Katelyn and Sara sat on the wrestling mats that had been placed on the floor for the kids to play on. Enclosed in a makeshift barrier, they created a "daycare" area for all of the children that had been rescued. From infant to 14, they were to stay in that area where a few adults were assigned to take care of them. It was hard to keep them occupied all day, so Katelyn came up with the idea to grab curriculum from the school they were house in and set up a small school.
Katelyn, Sara, and the three other adults that helped, spent a week putting together ideas. They created a structure with a schedule so they could add some predictability to the lives of these poor children. When Jackson heard about what they'd done, he was impressed. He hadn't had time to help out in a meaningful way and was very appreciative that they'd taken the initiative and gave those children a sense of normalcy once again.
Dividing the children up into lower elementary, upper elementary, and junior high created three teaching groups where they were able to teach the children useful things, but Katelyn knew this was all for nothing if they didn't know how to survive so she asked Daryl if he would come help with teaching some of the things she couldn't.
Daryl and Carl stood in front of the whole group of kids, staring at them blankly after one of the 8 year old boys asked him a particularly gruesome question that caused gasps of horror from some of the other children…especially the girls.
"Do you kill animals and eat them? What do you do with the guts?" Daniel asked, grinning from ear to ear.
Rick, Katelyn, and Jackson stood on the sidelines chuckling as they watched him freeze in front of the kids.
Katelyn rescued him.
"Daniel. Let's not try to be disgusting. We're talking about how to identify plants that you can eat." Katelyn said, redirecting the youngster toward the topic and pointing at the pictures of the plants to get them thinking about something else.
Daryl and Carl, who stood beside him, helping with the lesson, smirked.
Daniel reminded Daryl of himself when he was young.
"I've seen those before!" A 9 year old girl named Kristen called out, pointing at the wild raspberry plant.
"Yeah? Where?" Daryl asked, hoping they were close by. He was sick of MRE's.
"On the edge of the playground at my school." She answered.
"Where are you from?" Daryl countered.
"Brush." She answered, smiling at Daryl.
"It's a ways away from here." Jackson supplied, smiling at Kristen.
Daryl harrumphed disappointedly.
"All right. Tomorrow we're going to talk about safety and what to do if you see a walker." Katelyn said, nodding at Daryl since she'd roped him into a three-day gig.
He appeared downright miserable, but she knew that secretly, he loved it.
The kids didn't realize he was a notorious curmudgeon so they climbed all over him, asked him all sorts of questions and the boys all wanted to see his crossbow. Daryl tolerated the attention, even allowing himself to get pulled into a game of tag.
When it was over, Katelyn kissed Daryl and thanked him.
"Thank you." She said sweetly, smiling at him broadly when the kids all started "ooh-ing and ah-ing."
Daryl actually blushed.
"I'll see you in a little bit. We're meeting with Reese to go over some stuff." He said, hugging her gently.
Katelyn frowned with worry.
"What's going on?" She asked quietly.
"I'll talk to you about it tonight. K?" He said, kissing her on the forehead, but Kate could tell that something was going on.
She nodded and watched him walk away, a feeling of dread in her heart.
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"Thank you for coming." Major Reese and three other commanders stood inside the administration's conference room as Rick, Daryl, Andrea, Maggie, Glenn and Tyreese entered the room. They could tell immediately that this wasn't going to be good.
Rick and the others sat, as Daryl leaned against the wall in the corner. He didn't like sitting. It made him fidgety….especially when he wasn't going to like what he heard.
"I want to thank you all for the information you've given us. It's incredibly helpful." Major Reese started with the compliment, trying to ease them into the conversation.
"Just cut to the chase." Daryl snapped, irritated that they were blowing smoke up their asses.
Major Reese chuckled wryly.
"All right. Here's the deal. You guys have a lot more experience out there in the field than most of my troops. You've fought walkers and humans with teeth and claws and managed to survive…and protect those you care about." Jackson said.
"Not all of them. We've lost a lot of people we cared about." Glenn said, thinking about Dale and Lori, and all of the others.
"I know you have, but you're here, and we need you. We need your help." Major Reese stated honestly.
"With what?" Daryl asked, wondering what he was getting at.
"With Breed." Jackson stated.
Daryl sighed, looking at the others to gauge their reactions.
"What is it you think we can do that you can't?" Rick asked, voicing the question that all of them had.
"We have firepower and manpower, but not experience. He's spread out, not unified which means we're useless against him to some extent. We could spend years chasing one or two of them around but never really put a dent in his army." He explained, leading up to the real mission.
"So what do you want us to do?" Daryl asked, his eyes narrowing.
"We want you to take him out. Kill him. Cut the head off the snake." Jackson stated, his tone flat with no affect. He knew what he was asking, but in the world they were left with, this was the most expedient and safest way to deal with him.
Daryl exhaled, looking at Rick.
"We don't have approval for an operation to move against Breed. He's just not a priority to the higher ups, but those of us around here have seen the devastation he causes and we've all agreed and are willing to take the reprimand if it comes our way." Jackson explained.
Rick didn't answer right away. He looked around at his group to try to see what they were thinking.
No one moved.
"We'll need to talk about it." Rick stated, looking back at Jackson.
"Of course." He replied, nodding at Rick who was obviously their leader. He could tell that they all trusted and respected him. He'd been surprised to find out that Rick was once a small town sheriff's deputy but it suited him. He had that honest, country-boy demeanor and an earnestness that Jackson appreciated.
He hated putting them in danger once again, but Breed needed to be stopped. He knew there would be lots of cleanup missions following his death. As far as he could tell, there were 18 missing girls, but he knew there were a lot more. He had some information that led him to believe that he had a farm somewhere where he kept them all, like a harim, that he used to keep his gang happy. It disgusted him and he couldn't sleep knowing that they were out there and he wasn't doing a damn thing to help them.
Rick stood, and the others followed. Nodding to Jackson, they all left the room, returning to their tent.
Major Reese looked at his commanders and sighed.
"Do you think they'll do it?" Lt. Pete asked.
"Yeah. I think they will. They've all lost people, either to the walkers, or to evil men. Andrea told me about a guy called The Governor that sounds similar to Breed, though not as nasty as him. They're just not the types to sit back and let evil happen. They know what's at stake for those girls." Jackson explained, watching them walk down the hallway.
"I hope you're right." Lt. Pete said.
"Me too." Jackson said.
Me too.