Chapter 59: Veil


MPOV

~3 years ago~

Returning from a run, it was like my whole world crumbled. My son was dead. Roaming through the once village, I found my lover and a man I considered closer to family. I felt a rage, an uncontrollable one. Cutting their arms off, I screamed and cried. They could no longer grasp out to hold me. I broke their jaws, no longer could they make that unpleasant sound. Alone, I would walk this earth, but with the two I once cared for as a memory to never let people come to close. A reminder of many wrongs.

Wandering endlessly the roads, I punished myself by bringing these walkers with me and by stringing them along, so they'd never leave me. When the rage would really take over, I had spent hours and hours searching for walkers. A whistle through the trees, a crunch to the delicate of leaves and a swish of my large blade. Slicing their heads from behind, I would chop down walker, after walker that came into my path, only to return to the other two, less of a human than what I was. Covered in blood, speaking to them, I had done this regularly. That was, until I realized they'd never reply or converse with me anymore, like they once had done and chose it best to stay silent.

Like an animal, I'd kill whatever came my way, but ignored other groups of survivors, I didn't trust anyone and I never felt a need to find them. Nightmares were my companions, along with the two I held on chains. These nightmares were both different and the same. It was me with my kid, the father of my child and the man that would sit beside him. Eventually, as conversation progressed, it was my katana in my hand, they had no arms or mouths and my son had disappeared. The other, was my return, how I found it and felt so empty to find the place I called home become ruins.

Rage was all I had to store as emotion, I couldn't trust anyone and never thought of anyone other than myself. Finding Kat and Andrea that day, it was a day I felt the need for change, to do something good and not just walk away. Finding them was a blessing, one I'd never regret and I became myself. The rage I had stored, was directed to everything bad, to those who destroyed my home, to those who had a duty to look after my son and failed, but the biggest anger was directed to myself. I should have been there. Instead, I wasn't and I returned to ashes. I'd lost myself and everything that was. Hunting walkers, was a thrill and a way to remove the anger, when I needed the release, I'd scream, cry, breakdown and cut down as many walkers as I could. There were some days, I chose to hunt them, follow them, lead them somewhere, only for myself to ambush them and slaughter them. If it hadn't been for Kat and Andrea that day, I would of continued to be a lost soul.


Present day...KPOV

Climbing out of the van, I had to use Glenn for support as I made my way to Deanna who had rushed out with her husband to find us. Spencer lingering back as he then approached us, in hopes to find out where his brother was. What he was going to find out was going to be difficult to digest. Once I was on my feet and more or less stable, Eugene and Glenn tried to get Tara out. "What happened? Where's Aiden?" Deanna asked in a tone of pure panic mixed with fear.

Staring over at Deanna, I couldn't form the words and my head began to spin a little. I would of gone to help the others get Tara out, but I was trying to gather my senses, which would come and go in waves. "He-he-" I went to speak, but that moment, Pete rushed over to us and helped Glenn and Eugene get Tara out. Nicholas just stayed still, fozen and head bowed. Like the coward he was, unable to own up to the abandonment he had done to all of us.

Glenn cut right to the chase once Pete had ordered for Jessie to go grab the operating table. "Aiden's dead...so is Noah," Glenn informed them bluntly, both my father and Daryl had made their way to me, Carol too lingered around as she tried to hide in the back. Clutching her arms over her chest, it was like she couldn't stand being in this awkward circle.

Due to the news, Deanna was in shock at first, her son had just died and it was like hell had frozen over her inside of her. She was absolutely still and the look in her eyes was close to murderous. "What?! How?!" she asked, trying to get the information from us quickly as I saw tears begin to build. "Everyone. Inside. Now," she ordered for us all to go inside her place.

Going to take a step forward, my footing failed and I fumbled a little. Glenn caught me and kept me upright. "Kat," I could hear a group of voices say my name with worry, especially Michonne who had just stepped out to find me in this state. "I'd suggest she'd tell you what happened when she's able, she needs rest," Glenn had also called out to me with concern, keeping me on my feet as my father wrapped his arm around my back, to keep me leaning against him. "Kat hit her head during all this mess, she was unconscious for a while," he advised and informed Deanna of what happened briefly to me.

Stern, her eyes were hard and expression firmer than usual. Nodding once, her gaze darted to me and stopped there. "Katherine, get some sleep, I'll talk to you once you're feeling better," she suggested I go get some rest, that once I'm capable of staying on my own two feet, that I should be capable of talking to her about what had happened today.

Nodding, I went to go back to my home, but Glenn was called into the home, handing me over to my father for support, both Glenn and my father had an exchange of looks and nods. It was enough to tell me that the pair would discuss more about something and that they were thankful for each other. Dad was thankful for Glenn looking after me, while Glenn was thankful for my father being here when he needed him to be. Looking up, I noticed Michonne had joined us, my arm around my father's neck while he clutched my by the waist to hold me against his side, we wandered back to the house. "Before you go, I need to hear what happened," he told me as he slowed his steps towards our new home.

Everytime I'd look up at that big home, I thought of my mother, the plans and dreams my parents had shared. I knew it would never happen that way, but in the end, we were safe and comfortable. Or so, it was what I was lead to believe. Sighing, I slowed by the porch steps and sat down. "We were at the warehouse, walkers were inside, Aiden began shooting and..." I began speaking while Daryl stood, staring at me, Michonne leaned against the porch, Carol stared at me silently with her cardigan clutching closely to wrap around her, my father sat beside me and listened. Everyone's attention was on me. All eyes and ears were on me in that moment.

Taking a deep breath, I then looked to all the faces staring at me, listening to the story I had to tell. "One walker had a grenade attatched to it. Story cut short, Nicholas ran away, I tried to stop him from getting us all killed, he hit me and I hit my head against the surface, losing my conscious state of mind and fell to the ground," I informed them more or less of what had happened, or at the very least, what I could remember. "When I woke up, Noah was...gone and we had to return to an injured Tara and scared Eugene, along with a frantic Nicholas," I told them of how we all were in that state. Just as I had explained we had lost Noah, I saw Sasha exit the building and look around wide eyed before rushing off uncomfortably, telling us that she had a night watch to do.

After a few moments of awkward silence, I bowed my head and felt my whole body tense up with the intensity of how everyone watched me intently. I knew they were eager to get back at Nicholas for Noah, but I didn't know how to stop them this time. "That asshole, I'll kill him," Daryl grumbled, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes dark as I slowly lifted my head to look at him. He was angry, dark, brooding and I knew he was ready to rip Nicholas a new one.

Dad sat there, nodding, listening to me and digesting the story I had painted out for them. "Not if I get him first," dad growled under a dark voice. Nicholas had hurt me and killed a member of our family in the process. We lost Noah because of him. He hurt me because of his fear and now, two of the most important men from the three were pissed and ready to kill Nicholas for hurting me.

Hearing the pair snarl about Nicholas made Carol only angry with them, looking at them with disgust and like they were both children. "Guys!" she scolded them, silencing them from saying anymore threats or questioning me further. "Come on, you'd best get some rest," Carol said as she took a few steps towards me and took my hand, guiding me back to my feet and supporting me while I walked up the steps.

Looking over to Carol, I smiled sadly to her before I noticed how this felt familiar. It reminded me of the time Carol was close with my mother. It reminded me of how they supported each other through the toughest of times during this mad life. "Thanks," I whispered before she lead me up the stairs and allowed me to assist myself to bed, but kept watch in case I fainted due to the collision I had faced earlier with the glass.


DPOV

Watching Carol take the woman I cared most about up the stairs, to her room, I couldn't help but hate myself for not being there for her. I should have been there with her, or Rick should have been there with her. She could of died out there if it hadn't been for Glenn. "So...what do we do about this?" I asked after a few moments of silence between me, Michonne and Rick.

Once the news broke out that Noah was dead, along with Aiden, it made me wonder just what had happened. All I knew for certain, was Kat got hurt because of Nicholas. How? Why? We weren't 100% sure until Glenn would tell us the story. "Do about what?" Michonne asked all confused as to what we had meant.

Looking at Rick, he glanced between myself and Michonne. I didn't feel the need to speak up, because I had thought Michonne already knew the answer to that question. "Nicholas, he's a problem," Rick spoke up after a nod of his head and a stare down at his feet. "He doesn't know what he's doing, none of these people know what they're doing," he commented on how the people of Alexandria coped with the outside world, which was not at all, enclosing themselves from everything outside and staying within their walls. Never leaving behind their gates.

Not listening to the conversation, Michonne just looked blankly between myself and Rick. She mostly stared at Rick, but I knew it was aimed at me too. Or so I thought. That would only be proven a few moments later. "It doesn't mean we can't show them," Michonne argued with us and our point of view on this whole situation.

The people of Alexandria were weak, afraid and lost. They knew nothing of the real world and hadn't lived it like we had which had been a harsh experience alone. "I'm not having anymore of us dying for these people," Rick argued as his voice became harsher and angrier. "We lost Noah today and Aiden. We could of lost Glenn...Kat..." his voice softend, his eyes squinting up at Michonne as he took a step closer to her. Losing Kat, I knew it would of only made Rick lose his shit. "Who knows if Tara will survive?" Rick questioned her as he tilted his head a little to the side and glanced at her through squinted eyes.

Michonne only became stronger, more tense because of Rick's angry explosion of pure stress. He was worried for us and didn't trust these people, I knew a whole lot more about what really went through his mind in comparison to Michonne. She was in the dark, just as much as what Kat was, two women I knew Rick trusted with his life and in his circle. "Rick, we can still teach them, let them learn our ways, how to survive," she tried to reason with him.

Not putting up with any more circles we were going down, I decided to cut in and say my part. I was done with listening to Michonne speak blindly. "They ain't gonna learn," I spoke up and made Rick look over his shoulder at me. "An' our people need to go out there in bigger numbers, only we can watch each other's backs," I gave my advice on how we should be looking after our own in the company of the people of Alexandria.

The people of Alexandria couldn't be trusted with putting our lives in their hands. They had proven more times than one that they didn't know what they were doing, especially under pressure. Such as Abraham stepping up and now, Kat, Noah, Aiden and Tara's situation. All this alone proved that these people knew nothing. "What about you and Aaron?" Michonne threw back at me.

This moment, I was kind of stumped but I knew myself well enough that I could count on Aaron to do the right thing and to work to both benefit himself and myself out there. We knew how to take care of ourselves and each other, that much had been proven over the past few days. "He can handle what's out there and I can take care of myself," I assured Michonne with a squint in my glance.

"You don't know that," Michonne argued with a shake of her head.

After discussing briefly with Rick and Michonne about Kat, about what had happened and Nicholas, I couldn't stand the thought of staying there anymore. Side glancing a figure, my eyes snapped on it and I instantly knew who it was walking and my blood boiled at the sight of them. "Hey!" I shouted out to him before I rushed over to him and got a hold of him, punching him square in the face. "You put Kat or anyone of our people in danger again...I'll kill you. Slowly," I warned him to rethink his choices the next time he'd decide to go out there again and put us all in danger again.

Rushing over to me, Rick pushed me back and tried to get me to leave Noah alone, to not hurt him again after the rage that built up in me. He hurt Kat and I was supposed to let him get away with it? I couldn't and he should of done the same. Kat was his daughter, not mine. "Daryl!" Rick shouted as he pushed me away from Nicholas. "Hey, hey," Rick pushed me back again when I went forward to get Nicholas again into my grasps. "You better watch your back, because if you ever hurt one of us again...what Daryl promised you won't be half as bad as what I would do to you," Rick warned Nicholas with a harsh flare, it was like he was going to make sure Nicholas' soul would go straight to hell once he was done with him.

Panting, I felt Rick's grasp on my chest, pushing me back before I glanced between them. I hated Rick for pushing me back, but I hated Nicholas more for what he'd done to our people. Stepping back, I fixed my clothes and turned to head back into the house. Michonne had already gone back inside, before myself or Rick had even decided to turn back to the house. "Rick!" I called back to him, not looking back as I shouted over the cold, quiet night. "Let's go!" I shouted over at him, waving for him to follow behind me and never looked back once.


RPOV

Instead of going into the house straight away, I waited for Glenn to come out of the building where he had his recording of the situation with Deanna. She had questioned Nicholas and then Glenn. Sitting with Glenn on the porch, I encouraged him to tell me what happened back on that run they had gone on. "I saw the grenades. I tried to stop him. He was gonna run. But we made him stay. Couldn't get Aiden out of there without help," he spoke of what happened in brief, it was like the whole story alone was killing him to remember it.

"All he had to do was hold the door. He panicked, he hurt Kat who tried to hold him back. He knocked her out, made her head hit the glass door," Glenn kept telling me this sad story. "Noah, I had him. I had his hand. I tried. We watched him die," this part showed me just how heartbreaking this really was for Glenn. He'd lost Noah, right in front of his very eyes and not only that...Kat too had to see that. "I almost left him out there. Could have told a story, get the others to lie with me," in that second, I could see a darkness within Glenn, which had never been seen before, but with good reason. We'd lost Noah because of Nicholas. We could have lost Kat, or even Tara because of this drama. "What? You think I should have?" Glenn asked me after I stared at him, deep in my thoughts.

I thought of what I would of done in that situation. I knew what I would have done. I would of done everything in my power to protect this family. To protect Glenn, Kat, Noah, Tara and Eugene. Part of me also knew I would of probably beaten Nicholas close to a pulp for doing that to Kat and Noah. Glenn was the better man, but with a heavy heart after losing a member of this family. "They don't know what they're doing. Any of them," I basically repeated what myself and Daryl had said earlier.

Despite the different view I had from Michonne, despite all that Glenn had told me and how we'd all felt about this whole situation, he still didn't think ill of Nicholas. He knew that yes, they weren't ready for the real world, but they needed to learn for it. "We'll show them," he was trying to convince me that this was the best solution to this whole problem. Teaching them, yes it seemed logical, but they weren't strong enough or willing enough to stop being stubborn and fight against the real threats that lingered outside these walls.

Glenn had been quick to reply to me, to encourage me that this was the best choice for all of us and them. Somehow, I didn't believe it, not from Glenn or Michonne. No one could convince me. Not now, not ever. "I don't know if they can see it. How things really are. I don't know if they can yet. They haven't caught up," I tried to argue my thoughts back to Glenn.

As though defeated, Glenn had looked down and away from me, as though arguing with me was a losing battle and why? I wasn't sure. All I knew, was that the people of Alexandrai weren't ready for what was out there. Not yet. "We have to be here. We have to," Glenn tried to give me some type of hidden reason as to why we needed to stay, as to why we had to keep fighting and getting these people back into shape, to prepare them for whatever was to come their way.

I wasn't wasting time with this argument as we both answered each other just as quickly as the other. Neither of us giving enough time to think everything over, as our instincts were already kicking in during the matter of seconds between this serious conversation we shared. "Yeah, we do. But their rules, we don't answer to them," I agreed but gave him the way of how it had to go, especially if we were going to survive this place.

My words must have hit a nerve with Glenn, but he had his reasons for reacting this way. He was a desperate man, trying to do right to his wife and for the people he'd lost along the way. For our family and the ones we had lost along the way. "We are them, Rick. We are now," Glenn argued in return, trying to make it clearer to me, but I still stared through this all with a foggy haze. "Noah, he believed in this place. I'm telling you, we gotta make this work," he pleaded with me now and I couldn't help but digest his words and nod in agreement.

Standing up, I looked to the distance, to a small lake where I saw a small red balloon attatched to a boat floating on the lake. It made me squint curiously before I decided to turn back around and head back inside the house. Something didn't feel right and I didn't know why, danger was everywhere and I never knew who to trust here in Alexandria, but my family was the only people I could trust, like Maggie, Kat, Carl, Judith, Michonne, Glenn and many others. What I couldn't predict, was who else we could possibly lose and I could only hope for Tara to make it through whatever Pete was doing to save her, hoping for Tara to live.


KPOV

Laid out on my bed, Daryl was laid next to me a little awkwardly, propped up to sit up, while kind of laying there next to me, using a pillow as a way to prop himself up. His eyes never meeting mine and the moment Michonne saw Daryl in our bed, she was confused and smiling a little shyly. The silence in the room was a little awkward, but it was because neither myself or Daryl knew what else to do other than lay there. Sensing he didn't want to make a move, but neither did I because I didn't have the courage to do so. "Hey...what are you doing here Daryl?" Michonne asked as she leaned against the door frame.

Sitting up like a jolt, it was like Daryl suddenly became more aware of the situation we were in and how it all could of looked. In the very least, it looked like all we were doing was just laying there and I was in my comfortable sleep wear while he was still fully dressed. He was only looking after me, or so he had said he was doing. "Someone should take care of her," Daryl shrugged to Michonne, completely forgetting that I was in the room. "So I will," he spoke in a slightly confident tone.

Glancing between the pair, it was like I wasn't even conscious in the room, like I was fast asleep or something. Neither looked at me as they spoke between themselves. Ignoring me completely and talking about me as though I was asleep, dead or a child. "Hello? I'm in the room guys," I reminded to them as I waved to both of them a little awkwardly. "And I can look after myself, thank you," I stood up for myself as I still had some form of independence for myself there.

Smiling, as though to herself, Michonne's eyes darted to look at me for only a brief moment as she spoke to me. "No, you can't," she told me directly. "You sure?" she asked Daryl in a questioning tone, asking if he was confident in looking after me. "I can take over if you'd like?" she suggested them to do a swap. Not only did we have a group of people keeping watch in the tower, but we also had people taking turns looking after me now.

This was all new levels of ridiculous, it was only a bump against a glass...with my head. It left me feeling tired and close to falling over a few times. Losing my balance, didn't mean I was going to lose my life over it. This exchange didn't make any sense to me. "Yeah...I got this," Daryl reassured her, but just as Michonne was about to turn around and leave, a memory popped into my head.

Daryl had to get out of this one, because he didn't need to be here anyhow. "No. You should go," I told Daryl as I gently touched his shoulder. "Look out for Aaron, continue with the task you were supposed to do and find us some people to help out with Alexandria," I reminded him of what he was supposed to be doing in that moment. "We need good, capable people if we're going to survive this...plus, Michonne's got me, so don't worry," I assured him as he looked to me, a smile playing on my lips as I stared into his dark blue eyes that shimmered in the moonlight.

Snickering, Michonne watched as Daryl nodded and gently placed his hand over my own and slowly, we both removed it from his shoulder together. He had a job to do and Michonne had looked out for me more than once, especially while we'd been out in the wilderness, with Andrea. "She's in very safe hands, I promise," she assured Daryl as she smiled at the pair of us. It was like she was a happy mom staring at her baby, all grown up, talking to their first crush.

The thought alone made me look to Michonne and roll my eyes. Getting up, Daryl collected his crossbow and went to leave me and Michonne there, alone. Stepping into the room, she gave Daryl space as he walked out of the door. "You guys do know that I'm still in the room, right?" I asked them, which only made both of them look to me. Michonne laughed softly while Daryl blew out a laugh like sound before he left the room. Leaving both me and Michonne behind, leaving me stunned by their reaction and the way the conversation was held.


DPOV

After leaving Kat behind with Michonne to look after her, I went to Aaron's place to find him preparing for tomorrow, but instead, I told him we should go ahead and go when we had decided to go. Later on in the night, because it may have been dangerous, but it was equally as dangerous for those who were out there, alone in the wilderness. Returning to the spot we had last been to, I wandered ahead and would be careful with my steps between the trees. "Hey, are you ok?" Aaron spoke out to me softly, with concern evident in his tone of voice.

Keeping it silent between us for a few moments longer, the brustles of trees and leaves were enough to remind me we had to keep our heads on if we were going to survive. We all had to be careful when we were out here, one wrong move and it could have a tragic ending. "Yeah," I mumbled dully and looked over my shoulder briefly at him, a questioning glance in my eyes.

The silence hadn't lasted long, not with Aaron, he always felt a need to discuss something that didn't need to be discussed in that moment. "We can always go back...start again tomorrow morning?" he tried to give me a break, but I couldn't. Not when Kat and Michonne, along with many others encouraged me to keep going with my prior plans before the shit storm happened. "I'm sure you'd rather be with Kat than with me at the moment..." he drifted towards the end, to which, I didn't know what he expected me to say about that.

"Fine," he spoke again after a few moments of silence between us and didn't speak again until we were close to the clearing. Spotting a walker in the distance, I rose my crossbow and warned Aaron to stay back and to stay still. When the walker fell forward, dead, I went over to pick out my bolt and clean it against my pant leg. "There's more of them around here than there used to be. Don't know if any people are-" he began to speak, but I had to cut him off.

What I had seen, was a flicker of a light glowing in the distance which was evidence enough that people were out there. How many, none of us would ever be sure, but there was someone out there for certain. "Shh," I hushed him. "Someone is," I told him as I pointed in the direction of the light and we both stared off into the distance for a few minutes, observing the light and if there was anything else that we needed to look out for.


RPOV

After leaving Glenn, I went towards my house, Carol was stood outside, after possibly helping my daughter get changed for bed, I knew that Carol really was looking out for all of us, like she always had. "I sent a casserole to Deanna's family," Carol began by informing me of her actions. "We want her to see that," Carol said as she looked to Jessie who had encouraged her children to go back into the house. "Have you thought about Pete? About what I said?" Carol's gaze then turned to me as she looked over her shoulder to me.

Honestly, I didn't know what else she expected for me to think of. I knew that Pete was doing horrible things to Jessie and possibly even her children. The fact that people around them didn't know or pretended they didn't know, that was even worse than them being completely oblivious, just by letting Pete do whatever he pleased to Jessie and her kids. "Yeah," I answered Carol as I nodded, I had thought over what the situation was between Pete, Jessie and the kids. Thought over the possibilities of killing Pete and none of it bothered me as much as it probably should have. The man was an asshole and deserved a painful death for what he was doing to his family.

What I believed, was that a man wasn't a man if he hurt a woman or his family. That was only a boy that did it, that wanted to feel like a man, so by hurting their family, it made them feel bigger than them. That wasn't what I was about nor was it something I'd ever support. "Talked to Sam some more. He said his mom put a bolt on the inside of his closet. Tells him to lock himself in sometimes and not come out till morning," Carol began to tell me the severity of it all. "He said he can hear his dad yelling, things breaking, his mom crying. Last month it got quiet right in the middle of it and he went out and found her on the floor unconscious, bleeding. Pete was just sitting on the porch," each part of this story that Carol was telling me, made me hate Pete more and reminded me of Ed, how he must have been like with Carol back when they were living alone and not on that campsite.

It killed me to think of what horrible men would do to their family, to their wives. Jessie was a kind, fun and loving woman. Carol was strong, fierce, smart and a better fighter than most women I knew. But the group we had made, the family we had now created, consisted of strong men, women and children. "Why do you care what happens to Jessie?" I asked Carol in a slightly unintentionally cold tone.

Looking at me stunned, it was mostly because the look she gave me was supposed to be like she was questioning my actual sanity. That surely, what I was asking was simply me playing some type of joke on her. "You know why," Carol was refering to her past, the past that she had shared with both Sophia and with Ed. "And I know why you do," she commented and her tone of voice softened, as though she could see right through me.

"Why?" I asked her in return.

I could hardly look Carol in the eye, watching out for Jessie, I did keep my ears open for anything that Carol would of and could of said to me. Her reply was basic, as though I didn't need much more information for me not to know that she'd caught me in my admiration for Jessie. "I've seen you talk to her," she spoke up, telling me enough to know that she could see that I liked Jessie, just by how I spoke to her. "If walkers hadn't gotten Ed," Carol said, all whilst Jessie got up and left to enter her home once more. "I wouldn't be standing here right now," she was convinced that this was the reason.

Truthfully, I didn't believe that she would of survived if Ed had been eaten by walkers. I belived Carol or one of our own members of the family would of killed Ed in a heartbeat for hurting Carol, or she would of stopped him before he could ever lay another hand on her again. Carol was strong, then and now, she was born to survive through the worst. "Yeah, you would," I argued with her. Nodding, I was certain that she would of survived if Ed had died then or died another way, Carol was a born survivor and with that, I turned and walked back to go towards the pond, not yet ready to go back into the house and get some rest.


MPOV

Falling asleep beside Kat, I stared at her, watching how she slept, how her eyelashes would flutter in her sleep. How her body was curled to her side, her hands clutching the pillow and her hair brushed to one side of her shoulder. She seemed happy, but I needed to make sure she was well while she slept. With a concussion, you could never know if they were alive or not. A quiet footstep towards the door frame made me look to the side and notice Carl stood by the door way. "Hey...is she ok?" he asked, confused as to why I was awake and watching her so closely.

Part of me sensed he was awake when he heard Glenn call out to all of us, in hopes for help to be there and noticed Kat was probably one of the others that needed to be checked. On the other hand, Tara was the most urgent patient there was on the list at the moment. "She will be," I assured Carl as he stared down at his sister and walked closer to her.

Taking a seat close to the pile of laundry Carol had been working on earlier today, he stared at Kat's sleeping face and something told me he knew more than he was letting on. "She worries me sometimes...she always has to play the hero," he confessed to me his ultimate fear when it came to his sister. I had feared this myself, as Kat always did like playing someone who would of been written about in story books for times to tell in the future.

Kat was a part of the future, as was Carl and Judith. On the other hand, we were the ones who had to keep building the possibility of one for these people. Kat was helping with that already, which made her a capable candidate to become a future leader, along with the younger people in our group, like myself, Sasha, Rosita, Glenn and Maggie. We all worked for something bigger, better, safer. "Yeah, she does...but she's brave, tough, smart, just like you and your dad," I commented on Kat's traits that she shared with her family. "But she does worry me too sometimes," I sighed and brushed a few strands of her hair behind her ear, away from her delicate face.

I had grown close to Kat, to Carl, Rick and Judith. They were the closest thing I had to family and my dearest friends. Kat was the one to make me feel human again, her and Andrea. They made me come back to myself and I had much to owe to them. "But you and Daryl always have her back, so does everyone else in this family," Carl spoke up as he now looked to me. "We all look out for each other," it was like he was giving this all a double meaning.

Hearing him, he'd defined perfectly what this family was like. A family that looked out for each other, all the time and never gave up on anyone. "Exactly," I agreed with a nod of my head. "There's nothing you need worry about right now Carl," I assured him that he didn't need to worry, at least, not in that moment, we needed to see if Kat would be fine and if Tara would survive. "Go get some more sleep, we'll talk about what happened to her in the morning," I encouraged him to go back to bed, get more sleep and feel refreshed for the morning. With a nod, Carl looked back to his sister, got up from his seat and planted a kiss on her forehead before leaving myself and Kat back to as we were before. Alone, while I watched her closely, until I fell asleep beside her and realized she'd be fine for the rest of the night.


RPOV

Once I stopped by the pond, I found the small toy boat floating across the water and the red balloon was still tied to it. Everything in me at that moment was angry. Angry at everyone, everything and anything. Between Jessie's problem with Pete, Tara's life put in danger more so because of Nicholas and in the hands of now enemy, Pete and the whole issue with Kat and Nicholas. I felt like my anger was bubbling and overflowing. I didn't know how to keep controling it for any longer. Pulling out my gun from my back, I held it in front of me and clutched it tightly. I was close to ready to kill something. "Hey, Rick," I could hear that drunk bastard's voice call out to me. "Rick," he called again as I slowly turned around and glared at him. "You okay, man?" he asked me in a worried tone, slowly glancing down, but the gun was firmly hidden behind my back and then once again, continued to stare into my eyes.

Just looking at him made me sick. Made me want to lift my gun and shoot him between the eyes. Then, there was the fact that Tara's life was in Pete's hands and I could only hope he would do his job right if Tara would live. I had to wait, to kill him and for Tara to get better before I'd but a bullet in his dome. Looking at me confused by my death glare, it had been silent between the pair of us. "Keep walking," I ordered for him to do.

No longer could I stand looking at his face, nor did I want him getting the impression that we were friends. Only looking at me more confused, I didn't know how else he would get the message and I wasn't going to communicate further with him. "What?" he asked me, like he was trying to laugh it out, but I was being dead serious. "What are you-" he went to ask again, but after a few seconds longer of a death glare, he figured it out and turned to walk back to his house. Leaving me alone in the dark, staring off into whichever distance I could. Attempting to cool down and ignore my impulses to kill both Pete and Nicholas.


MPOV

Waking up from the nightmare, I felt somehow like things had changed and once my eyes became more apprehensive to the surroundings, I realized that Kat was no longer beside me and then my mind caught up to me. Carol was here to make breakfast for Kat and Carl, along with whoever else wanted to have something to eat. I had passed and pleaded for some more sleep, but Kat must have been down there with Carol and Carl. Gazing past her place beside me I saw Noah's clothes were all folded up, at the very top and it hurt to see it would no longer be worn by Noah.

Shifting myself over to Kat's side, I got up and picked up the fabric, unfolding it to examin it. A sick feeling mixed inside my stomach and I didn't know how to deal with it. Gathering my things for work, I laid my uniform on the bed and frowned. Staring blankly at it, I couldn't process anything. We'd lost Noah. We could lose Tara. We could have lost Kat too back there. So many people had died and there was no way to bring them back. There was so much that had happened in this life, that we lost people we cared for and had no ways of preventing it, or we hadn't seen it early enough.

Needing to take a minute, I sat down on the bed, back to the door and rubbed at my face. A knock at the door would have startled me, but this one hadn't as scaring me was no longer a possibility. Seeing Rosita come in through the door, we both exchanged 'hey's and I had remembered that she'd gone with Tara while she was under surgery. "How is she?" I asked Rosita in question to Tara and her health. I had been busy all night taking brief watches of Kat, in hopes we didn't lose her during sleep and thankfully, she was well enough to sleep and wake the next day, still as Kat and not as walker Kat.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, her body leaning to one side as she spoke. I knew Rosita well enough, they were now a part of this diverse family and I was proud to be a part of it myself. Being Kat's best friend was also a bonus, but I was close to the Grimes family as it was, they had accepted me quite easily and quickly. "Stable. Hanging on," she'd spoken of Tara's health and I only knew their friendship grew closer, as had mine with the Grimes family. "I'm gonna go back there later," she informed me of her plans. "How's Kat doing?" she asked me, knowing that I was playing watch duty with Kat last night, until I no longer could stay awake.

The thought of getting my uniform on and going to work again, it made me feel sick to my stomach and I didn't know how some people could do it. I didn't know how people could lose someone one day and wake up the next being completely fine to carry on. I needed time to mourn. "She'll be fine, Carol is cooking up breakfast for her and Carl," I replied and informed her of where she'd find Kat. "Carol is offering anyone who wants any breakfast a piece," I spoke out softly. "You should go if you want any," I encouraged her to go ahead and have some.

Not needing long to think over her answer, she spoke up quickly and shook her head at me. "I'm good thanks," she reassured me that she was well with and without the meals or drinks being offered to her. I wasn't sure if she was ok or not, but something told me that something was troubling her. "I think Sasha might have spent the night in the tower," Rosita was telling me what was running circles in her head briefly and Sasha being out there while we all slept, it made me wonder what Sasha could have done without any of us spotting or noticing her throughout the night.

Looking at Rosita with a serious and worried expression, I knew that Sasha was going through a tough time. She'd lost her lover, Bob and then, she lost her brother, Tyreese. Losing people was never easy, I'd been through it myself and I still have the possibility of losing them at this point. Kat, Rick, Carl, Judith, the others. They all meant a whole lot to me and losing them would drive me crazy. "Is she still up there?" I asked Rosita, hoping that maybe, just maybe, the feeling in my gut was only that, a feeling and not true. That Sasha had only stayed there, fell asleep during her duty and not ran away to face whatever was out there alone.

Arms crossed over her chest, Rosita thought over her answer very briefly and got straight to the point. The point being, that Sasha was nowhere to be found in Alexandria. That if she was here, someone would have seen her and that no one did. The feeling in my gut must have been right. "Abraham's on watch now, but she hasn't been back and nobody's seen her," she narrowed down the things that could be used to be certain she was here or out there.

She is out there. Alone. The thought sent back brief feelings in my stomach, ones that would soon lead me back to memories of all the things I did. I knew what Sasha was going through, but she needed to come back and bring herself back to the person she was and could be. "Let's go," I said, grabbing my cardigan, rather than my cop clothes and headed out the bedroom door and into the kitchen, only to grab something small to eat before heading out to find Sasha.

I was furious, determined and Rosita followed me closely behind. Kat, Carl and Carol were having a light conversation, laughing and discussing things that I didn't take any interest to. The only thing that did matter, was that Kat was looking well and that they were all happy to be in each others company. "What's going on?" Kat suddenly asked, the room going quiet and gradually, she got up out of her seat and placed her breakfast to one side.

Wiping her mouth, her bright blue eyes were fixated on me and I knew she was worried. My expression enough, she knew meant business and as I grabbed a slice of bacon, I looked to Kat with a small shrug before I spoke. "It's nothing, just that we don't know where Sasha is," I informed her with as little detail what was happening. Somehow, alerting her where I'd be if I wasn't back home in time with Sasha and Rosita.

Rubbing her palms together, she was trying to rid herself of any crumbs or oil that was on her hands. Her sleek hair had a bounce, her skin looked a little lighter than usual and her bright blue eyes were filled with the same look I had. Determination. "I should go with you guys," Kat went to go gather some things, nodding to me before she went to go get them and Carl looked at Kat a little concerned. She always has to play the hero. Not today Kat. Not today.

Carol, using her utinsils to point at Kat, she gave a firm look and a stern tone to her words. Since the death of Kat's mother, Lori, Carol had been filling in that role for Kat and I sensed that Kat felt that too. "Ah...no," Carol stopped Kat on the spot as she gave her a look that showed there was no way Kat would win this argument. "First of all, Deanna isn't letting you out of these walls with any weapon and the doctor said you need rest," she spoke in a softer tone, explaining the reasons why she couldn't come with us, which I agreed to 100%. "You Miss Grimes, are staying right where you are."

Kat went to argue, but Carol made sure that this wasn't up for discussion, cutting Kat off and making her sit down like a child that was close to throwing a tantrum. With a faint laugh, I grabbed a slice of toast for myself and another to Rosita. Rosita took it from me and both of us ate our bread while getting our guns and making our way to the gates. Wandering out in the woods, it felt different and it made me feel things I was fighting so hard to bring back. The safety of the walls was making me forget the dangers of out here and I had to be alert again. "It's up ahead," Rosita spoke up, pulling me from my thoughts.

Wandering through the woods, it felt strange, it felt different. I hadn't been out in so long, that I began to forget what it felt like to be out there. Forgot the dangers and the intensity it was to be always on the look out. "She told you about it?" I asked her, keeping my eyes peeled for anything of suspicion. We all knew that Sasha was up to something. What? We weren't sure.

Rosita focused mainly on her feet, on where she was going and if she would step on anything that would break beneath her feet. I was more worried about the things around me, as walking in the woods was now like second nature to me. "I saw her going out one day with her rifle. I knew somebody was already in the tower. I asked," she let it all escape in prolonged breaths. The sound of what I could only picture as running footsteps and bushes rustling, I pulled out my gun and raised it while resting my back close to Rosita's. Searching the area for a threat, slowly, she lowered her knife and I lowered my gun. We were safe. "It's the first time I've been out since we've been here," she said while my heart still raced and my hands felt solid, while inside, I was completely shaken up.

Thinking over everything, it had been a while since I was out here and it really did feel like it was all different than before. "Me, too. It already feels different," I didn't know what other words I could use. There was nothing that could describe it other than that. It felt like I was put in another world back in Alexandria, like I was just numb every day from not being out here. It was like all I knew, I lived like, all the anger, the ease of being out here, of being alert at all times, it was just...gone. Now it was replaced with worry, unease, fear and uncertainty. I didn't feel safe there anymore.

Rosita looked at me over her shoulder, like she was pleased to hear this, to find out something more about me and my new experience with the new world. Living in Alexandria was just playing house, the real threat was everywhere we looked. "That's good," she spoke of it like it was a positive thing. Something in the way she said it or the words that had been said made my stomach do flips.

Inside my brain, something was screaming out that this wasn't ok. That although it may have been somewhat a little easier to live a false life, to be protected and more civilised, I knew better than to believe that it was all real. Fear, threats, evil of all kinds lurked behind the protective walls but not everything was always safe or untouched, that was known and proven by what had happend to us in the prison. "I don't know," I told her, this feeling was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, it didn't feel right and that was all that mattered. To no longer feel what I had before, it worried me more than what I was willing to give away.

Walking almost aimlessly, we were looking for clues, for anything that gave away where Sasha was heading. "After Eugene, after finding out he lied, I was screwed up because I lost something," she'd pause as she spoke to me, making me realize that Rosita was trying to reach out to me using her own experiences in order to connect with me, to understand what I was going through. "You seem screwed up because we found something," she was observing me quite well.

Knowing she somehow picked up my inner thoughts and feelings, something told me there was no point hiding it now. There was no reason to lie to myself or anyone anymore. "Noah's dead," I stopped to turn to face her and spoke with a heavy heart. When we were all in there, playing cops, cooks and house, I felt like I was in a reoccuring dream and when Noah died, I woke up to the nightmare I had always been expecting but always prayed would never happen. "And I think-" I just couldn't find the right words to express what I had been feeling. "I just feel like I was asleep in there," I told Rosita with all the truth in my heart and soul.

After my words, they weighed heavy in me, which was a relied to reveal once I finally said it. Moving away from that spot, I kept walking lazily, in hopes to find Sasha and return her back home safely. She had to return or I wouldn't forgive myself, not after what happened to Tara, Kat and Noah. It would be too much if Sasha hadn't returned either. "You were trying to forget so you could try," Rosita was trying to make up some excuse for my actions, which didn't mean anything to me at that moment.

Excuses didn't mean anything when it was costing people's lives, people I cared about, my family. This was now the family I was stuck with and I felt fairly responsible for the deaths that had happened, when instead of being out there protecting those I loved, I had been inside protecting those who weren't yet part of my tight knitted family. "I don't want to forget," I spoke honestly, I didn't feel it right that if I forgot, it would be easier for me in ways but had cost more lives due to me forgetting the real threats that lurked outside the walls.

"So don't," Rosita argued, getting closer to me whilst we'd spoken. "But that doesn't mean you have to give up," she argued, which had a fair point but I still feared my own decision to join in with runs was the reason people were dying or getting injured. "You didn't bring your sword with you," Rosita had stated, pointing to my empty back without a sword in the empty space. Instead, I carried a gun and hoped that no walkers got too close to myself or Rosita. "That's not nothing," she had pointed out while we continued to walk deeper into the woods.


RPOV

Finding Deanna stood at the grave site, I stopped beside her and glanced at the graves. I had felt sorry for her losing her son, except I had also almost lost my daughter, we had lost Noah and we still had a problem with Pete and Jessie. I was surprised they had allowed a man that beat his wife and possibly even his children to stay living within the safety of their walls. "I'm sorry for what happened," I had started off soft, knowing that she had recieved an apology from us for her loss. "How are you holding up?" I asked her, worried for how she was doing and if she was mentally capable of doing what had to be done when it came down to decisions.

"I'm not," she answered sadly, I could understand her thoughts, feelings, as I too had shared that experience when I had believed that Kat was dead when we had left the farm.

Deciding to rip the band aid off, it also would keep her mind off of her loss and divert it to something of business, something that needed to be discussed between all of us. "We have a problem with Pete," I informed her, knowing it wouldn't be the best thing to speak of but it was a serious matter that needed to be discussed. An issue that needed to be addressed.

Deanna couldn't even look me in the eyes. "I hoped it'd get better," she spoke with regret lacing her voice, something told me she had known all this time and didn't do anything to save that family, instead it only kept going and could get worse if it didn't stop.

What I couldn't believe was that nothing had been done to aid the family. Losing someone like Carol due to her husband would of been tragic and this meant a lot to me, not just because of Carol and her story, but because of what I felt for Jessie, she deserved better than to be beaten up every day by her husband, a man who had no respect for her. "You knew?" I'd questioned her. "It hasn't gotten better. It won't," I told her, both angry and annoyed by the fact that her being a leader meant nothing to her.

Gazing down at the graves, she had found it hard to look me in the eyes, like she could hardly stand the thought that someone found out she hadn't done anything for someone she should have been protecting. "Pete's a surgeon," she pointed out like it should matter what he did, yes, he saved lives but he was threatening one and possibly two or three lives. "He's saved lives. He might be saving Tara's life," she spoke the last part to me as she looked into my eyes, trying to make a statement weigh the factors of what he was doing out of the surgery table.

Stepping closer, I was considering the truth and also the facts, despite him being a doctor, he needed to learn better than taking to the bottle and beating his family, it wasn't fair on his family and if it became worse, it was something I wasn't willing on taking the chance on. "He's beating his wife. We have to stop it," I tried to convince Deanna that there needed to be something we had to do in order to keep our people safe, to keep that family safe and protected.

Instantly, she was in the mode of getting ready to find the perfect solution to this problem, becoming the Deanna I was starting to know, the woman who was strong and a leader we needed if we were to stay in the civilized mind set. Although, this world was no longer a civilized world, we had plenty of scars and proof to tell them otherwise. We were the ones living out there, while they all stayed there, happy, safe and protected with high walls. "How?" she had asked me instantly the moment I began to speak of what we should and would have to do to protect Jessie and her children from the unacceptable behaviour of Pete's.

Coming up with quick and easier to swallow ideas, I knew that starting off with killing a man would make me seem psychotic and uncivilized, which wasn't accepted in this town, not with the leader who controlled the town and people. "We separate them," I suggested something brief. "We tell him that's how it'll be from now on," I continued my idea, with high hopes that maybe Pete would listen to us and if he didn't, which I was sure he wouldn't, then greater consequences would need to be in place.

"What happens when he doesn't want to do that?" Deanna was just as sharp as ever, always questioning the probabilities. Taking a few steps closer, she'd raised her brows and gave me a look that proved she was somewhat worried about the answer that could or would come out of me. It was dying to come out, making it hard for me to form sentences, I finally formed one that would be more acceptable to give Deanna other than death instantly.

Certain that Pete wouldn't listen to us, I knew the only other option was going to be one she wouldn't agree with, not when she finally understood our ways of thinking. My way of thinking. "It's not his choice," I shook my head, that choice would already be made by who were those in authority. Deanna, Michonne, myself and certainly, the vast majority of people who wouldn't want Jessie or her children at the possible harm of Pete.

That answer was a dodge of sorts, a way to state the obvious but not give away my true thoughts. If Pete wasn't willing to follow the rules, he would have to die and I knew Deanna could see it as clear as day on my face or in my eyes. "So what happens?" she had asked again, being persistent in getting the answer out of me, the options that Pete had was either seperation or death.

After a small amount of deliberation, the words came out of me and slowly, something finally came out of me, something I wasn't willing to show Deanna until she had finally pushed it out of me. "I kill him," I answered her. "We kill him," I gestured between myself and Deanna.

This answer didn't sit well with her at all, it was easily noted in the ways her creases along her features were formed, making her gaze somewhat distraught and disbelieving that I would say something like that. "We don't kill people," she had pointed out to me firmly. "This is civilization, Rick," it was as though those words were meaning anything to me anymore. It didn't mean anything to me anymore, not with the fact that she was allowing a wife beater continue to live in the safety of the walls without a single form of punishment. Domestic abuse wasn't permitted before in a civilized world, so why was it suddenly permitted now?

Before, things were different, we were taught that domestic abuse was bad, now, it was somehow fine in this case when in actual fact, in no case was it ever good. Things had changed, life was precious but those that were vulnerable had to be protected most, such as abused wives and children. "Warning someone to stop or die, that is civilized nowadays," I told her, to which she had mumbled a soft 'Oh' and shook her head. My steps were becoming closer to her as I listened to her scold me silently. "So what? So we just let him hit her? We let him kill her?" I questioned the probabilities of what could happen in future if we didn't put a stop to it in that very moment.

Discussion becoming more and more heated with each spoken word, neither of us willing to back down, both leaders trying to find the best and most effective way to handle the situation. "No, we exile him if it comes to that," she gave her suggestion a thought, which to me made no sense at all. If people were to be exiled, they had more chance to come back and attack those that lived there with bigger, meaner and more vengeful people with horrible acts.

There was no telling what the future could hold if she had decided to let Pete go out there, only to find a group of malicious and evil people who would willingly agree to killing those behind these walls. "We do that, we don't know when he comes back and what he does to them," I tried to encourage Deanna to see my side of things. "Letting him go makes this place vulnerable," I stated the worst thing about letting someone unreliable to keep away leave, that he could come back and cause havoc. "You really want to wait till someone in that tower has to take care of it? And that's if we're lucky," I questioned the decision again of Deanna's.

Becoming more and more angry with my reasoning, she glared at me and was shaking with held in rage. "We are not..." she had shouted but then calmed herself fairly quickly after those words escaped her lips. "Executing anyone," she finished. "Don't ever suggest it again," she had scolded me like a child. "That sort of thinking doesn't belong in here," she warned me, as though she too would exile me from Alexandria.

Her voice shook and her eyes began to fill with tears. In my gut, she must of thought myself and my people were cold hearted killers, people willing to kill anyone just to survive and now, that really was the best option if it saved the majority of the population, of those you truly cared about. "People die now, Deanna. They do," I had to give her this newsflash after her own son passed away because of a wreckless, careless person, much like what Pete was, unpredictable and careless. "There's times like this you can decide who and when. Or it can be decided for you," I warned her of what could happen if she didn't make the decision with us quickly enough, we would need to take the matters into our own hands.

Something in her gaze turned cold, like stone as she didn't blink and only stared at me. A story hidden in her eyes, she must have thought that whatever lies Nicholas fed her was true about them. "It already was," she agreed coldly. "I wouldn't kill you," she informed me of what she would and wouldn't do with me, possibly due to how I thought civilization now was. "I'd just send you away," she was as cold as ice, gazing into my eyes plainly but with a firm look about them, until she looked away from me and walked past, leaving me there by the graves numbly. Something has to be done. Exiling myself or Pete won't happen. Pete has to die if he doesn't learn how to stop being the wife beater that he is.


MPOV

Approaching a walker that laid out on the ground, shot in the back of the head, it was as though the walker knew nothing of the person that was there that killed them. That was when it had hit me, it wasn't hunting, it was being the hunted. "Got it in the back of the head," I told her, hopeful she too knew this was what it meant, Sasha was safe but she was completely lost in these woods, looking for walkers, killing them along the way.

"Had to be her," Rosita mumbled, worried and confused, as though trying to piece together what could possibly be up with Sasha. I understood her, understood the pain and loss, losing my friends, family, partner and child. Loss wasn't a stranger to me and Sasha too had lost a love, a friend, a brother and others along the way. This world was tougher and the only responsible ones were the living and the undead.

Walking ahead a few more steps, we found another walker, laid out flat on the stump of a tree, dead, shot in the side of the head. Guessing by how clean the shot was, it was Sasha and she had been at a far enough distance to shoot them. "Back of the head," I observed again, Rosita had crouched down to look at the broken glass and familiar photograph. It was a photograph that was placed originally in the house we were all staying in, until it disappeared and was now shot at. Sasha had been hunting them, nothing made it more clear than that moment. "She's hunting them," I stated what was happening and Rosita had dug the tip of her knife into the broken glass of the photograph. Everything finally pieced together, we continued our way through the woods in silence.


CPOV

Wandering around the woods, I was in search of Enid as she usually spent her time in the woods, much like I desired to do so aswell. It was a way to stay connected to that life I had left for a fake one, where I was always safe and doing regular things that I hadn't dne since the beneath my feet snap and cracked, alerting anything of my presence. I needed to learn more from Daryl and Kat if I was to survive better than this. "Carl,"Enid's voice echoed ut but there was no Enid. "I know you're following me. Again," she sounded tired, like she just wanted peace and for me to leave her alone but I couldn't risk something happening to her. "And you're going the wrong way," she had corrected me, which made me feel awkward to think I wasn't even following which way she was hiding in. Everything Kat and Daryl taught me just didn't stick.

Trying to approach her slowly, quietly, I felt sure that she was closer and lying to me. She had to have been. "You knew?" I asked her, unsure that what she spoke was true, that I wasn't following the right way and yes, I may had followed her once or twice before but it just wasn't safe out here.

Approaching as quietly as I could, it seemed it didn't work out as well as I wanted it to. "You're very loud," she told me, which on cue, made a twig snap beanth my toes. Pursing my lips with anger, I sighed and shook my head at myself. I needed to be better, to listen to Daryl and Kat better. "Can you go back?" she had asked me, confirming that she didn't want me there. "To be honest, you scare me," she said. At least she is honest.

Worried that she'd be alone for too long and could end up not being careful, I worried she'd die, much like Aiden and Noah now that they had died while being out here, out of the comfort and safety behind the walls. "You shouldn't sneak out by yourself," I told her, trying to be the responsible one out of the pair of us. "Two people just died," I reminded her of what just happened only a few hours ago, losing two people meant that the risk was high for people to become wreckless.

Believing I could somewhat help her, protect her if anyone or thing attacked her, she would then be grateful that I saved her, saved her life. Instead, it seemed like she wasn't too impressed by my scolding of her, as though she were a child. "Oh, come on," Enid popped out from behind a tree to my right. "People always die. You know that," she argued which was true, I was just happy that the direction I was going was fairly close to what direction I was going but she was also very right as to me going in the wrong direction.

Being out here was a good change, as it reminded me of the evils that lurked out the safety of the walls, the fear, the alert sensations we felt, the unpredictable fate if either of us did something that could put both our lives at risk. I had missed the alert feeling, the feeling of becoming accustomed to the world and what it held for us, except, now I had to find a balance between the safety of the walls and the danger that lurked behind them. "We should go back," I had looked around, cautious of walkers and knew that one of us had to be the more responsible one.

Making sure no threats lingered, Enid just looked at me, that's all she did, like the whiney teenagers we were, she tilted her head and looked at me with a look of skeptisism on her features. "Why?" she questioned me, questioned my suggestion on the best thing we could have done in that moment.

Not knowing the best reason to give her, I knew she'd find something to counter them every time and I was running out of reasons to give her that we should head back for. I had my family but judging by Enid's way of doing things freely, she had no one but Ron. "What do you do out here anyways?" I asked her, wondering what she did as I glanced around the lurking dangers of the woods that surrounded us.

Acting all innocent, she had looked around and grabbed hold of the straps of her back-pack. "Same thing as you," she answered quickly all before she began to run the opposite direction from which I came. Chasing after her, it felt relaxing, free and everything felt like it was going slow motion. Stopping, she had stopped before me, noticing a snarling walker making his way through the woods. Before I could run further forward, she'd grabbed my arm and pulled me back, following her lead, I hid behind a tree and watched as she threw something I could fairly make out to be a timer for whenever people were cooking or baking something. Throwing the ticking alarm, it made the walker go in search of where the tump came from until the alarm began to ring.

Once the walker spotted the sound, he went in search of it, which mostly made Enid smile as she gestured for me to follow after her again. Continuing our run until we stopped, both of us panting. Putting down her back-pack, she took a seat and began to laugh tiredly. Taking a seat beside her, I wondered what was making her smile this way. "We're supposed to be out here. We're supposed to feel like this," she began to mumble to mostly herself, as she didn't make eyecontact with me as she spoke. "I don't want to forget," her tone seemed sad as she spoke and everything she said had a good point to it. "And running makes me feel better," she laughed before her eyes met mine.

Most nights, what would have been considered nightmares were now, dreams and they always ended up containing walkers. Everything in our minds seemed to keep getting more and more darker the more experiences we had along the way. "I can't forget," I agreed with her in my own unique way. "I dream about it," I confessed to her. "Being in the forest with them," I felt shy to reveal this, it wasn't something normal and I was certain that anyone who overheard me would of agreed the same about it.

Blankly, she stared on, not looking at me or anyone. Admitting this to Enid felt good, because something told me that both my dad and Kat wouldn't have understood what was going through. "I do, too," Enid spoke up, which made me more so convinced that she too understood what was going on with me and what could be both of us experiencing it. Neither of us judging the other, just a couple of teens talking about things they shared in common.

Unable to really hold my gaze, I knew it was because she was blatantly taken, by Ron, someone who I didn't quite like or dislike either. He had something I now wanted but I wasn't going to take her from him, not like how Shane did with my mom. "Ron's a good guy," I complimented both her and her choice of a boyfriend.

Nodding in her agreement, Enid didn't look at me but the smile on her face said she thought the same. Was she thinking about him here? Now? While she is with me? Does she hate me? Is she lying to me? "He is," she agreed tenderly.

Turning my head to look at her, a thousand questions came into mind about her and Ron. How did they meet? What is he like to her? Does she love him? Is she happy with him? "Does he know you come out here?" was the question that was more prominent in my mind at that moment and was the one I spoke out to Enid as we sat against a tree, beside a broken and fallen branch.

"No, I-..." she briefly paused, as though trying to come up with a reason why she couldn't tell the guy she was seeing what she was doing. "He wouldn't understand," she decided to speak honestly, since meeting Ron, he came across to me as a guy who would of freaked out if he heard Enid was sneaking out to be with walkers when she could have been behind the walls, in the securty that was offered by being encased in that living space.

To me, Ron didn't seem like a guy who understood the world outside of the walls of Alexandria. While, I, did. Which then made me question why she didn't want to be with someone like me, someone who could understand her. "Why do I scare you?" I asked her, after a brief moment of silence.

Turning her back to me, she unzipped her bag and began to rummage around inside it, picking out something while I watched her silently, awaiting a response from her. "I don't know," she muttered back to me. "You just do," she didn't let a single breath come between these two sentences as she spoke.

Pulling out her knife, she offered me a shy smile before the tip of her knife began to dig into the branch beside us, scratching a few lines into it. "Cool knife," I said after examining it a little. It was small, useful for her and just a basic cutting knife, one that could certainly cut deep into a walker or person's skull. What she began to scratch into the fallen and broken wood was words, as it became clearer what she was trying to write.

The first letter was beginning to take shape of a 'J'. Briefly, she pulled the knife back to examine it herself with a sad sigh. The knife clearly had meant something to her, just as my knife, my jewlery and my weapons meant something to me. "It was my mom's," she spoke in a depressed tone, which only confirmed that the knife truly had meant something to her.

Scratching more lines, they began to form the letters 'J.S.S', what it meant, I had no clue but for that moment, I was going to guess it was her loved ones initials. Little had I know what those letters together really meant to her. "What happened to you before you got there?" I asked her after she was more or less done with carving into the wood.

Every time I tried to get closer to her mentally and emotionally, to find out more about her, she blocked it off with more questions of her own to throw back at me. Turning her head to look over her shoulder at me, she threw me a gaze that was only there to taunt me. "Does it matter?" she challenged me.

Thinking back on all I had been through, before I would of brushed it off like it was nothing, just a normal thing, but then I thought of everything we had all been through again and I saw it all in a different light. Everything we had gone through, alone or together, it made us who we were now. "It does," I argued. "I know," I continued to encourage her that it did matter something, if not to me, to herself. She was the way she was because of what happened. "Something bad has happened to me, too," I explained that I could understand why she may be different to the girl before who she was now.

I had killed my mom, Shane's walker self, bad people, innocent people...met cannibals, met rapist murderers. I had been through a lot. For a moment, our eyes met and all was calm between us, like she was thankful to find someone else who could understand the horrors behind the safety of those walls. The sounds of walkers snarling, made us jump up and look for the direction it which it came. "We need to go. Sounds like a lot," I observed as it didn't sound like a few, rather it was a lot and possibly, even a herd of them.

Rushing to find somewhere to hide, we cooped ourselves inside of a space inside a split tree. Removing my hat to squeeze in, I had awaited to see what would happen and in front of me, Enid's face was very close to my own and I could feel her breath against my face. The knife she had was still in her grasp, while the hand that was free was inches from my own. Walkers began to pass and both of us kept as still and quiet as possible as to not get spotted. "It's their world. We're just living in it," she whispered into my ear, while I stared out to watch walkers ignore us and carry on walking.

She was so close, her eyelashes fluttering, her breath warm against my skin, her big gentle eyes were glued to mine, her face arching so close, as though her full lips were begging to be kissed. Taking the shy route, I knew it was safer to keep my distance from her this way, especially as she was still with Ron. My hand grazed hers briefly before I removed my touch from hers. "Cool. You're afraid of me, too," she had acknowledged my sudden fear in her. She was unpredictable and it both excited me and scared me. No one had made me feel this way before. Once we were in the clear, we squeezed back out of the space, I put on my hat and we made our way back to Alexandria. I needed to check in on Kat and Judith.


MPOV

Finding Sasha, she was out in the woods, looking for walkers and as they'd get further or closer, she'd take shots at them, killing them all one by one with confident and precise shots. The gunshots had been silent, so there was no risk in her getting truly caught which was what worried me most. If she wasn't wanting to die, why would she go on this death wish? "Sasha," I called to her when she had cleared the area and was now alone.

Myself and Rosita made our way to her slowly, trailing behind her as she lowered her sniper and sighing, being alerted of our presence after I shot the final bullet and made the walker's body drop. "Go back," she ordered of us like we were just her troops or even children who weren't supposed to be there or care for her.

Being out here wasn't safe for her, or any of us, not after what happened with Tara, Noah, Aiden and Kat. "What are you doing?" Rosita was just as concerned about Sasha as I was. While Sasha was mostly annoyed by us being there and looking out for her when no one else did at that moment, we were certain all of us would have tried to find her and help her but she was going at this like a lone wolf.

Not looking or turning back, she just kept walking and kept a look out for walkers that would make their way towards which way she wanted them to go. Something made me certain that she was trying to lure them through the woods, down paths she knew and where she would be capable of going to kill them in open and manageable spaces. "I'm sick of playing defense," Sasha spoke almost numbly, although it was more cold than anything else.

Following after them, Sasha leading the line as we went deeper into the woods, keeping our voices down as to not alert anyone of us being around nearby walkers. "So you're just gonna take on all of them?" I asked her, worried about her and all of this only reminded me of her brother again.

"Yeah," she was ready, determined to take down any and every walker that got in her way. Finding our way through, it was only around a five minute walk deeper into the woods, we had found more walkers, a herd of them.

Dropping her satchel onto the ground, Sasha began to aim her weapon and shoot at the walkers that were now aproaching us, Rosita looked around with fear and worry, the old me would have been calm but right there and then, I was wondering of the best way to get out of this mess with Sasha alive. "We've got to get out of here," Rosita spoke out her fearful thoughts.

Snickering a dark laugh, something was obvious and that was, that Sasha wasn't going anywhere. "You do, I don't," she said what I knew she would, there was no way she was going to step out of there without doing what she needed to somewhat do. Every shot she made and killed a walker with, watching as the bodies fall, my eyes widen and flashes of memories invaded my sight. The anger, each slice, each walker that dropped, I did it with anger for the loss of my family, my friends, the ones I cared about, everyone had been gone because of them or because of the people they had only evolved to become worse than before. Losing Noah, Beth, almost Kat, maybe even Tara, I needed to let go of that hate. Raising my gun, I aimed and took a step to Sasha's side. "I don't need your help," she spat, thinking I had been there for her rather than myself.

"This isn't for you," It wasn't, in the end, it was for myself and all the people I had lost or could lose along the way. I was angry, determined, daring myself to let go of that hate and to carry on. This world was evil and if we could rid of the first threat, then perhaps life would be easier for those I cared about.

Each shot, each walker that became dead felt easier than the last one. Rosita then began to kill walkers too, until I heard a gun click, indicating she was out, I took a step closer to Sasha instinctively and heard her soft pants. She began to use her knife as they began to get closer until one pushed her down with it, snarling in front of her face, I saw Sasha reach out for her knife but I got there quicker, raising my gun and shooting the walker dead. "I had it," she glared at me as she panted up at me and that was when I offered her a hand to help her up. "Don't need your help," she grumbled like an old woman as she slapped my hand away and got up by herself.

She had leaves and twigs all stuck in her hair but I knew best than to touch her. "I told you to go," she reminded me of her orders, myself and Rosita exchanged glances. "You..." she was angry with both myself and her voice shook, like she was on the verge of tears. "You can't do anything," she kept pointing at me, angry and sad over something, she was beginning to lose it. "It worked out for you. Don't you see that?" she complained to me, like she truly understood what I went through and yet, she went through something almost the same as myself. "You can't help me. Nobody-" she was close to the verge of a waterfall at this point as a few tears escaped and she looked between myself and Rosita, shaking her head with sadness. "Noah. I told him he wouldn't make it," she finally revealed her true motives for being there. She felt guilt for what she had said to the boy. With a sigh, she gathered herself, picked up her belongings and left, the pair of us followed shortly after.


DPOV

Leaving Kat behind, it wasn't easy but I knew she had a point. Me being there wouldn't of helped her, much less after warning the asshole who hurt her and cost Noah his life, there was nothing I could have done to help her. My being there would have been pointless, so I decided to go back onto the road and look for survivors and supplies at the same time. Walking through the woods, it was a good while until we came across a campsite where the people had been cut into multiple pieces. "Whoever did this took what was left with them," I informed Aaron of the type of people who would do stuff like this, sick people who took even the last dime with them.

"This just happened," I observed the freshness of the blood and it was a blood red, the type that was only recent, flies buzzing around the bodies as we made our way carefully past the mutilated figures. Only a few steps away, we were cautious, keeping a look out for anyone who would come and harm us by using a trap of a human tied to a tree as a distraction. The woman was blonde, her hair falling over her face, hiding true features of a dead woman, naked, tied to a tree and her guts were spilling out from an open wound in her stomach. By the looks of it, it had been torn by sharp nails, like the night Dale died, just a horrific mess.

Aaron was gazing at the figure tied to the tree with horror as he took in the true evil of the world we now lived in, in its fullest effect. "She's tied up. And they fed on her. Tore her apart," he made me observations vocal, proving he too knew what happened here in his head, just needing to confirm it with my thoughts. "This just happened?" he asked me, stunned that something this gruesome and terrorfying was happening in front of him.

"Yeah," there was nothing else I could say as I stared at the woman, a sick feeling happening in my gut as I stared at the dead woman tied to a tree.

Looking to the floor, Aaron was shocked to find the woman like this, to find a camp of survivors like this and to me, it felt strange, like he might of known these people who he might of thrown out but something just didn't add up to me. "How the hell did this happen?" he whispered whilst I took a step closer, grabbed a chunk of her hair and rose her head to look at me. A 'W' like one of the walkers I found back with Carol and Rick was carved into her head. When her eyes opened to show the only murky dead look, her jaw clenching and snapping as she snarled and at me. Aaron was beside me, ready to shoot but there was no harm, instead, I pulled out my knife and dug my knife into her head. Letting it drop, when she wasn't moving and all was free, we began to make our way back to looking deeper into the woods.


RPOV

Finding my way to where Jessie lived, or where she normally stayed relaxing in the garage, I knew she was still wondering what happened about the owl they were making, her and her kids. "Jessie," I called out to her, when I rounded the garage and found her surprisingly, smoking but then I thought of the things she went through and the stress she must be under and smoking only made sense that it would be something she did on a regular basis.

Once she was alerted by my presence, she spun, giving her back to me and began to dab the butt of her cigarette into the ash tray. "Hey," she greeted me as she stumped out the fire from her cigarette. "I don't want Ron and Sam to know about those," she waved off the reveal of her secret de-stress technique to her children's knowledge, trying to get me to swear to her secrecy.

Nodding, I knew better than to meddle into her and her children's lives. She had her reasons, just like I had mine to keep from both Kat and Carl. What they didn't need to know, was going to be kept from them until the time was right. "Well, your secret's safe," I assured her with a low bow of my head, gazing down at the floor in front of me.

Continuining my approach, she shook her head and her voice was soft, her eyes were sorrowful towards the events of the past 24 hours. "Noah was a sweet kid," she reminded me, sighing as she took it all in. "But Tara, she's-" she had hesitated for a moment, as though she was looking for the right words to use when it came to her husband, the wife-beater. "She's in good hands with Pete," she almost didn't believe it herself from what I could tell in her tone and choice of words, at least she hadn't used 'safe' because Pete didn't offer that with his own wife. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened between Kat and Nicholas, is she doing ok?" she had asked me, proving that she knew more about the situation than what she let on.

Curious for my daughter, I felt thankful she really did care about her, about what happened with my side of the family too. Every so often, I pop into the house and see that Kat was either relaxing on the couch with Judith or fast asleep with Judith's monitor close by. When I'd stare at her, I couldn't help smile and be proud of the woman she became but I was worried about her heroic and wreckless acts. "Yeah, Kat is better. She can take care of herself. She's a survivor..." I spoke of my daughter fondly as I nodded and looked around, thinking of my little Kitten who was now a brave and strong woman.

A look colored her features, one I couldn't quite understand when my eyes landed on her face once again. "Just like her father," she spoke fondly. The more I thought of it, myself and my children were all alike, we were strong, capable of fighting until our last breaths and smart. Kat though, she was the bravest and smartest of us all, while Carl was the strongest out of us all as I hardly ever saw him cry, only on the day that we thought we lost Kat and the day we had lost Lori.

Squinting my eyes, I fought off a smile and stayed still. "Hmm," I hummed, until a few moments passed and all we did there was stand and stare at one another. "He's hitting you," I revealed and her eyes found mine in shock surprise. "He's hurting you," I continued telling her most of the things I knew about abusive and violent men. "It has to stop," honestly, I wanted nothing more than to kill him for laying his hands on a wonderful, kind and beautiful creature.

Gazing off into the distance, it was like she was confused with it all, like she couldn't believe that I knew all about this, especially with the short amount of time I was here. Shaking her head, her eyebrows furrowed and a look of uncertainty with what to respond with, made me doubt whatever she was about to say to me, when her eyes met firmly with mine. "It will," she assured me falsely.

"How?" I questioned her instantly.

Hands in front of her, she was struggling to grasp onto anything that could get her out of this conversation further. "There are things in his life that happened-" she went to make excuses for him, which I wasn't going to buy, not today and not any day. It wasn't enough to allow a man to beat his wife bloody.

To me, I already knew men like him had bad pasts but it didn't mean he had any right to lay hands on her or anyone. It wasn't a reason, it was an excuse. "I don't care," I was honest as I took time with the spacing of the words.

Truthfully, she continued to look like she was struggling to find words but these next ones were something a little more respectable. "Look, it was like this before and he got help," she tried to convince me that he could be changed, yet it proved he's only change back once he felt like it. "I helped him and things were good. I can fix it," she assured me that it could all be fixed.

Not to overthink it, I knew what kind of man he was and help or no help, once his blood was boiling and all he could see was red, he was bound to be the woman beater he always was. "No, you can't," I argued. "But I can," I tried to give her a little bit of hope, knowing that if anyone could help her, it would be me because Deanna did nothing for her during all the time they were there.

Surprised by my sudden intervine, I knew what we could and couldn't do, along with what I wasn't permitted to do by Deanna's 'orders'. "No, what-what can you do?" she stuttered, challenging me and taking a few steps closer. "What are you gonna do? You gonna put him in jail?" she questioned what method I'd go with and what I really wanted to do, which I couldn't unless Deanna gave me the order to. "You're only gonna make things worse," she complained if I ever did intervine.

Not wasting a second, I stepped up and spoke what was on my mind in that very second. "If it's gotten worse, it means he's killed you," I told her what that meant and if it were to get worse, it wasn't something I was going to let happen, especially not with the accusations Pete threw at me. "That's what's next," I stated what could be in her future if I didn't stop it. "And I'm not gonna let that happen," I told her.

Every ounce of honesty had poured out of me in that moment as my weak spot for her finally showed. "Why do you care? Why is this so important to you?" she asked me, wanting to know my true thoughts and feelings towards her. "Now? You've made it. You have a home for your kids," she spoke what was true and the possibility that I was throwing all of that away for her. "Rick, what are you doing?" she asked me, worried for my children and the safety that was provided with these walls, only to complicate my life with involving myself in her life and her marriage.

"I'm trying to help," I spoke out but that wasn't all, it wasn't the only reason I was butting into her personal affairs.

Staring into her eyes, I noticed she had worry and she wanted to understand what my reasons were. I couldn't blurt out that I liked her, it wasn't like that and not when she had an abusive husband in the way. "I don't know that," she shook her head vigorously. "I'm married. Okay?" she reminded me again. "I can take care of myself," she was on the verge of tears. "We have to take care of ourselves," she spoke to me over her shoulder as she turned her back and made her way back into her home. I couldn't leave it like that.


KPOV

After taking a long nap, I had decided it best for myself to get up and begin doing something that didn't involve using a toilet, eating or just existing. I chose to get up and begin cleaning, seeing as Carol was out, I wasn't sure where but I doubted she thought I would of woken up as quickly as I had. Hearing the door open, Carl sounded to be a little bit breathless as I began to clean the house a little and was away from the front room. "Kat?" Carl called out for myself, then for our dad and then for anyone that was supposed to be looking after me.

Rounding the corner, cloth in hand, Carl looked to be breathless and like he had been out somewhere. Brows furrowing with a questioning glance in my eyes, I was surprised to find that Carl was equally surprised to see me up and about. "Carl..." I had called and paused as we both took in each other's gazes, like neither of us were doing something we weren't supposed to be. "What are you doing?" I asked him when I finally found my more authoritative voice.

Neither of us spoke for a few moments, both of us staying silent and keeping eye contact. My features softened once I realized we were both doing things we shouldn't have. A small smille forming along the curves of my lips before they pursed at the words that formed out of his mouth thereafter. "I could ask you the same thing but...it's good to see you up and about," Carl's tone was something of both questioning but had then softened to something of tenderness, of honest happiness to see me better than I had been before. "You ok?" he asked me out of a few more moments of silence. "I mean, after all that happened to you out there..." Carl spoke whilst he'd approached the table I was stood by, clutching onto the head of the chair lazily.

Cleaning up the cloth in the sink, I rinsed it out and placed it to one side. Gazing at Carl, this was one of those moments when those eyes reminded me of the warm and caring man that was our father, the wise man before the world changed us to harder people. "I'm...better," I nodded whilst I informed him of my current state. "How are you? How are you holding up?" I asked him in turn after a few seconds of silence, glancing around briefly.

Nodding himself, it was a common trait for both of us and our father to do whenever we'd speak about ourselves or what was on our minds. Sometimes, our minds got the best of us and sometimes, it was difficult for either of us to speak of our thoughts, such as when it came to safety, health and what this world did to us on a regular basis. Horrors were little compared to what we saw, such as the death of Noah, it was gravely brutal to see and still haunted my dreams whenever I tried to shut my eyes and get some rest. "I'm good. Worried, but good," Carl answered honestly, I could tell by how he'd looked at me that he was worried about something and I was sure it was something to do with myself. "I was thinking, I want to go out there again, be there with you when you go on missions."

The words that left his small lips left me stunned and sick with worry. If he were to go out there again, he wouldn't be safe and I feared the fate Noah had could be shared with Carl if we weren't careful, not around Nicholas after what he had last done to our group. "Carl-" I went to argue, leaving the cloth to one side and giving him a look that showed he shouldn't be leaving the safety of the walls for just me, not when the world was still so dangerous as we knew it was beyond the safety of the walls.

Moving towards the music I had playing, I lowered the volume a fair amount before I went to take a seat at the table. "It's not just because I want to protect you, because I do," Carl said as he too took a seat with me and that was when I then looked at the baby monitor, keeping an eye on my little sister as I tried to be the mother figure I had to be to both my siblings. Taking in Carl's words as he spoke about it, in attempts to argue with him, he had cut me off before I could say anything more. "Someone needs to be there to protect you too, to stop you always playing the hero, but-" he was being firm with me, more worried for my safety than anyone I knew. "But it's also because I don't want to forget what it's like out there..." Carl had said with his head bowed, after much deliberation to properly tell me what was going through his mind. Licking his lips before he had spoken next. "I want to be there for you and I want to stay strong, to keep being smart against what's out there."

Taking into account his reasons for wanting to go back out there, it wasn't just to keep me safe, even if it had a huge part to play, for he didn't want to risk losing me too. He was mostly doing this in order to keep himself strong, smart and adaptable again to the life we had lived outside the safety of the walls. It wasn't just walkers that were a threat to us, I understood that and I too worried for Carl, especially after what had happened with Joe's group when they had attempted to do more than kill us. "I get it," I agreed, nodding and just as I was about to say more, Judith was awake and crying. "And I'll consider it," I said, clapping my hands onto the table. "Much later, after at least a hundered and fifty naps," I widened my eyes as I said this, being a little more teasing, which had made him crack a small smile, which was what I was hoping to see. I miss seeing Carl looking happy, like himself again...

Getting up from his seat, he had followed me to the crib where Judith laid and when I picked her up, I calmed her down before heading downstaris, giving her some food and something to play with while we'd sit at the table. Listening to the music end. "Kat?" Carl had called to me as I had began to feed her, humming as I glanced at both of my siblings. "I ah- I heard this song and I liked it a lot," he told me, taking out the record we'd been listening to before he changed it to a different one and to the song he had wanted on. It was 'Brother' by the Mighty Oaks, which made me smile and while I fed Judith, she seemed calmer with the music playing. "Made me think of you," he told me which made me smile wider.

Carl was always a good brother, it didn't make me doubt that Carl wouldn't follow me wherever I went, both of us had been wild before the world went to shit, always enjoying life and being safe about it, although, it hadn't meant we didn't share a few scars and scratches for trying new things. Our bond, it was the truest thing I knew and it made my heart swell and a few tears begin to build. "That, is a very good song," I told him once the song began to finish. "But," I had said, grunting while I got to my feet, passing him Judith and searching for the song I wanted to show him. "I was listening to this one and it made me think of both of us," I told him, forking out the record I had listened to and let the song I liked play, it was 'Brother' by Lord Huron. The words were a little sadder, a little more relatable when it came to the situations we were placed in now, where fear lurked in every corner, the future was undecided and our bond was one that would make me die for those I loved most, my family, who included everyone we knew along this way.

The words sang out to both of us whilst we'd sat together at the table, I couldn't stop listening to the music and gazing at my siblings as they were on the table, Carl would glance at the record player and would then smile at me. Enjoying the music, we then heard the sudden loud breaking of glass, a crash and a few screams echoing the streets. Looking to one another with worry, we didn't get the chance to finish the song when I shot up with Carl, ordered him to put Judith somewhere safe and rushed out to find out what was going on. When I stepped outside, I wasn't prepared for the battle I had witnessed. What the hell is going on?


RPOV

She had shut the garage door on me, except, this was something I wasn't ready to let go. This argument, this discussion, it wasn't over, not for me. Walking on, I noticed how peaceful and how safe it was, for the elderly, the women, the children, yet, it wasn't safe for Jessie or her children. Turning back, this time I went through the front door and found Jessie crying. "What are you doing?" she asked me, turning to me and looking absolutely distraught.

Knowing that this was going to be a hard blow, she needed to hear it because at the end of the day, our children mattered more to us than ourselves. "You know Sam asked for a gun, to protect you," I informed her of the secrets she didn't know. Sam had asked Carol for a gun, to which she found out that Pete was the one hurting his family and not fear towards walkers.

This news only seemed to break her heart more, which was understandable, seeing as her son was worried about her safety, especially after previous cases in which he found her in. Her child was terrorfied for her health, for her life. "You shouldn't be here," she cried out, taking a few steps closer to me and her voice was hardly audible.

She needed to realize the truth, that her life wasn't to be played with by the possibilities of fate. "Jessie, in here, you can't see it, but it's the same. It's the same as out there," I tried to explain my point. "We have food and roofs over our heads, but you don't get to just live," I was speaking for anyone who was remotely evil, who would want to harm others within the safety of our walls. "You don't get to put it off or wish it away, Jessie. If you don't fight, you die," my voice was quiet, almost silent as I spoke. "And...and I don't want you to die," I could hardly speak. "I can-I can help you. I can keep you and your boys safe. I can," I tried to convince her to confide in me to trust in me and what I was capable of. "All you have to do is say yes," I tried to get her to believe in me.

Her tears were slower now, except they still fell and were still building. Her breathing shook but she stayed silent and thought over what I had just said. "Would you do this for someone else?" she asked me, her voice becoming firmer but it was still soft. "Would you do this for anyone?" she'd question if this was special treatment or if there was more behind why I wanted to help her so desperately.

Thinking my answer through, there was no more denying my thoughts and feelings towards her. If I could convince her to leave her husband, to be free and be with someone who did care for her, I needed to tell her the truth. "No," I answered wholeheartedly. "No," I repeated with a shake of my head.

Looking away from me, she thought her own answer to my question prior her own, which would be a risk she should have been willing to take to protect her and her children. Unable to meet my eyes as she thought her answer through, once she spoke, she met my gaze calmly. "Yes," she answered softly.

Jessie's crying finally stopped and she was now more at ease, except just when I thought things were going to be ok, they weren't. Suddenly, Pete appeared, it was evident he had been drinking before he had approached us. "Rick," he greeted me with that wide, fake smile. "What are you doing here?" he asked me.

Tensing up at the sound of her husband's voice, Jessie knew she needed to be stronger if she was going to get Pete to leave her and their children alone. "Pete," she spoke up as her breathing became irregular.

As each hollow and slow step began to come closer, I noticed a shift in Pete's manner of speaking to me. "What are you doing here?" he asked me, growing mad with rage at seeing me there, in his house and alone with his wife.

With a deep breath, she held her head high and took a few steps forward, towards her husband and blocked me out of the way. "Listen to me," she was firmer, her tone was meaning business and her stance told me she was trying her hardest to not be afraid of him anymore. She didn't need to be afraid, I was there now.

Pete wasn't listening to his wife and I hadn't said a word yet. "I'm gonna have to ask you to leave, Rick," he said, ignoring Jessie's demand of his attention. His tone became more threatening by the minute.

Another breath had been taken by Jessie as I witnessed this scene, watched how she stood up against him. "No," she shut her eyes and spoke up more firmly. She was taking charge of her life and making decisions for all of us, deciding who would leave. It made me proud of her for standing up against him finally.

Now, he was listening to her and he was outraged that she was going against his wishes. Staying planted in my spot, all I could do was watch and wait for a reason to pounce on him. "Excuse me?" he questioned her with a smile growing on his face, it was one of challenging her, to back her down and make her feel small.

Each step closer he took to her, she lowered her eyes for a few moments, raised her eyes to his and licked her lips before she spoke up for herself. "You need to leave," she told him of who was the one who should leave their home, he was no longer welcome there.

Softly laughing to himself, he looked at her with a wide and taunting smile, blinking a few times as his feet shuffled even closer. "What are you talking about?" he told her in a humorous and challenging tone, like as if she had gone mad.

Her eyes were on his, she was trying to be as firm and convincing as possible, she was tired, fed up of what he was like and it was obvious to me. Pete just wasn't ready to back down from his higher position against hers. He still believed he was better than her but in my eyes, I was seeing her taking a stand against him. "Just go, Pete," she told him, no longer willing to carry on with his drama and abusive ways.

Sadly, all this did was anger him more, making him look at us incredulously. It sounded like he was laughing under his breath the more this carried on, the more she tried to rise up against him. "What have you been saying to each other?" he asked her. "Huh?" he asked and licked his lips before a rage began to brew behind his cold eyes. "What have you been doing?!" he shouted at her and she flinched at him, finally, she was afraid of him, which was what he wanted her to be.

Not allowing it to escalate between them, before he could encourage a fight and make more false accusations about us, I needed to get him to leave the building, with me if it need be. "Pete, you and me are gonna leave now," I finally spoke up, not wanting him to hurt Jessie and especially not under my watch.

His rage only began to rise more, as his attention was now drawn to me and he made his way over to me. "You come into my house..." he went to argue at me, went to accuse me of things and of anything else he felt like saying that could make me look bad. Except, it was all in his head.

Dealing with men like him before, I knew it was best to keep it as calm as possible until he no longer was threatening and if he threatened me, I would have to intervine as best as I could in my own way seeing fit the position we were in. "Pete, you and me are leaving," I said again more firmly and reached a hand out between us to remind him to keep his distance from me.

If Pete were to take another step closer, I would have to be assertive and firm, maybe even remind him that I was the authority here. "You're leaving right now," he ordered of me. "You think you're the law? You actually think you have a say in anything here?" he tried to taunt me, to try and convince me to fight him by insulting me and it wasn't working. I had been provoked by worse than that.

Jessie stood there this time, witnessing what was going on between us and from what I could tell, she was on edge. It was like she was expecting Pete to pounce onto me. "Step back," I ordered, being the ex officer I once was, that never changed with me because in every situation, I was the authority. A leader.

Face to face, he was angrier by the second and so was I. Tired of this constant power demand by him, he was provoking me, staring at me and gritting his teeth. Shouting at me as he was stood inches away from me. "Who the hell do you think you are?" he demanded, taunting me further and that was when my bottle was shook to an extreme explosion.

"Someone who's trying not to kill you," I snarled at him as I too provoked him and got my face close to his as he'd glanced behind us to Jessie before he went to punch me in the face. Dodging it, it only lightly grazed my cheek before I threw a punch back and only earned one on again against my cheek and jaw.

"No!" I had heard Jessie scream before the fists came flying.

When the second hit he threw at me was given, I looked to him and felt that my hair was now a mess. "You wanna stop now?!" I questioned him before he tackled me against the wall and took hold of my jaw and neck, in attempts to choke me. Thrashing my head against the wall, I tried to get a hold of him somewhere so I could get him to let me go. Pete mumbled things about his house to me, while Jessie shouted for Pete to stop and leave me alone. Tired of taking the hits, I shouted and screamed, grunting until I finally grabbed a hold of him on his neck and shoved him back with me, both of us colliding against the couch and table. Objects broke, we both tried our hardest to get to our feet, hitting each other, kicking, scratching until I tackled him and we flew out the window, glass breaking as we collided against the floor.


KPOV

Glancing out the window, I saw it was dad and Pete rolling on the floor, throwing punches at one another as they struggled to get the upper hand on one another. With wide eyes, I grabbed hold of my belt and knife, before I went to the door. "Carl!" I called to him as he went to put Judith upstairs and back in her crib. "Stay with Judith and stay back!" I ordered before I shut the door and ran down the porch steps to the fighting pair.

"Deanna!" I heard someone call out to the leader, as people surrounded the scene and watched as the pair fought to what looked like the death. Everyone ran, to the scene as to see if they could get the pair to stop fighting, but dad was having the upper hand at the moment, throwing punches at one another as Jessie sobbed.

Carol was with Sam, Sam hiding behind Carol as we all witnessed the pair battling it out on th ground. When Pete got the upper hand, Jessie rushed over to him and tried to pull him off of my dad. She wasn't strong enough though, especially the moment Pete punched her in the face. "Ah!" she screamed as she had previously called to her husband to stop, falling to the floor from impact.

Abruptly, Enid and Carl were beside me as Glenn took my left side, Carl and Enid on my left. Carl took a step forward but I pushed him behind me and looked down at him. "Carl, I told you to stay back!" I reminded him of my orders and that was when I took my step forward, when dad was taking the upper hand and pinning Pete violently to the ground. "Dad, get off!" I ordered as I wrapped my arms around dad and pulled him back, I was close to getting him off of Pete but he pushed me off him roughly.

Falling backwards, Glenn was there to catch me, while Carl too went to take a hold of me before making me fall to the ground, risking another concussion. Glenn wasn't going to risk that and neither was Carl as they saved me from falling. "Kat! Are you ok?" Carl asked me, worried and checking to see if I was ok, looking at my body for scratches, marks or any forms of pain.

There was nothing, so I shook it off and nodded my head. Briefly, I thanked Glenn and kept Carl and Enid behind me, to protect him from any hits that could fly at them. Michonne saw the pair, ran upstairs and didn't say a word to any of us. Something told me she was going to do something big. When Deanna arrived, she was running, out of breath and dad had got Pete in a choke hold. "Stop. Stop it! Stop it right now," she ordered and that was when dad had another thing to do.

Dad was going to threaten him, turning Pete's face to look at him. "You touch them again and I'll kill you," he threatened Pete in regards to Jessie and her family. Fear struck me, this wasn't like my father, or at least, not the man we always knew, this version of him was rare and passionate when it came to protecting those he loved.

His hair was a mess, forming bruises, cuts and scratches covered his face, his eyes furious and his body tense as he leaned over Pete's. "Damn it, Rick!" Deanna shouted. "I said stop," she ordered for this madness to end, which made me worry for my father and all of our safety.

Dad wasn't letting go of Pete, he had shoved Pete to the floor and the stronger men went to pull my father off of Pete. Getting to his knees, dad pulled out a gun I knew wasn't the one he used while on duty. "Or what? You gonna kick me out?" he questioned as he aimed the firearm up at the men who went to drag him off of the floor.

Instinctively, like a mother lion protecting her cubs, I went to protect Enid, Carl and my father, ready to fight if I had to but...I froze. In this moment, I couldn't save him as this only felt wrong to me. Especially the sudden gun he had hidden behind his back, he had been stealing and I had no idea why. "Put that gun down, Rick," Deanna ordered again, this time it was more gentle as her hands were raised to calm him in surrender.

Panting from the fight, dad had a crazy look in his eyes and it worried me what he was going to do next. I saw the kiss he gave Jessie, I saw the eyes he had whenever he looked at her and there was only one woman i saw him like that with, my mom. To me, it felt like a Shane and mom situation and I didn't like it one bit. "You still don't get it. None of you do!" he shouted for all around him to hear. "We know what needs to be done and we do it," he still held the gun up at everyone, which only worried me. "We're the ones who live," these words were spoken about the group, about our family. "You, you just sit and plan and hesitate. You pretend like you know when you don't," he was trying to make the others feel like idiots and in part, it was true but it didn't have to be.

We could have taught them the ways but I knew that Deanna wasn't permitting it no matter how many times my father tried. Seeing my father losing it, worried me for his mental health and more so from the secrets he had been hiding from me. "You wish things weren't what they are. Well, you want to live? You want this place to stay standing?" he questioned everyone, especially Deanna who was meant to be looking after everyone here. "Your way of doing things is done. Things don't get better because you-you want them to," he was stuttering, his tone angry and demanding, it was like a horror show to see how crazy he was being about this. S Snarling of crowding walkers were being silenced as we could hear the bodies drop. "Starting right now, we have to live in the real world. We have to control who lives here," he kept waving the gun, pointing it at the ground, at people, it wasn't the man I grew up to admire.

The more he spoke, the more I was convinced he needed a break. I felt helpless, like I was worth his secrets, that I wasn't respected enough to be in the loop of his plans, of his thoughts and belief. Instead, he kept to himself and spoke things I never heard him say during our stay here. "That's never been more clear to me than it is right now," Deanna commented and I knew their ways, they normally sent people away, it was something I heard from Deanna, Maggie and Daryl.

Glaring at my father, we were all convinced she was willing to kick my father out, which meant we would all leave with him and some others may have decided to stay. "Me? Me?" he pointed to himself as he finally figured out what Deanna meant by her words. "You-" he laughed hysterically. "You mean-you mean me?" he asked her. "Your way is gonna destroy this place. It's gonna get people killed. It's already gotten people killed," he said words that only made people feel bad and truthfully, he had a point there. "And I'm not gonna stand by and just let it happen. If you don't fight, you die," these words were ones I already heard before. Suddenly, Michonne was beside me and I wasn't sure how long she had been there but she took a few steps towards my father. "I'm not gonna stand by-" he went on fully crazy mode again but Michonne connected the butt of her gun to his head and silenced him finally. Removing his gun, we all looked at Michonne, who was in her authority clothes and stood over the man who was supposed to be an officer but now...he became his dictator self again. What is going to happen now?


Hey guys, sorry for the wait, I'm going to attempt to do my best and firing these out before the next season comes out. I had ideas running in my head, which is going to be crazy if it all plays out the way I want to write it all out, which might make Negan a little more evil and also, give more of a twist to what happens on the show. Let's just say, hold onto your horses folks, because what I have in store is going to be big. This is about season 7 by the way. I'm going to try to update roughly weekly or fortnightly. Anyway, I want to also thank everyone for the support, the love, it really is appreciated and I hope to be able to continue making stories like these that will make you love the character or characters I throw into the mix. Now, 5 reviews please and answer these questions below.

1) What did you think of this chapter?

2) Top 5 moments so far of the story? And why?

3) What do you think of the Daryl and Kat moments in this chapter?

4) What do you think of the Rick and Kat moments in this chapter?

5) What do you think of the Carl and Kat moments in this chapter?

6) What do you think will happen next?

Until next time,

Much love!

HeroJustInTime90 xxx