Waya decided to take Tsula hunting. She needed to learn. She couldn't be timid in this world. He didn't want her to spend the rest of her life frightened to go outside the walls. The dead would always be there. People lived and people died. Dicks were around before the dead gave them an excuse to be the dicks they truly were. He wanted her to be able to survive on her own if this place was lost and he became one of them.

The first lesson was being quiet and listening. He'd found a small hunting knife from one of the houses, gave it to her with a sheath and had her follow him through the field toward the woods.

Daryl didn't know what to do with himself. At the prison they'd have days off, too. Everything had been done that had needed to be done for that minute. Usually, he jumped on his bike and drove around. Easier to find gas, kinda, in the beginning. Now, findin' gas was gettin' harder. People would come through, siphon what they needed and moved on. They had plenty a gas, but he'da felt like an asshole takin' some to go for a joyride.

He'd found the Big Spot out ridin' around. They didn't need nothin'. They did, but Rand or Tom hadn't given him or 'Chonne the list yet.

Her. Wantin' his advice. Rick did, but Rick wasn't as smart as this woman. She listened to him, like Rick, but she told him why she agreed or didn't agree with him. Like it mattered to her he understood. She didn't just brush him off, like Rick did sometimes. Until the council. Then Rick wasn't askin' him shit. Everyone else was, though. Fuck it. He was goin' for a ride. Him, Waya and Tsula left at the same time and Michonne put the drawbridge back up.

They nodded to each other and parted ways.

After Michonne left Rand on watch, she took a book from the library, went to the solar and started reading. She hadn't had a day off since this started until Alexandria. Then it was odd. They'd been through some shit before they'd gotten there. Then Deanna wanted her to be a constable. She laughed to herself. She'd been a lawyer then Deanna wanted her to be a glorified security guard. She put the book in her lap and stared at the black of the TV screen.

They'd had TV's in Alexandria. They'd had electricity. They didn't have food growing, which they should have. Rand was smart, taking it all. She was lucky. They were all lucky they had food growing. She knew the woman would have started growing it anyway. Michonne sighed.

She missed Carl, but Rick and Carol were being unreasonable. Deanna wasn't like the Governor. Joe and his dick friends. Gareth. They chose to live like they were. Deanna let them leave when they wanted, unlike the Governor. He'd cowed those people. They weren't like the Alexandrians, from what she remembered. Philip had them all fooled. They'd wanted to be fooled.

The Alexandrians wanted to pretend this wasn't happening. It was inconvenient for them, at most. They'd been living cozy lives and found another place like before where they could continue to lead cozy lives. Doctors, retirees, politicians. Deanna would have listened. Not to Rick, he was too volatile. And after the Pete incident? Not inclined to listen to him, at all. Deanna would have listened to her. She could have made the woman understand what it was like, and not by threatening to kill her, either.

Seth stood back at what he, Adrian and Daryl had started in the guardroom the other day. They'd just stacked like guns by like guns, keeping some in the cases. They needed more shelves in here. He didn't want a day off. He'd had more days off than he'd had since he'd joined the service. Adrian was with him because he felt the same.

"Shelves. I'm sure Rand has some on the list. We'll just add to it," Adrian looked at the stacks of guns.

"You know how to lay brick?"

"I've never laid a brick in my life."

"We should learn."

Adrian opened another crate and looked inside. "Are you saying we should start a 'honey-do' list?"

"What's a honeydew list?"

"A mate of mine had an American wife. She'd give him a list of things that needed tending around their flat. She called it a 'honey do' list."

"Ahh. A 'honey, will you do this' list?"

"Aye."

"We need to fix some of the stones in the overpass."

Adrian nodded. "We'll need shelves."

"Build gun racks."

They stacked everything they could before searching out the other storage area on the ground floor of the keep. It took them a good part of the day to rearrange.

Seth took a step back when they were done. "Enough weapons to start and finish a war."

"It's what this is. A war."

"We'll still be standing."

Adrian smiled. "We will."

Rand was happy to see everyone at breakfast the next morning. She'd done watch until dark, fifteen hours, and wanted to get some of the other things checked off that needed to be done. She had the decency to wait until they were done eating.

"Any news? Waya, I noticed you, Tsula and Daryl left yesterday."

"No."

"Nah."

"We put the guns in the guardroom and one of the storage areas in the keep," Adrian reported.

"Good. We'll need an inventory. We need a watch. I've put together a schedule. We'll be stretched pretty tight. No night watch for right now. If the drawbridge is up and we take the zipline down, we'll be…here. Tom, you're the seneschal."

"The what?"

"The seneschal. The castle manager. Minus weapons. You know what we have and you know what we need. You're in charge of making sure it gets done. Daryl and Michonne have volunteered to do the first run. They can take who they like and get what we need. Seth? Can you please give Tom training on using a gun?"

He nodded.

"Good. Because you'll have to do watch, too, Tom."

"I'll help," he looked at his son.

"That was the deal. Other things we need in addition to shelving, locks and fencing is wood. I said before I'd like to thin some of the trees out. The ones closest to us. Fire prevention and we need the wood for the winter. Animals. It doesn't matter what we get to start off with, but horses would be good down the road. I'd like some eggs. Cows for milk. Any suggestions or ideas, I'm all ears."

"Whatever we can find first," Waya ventured. "Rabbits. We've seen some."

"That works for me. The frozen meat will be gone soon. I'm not much of a meat eater, beef anyway, but I'll take it. Michonne and I found a list of what animals were to be brought here and Daryl said he'd check it out. Before, during or after the run for shelving, etc."

"During," he told her.

"During it is. You can bring your bike in, if you want."

"Was gonna."

"Next order of business are the trucks. I like having them. I'd like to keep at least one. We need some sort of building, camouflaged, where we can keep it. One truck, the SUV and my car."

"Another car," Michonne suggested.

"Another car, too. That's all I have for today. Anyone? Throw ideas out and we can discuss them."

Adrian grinned. "I'd say you have our dance cards pretty full, Rand."

"Alright. Waya, I started you for six hours. Adrian will relieve you. Daryl and Michonne, I didn't put you on watch because of the run. You will be on watch when you're not needed elsewhere. I'll start on the guns, Seth can take Tom out for lessons. Michonne and Daryl can help me. Tsula and Mark, I want you to check the farm and feed the donkey."

"Class dismissed," Seth whispered as they took dishes to the kitchen.

Waya flashed him a grin.

Daryl almost shit his pants by the time they were done with guardroom.

Rand let out a breath. "We have three hundred five hand grenades, six hundred twenty two AR fifteens, two hundred sixty seven M sixteens, thirty two revolvers and two hundred seventeen automatics. With ammunition. That's just in here. The RPG's and other fun stuff is in the other storage area?" Rand looked at him for confirmation. He nodded.

"We don't screw around," she snorted. "Ideas? Just stacking like this words for now. I'm sure Seth and Adrian have a few." She stood with them, looking around. "I'll be able to sleep at night. You two?"

"Yeah."

"Thirty nine rocket launchers, five hundred three rockets, one hundred three fifty cal sniper rifles with ammunition. We really don't screw around. Seth and Adrian did a good job." She looked up from the laptop. "What was the fuel?"

"Two hundred four ten gallon containers of regular, full, thirty eight ten gallon containers of diesel, full. In addition to the fifty one full five gallon containers of regular and fifteen full diesel we brought back from Bridgewater," Michonne told her.

"Think we gotta enough," Daryl interjected.

"For now," she deadpanned before she grinned and typed.

"We ain't gonna go through a lotta gas, Rand. Where the hell we gonna go?"

"Runs." She looked at them as she put the laptop on the floor. "I'm not sure how it worked at your other places. The first two places I lived in had run teams. I always thought it was short sighted to keep going out there. It brings unwanted attention. It's why I wanted to clean out Bridgewater. Not that I think we should stay inside all of the time. We shouldn't. We'll get…content. Then we'll get arrogant, sloppy, stupid and dead. But we need animals. We need medicine. We need books for things we don't know how to do. We won't find all of that around here. Unfortunately. This?" she pointed to the walls. "This is good. I'd like to do better."

"Better than we were at the prison," he scoffed.

"I'd like to say I'm sorry, but you ended up here, so I'm not. This is a helluva lot better than my other places, too, Daryl, but I don't want to keep losing places. Dicks will find us. Whether it's out on a run or they're like those dicks that were using the Trail. Someone, somewhere, is doing this same thing. They might be dicks looking to expand their little empire. We're lucky we found this place like it is and Bridgewater was the land that time forgot. Sometime in the future trade will start again. We'll be in a good position to fend off dicks and trade some of this for doctor visits or medicine or food we used to eat, but don't grow here. You might want kids. Michonne might want kids. If we do better now your kids won't struggle as hard as we have in the future. Tsula and Mark won't struggle in the future." She stood up. "That's my little inspirational speech for the year."

Rand was with Daryl and Waya as they stood on the other side of the moat and looked at the tree line. The brick overpass spanned the created road, blending into each side of the woods. "I know we're not lumberjacks, Daryl, and I don't want to get into the business, so we'll start with the trees you marked to make it easier to see the road."

"Need ropes and saws," he drawled.

"Yes, I figured that out," she snorted.

"Take them down in chunks. Adrian or I could climb the tree, rope off a section, cut it and we could have a few people on the ground lower it down," Waya suggested.

"I can climb a damn tree," Daryl grumbled.

"We all can, Daryl, with the exception of Tom and Mark. We'll take turns. I hate climbing trees but I will if I have to," Rand replied. "Let's get started, shall we?"

She had Mark bring them water when they needed it and Tom took care of the walkers that showed up to rain on her parade. The only ones not looking as tired as her, Michonne, Daryl and Waya were Seth and Adrian, the bastards. It wasn't fair, she thought, as she took an axe and chopped the wood into smaller pieces, her and Michonne's job, while the guys took the trees down. She'd been running, walking, killing walkers when she had to and hunting. They'd been stuck on their base. Even Tsula was dragging ass, carrying the wood to the wagons for one of them to take inside. Usually her and Mark had more energy than they knew what to do with. Although she did give the little girl kudos for wanting to move the wood and not do drink duty. Good girl, trying to be independent. Rand smiled when she recalled the almost knock down drag out between her and Mark about it before Waya and Tom suggested they take turns.

Michonne stood up and wiped her face, giving her a quizzical look. "Drink duty," she said. The woman snorted and went back to chopping wood.

Michonne groaned as the hot water hit her back. Taking down trees was tough. It didn't help they only had a few people. She wouldn't change it, though. This was good. Fulfilling. Something she didn't think she could feel anymore. It was…interesting she could feel fulfilled now, after everything she'd gone through. Michonne wished she'd found Rand before Rick. Before she'd lost Andre.

Stepping out of the shower she cleared her head of those thoughts. Wishing things had been different didn't stop they weren't different. What she'd gone through was what she'd gone through. Then she laughed when she remembered Rand's comment on water duty. Tsula was a tough kid. Better place and better people.

Daryl was tired. He'd told Rand he wasn't no damn lumberjack, except he was now. They all were. Even Tsula and Mark had helped. He stripped as he headed for the shower and blew out a breath. They still weren't done. All they'd done was take down the four trees he'd marked so they could see the road better. He was gonna tell Rand they needed more people before they did anymore. Shit, they still had to split the wood they dragged inside.

They'd done a lot. It felt good.

He kinda hated Seth and Adrian, the assholes. Next time they could do all the climbin' and shit.

Waya made sure Tsula was covered with a blanket before he dropped onto the rollaway. Taking down trees was hard. They'd only been able to do the four Daryl had marked and it took them two days to do it. They still had to finish cutting them up, bring the wood inside then split it. He'd thought he'd been in good shape. When he was working he'd kept up his exercise routine he'd gotten in the army. He'd stopped when this happened, but traveling with a seven year old girl, running, carrying her, killing walkers, trying to find food then settling down in the department store wasn't like working in an office.

He turned his head to watch the sleeping girl. His sister would be proud. The things she'd gone through and she still insisted on carrying the wood to the wagons. She was still frightened of guns and she probably would be afraid of new people until she got to know them, but she was a fighter. Literally. Waya laughed softly as he recalled the rather loud disagreement she and Mark had gotten into regarding drinking water duty. He and Tom had exchanged exasperated looks before suggesting they take turns.

Michonne let Daryl drive the day after they'd finished the trees. Rand had insisted the rest of them could finish it up and they didn't disagree. She spent the time thinking about what Rand said in the storage area. She didn't want to lose another place, either. She left Alexandria of her own free will, but taking over wasn't the answer.

"You want kids?" Daryl asked as they drove down the road toward Harrisonburg. Michonne had already decided on this run they'd get maps and phone books, before planning the next. She shrugged and looked out the window. Having kids. She lost Andre. She wasn't involved with anyone. Carl was the closest thing she'd had, but Rick was his father. She would always regret not saying goodbye, but she couldn't stay there. He couldn't come with her and she couldn't honestly say what would have happened if she'd confronted Rick.

Tsula and Mark could never take his place but they were growing on her. "Do you?"

"Don't know. Never thought I'd have kids."

Harrisonburg was different than Bridgewater. They had more walkers. Daryl found a convenience store, it had been ransacked already, but they went in and checked it out. She had to kill a few walkers but they didn't see any people. She found a phone book behind the counter and took it. "No maps," Daryl snorted.

"Let's find a hotel."

Daryl shot her a glare. "Phone book right here," she hefted it to the counter and started looking through the business section. "They have more than Bridgewater," she whispered.

"Got gas. Let's drive," he suggested.

Daryl was cruising down, what looked to him, one of the main roads in town. "There," he pointed out when he saw the sign. They hadn't seen much but abandoned cars, broken windows and looted businesses. He drove slowly, trying to keep the noise to a minimum. Some of the walkers looked like they'd been that way awhile. Some looked fresh. He pulled into the parking lot near the lobby. He shut the car off before he and Michonne got out.

She knocked on the window and he saw five walkers, just waitin'. They exchanged looks. He brought up his crossbow as she opened the door. He took the lead one out right away. Michonne took off two heads, while he took out his knife and stabbed the other two. He held the door open for her. She rolled her eyes and entered the lobby.

Daryl looked around as Michonne went to the racks. He saw her pick up a couple and put them back before she grabbed a bunch. He knew what they were. 'Days of Yore' pamphlets. He agreed with Rand they should take 'em all. The woman did have a good point. Michonne thought so, too. She was smart. He'd thought so since the prison. She kept her head. She used to keep Rick's head on straight.

He'd never had friends. Until Rick and Glenn. Him and Michonne weren't friends. At one time, maybe. After Alexandria she said he was welcome, but no secrets. Still, it was kinda uncomfortable with her now. He knew he'd lost her trust. Rick had, too. He'd never trust Rick again. Now he knew how 'Chonne felt. Losin' Carol hurt some, but the woman seemed to have lost it at the prison. He thought Carol was wrong for killin' Karen and David. Didn't do shit, anyway. He was happy Rick kicked her out after Terminus. They'da died there. He was tryin' in Alexandria, like she asked. He put it away.

Michonne, hands full with 'Days of Yore' brochures, looked out the lobby window. She nodded and they exited, heading straight for Rand's black Honda Fit. As soon as Daryl shut the door, he threw his crossbow in the back and started it. He drove out of the parking lot and turned left, further away from the castle.

"Still need a good map," he grunted.

"Hm. We do," she agreed and lapsed into silence.

She was happy Daryl was with her, but she didn't trust him like she used to. Like she had before they lost the prison. Like she'd, wrongly, started to trust Rick. She was still sad and mad at Daryl. She stared out the window as he drove. It was like when they first started looking for the Governor. She didn't trust them, even though she understood why Rick would have given her to the dick, and they didn't trust her. It took her and Daryl months to be comfortable with each other. Maybe they could be again.

She stared at the abandoned and looted gas station Daryl pulled up to. She dumped the tourist info and got out of the car. She heard Daryl do the same. He pointed to the door and she pulled her katana. He moved in front of her and stood still, listening. The door was broken off and the place probably had walkers. Moving like they used to, they quietly crept inside. There wasn't much left, she could tell, as she looked around. Shelves were empty and turned over, some of the merchandise, she recognized bags of chips and cookies, had been crushed on the floor. Michonne shook her head. Daryl nodded and went behind the counter. She heard the growling, turned and stabbed the walker through the head.

She heard Daryl whistle low, letting her know he was behind her. They waited and didn't hear anything else, before they started moving toward the car again. Once inside, the doors closed and locked, Daryl started it and left.

"Got two. Took one of Harrisonburg and Virginia," he held up the maps. "And found a pack of cigarettes."

She took them from his hands and smiled a little. Sometimes things did go smooth. When they got back the wood was still being taken inside. Sighing with tiredness, she and Daryl went and picked up axes to help the others finish chopping.

Seth looked at his group sitting around the table to the last of the steaks he'd made for dinner. The run to get maps and a phone book had been successful. Daryl and Michonne were a good team. Most of the wood had been cut into manageable pieces and put in the bailey, waiting for it to be split.

"…sounds good," Rand's voice cut into his thoughts. "We'll get the little stuff done first. Shelving, locks and fencing. While someone's out, do the hotels."

"Adrian and I'll take some turns, Daryl. You and Michonne don't have to do it all."

"We could use the practice," Adrian added.

"You don't wanna cut all that damn wood," Daryl retorted.

"There is that," Seth admitted.

Waya laughed.