Chapter 60: Preservation


DPOV

~3 years ago~

Sat around the campfire, everyone had been deciding what we were going to be doing about Merle, how we were going to get him out of his situation on the roof. We needed to sleep on it and deal with it bright and early in the morning.

Kat, Lori, Rick and Carl had been cuddled up like a family. A normal one. One that I envied, as I never knew what that had felt like. My brother was always in juvie or out of the house. Our dad was an asshole and my mom never really cared about us.

"Morgan saved me," Rick informed his family, telling them how he got out of his situation. "After, it was Glenn," Rick's eyes went to Glenn who gave him a small smile.

The Chinese kid hardly ever was given praise. Focused on being sat in the dark, on my own, I didn't care to be part of their group. Worry hit me for my brother. I wanted to hurt them for leaving him behind like an animal.

I knew Merle could be a dick but it's just our way of coping with people. Seeing Kat though, seeing her happy was actually something I couldn't stop glancing at from the corner of my eye.

"How dad?" Kat's little voice spoke up, it was relaxed and her head tilted up to look up at her father.

Rick's hazy blues glanced down to his daughter. Carl had been wedged between Kat and Rick. His little head was resting on their collected chests as Kat's head rest on her father's shoulder. Lori was caressing her husband's arm as her head rest on his other shoulder.

The patriarch of the family was holding onto each important women in his life. "After I got out of the hospital, I went straight home. Looked for you all. Thought I had seen a person but it was a walker. He killed it and...I thought I saw Carl," he began explaining the scene.

Hearing this story, I was listening closely but had my eyes glued to the arrows I was cleaning. "Turns out, he had a little boy. Duane, about the same age as Carl. Morgan took me in to the house he was cooped in, fed me, clothed me, changed my bandages," Rick was giving his family the full story.

"He told me about everything. The walkers. The people. How we would turn if we got bit. He was a good man," he then lifted up a walkie talkie to show it to his family.

His eyes were softly gazing down at his daughter before glancing up at Shane. "If he ever decides to find us, I told him to use this to contact us. I just hope he does. We need people like him," Rick commented.

Scoffing, I got up and decided I had heard enough of this story. People like Morgan weren't people like me or Merle. We weren't who he wanted there.


Present day...KPOV

I was making my way over to the open garage, to where Daryl was getting ready to leave with Aaron to go find people that they could bring back to the community, people they could trust and bring home.

Keeping my hands in my back pant pockets for only a few minutes, my crystal blues meeting his in a calm way while I kept close to him. "You all set?" I asked him, once stopping right beside him and his new bike.

Not taking long to fix that monster, Daryl new the pieces he needed to use to get it working for him, chunky and big, it was like a monster under him and it suited him. Motorbikes always suited him, I thought to myself with a small smile playing upon delicate features.

"Yeah..." he pulled me out of my silent musings, bringing me back to the present and not to my stupid thoughts drifting off to nowhere, except something told me that it was my actions in initiating a long awaited kiss that made me this way, happy, not feeling any kind of rejection from him and the sense of comfort between us.

"We should be back soon," he seemed a little unsure of himself, something told me that he didn't expect us to ever get to this point in our progressive friendship and relationship.

What are we now exactly? I couldn't have been sure. It all felt new, strange and I liked the thought of it. I liked the thrill of not knowing, of not having anything set in stone. I wouldn't question or force anything, if he wanted me, he knew where to find me.

From the corner of my eye, I turned my cranium to look in the direction of Aaron who was awkwardly trying not to smile at the both of us, fixing something in his backpack by his car. "Make sure he comes back safely, please," I asked him, when he was passing me by, I gently rest an open palm to his shoulder, wrapping my fingers gingerly over it.

Glancing between myself and Daryl, just with the gesture of his irises bouncing between us, it amused me to see him surprised I'd ask him that and not the other way around, in asking Daryl to keep Aaron safe out there.

"You should be asking him to bring me back safe," insinuated Aaron as he spoke of Daryl this way in a fond maner, that Daryl was a capable survivor in this world, which he was and he'd proven that to me and himself time and time again. Daryl had skill in this world, which always had me curious as to what he'd been like in the old world.

With a crack of a smile on my lips, Daryl scoffed and was biting on a thumb nail while he mumbled against his biting. "She was one step ahead of you," he stated for me. Late last night, while Aaron had gone to get me and Daryl a drink while Daryl worked almost all night on the bike, I had asked him to look out for Aaron out there.

Glancing at Daryl, my smile was outstretched over my content face. When my eyes met with Daryl's, I saw a glimmer of joy and teasing in his eyes, he was in a playful mood and it was only slightly reflected through those words and his deep blues.

"I'll just go say one last goodbye to Eric," Aaron awkwardly spoke, nodding to me to finally let go of his shoulder, releasing him from my hold, he left in a hurry.

From the sense I felt, I think Aaron just wanted an excuse to leave me and Daryl alone. It was something I would thank him for later, when they'd both come back from their adventure beyond the walls. "You doin' alright?" Daryl asked, a few moments of silence was hanging over our heads like a thick cloud of uncertainty.

What I was sure of, was us. It felt right whenever I was around Daryl and he really cared about me. It was shown in actions and how he spoke to me, like then. His voice was one of sorrow, like he wished he had been there to help me during my dad's fight. "Your dad-" he went to speak.

I had broken his chain of words, knowing what he was about to say about my father and what he'd done to me the day before, pushing me, almost making me hit my head again. "It was just a push, not a hit, he would never hurt me," I reassured him, holding a finger up to silence him in this way.

Not only that, there was the fact that Glenn was behind me and stopped me from falling to the ground. "And yeah, I'm good. What about you?" I asked him, a little concerned for him in how he always was eager to go back out there.

How he was feeling towards these people and the ones that tried to hurt us, like Nicholas, I had heard from Michonne what happened between him, my father and Nicholas.

"Yeah..." Daryl seemed to be distant in his response, nodding along to his reply and looking at me with a relaxed expression.

Feeling a pull, I took a few steps closer to him, cupping his face and slowly, I leaned in to envelope my lips against his. Kissing him, he'd returned it eventually, just as slow and peaceful.

It was full of meaning, emotion and something else, something I couldn't admit to, not so early in our secretly official relationship. With a soft suckling noise, our lips pulled away from one another and our eyes met in a glistening hypnotising look in our mirroring features.

"Stay safe, be smart and please...come back to me," I asked of him. "I'll be waiting for your return," I told him of what I expected from the situation, hoping to make clear the message that he finally had a reason to come back to something, to me, to our family here. The people we knew and met along the way, were all our family.

"So hurry back," I carefully let him go, knowing he'd eventually get nervous as to when many people would begin looking our way. He replied with a rough hum in semi-silent agreement, a quick nod of his head and roared his engine to life.

Removing his gaze from mine, I already sensed Daryl was getting nervous from how intimate I was becoming around him. Aaron took this as a sign that Daryl was ready to go, before I got too sentimental or mushy, they left when they had the chance.

As Aaron was climbing into his car, Daryl took that as his opportunity to ride off towards the gates and beyond the walls. To wherever they'd need to go, to find people to bring back home, to become part of our community. I had faith in them.


MPOV

Debating on what approach I would go for when Rick finally woke up, I had been sat there with him, guarding him the whole time. People came in and out, talked to me about how he was, discussing what would come next. Even Deanna didn't know what she was going to do about him, that she was going to have to put his fate in the hands of the community now.

I was wondering what had possessed Rick to go to these extremes, wondered what gave him the strength to go for an abused woman to protect. He had his family, he had the group, getting involved this way, with the community, wasn't something I had expected from him.

Hearing his breathing shift, no longer softly snoring but coming back to reality, he began blinking and stretching from the positions his body would roll around into, trying to get comfortable, even in his sleep.

I had been surprised by how badly he had been bruised up and cut from the fight he got into, along with how Kat managed to patch him up in his sleep. Hearing a string of groans and chuckles, grasping his face before laying back, not noticing me in the corner as I stared him down.

"What's so funny?" I asked, my arms crossed angrily as I tried to figure out why he had lied to me, how long he'd been lying to me and why he was doing all of this. Nothing was adding up to me.

When he heard my voice, he bolted upright into a sitting position, surprised that I was there, standing guard while he'd slept. "You were here the whole time?" his voice was groggy as he'd asked me his tired question.

He looked confused, stunned that I was even here in the first place. "All night," I stated just how long I'd stayed with him, how long he'd been knocked out from the hit I gave him to his head. "What's so funny?" I asked again, wondering just what made the man laugh the moment he finally regained his conscious mind.

As he sat up to lean his back against the wall, his head was down, as though he were deep in his thoughts. Whatever he had been thinking, it must have been dark. "It's-it's like the train car," he mumbled, to me, it was like he was mostly mumbling to himself.

"After the whole thing, I'm still there," he tried to let me see what he meant. Was he still afraid? Still feeling like it was us against the whole world?

Propping up better, he was finding a way to sit comfortably, his head bowed and his sighs were soft, trying to find himself with all the bandaging Kat had wrapped him in, I was surprised he could even move.

"Deanna wanted you in here, calm things down," I stated how he got there and why. "Kat patched you up. Carl came by for a while. I sent them home," I informed him of his children, if they visited and who had patched him up.

Rising to my feet, lifting the heavy chair instead of dragging it across the cold floor, I needed to get closer to him, needed his full attention. "Rick," I called out to him. "What are you doing?" I asked him, needing him to answer me truthfully.

He didn't say anything, all I'd heard was sighs whilst he'd rub his cranium sheepishly. Licking my lips, my patience was running thin with him, I wanted him to talk to me, that was it. "We put Pete in another house," I decided it best to further inform him of the whole situation. "You could have told me what was happening."

Truth was, I felt betrayed, like I wasn't trust worthy enough to him. After all we'd been through, he didn't tell me he had a gun, or why he had it, he kept it secret and I began to wonder just how many knew about him and his plans for this place.

"It moved fast," he was trying to explain himself, to explain why he kept things from me. "And then Noah. I couldn't tell you about the gun," he had given me no reason as to why he didn't want to tell me.

"No, you couldn't," I agreed with a cold look, shaking my head. Little did he know, I would of understood and helped him where I could.

Neither of us were backing down and how he was looking at me, he never removed his gaze from mine. "Oh, you wanted this place," he argued back, stating something I already knew, something we all knew.

I could feel the anger bubbling under my skin, I didn't know why I was so hurt, so angry, so...disappointed in him. He was our leader, my friend and he went behind my back, behind all of our backs.

"We had to stop being out there," I countered, knowing that being out there for too long was beginning to make us stop being alive, it was making us simply surviving, we kept pushing forward and that life out there, it consumes us. It consumed me, if I hadn't bumped into Kat and Andrea, I would of never been the way I was today.

"Well, we're here," he spoke in such a dreary tone, like being here was a prison more than a good start. Looking at the four walls, I guess I could see why he thought this was just the same as the train cart.

Scoffing at the thought, of what he'd said, I knew he might of well have stayed in the train cart if he was going to be this way. "Well, you just said you weren't," I remarked, thinking about how Terminus to him, was no different to here.

Distracted from our conversation, the door suddenly opened, piling in was Carol, Glenn and Abraham. "Where'd you get the gun?" I changed the subject once they walked in and Abraham held the door open, to bring in some light.

Instead of Rick answering, it was Carol who was quick to answer the question. "You took it, right? From the armoury?" she asked him, like she already knew that answer.

"That was stupid," Carol commented on how Rick had acted. "Why did you do it?" she was questioning him, throwing all these in his direction as Rick sat there like the naughty child in detention.

He stared at her, long and hard until he went to answer her. "Just in case," he didn't look to anyone, he looked away, something told me he was lying.

The way he gazed up at Carol, made me think something was going on there. "Deanna's planning to have a meeting tonight. For anyone who wants to," Glenn informed us, something I already knew would happen. It was information the whole community more than likely heard from Deanna herself after the incident.

"To kick Rick out?" Abraham spoke up, wondering what the meeting would be about.

"To try," Carol was the quickest one to answer these questions, the fastest to fire out her responses. It was like she was always ready.

Glenn's jaw hardened, like he was staying firm to all of this. "We don't know that," Glenn defended the thought that being negative or positive wasn't going to help, not until we got all the information we needed.

"Maggie and Kat are with Deanna right now. They're gonna find out what it is," it was Glenn that told us what two of our most strongest women were going to do, two that were born leaders, if they wanted to be.

Carol's optics never shifted away from that of her leader's visage. She was dead-set, on edge and eager to say what she had to. "At the meeting, you say you were worried about someone being abused and no one was doing anything about it," Carol already had Rick's speech prepared for him.

"You say you took a gun just to be sure that Jessie was safe from a man who wound up attacking you," she was speaking so quick, she was finding it hard to space her breathing.

"You say you'll do whatever you want them to. Just tell them a story that they want to hear," she slowed herself down, finally getting to the end of her monologue. "It's what I've been doing since I got here."

"Why?" I asked the question we were all thinking, wondering why Carol was putting on a show for these people, rather than being the woman she really was.

The way Carol had glanced at me, her eyes firm, her posture calm and her tone of voice was mocking, bland, something told me she knew more than she was letting on. "Because these people are children and children like stories," she explained what she'd considered those from Alexandria to be ignorant rather than aware of the world they were now living in.

It was Abraham's turn to talk. "What happens after all the nice words and they still try to kick him out?" he asked us, trying to make a strategy of the next thing we'd do if that plan didn't work out.

"They're guarding the armoury now," Glenn informed the precautions they were taking further now since Rick had retrieve the gun.

As before, it was Carol who was first to come up with things. It was like she'd been planning everything out. "We still have knives. That's all we'll need against them," she assured us that there was still a way of taking this place if they were threatening to throw Rick out of the walls.

With a vigorously slow nod of his head, Rick was in agreement with Carol on this one, thinking that violence was the only option out if things didn't go to plan. "Well, tonight at the meeting, if it looks like it's going bad, I whistle. Carol grabs Deanna, I take Spencer, you grab Reg, Glenn and Abraham cover us, watch the crowd," Rick's plan was that of bringing the highest of the group, the leading family and bring them to submission if they didn't want Rick to stay there.

In all honest truth, I was shocked to hear how willing they were to become hostile to everyone here. "We can talk to them," I argued, knowing that violence wasn't always the best choice. It should be the final resort.

Blue hues met my dark ones, forcing me to keep myself steady as he listened to me. "Yeah, we will," he was firm, assuring me that we were going to be fine. "If we can't get through, we take the three of them and say we'll slit their throats," he continued his plan.

"Like at Terminus?" not even Glenn was convinced by this plan.

It made us wonder how we were to be any different to those cannibals. "No, we just tell 'em," Rick tried to explain that the plan wasn't to kill, it was only to frighten them. "They give us the armoury and it's over."

Glenn was deep in thought, turning quiet as he glanced to the side and met Rick's gaze after a few short moments. "Did you want this?" he asked, which was something I was beginning to question myself in thought.

Calm, collected, Rick's response was the same as his stance. "No," he answered Glenn truthfully. "I hit my limit. I-I screwed up," he was trying to explain his own stupid behaviour to all he'd done.

"And here we are," he raised his arms, like he wanted to make up for this but didn't know how. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm just gonna sleep some more," he grumbled, getting back to lying down, so he could rest and probably think over things some more.

I didn't know what to think, didn't know how I should have felt. Other than the confusion, the scepticism, the fear and worry.

I didn't know what was going to happen tonight but I could only hope that what he would do, wasn't going to make us fear him, rather than admire his strength in getting us this far. Leaving him there, I shut the door behind us and left him there to sleep in peace.


KPOV

Worried for my dad, since I saw him rage out, since the way I had to stitch him up and heard that Deanna was going to host a meeting tonight, something told me, it was going to have something to do with my father and the possibility of kicking him out.

I felt nerve-wrecked, shaky, so much that I needed to talk to Deanna urgently. Maggie had offered to come with me, not wanting me to handle this alone.

As I bit the nail of my thumb, a nervous trait I picked up off of Daryl, I felt Maggie staring out the window. "Maggie, Kat, hey...she's out on the porch," we heard Reg alert us of Deanna's whereabouts in her home.

Writing on a piece of paper held down by a clip board. "What did you two need to talk to me about?" Deanna's head rose, her attention drawn to us as we made our way over to meet with the leader.

On edge, I couldn't help but be the first one to speak, to talk without a filter as my mind was racing with thoughts of what would happen if my father were to be kicked from Alexandria. "The meeting tonight," I was fast to respond to Deanna's question.

It was Reg that spoke instead of Deanna. "Kat, if we could talk about-" he tried to be nice about the situation, his voice smooth and gentle, like he was trying to break a harsh story to me.

Cutting him off from talking to me, was none other than his wife. "I want to talk to everyone about what happened and what we need to do about it," she was mostly talking to her husband, even if she'd been addressing all of us.

Feeling my body tense, feeling my hands shake, my hands shifted into fists as to keep my grounded. "If it includes sending my father away, it's not going to work," I spoke, in a tone that sounded more like a threat than it did a suggestion to keep the topic out of the meeting tonight.

No emotion was on Deanna's face, it was hard and something in me told me that she was only guarding herself from me, from what I could be capable of doing or insinuating. "Tell me what that means," she encouraged me to explain myself.

There was no easy way to word what I thought, what I felt but I knew being honest was the best way to move forward. "You let my father in. You let all of us in. You talked to us. You decided," I was explaining the process of how we got here to her, something she already knew the moment she chose to let us stay.

"And now you want to put that decision on a group of very frightened people, who might not have the whole story," I tried to let her see how this was bound to go south when the information wasn't there. "That's not the way to lead anyone," I might of challenged her way of leading but it was something I felt needed to be said.

"Well, tonight is just a forum. It's just for people to say their piece," Reg defended his wife and the idea of what tonight was going to be about. For everything to be out in the open so that decisions could be made.

Deanna's eyes never left my face, while Reg would glance between both me and Maggie who stood silently beside me. "And I'll make the decision as I've done since the beginning," Deanna was cold, firm and was standing her ground.

Except, the way she spoke, was like she was better than any of us when my dad had only made a stupid mistake out of defending those who couldn't defend themselves.

This time, Maggie held my arm, to stop me from speaking or possibly attacking the woman who practically threatened that just as she made us stay, she could make us go. "He was frustrated. The things he's seen. The things he's lost. The things we've all lost," Maggie stood up for my father.

"The things you've lost?" Deanna hinted that not only was it my father, that we all had a connection to him, that without my dad, we wouldn't be able to leave him out there alone. This place was good for us and because he did one stupid thing, he was putting us all at risk now.

It wasn't fair how she made Maggie's mouth seal shut from the words being exchanged between them. "We've all lost so much more," I spoke up, finally finding my voice again once it fell silent from the small interaction between the two women.

"Rick took a gun and he pointed it at people," Deanna argued.

Feeling my anger boil up, I was feeling more and more desire to stand up for my father, who wasn't there himself to defend himself and his actions. As much as I disliked his way of dealing with things, for his most recent actions, I couldn't let this woman talk of my father like he was a monster. "He didn't pull the trigger," I retorted back to her.

She was beginning to feel her own anger and stress rise, as the lines on her face began to quiver from the heated situation we were trying to face. "That's a metric? That he didn't pull the trigger?" she questioned my morals, questioned how I could continue to defend my father so blindly.

If he didn't shoot, he wasn't a threat, that was something I knew better than anyone else in this room. "Yes," I was firm, tall and I was willing to keep fighting for my family until my very last breath.

Stepping between me and Deanna, he only slightly blocked my view of his wife and decided to speak up to aid us in our argument. "Well, Michonne stopped him, Deanna. Michonne did," he reminded her that one of us was the one to stop him from doing further damage than what he already had.

Listening to her husband, who seemed to be her voice of reason, she paused, thought something through and looked to myself and Maggie with sad eyes. "I'm gonna do what I have to do, girls," this was the only apology she could give us if things turned south tonight.

Turning away from us, she continued writing on her clip board, unable to look at us or give us anything else. I felt my body tense up, my head shake, I was quaking and I didn't know what else to say, what else to do. I felt like there was nothing more I could do to save my father. Bounding down the stairs, I didn't look back as Maggie followed after me, trying to catch up.

We could hear another set of footsteps as Reg followed after us, calling to us. "Girls! Look, girls! Girls!" he tried to get us to stop. Maggie grabbed my hand, turning me to stop as we both turned to face Reg, who was slowly making his way down the steps, hand rubbing across his forehead.

"The cavemen, they were all nomads. And, uh, they all died," he began his little anecdote. "Then we evolved into this and we lived," he concluded his small story to us. "Civilisation starts when we stop running. When we live together. When we stop sending people away, from the world and from each other," he was summarising what the story meant, what it would mean for us as a community and more than anything, what it would mean to Deanna when she would finally hear it.

"That's what I'm going to tell her. That's what I'm going to tell everyone. Okay?" he tried to make things right, for all of us, that was what he was proving to me, to Maggie.

Turning, we left Reg to talk to his wife, while me and Maggie returned to our homes, back to the others. Side by side, I tried not to look back but sneaked a glance at Reg as he walked back up the steps.

"Did he just insinuate that my father is the nomad caveman in that story?" I asked her, stunned that he was making my father be more involved in the story than I thought.

"I think he did," Maggie replied while we continued our promenade back to the house. With a small shake of my head, I knew that this story would stay in my mind for the rest of my life.


DPOV

Getting to a halt, we had been driving out to where we last stopped, knowing someone was still out there, we needed to find these people and possibly bring them into the community, if we saw they were good enough to let into the community. Benefits, instead of a threat, these were what we were looking for.

Wandering into the woods, I finally picked up a trail, it looked fresh, or at least, fresh enough. "Somebody came through here a while ago," I informed Aaron of my findings as he followed behind me.

My partner sounded a little breathless, as he followed as closely as he could to me. There was lots in my mind but the thought of what they were going to do to Rick, to the family, it worried me.

I had hope that Rick's situation would have a decent solution, rather than to have him be exiled from Alexandria. "If we see them, we hang back, set up the mic, watch and listen," Aaron spoke, pulling me out from my consistent thoughts.

"For how long?" I questioned just how long we would be watching the person in question, made me wonder just how long he was watching us before he made the choice to bring us in.

Ever lingering, were the thoughts of Carl, Kat, Rick and Judith leaving, all because of Rick and what happened the day before. "Until we know. We have to know," Aaron answered me truthfully.

Itching to ask, I knew that Rick had done something stupid, something that could risk his family and all of the group their safety, a chance to grow and to feel like we could start a home here. All thrown away, if things went a different way tonight.

"You've sent people away?" I had to ask him, to get the truth.

"Yeah," it sounded as much of a burdening answer as it felt. Weighing on both of us, I had a feeling he knew what I thought and felt about it all. Just when things were starting to look good for myself and Kat, I couldn't just let her walk away.

Processing it for a moment, I stopped my walk through the woods to digest the thought that maybe, if Rick didn't have a plan to retaliate against Alexandria to stand down. That if they just let them kick his family out, I knew I wouldn't stay.

I would take my chances with them. "What happened?" I inquired about how that came to happen for him, for those at Alexandria.

Walking on, I needed to keep moving, to keep following the trail and not forget the task at hand. "It was early on. It was three people. Two men and a woman," he began telling me of a group he had to let go.

"Davidson was their leader. Smart as hell, strong. I thought they'd work out. They didn't," the story, sounded all too familiar to me. "I brought them in and I had to see them out. So me, Aiden, and Nicholas, we drove them out far...gave them a day's worth of food and water and left them."

The story itself, wasn't something I thought I'd hear, something I didn't doubt but something that lingered in my mind. I wondered if they ended up coming back, hurting those that lived in Alexandria or just left them be and looked for safety elsewhere.

"They just went?" I spoke my curiosity out to him.

Something in the way Aaron spoke, made me knew he regretted inviting them in, only to see them out. "We had their guns. We had all the guns," he hinted that there would of been no way that they could come back to hurt those from Alexandria, that they had to move on, even if they needed those weapons back.

It left that group vulnerable. "I can't make that kind of mistake again," he explained how much pressure, the weight this landed on his shoulders. I wasn't surprised as to why he wanted me to help him bring new people in. It didn't stop me thinking about Kat, Rick and the others. Little did he know, we had more guns that they didn't know of...


RPOV

Taking another nap, I suddenly felt a prod at my side, an index finger poking me to reanimate myself into existing, rather than sleeping away the pain I had been put in. "Wake up," I heard a soft voice call to me. "It's good what happened last night. We have more cover now," Carol was listing a few things she saw as a good thing for us. "All of them think you've been found out, that it's over."

Taking out a gun, she offered it to me. I had never seen Carol so willing to help me, to get so involved, that I wondered just how much she had changed since the day I exiled her from the prison. "Why didn't you want to tell them we had more guns?" I asked her, wondering why she wasn't honest with the others, honest with the family we had all created through the bond and survival we went through to get to where we were now.

There was a look in Carol's eyes that told me she was surprised over suggestion of us telling the truth. Taking the gun from her, I felt the weight of it and got used to it being in my hand. "Michonne stopped you. She knocked you out," to Carol, this was reason enough.

"Well, I deserved it," I defended Michonne for her choice of action.

Carol on the other hand, wasn't having any of it. "Well, it was stupid," she countered, knowing that either way, the whole situation I had been put in as it was, had been stupid in the end.

Except, I knew Glenn, I knew Michonne and I knew that Abraham would stand with us when the time called for it. "She's with us. Glenn is," I was going to defend our friends until the very end, if I had to. I trusted them.

Neither of us were backing down from this fight. "I didn't tell them about the guns just in case," her voice had softened a few octaves, her eyes were sincere and I swore I saw her lip tremble only slightly.

Sighing deeply, my thoughts were running wild with plans, with tonight and how it would pan out, along with who would stick by us the moment something bad would happen. Being exiled from this place, wasn't an option for me or my family. "I don't want to lie anymore," I spoke what had been running in my mind since I laid back to sleep.

Her eyes were soft but there was something sarcastic in the way she smiled at me. "You said you don't want to take this place. And you don't want to lie?" she pointed out the two things I wanted for here. "Oh, sunshine, you don't get both," it was sarcasm at its finest and I understood exactly why she said it. To get something, I'd have to lose something. Telling the truth, could make us fall.


DPOV

Catching up with the person we had been following in question, we saw a guy in a red poncho walk on, getting my binoculars, we waited and watched him from the distance, as he crouched down and rubbed dirt in his hands before applying it to his face. "What's he doing?" Aaron asked me, perplexed as to why this strange man was doing such an act to himself.

When he turned to walk off into the woods, I lowered my binoculars and went to answer Aaron's question. "Wild leeks," I stated what had been used. "Son of a bitch knows about how to keep mosquito's off of him," I explained the purpose of using wild leeks to coat the skin. "Come on," I encouraged Aaron to follow after me as we went in search for the guy.


RPOV

Once Carol had left, giving me what was left of my fresh and cleaned clothes, she also brought some coffee and food for me to have before leaving the cell. Walking out, Tobin and a few other guys I couldn't remember the names of were lined up outside, armed with guns as I walked passed them. "Hey, Tobin," I greeted one of the men from the group, the only name I remembered from them all.

"Hey, Rick," he mumbled back as I went by them. Glancing over to Deanna, who was clinging onto the rail of her porch, staring me down with a cold glance. Something told me, whatever she had planned, she had hopes of kicking me out for the stunt I pulled yesterday. I kept walking, heading towards my house to see my children and to prepare for tonight.


KPOV

Meeting up with Glenn, who was sat on one of the porches, myself and Maggie stayed close together as he looked over to us. "You met with her?" he asked us, eager to hear the next news.

"Yeah, we did," I was the quickest one to respond out of both of us.

Stopping in front, Maggie came to Glenn's side and leaned against a pillar. "So what is it?" he wondered what the outcome of our little meet with Deanna was and how it went.

There was a lingering pause, as Maggie looked to me and Glenn waited patiently for the next response to come out from either one of us. "It's what we all thought," I revealed after a deep and long sigh left me.

Feeling defeated, I hated what my dad did, even if I understood bits of it, I hated the thought that any given moment, we could lose something so useful to us, to keep us safe and to survive, that losing it now, was something I didn't want to afford, not for Carl and not for Judith, or any of us.

"I'm gonna talk to people. I'll talk to everyone I can right up until the meeting. I'm gonna try to solve this," Maggie was encouraging me to keep the faith, that we were going to work this out, together.

When my eyes met hers, I noticed how sweet and warm they were, how her voice was so soothing, that I was confident she had this under control. "We're going to try and solve this," Glenn then assured me, his hand went to my arm, to give me the strength to know that they would both be there, every step of the way.

From what was said by both of them, I knew I could depend on them. Yet, something told me that something was weighing on both their minds. "I know we can and we will," I agreed, needing the confidence to see this through and knowing we would do this, as a team, as a family.

"Thank you Maggie, Glenn, for everything. Thank you two," I couldn't help the gratitude that escaped my mouth when they were with me, my eyes then zoomed in on my father and when I returned my gaze to them, I smiled.

"No problem," Glenn assured me, before Maggie pursed her lips in a tight smile, giving me the perfect cue to follow my father into the house.


CPOV

All night had been a struggle for us. As myself, Kat and Michonne had watched over dad. Carol had been with Judith, while we had been watching over dad, who was knocked out cold by Michonne.

Events of yesterday had shown Kat had been pushed by dad, Jessie had been hurt by Pete and now, the town was outraged by dad's outburst yesterday. Now, Kat had been out there, trying to pick up the pieces with Maggie's help.

Lately, the only good things to come from everything, was Kat and Daryl were finally getting together and that people were needing to open their eyes to the real world. The world that myself and Enid knew better than others.

Waiting for either dad or Kat to come home, for anyone to come back, I had been keeping a watchful eye of Judith. Until dad had walked past the window of the living room. Shooting up out of my seat, I strolled over to the door and heard him come in. "Dad," I called to him softly as we embraced.

We'd all been worried for him. Myself, Kat, we were worried most. "Hey," he greeted me back as we pulled back from the embrace.

"You okay?" I asked, seeing his patch worked face and his gauzed hand, made me fear that maybe this fight, wasn't going to be the last for him.

Alexandrians were talking, talking about a meeting and Kat had briefed me in on what she had to do to prevent us from leaving. "Yeah," dad assured me he was fine as baby blues met crystals. "Look, I'm sorry," he apologised.

For what he apologised, I could only guess it was for the future and for his most recent outburst. "I heard about the meeting," I wasn't going to act like I was in the dark.

I wanted to be there. I needed to be there to support him, to defend him, in case anyone wanted to go against him again. Or to go against Kat when she'd argue just as loud as dad would. "You're staying home," dad forbade me from leaving the house to be there tonight.

Turning his back on me, he was going to leave for the stairs. Little did I know, that the faintest sound of a door opening and not closing, was Kat coming back home. She had been hiding by the hallway, listening in to our conversation.

"That's what it is now, right? Home?" I questioned just what this place was to us now.

My words had made dad stop in his tracks. Coming to terms with what this place was for us now, he gradually turned around and faced me from the side. "Yeah," he agreed that this place, was finally somewhere we could settle in again.

The prison was home and now, we found a new one. I wasn't ready to let it go from us and not with a fight. These people were too weak to understand the life we had lived. "They need us. They'll die without us," I tried to convince him we needed to open their eyes.

What he'd done yesterday, wasn't right and how he presented the truth, wasn't the right way either. Approaching me with slow, heavy steps, I knew this was weighing on him. "I might have to threaten one of them," dad started listing the possibilities. "I could have to kill one of them."

"You won't," I shook my head and turned to face him.

Facing me, a little to his right side, my eyes looked up at him. I tried to get him to see that there was always another way. "I might," dad was convinced as he nods his head and turned to fully face me.

Knowing what he was capable of, what he would do to protect myself, Kat and Judith. Of what he'd do to make sure this home, stayed as our home...I feared for the people who lived here. "You have to tell them," they needed to hear the truth.

These people needed us, regardless what they thought and rather than slaughter anyone, dad needed to prove to them that things are never going to go back to the way they were. Life was different now. "I told them last night," dad had got me there.

My thoughts were on the words he said, how he presented it and no one would hear him when he looked like a rambling, psychopath. "You have to tell them so they can hear you," I tried to get him to listen to me this time.

He had to do it right this time. "I don't know if they can," dad wasn't convinced that these people would listen to a word he said. "Does that make you afraid?" he asked me.

My eyes fell, I wanted to trust in him. I did. I just had faith that if these people had just talked to him, if dad just talked, then we would be safe. We wouldn't have to leave. "Just for them. You have to tell them," I encouraged him again.

If he was going to take my advice or not, it was up to him. The rest was up to him.

As we heard a creak of the floorboards down the hall, a door slammed shut. "Carl? Dad?" I heard Kat's voice calling out to us as her footsteps approached.

"We're in here," dad called out to her, before she slowly appeared around the corner and stood beside us.

"Everything ok?" she asked, glancing between us as we were in a deep and silent moment of the conversation. Neither of us said a word as we glanced to one another.


DPOV

Stopping outside a Del Arno Foods factory, we saw the huge trucks of food were sat there, taunting us to take it. Walkers were snarling as they strolled around the area inside the gates.

"We checked the forest, we checked the roads. We can't find him," Aaron said as I lowered the binoculars and rose them again to check. "Sometimes they slip away. It happens," he was trying to brush it off like it was all normal.

I didn't want to lose hope on the guy. "But...you don't come across something like this every day," Aaron spoke about the trucks that were just sat there, waiting for us.

Knowing that if we decided to go for the trucks of food, it meant we were giving up on the guy that we were tracking. "We do this now, it means we're giving up," I made it clear what the value of our choices were.

How his eyes were constantly glued to the food trucks, told me he didn't want to give up this chance. "Home is 50 miles back. It's time to go," Aaron was hinting we needed to go back before it got dark. "You saw it last night. There's bad people out here."

Facts were all that were needed, which only convinced me to find the guy more than it had before. "That's why we ought to keep looking for the good ones," I didn't want to give up. I knew that Kat wouldn't of given up.

"We need more people and we'll find them," Aaron was sure as he gazed at me, confident in his words. "But when we do, we'll need to feed them," he explained that with more people, it meant more mouths to feed.

Our group knew this better than anyone. I knew this better than anyone. We'd been through it for years. It was always a constant struggle. "Alright," I agreed that maybe, going for the food was our best bet.

Tapping my knife against the metal, it began to ring. Calling all the drooling walkers towards us. Digging our knives into each of the walkers craniums, we eventually forced the gate open. The sliding gates screeching with each tug Aaron gave to it.

Approaching the warehouse, the area was clear of walkers. It was only a few stragglers that we dealt with. Cans were clanging from the gentle breeze and to me, it felt odd. Why had there been cans tied to ropes to the sides?

"Huh. Whoa," Aaron chuckled. "Wasn't sure I'd ever see one of these," he began removing a licence plate from one of the trucks.

Remembering one of the conversations we had, he had told me that he was collecting licence plates from cars of every state. "Hey, listen, I don't like giving up either, but the guy is in a red poncho. You can see him from a mile away," he tried to convince me if he came back, we'd spot him.

Something didn't feel right. I could hear something, like it was walkers near. Heavy breathing, it was as though the walkers were inside. We were close to the warehouse, which could easily be crawling with them.

In my gut though, I didn't trust how convenient this was. "We've gone a lot of miles here. No sign of him. But...if we come away with a trailer full of cans, I'd say that's a good trip," Aaron continued babbling on about something that I wasn't paying close attention to.

"Here we go," I gestured to the one truck that didn't have cans to the sides of it. Hoping it wasn't used, I began twisting the latch on the door and heard something snap. The second it zipped up, walkers were growling as they approached us and appeared out of every corner.

Walkers were hiding in the trucks, in the warehouse and began escaping from their prisons. Alert, we rushed out of the area as we saw all the trucks slowly roll the doors open. It had been a trap all along. Approaching a herd as we ran, I slammed my knife into one's skull and saw Aaron slice a walker with his new licence plate. "Over here!" Aaron yelled.

Following him, I told him to 'come on' as we crawled under a truck and did our best to lose the walkers. Picking up a chain, the walkers already were ducking down, trying to reach us. Crawling out from the other side, I had kept my eyes on one of the walkers that had the same mark we saw on the people used as scarecrows.

It was a mark in the shape of a 'W'. As we crawled out, I was met by three walkers approaching quicker to our left. Lassoing the heavy chain, it knocked all three walkers down with ease. Dropping it, we used our knives and bodies to fight off the rest of the walkers. From my crossbow being used for close combat, to Aaron using his machete, we fought our way to clear a path.

Pushing walkers away, I finally had found a car we could hide in until the walkers finally got bored and left us alone. Or, at least to buy us time to come up with a plan. Aaron had slammed a door shut on a walker's head, repetitively until it finally detached itself from the car.

Gradually, we were surrounded.


KPOV

Stalking towards my prey, I saw my father sat on the bed, thinking over something deeply and was brushing firm fingers over his blade, like he'd done it for a thousand decades, mastering the blade rather than just being a mediocre warrior. He heard my footfalls, turning his cranium to look over his shoulder at me.

Leaning over the frame of the door, his eyes met with mine and when his head bowed, he glanced at the weapon in his grasp. Something in the way his fingers moved, told me he was very deep in thought.

"I'm sorry I pushed you, during the fight," dad apologised for his actions yesterday.

Nodding, I could understand he didn't want me getting hurt and that when he was in that fight, he wasn't going to let anyone break it. "Apology accepted," I uttered softly.

Inhaling sharply, I couldn't keep in my thoughts anymore. "I really, really didn't expect you to be this stupid, this selfish," I spoke out when he caught me in his sight, walking to face him while he sat on the bed, acting calm and equally confused as to what the topic of conversation was about.

Furrowing those of thick, perfectly arched brows at me, I knew he was acting like he didn't know what I was discussing with him. "What are you talking about?" he asked, his voice filled with that common confusion he would have when something wasn't clearly explained to him on the get go.

In-explainable was the rage that coursed through my veins, hearing him act like nothing was wrong, I felt the blood boil quickly because acting and lies weren't appreciated from him in that moment to me. "You know just what I'm talking about," I spoke through venom on my tongue, arms crossing over my chest tightly and eyes forming into tight slits, glaring my crystal blues in his mirroring ones.

"No, I don't," he responded dully, moving to sheath the blade and return to his feet. Ready to get the confrontation going over Jessie.

Irritation was evident in my words, in the way I had spoke and the way I was being received by my father from my vile tone and fashion of being. "Fine, let me clear things up for you," I snarled, ready to rip my father a new one for all he'd been doing for only himself and no one else.

"This, whatever this is between you and Jessie, it needs to stop. Now," I stated the core issue of the problem by pointing it out to be what it was, a problem. "Hell, it should of never happened in the first place!" I was repulsed by the thought of the whole triangle in itself.

"What are you talking about?" my father asked, looking more confused than ever but his eyes couldn't lie to me, not anymore.

With a disgusted sound and a shake to my head, I wasn't impressed by him for a single second. "Stop it! Stop acting dumb," I was tired of the lies, of the violence, I just needed peace and happiness, my voice expressing it with the tired anger I conveyed.

"You know what and who I am talking about! You are no different to Shane this way," I hit him in a low blow and it could be seen when he felt it, his muscles tensed and his crystal blues were proving to be filling up with anger.

"No, don't even try to justify what you are doing, not now," I stopped him before he could say something, raising a finger up to shut him up. "I know she's in an abusive relationship but that doesn't justify that you should be trying to be a homewrecker and get with a married woman," the whole situation was just wrong to me.

"Not only is she a married woman...she's a married woman, with kids," I was expressing my words through my body, through it being defensive, by keeping him at bay and using my body to show my sass with tilting my head and glaring at him.

"I'm actually ashamed of you," I stated. "This is not my father. He doesn't risk everything he had been fighting for, for some woman he hardly knows..." I hated that we were having this discussion. "You act like you want to help these people...to make them see..." my voice had hardened, my tone of voice lowered.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I was showing him I was being stern with him for a change. The parent, was now being treated like a child. "The way you handled it, was wrong. You taught me better than this...and this is the example you want to give to Carl? To Judith? To me?" I didn't want to do this but he needed to open his eyes for once.

All I'd said made him silent, the last part made even myself fall silent. I would of never said that but now, I did and I felt it, it felt real to say to my father how much he'd failed at doing what he should have in the first place, which was to keep his distance from Jessie.

"Kat what happened with me, your mother, with Shane, it-it's different," he went to argue his point with some bullshit comparison as he stuttered. "She-she-" he kept trying but I wouldn't let him.

"Save it," I spat, not wanting to continue hearing him talk shit about my mother or Shane, or himself, or the differences or anything of that kind. It wasn't fair. "You're fighting over a woman who is not yours, who is married, who has her own family and her own problems," I told him the layout of this scenario and all of it sounded far too familiar to even myself.

"Sounds familiar, doesn't it?" I inquired, remembering the triangle my mom and dad were in with Shane in it. "We literally just got here and now, because of you, they are planning on kicking you to the curb and we will leave with you," I was upset with this statement, with the possibilities of the future and what the town would decide for him over his stupid decisions, his dumb actions.

"Maybe all of us...maybe none of the group, will come with us. I hope you realise how badly you screwed up, dad," I didn't know what could happen when the time came for them too all meet and decide my father's fate.

"They're not going to kick me or any of us out of here," dad tried to act relaxed about it, brushing it off like it was just musings of a child who knew nothing. I knew more than he thought. His voice was dark, like he was going to make sure of this.

"You don't know that!" I argued back, feeling the fear punch me in the gut, it was like I was almost 100% certain they would kick him out for the disturbance and act of madness he showed the others around him. Waving that gun around, screaming the truth, it made him look like a madman.

He was taking no notice of it, his tone was a little angered with the thought of the town pushing him out like a dog shoved into the wilderness. "I'd like to see them try," he was confident in himself, like he could take out the whole town on his own and that, he couldn't, he wouldn't. I wouldn't let him.

Taking a few steps closer to him, I glared into his eyes kept them firm, a look I had mastered because of him, icey like his, it was a cold and hard look. "You'd best hope they don't kick us out because if they do..." I warned him for the possibility of our future in his hands and through his mistakes.

"I will be solely blaming you for the chance we had at a better life here. That you blew it because of your stupid way of handling stuff and affections towards some pretty, married blonde," I spat and pushed passed him, my arm lightly hitting his, forcefully enough to make a statement of my anger before I left him to his silence in thought.

I could only hope he could think of a good plan or speech to give everyone about what happened with him, Jessie and her husband, Pete. He had best think of their future, for all of their sakes.


DPOV

Cooped up in the car, we were trapped and as the walkers banged on the glass, I feared they would eventually break in. There was so many and I had no idea what to do next. "Glass will hold for a while, right?" Aaron was trying to be hopeful.

He was just as scared as I was. For once, I feared for my life, because it meant I'd be leaving something great behind. Something I only just started. "Maybe. Maybe we can make it so they can't see us," I was hoping that maybe, we could cover the windows to stop them from spotting us in here.

"In a couple hours, something will come by, they'll follow it out," this was one of our options. Or possibly, one of our prayers. "There's got to be something in here we can use to block the view. We can cut up these seats," I wanted to try anything, to give a chance to get out of this and find a way back home safely.

My feet were up against the dashboard, my back so far pressed into the seat, I feared that if I was any closer, something would grab hold of me and have me for dinner. My knife in my hand stayed there as I searched everywhere for something. Hearing something rustle in Aaron's hands, when we looked at the note, we froze.

The letters read 'TRAP. BAD PEOPLE COMING. DON'T STAY.' I instantly regretted coming here and should have known better. I should have checked everything, in case of food, medicine, anything hiding in the cars too. If the trucks had been untouched, the cars should have been too.

Perhaps, if we saw the note earlier, we would have left. Now, we were surrounded by walkers, like sitting ducks. Waiting to either be food or for the bad people to arrive. How do we get out of this one? My mind was racing. We needed to get out before the others came.


KPOV

After my argument with dad, I needed to breathe, I needed air. Escaping the house, I rushed to walk, to just clear my head. He was acting like everything was going to be okay, that killing was fine, that it could always be justified.

It wasn't what I wanted to teach Carl or Judith. It wasn't something my mother would of wanted for any of us. As my mind ran in circles, I saw Maggie was rushing around, a worried look on her face. "Maggie, what's up?" I called over to her.

As her eyes met with mine, that was a sigh of relief that left her. "Kat, have you seen Glenn?" she asked me, hoping that I had any idea of his whereabouts.

This was sadly something I didn't know of. I hadn't seen Glenn since I left them alone. "No, why?" I wondered what could possibly be worrying her. He must have been close but the fact the worry in her eyes didn't leave her when she saw me, made my stomach feel uneasy.

"He just left, I looked everywhere for him," Maggie was glancing around again, looking anywhere for even one sign of him.

When she saw nothing, I heard a voice call from behind us. "Girls...good thing I found you, have either of you seen Nicholas?" Deanna asked, curious and a little confused as to where he was. Hearing this, myself and Maggie's faces turned to exchanged glances.

Suddenly, a loud echo of a gunshot could be heard in the distance. "What was that?!" Deanna jumped, startled as she put a hand over her chest and held onto my arm.

My eyes glued to the sky, both myself and Maggie had the same thing run through our head. "Glenn..." Maggie whispered up to the sky. "I don't have a good feeling about this," she tensed up beside me.

Glancing at us confused, Deanna eventually let me go and looked to Maggie with curiosity. "Why?" she wondered what could Glenn have in relation to her feelings and that noise.

Maggie's eyes were wide with fear, her voice shook a little as she spoke. "Glenn promised me not to say anything but...he told me that he tried to convince Nicholas not to go back out there," she began painting a picture for us.

"That because of him, he was going to get others killed and more than anything, himself killed. Told me that, Nicholas was being stubborn and ignored his advice, thought that Glenn was threatening him," how Maggie spoke of the situation left me and Deanna speechless.

Glenn must have gone somewhere and Nicholas could have followed. My eyes squinting, I was determined to go out there and find them, with or without Deanna's blessing or help. "Deanna...I'm going to need access to the armoury," I told her.

"No, out of the question," she denied me, her head shaking sternly as her face scrunched up with disapproval.

Turning to face her, I stood taller and stared her down softly. "Deanna...if I wanted to hurt someone, I would have...but I didn't," I tried to reason with her. "I'm going out there, with or without my weapons. I was only going to use them in-case I ran into walkers or anyone that's a bad person," I tried to explain myself.

Squinting, she had picked up on my use of words in why I needed my weapons. "Do you think Nicholas is a bad person?" she questioned me.

There were many things I thought Nicholas was but bad, wasn't one of them. "Do I think he's wreckless and stubborn? A coward? That he's too blind to see that he's not ready to face the outside world yet?" I began listing all the ones I did think he was. "Yes," I answered my own question.

"A bad person? No," I shook my head, my eyes were focused on hers as I spoke truthfully to her. "Until he proves himself to be otherwise, no. I don't believe Nicholas is a bad person," I summarised my answer to her question.

Staring at me, long and hard, Deanna reached in her pocket and took out a spare key she had to the armoury. "Here..." she put it in my hand but held onto it tightly, bringing me closer to her. "But know that I'm trusting you to bring both Nicholas and Glenn back..." she was looking me dead in the eye. "Alive."

How my eyes softened, it was purely because she was finally trusting me to do the right thing. "Thank you," I appreciated what she'd given me the chance to do.

This was my way of proving that we could be trusted. This was a second chance and I wasn't going to blow it. With a nod, this was Deanna's way of sending me on my merry way. Leaving them, I began making my journey to the armoury. "I'm going with you," Maggie spoke up as she went to stick close to my side.

As she caught up, I stopped dead in my tracks and saw Deanna still watching us. "No, I need you here. To be here for my dad, please..." I gently took hold of her shoulder, my eyes staring deep into hers as I searched each of her green pools. "I'll bring them back," I assured Maggie and Deanna, who could still overhear us.

Leaving Maggie behind, she had her hopes in me. The same way she had faith in my father, she had it in me. I wasn't going to disappoint either of them. On a mission, I had my game face on as I focused on getting the boys back home and do it all in time for the meeting.

First, I needed my gear and then I'd bring them back home. Alive.


RPOV

After the discussion with Kat, I had to sit down and think. About what she said, how she said it. Maybe she was right but what was right and felt right, were two different things for me. At least, it was for now. Leaving the house, I decided I might as well check in on Jessie.

Seeing her house, her window was shattered and it was all our fault. Her little sigh was kind of sad when she finally saw me. "You should go," she suggested that this be best.

Glancing around, it was like she was fearful of the neighbours, what they'd see and think. "I just wanted to check on you," I gave her my intention. Noticing the bruising on her face, it was on her eye and then it made me remember she'd stepped in during mine and Pete's fight. "Your eye," I spoke up.

I feared it might have been me. I could hardly remember anything, other than the fact I had pushed Kat away from me. "He did it right when it was happening. It wasn't you," she cleared my mind of the fear that maybe it had been me. "People shouldn't see us talking right now," she did worry that the neighbours were watching.

Regardless what she thought, I didn't regret fighting for her. Carol needed someone to fight for her, only Shane had. Jessie needed someone to finally put her husband in his place. "I'm not sorry I did it. No matter what happens or what I have to do," I told her honestly.

Not sure what could happen, I had to go back to my house, to think, to figure out a way to get them to listen. Not for my sake but for my family, for my kids. They deserved better than the example I was showing them, showing everyone.

Turning around, I went to leave, to give Jessie the space she needed. "Don't turn around, Rick," she spoke up, to make me stay and stop in the spot I was on. "You were right," she admitted after a few seconds, which felt like forever of silence.

Looking over my shoulder briefly, I tried to process the fact that she'd heard me. Heard what I had preached yesterday. That they needed to change here and to change for the good of the community, if they were going to survive.

Walking off, I returned home and decided to prepare for the night. I needed to appeal to them. I had to. For Carl, for Judith and to make things right with Kat.


DPOV

Minutes felt like hours, hours felt like days as we continued to be cooped up in the car. The sun was already starting to set and we had no plan of escape. Chuckling, a thought crossed my mind. Even if I was in the worst possible situation, I still felt more at home surrounded by walkers, than I did around people.

"What?" Aaron asked what was so funny to me.

Staring at my feet on the dash, I couldn't look him in the eyes. "I came out here to...not feel all closed up back there," I began explaining my thoughts. "Even now, this still feels more like me...than back in them houses. That's pretty messed up, huh?" I asked him.

Something was wrong with me, or at least, that was what I assumed. "You were trying," Aaron was trying to boost my self esteem. He was trying to be a good friend.

"I had to," I was convinced that this was the case.

Hearing this, he wasn't convinced by this at all. "No, you didn't," he argued lightly with me. "You wanted to...for her. Didn't you?" he asked me.

For Kat. He was right. Only then did I realise that. I wanted to try to fit in, because she did and because she wanted me there all along. What I had hope for, was that she wanted me there and now that it's fact, I didn't know how to tie myself into everything anymore.

Unable to answer him, I chewed on the skin of my cheek and kept my eyes glued to my feet. "Listen, I saw you with your group out there on the road. Then you went off on your own by the barn," he was moving on from the topic.

"Storm hit and you led your people to safety. That was it. I knew I had to bring you people back," he was telling me what had convinced him to bring us back to Alexandria. "You were right. We should have kept looking for that guy in the poncho. I shouldn't have given up. You didn't," he was beating himself up over this.

How he was making me feel like I was the reason he brought us back, how I was the one that was brave and hopeful enough that people, good people, were still out there. All of it, made me feel like maybe I was truly good enough for Kat.

I was going to try to be the hero for once. Not the survivor. Picking out a smoke, I placed it between my lips and spoke. "I'll go. I'll lead them out. You make a break for the fence," I needed to do the right thing. Lighting my cigarette, I was getting ready to enjoy my last smoke and if I died, I would of died happily. With a last smoke and my last kiss being from Kat Grimes.

If I could save someone else, I would. Kat didn't need me and I finally got the chance to feel affection. To feel her affection. It was all I needed to go out with no more fear. "No, no, no. This was my fault," Aaron wasn't going to let me do this alone.

"You have someone waiting for you back home," Aaron reminded me of Kat. Of the dumb promise she had asked of him. To bring me back home safely. Alive.

Another thought crossed my mind. Not only did I have Kat. He had Eric. "You have someone waiting for you, too," I reminded him this time. "It wasn't a question. And this ain't your decision. It ain't nobody's fault," I was trying to convince myself this. These were the words he'd have to recite to Kat when he got home.

"Just let me finish my smoke first," I asked of him.

He didn't look away from me. "No. You don't draw them away," he wasn't going to let me do this alone. "We fight. We go for the fence. We do it together. Alright?" he wasn't going to let me go alone. "Whether we make it or not, we do it together. We have to," the fact he wanted to do this together, made me think back to Kat.

Kat wants me. She wants me to go back home. If we get to survive together, I had to take that chance. For her. For Eric. Surviving or not, at least we would of tried to get back to our loved ones together. "Alright," making up my mind, I nodded and finished my smoke. "You ready?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he answered, both of us alert as we got ready to run.

Getting my knife out, we held onto the door and glanced to one another. "We'll go on three," I gave him the order. "One, two-" just as I was gearing myself up for the mass of walkers, one had died on Aaron's side.

Opening our doors, we fought our way out, with the help of a guy in a huge coat and using a stick for a weapon. "Come on. Come on, get in here," I encouraged him to come with us to the fence, as he fought alongside us to the gate.

As Aaron shut the gate, a walker came up behind the guy. Shooting the walker with my crossbow, it fell and he glanced behind him to see that I had saved his life. "That was-oh-thank you," Aaron was out of breath. "I'm Aaron, this is Daryl," Aaron introduced us to the stranger that helped us.

Using a cloth, he was cleaning his stick of the blood. "Morgan," he introduced himself back to us.

Breathless, I was just thanking my lucky stars that this guy came out of nowhere and helped us. "Why?" I wondered why he decided to help us, rather than leaving us behind and to rot there.

The strangest thing happened. "Why?" he asked as a huge grin appeared on his visage. "Because all life is precious, Daryl," this was his reason and as strange as it was, it was as zen as he looked.

Glancing at the ground, the name sounded familiar and it left me perplexed with if this was the same guy Rick told his family about. "Whoever set that trap, they're coming. But I have good news. We do. We have a community not too far from here. Walls, electricity, it's safe. If you'd like to come join us-" Aaron began his little speech.

"I thank you. But I'm on my way somewhere," he rejected our offer. "Fact is, I'm lost, so...if you could tell me where we are," Morgan handed me a map. As I opened it, I instantly recognised the writing on it.

It was the same map that Abraham had left us when he was going to take Eugene with him to DC. The writing on the page, the name, all of it made sense. Morgan, this was the same Morgan that saved Rick. In capitals on the note it said 'SORRY I WAS AN ASSHOLE, COME TO WASHINGTON. THE NEW WORLD'S GONNA NEED RICK GRIMES.'

Recognising it, I looked up and saw Morgan's awaiting expression. "You looking for Rick?" I asked him, he nodded, stunned I knew who he was looking for. "Where we're going is where you need to be," I inform him and as we exchanged looks, he knew. We were with Rick Grimes.


RPOV

Sat in the room, alone, all I could think of was what Kat had told me. Of what Carl told me and that someone in that crowd had been listening. Maybe, if I went the right way about getting my point across, I could redeem myself for my children.

Not hearing the footsteps come up behind me, I heard the voice that pulled me out of my deep deliberation. "Rick," Michonne's soft voice called to me. "You ready?" she asked me.

For once, I didn't know if I was ready. What was to happen, was unpredictable. And I had been keeping a secret from Michonne for far too long. "Carol, Daryl, and me...we worked it out together," I finally thought it was best to bring her in on it.

She deserved the truth, Kat deserved the truth too but Michonne had been the one catching on to us. "Carol took three guns from the armoury. I still have one, she still has one," I revealed to her. "We lied to you because I wasn't sure how you'd take it, what you'd do."

As honest as I got, she still didn't look at me with anger or distrust. Offering her one of the three guns we had stolen, she tossed her jacket onto my bed. "You think I'd try to stop you?" she asked me.

Lowering my hand, she had looked at me like I was insane to think she would go against me. "Well, you did hit me over the head," I reminded her that she still knocked me out with that blow.

"That was for you, not them," she explained her reasoning in doing so.

Now that I knew she was with us, I felt like everything was good again. I had her back and now, there were no more secrets. No more lies.

Getting to my feet, I was a few steps away from her and looking directly into her eyes. "I was afraid you'd talk me out of it. You could've," her, Carl and Kat were the only ones who could talk me out of what I had planned.

Kat had already succeeded, as did Carl. I needed to stop fighting every person I thought was a threat. "We don't need them here. I don't need my sword. I think you can find a way," she was trying to get me to realise we no longer needed to fight.

We were safe here now. "We can find a way," she was including herself into this too. "And if we don't...I'm still with you," her voice was so soft, her eyes so gentle and her expression was relaxed.

"Something's gonna happen. Just don't make something happen," she encouraged me to not be the cause of a disruption. Offering her the gun again, she placed her hand over mine and pushed it down. This was her way of telling me to keep it. "Don't be too long."

Leaving me to my thoughts, Michonne had picked up her jacket and left to get ready for the meeting. Before that, she had a shift to do. As I sat in my room, waiting for the time to come, I took out my machete from my holster and could hear Bob's voice echoing in my head.

His words as clear as day. You're gonna find yourself in a place where it's like how it used to be. And if you let too much go along the way, that's not gonna work. 'Cause you're gonna be back in the real world. He had been so convinced that we would find this place. A place like this.

My own voice had echoed back to me. This is the real world, Bob. How he would of loved to have seen this place. Pacing, I hated waiting. I didn't know what to do with it. Over and over again, all my conversations would repeat but this one stuck in my head, louder than the others.

Bob's voice echoed in my head. Nah, this is a nightmare...and nightmares end. He was right but it still didn't feel like it was real. It all felt like a dream sometimes. We were safe, in a society and I didn't know how to handle it anymore.

Was it too late for me? I didn't know. Would Kat ever forgive me? I didn't know. How was tonight going to end? All of these questions had me geared up for a storm. One I had no control over but would fight if I had to.

Looking out my window, I then noticed something strange and had to double take to make sure I was seeing clearly. The gate was opened. Grabbing my coat and things, I ran towards the gate, checking to see if anyone was spying on us or if something was trying to get in.

Investigating the area, I saw traces of blood and gunky skin stuck to the latch that would of held the door closed. Tossing it, I saw a trail of black blood. A walker was inside. Locking the gate tight, I made sure nothing else could get in and went on the hunt for the walker that had entered.


KPOV

Running swiftly through the forest, I was whizzing past trees, avoiding branches and hurriedly searching for Glenn. For any sign of him or Nicholas. If I found one, I was sure to find the other. Hearing screams, grunts and what could only be described as fists flying and connecting to one another.

I ran faster. Catching up, I saw Nicholas run off into the distance, Glenn had a walker on top of him and two surrounding him, adding onto the pile up he had. Grabbing my bow, an arrow, I shot one, clean into its head, then the other I had used my machete and on the last one that clattered its teeth in front of Glenn's face, I grabbed it by the shoulders and tossed it to lay beside Glenn.

The heel of my boot stomped onto the walker, ending it's desire to hunt and its existence. Panting, I offered Glenn my hand to pull him back to his feet. "You're lucky we heard the gunshot back home," I mentioned as he took my hand.

Pulling him up to his feet, he was panting and clutching onto his shoulder in pain. That was when I noticed Glenn had been shot. "Thanks," he panted out as he tried to cover it from me.

"That asshole shot you?" I asked him, examining his shoulder.

Inspecting it, it went clean through and luckily there were no shrapnel stuck in him. Thankfully, I had carried a little medicaid in one of my many holsters. Taking out some cloth, I began tying it around his shoulder for now.

Glenn was trying to regain his breath as he winced at the pain of having a huge hole inside him. "Yeah...I tried to get him to stop, advised him he wasn't ready and this is the thanks I get for trying to save his life," Glenn wasn't pleased with this outcome and neither was I.

Offering him my machete and gun, he only took my gun. Chasing after Nicholas, Glenn had asked me in which direction I saw him run. Now, we had to go find him and save him before he couldn't get himself out of a situation that he put himself in.


MPOV

Everyone was gathered around the fire, waiting for the meeting to start. Everyone was there but Rick, Glenn, Daryl, Nicholas and Aaron. Carl had strict instructions to stay at home and look after Judith, so the rest were still MIA. "We're going to start," Deanna spoke up.

Maggie looked nervous, like she was waiting for someone and had no idea where they were. She looked worried. "Can we wait? There's still people coming," Maggie pleaded. "Glenn, Rick, Nicholas, Kat, Aaron...Daryl," Maggie had been checking the faces and these were ones she hadn't seen gathered around the fire.

Tucking her hands deeper into her pockets, Deanna clearly didn't care what Maggie had put forward. "We're going to start. It's already dark," she stated that she was going to carry on with the introduction regardless who wasn't there.

"We're going to talk about what happened. Not the fight. Not what precipitated it. We're dealing with that," Deanna began informing the others of what they had under control and what needed to be discussed between everyone.

Not liking how they were going to pin the issue as Rick, I feared what would come thereafter. "We're going to talk about one of our constables, Rick Grimes. We're going to talk about how he had a pistol he stole from the armoury, about how he pointed it at people," Deanna informed everyone of the issues that arose yesterday.

"And we're going to talk about what he said," Deanna had finished with the thing these people would more than likely not understand about him. "I was hoping he'd be here," Deanna actually sounded a little more relieved than disappointed.

Not wanting her to place Rick as a villain, I decided to stick up for him and Maggie. "She said he's coming," I spoke up a little more firmly than I anticipated.

"I'm sure he'll be here," Carol nodded in agreement with me. "And I'm sure we can work this all out," she was acting like the sweet, weak, innocent lady that, those of us that knew her, knew what she was really capable of.


RPOV

Running down the streets, I trailed the blood until it ran cold and that was the moment I felt like I was losing the trail. Until I heard a dog barking, which only gave the walker's whereabouts away. Pulling my knife out from my holster, I followed the sound of the dog's barking and found nothing.

Looking everywhere, I then heard the faintest of shuffles behind me. Turning, I saw the walker approaching. Grabbing at me, I took hold of its throat and struggle against it. Using my knife, I slammed it into its skull.

Surprising me, another walker appeared from the shadows and another followed after him. Pushing one back, I then tossed the other to hit her back against the wall. Rushing up to her, I jammed the knife into the side of her head and got grabbed by the other walker I had pushed.

Forcing me down onto my back as we struggled, he tried to gnaw at me, his drool falling onto my neck as I tilted my head face away from his drool. My hands pushing him away the best I could as it clawed at my jacket and shirt.

Taking my gun, I slowly rose it as close to its head as possible. My hand already made a small hole for me to start digging my whole gun and hand into the base of its jaw. His gurgling got quieter as I kept going until I would reach his brain. Slowly letting me go, he was dying and I was winning with all its blood pouring down my hands.

Reaching a point, my hand could no longer go into his skull, I pulled the trigger and watched as his face lit up, his eyeballs exploded and brains splashed out like chunks of blood. Splattering all over my face, coating me in the guts I had fought dreadfully to end.

Tossing the body to one side, I wiped at my face, removing as much of the blood from my face. Not wanting to get infected before I picked him up and carried him with me to where the meeting would be. If they didn't want to listen, then I would show them what I've been talking to them about.


MPOV

Some had their chance to talk, to put their views across at what kind of man we all thought Rick was. What he was trying to say. It was guess Rick's meaning day and the ones to truly understand him, were myself and those that knew him.

The ones that really knew him.

"And after being out there and then not being how you were out there...it can drive you crazy," I told them briefly of what it was like for me before I found the group. "Rick just wants his family to live. He wants all of you to live," I explained why he said what he said. Why he did what he did.

Everyone looked at me either unsure or convinced that maybe Rick wasn't that bad of a man. "Who he is is who you're gonna be..." I told them, that with time, with his experience and knowledge about the world we actually were living in, they could turn out like him. "If you're lucky."

Those that weren't, would be dead. Or worse. Looking to Deanna, she looked a little annoyed I was getting through to people. Eventually, it was Carol's turn to speak. As she stood up, she clutched her hands tightly together.

Finding the words to say, she finally opened her mouth and began her speech. "Rick Grimes saved my life over and over. There's terrifying people out there. And he rescued me from them," she was making him out to be a hero.

There had been many times Rick was a hero. He wasn't a villain but there were times we all did unspeakable things. "People like me, people like us need people like him. I know what happened last night was scary. And I'm sure he's sorry for that," she tied to settle them.

Giving them the story, like she said. "But maybe we should listen to what he was saying," Carol was encouraging people to listen to Rick for once. The man did know what he was doing but he had done it wrong yesterday.

Next, it was Abraham's turn to speak. "Simply put, there is a vast ocean of shit you people don't know shit about. Rick knows every fine grain of said shit...and then some," were his poetic words that stood out to me from his little speech.

When it was Maggie's turn to talk, she was confident and calm in her words. Taking pride in what she was about to say. "My father respected Rick Grimes. Rick is a father, too," she was clearly speaking on her behalf and on Kat's behalf too.

Wondering where Kat could be, made me worry for her. Something told me that the fact there were so many people missing, wasn't a good sign. "He's a man with a good heart who feels the things he does, the things he has to do," Maggie was speaking with the most respect for Rick.

"And all of us who were together before this place, no matter when we found each other, we're family now," she spoke confidently, looking to each of us before looking around her. Her words were true. We had been through hell and back. Together.

How she spoke, it warmed my heart to see the love we all had for Rick, for our group. For our family. "Rick started that. And you won't stop it. You can't. And you don't want to," Maggie tried to convince them.

"This community, you people...that family...you want to be a part of it, too," she concluded.

Taking a few steps forward, Deanna didn't want to hear any more of this for now. Our group were getting through to them and she didn't like it. I could tell. "Before we hear from anyone else, I-I would like to share something in the spirit of transparency," she began to come forward.

Something told me she had been keeping something in. "Father Gabriel came to see me the day before yesterday and he said our new arrivals...can't be trusted, that they were dangerous, that they would put themselves before this community," she lied.

He had lied. I thought it was hypocritical to believe a man who was in our group. "And not one day later, Rick seemed to demonstrate all the things Father Gabriel said. I had hoped Gabriel would be here tonight," she was being honest this time.

She was disappointed Gabriel hadn't arrived to the meeting. "I don't see him here, Deanna," Jessie was sticking up for Rick the same way we were. "So you're just saying what someone said," it was all here say to us. "Did you tape him?" Jessie wanted the proof of it, not just a rumour.

"He's not here," Maggie was trying to brush over what Deanna said about Gabriel as false.

They were only words. There was no proof and it had all been a lie. "Neither is Rick," Deanna snapped back at Maggie.

Her impatience was growing and Deanna was hating how we were all going against her, defending Rick instead of making him look like a villain. "Excuse me," Maggie pardoned herself as she left the meeting.


KPOV

Sneaking up, we had been tracking him for a while, keeping to the shadows when we notice him finally stop to look out for walkers. Hearing a twig snap, he turned to look to where it came from. It had been Glenn.

Leaping out from our position, Glenn threw a punch at him and we watched as Nicholas fell to the ground. "Is he still breathing?" I asked as I approached, making sure no walkers were around.

"For now, yes," Glenn had glared down at him. This was a dark moment for him, one I'd never seen take over him before.

As we were about to pick him up and drag him back, he started to wake up and blinked back to reality. Instead, Glenn climbed onto him and began punching him. His fist connecting to Nicholas's face repetitively.

Over and over again, his fist would meet Nicholas's face and blood would pour out from every exit it could. Glenn had been gripping tightly onto Nicholas's shirt as he straddled the idiot that thought he was safe out here.

He was staring Nicholas down and I couldn't do anything. I didn't want to do anything. "Noah died because of you," Glenn's voice trembled with anger and sadness. "And I tried to tell you how it is, how it has to be and you try to kill me?" he spoke between yells and little wobbles of his voice.

Nicholas was sobbing, shaking his head, all before Glenn took my gun, took the safety off and pressed it against Nicholas's head. They were breathing heavily, Nicholas was whimpering and I was watching on with tension in my body.

This was unlike Glenn but I understood him. I was angry too. As twisted as it was, Nicholas deserved everything he got after what he did to myself and to Noah. "I was scared. I was scared. I don't belong out here," Nicholas whimpered.

"Shut up," Glenn snarled.

What happened next, was Nicholas chanting like a whimpering child, getting the words stuck in his head. Glenn would repeat for him to shut up. As he yelled at him to shut up, the crying got louder. The words hardly audible.

Nicholas was broken. Glenn held the gun to his head but he couldn't pull the trigger. As I saw his body tremble, Glenn eventually got off Nicholas and cried too. I wasn't going to stop Glenn because part of me didn't want to.

It was Glenn's choice. Not mine. Nicholas wasn't bad but he did bad things unintentionally. As they both cried, I gave them time to recover from the tense moment and helped Glenn to his feet. He groaned as he had, handing me back my gun and I slid it into my holster.


RPOV

Approaching the group of survivors gathered around the fire, at the meeting, I had been carrying the walker corpse with me all the way there. Heavy as he was, I had the proof that no matter what they did, they weren't safe.

This world was ugly, vicious and if they were going to survive, they had to trust me. "I just want to keep my family safe. You know? And I don't even know what that means anymore, but if it means that we've got to get rid of-" I heard Tobin say.

As I dumped the body on the ground, everyone stood up with fear. Women gasped and men looked at me horrified of the monster I dumped in front of them. No one said a word as they looked on and then at me.

Coated in walker guts and blood. It was a sight that must have frightened them but it was something that was real. What I had said...was real. There was a much bigger threat out there than me.


KPOV

Crouching down to a sat up Nicholas, blood was pouring from his mouth and nose from the hits he took. He was expecting me to offer him a hand up, instead I pushed him down by his chest. My hand firm against him, a move I had seen my father do many times before when he was going to talk down to a hostage.

"Don't move," I warned him.

Nicholas was quaking in his boots and I wasn't going to stop him from feeling this fear. From feeling weak and pathetic. Staring directly into his eyes, I could see the fear in his eyes. "You're going to listen to me and you're going to listen closely to every word I say. You got that?" I was trying to keep his attention focused on me.

Focused on my next words that I was going to say to him. "You deserve all that you're feeling right now. Weak, pathetic, afraid. All you can feel is all the lives you helped die. The guilt, a kind of pain you'll have to live with for the rest of your life," I knew I was being hard but he needed to hear me.

His whimpers continued as my voice became as dark as my expression. "You killed Noah...you left Aiden to die. You hurt me in the process of your pathetic escape. You tried to kill Glenn! How many more lives did you leave behind to die?" I asked him. My head tilting and eyes squinting at him.

"T-t-too many," he whimpered through his cries.

I felt ashamed for him. "We could leave you behind. Let you get lost here in the woods at night...get bitten. Or worse. Or we could kill you," now this was a choice of ours he'd remember. "Go back home, make up some story about how you got bit...that it was too late."

My words were menacing, reminding me much of how my father could be when it came to people who were a threat to the ones I cared about. "But that's not who we are. We don't leave anyone behind," I explained.

"We protect our own," I informed Nicholas of the kind of people we were. "That's why Glenn didn't kill you."

He needed to hear this, to get things cleared up. "You need to realise that you, are one of our own now. You need to let go of the past and accept what has to be. You're not ready to be out here," I knew when someone was ready and Nicholas was never ready.

"But we can help you be ready. You have got to get up, go back and trust us in what we know. Because the next time we are out there and you screw up...I will not hesitate. Do you understand?" I wondered if he was still listening.

He continued to quiver in his stance, nodding, he held my gaze and then glanced to the floor in fear. His legs curled up to press against his chest. "Y-yes," he assured me he was still listening.

Nodding, I got to my feet and offered my hand to him. "Do you trust us?" I asked him. He looked up at me with fear but understanding in his eyes. When he took my hand, I helped him up and finally, we could all go back home.

"Let's go," I said as we did our best to guide each other out of the forest with the weapons and little light we had.


CPOV

Babysitting Judith wasn't where I wanted to be but it was where I was needed. Looking after Judith, she would nap, feed and eventually, I figured out a way to entertain her without making too much noise.

We had sat at the table, listening to the music box of the mini Beth I had found for Maggie. Her melodic chimes as she spun on the spot had entertained Judith for as long as she could. Almost like when Beth was alive.

There had been so many we had lost and so many we had gained. I could only hope that when Judith grew up, she'd be as strong as our sister, as smart as our dad and as caring as our mother. She was going to need all those qualities if she was going to survive.

Looking at Judith, I knew she was going to beat this world. With or without us.


KPOV

Dragging Nicholas back to Alexandria, he had his arms around both mine and Glenn's neck. Nicholas had been limping and Glenn was in agony due to the gunshot wound. Myself, I was doing my best to carry them both.

Getting closer, we could see the steel plates surrounding the sides of the walls. We were almost there and I could already feel the weight of them dragging me down. I needed to be stronger. I was almost home and I could only hope Daryl was back, waiting for me.

The closer we got, the more courage I felt, the prouder I was of myself. Hopefully, I had redeemed my father if he hadn't redeemed himself. I could only hope we still had a home when I got back.


RPOV

Panting, I could see all the judging looks they gave me. Like I might have brought this in just to scare everyone. Like I was a kind of mad man. "There wasn't a guard on the gate. It was open," I explained how it got inside.

"I asked Gabriel to close it," Spencer was shocked to find out that Gabriel hadn't locked it right.

Hearing this, it made Deanna angry and unsettled by the fact these monsters got inside somehow. "Go," she ordered her son to leave.

When Spencer ran off, I knew I needed to explain myself further. "I didn't bring it in. It got inside on its own. They always will-" I informed them, trying to get them to listen, like Carl and Kat encouraged me to do.

"The dead and the living, because we're in here. And the ones out there...they'll hunt us," I tried to give them an idea of what kind of world we were living in.

This world was horrific and violent. It was greedy. "They'll find us. They'll try to use us. They'll try to kill us. But we'll kill them. We'll survive. I'll show you how," I tried to give them the confidence they needed to know that they could survive. "You know, I was thinking...I was thinking how many of you do I have to kill to save your lives?"

Being honest with them, startled them a little. "But I'm not gonna do that. You're gonna change. I'm not sorry for what I said last night," I wasn't going to apologise for the truth. "I'm sorry for not saying it sooner," this was my apology. "You're not ready, but you have to be. Right now, you have to be. Luck runs out."

Luck will run out for all of us eventually. Footsteps were fast approaching. "You're not one of us. You're not one of us!" Pete was yelling at me as he approached us with Michonne's sword in his hands.

Reg had tried to calm Pete down, to bring him away from me and from trying to do me harm. As Reg and Pete argued over what needed to be done, Deanna was trying to bring Reg away from Pete. The man was armed and dangerous.

Instinctively, my hand went for my gun and I was about to pull it out and kill him. Before he could kill anyone, especially Reg who was putting himself in harms way for me. "Not now," I heard Carol whisper to me.

The events that happened thereafter were too fast and a shock for us all. As Reg and Pete struggled, Pete rose his arm and slashed Reg across his throat. Gurgling as blood poured out from the slit in his throat, Reg tumbled to the ground and into Deanna's arms.

Instantly, Abraham had tackled Pete to the ground, disarming him and keeping him from hurting anyone else. Pete tried to claim the one to blame was me. Glancing between Pete, the walker I had dumped on the ground and Reg dying on the floor.

I knew what needed to be done. As Reg died in his sobbing wife's arms, she had held onto his throat and cried. Pete struggled under Abraham to get free of his grip. I had looked to Deanna who slowly looked up at me.

Now, she had realised her luck had ran out. The way they had been living, it didn't work. First she lost her son, now she had lost her husband due to the choices she hadn't made before. "Rick..." Deanna whimpered up at me. "do it," this time her voice was firm.

Without hesitation, I took out my gun, aimed it Pete's head and took the shot. A scream could be heard but all I saw was red. Nothing else mattered, other than taking the life of someone who didn't deserve to be alive.

"Rick?" hearing a voice I hadn't heard in a long time, my head turned up to see a timid, horrified Morgan staring back at me.

For a second, I had thought it was just another voice in my head. Then it was just another apparition. Until I finally noticed Daryl and Aaron at either side of him.

Morgan was back and he had just witnessed me kill a guy...


MPOV

After everything that happened tonight, I decided to go back to the house and put away my sword. Leaving Rick to discuss with Morgan their pasts. I needed to be alone for a while. I needed to clean up the mess that had been made.

Wiping at my sword, trying to get the blood out from it, I hated this part of the routine today. Reg's blood had stained my steel and it was my fault. I had left it untended and it fell into the wrong hands. Approaching the mantle I had made, I had gone to put my sword up on the wall but my hand shook.

My sword. It took a life without my doing. This sword was my responsibility. That life it took, was now my burden and I needed to make sure no one ever used it again. It was my sword. I must wield it.

It already took one life, I wasn't going to allow it to take another. I only trusted myself with it.


Author's Note: Hello! Long time no see! This has all been pre-written over a year ago around the beginning. Only yesterday I had been finishing the chapter. So apologies for any mistakes! I had said I was having technical difficulties to write these chapters but seeing as it is spooky season...The Walking Dead season. It is finally time to bring this story back to its glory.

Hopefully, the way I write lately is more improved than before. Hopefully, you enjoy my new style of writing. No more huge chunky paragraphs, I hope.

Either way, I have more or less began piecing together the next few chapters and seasons. Slowly, as there are some issues I will be dealing with. Cough. Cough. Carl. Rick. Cough. Cough.

I think I have an idea what I can do with this story. If not, I hope you can still stick around when these rocky moments appear. I am planning on doing an alternate continuation of this story, for those of you who don't want to stick with the show version. The alternate will have influences from the comic book but still mostly follow the show because...Daryl. And I can see some situations being the same, as it can help characters grow to their full potential. Cough. Cough. Rick. Cough. Cough.

If you wish to discuss this with me, you can always PM me. Let's try and get five reviews for this chapter to get the story back on track. Anyway. Thank you for reading!

Questions for this chapter:

1) What were your thoughts on this chapter?

2) Did you like the slight change in writing style towards the middle?

3) Do you think Kat was being a little too harsh on Rick?

4) Favourite moment?

5) What did you think about Kat going dark on Nicholas? (had fun writing that part. Made me imagine her as a dark Rick taking control for once her own way)

Much love,

HeroJustInTime90.