The group walked along slowly, staying alert to any sound. It was hard for a group that size to move quietly, but they managed it somehow.
Rick's group was getting tired, their feet dragging as they moved along. Mitchell looked back, seeing some of the foundlings lagging a bit. "It's not much further." he assured them. "Just try to keep up."
"Easier said than done." Beth groused as her toe caught a tree root that had been covered by some leaves.
"Watch where you're goin'." Daryl said as he caught her arm and kept her on her feet.
"How long have you been here?" Lori asked as she walked along beside Rick, right behind Mitchell and Christie.
"We've been here about two months now." Christie replied.
"And you've got a good secure place set up in such a short time?" Rick asked, unconvinced.
"It was here before we were." she answered. "Mitchell and I have been here about two months, Reichert and the others found us and brought us here."
"We were half starved and surrounded." Mitchell explained. "We were with a couple of other people, but they didn't make it." he voice lowered and they could hear the hurt in his voice. Christie reached out and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.
"I bet you they're bumpin' uglies." Daryl commented to Beth who just stared at him for a second before jabbing him in the ribs.
"Shush" she shook her head, but not before a small laugh escaped her.
As the group neared the edge of the woods, a wall could be seen stretching around, the roofs of houses peeking out over the top. The wall seemed to be made up of every material a person could get their hands on. Some bricks, rocks, cinder blocks, chunks of concrete all stacked together to form a wall only about six or seven feet high.
"That wall keeps walkers out?" T-Dog asked as they walked into a clearing just outside the colony walls.
"It's tall enough to, yeah." Mitchell nodded. "We add to it when we can, and we always have people on patrol."
They stopped when they reached a corrugated steel door, two men with rifles posted on top of the wall each side of the door. "Who are they?" the man on the left asked.
"Some foundlings." Christie replied. "They need to talk to Reichert, so they can see if they can stay here for a while at least."
"You're gonna be responsible for them?" the other man asked.
"Yeah." she nodded as she craned her neck to look up at them. "Just open up, all right?"
"You do know what'll happen if they cause trouble..." the guy on left spoke again.
"She knows, she's not an idiot." Mitchell sighed. "Open the damn doors."
"Okay, it's your funeral, Christie." Lefty shrugged and called down to someone below to open the doors.
Daryl looked around as they waited for the doors to be opened and noticed a group repairing the wall near the eastern corner. "What happened there?" he asked.
"We had a storm a while back, lightning hit a tree branch." Christie had to peer around Mitchell to see what Daryl was looking at.
"Is this wall secure?" he asked.
"More secure than being out in the open, surrounded by walkers." Mitchell said as he stepped aside motioning for the group to head in as the doors opened up. "We can't control weather, but we can fix most of what it damages."
They walked through the doors and took in their new surroundings. If one were to overlook the wall surrounding them, it almost looked like a TV or movie set. The yards were kept neat, flower boxes starting to show their new blooms, rose bushes dotted the area and the houses were obviously new and well maintained.
"How many houses are there?" Lori asked as she stared at an old woman sitting on a swing that hung on a covered porch.
"Twenty finished houses." Mitchell replied as he saw the weapons, their own and those of the new group, safely handed over to a man in a steel shed. "And about ten or fifteen that the developers never had the chance to finish."
"Where are the people who lived here?" Carol asked.
"Most of the houses were empty when the original group got here." Christie chimed in. "But they found a few of the residents, but they were removed."
"Removed?" Lori asked. "This Reichert and the others threw them out?"
"They were dead." Christie stated matter-of-factly. "When I said they were removed, I meant that they were taken away and cremated."
"Why cremated?" Hershel asked.
"So they wouldn't cause trouble later."
Mitchell moved off to talk to another man who kept peering over Mitchell's shoulder at the group of newcomers.
"Stein." Christie sighed. "He can be a bit of an ass."
"Is he gonna cause problems?" Rick asked as he watched the interaction between the two men.
"If he has the chance." she nodded. "But he won't influence Reichert, so don't worry."
"So he'll just be an ass to us?" Daryl asked.
"I'm sure you'll be able to handle it."
"Okay, can you show them to the house at the end of Whittaker?" Mitchell asked. "Reichert's out hunting, he'll talk to them when he gets back."
"Sure." Christie nodded.
"If all goes well, you'll be split up and you won't all be stuck in one house." Mitchell explained to them. "Christie can explain how it all works."
"Follow me." she waved them forward.
"Do you have your own house?" Carl asked, dreading having to walk more.
"I do." she nodded. "There's kind of a system at work here." she explained. "There's about ten families here, they each have their own place, a couple of the singles have their own, and then others share houses."
"How do they determine who gets their own space?" Maggie asked.
"That tends to be a kind of reward." she turned down a street, looking back to make sure she hadn't lost anyone. "If you keep your nose clean, you do your part, then you get a little place of your own." she looked up at a street sign. "Just a few more blocks."
"My feet are killin' me." Carl complained, holding onto his mother's hand.
"Just a little further." Rick assured him as he, too, read the street signs.
"Here we are." Christie turned left down Whittaker Lane.
It was a rather odd housing development. Generally, the houses all look alike, varying only in color and even then only slightly. The houses here were different styles, some wood sided, others brick, a few made of some sort of stone. There were one or two on this street that were unfinished and,unlike, the others, looked so sad and unloved.
"The houses are well tended." Carol looked at a brick Cape Cod style home, wishing she'd have had that kind of home to bring Sophia up in. From the looks of it, this was the kind of place she would have loved to have raised a family.
"Just one of the ways you can earn your own place." Christie led them to the end of the street and up the walkway to a large colonial type house. "This one is large enough so that you're not all on top of one another while we sort things out." she pulled a set of keys from her pocket, looking at tags that were attached to each. "Aha!" she smiled. "Too many keys." she unlocked the door.
"You have keys to every house?" Maggie asked, not sure how she felt about a stranger having the key to the place where she would be sleeping.
"I have the keys to all the houses on Whittaker." she explained. "I live down the street, so I keep an eye on things over here." She ushered everyone in."It's furnished, and the kitchen is functional, but there's obviously no food in the fridge." she opened one of the large windows in the living room. "We'll get that sorted out, too."
"So, there's running water?" Beth asked, her eyes lighting up at the thought of an actual bath.
"Yes." Christie laughed. "Seems too good to be true when you first get here."
"It changes after you've been here for a while?" Lori asked as she sunk into the overstuffed sofa.
"Well, then you get put onto the chore rota and then you're working all the time." she went around, opening curtains and windows. "And once you've gotten enough trust built up, then you get to go out hunting and keeping watch."
"Sounds good to me." Daryl looked around at his new surroundings and felt uncomfortable.
"Oh, you actually like to work?" Christie asked. "If that's the case, I think you'll come to be one of our favorites."
She looked around and then shrugged. "Well, for now there's not much else for me to do, so I'll leave you to look around." she headed for the front door. "Either Mitchell or I will come get you when Reichert's back." she informed them. "After that, we can get you your first round of supplies."
"Thank you." Rick said as he followed her to the door. "Thanks for all of this."
"Don't thank me yet." she said.