Chapter III
"They sure do seem to take this time travel story seriously" Carol told Daryl as they were walking down the lane late in the morning the following day. "Yeah those two are a couple of odd characters." Daryl replied. "That's putting it lightly, the strange thing is that they really seem to believe it and not in that mentally ill "I believe the sky is yellow and made of marshmallows" kind of way." Carol said. "Don't tell me you buy that horse shit." Daryl jeered. Just then Rick stopped the two of them. "On your way out?" he asked Daryl. "Yeah, there's rumored to be a nice stash of small arms just off the beltway in DC where the army had dropped everything and ran back when people started turning. If that falls through I know a couple places we could pick up a few goodies along the way." Daryl told him. "Just remember if it gets too bad out there don't try and push it. We haven't cleared a lot of walkers in that direction so things could get thick pretty quickly." Rick cautioned him. "Hear ya, loud and clear." Daryl replied then continued on his way. ". . . and Carol, I want you to get with our new arrivals and put them to work in the kitchen. It's something small they can do while they're here. Those two wouldn't last five minutes on a run. If they can cut it there then maybe afterwards we can place them on the wall with you if that would be alright. I know that I can trust you to be a good judge of character." Rick told Carol. "If it keeps me from having to bake sugar cookies and forget about the real world that's fine." Carol told him. "Good, try and get them to open up to you; find out where they're really from, and what attitude their group might take towards us. I'm gonna send Glenn and Eugene out later to investigate that blue box they were found in too. Might be hiding something in there, or at least get a clue to what these folks are all about." Rick explained.
Later that day Glenn, Eugene, Abraham and a couple others from Alexandria went back to where they had found the TARDIS the day before. There were a handful of walkers lurking around there now. Abraham buried an axe in the top of walker's skull while Glenn knifed another one between the eyes. Eugene stood back and let the others clear the area. Once the walkers had all been dealt with the group turned their attention to the TARDIS. Glenn tried to simply open the door but of course it was locked. "Didn't think it was really going to be that easy did you buddy?" Abraham laughed. "Alright down stand back." Abraham ordered before he raised his axe and attempted to chop through the TARDIS door which appeared to be nothing more than solid wood. The axe clinked and sparked against the door leaving not as much as a scratch upon the door. "Holy shit!" Abraham remarked before he attempted to hack open the TARDIS again to no avail. Abraham continued to whack the door but the TARDIS remained unharmed. "Brawn ain't workin' maybe ya'll want to give brains a try?" Eugene suggested. Abraham stepped aside, scowling at Eugene as he walked up and tried to pick the TARDIS lock with a piece of a coat hanger and a crowbar. While Eugene was having no more luck than Abraham the noise they had made attracted more walkers to the area. "Here they come!" Glenn announced as the first walker, a haggard man with his badly decomposed face falling off came through the brush. Glenn lunged forward and stabbed the walker through the skull with his knife. Meanwhile Abraham swung his axe down and cleaved vertically through the skull of a chubby putrid walker approaching through the other side. One of the female Alexandrites lanced another walker, formerly a goth guy through the eye with a sharpened piece of rebar while a male Alexandrite clubbed another walker with a hammer. The group fended off a steady trickle of walkers coming at them from all directions while Eugene continued to fiddle with the TARDIS's lock. "I don't even feel any tumblers moving around in there. How the hell does this think lock up to begin with?" Eugene mumbled as he discovered what appeared to be a simple door lock was something entirely different than it seemed. "You better hurry up down there Mr. I-think-I'm-So-Damn-Smart!" shouted Abraham as he embedded his axe in the side of a soiled flannel adorned walker's head. He kicked the slain walker back to remove his axe, knocking over a couple more walkers behind it and swung the axe again to decapitate another walker closing in on his left. Glenn and one of the male Alexandrites were dispatching walkers right and left on the other side of Eugene. "Don't give up now." Glenn encouraged his fighting companion who was beginning to tire. The female Alexandrite covering the approach to the south was overwhelmed by three walkers and as she speared the one ahead of her the one to her right seized upon her and bit down on her neck and shoulder. She collapsed onto her knees from the pain and the rapid loss of blood. The other walker along with one more that just came into the clearing converged on her and started to feast. "Fuck the locks Eugene! We've got to get out of here!" Abraham ordered. He kicked back one walker and started to hack at those that were devouring the woman. Eugene got up and was tackled to the ground by a walker. He kicked and attempted to push the walker off him to no avail as it snapped and chomped in his general direction. Glenn managed to pull the walker off Eugene to allow the terrified self-proclaimed genius to get back up. Glenn knifed the walker in the back of the skull and discarded it while the two male Alexandrites behind him fended off a rising tide of walkers. "Let's go!" Abraham shouted as he cleared a path through the woods to the west. Glenn nodded and followed closely behind Eugene, taking out what walkers they came in contact with while the Alexandrites covered the rear. "So much for getting into the big blue riddle box." grumbled Glenn as they pressed on.
Eventually they returned to Alexandria where Michonne, Tara and Rick helped cut down the walkers that had continued to pursue the team back home. "Did you get it open? What's inside?" asked Rick once they were back behind the safety of Alexandria's walls. "No that door wouldn't budge. We tried busting it down; we tried picking the lock, nothing would work." Glenn answered. "I suppose we could go back with some C4 and try to blow the fucking door off." suggested Abraham. "Nahhh, we might end up destroying the whole thing that way. Looks like if we want to know we might have to resort to asking that doctor to open it for us." Rick told him.