stood there like a deer in the headlights; throwing what I said to him a few nights ago back in my face."
"About not taking chances anymore?"
Rick nodded. "Yeah. I can tell in his eyes, he thought I was being negligent."
"You weren't, though. There was nothing wrong with having Carter and the others get their hands dirty. They need to learn to take care of themselves out there sooner or later, plain and simple. What happens if they get stranded outside these walls? How will they defend themselves then when there's no us to save their asses?"
"I know that. I just don't think Morgan gets it. He's got this whole Buddhist air to him; this inner peace I am admittedly jealous of. But the way he is, it's not entirely practical. Inside these walls, maybe, but not outside." Rick sighed. "You know one of the first things he said to Daryl and Aaron was that all life is precious?"
Georgie knitted her brow together and frowned. "Clearly he's never had to interact with the kinds of people we've crossed paths with on the road. Those people's lives were anything but precious."
"Tell me about it. There were even two men that attacked him before he got here and he just smacked them around with that stick of his and sent them running." Rick seemed dumbfounded as he shook his head. "Like, I-I don't even understand how that happens."
Georgie let out a small chuckle. "Why don't we just head home and you can take a hot shower, clear your head. I'll set out some clean clothes for you because you've been wearing that damned T-shirt for two days in a row now and it smells like it."
"Hey, I've smelled like worse."
"I know," she agreed. "And so have I, but we don't have to anymore, so why not take advantage of having washers and dryers to use?" Biting her bottom lip, she grinned up at him and reached around to give his ass a pinch. When he clenched briefly at the gesture, it brought another chuckle out of her. "I'll warm you up some leftover lasagna from last night's dinner and have it waiting for when you're done cleaning up."
Rick smiled lovingly down at her. "Battling Carol for Housewife of the Year?" he teased, turning slightly and leaning in to kiss her once more on the lips, which meant she couldn't respond right away.
The closeness of their bodies meant Judith was sandwiched gently between them, but the little girl didn't seem to mind. She looked up between them, watching them kissing and smiled a sweet smile as she rested her head upon Rick's chest, strumming at her bottom lip.
"Da-da," Judith babbled. She craned her head backward suddenly to get a better look at him.
Rick snapped his attention immediately to his daughter and his heart swelled. Judith rarely spoke. It was usually just mumbled gibberish or crying. To actual hear her address him specifically made all the bad things disappear from his life for a little bit.
"What's up, baby girl?"
"Da-da, da-da." She turned her head and glanced over at Georgie and then brought her hand to her mouth and made a suction noise. "Ma-ma."
Georgie just stood there. "Well, that was unexpected."
"You're telling me," Rick muttered. "I've never heard her say that yet."
The two of them looked at each other and Georgie suddenly felt a bit awkward. "Let's head home."
Rick nodded, lowering Judith back down into her stroller and strapping her in so she didn't tumble out. "Lead the way, mama," he quipped.
Georgie turned away from him, pushing the stroller forward; just thankful he couldn't see the blush that found its way to her face.
After Rick's shower, sure as shit, there was a crisp, new shirt waiting for him laid out on the bed that Georgie had laid out for him while he was in the bathroom. There was even a note that said the shirt had been hanging in the back of the closet and that he was to not wear it to the quarry in the morning because it was too nice to get dirty.
Rick had thrown his trusty, black jeans back on, along with a white T-shirt and the dress shirt, with the tiny blue and white checkered pattern, Georgie had lain out. He sat down on the edge of the bed to put on some clean socks and then his boots which could use a good resoling. That was unlikely, however. It was highly doubtful anyone in Alexandria knew anything about shoe repair.
Bringing his towel up to his head, he tried soaking up as much of the water still clinging to his hair and then returned the towel into the bathroom to air dry on a towel rack; just as he was going to air dry his hair. He did take a brush to it, though, so when his hair did dry, his naturally curly hair would look wavier and not completely crazy.
When he joined the others in the kitchen, he found that everyone was gathered primarily in the living and dining rooms, seated on the couch, the big chair or around the table. Only Georgie and Carol stood around the island.
Looking at Georgie and smiled. "I like the shirt," he muttered.
"I like it, too. It brings out your eyes."
Carol, nursing a cup of tea, smirked. "He cleans up rather well, doesn't he?" she asked, rhetorically, as if he weren't even there. "Looks so handsome all dressed up in nice clothes."
Georgie leaned into Carol and muttered in a quiet voice, but loud enough for Rick to hear, "You should see him with no clothes on."
Carol let out a hearty chuckle and nodded. "Oh, I can imagine."
Rick looked like he'd just seen a ghost and looked away, shaking his head, so both women couldn't see the embarrassment on his face. He looked over at the group congregated in the other part of the living space, noting that not everyone was present. Abraham, Rosita, Tara, Eugene, Glenn and Maggie were missing. He figured the first four were likely next door, and Glenn and Maggie were probably at Deanna's, what with Maggie having become Deanna's right hand woman.
At the table, Daryl and Morgan sat across from each other, eating what looked to be bowls of soup. On the couch, Michonne sat at one end, Carl on the other and Tristan in the middle while Sasha occupied the big, comfy chair. All four of them had their eyes trained on the TV, watching a movie; Elf, to be exact. Hearing laughter come from them was such a welcomed sound, along with the sound of a movie actually playing on a television screen.
Actually, just having electricity was amazing.
The amount of shit they had taken for granted in the old world was astonishing.
"Where's Judith?" Rick asked.
"Napping." Carol turned the baby monitor around to face Rick when he looked over at both women again.
On the screen, he could see his daughter fast sleep, sprawled out the way he remembered Lori sleeping when he would come home from work in the middle of the night and she had had the entire bed to herself. Those instances he would just let her sleep and go watch some TV in the living room and usually just fall asleep on the couch, only to get woken up mere hours later by the sounds of Lori getting Carl ready for school. Then he would get up to his feet, kiss them both good morning and then stumble into his and Lori's bedroom and collapse back to sleep for a little while longer before Lori woke him up to mow the lawn or some other husbandly chore before he had to go back to work for his next shift.
It was strange to think of those things now.
It felt like someone else's life, not his.
Looking up from the baby monitor, he focused his attention on Georgie and smiled. She was the woman in his life now. He had his son and his daughter, and now he had Georgie's son as part of his family. He had a bigger family now than he did in the old world, and that was the only benefit of the new world.
"Want that lasagna?" Georgie asked, snapping Rick out of his daydream.
"What—oh yeah. Yeah, that sounds good."
He took a seat down on a stool at the kitchen island and watched as Carol stepped back so Georgie could open the oven door. She pulled out a ceramic plate using a dishcloth and set it in front of Rick. On the plate was a medium-sized square of lasagna leftover from the night before.
"Can I have a fork, please?" he asked politely.
Georgie pulled a drawer open after closing the oven door and removed a fork. Walking around the island, she stepped right up beside Rick and before she allowed him to take the fork from her, she leaned forward and placed a kiss on the corner of his mouth. He was slow to react to the kiss, turning his head into it just as she was already pulling away. She did leave him with the fork, however, and a slight ruffling of his hair as she walked over into the living room to join the others in watching the movie.
Taking the fork and jabbing the lasagna with it, Rick smiled. When he sensed Carol's eyes on him, he shot a look at her and found she was smiling happily back at him.
"Penny for your thoughts, Carol?"
"Things are gonna work out here," she spoke quietly and adamantly. "We're gonna make it work. We're gonna make it safe and the people here will get stronger. We can have some semblance of our lives back."
"I hope so," he commented, shoveling a forkful of food into his mouth.
An hour later, Rick and Georgie left the house with Daryl and Morgan in tow to head to the armory together. As they stepped up the porch, they heard some voices muffled from inside that sounded a bit tense. Rick reached for the door handle first and threw the door open only to find Carter standing there pointing a gun in the face of a very scared Eugene who was sat on the floor against a metal shelf of pantry goods.
"What the hell's going on?" Rick demanded in a low, steady voice.
Carter looked back at him anxiously, still not dropping the gun.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm taking this place back from you?" Carter announced.
Rick, Morgan, Daryl and Georgie had slipped more inside, staring back at Carter and casting a glance or two into the armory where Tobin stood with Olivia, Spencer and Francine.
"This what you've been talking about in here?" Rick questioned them, taking another step closer inward.
"That's what he was talking about," Spencer clarified as Tobin scratched his head in exasperation, glaring at Carter.
Rick began chewing on his lips, taking this all in. "See, I would have—I would have set up some lookouts," he muttered, giving Carter a side glance; looking almost as if he were amused. "That would have been the smart thing. You know, if I happened to—"
Rick cut his own self off by lunging forward and expertly taking the gun from Carter's hand, and then kicking the man in the back of the knee so he dropped forward onto the ground. He whipped around quickly and pointed the gun at the back of Carter's head. The man stared at the ground with both hands raised in a sort of surrender as everyone immediately tensed up at whether or not Rick would pull the trigger and put an end to Carter right then and there.
"You really think you're gonna take this community from us? From Glenn, from Michonne, from Daryl or Georgie—from me?" he growled out, pressing the barrel against the back of Carter's head. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"
"It was just me," Carter whimpered quietly, tears in his eyes.
"What?"
"It was—it was just me. Just—just kill me."
"Rick," Daryl spoke softly.
Rick looked up at the archer. It was like when they had gone into Atlanta to get Beth back, when Daryl had called him off killing that cop. It didn't need to be done, the same as Carter didn't need to be killed. Rick cast an eye away from Daryl, avoiding Morgan's gaze, which was no doubt judging, and fixated on Georgie. She looked back at him and nodded, saying as much with that simple gesture as Daryl had by simply saying his name.
"I'm good." Rick pulled the gun back and set the safety on. "I'm good," he nodded, passing the gun over Carter's head to Daryl, who took it and pocketed it, and then looked down at Carter. "You can try to work with us. You can try to survive. Would you do that?"
Carter slowly turned his head but couldn't bring himself to fully look at Rick; probably out of a mix of embarrassment, guilt and a little bit of fear. He did nod in place of an answer. His voice was lost on him for the moment.
"Good," Rick muttered. "Get up off your knees and go home. We got an early day tomorrow."
Carter nodded again and slowly stood up. He avoided eye contact with everyone, but briefly looked back at Eugene on the floor and muttered a quiet, "sorry."
"Okay," Eugene replied.
As soon as Carter had darted out the door, Tobin stepped forward to eye Rick. "We really had no part in this, Rick. He gathered us together to talk and we were trying to get him to back off that plan of his."
Rick nodded. "It's okay. Tensions are high because we got a lot at risk right now." He looked off toward the door and shared a knowing look with Daryl. "He'll learn or he won't."
Georgie stepped forward and leaned down slightly, holding both hands out to Eugene, who looked up at her with curious eyes. "C'mon," she urged.
Staring her in the eye, and then at her hands, Eugene obliged her and took her hands; allowing her to help him get back up to his feet. "Thank you."
"You alright?" she asked.
He brushed himself off and nodded gingerly. "This was just a moment in time. I had a bit of a scare, but yes, I will be alright." Eugene looked her in the eye again. "I thank you for your concern for my well-being, whether or not it's genuine."
Georgie narrowed her gaze at him, placing her hands on her hips. Even Rick turned around and looked at him questioningly. "Why wouldn't it be genuine?" she asked.
"Well, past experience between us. I know I haven't always been your favorite person," Eugene explained. "I am aware I tend to irritate and that, while on the road, I was an occasional thorn in your side ever since we met."
Georgie chuckled, reaching out and patting him on the shoulder. "Yeah, you are irritating sometimes, but you've grown on me. And you earned my genuine concern when you risked yourself to help save Tara. You and I are good now. I promise I won't kick your teeth or cut your mullet off while you sleep anytime soon."
"I appreciate that."
Rick gestured at the food items on the floor. "You should get whatever it is you came in here for and head home, too."
"Okay." Eugene turned slightly, crouching down to pick up the canned goods, box of crackers, canned cheese spray and fruit cups he had dropped. There was also a glass jar of some sort of jam or preserves that was broken on the bottom and its contents oozing out. He left that there, however, for someone else to clean up. "Thank you, again," he added, looking between Rick and Georgie and then making a beeline for the door.
Not too long after, Morgan was sitting on the porch of the main house, using an old rag to rub some sort of oil along his staff. Judith had woken up for her nap and Rick had gone up to get her, and when he brought her back downstairs had noticed Morgan outside, and decided to join him.
"It's nice out," Morgan remarked, hearing Rick's footsteps approaching before he saw him.
"Yeah," Rick agreed somewhat solemnly as Judith began to babble to herself.
"Hope you don't mind. I wanted to enjoy the evening a little and I don't have a porch over there." Morgan gestured up the road toward the townhouses, so…"
Looking down at him, Rick pulled some keys out of his back pocket and tossed them to Morgan. "Get your stuff," he said. "You should stay with us…over here."
From inside the house, Michonne was approaching the door with a cup of tea in her hands. She briefly cast a glance over at Georgie who could hear the conversation between both men from where she sat at the kitchen island with her own cup of tea.
"You got room?"
"We'll make it. We don't need to do that anymore." Rick nodded his head up the street. "I know you, Morgan; even if this is the first time."
Georgie stood up off her stool and carried her mug over to the doorway beside Michonne. Both women just stood there silently, watching Rick and Morgan's interaction with each other and how Morgan was smiling up at Judith.
"You want to hold her?" Rick inquired.
Morgan chuckled. "Okay." Setting down his staff and getting up to his feet, he walked up the rest of the steps to stand in front of Rick and outstretch his arms to take Judith.
"This is Morgan," Rick introduced as Judith cooed. "He's a friend of mine."
"Hey. Hi," Morgan greeted the little girl. "Okay. Let me have a look at you."
As Morgan moved to sit back down with Judith in his arms, Rick cast a glance at the doorway and saw both Michonne and Georgie wearing small smiles on their faces. Simple moments like this made them forget the world beyond the walls for a little while. Winking at Georgie, Rick turned and sat down on the top step beside Morgan.
"Hey, hey. Hey, hey," Morgan muttered to Judith, smiling warmly at her. There really was nothing like holding a baby in your arms. "You with that man Carter, in the armory—that's you," he said to Rick. "You're still the same man I met in King County. The one that came back and told me it wasn't over. That was you; same you that's right in front of me right now."
"I wanted to kill him," Rick admitted, looking off at the road in front of them, "so it would be easier. So I wouldn't have to worry about how he could screw up or what stupid thing he'd do next because that's who he is; just somebody who shouldn't be alive now." Rick sighed. "I wanted to kill him. But all that hit me and I realized I didn't have to do it. He doesn't get it. Somebody like that…they're gonna die no matter what."
As Morgan and Rick sat there, deep in conversation, Georgie placed a hand upon Michonne's arm, gesturing back into the house that they should give both men some privacy. Michonne nodded in agreement, and shut the front door quietly behind them.
After nightfall, Georgie was back at the armory, alone, with a pad of paper in one hand and a pencil in the other, doing inventory on the guns and ammo they had, so they knew what they might need to work with the following morning. It was quiet—too quiet—and she kind of wished she had a radio or CD player of some sort so she could listen to some music.
The deafening silence in the room was broken, though, when the front door clicked open and footsteps followed.
"Hey."
Georgie turned around to find Rick standing in the doorway, and she smiled over at him. "What's up?"
"I was just getting more flares for tomorrow," he informed. "You're still coming, right?"
She nodded. "I am," she assured, reaching up and grabbing a box of flares off the top shelf in front of her. Passing them over to Rick, she closed the gap between them and brushed the bridge of his nose with her thumb. "I don't think you need a few of these little bandages anymore. Your cuts seem to be healing pretty nicely."
He gestured up at her face. "Your bruising's fading, too."
"We're on our way to looking like normal people again."
Rick smiled and nodded back at her. "Imagine that."
Letting out a small chuckle, Georgie turned away from him and tried to resume taking stock, expecting they would finish any conversation they were having later. Rick, however, hadn't made a move to leave just yet. He simply remained standing there, just inside the room.
She could sense him looking at her, but when she looked over her shoulder at him, she found he was glancing out the window, through the blinds, up at the dark sky and possibly looking for any signs of life on the road below.
"Did you need something else, Officer Handsome?"
Rick hesitated in answering at first, and set the box of flares down on a small table near him. "Actually, yeah."
"Oh?" Georgie turned to give him her full attention.
"Earlier this evening, with Morgan on the porch," he began, "when I asked him to move in with us; do you think that was a good idea?"
Georgie nodded. "I do. I mean, you know him more than any of us, so if you think it's the right call, then it is."
"Yeah, but I want to know if you think it's the right call. I know it's pretty cramped already, even with having two houses between all of us."
"Well, technically, we have three." When Rick looked at her with slight confusion, she smiled and clarified, "The blue house. It was Jake's. I was his wife, Tristan was his son. The house mine now, in that sense. It's gotta be used for someone, and it's too much room for just one person, so having Morgan stay there by himself would just be wasteful, but a few people, a family inside it to make it a home and not just a house; I think we should consider that?"
"What do you mean? You wanna live there again?"
Georgie shrugged. "Not alone, not just with Tristan," she answered. "With you, Carl and Judith, too. I mean, if you want. The five of us together there; it would give the others more space to breathe in in the main house. Maggie and Glenn could take the master. I mean, they are the married couple among us, anyway. They should have the luxury of the bigger bedroom with the en suite bathroom."
"But you really want to live in Jake's house?"
"It's not his house. And we made some amazing memories there the other night," she remarked. "You said it yourself. It's just a house, and anything bad that happened inside it was because of one person. Those memories were because of one person, not because of the house, and we can make more memories together there. Happy memories."
Rick stepped forward. "You sure?"
"I am."
Rick considered this and nodded. "Well, why don't we talk more on it later. This is a big move to make. I don't mean us living together as a family. I think we've pretty much agreed the two of us and our kids are a family already, even if we haven't gone and announced it out loud to everyone else," he commented, bringing his hands up to her arms, leaning his face closer to hers. "We should talk more on this later, though. Tomorrow night at dinner, after the dry run. We'll bring it up to the others, about our intentions."
"Okay."
"There's been a lot going on today. It's been a bit stressful." Smirking down at her, he added, "Wanna calm me down?"
Georgie snickered and rolled her eyes. "You're always stressed," she teased.
Rick shrugged. "It's a good thing I got you, then."
Turning from her, he closed the sliding door to the armory and set it on lock. Next he moved to the window and closed the blinds. There was an unmistakably mischievous smile dangling from his lips when he finally looked back over at her, and doing so up through his eyebrows, which lit a fire in her belly. Her breath hitched at that look alone; like he was a wolf and she was his prey.
"What exactly are you up to, Officer?" she asked with an amused sparkle in her eye.
Biting down on his bottom lip for a brief moment, Rick stalked right up to her and removed the pen and pad of paper from her hands, tossing them to the table with his box of flares. Without saying anything else, Rick placed his hands under her arms and hoisted her up into his arms and then pulled her down onto the floor as he claimed her lips with his.
"I know this sounds insane, but this is an insane world. We have to come for them, before they come for us. It's that simple," Rick called out, over the deafening sound of snarls in the quarry. He was standing on the back of a flatbed truck, looking out at everyone taking part in the dry run, and they were looking back at them. "This is where it all starts tomorrow. Tobin gets in the truck, opens the exit and we're off. He hops out, catches up with his team at red, staying on the west side of the road. Daryl gets on his bike—"
"You see that?" Sasha questioned in a raised voice, gesturing across the quarry at one of the semi-trucks blocking the other entrance into the quarry.
The ground underneath one of its front tires groaned and cracked under the mix of the truck's weight and general erosion. A huge chunk fell away from the wall and the cab of the truck lurched over the edge, causing everyone to stand at attention. The sound of sharp, twisting metal echoed around the quarry as the last bit of cliff edge keeping the truck in place gave way, sending the truck falling over, down into the pit, crushing several walkers.
More importantly, it provided a large opening for all of the walkers to escape.
"It's open!" Rick shouted. "We gotta do this now!" He jumped down off the flatbed and everyone began to scatter in order to put the plan to immediate work. "We're doing this now! Tobin's group, get moving, go!"
"No, Rick, we're not ready!" Carter shouted back. Saying he was panicked and nervous was an understatement.
"Sasha, Abraham—"
"Damn straight, we'll do it live," Abraham barked, like a soldier amped for battle.
"—you meet Daryl at red. Let him take them through the gauntlet!"
"Yeah, we meet at red," Sasha confirmed, understanding their part to play.
"Go!"
As more rock crumbled away from the cliff, the herd of walkers began to move. Glenn ran over to Rick and told him about going to the tractor place they all discussed earlier on their way to the quarry when going over the plan again.
"Alright, who else?" Rick called out.
"Rick, this was supposed to be a dry run," Carter pressed.
"We don't have the luxury of a dry run anymore, Carter. Get your shit together," Georgie barked, catching his eye as he snubbed her by glaring at her.
"Daryl, get ready!" Rick called out.
The archer had his crossbow trained upward, pointed at a walker pushing through the slight crack in the other two semi-trucks pushed together in front of them. "They're coming!" Daryl declared.
As Sasha drove away with Abraham, Carter just couldn't be bothered to get the hell out of Rick's way. "Rick, we haven't even gone through the whole plan!"
"You want to go back, go back. We're finishing this," Rick snapped at him. Now was not the time for him to be contradicted. Carter could go take a flying leap into that horde of walkers for all he cared at this point. "Tobin! You hit it on my signal! They're heading for home; we don't have a choice! Get ready to hit the flares!" Rick held his arm up for a moment, and then pulled it downward as if pulling an imaginary lever. "Now!"
Tobin, began shooting his flares up toward the sky to divert the walkers' attention away from the direction they were going and to instead come their way. It seemed to be working for the most part as the severely pasty and emaciated walker Daryl had been aiming his crossbow at slipped between the two trucks in front of them, pulling its flesh right off its face and ripping open its chest in the process. Its ribcage became exposed and its intestines and other eternal organs began spilling out.
"Tobin, get the truck!" Rick shouted, just as Tobin hit the gas and moved the truck out of the way to allow the walkers to start staggering freely forward.
The walker that had pushed through the gap between the trucks was suddenly met with one of Daryl's bolts to the head and dropped instantly as the last glimmer of life that kept it mobile left its body for good. As the herd began pushing through, each team began to split off and go their separate ways to take on the tasks they had briefly discussed earlier in the morning.
Taking off on foot, running away along a car-lined narrow road out the quarry's gate 5, Rick, Georgie, Michonne and Morgan never broke stride. They soon exited out onto a regular road, which was when Rick paused, looking around, and brought is walkie-talkie up to his mouth and turned it on.
"You all have your assignments. You know where to rendezvous. Daryl leads them out. Sasha and Abraham join him at the bottom of the hill," he reiterated the plan, starting to walk on behind and catch up to the other three. "Glenn, you hit us when you take care of the walkers at the tractor place. That's the one thing we gotta get ahead of. Everybody keep your heads. Just keep up."
Cutting through the woods to their right, they eventually made it out onto the other road they needed to be on, where the wall had been built up and a few vehicles, including the RV with three orange balloons tied to the roof, awaited as an extra, precautionary barrier in case the metal plates began to buckle.
"Glenn, you there yet?" Rick radioed.
"Almost. We'll have it handled before they get here. And we'll meet you at yellow," came Glenn's static-y reply.
"Copy that." Hooking the walkie-talkie onto his belt, Rick came to a stop several feet away from the wall. Georgie stood on his right, Michonne on his left, and Morgan on the far left. "It'll hold."
"Well, that's good. You know, considering where we're standing," Michonne quipped.
Despite the seriousness of what they were trying to do and the air thick with tension because of it, Georgie couldn't help but smirk as she looked around Rick toward Michonne. "We could hide in the RV if we needed to, so we don't become trampled by the worst parade ever."
Rick cast a glance to his right at her and reached his hand out, placing it on the small of her back for a moment. Georgie responded by reaching her own hand back to grab his and just hold it tightly. Their fingers laced together as they both stared forward, waiting, as silence fell over them.
"Michonne," Morgan addressed suddenly.
"Yeah?"
"Back when you were in that place, where I lived…did you take one of my protein bars?"
Georgie furrowed her brow, having no idea what he was talking about. Whatever it was had happened long before she met Rick's group.
"No," Michonne replied.
However, judging by the way Rick seemed to smirk ever so slightly at her answer, Georgie had a feeling Michonne was lying.
"See, I could have sworn there was one more peanut butter left."
Michonne sighed. "That's how it is, isn't it? You always think there's one more peanut butter left."
"I could make us some peanut butter cookies when we get home," Georgie offered. "There's a Costco sized tub of peanut butter back at the pantry that Olivia's hording. She thinks I didn't notice her hiding it. She thought wrong."
Morgan leaned backward to get a glimpse of Georgie. "I thought Carol was the resident homemaker in your group."
Georgie went to reply but Rick beat her to the punch.
"Georgie's got some domestic skills up her sleeve," he remarked, still looking forward. "You should see what she can do with some toasted pecans, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and brown sugar."
Squinting from the sunlight, Georgie looked up at Rick's profile and smiled. "You remember exactly what I used?"
"You told me what was in that stuff," he shrugged.
"Yeah, but that was about a month and a half ago and I only mentioned it once."
"What can I say? A pretty lady told me something interesting, so I committed it to memory."
"How long have the two of you known each other? Since the prison, too?" Morgan wondered.
Rick chuckled a little, giving Georgie's hand a squeeze. "A month and a half."
"Really? Huh. I would've assumed longer."
"Carol found her after we lost the prison. Georgie helped Carol save the rest of us from some really bad people almost a week later," Rick explained. "We had all gotten separated. Me and Carl thought Judith was dead. Turns out a friend of ours, who's no longer with us, had her. He met up with Carol and Georgie not long after. Georgie was helping to take care of Judith."
"Loved that little girl since day one," Georgie muttered.
Michonne nodded with a smile. "She is very loveable. And cute. She obviously looks like her mother," she added in a teasing tone.
Rick couldn't disagree. He, personally, saw a lot of Lori in Judith, which made it easier to forget the likelihood that he wasn't the little girl's biological father.
The foursome fell quiet again.
Waiting like they were was like watching paint dry; if once the paint dried imminent danger awaited them.
After a while, the sound of snarls began to slowly echo through the air, signifying that the herd was getting close. Rick walked up to the RV and ascended the ladder attached to the back of it. Crouched down on the roof with his walkie-talkie, he tried reaching out to Glenn once more about the walkers they'd come across that morning at the tractor store. The walkers inside were banging on the metal doors and the noise would most likely distract the herd and send them off-course, which is where Glenn, Heath and Nicholas had gone—to do away with them.
"Glenn, you have to hurry. The noise could distract the herd right off the road. Talk to me."
After a moment of radio silence, the walkie-talkie crackled to life on the other end.
"We're here."
Rick turned and looked down the road on the other side of the wall from where he and the other three had been standing. There was no sign of the walkers, but there were so many of them that it was getting easier to hear them in the distance. Standing back up, he walked over to the back of the RV and climbed back down.
About twenty minutes later, the noise got considerably louder. Peeking through the small breaks in the wall, Rick could see the herd coming up the road, being led by Daryl on his bike and Sasha and Abraham beside him in the car.
Aiming their flare guns to left, where the road on the other side of the wall curved, the foursome each shot their flares into the sky so the sound grabbed the herd's attention and directed them down Marshall Road to continue onto Redding Road. They continued firing flare after flare. Rick got up onto the roof of a car so his would go farther.
As Daryl, Sasha and Abraham rounded the curve with their respective vehicles at practically a snail crawl, the walkers came right up to the wall but were easily lured up the road by the trio before them, as well as with the help of the flares. Several walkers began slamming into the metal plating of the wall, causing it to bow slightly in places. The snarling was so loud it was actually terrifying to think of that many just feet away, separated by thin sheets of metal and a few cars and an RV. If that wall went down, there'd be no holding them back.
The foursome got closer to the wall, listening to the way the walkers slammed into it. Anxiety levels were rising, but so far the dry run turned actual run was going to plan.
Rick looked to his left where Michonne and Georgie stood together; nodding at them as if silently assuring them they would be okay, that everything would work out.
Both women seemed a little iffy, either way.
"It'll hold," he whispered, repeating his earlier statement.
Once the last remnants of the herd had more or less gone by the wall, Rick led the other three into the woods where they were going to rendezvous with the Glenn's team and Tobin's team. Daryl, Sasha and Abraham's slow task of getting the herd away would take them upwards of six hours at the pace they had to go.
In the thickness of the trees, the stench of that many rotting bodies filled the air along with the crispness of fresh leaves and soil underfoot. It was certainly a conflicting mix of smells. Rick's group remained silent in the woods, listening to the snarls on the road nearby as the dead wandered by, sharing cautious looks with each other while they waited for the other two teams to meet up with them.
It was probably thirty minutes later when the other two teams seemed to converge; with Glenn, Heath and Nicholas showing up last, shoving tree branches out of their way and looking around anxiously for some friendly faces. To grab their attention, Rick whistled once and then he walked forward. The younger man joined him at his side and everyone edged up toward the woods' border, so they could see the walkers through the threes, no more than fifteen to twenty feet away.
"It's working," Carter muttered. It seemed he was officially extending an olive branch by the way offered his hand to Rick. "You were right."
As Rick shook Carter's hand, he turned to the others. "Everyone, we need to finish this. We have to keep moving and fan out down that thing front to back. Like we said, cops at a parade."
"The worst parade ever, mind you," Georgie added, speaking as lowly as Rick was as not to avert any attention from the walkers going by. "Don't anyone get lax. Keep your wits about you."
Rick nodded at her statement and turned to Glenn. "Glenn, you take the back. You got the other walkie."
"Got it," Glenn agreed.
"If it gets sloppy, we fire our weapons, pull them back on track."
"Just one straggler can lead others astray," Georgie remarked, removing her knife from its sheathing to have it at the ready. "If you see that happening, you kill it and move on."
"I'll hit the front," Carter offered, taking off mere seconds later.
Rick acknowledged the other man with a nod. "Okay, one after the other," he said before gesturing to Georgie to follow along with him. He hadn't been lying when he had told her he wanted her at his side during everything.
While darting in and around trees, while maintaining an eye on the walkers, Rick turned and glanced at Georgie. She felt his eyes on her and looked back, sharing a brief and small smile with him.
"This will work out. We're gonna be fine," she muttered, just as she tripped over a decomposing log covered with leaves.
She didn't fall. She only lost her footing for half a second, but Rick still reached out for her to make sure she remained upright and was okay.
"Now's not the time to turn into a klutz," he teased.
"Figures that would happen two seconds after I what I just said," Georgie snickered, shaking her head as they continued onward. "Gotta love iro—"
Before she could get the word "irony" out, panicked screaming filled the air, causing everyone to stop for a moment and figure out where it was coming from.
Rick narrowed his gaze and gritted his teeth. Whoever it was wouldn't stop screaming, and it was causing the walkers to move away from the road and head toward the woods up ahead.
"Tobin, they're breaking off," he spoke into his walkie-talkie.
"What do you want us to do?"
"Fire your guns and draw them back."
Hooking the walkie-talkie back onto his belt, Rick pulled out his pocket knife. It would be easier to dispatch any walkers, as using his own gun would draw more attention away from the road. Running fast and hard, Georgie, Michonne and Morgan got left behind in his dust, although they weren't too far behind. Because Georgie had been closer to Rick initially, she made it to where he was before the other two, and found Rick shoving his blade up into the underside of an emaciated walker's skull. As that walker, whose entrails had gotten it tied up to a tree trunk, fell back dead against another tree trunk, ripping its intestines out in the process, Rick darted around and dropped to a crouching position.
Georgie looked down and saw it was Carter, lying on the ground, with a gaping wound in the right side of his face that was bleeding profusely. He was still screaming and Rick was trying, and failing, to hush him the fuck up.
"Carter, take a breath," Rick urged. "Carter."
Carter kept screaming though, holding his hand to his face as blood soaked over it. "Oh God!"
Georgie crouched down beside Rick and eyed him. Pocketing her hunting knife, she then covered her hand over Carter's forehead to still him as best as she could. "Carter, shh," she hushed. "I know it hurts, but you gotta be quiet."
He cast terrified eyes over at her, but wouldn't let up screaming. Rick struggled to maintain his grasp on the main, attempting to cover his mouth with his to silence his screams, even though that wouldn't help Carter at all. There would be no saving him; not with a bite like the one he'd received. They couldn't just cut off part of his face to stop the infection from spreading.
Carter was as good as dead now. It was just a matter of stopping him from getting everyone else killed.
His hand slipping from the blood pouring from Carter's face, Rick continued to urge the younger man to be quiet. When he couldn't wait any longer, it was time to take matters into his own hands. With a nod to Georgie, she understood the task that he was going to undertake. Gripping her hand more firmly on Carter's forehead, she turned his head toward her so that he was looking at her. Mere seconds later, Rick jammed his knife into the base of Carter's skull, silencing him forever.
Gun shots began ringing out not far off and Tobin's voice crackled over the radio shortly after.
"It's working. The gunfire is bringing them back on the road."
Rick looked to his right, which alerted Georgie that someone else was there with them. When she looked up as well, she saw it was Morgan standing there and it was hard to read the look on his face. If she didn't know any better, Georgie could've swore he looked disappointed.
Rick, with her help, did what had to be done, though. Carter's death was imminent and Rick expedited it out of mercy and their own safety. There was nothing for Morgan to be judgmental over, if that's what he was even doing. But then she remembered what she and Michonne had heard Rick telling Morgan about Carter on the front steps the evening before.
"Somebody like that…they're gonna die no matter what."
Talk about foreshadowing.
Michonne appeared just then, looking down with mild shock at Carter's dead body as Rick brought his walkie-talkie back up to his mouth.
"You got 'em, Tobin."
"Copy that. What was that screaming?"
"That was Carter," Rick replied. "He got bit right in the face. I stopped him."
He stood up and walked over to one of the other trees near the slumped over walker, returning his walkie-talkie in place while Michonne and Morgan continued to look down at Carter's body. Georgie got up as well, wiping Carter's blood off her hands and onto her pants.
"You didn't stop him alone," Georgie muttered to Rick as she stepped closer to him.
He nodded appreciatively at her and then turned toward the other two, walking directly up to Morgan who looked like he was either meditating or reining in some sort of anger, or both. "We have a good hour until we have 'em to green when we hand them off to Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham," he spoke. "Why don't you head back, tell everyone what's happening? They should know."
"Okay, Rick, I just—"
"Will you do that for me?"
Both men shared a look with each other; Rick's stern and Morgan's relenting. Whatever Morgan was going to say slipped away from him as he nodded his confirmation to Rick's request.
"I'll take care of that one," Rick muttered, gesturing to a walker come toward them from between some trees. "Michonne, you take point."
As he stalked off, Georgie turned to Morgan and studied him a bit more. He really was a tough egg to crack. "It had to be done, you know," she assured, pointing down at Carter. "He was going to die anyway and his screaming would was a distraction to the herd. It could've gotten us killed or worse; led them toward Alexandria, which we don't need or want. His death was fast and painless. It had to—"
"I know it's how it is," Morgan cut Georgie off, looking up at her and then at Michonne. "I do."
"Yeah," Michonne frowned. "I do, too."
As she stepped away to keep lookout, Morgan wandered off through the woods to head back in the direction of Alexandria as Rick had asked. Rick took down the approaching walker with his knife to its head and then crouched down beside the decayed body, looking out at the road at the herd still going by. Georgie cast a sidelong glance at Michonne but the other woman kept her focus forward.
Looking down at her bloodstained hands, Georgie wasn't bothered at all by the sight. It had been a while since she'd had to get her hands dirty like that and, for a moment, she wondered if living within the walls of Alexandria were making her soft.
How strange it was that not getting blood on her hands felt like the unnatural thing to do.
Retrieving her knife again, she gripped it tight in her hand and walked closer to Rick just as he stood up.
"We need to keep moving," he remarked, looking her in the eye. Reaching for her hand, he held onto it for a moment, running his thumb over her knuckles. "We gotta finish this," reiterating to her what he'd said to Morgan.
"And we will."
Rick sighed. "Maybe you should head back with Morgan, for the kids."
"The kids have plenty of people there to protect them and keep them safe. They have Carol," she replied, and smirked knowingly when she uttered Carol's name.
He nodded, agreeing with that last bit without having to go into why. They both knew all too well how capable Carol was of protecting the ones she loved. "Yeah, they do."
"We gotta keep with this, to make sure they stay safe."
Looking down at her hand in his, Rick nodded again; slightly oblivious to the way Georgie was watching his face and how his curls were stringy from sweat and clinging around his forehead and the tops of his ears.
"By my side then?" he questioned, although it wasn't much of a question.
He knew her answer would be in the affirmative.
"Till the end of the line," she confirmed.
Rick looked back up at her and smiled, stealing a moment to kiss her before gesturing toward Michonne with a bob of his head for them to start moving along.
As he began walking side by side with both women, keeping his eye on the herd parallel to them on the road, Rick's head snapped to the right, toward the depths of the woods, at the sound of a loud horn blaring without letting up. The look on his face was sudden and sheer panic. Michonne looked around, and then focused on the walkers, at how they were slowly turning away from the road from the noise.
Darting away from the edge of the woods, Rick took temporary coverage behind a tree alongside Georgie as Michonne addressed them both.
"Whatever that is, it's far," she remarked.
Georgie's nerves shot up into the stratosphere with realization and complete fear. "It sounds like it's coming from—"
Rick eyed both women and finished Georgie's train of thought. "Home."
The three of them took off like wildfire through the trees.
Meanwhile, the entire horde began to leave the road and amble into the trees to follow the sound; all hundreds, if not thousands, of them.