++++++ So how many times have you lovelies watched the season premier? Me? I recorded it and I've watched it a dozen times. What's your favorite scene? Have another chapter to which I do not own the rights to ++++++

Seventy-One

After it had gotten too dark, the two of us were forced to rest inside an abandoned box car on a separate track just a small ways from a sign that advertised Terminus. When I woke Sophia up after taking the last bit of guard duty, we talked about heading back to the small house in the Grove but we both came to the agreement that we would continue on until we found any sign of the small group we knew we were following.

We picked at some of the nuts and dry biscuits that we'd brought with us. It wasn't enough for a meal of any kind but it was all we were willing to take from the group we'd left behind. Although when I searched through the small pack Sophia was carrying, I found some more food stashed away in there. "Your mother, I swear to god," I chuckled.

Sophia smiled. "She always made sure dad targeted her instead of me when I was growing up."

I tossed Sophia a chocolate bar and dug into my stale oat bar. "You can go back to your mother," I told her. "Tell them I went ahead cause I found signs of Ebony and some others. She'll understand."

Sophia shook her head. "No. I'll stay here with you." She shovelled down her breakfast down as I stretched and did a few laps of the box car. "Just let me pee and tan we can leave."

"Sounds good," I grinned.

Sophia and Ollie left the box car and I checked my weapons. I had hoped that I could find some more arrows along to way. I was down to just twenty arrows –most of them being lost at the prison, been broken or me having no choice but to leave them behind. I checked the bullets, silently wishing the infinite ammo was an actual thing and not just something on the X-Box. I jumped out the side of the box car with Spirit and the four of us headed back towards the main track.

We'd been walking for an hour when we found bodies littered around what appeared to be a makeshift campsite. There were a few walkers chewing on the bodies that we took out with little effort.

Sophia paused at the site of a body of a dead bikie. "His throat was ripped out. That's disgusting."

I crinkled my nose and ripped an arrow out of a walkers head. "This guy's face was completely crushed. And this guy was disembowelled. That's sick. Walker's did not do this. These are stab wounds. No tears at the flesh. Tracks are about half a day old at best. My count, four people, three adults and a kid. Whoever these people were, we were only an hour's walk away from each other…" I was mentally kicking myself.

Sophia's face lit up. "Do you think it's Carl?"

I shrugged. "Could be. Or it could be other people. We follow the tracks best we can. Be on the lookout for spotters. I have a bad feeling about this. Like something crawling up the back of my spine."

"What do you mean?" she frowned.

I paused. "When I was in the Marines, out on patrol, sometimes you'd get this feeling right before the shit hit the fan. Honestly, I feel as though we're about to walk into a whole shit storm of epic proportions if we're not careful."

Sophia bit her lip. "So be careful?"

I nodded. "Yup."

The Terminus signs were getting closer and closer together. There was defiantly signs of walker and human activity closer to the area. More and more train lines were starting to get closer and closer together also, meaning that where we were going had to be a train terminal of some kind.

Choosing to go ahead whilst I took a rest break, Sophia came back thirty minutes later breathing heavily and looking panicked. I jumped up as she caught her breath, shoving what little water I had left in my canteen under her chin. "Walkers?"

Sophia shook her head. "I saw Ebony!" she gasped.

"What?" I all but shouted.

"Matthew was with them," she continued. "Ebony had a baby in her arms, Jade and Fluffy were there, Lucas and Joshua with Hope. I heard them talking about Terminus when John came out of the other side of the bushes with some other people. He put a gun to Jade's head and told them that they were coming to Terminus now. They took all their weapons. Ebony yelled at him and he slapped her."

I growled. "That fucking son of a bitch. I knew it was too good to be true that he was helping us."

"What do we do?" she asked me. "He mentioned that Daryl would be looking forward to seeing Ebony again. They're already there at Terminus."

I paused, the natural feeling of being defeated was all I could think of. My mind was going in overdrive trying to process possible ideas and solutions.

"There was a cabin," Sophia told me. "There was a guy there on a walkie talkie. John went there and they carted everyone off. Left that same guy there." She handed the empty canteen back. "We go there?"

I nodded. "Lead the way, Soph."

Sophia and Ollie took off into the trees, Spirit and I followed until we found the cabin that she was talking about. There was no one outside of the cabin but we could hear voices coming from inside.

Spirit and Ollie jumped out of the bushes, tails wagging and ran right into the cabin, indicating there was a friendly present. The two of us stared at each other and followed, weapons drawn but not raised.

"Mum!" Sophia grinned, running over to Carol when she saw her.

I frowned, seeing Tyreese and Judith but not Lizzie and Myka.

Carol hugged her daughter but kept her eyes on the man tied up on the floor. "I'll explain everything later. But for now, these Terminus guys have Michonne and Carl."

"Ebony, Jade, the baby, Lucas, Matthew, Hope, Joshua, Daryl and Fluffy too," I informed her. "Sophia saw John take them." I had a quick look at the bag that Carol was holding and raised an eyebrow. "What else?" I asked her.

"There's a heard heading to Terminus," Tyreese explained, keeping a tight grip on Judith.

"We're gonna use it," Carol replied. "You and me now that you're here."

I cleared my throat, eyes still on the guy tied up. "You spill whilst we walk."

Carol picked up the bag and we left the cabin.

A short time later, I couldn't handle the silence anymore so midway through cutting a walker up, I cleared my throat for her attention. "What the hell happened?" I asked.

Carol looked over at me. "Lizzie killed Myka and was about to kill Judith and let them turn into walkers. I had to put her down."

My stomach rolled. "Oh my god! What? No! Carol!"

Carol pulled a poncho out of the bag and threw it at me before pulling out on of her own. "When Glenn and Andrea first found Rick, they got out of Atlanta by getting a box truck. The only way to do that was cover them in walker guts so they'd smell like them."

I pinched my nose as I pulled the poncho on. "I swear to god this is the single most disgusting thing I have ever done. And that's next to spending a whole day smelling like a bar, covered in stale beer."

Carol started rubbing walker blood all over the poncho and my face before finally putting it through my hair. "About Lizzie-"

I sighed. "Don't explain," I replied, trying not to throw up from the smell. "We can talk later, Carol. I trust you had a reason. I trust you, okay? Just, tell me what this plan of yours is. You've obviously got one."

"Distraction," Carol replied. "We give our people time to get out by using walkers to distract everyone inside." She finished rubbing the blood on me before starting on herself. "All I need for you to do is cover me from any walkers or anyone else."

I nodded eagerly. "Yes ma'am."

"Meet you back at the cabin?" she suggested. Carol opened the bag and showed me what was inside causing a feral grin to break out on my face. "Once I'm in, you come back here and look after my daughter."

I nodded eagerly. "You bring them back," I told her. "I don't care who needs to die in the process but you bring our people back."