RPOV

Carl and Michonne sat in front of our little fire, our camp small and surround by rope with tin on them to alert us if walkers pressed against it to get in. It was the best we could do with the options we had.

I moved to join them, crouching in between them. "How hungry are you?" I asked. "Scale of one to ten?"

"Fifteen." Carl answered

"Twenty eight." Michonne added.

I gave a little grin. "Yeah, well. It's been a while. I'm gonna go check the snares." I told them as I stood.

Carl looked up at me. "Can I go with you?"

Giving a little shrug and smile, I answered. "How else are you gonna learn?" kicking some sand on to the fire to extinguish it I looked to Michonne. "Hey, you, too." I grabbed my gun and bag before we started walking. "We'll stay another day or two. Get some more rest."

"Finish healing up?" Michonne suggest.

Nodding we kept walking. "I'm almost there."

Carl sighed. "We're close now, right?"

"To Terminus?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Yeah."

"We are."

"When we get there, are we gonna tell them?"

Michonne and I turned to him. "Tell them what?" Michonne asked.

"Everything that's happened to us. All the stuff we've done. Are we gonna tell them the truth?"

There was a silence that fell between us for a moment as I thought about how to answer his question. It wasn't like we could tell them everything. If people knew of the things we'd done, they'd never let us in. Heck, I wouldn't even let people in if I found out they'd done things like we had...

But it wasn't like I could tell that to Carl. He wouldn't completely understand.

"We're gonna tell them who we are." I answered simply.

"But how do you say that? I mean... Who are we?"

We looked up at the sound of snarling, a walker moving towards us. Lifting our guns, Michonne grabbing her sword, we moved towards the walker, ready to get rid of it a move on as fast as possible.

CPOV

Dad led us towards the trap, moving a little faster once he saw it. "There you go." he knelt down by it. "It's a small one." he noted, grabbing the rabbit and taking it out of the trap. "It'll do." he shoved it in the bag before showing Michonne and I the trap. "So, this is just a simple slipknot." he grabbed the string. "Tie one on both ends, then you tighten one side to a branch. Now you see how the ground here is sort of like a funnel shape?"

I looked to where he gestured. "It's a trail?"

He nodded. "That's right. That's where you want to set the noose. So you hide it with leaves, then you put sticks all around it, so any animals going by have to run this way right into the trap." he put his hand in the loop and pulled.

"Help! Somebody help!"

I looked up, hearing someone yell out. Without hesitating, I started to run, following their voice.

"Carl." dad reached for me, but I moved to fast. "Carl, stop!"

"Get back!" the person screamed.

"Carl!" I could hear dad behind me, him and Michonne following.

"Help! Get away! Get back! Help! Somebody help! Help me!"

I came to a clearing, the man in middle of it all with a small herd of walkers circling him, getting closer and closer.

I raised my gun ready to shoot the walkers to help the guy.

"Get away! No!" he screamed

Suddenly I was grabbed from behind, dad pulling me back to hide us behind a tree. "We can't help him." he told me.

Straining my neck, I looked around the tree only to see the walkers grab the man, one of them bite on his face, rip flesh off as blood poured out of the wound. He screamed and fell to the ground, the rest of the walkers falling down with him as they started to rip him apart.

"No! No! No!" he screamed.

A walker stood, noticing us as we stayed behind the tree, before moving in our direction.

"We got to go." Michonne whisper.

Hesitating a moment dad kept a hold of me before we moved, rushing through the trees as a few more walkers started to follow us.

We ran, moving through the trees, trying to keep away from the walkers as they followed us. Panting hard and fast, I just kept my eyes forward, thinking of getting out of here alive and nothing more.

We kept moving, staying together, running as fast as we could until we came to the edge of the woods. More tracks were a head of us, so we moved to them before following their path, still running as the walkers continued to follow us.

Gun now at the ready, in my hand, I stayed with dad and Michonne.

Dad stopped.

Looking past him I could see more walkers ahead on the tracks, eating someone. Grabbing his gun, dad moved forward. Michonne followed, with her sword in hand. I was close behind, just as ready as they were. It was time to fight. To survive.

...

We walked along the road, the walkers now gone seeing as we had dealt with them. Now we were on a different mission. Find food and a place to sleep.

"Thought maybe there'd be some houses down this way. Maybe even a store. There's got to be some food around here somewhere." Michonne sighed.

"Hey look." I pointed to the abandoned car just up ahead.

It wasn't a house or anything like that and it wasn't going to be very comfortable. But it he walls and a roof. It would be safer than sleeping outside, out in the open where anyone or anything could find us.

Grabbing my gun, ready just in case, we moved towards it.

VPOV

I laughed as Aly played leap frog with Houdini, trying to jump over him as best as she could before ducking, only to have Houdini moved around her and stop. He'd wait and let her jump over him again, repeating the cycle.

He made her so happy and it warmed my heart.

I thought of the future. Food was already hard to find, and hunting wasn't an option at times. I thought about the group. What if we all found each other and then couldn't find food. Would people want to eat Houdini?

I would never allow it. Not when he made Aly so happy. So loved him so much and he loved her. And I loved the fact that they were both in my lives. I knew if they weren't with me, even back at the prison, I wouldn't be the way I was now.

I was soft and caring, but hard and tough when I needed to be. She made me someone I wanted to be, not something I had to be. In a world like this, that meant a lot.

"Vickie." she turned to me. "You think we'll be there soon?"

We'd been walking for a while, last night we'd stopped for only a few hours before moving on. I couldn't afford to stop when we were so close to sanctuary.

Nodding, I gave her a little smile. "Shouldn't be long now." I looked up at the sky, seeing it would be dark soon. One more night, and by tomorrow afternoon we should be there.

RPOV

Carl was asleep in the car. After having that small rabbit, sharing it amongst all three of us, it had been at least enough to help him get to sleep. Michonne and I still sat outside though, by fire where it was warm. The night sky was above us, buzzing around bugs, the cool air on our backs. It was actually quite nice.

"That was one small rabbit." I noted, making conversation.

"It was something. Got to hand it to the thing. It travelled well." Michonne smiled.

I gave a little chuckle, looking down at the fire. "Have you noticed that's all we talk about any more? Food." I sighed. "I forgot what this feels like."

"Me, too. I hope we're able to forget again soon."

I nodded. "We're close. Just got to make it through another day." I told her, killing the fire by dragging dirt on to it with my foot. "If folks there are taking people in, they have to be strong. They have to have a system."

"I wonder if the whole thing's legit."

A twig snapped.

Michonne turned as she grabbed her sword. Standing, I pulled out my gun, both of us staying quiet as me looked around, listening, waiting.

When there was nothing I sat again, relaxing a little. "We let people in."

"We did. So did the Governor." she noted.

"Yeah, it's always the same, isn't it? Don't get to know until we know."

"Hmm."

"Maybe this place isn't even there anymore..."

A gun was suddenly pressed against my head. "Oh, dearie me."

Michonne reached for her sword, only to have someone else come out of nowhere and kick it away as he aimed his gun at her, other's coming out of the bushes with more weapons.

"You screwed up, asshole." the guy pressing a gun to my head spoke. "You hear me? You screwed up." he leaned closer to my ear. "Today is a day of reckoning, sir. Restitution. A balancing of the whole damn universe."

A guy moved to the car looking at Carl as he put a knife to the window.

"Shit, and I was thinking of turning in for the night on New Year's Eve!" the leader next to me laughed. "Now who's gonna count the ball dropper with me, huh? Ten Mississippi. Nine Mississippi. Eight Mississippi-"

"Joe!"

Daryl came out of the shadows, cutting the leader of as he looked to Michonne and me.

Vickie came to my mind for a second as hope filled me at the thought of my daughter being safe. Because there was no doubt in my mind she'd be with Daryl

But then realisation hit me, along with fear, dread and confusion. Because I knew Daryl wouldn't be with people like this if he was with Vickie. And I knew these guys weren't going to listen to anything we said, they were going to kill us if we did nothing. I just had no idea why Daryl was with them...

"Hold up." Daryl looked to the leader again.

"You're stopping me on eight, Daryl."

He walked forward. "Just hold up."

One of the other guys wasn't having any of it. He wanted us dead. "This is the guy that killed Lou, so we got nothing to talk about."

But the leader was ready to give Daryl a moment to explain, which had me hoping things would end up okay... "The thing about nowadays is we got nothing but time. Say your piece, Daryl."

"These people, you're gonna let them go." Daryl gestured to us. "These are good people."

The leader spoke up. "Now I think Lou would disagree with you on that. I'll of course, have to speak for him and all, 'cause your friends here strangled him in a bathroom."

"You want blood. I get it." Daryl dropped his crossbow before raising his hands. "Take it from me, man. Come on."

"This man killed our friend. You say he's good people. See, now that right there i-i-is a lie!" the leader yelled before Daryl's hands dropped, his face telling me he knew something we didn't and it wasn't good. "It's a lie!"

Daryl shook his head. "Come on-"

The others ganged up on him, one of them punching him in the stomach, knocking the air out of Daryl.

"No!" I went to get up, only to have the gun pressed against my head harder.

The men moved Daryl away, towards the car as they started to beat him up.

"Teach him, fellas." the leader called. "Teach him all the way."

The car door opened as the guy standing by it dragged Carl out. Carl squirmed, and struggled, knowing he was in danger.

"You leave him be!" I order, trying to get up again, ready to defend my son. But I was pushed down, the gun still on my temple.

The man holding Carl pressed his knife against Carl's neck, grinning against his ear. Carl cried, struggling, but couldn't get free.

Michonne turned, but the other man still had his gun aimed at her. She couldn't move. "You'll get yours. You just wait your turn." he told her.

"Listen, it was me. It was just me."

The leader nodded, leaning over me. "See, now that's right. That's not some damn lie. Look, we can settle this. We're reasonable men. First, we're gonna beat Daryl to death. Then we'll have the girl. Then the boy. Then I'm gonna shoot you, and then we'll be square." he laughed.

I could feel myself filling with rage as I watched the scene before me. This was my family. I had failed Judith. I had failed Vickie. I was not going to fail Carl. It was my job to protect him. To make sure he survived. It was my duty. My responsibility.

The man pushed Carl to the ground, getting on top of him.

"Let him go." I told him, anger building.

"Stop your squirmin'." he laughed at Carl, grabbing and holding him.

"Let him go." I repeated, watching as Carl whimpered, the man still laughing.

I pulled my head back, smacking it into the leader's face, his gun going off in my ear which started to ring. I shook my head, trying to gather myself as fast as I could, getting up as the world spun.

I spin around, swinging my fist into the leader's jaw.

He recovered, elbowing me in the face and knocking me to the ground. "I got him. Oh, it's gonna be so much worse now." he kicked me.

I could hear Carl background in the background, struggling and whimpering, crying and loosing hope. I looked up, seeing the others still beating Daryl.

Daryl beat up.

"Come on! Get up!" the leader kicked me. "Come on! Let's see what you got."

The guy above Carl started undoing his own belt.

That was it. I started to pull myself up off the ground. "Leave him be!" I yelled.

The leader grabbed me. "Right over here." holding me in place, arms wrapped around me tightly, he looked into my face. "What the hell are you gonna do now, sport?"

There was only one thing I could do. Protect my family no matter what. I had no choice. I had to become the monster I'd been trying so hard to bury inside of me, for my family, friends and myself. But now, it was the only thing that would help.

I lunged forward, my teeth burying into his neck as I bit a chunk off, ripping it away from the rest of him and spitting it out on the ground, blood squirting out of the wound as the guy's eyes went wide, his body falling to the ground. The sound of him choking on his own blood slowing stopping.

Everyone and everything stop as they all watched, the men scared.

Michonne moved fast, grabbing the gun of the guy in front of her and turning it to point at his head before pulling the trigger. All the while Daryl took advantage of the guys being distracted before grabbing one of them and smashing their face against the car. Reaching for his crossbow he used it to smash the other guy in the head. Michonne turned to them, shooting the men before they could get back up.

That left one more.

He held his knife against Carl's neck, standing once more. "I'll kill him. I'll kill him!"

"Let the boy go." Michonne told him.

I leaned down, grabbing the leader's knife before standing again. "He's mine." I told her, moving towards the man.

He let Carl go. "Stay back. Please..." he begged, hands up.

I didn't even think, just grabbed him before stabbing the knife into his stomach. He screamed, looking at me with wide eyes. Keeping eye contact and the knife inside him, I dragged the blade up, ripping his skin and insides and I sliced towards his chest. Once I got to the bones and couldn't move anymore I pulled the blade out, stabbing him over and over again.

BaMbY