AN: Ok. The review voting Rick off the island cracked me up, I just have to say. Walking Dead Survivor Show: "Rick, you are off the island." LOL That could be funny.
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"The next town over will be a good town to stop in." Michonne said to Daryl. He was sitting next to her rocking Hope, who having eaten, had shown very little interest in going back to sleep. They were in a little farmhouse of sorts, and though it was pretty cramped, they'd managed to get a small room to themselves. Carol had given them the bed and was sleeping on a pallet on the floor with Judith.
"How do you know?" Daryl asked.
The scenery had been getting more and more familiar to Michonne and as she retraced her steps, she got a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Because I used to live in the one right after it." Michonne said. "It'll be good to stop in and I know there's a nice gated community there. It was where all the well to do people lived."
"We'll be there by tomorrow." Daryl said. "I hope it ain't too bad."
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Daryl had followed Michonne's directions and they found the gated community. Daryl stopped outside of it and got off his bike. The town hadn't looked to overrun, at least not the part they had seen of it, and he could see some Walkers rambling around inside the gate, but right now it didn't look like too much to be worried about. He went from car to car telling the women to stay inside the cars with the kids, at least until they got inside the gates and got the Walkers they could see down. Tyreese, Rick, and Glenn went with him.
"You reckon the gates gonna be locked?" Daryl said as they were walking.
"Doubt it." Glenn said. "Most of the time these gates were electrical. No electricity means no locks." Glenn had spent a fair amount of time passing in and out of various types of gates, so when Daryl looked at him with curiosity he shrugged his shoulders and said "Rich people loved the hell out of some pizza."
Daryl laughed. When they reached the gates, they were glad to find that Glenn's prediction was correct. Rick and Daryl pulled the iron double gates open and Glenn and Tyreese picked off the Walkers that were coming toward them with the machete and hatchet that Daryl had given them. They had decided not to use guns outside if they could avoid it, wanting to draw as little attention to themselves as possible. It would be getting dark soon and they didn't want a herd forming.
"We'll pull in and take that first house." Daryl said pointing to a close house. "We'll clean it out for the night, and then tomorrow we can worry about checking out the security of the place and cleaning up the rest of the Walkers that are in here."
No one said anything, but they did turn and start back to the cars.
When the cars were parked, and the gates were closed, everyone piled out of them. Daryl took Tyreese and went into the house first. There were no immediate Walkers, so Glenn, Maggie, Carol and Michonne stepped in behind them while the others were busy getting together just what they would need for the night. The rest could be unpacked later.
"Do you think there are any in here?" Carol asked, clutching her knife just in case.
"I dunno." Daryl said. The kitchen had been empty, and now they crossing the entry hall into the living room.
"There's a dead one." Daryl said. In response, ambling down the hallway, came another. Daryl quickly took it down.
"Looks like it might have been a couple." Glenn said. "Probably he turned first and she killed him but was bit."
"Let me guess, you used to watch a lot of crime shows." Rick said. Glenn snorted.
"Actually, I did."
"Oh shit." Michonne mumbled. She had her hand on her mouth when everyone turned to look at her. "Somewhere there's a baby."
"Why you say that?" Daryl asked.
Michonne pointed at the coffee table. "Baby proofed." She said. "And there's a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs."
It was obvious from the look on Michonne's face that she didn't want to find it. Daryl didn't really want to see what they would find either.
"I'll find it." Tyreese said. He didn't really like the idea of looking for what he was going in search of, and he didn't really want to imagine what he might find, but he didn't think that women should have to do that, and he didn't think that Daryl, as a new father who doted very much on his baby, should have to do it either. They might run into it at some point, but not tonight. Tyreese looked at his hatchet for a minute.
"Here." Michonne said. She unsheated her katana and held it out to Tyreese. "You won't have to get so close."
Tyreese thanked her, took the katana, and put the hatchet back in his belt. He finished searching the downstairs and the group watched him as he started upstairs.
Daryl had never seen Michonne offer her katana to anyone before. The rest of them shared weapons, but she only allowed you to touch her katana if you were carrying it for her or just moving it from one place to the next.
It seemed like Tyreese was gone a long time. When he finally reappeared, coming down the stairs with the katana in his left hand, he was carrying a bundle, which he put on the floor.
"I didn't think no one wanted to see." He said. "So I found a blanket." He handed Michonne her katana and thanked her again. She sheathed it, looking at the bundle. They'd never treated a Walker with respect before. She didn't know if the baby had turned or not, Tyreese offered no description of what he'd just had to do.
"Let's take 'em outside. We can burn 'em tomorrow after we've done some more clean up." Daryl said. "Carol, can you start gettin' us somethin' for dinner? No fire, so it'll have to be somethin' cold."
"Sure." Carol said, passing Judith to Beth, who had come in behind them.
Once the Walkers were outside and the supplies they needed were inside, it didn't take long for Carol to make dinner and serve it to them at the dining room table.
"So what now, Daryl? Since you seem to be Mr. Got It All Together, is this your master plan? We all stay crammed in this house like the Waltons?" Rick said.
"For tonight we do." Daryl said. "Tomorrow Glenn and Maggie are going to get some chain. That gate's heavy, but not being chained makes it pretty easy to get into if enough Walkers decide they want in. You, me, Tyreese, and Josh are going to check the fences all around to see if any of them are down. The lovely ladies can start cleaning the streets of Walkers. I reckon we'll go from there to see if it's a good place to stay."
"The fences all looked to be made out of iron bars, so that's promising." Tyreese said.
"And tonight?" Rick asked.
"Tonight everybody gets some sleep however they can." Glenn answered. "I, for one, think we need to be ready to hustle tomorrow. The more we hustle, the sooner we can stop living like the Waltons."
"Hear, hear!" Said Maggie.
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The next morning Glenn and Maggie left with instructions from Michonne on how to find the hardware store.
Daryl, Tyreese, Josh, and Rick, started their tour of the community, which was rather large, looking for any problems that might allow a Walker to get through or a herd to push down the fence.
Michonne took Sasha, Maggie, and Beth out to start cleaning up the Walkers that were roaming the streets. Rachel stayed with Carol to care for the babies and get things organized that they would be needing. Beth had wanted to stay behind, but Michonne thought she needed a little more experience with Walker killing. They had had quite the discussion about her weapon.
"I don't want to get close to them." Beth said.
"Take the hatchet. You won't have to get as close to them as someone like Beth or Carol who prefer knives."
"That's easy for you to say. You've got a six inch weapon." Beth argued.
"I can also kill a Walker with a screwdriver if that's what's handy." Michonne said. "Take the hatchet."
"I'd rather have the ax." Beth said. "It's longer."
"And it's heavier." Michonne said. "I don't think you realize how tired you'd get if an ax were your weapon of choice. Take the hatchet."
Beth picked up the hatchet reluctantly. Michonne smiled at her.
"Tell you what, prove to me that you're good with the hatchet, and I'll make sure we find you a katana." Michonne said.
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"I tell you what, that katana don't weigh much, but I got to admit that I don't think I'd want to be swinging it all day." Tyreese said to Daryl as they were walking. "Michonne's got a lot of stamina."
Daryl smiled. "That's 'cause 'Chonne's a hawse." He said.
Tyreese had had a bit of a crush on Michonne since he had first seen her. He'd thought about approaching her, but he had never quite figured out how he would do it or if she was even interested in men. It really didn't seem like she had much interest, so he had become pretty sure that she was a lesbian. He had decided, though, that he was going to give it a shot. That was right before they all found out that Daryl had beat him to the punch. He had to wonder how a guy like Daryl had ended up with her. They didn't seem like they would work together, they were really like the definition of the odd couple, but they did work together. Tyreese had no doubt that he'd lost out entirely. They'd each found the yin to their yang.
Romantic prospect aside, though, Tyreese had a lot of respect for Michonne. She was a formidable woman. He had a lot of respect for Daryl too. When he'd first met Daryl he'd thought "Oh great, some dumb hillbilly that's going to give Sasha and me a world of shit," but that hadn't been the case at all.
"So what's the deal, Daryl? Are we just going to hang out here playing house?" Rick asked.
"We have six towns around us that we can get to pretty easily to pick clean. We can siphon gas from all the cars we see, so that won't be a problem. Michonne said there's some creeks not too far from here. It'll be a longer walk, but it's doable if we take turns going for water. We can stay here a while, Rick. We'll have to move on eventually, but that gives us time to think about things and see how we want to change our plans." Daryl said.
"We're never going to get anywhere moving at this pace." Rick said.
"Where were we going, Rick? We were going nowhere. If we don't have a destination we're not going nowhere, so what does it matter how long it takes us to get to nowhere. This is just our lives now. We're at the end of the world, there's nothing left to do but try to live when we can and learn to just somehow accept what we have." Daryl said.
"That's easy for you to say. You like playing house right now. I hope you remember your oh so wise words when some Walker rips Michonne's throat out and you don't want to accept what you have anymore." Rick said.
Tyreese wasn't expecting what came next, and neither was Josh. "Fuck you, man!" Daryl had yelled, lunging at Rick, punching him in the face. The two fell to the ground and rolled around fighting with one another. Tyreese and Josh found themselves backing up a little, neither attempting to intervene in any way.
Daryl had never been the one to throw a first punch at anyone in his life. He didn't believe in violence unless it was necessary. Right now he felt like it was necessary. He was a little afraid of the fact that he wanted to kill Rick right now. They fought for a while, each getting the better of the other, until finally Daryl got Rick pinned, choking him just enough to render him weak, but not kill him.
"Is that your fuckin' problem, Rick? Are you fuckin' pissed at me 'cause I got 'Chonne and you don't have Lori?" Daryl yelled at him. Rick didn't answer. "Say? Is that your fuckin' problem? I'm gettin' tired of your shit, Rick, so tell me what the fuck is your fuckin' problem 'cause I ain't gonna fuckin' deal with it no damn more!" Daryl started to calm down a bit, but he didn't let up on Rick at all. Rick didn't answer him, but something in his face said that Daryl might have hit somewhere near the mark. "Listen…" Daryl said a little calmer than before, "I know you're pissed that Lori's dead and I get that, man, but hatin' 'Chonne ain't gon bring her back. It wouldn'ta brought her back if you'd given 'Chonne to the Governor, it wouldn'ta brought her back if 'Chonne had died the same way she did, and it wouldn'ta brought her back if 'Chonne had gotten killed the other night right alongside Hershel. Ain't nothin' gonna bring her back. You wanna be pissed about that, then be pissed about it, but take it up with who it concerns, and that's maybe Lori or maybe God, but it ain't 'Chonne. Fuck you man, you don't fuckin' want me to be happy 'cause it reminds you of what you ain't got? 'Cause that's a load of shit! I ain't never had nothin' in my fuckin' life before and just 'cause I got somethin' now and you don't got the same damn thing you want me to lose that? If I lost 'Chonne it wouldn't make you no damn happier than you are right now. You still got a lot of shit right now, man. You still got Carl, and if you'd open your fuckin' eyes you'd know you still got Lil' Asskicker. You got all of us that are tryin' to make this shit work. Stop fuckin' feelin' sorry for yourself, but if you can't stop feelin' sorry for yourself then realize that's your fuckin' problem and not 'Chonne's."
Rick didn't respond at all. He had also stopped fighting. Tyreese decided he should intervene at this point.
"Daryl, let him up." He said, walking over. "I don't think he's going to say anything else."
Daryl responded to Tyreese and got up, off of Rick. Rick sat there a minute, brooding. Daryl thought he might have hit the right spot.
Rick got up, wiping some of the blood that was dripping from his nose.
"Maybe you should go back to the house." Tyreese said to him. "We can finish checking the parameters.
"Hell no!" Daryl said. "I don't want him no fuckin' where 'round my wife or my kid 'til I know he ain't bat shit crazy."
"I'll go with him." Josh offered. "I'll make sure nothing happens."
"I'm not going to do anything to anyone." Rick said. He turned around and headed back toward the house. Daryl looked at Josh and Josh quickly trotted behind him without a word.
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It had taken Daryl a while to simmer down, but when he finally did, he was able to finish the walk with Tyreese. They'd found one problem area. In one corner of the fences the brick section was down a little.
"I think we can fix it, but we'll need to send Glenn and Maggie out tomorrow for brick and cement." Daryl said. "I did some odd construction jobs in the past."
"We can fix it. I did some odd jobs in high school and a lot were brick laying. I don't think it's that big of a deal anyway, because I don't think a Walker could get over it, but we can fix it tomorrow, just in case." Tyreese said.
All in all, they were satisfied that they had found a pretty good location to set up camp…at least until they had to move on, and they had bought themselves some time to think about the next leg of their journey.