The car and prison bus were headed down a small shortcut back to the area where the house was. Ethan, Danny and Beth were in the car conversing.
"Okay, I'm still deciphering, and I don't think Hershel is in the wrong here." Ethan spoke to Beth.
"What? What have you been able to get from it so far?" Beth inquired.
"Well, whoever sent out this order clearly doesn't like him." Ethan answered. "So he's not guilty of anything…"
"Yeah. My dad has had his moments. A lot of people he's worked with in business don't like him, and the neighbors don't- well, didn't care for him all that much. But he's not a criminal or anything." Beth replied.
"In times like this, it doesn't matter who your neighbors were. Every life counts." Ethan spoke.
Beth nodded. "Wait..is that Dad's car? What is it doing parked in front of the house? He never uses it anymore."
"This doesn't look good." Danny grimaced.
"You said it, Dan." Ethan agreed. "Well...better see what this is about."
The three got out of the car, and approached the beat-up Mustang. Behind them, the prison bus came to a screeching halt. Brett looked at the others, clearly confused.
"Why'd we stop?" The guard wondered, leaning out of the bus door.
Beth pointed to the car. "We have company."
Soon, a brown-haired girl with tan skin stepped out of the car. "Beth, what are you doing?" A voice screeched. It was Maggie.
"Maggie, if you would let me explain." Ethan decided to handle this.
"Why did you leave? And what are you doing with my sister?" Maggie shouted.
"Okay, first of all, calm down." Ethan responded. "And secondly, to answer your question, we had business to do in Atlanta. The bus you see behind us had survivors at the prison there, so we decided to go get them."
Maggie glared at Beth. "And you, young lady, why did you think it was okay to invite yourself along?"
Beth gulped. "I-I didn't know that I wasn't allowed to leave. Maggie, I'm old enough to take care of myself now."
"Look, she's fine. No bites, no injuries, nothing." Danny pointed out. "If she was, we would all be in a panic."
Maggie made a quick movement, and soon had a gun pointed at the bartender's head. "Get. Out."
"Maggie, put the gun down." Ethan frowned, standing in front of his friend. "I had hoped for a peaceful solution to this. Not this kind of violence."
"Well, it's hard to be peaceful when someone just died fifteen minutes ago. And it could've been prevented if we had more people here to help!" Maggie growled.
"And can you blame us for not knowing this would happen?" Ethan pressed. "In case you haven't noticed, no one here is psychic. We couldn't have predicted this would've happened. If I could have, I would've dropped everything and did something about it."
"Well, it's too late. Madison's dead." Maggie spoke.
Ethan paused, seeing Danny in shock. "Interesting...where was Rosita when this happened?"
"Why does that matter?" Maggie asked. "I don't know, I think she was in the kitchen with Dad." However, the con-man was having none of it.
"...You were concerned about your sister this whole time, weren't you?" He questioned. "Every moment we were gone was a moment you were worrying about her, right?"
"Of course. As soon as I couldn't find her or you two, I imagined the worst." Maggie quivered.
"I understand." Ethan was sympathetic. "If I had a sibling, I'd be worried about them in times like this. I can see why you would be so nervous about losing someone you love." Then he asked, "Maggie, Madison really isn't dead, is she?"
Maggie paused. "No...no, she isn't. I just wanted someone else to feel what I've been experiencing for the past..god, two hours. It's not okay for someone to go through that."
"That's true. And I'm really sorry you had to suffer through that. I should've said something to you." Ethan apologized. "Now please, put the gun away. We don't need to kill someone over a 'what if'."
Maggie dropped the gun. Soon, the prison bus group had gotten off the vehicle and was surrounding the group.
"What's going on here?" Alida said with a giggle.
"Maggie here was worried about her sister." Danny answered her. "And...we got into a little spat."
Alida grinned. "Darn, I missed it."
Mickey pointed at the house. "Is this the place?"
"Yes, it is." Ethan answered.
"Nice place you got here." Brett complimented.
"Thank you." Beth blushed while Maggie said nothing.
"Where am I going to sleep?" Alida asked. "The prison beds sucked."
"We can make arrangements for these people, right?" Ethan asked Maggie.
"Yes. We have a spare bedroom that you guys didn't use up. Me and Beth share a room, Dad has one, Ethan has our air mattress, Danny and Madison have a room, and Abe and Rosita sleep on the couch. The others sleep in the attic."
"Um, Mickey and Cassandra can take the spare bedroom." Danny spoke.
"What about Alida and Brett?" Beth asked.
"I don't mind where I sleep." Brett told her. "I'm a simple man."
"We have a pull-out mattress in the dining room for some reason. Dad thought it was just a basic couch. So, Alida and Brett can have it." Maggie answered.
"Is that fine with you?" Brett looked towards Alida.
The woman nodded. "Perfectly."
"Alright. Now we just wait to see how the others react to this…" Ethan was a bit wary of how they would take it. But hopefully they'd take it well.
The reaction was rather good. Hershel was a bit reluctant, but eventually accepted it. Rick and his group were fine with it. Madison thought that with new people would come new ways of thinking, which for all she knew would be a good thing or not.
As night came, the group gathered around the table for dinner. It was rather difficult to fit all sixteen of them. But somehow, they had managed to make it work.
The table was set with meatloaf, green beans, buttered rolls, and chocolate ice cream, all courtesy of Madison and Rosita.
"Well, here we are. This merry band of sixteen survivors." Madison mused.
"Maybe it'll stay sixteen. Probably not." Alida giggled in a bizarre way.
"Time will tell, Alida." Ethan responded.
"So, what's the plan? What now?" Beth asked. "There's so many of us, it's gonna get chaotic."
"I'll think of something." Ethan promised. "For now, we let things play out as are…"
And play out they would. After the meal, most went to their designated sleeping places. Madison, Rosita and Mickey washed dishes, while Hershel, Brett and Daryl sat out on the porch. It was pitch dark out, except for a small light on the porch giving some ability to see.
"So gentlemen...what to do now…" Brett wondered.
"Well, for now, we can at least try to improve things around her. Get some defense for the walkers, maybe put that shed to better use." Hershel replied.
"I'm used to night shifts." Brett suggested. "Perhaps I could be a lookout?"
"That would be quite helpful." Daryl said. "Maybe I can help out with that too."
"I'll take first shift." The guard agreed. "You're fine with second shift?"
Daryl nodded. "What about day guards? Rick, maybe?"
"That'll work." Brett spoke. "If that's okay with Rick."
"I'm sure it will be." Daryl replied. Just then, a drunken Abe stumbled outside.
"Hey-hey guys. There's..um, some-something outside. Me and Rosie saw it from...uh, the window. The one upstairs." Abe slurred.
"Daryl, I think we ought to check this out." Brett had a shotgun ready.
Daryl picked up his crossbow. "Indeed."
The two walked out front, seeing nothing but darkness.
Brett fished around in his pockets. "I think I have a flashlight or something like that…" He said.
"There's a little light on my bow, but it's not much." Daryl spoke.
"Might as well give it a try." The guard shrugged.
Daryl flicked the light on, slightly illuminating the ground in front of them. Twenty feet away or so, the two saw a cluster of shadows.
"What's that?" Daryl asked. Brett waited for the shadows to come closer before deciding on a course of action.
The twenty or so shadows staggered forward.
"Walkers…" Brett guessed, priming his shotgun for action.
"Fire!" Daryl whispered. A walker fell as Daryl's first arrow struck it.
The two were able to wipe out the wave pretty fast. Soon, three men approached them.
"State your names and business." Brett demanded, but wasn't too mean about it.
Brett and Daryl heard a pair of rapid footsteps behind them. "What's all the commotion?" A voice shouted.
"Ethan?" Brett curiously asked. "Walkers were here, then these men showed up."
"At this hour?" The con-man blinked, letting his eyes adjust. Then he paused. "Oh, no…"
"What?" Daryl inquired.
"Take him out!" One of the men shouted, obviously talking about Ethan. That guy got a shotgun stock to the side of the head, courtesy of Brett. Ethan wasted no time shouting,
"No time for questions, just take them down, please!"
Daryl and Brett fired rapidly. One more got knocked down by Daryl. but the other drew out a rifle, and shot Daryl square in the forehead, then soon had the same done to him by Brett.
"Daryl!" Ethan exclaimed, running over to his fallen friend.
Daryl rolled around on the ground in pain. His forehead was bloodied, but Daryl was responsive, unlike the fallen enemies.
"Okay, who are these guys?" Brett demanded an answer from Ethan as he pressed a hand to Daryl's forehead. "Only someone who really loves the Second Amendment or is in some sort of military unit would have these kind of weapons."
"...They're likely after this letter I've been decoding." Ethan answered. "But now's not the time for this. Daryl's hurt, and he needs help. Get him inside, and I'll explain everything to you later."
"You got it." The guard wasted no time doing that. Soon, Ethan was heading back in a hurry, fearing there might be more of these people.
Later, Daryl would soon be tended to by the others while a few others were conversing about what was going on.
Mickey and Ethan stood nearby Daryl, while Madison sat next to them in her wheelchair.
"So, what in the hell happened out there?" Mickey asked.
"Some strange men were after Ethan, and one of them shot Daryl. I paid the sonuvabitch back in kind." Brett answered as he sat next to Daryl. Hershel, Beth and Cassandra were taking care of him.
"That's odd. Why would anyone be after you, especially in this time?" Madison inquired.
"To be honest with you Maddy, it's likely to do with this letter that I found a while ago." Ethan responded honestly. "They were likely after Hershel too…"
"Why would they be after him?" Brett was confused.
"Lemme just write out the finishing touches…" Ethan quickly finished the deciphering. "And maybe we'll get some answers." Soon after, Ethan had finished what he needed to do with the letter.
"And what does it say?" Madison was listening.
"Okay...executive order, a couple corporate keywords here and there...yeah, standard stuff." Ethan then went wide eyed. "This isn't just an executive order. This is a hit!"
"A hit? Like a bounty?" Brett was stunned with this development.
"Yeah. On me and Hershel. Though I don't know what they'd want with him, but odds are he was against them." The con-man told them.
Hershel walked over. "I heard my name? What's going on?"
Ethan paused, quiet at first. He then wordlessly showed him the letter, his expressions and body language speaking for him.
"Oh dear…" Hershel spoke. "This is not good. Not good at all. How did they find out I was here?"
"I want to help you." Ethan broke his silence. "I really do. From the very beginning when I first met you, I knew deep down that you were a good man. Obviously something they did made you go against them. And for that, I thank you."
"Yes, I did. Me and a few others, we tried to leave. Me and one other were able to go under the radar. But they kept the others. Heard they tortured them, kept them as minions." Hershel sighed. "It's a shame, really."
"There is always chance for atonement." Madison reassured him. "Because...I don't know exactly what they had you do, but I can forgive you."
"Thank you. What they made us do...Horrible things. It's why Maggie's mother left me. My daughters never found out though. They'd never forgive me if they did." Hershel spoke.
"Maybe not when you first tell them, but in due time they just might." Ethan told him. "Now...where do you suppose they could be at? The experimenters."
"Our original base was in Atlanta. They trusted me to listen in on some meetings. I heard they planned of moving over to Decatur. Not very far from Atlanta." Hershel informed.
"Are we all gonna go, or?..." Madison wondered.
"Hmm...I'm not sure. Lemme think about that in slumber. Because I am still tired…" Ethan let out a long yawn.
"So, it's settled. We're going to Decatur. We ought to head to bed, but we'll get a plan tomorrow." Hershel spoke.
And with that, the sixteen survivors went to sleep, and a plan was in the making.