A/N: All right! So this chapter takes a bit of a left turn in terms of what ends up happening at Terminus. And as Kam mentioned, since I have no idea what's gonna happen in S5, I can do whatever I want now, yayyy! Bless you guys for reviewing the last chapter. Like, you never fail to make me smile, blush, cry, nod in agreement, etc. It is so very much appreciated! But I'll shut up now so you can get to reading and I can get to where I really wanna go! -Ash

6: terminus

On the outside, Terminus really did seem like it could be the answer to all their problems. It was clean, protected by fences, there was greenery surrounding it, and someone even standing at a grill, cooking. For all intents and purposes, it looked a lot like the prison. There weren't a lot of people roaming, but they chalked that up to the fact that it was still somewhat early.

"What do you think?" Rick asked Daryl, eyeing a young woman that had just retreated from a building. She was carrying blankets and a knife. Nothing particularly odd there.

"I think we gotta go in and see what they say, see how it feels. Ain't gonna find out much just by watchin'."

He looked back to Michonne, who was sharing their last bit of water with Carl. He knew she needed to eat. She'd already suffered through her daily round of morning sickness and knew her stomach had to be empty. "What do you think about us two goin' in ahead?" he asked her. "You and Carl can stay here, and if we don't-."

"I don't like it," Carl interrupted forcefully. Now that they'd found Daryl, the last thing he wanted to do was split up again. "We should stick together, Dad."

"He's right," she agreed. There would be nothing she could do if he was in there and she was out there. She didn't like the idea of that at all. "We go in there together. And if we die in there together, so be it."

"Ain't nobody dyin' today," Daryl retorted confidently. He hoisted his crossbow on his shoulder and gave the three of them a nod. "Let's go."

The four of them made their way over the fences and into what looked to the be the main building within a matter of minutes. There was a small group of young people that appeared to be working on maps, while an older woman sat solitarily at a desk, speaking into a microphone. At first glance, it all looked like some sort of tech startup.

Having gone unnoticed, Rick was the first to announce their presence. "Hello."

Everyone in the room turned to the voice, but a young man, no more than in his late twenties, asserted himself as the leader. "Well, I bet Albert is on perimeter watch," he noted sarcastically. He then looked at Rick and his group. "You here to rob us?"

"No," Rick returned genuinely. "We wanted to see you before you saw us."

"Makes sense." The young man got up and made his way towards the four of them as he spoke. "Usually we do this where the tracks meet. Welcome to Terminus," he proclaimed. "I'm Gareth." He glanced at each of them, taking notice of their bumps and bruises. They were obviously tired. "Looks like you've been on the road for a good bit."

"We have," he confirmed. "I'm Rick. That's Carl. Daryl. Michonne."

Gareth waved awkwardly, noting how stoic the four of them were. "You're nervous, I get it. We were all the same way." He seemed more like a party host than the leader of a survivalist group. "We came here for sanctuary. That what you here for?"

Rick eyed the guy, wondering how this buoyant young man had managed to become the one in charge. He already didn't really trust him, but he answered his question anyway. "Yes."

"Good. You found it." He called over another young man and explained that this wasn't how they usually did things. "This isn't as pretty as the front. We got nothing to hide, but the welcome wagon is a whole lot nicer."

Michonne zeroed in on his statement and glanced over to Rick to see if he was as wary as she was. Her philosophy was that people with nothing to hide didn't usually feel the need to say so. She really hoped Rick was at least a little skeptical at that point.

"Alex will take you, ask you a few questions," Gareth went on to say. "But first, we need to see everyone's weapons. If you could just lay them down in front of you."

They hesitantly did as told, going through the rigmarole of being frisked by Gareth's little friend. They were pleasantly surprised to be given their weapons back, however, and Rick wasn't sure what to make of this place.

They continued outside, where Alex spoke briefly with Daryl and Michonne, but Rick was careful to observe their surroundings closely. The whole place was still eerily empty until they arrived at the grill, where a few others dotted the patio area, eating what he presumed to be breakfast. The older woman they'd seen earlier greeted them with food, but Rick's mind instantly went haywire as he took in the scene.

A young man had just taken a seat with an orange backpack. Orange bag. That bag looks mighty familiar. Looks like the bag we picked up on the road back from King County. Carl had it for a while. Why is it here?

Another guy appeared near the grill, dressed head to toe in tactical riot gear over his regular clothing. Riot gear. Glenn's riot gear. Glenn's riot gear plus the orange bag. Someone from the prison is here. Glenn's here.

Sitting a few feet away, a young lady was wrapped in a shawl as she pushed meat around her plate with a fork. The poncho. Daryl's poncho. Maggie had been wearing that thing for months. Maggie's here. Glenn's here.

Or they were.

He wasn't sure what to do with all the information he'd collected in a very small amount of time. He was jumping to a lot of conclusions, and needed time to think through them all and formulate a plan. And he probably would've done exactly that if he hadn't spotted Hershel's watch. The watch he'd given to Glenn back when they were still at the farm. There was no doubt in his mind some foul shit had gone down, because there was no way in hell Glenn would've given that up without a fight. Rick was done playing games.

He knocked the plate that was being offered to him from Alex's hands, grabbed the watch, and pulled his new adversary into a headlock, holding him at gunpoint. "Where the hell'd you get this watch?" he demanded.

Daryl, Michonne, and Carl all sprung into action, their weapons locked and loaded on the surrounding people without a second thought. A sniper appeared out of virtually nowhere, as well as several other Termites, brandishing guns.

Rick knew the place had been too quiet, that there would be others lurking in the shadows. But he didn't care, he wanted answers. "Where the hell did you get this watch?"

"You want answers? You want anything else? You get 'em when you put down the gun," Alex returned shakily.

"I see your man on roof with the sniper rifle. How good's his aim?" Rick threatened. "Where'd you get the watch?" His hostage remained silent, and his patience was getting extremely low as a result. "Where'd you get the watch!" he yelled.

"Don't do anything," Alex called out to the sniper. "I have this! Just put it down!" He then went back to trying to reason with Rick. "You wanna listen to me. There's a lot of us."

Rick didn't give a damn. "Where. did you get. the watch."

"I got it off of a dead one. I didn't think he'd need it."

He nodded, knowing the guy was lying through his teeth. "What about the riot gear? The poncho?"

Suddenly, Gareth appeared on the scene. "Got the riot gear off a dead cop. Found the poncho on a clothesline."

"Gareth, we can wait," Alex pleaded.

"Shut up, Alex."

"You talk to me," Rick demanded of Gareth.

"What's there left to say? You don't trust us anymore."

Alex continued to try and interject. "Gareth-."

"Shut. up," he commanded his comrade, raising his hand. "It's okay. It's okay." He looked Rick in the eyes, his hand still raised. "Rick, what do you want?"

Rick immediately recognized that as some kind of signal, so he watched him carefully as he answered. "Where are our people?" he growled.

"You didn't answer the question," Gareth countered, quickly closing his hand into a fist.

Knowing that he was likely about to be executed, Rick was able to maneuver himself out of the way so that Alex took the bullet. Gareth stood there, smirking, as if he were impressed with the man in front of him.

Rick hated this smug asshole. He pointed his gun at the sniper that had just tried to shoot him, hitting him square in the chest, knowing the bulletproof best would catch it, but successfully incapacitate him for a while. He then zeroed in on Gareth, specifically at the hand he'd just held up so confidently to kill him, and pulled the trigger. He shot off two of Gareth's fingers without hesitating.

"What the fuck!" Gareth screamed. He was in shock and in pain as he realized what had just happened.

Rick moved in so that they were face to face, warning him that if anything happened to him or his family, he would be the one who regretted it. "Tell them to put their weapons down or I put one in your kneecap."

Gareth was doubled over in pain while his troop looked on in horror. "Put 'em down!" he shouted. "Do not shoot!"

"Now, you ready to talk, or you wanna keep playing games?"

"You're insane!" Gareth realized, pulling off his jacket to cover his hand.

Rick didn't take his eyes or his gun off of the man in front of him. "Yeah, I'm fuckin' demented." His words came out faster than his brain could catch them. "Fair warning, that's my son, that's my wife, and that's my brother," he gestured towards Carl, Michonne, and Daryl. "You wanna see if it runs in the family?"

Daryl looked over at Michonne, wondering if he'd missed something, noticing that she had an odd smirk on her face. It certainly wasn't the time or place to focus on it, but he would definitely be bringing that up once they got out of this mess. And with Rick at the helm, he was certain they would.

"What do you want from us, Rick?"

"We want our people."

"I don't even know who your people are…"

"You wanna die today, Gareth?" Rick moved closer to him and put his gun between his eyebrows. "Stop. fucking. with. me."

"I suggest you listen to him," Michonne called out. She knew he was lucky Rick hadn't already killed him.

"Okay," he held up both hands in surrender, trying to ignore the pain and the blood that was oozing from his right. "Put down your weapons, I'll bring them out."

"No fuckin' way," Daryl interjected. He still had his crossbow pointed at Mary's eye. "Bring 'em out or we start shootin'."

"There are way more of us than there are of you," Gareth reminded him.

"Do we look like we give a fuck?" Rick inquired angrily.

It was a little clearer to Gareth why this group had shown up with so many bruises. They were obviously out of their minds. He was beginning to feel like he was up against Rorschach. He needed to find a way to assert himself as the leader again before all his people were following this asshole.

"Fine. You want your people?" Gareth relented. He signaled for one of his lackeys and instructed to him, "Bring out everybody in boxcar A." He looked at Rick, hoping that would cause him to back down a bit. "Can you please remove your gun from my face?"

Rick intentionally ignored his request, turning ever so slightly to make sure that Carl, Michonne and Daryl were all right. He caught Michonne's eye and she nodded at him, almost imperceptibly, letting him know that she was with him, wherever he decided to go with this. She trusted him wholly.

He focused back on Gareth, but could see a line of people approaching in the background. He began to lower his gun, but gave Gareth a forceful warning before doing so. "You try anything, it's over for you."

"Yeah, I got it, Rick."

Slowly, several of their friends came into view. Glenn, Maggie, Sasha, Bob. And then four people they didn't know. All of them appeared dirty, weak, almost emaciated, and bewildered by their surroundings.

"Rick?" Glenn was pleasantly shocked to find his friend standing in front of him.

"You all right?" he asked them.

"We're still alive," Maggie replied as optimistically as she could. She barely had the energy to stand, but she was so relieved to see her friends again; to be out of that train car they'd been locked in.

"Any of our other people here?" He wasn't sure whether he wanted Judith to be there or not, but maybe they'd seen Beth or Tyreese.

"Not that we've seen."

Rick looked back to Gareth, who was trying to slowly back away from his gun. "I'll take off your toe if you move another inch," he warned him.

"Look, you see your people are all right. What do you want now?"

"Why were they locked in a boxcar?"

"You don't get to ask those questions."

"Oh yeah? What do I get then?"

Gareth snapped with his free hand, and suddenly, guns were pointed on all eight of the people that had just come out of captivity. "You keep threatening me, I kill every single one of them."

"And then we kill every single one of you. That what you want?"

"I wanted to give you sanctuary. You're the one that came in here pointing your gun at my people."

"You had my people locked in a train car! From the looks of things, you haven't even been feeding them."

"They've been giving us powdered milk," Sasha inserted angrily. "That's it."

Rick eyed Gareth, waiting for an answer. "That's what you call sanctuary?"

"It's better than being out there, isn't it?"

"You wanna lose the rest of your fingers for being a smart ass?"

Gareth cocked his head to the side and a gunshot went off. Before they knew it, Bob had fallen to the ground.

"No!" Maggie screamed.

it seemed to take place in slow motion once they realized what had happened. Blood splashed across Sasha's face and she looked on in horror as it registered that Bob had been shot in the head. Tears filled her eyes as she looked at Maggie, then Daryl, and then back down at Bob. He was gone in an instant.

"Fuckin' shit," one of the new guys, Abraham, declared, watching as blood pooled the ground at his feet.

"Rick…" Michonne called back to him calmly, her eyes also locked on Bob in disbelief. "What are we doing."

"You're not doing anything," Gareth answered for him coolly, looking his main adversary dead in the eye. "I told you if you threatened me again, you would be sorry."

Rick matched his stare, but didn't say anything. There was nothing left to say. This kid was the one that would be sorry. A creepy smile spread across his features as he thought of how he was going to kill him.

Gareth had other plans, however. Rick seemed like a formidable opponent, but he hadn't become the leader of this place by just rolling over for every threat he encountered. "You very well may be crazy, Rick. But it seems you didn't account for the fact that I am, too."