WARRIORS OF THE WALKING DEAD: SAVIORS OF MANKIND
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Rick and Rachel were the only ones left at the "campfire". They sat awkwardly for a few minutes before she broke the silence.
"I never thanked you for saving us…me." Rachel said quietly, smiling at Rick.
Rick smiled at her.
"You helped us." Rick said, appreciative that some of the women, under her leadership, fought alongside them. He admired her. She was strong.
"I couldn't just sit by and leave my fate to someone else." Rachel explained, "If there was a chance that we could get free of Breed by helping, then I wasn't going to turn away from that."
Rick nodded.
"But you didn't have to." He said.
"Yes I did. It's the first step toward claiming your life as your own." She stated passionately.
"Yeah." He said, knowing exactly what she meant as his thoughts turned to Lori.
Everything in this world was uncertain. That's what drove him over the edge. He had always lived in a small town where he knew everyone. As a sheriff, he had a lot of control over the world around him, or at least, he had the illusion of control, but now…he had none. Not to stop the plague. Not to save his wife.
He didn't know what he had control over anymore.
Rick bowed his head, trying to fight back the tears that threatened to fall.
Rachel reached over and took his hand in hers, squeezing it supportively. She knew exactly what he was thinking about.
"I'm sorry about your wife." She whispered sincerely. It made her sad to see him in this kind of pain.
Rick just nodded, not being able to form words past the lump in his throat.
Rachel didn't know what else to say. She'd comforted so many families who lost their loved ones, but this was different for some reason. The overwhelming agony of this much death. She wanted to say much more, but didn't think he was ready to hear it. He needed time to heal and a place to begin.
That's why the Deer Ridge project was so important to him. She understood now. He needed to start over. To make a life for the people he cared about that were left. Until then, he would be lost.
"Deer Ridge will be a place for all of us to start over." She said quietly and Rick looked at her. His gaze penetrated the defensive wall she had around her all of the time. He searched her eyes for something before nodding.
"That's what I hope." He said, standing up and setting his beer bottle down.
"Thank you." He stated, "I'm gonna turn in, I think."
Rachel smiled, standing up.
"Good night Rick." She said longingly, watching as he ducked into his tent leaving her standing alone by the lantern.
Rachel stared at the doorway of his tent and sighed, before heading to the tent she shared with the other women in Breed's brothel.
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The next few weeks were busy ones. They had 500 soldiers and at least 50 of the survivors out at Deer Creek building the walls and ramparts. They all worked in teams with Rick, Daryl, and the Major running everything. Everyone was pitching in and they actually had a lot of fun.
Glenn, Maggie and a few others ran to the outskirts of town to round up seed of all sorts to plant for spring and made note of farm equipment they'd seen and where it was. Daryl, Katelyn, Rachel and Rick were working on digging wells which they determined would be easier than getting city water going. Jackson was overseeing the building of the defenses and the wall. Rick and Jackson had talked about the easiest way to do it based on what Rick had seen at Woodbury of all places, so some of the soldiers drove the entire fleet of school buses to the development to use as ramparts.
While they were busy working on Deer Creek, Michonne, Andrea and another 30 men patrolled, picking off stray walkers and watching for herds. They used it as a training exercise for the men. For the purposes of training, Andrea and Michonne were to be treated as their commanders. The soldiers mostly drooled over Andrea and were in awe of Michonne's prowess with the blade. They were witness to just how lethal she could be and all wanted to learn how to fight hand to hand against walkers.
Rachel played medic all day, patching up injuries from the site and organizing the building of an clinic for those who would be living in Deer Creek. It was like a good old fashion barn raising. A few of the other women from the brothel wanted to learn how to help in the clinic and Rachel decided that she'd teach them basic nursing skills during their downtime.
Katelyn was quiet all day. With her injured hand, she felt useless, and embarrassed. She could still write so she began documenting everything that needed to get done and started dividing them up by days to see how long the whole process would take.
Daryl and Merle lay on their backs under a kitchen sink, with only their legs sticking out as Katelyn and Carol walked in.
"That has to be longer or it won't be slow enough to carry solid waste through the pipe and wash the sides of the pipe." Daryl said.
"It'll be fine." Merle said.
"No, it won't. Fix it." Daryl said, scooting out from under the sink.
"For Christ's sake." Merle swore
Katelyn and Carol chuckled.
"When did you two get here?" Daryl asked, standing up and brushing himself off.
"Just now." Katelyn said walking over to kiss him.
Daryl was about to say something when they heard screaming outside.
All heads turned to look and Merle scooted out from under the sink.
"What the hell was that?" Merle asked, looking up at Katelyn and Daryl.
"I don't know." Daryl said, moving to the window to look out but he couldn't see anything.
They heard the scream again.
"Grab your machete." Daryl said to Katelyn who stared at him with surprise.
"You want me to come?" Katelyn asked. Usually, Daryl would tell her to lock herself inside to make sure. She could tell he was uncomfortable saying it, but he waited patiently for her to pick up her knife.
Carol smiled sympathetically at him. She knew what his decision was and why he'd made it. She also knew it went against every fiber of his protective instincts. He just wanted to keep Katelyn safe, but knew that training her was in her best interests.
"You only got your splint off a week ago. Can you grip it tightly enough?" Daryl asked, concerned and looking for a reason to keep her in the house.
"It's fine." Katelyn said nervously.
"All right then, come on." Daryl said as he opened the front door for her.
All four of them exited the house and started jogging toward the screaming.
It didn't take them long to figure out what'd happened. A small herd of walkers had slipped through one of the temporary barricades because the soldiers didn't use enough sandbags when they created them.
Andrea and Michonne had their group of 30 soldiers and they were hacking their way through the crowd, but they weren't using a careful formation.
"Andrea!" Daryl shouted, racing toward them with Katelyn right behind him. "Get into a circle formation!"
Andrea couldn't hear him so they quickly became surrounded.
Daryl saw Rick heading straight for them and he called out.
"Rick!" Daryl shouted. "Just like the prison!"
Rick looked over and nodded, heading toward Daryl, Merle, Katelyn, and Carol.
"Stay in a circle!" Rick shouted, as they waded into the battle.
"Katelyn, stay right next to me. Don't break the line." Daryl said, pulling her next to him. "If you or Carol get in trouble, yell."
The group pulled into a tight circle, just as a wave of walkers passed Andrea and Michonne.
The first walker was an elderly man who had been partially eaten as chunks of flesh had been ripped out of him. He reached as he stumbled, straight for Katelyn who readied her machete.
"Take a deep breath." Daryl said, watching her carefully to make sure she didn't get in over her head.
Katelyn did as he instructed, calming her nerves before raising her machete and slicing straight at his head. The machete sunk into his skull easier than she thought it would but pulling it back out was harder. Using two hands, she yanked it out just as two more headed toward them. Daryl sliced the next one's head clean off while Katelyn hit a different one in the head. This time, it didn't go through the skull and it kept stumbling toward her. Daryl shoved his dagger into its skull, helping Katelyn before the next group came at them.
They made their way over to Andrea who was caught in the midst of three walkers trying to grab at her. Michonne cut down the first one and then grabbed Andrea's arm, hauling her backwards into the circle of the other group.
"Andrea! Stay in formation. Keep in the circle and don't pull out of it no matter what!" Rick called out to her as she noticed who was around her. "Okay?"
"Got it!" She answered, stepping into the ring to join the others.
Michonne got on the other side, next to Carol and Rick, swing her sword three times, and watching three more walkers go down.
"Jason! Put your men in a circular formation!" Andrea shouted at the soldiers.
Jason responded immediately, after watching the effectiveness of the Atlanta group.
"Get in a circle! Backs to each other!" He shouted as he backed up into a group of 4 other soldiers. "Moose! Pull your men into a circular formation!"
Moose was exactly that; a moose. He was 6'6" and almost as wide as he was tall. He was one of the only soldiers with combat experience, having been an army ranger.
It took only a matter of minutes before they had cleaned up the walkers that had gotten through. The other soldiers had quickly solidified the barricade, sealing off the hole they were pouring through.
The fighters now stood, catching their breaths.
"You did well." Daryl said quietly to Katelyn. "I think the machete might not be the right weapon for you however."
"Why?" She asked.
"It's actually harder to kill them with a slashing weapon than it is a piercing one, it's just that the piercing weapons mean you're closer to them than you'd probably like to get. They're more effective though." Daryl explained, wiping her machete off on his pant leg.
Katelyn nodded, looking over at Michonne and her katana.
"She's fully trained with that…and…it's both a piercing and slashing weapon. If I could find more katanas, I'd have everyone using them, but here…this will have to do for now." Daryl said, handing her the Nazi dagger they'd found in the house.
Katelyn looked at it and turned it over in her hand to study it.
"It's beautiful. Where'd you get it?" She asked.
"In the house where we found Rachel that day she and Andrea got separated from their group." Daryl said. "It's sharp so be careful. It's about the best blade around." He added, leaving out the origin of the blade.
Katelyn tied the scabbard around her belt and slid the knife into it, smiling at Daryl.
"Thank you." She said, leaning up on her tiptoes to kiss him.
Daryl smiled and headed back into the house with Merle and Katelyn.