Daryl was tired of riding, they'd been at it all day stopping only once, and that had been hours ago. Daryl knew, though, that they would be stopping soon to avoid running out of daytime. He would probably stop the caravan at the next place that he saw that could be used for cover for the night.

"Carol, can you please shut that thing up!" Rick growled.

"No, Rick, I can't." Carol said. "She's literally starving." Hope was wailing uncontrollably and flailing. Carol was having a difficult time holding her. At first she had kept her calm by giving her pacifier and replacing it any time she spit it out. Then, when Hope had begun wailing despite the fact that Carol was trying to hold it in her mouth, she had fooled her a few times with her knuckle, but that hadn't warded off the screaming for long.

"Rick, she's only two months old. She can't understand like the rest of us that sometimes you've just got to be hungry for a little while." Hershel said.

Rick didn't want to be the one to signal a stop, and they weren't in the greatest spot to stop, but he didn't see any place more inviting and the sound of the baby was making him more irritated than he could stand. He really felt like he could break its neck if he had to hear the screaming any longer. He flicked his lights and came to a stop, the others stopping behind him. Daryl stopped a minute later.

Michonne got off the bike and Daryl's back felt wet when the air hit it. It was pretty hot, but he couldn't imagine that they were sweating that much.

"Why the fuck do I feel wet?" He asked, swinging off the bike. He looked at Michonne and her shirt was soaked.

"Sorry." She said.

Carol got out the car and came around to Michonne, handing her the wailing infant. Michonne unbuttoned her shirt, no longer concerned with being at all modest, and started feeding her.

Rick was walking toward Glenn and Maggie's car and Daryl grabbed his crossbow and jogged over, passing Beth and Hershel who were going to join Carol and Michonne. Glenn had gotten out the car and walked away from the caravan, but everyone else just stayed in the car, waiting to continue the journey.

"Music to my ears." Rick said as Daryl came up next to him.

"What is?" Daryl asked.

"The sound of your kid shutting the hell up." Rick said.

"Man, she's just a baby. Go easy on her." Daryl said. He could easily see that Rick was in a really wretched mood right now. "I didn't think about her needin' to eat all the time. Maybe Michonne should ride with Glenn and Maggie for a while, until Hope don't eat so much."

"It would be a good idea." Rick said. At least it would get the wailing child out of his car. Judith could be cranky sometimes, but she wasn't a big crier. Hope, however, left his ears still ringing.

"Where'd Glenn go?" Daryl asked.

"To take a piss. When he gets back we can start again. Michonne can finish feeding the baby in the car."

"I'm gonna stop at the next place that looks alright." Daryl said. "We don't need to be on the road too much longer."

"Sounds fine to me. Your call on what looks good." Rick said.

As Glenn came running back, and Daryl and Rick realized he was not alone, they also heard Beth scream. It was a herd of Walkers, and they were already on them.

Glenn got near the group and turned, starting to pick off the ones that he could. Rick and Daryl immediately went to work on the ones around them. Daryl had only glanced momentarily in Michonne's direction, but he could see she had her katana already out.

"It's like they're getting faster." Glenn called out.

"Maybe they're faster because they haven't smelled food in a while." Daryl said. He was suddenly a little annoyed with his crossbow, feeling like it was taking him longer than he wanted to take down the approaching Walkers.

Beth had Judith and she was crying, the baby was howling again. Michonne had not had time to pass her to anyone when the first Walker was on her, so now she was desperately trying to hold the baby with her left arm and fight with her right.

"Can you shut it up?" Rick called. He was fumbling to reload his gun quickly and wondered if all of the noise coming from that bunch was drawing more Walkers than there had been originally in this herd.

"A little busy here, Rick!" Michonne growled.

Glenn thought the herd was thinning a little. He realized how rusty he had become during his time at the prison. He was slower at reloading and getting off shots than he used to be. They were all slower. He had been casting quick glances checking the others. They wouldn't have looked this haggard before after working on a herd this size. It was a big herd, but it wasn't the kind of herd that they couldn't handle.

The one who was in the worst position at this moment was Michonne. Glenn had saw her fighting over there, like he would have imagined some kind of Amazon woman fighting. She was trying to cover everyone clustered behind her. Apparently they were unarmed when the herd approached because none of them were helping her. Glenn kept shooting in her direction, attempting to take out a few for her in between shooting the ones that were still approaching him. He wasn't in a good position to help, but he figured that every little bit was more than nothing. When he could move that far he was going to head over there to help her because it didn't look like she could hold out too much longer.

Rick had glanced in Michonne's direction and had realized that she was the only one armed in the bunch. What the hell were they doing unarmed? This wasn't the prison anymore. You didn't go to the bathroom without a gun. He fired off a few rounds in her direction, hoping to take down a few that were approaching her. Soon he'd be able to move and get closer to the bunch, since it looked like most of what was left of the herd was heading in her direction. If the babies weren't crying and Beth would stop screaming, she might have more of a chance.

Daryl was slowly edging his way toward Michonne. "Carol…" he called, lowering his crossbow for a minute, "heads up!" Daryl threw an arrow in Carol's direction. It wasn't an ideal weapon for Carol, but at least it was something. At least she could help in some way because they had more coming in their direction and he worried that Michonne had her hands a little too full.

There were too many coming. Michonne's arms were both screaming, her left from trying to hold the baby, which kept slipping, and her right from trying to swing the katana as fast as she could at approaching Walkers. She hadn't been able to take her eyes off the herd, but she had seen a few of the Walkers go down in front of her, so she knew that the others were trying to offer her some assistance. She was grateful when Carol stepped up beside her and stabbed a Walker in the forehead. At least one person helping was better than nothing, but the bunch that was coming worried her.

Glenn was starting to make his way around to Michonne now, still picking off a few Walkers for her when he had time to help. He could see there was another bunch headed in her direction and he wanted to make his way over there before they arrived. If she didn't have help before they closed in he knew she wasn't going to hold out and in one sweep they would lose Michonne, Carol, Beth, Hershel, and both babies. He had to get over there to stop it.

The next bunch that was sauntering in her direction would barely give them a minute to rest. Michonne didn't know what the other side looked like, but she was praying to see an arrow fly by her at any moment to start picking off the incoming Walkers. She felt like she could barely lift her katana anymore and she could hear Carol panting.

When Hershel hobbled past Carol she didn't know what to say or do. "Hershel, get back!" She yelled at him. He hadn't responded, he just continued in the direction of the upcoming fifteen or twenty Walkers. He never said anything, and he never stopped.

Help arrived too late for Michonne and Carol and they hadn't been able to pick off the upcoming group quickly enough. They'd never had a chance at saving Hershel. With the last of the Walkers put down, there was a moment of stunned disbelief that fell over everyone. Maggie had been the one to break that universal shock of everyone who had been outside of the car, screaming and running toward them. Beth had followed as the second to regain her senses and fall by her sister's side, crying and still clutching a crying Judith. Carol had been third, kneeling down and wrapping her arms around them.

Michonne only came to her senses when she felt Daryl taking the baby from her. He reached his hand around, pulling her shirt closed. She absent mindedly sheathed her katana and fumbled with the buttons. The reality of what she had seen in front of her still not sinking in at all yet.

"Glenn, get the shovels." Daryl said. Glenn hadn't moved or flinched and Daryl realized he was still in shock. "Glenn…Glenn…Go get the shovels." Glenn had looked at him then, a look mixed of terror and sorrow on his face. He didn't say anything, but he did start walking toward the car.

"We don't have time to bury him." Rick said. Daryl could see that Rick was fighting something right now. They were all fighting something.

"Rick, man, it was Hershel." Daryl said quietly.

"What are we going to do, just hang around out here digging a hole? What if another herd comes up?" Rick asked. He looked very angry, but Daryl didn't think he was really angry with him.

"Rick," He repeated, "it was Hershel." Rick looked at him and for a moment the furrow in his brow softened.

Glenn came back with the shovels.

"Alright, we'll take care of this." Rick said. "Everybody get in the car." No one moved. "Everybody get in the cars now! We can't do this and take care of you if another herd were to come." Rick barked. "Now!"

Carol helped Maggie and Beth back to the car and Michonne took the baby and followed them.

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"This was the most senseless death ever." Rick said, digging.

"It wasn't senseless, Rick, not entirely." Glenn said. "Preventable…but not senseless."

"Hershel didn't have to die today, Glenn. All three of them should have known better than to be unarmed like that. When you're on the outside, you carry a weapon. That was rule number one of life at the prison and we're always on the outside now." Rick said. They finally had the hole dug and tried to move Hershel to it as respectfully as possible, trying not to really let themselves think about what they were doing.

"He knew what he was doing, Rick." Daryl said. "He was buying them time, and he'd do it again if he had the chance. You know that."

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Michonne was feeding Hope and watching the men outside the car. Later she would check Hope for bruises, sure that she'd probably suffered a few in the fight, but she seemed generally OK so Michonne thought she hadn't suffered any great injury. Carol was in the back seat with the girls, trying to comfort them. Michonne reached up and wiped a few tears from under her eyes. Everyone was going to be grieving this and she, for one, had a very heavy heart.

In the same moment she was experiencing so many different emotions that she wasn't really sure how to process them all. She felt guilty for Hershel's death. If she could have done more, then he wouldn't have done what he did. She had failed him and he had saved her…saved them. She would have failed them all. At the same time she was grateful to Hershel and she wished she could thank him in some way, but she'd never have that opportunity. She'd never get to thank him for saving her life, for saving her daughter's life. He'd given up his own life to give them a little more time.

She could only imagine what Maggie and Beth were going through right now. She'd lost both her parents, but it had been before all this had happened. It had been hard losing them, and some days she still missed them, but even seeing her mother go after suffering from cancer and seeing her father go from a massive heart attack, it was nothing like what they had just seen. She was glad Carol was comforting them because she didn't think that she could talk right now, and even if she could, she knew she had no idea what to say to them.

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When they finished, Glenn took the shovels. For a moment Rick looked at Daryl, but he didn't say anything. There wasn't anything left to say. Daryl walked alone back to his motorcycle and picked it up. It had gotten knocked over in the madness. He didn't crank it until he'd heard the three vehicles behind him crank. For a moment he was glad that he was alone on the motorcycle, not being able to imagine what it must have been like in the cars where you were surrounded by other people. It was better to be alone with your thoughts in a time like this.

Daryl cranked his motorcycle and tried to put his mind on the task of finding a place for them to go. They had said they were looking for a "safe" place to go, but Daryl realized that it didn't really matter. They just needed somewhere to go. There was nowhere safe anymore.

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AN: Apologies to any of you who just suffered a South Park "OMG, you killed Kenny" moment. Believe me, this was a hard chapter to write, and I know that more difficult times are ahead that are also going to be difficult to write.

A moment of silence for our fallen friend.