Michonne stalked the campground, checking every nook and cranny to make sure they were alone. Using the binoculars, she could see a couple of houses in the distance but nothing else but trees and the cold windy plains for miles. She didn't like this area, it provided very little ability to escape and hide.
Moving back down the road, she saw the college kids dragging wood behind them and approached.
"Oh hey!" Julia called out. The "swordwoman" as they liked to call her, made them nervous. She never smiled, had no problem staring at them, and didn't speak much.
Michonne nodded at them, sheathing her katana in order to grab ahold of some of the wood they were dragging. Marching back to camp with them, she tossed the wood into the pile before going to find Rick.
"I don't think this is a good place to stay. No cover." Michonne said tightly.
"I'm a little nervous about moving the group with Breed's gang out there. They've had enough time to send word and return to the area and we're only 30 miles away." Rick explained.
"Exactly. We're 30 miles away. We need to put some distance between us." Michonne reasoned with him.
Rick sighed, looking over at Tyreese who was walking their way.
"What d'you think Tyreese? Should we move? We could always head north and then west, but we're going out of our way." Rick asked.
"I think she's right about the lack of cover. This isn't a great place for a possible escape." He confirmed.
Rick nodded.
"All right. Let's gather everyone together." Rick said, looking around at the campers.
It only took a few minutes to gather everyone.
"We're a little worried about our lack of cover but we can't head back south cause Breed might be there, so we're thinkin' to head north a bit, then travel back west. What d'ya think?" Rick asked, looking around to each member of the group.
The college kids stood back a ways, but listened.
"I think Rick's right. This isn't a good place to stay." Andrea agreed.
Katelyn stayed quiet, her heart pounding at the thought of moving farther away from Daryl. Taking deep breaths, she tried to calm herself but tears sprang to her eyes.
Sometimes it was hard to keep hope alive and every day she felt it getting farther and farther away. Turning away from the group, she ducked back into the tent and buried her face in her pillow so no one would hear her, but everyone saw.
Andrea sighed, looking at Rick and Hershel, before starting to clean up camp. Carol headed for the tent to try to talk to Katelyn.
"I'm sorry Katelyn." Carol said softly.
"I should've stayed so he could find me. He has no idea where we are. He could be anywhere. What if I never find him again?" Katelyn crumpled onto the bed, sobbing.
Carol rushed over to sit down next to her and put her arm around her.
"Daryl Dixon is the best tracker in the country. He'll find you." Carol assured her, even though she knew how slim the chances of that were. She was worried about Kate and the baby.
Katelyn couldn't keep it together, however, and just laid down, pulling the blanket over her and cried. Carol sighed, knowing there was nothing she could do, and began packing everything within the tent.
After folding the last thing and putting it in the bag, she nudged Katelyn gently.
"Come on sweetheart. We gotta take the tent down. Rick's got a spot for you outside." Carol prompted.
Kate opened her eyes and looked up at Carol sadly.
She knew what she had to do.
Getting up, she folded her fleece sleeve and rolled up her sleeping bag. Grabbing her boots, she laced them up and put them on, before heading out of the tent.
Carol frowned as she noticed the strange look on Kate's face and followed her out.
Katelyn walked over to Rick and sat down, watching everyone packing up the cars. Rick glanced over at her and paused.
She didn't look right.
Walking over to her, he squatted down in front of her.
"You okay?" He asked gently, knowing she'd been crying.
Katelyn looked Rick in the eyes.
"I'm not going with." She stated.
Rick frowned. That wasn't what he'd expected her to say.
"Honey, you gotta come with. You can't be out there on your own." He tried to reason with her.
"The farther we go off the interstate, the less chance Daryl has of finding us." She nearly shouted, her panic over never seeing him again sinking in.
Rick exhaled.
"We just don't have a choice, sweetheart. We can't risk Breed and his gang finding us so we've gotta get off the interstate." Rick explained.
"I don't care!" She shouted, looking Rick in the eyes, her face filled with fury.
At this point, Andrea and the others stopped what they were doing to listen to the drama unfold. It made them all sad. They knew exactly what was going on and there was nothing they could do to stop it. They'd seen the grief and desperation in Rick when Lori died and knew that look well. Carol stood watching with her hands covering her face in horror.
"I know you think you don't, but right now, you gotta think about your baby…Daryl's baby. If something happened to you, he'd never forgive himself, would he? You don't want him having to live with that." At this point, he'd use a little emotional blackmail if it would get her in the car. He knew she wasn't rational and he recognized the look in her eyes as one that stared him back in the mirror every morning, but he wasn't gonna let her jeopardize her safety.
"We can leave another note here for him so if he finds it, he'll know you were here." Rick told her, hoping it would be enough.
But Katelyn shook her head, her eyes wide with pain and rebellion.
Rick hung his head and sighed. He really didn't want to have to manhandle her to get her into the car, but he would if he had to. He looked up as Tyreese started slowly walking toward them. Andrea's gaze fell on him and she realized this was about to get ugly. She remembered when Rick tried to get her to bury her sister and she'd pulled the gun on him. She knew his intentions were pure, but she couldn't help but feel for Katelyn.
Rick stood, motioning for everyone to finish loading up. He wasn't going to force her into the car until everyone was ready to go. Moving away from her a little bit, he directed Carl to load the tents into the SUV's.
Andrea motioned with her head that she wanted to talk to Rick so he followed.
"You gonna force her to go?" Andrea asked, looking at Rick intensely.
"You don't think I should?" He asked.
Andrea took a deep breath.
"Yeah. In this case I do. She's not thinking straight, but maybe a few of us should go and look for signs of Daryl." Andrea offered.
"We can't risk it yet. Once we're settled, we can go back. He knows we'd be coming up through Kansas so he's bound to be covering our trail…if…and it's a big if…Daryl Dixon ever came back to the prison." Rick said quietly not wanting Katelyn to overhear.
"He did. He was gone over her." Andrea stated confidently.
"You sure?" Rick asked.
"Yeah. There's no way that boy'd leave her out there in the world alone. It'd drive him insane." Andrea chuckled at the thought of Daryl Dixon in love.
Rick nodded. It wasn't that he doubted, it was just that the world had gone nuts and he needed a little affirmation.
"We head to Limon and find a place to hole up there. Once we're settled, we can start poking around the interstate lookin' for 'im. We gotta figure out a secret message we can leave on the interstate that Breed won't understand." Rick said, making a plan in his head.
"We'll work on it. It'll keep Kate busy and maybe even give her some hope." Andrea said, looking at Katelyn.
"What about the college kids?" Andrea asked as an afterthought.
"We invited 'em. They said they're thinking 'bout it." Rick stated
Andrea nodded and went back to packing.