Karl keeps running up the up the block screaming, "Walkers are breaching the perimeter" alerting Ricks group from Terminus and other survivors in the neighborhood. As soon as Tyreese hears Karl yelling, he comes to the door of his house and shouts out to Karl, "Where?" "In Michonne's backyard, my Dad wants anyone that can kill them up close so there isn't a lot of noise. Gather up who you can", Karl adds as he turns around to go back down the block.
Tyreese runs back inside to grab his hammer, "Carol we got walkers down by Michonne's, Rick needs everyone that can kill'em up close, "he shouts out while grabbing his jacket. Carol spurts out of the kitchen with her barbed wire tipped lead pipe then she runs out of the front door slamming it behind her.
Glenn and Maggie run out and see's their group going down the block toward Michonne's place. Glenn observes Eugene racing down the block too. Glenn glances over at Maggie peculiarly because Eugene doesn't join in when battling walkers at close range in fact, Eugene doesn't slay walkers at all because he is too much of a coward. Ever since Rick blew holes in his disguise of being a governmental scientist he has been looked upon by everyone as being a very weak and pitiful addition to the group.
"Eugene, what the hell are you doing?" Glenn questions him while running downing the block. "Oh…I heard you guys were down a fighter", Eugene replies out of breath, Glenn looks at Maggie while running then glances back at Eugene, "What?!" Eugene begins to get winded and slows down, "Michonne was attacked the other night" he's yells while trying to catch his breath.
Maggie and Glenn reach the weapons barrel at the same time as Jane's younger brother Jimmy. "Jimmy, did Janie say anything to you about Michonne being attacked? Maggie says out breath while grabbing a long handle camp axe out of the barrel. Jimmy catches his breath from running down the block and grabs the cold steel trail boss out of the cart nervously then shakes his head no. Maggie turns to Glenn, "What is Eugene talking about; I thought she was just sick!"
Jimmy looks over at Eugene frantically but doesn't say a word. Glenn sees the look on Jimmy's face out the corner of his eye before he snatches a brush axe out of the crate then starts running to the other side of the cul de sac yelling, "Come on!"
Just as Michonne hurries upstairs to the bedroom she can hear the clanging noises of all those tin cans along the fence. She hastily limps in to the bedroom and looks out the window. She can see Rick, Daryl, Carol and Tyreese exterminating walkers that have made it pass the chicken wire in to the yard. Right before Michonne turns around to change clothes she sees Glenn, Maggie and Jimmy racing toward the opposite end of the yard.
Michonne tries to change clothes as fast she can, but needs to lean her hand against the bedroom wall to give her some support while she slips in to her boots standing up, "Grrrr," she moans under her breath from her sore ribs. Once she is dressed she grabs her sword then right before she is about to leave to go help she decides to look out the window one more time. She looks out the window and she sees, Bob, Eugene, Sasha, James, Tara and a few other elderly survivors that were already living in the neighborhood before Rick's group came there for sanctuary. She takes the binoculars and tries to look past the yard and the chicken wire fence but, the morning sun is much too bright. Once she focuses the binoculars she can sees the knee high green grassy fields, then two walkers come in to her view. She pans right and sees a few more. They are being drawn in by the noise of the tin cans. Something that the survivors of the neighborhood thought would be an advance warning system has now turned in to a dinner bell.
As Daryl kills walkers with a fire poker the rising morning sun is blinding him a bit however, he can see something other than the tall grass moving in the fields beyond the yard. He spots the same walkers Michonne sees from her bedroom window. "Rick, were getting more of them we gotta stop the noise coming from these tin cans!" "Stop the cans from making noise there bringing in more walkers", Daryl hollers out.
Rick looks up briefly and see's at least another 25 to 30 walkers coming toward them from the grassy fields being drawn in by the noise of the tin cans. So with his machete he begins to kill walkers and break up the tin cans clanging together attracting walkers. Soon everyone is trying to stop the noise and kill the walkers.
Michonne can see that they are starting to make head way with the walkers in the yard through her binoculars. She looks up and sees Tara in the far left corner of the yard killing walkers with a pix axe. Michonne looks up beyond the yard and sees James, Jimmy and Eugene heading out to the field to kill the gathering walkers. She sees Tara running up towards them as well to help with the walkers. Michonne scans across the field again and she can see that the walkers in the field are moving faster and bunching up.
James starts to kill the field walkers when he sees Eugene and Jimmy to the right of him killing walkers too. He turns back around to kill two more field walkers when he hears Eugene scream. James turns around he sees Eugene being attacked by three walkers. James looks at Jimmy because he knows that Jimmy could've killed at least two of those walkers before they got Eugene. "Jim what are you doing!" James screams. "He told Glenn and Maggie about the attack on Michonne", Jimmy yells out.
Just as Tara catches up with James, Jimmy and Eugene she sees Jimmy take his trail boss and chops in to Eugene's leg. Tara hollers, "Nooo!" When she catches up to Jimmy she begins to scream at him, "What the hell are you doing!" Tara looks down and sees Eugene being eaten alive by the walkers. Before she is able to say another word James comes up behind her and whacks her in the back with his aluminum bat thrusting her on to the same walkers that were tearing in to Eugene's flesh.
Michonne is having a hard time keeping James, Jimmy and Eugene in focus due to the tall bladed grass. Suddenly she sees Jimmy swing his trail boss low right next Eugene then she sees Eugene fall. Michonne gasps in horror, then from her binoculars she sees Tara running up to Jimmy yelling at him. Just when Michonne tries to pan out to get a wider view she no longer sees Tara yelling at Jimmy in fact she doesn't see Tara at all however, she can hear her screaming. The only people she sees now are James and Jimmy killing walkers.
Rick, Daryl, Tyreese and Carol start heading to the right of the field beyond the yard. The field walkers are clustering up. Rick Daryl and Tyreese go after the largest cluster while Carol picks off the lone walkers with her lead pipe. She starts veering off further to the right when she sees that Rick, Daryl and Tyreese about to get surrounded. So she runs back to help them. Some of the walkers behind the three that they thought were killed with one blow to the skull aren't quiet dead. When Carol reaches up to the three of them she sees a walker coming up behind Daryl. With all her strength she races up to the walker that is about to catch Daryl off guard she screams out, "Noo, Daryl look out!", and bludgeons the walker in the head. Carol is so relieved that she stopped the walker from getting Daryl that she forgets about the other walkers that the three thought they killed.
Daryl turns around after hearing Carol call his name. When he turns around one of the walkers he thought he had killed comes up behind Carol and rips out a piece of her shoulder. "Carol!" Daryl hollers. Then he runs back to Carol and kills the walker dead then picks Carol up and carries her back to yard.
Tyreese and Rick hear Carol screaming, they turn around and see that Carol has been beaten. "Carol!" Rick yells. "Nooo, Carol!" Tyreese screams. Both men see Daryl kill the walker that attacked Carol, and then they see him carrying her back to the yard. As much as Rick and Tyreese want to go back with Daryl to the yard they know they have to kill the rest of these field walkers first.
Glenn and Maggie see Daryl in the distance running back to the yard but they can't see why because of the high grass. They continue going further in to the fields killing walkers. Glenn takes a quick glimpse back at Daryl and he sees that he is carrying Carol in his arms, "Caro..." Glenn instantly becomes choked up as he can see Carol is bleeding profusely from the shoulder. Glenn gets enraged and starts killing every walker in site as if it was the one that bit Carol. Maggie looks at Glenn and sees that he is red in the face with tears. Maggie looks back at the yard and sees Daryl carrying Carol back in to the yard. "Nooo! God damn it!" Maggie yells then she immediately starts to kill walkers with the same fury as Glenn.
As Michonne tries to races down stairs as fast as she can with her sword in her hand she hears Daryl scream Carol's names. Once she gets to the back door she removes the coaxial cable knot and opens it. When she steps outside she sees Daryl carrying Carol to the yard. "Oh no, no!" Michonne yells out. "Bring her inside!" While Daryl carries Carol's body up the back steps Michonne looks around and sees that group has gotten the number field walkers down to about 12. She holds the door open for Daryl as he brings Carol inside. Michonne follows a sobbing Daryl in to the living where he kneels on the floor to lay Carol down on the couch. He takes his vest and shirt off in order to wrap it around Carol's bleeding shoulder. Michonne is in tears because she realizes that their group is about to lose another member.
Daryl breaks down and starts crying on Carol's good shoulder, "Carol, Carol! Why!" he screams. Carol lays on the couch not saying a word but she cries seeing how upset Daryl is by her getting bit. She lifts her hand and touches his face, "it's alright Daryl. You will be alright." "Just don't let me turn." She says while trying to breathing. She looks over at Michonne, "Michonne don't let me turn, promise me?" Michonne leans on the back of the couch. Daryl looks at Carol and sobbingly says, "I can't, I can't Carol. Please don't ask me to do this, please."
Rick and Tyreese come rushing through Michonne's kitchen door and they see Carol bleeding on the couch. Tyreese drops to his knees in front of the couch arm rest in torment and begins to weep; he reaches his hand up to touch Carol's leg then pulls it back as if removing his hand would help her live. Rick stands in the middle of the living room a little ways from the couch then he looks at Carol and squats down to her level in the middle of the floor holding his head in his hands shaking his head in nonbelief.
Carol looks down past her legs to see Tyreese at her feet then she shakes her head no while telling him, "Tyreese don't… don't let me turn." "No Carol, please don't go...please." Tyreese tells her in a timid voice. Carol then lifts her head just enough to push Daryl to the side to see Rick in the middle of the floor crying. Rick looks up at her reluctantly he walks over to her and kneels down in front of her then he grabs her hand. Rick can barely bring his self to speak when he says, "Car…Carol I am so sorry. You saved my little girl from Terminus, you saved all of us from there. I shouldn't have sent you…" Carol squeezes Rick's hand tight and quietly says, "Rick I told you there is nothing that I wouldn't do for our people. Nothing." She whispers. "But now I'm afraid it's your turn to do what I had to back at the prison and at the grove." Rick burst in to tears because he didn't want to but, he also knew that he was the only one now who understood what she did at the prison and why he is the one that will have to take care of her before she turned. "Rick I don't trust anyone else here to do it, "Promise me, promise me." She whispers again. Rick looks down at the floor then looks at her shoulder then at the rest of her body as it begins to jerk from shock. Rick touches her leg with his other hand trying to control the shaking of her body. He looks back up at her and shakes his head yes.
Maggie, Glenn, Bob and Sasha rush in through the kitchen door, just as they run in to the living room they see Rick with Daryl's fire poker in his hand as he rams it in to Carol forehead. Michonne's living room is dead silent. The only things that can be heard are the faint noises of one or two tin cans clanging together on the broken chicken wire fence in the yard.
Rick walks away from Michonne's house in daze. The sun was now in the position of noon. All the events so far that morning seemed to happen so fast it felt like he may have been dreaming. One second he was kissing Michonne the next he was laughing with Karl and Michonne in the kitchen eating oatmeal, the next second he was driving a fire poker through the skull Carol Peletier . She was one of the last survivors from the Atlanta group after he left King County. The only people left from that group were Daryl, Glenn Rick and Karl. Rick stopped in the middle of the street trying to get a hold of his thoughts. But the only thing that kept coming to his mind was the words that Morgan told him, "There will be a reckoning." Rick couldn't help thinking that maybe this was his reckoning. He sentenced Carol to banishment for killing Karen and David because they were dying and yet he had just committed the same act. Rick decided that he needed to get out of his head so he went back home to check on Karl and Judith.
Rick knocks on the door, "Karl? It's me." He hears someone moving the couch from against the door. Karl opens the door and sees his father covered in blood. Rick walks in and closes the door and tells Karl, "I'm alright." Jane comes down stairs slowly with a daunting look on her face, "Who, was it my brothers?" she asks. "Is Michonne o.k.?" Karl asks. "No, no they are all fine. We lost Tara, Eugene…", then Rick looks at Jane and Karl, "…we lost Carol." The three of them stood in silence. Karl turned around and ran upstairs to his room and closes the door. Rick plops down on the couch depleted of energy and emotion.
Jane walks in to the kitchen and places Judith in her high chair and puts some chopped carrots on her tray. She walks back in to the living and sits down next to Rick, "Oh, honey I am so sorry. Carol..., she was a good woman. She saved me and brothers, Judith, you and your group." She said in a sad voice but with no tears. Jane places her arm around Rick's neck and gently pulls his head to her shoulder and begins to stroke his bloodied matted hair. "Tara and Eugene…" Jane sighs then whispers, "…they were such good people." "Tara and Eugene were taken by walkers but…Carol got bit pretty bad, it was just a matter of time before…" Rick stops speaking cause he can't bring himself to say out loud what he had to do. Jane softly rubs his hair a little more and whispers, "Is Michonne alright?" "Yea, she wasn't out there thank goodness." Rick tells her with the sound of relief in his voice.
Rick gets up from the couch, "Look, I am going to go take a shower but first I am going to talk to Karl." He tells her. Rick goes upstairs and knocks on Karl's bedroom door, "Karl? Can I come in?" Karl doesn't answer so Rick opens the door and he sees Karl sitting on the bed staring out the window. "Karl, are you alright?" Rick asks him. Karl takes a deep breath then he turns around to look at Rick, "I don't know?" Rick walks over to him and places his hand on his shoulder then Rick kneels down to his level, "I know how you feel, Carol has been with us a long time. She helped us get out of Terminus…" Karl interrupts his father, "No that's not it. I mean…I know she has been with us and she saved all of us from Terminus. It's just that, hearing about her death makes me feel nothing like…numb." "I just feel like I knew this was going to happen all along. I mean I will miss her and I will miss Tara and Eugene but I don't feel sad. What's wrong with me Dad?" Rick looks at Karl, "Karl you're probably in shock by the news that's all. There's nothing wrong with you." Karl looks at his father with a look of doubt all over his face and says, "Are you sure? Are you sure the sadness will come. Cause I really don't think it will Dad." Karl walks out of the room but before he leaves his father he says, "I hope you are right about there being nothing wrong with me, I better go help them clean up the dead." Then he walks out of the room. Rick stands up and stands still for a minute. He knew that if Karl didn't have any grief for the people that they lost today he will have crossed a point of no return. And if he has crossed that thin line he will have failed him as a father.