Newly Revised

"Hey, save them antlers!" Daryl told Merle and Abraham as they pulled the deer from the truck. "And don't even think of takin' 'em for yourself! That's my buck! That rack is mine!"

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you," Merle complained, though he had to admit the thirteen point buck was a pretty damn good catch. "What's got Ani worked up? Barely had the thing in park 'fore she was takin' off. What put the fire up her ass?"

"Tell you later. Right now, I gotta catch up to her. Better if we both explain it."

He ran up to Ani, who had gone ahead to find Rick, at Deanna's house, entering and explaining what they had found at the quarry while also letting them know about the successful hunt. While Reg and Rick began to come up with a plan to deal with the situation and how to handle the walkers, she and Deanna were trying to come up with contingency plans in Alexandria for if something bad happened. Ani wanted something in play as back up for if things went bad and they couldn't lure the horde away so that they could keep the people safe. Daryl pretty much just offered a few words and opinions and spent the rest of the time watching Ani, pulling her to his chest whenever he could. He held her to him, feeling her shaking on and off depending on how focused she got in the plans. In the morning, they would call an emergency meeting where Deanna and Rick would go over the plans they'd come up with with the rest of the town. Afterwards, they went home only to find no one home and Merle's room completely vacant.

"How much you wanna bet he moved in with Francine?" Daryl asked her.

"How much ya wanna bet Phia's with Carl?"

"Losin' bets all around."

Taking a shower to wash off the worries of the day, Ani was happy when Daryl joined her, gently washing her hair for her before washing her body. Ani returned the favor before pulling his head down so that their lips could meet in a quick kiss before he held her to him. They spent some time enjoying the water before stepping out, Ani throwing a towel at Daryl and wrapping one around herself. He didn't let her get very far before he pulled her back and took a towel to her hair making her sigh. Daryl really had held onto the promise of letting her get used to him pampering her, drying her hair for her practically every time they showered together. After they got dressed, they made their way downstairs where Ani made some chili, Aaron, Eric, Sophia, Abraham, and Sasha joining them for dinner. The conversation stayed light and casual, mostly driven by everyone, Aaron inputting his opinions and little snippets of detail while Ani and Daryl listened.

"Hey, ya didn' process those deer right away, right?" Ani mentioned to Abraham. "This place got propa storage ta keep it cool?"

"Yeah, we strung 'em up in Olivia's basement. Merle said to hang them for a couple weeks, though I don't know why when that's perfectly good meat right there."

"Let 'em hang," Daryl said. "Longer they hang, better they'll taste."

"Hangin' 'em breaks down the enzymes, gives 'em a less gamy taste," Ani explained in greater detail. "For right now, let's let 'em hang. Got 'nough meat ta let 'em hang at least a week. Won' be as good, but it'll be betta than the stiff game we got now."

They finished the meal and hung around for a while, moving out onto the porch as Ani didn't want smoke in the house and both Daryl and Abraham wanted to light up. Abraham somehow had found a few cigars in the pantry and had managed to get away with grabbing them for himself after helping save the construction crew. Ani brought out her little pack, and pulled out the bud she had, the redhead absolutely guffaw at the fact that the little woman who worked with the police broke the law on the regular when she did. It was a fun story to tell about how she had gotten away with it as well as how she started smoking to begin with. That started on the topic of music and bands that they had all liked, Metallica being the one stated the most. Abraham goaded Ani once he learned she knew how to sing a few of their songs until she damn near kicked him in the nuts, opting instead to kick his knee out. Even Sasha laughed at that one and told him he deserved it for being an ass to the toughest person there before she commented about Ani's bowl. It was green with blue and white swirls and fit nicely between her thumb and pointer when it was packed. Sasha thought the glass was rather pretty, Ani telling her about some of the other blown glass items, mostly bowls and figurines, she had gotten and how she liked collecting pretty things.

"What the hell you with him for if you like pretty things?" Abraham joked, getting flipped off by Daryl.

"What ya talkin' 'bout?" Ani asked, looking at the man as if he had two faces. "Daryl's always been hot as hell. He is one fine specimen a the human male species, unlike some monkey-faced buffoon in cargo pants and too tight shirts. Serious, man, ya got ta cova them damn nipples up! Ya goin' ta poke Sash's eye out one a these days!"

"You leave my nipples alone, Tiny!"

"How can I when they're right there for the world ta see? Hell, ya got man boobs, Red! Ya got man boobs!" Ani couldn't help but burst out laughing, everyone else on the porch laughing along with her as the man crossed his arms and glared at her.

"Well, you do have a pretty impressive chest, Abe," Sasha told him lovingly before jokingly saying, "I'd say she was jealous, but I think she's got you beat."

~x~

Around ten the next day, most of Alexandria's residents had piled into Deanna's house to learn about the horde. Daryl was sitting in the windowsill, one leg propped up on it as he held Ani, who was leaning on his lap, not quite sitting, as everyone else stood around trying to look at the map on Deanna's table. Rick went over their plans to use cars to form a pathway for the walkers to follow and how if they could get the walkers on one set path, they could direct them where they wanted to go. After pouring over maps the day before, there was a decent sized cliff some thirty miles out to the west, and they just needed to get the walkers going in that direction. They'd keep going, too, so most, if not all, would end up falling off the cliff and dying, and even if they didn't die, they'd be out of harms way to Alexandria. It was a pretty decent plan, though Reg had stated that the construction crew was going to be working with Rick on the task at hand, using the steel sheets to reinforce the pathway they were using for the walkers. They could finish constructing the wall's expansion after the horde was dealt with and Alexandria was safe enough to continue building it.

"My team," Heath, a member of the only other run team in Alexandria, stated after hearing about what they'd found. "We saw it early on. Back when we were on those first runs. Back when we were scouting to see what was around here. There was a camp at the bottom. The people, they must have blocked the exits with one of those trucks back when everything started to go bad. They didn't make it. They were all roamers. Maybe a dozen or so."

"And no one's been back since?" Maggie asked.

Shaking his head with a shrug of his shoulder, Heath answered, "DC, every town worth scavenging are all in the other direction. And I never really felt like having a picnic next to the camp that ate itself."

"So all the while the walkers have been drawn by the sound and they're making more sound and they're drawing more in," Michonne told everyone.

"And here we are," Rick said. "Now, what we're proposing, I know it sounds risky, but walkers are already slipping through the exits. According to Daryl, one of the trucks keeping the walkers in could go off the edge any day now."

"Got maybe one more hard rain left," Daryl told them.

"That exit sends them east. All of them. Right at us. This isn't about if it gives, it's when. It's gonna happen. That's why we have to do this soon."

"This is—I don't even have another word for it," Carol stuttered, making Ani roll her eyes; the gig was up now that Ani had killed someone and their group had practically taken over every position of power except leadership, which still fell firmly with Deanna. "This is terrifying. All of it. But it doesn't sound like there's any other way."

"Maybe there is," Carter, a man on the construction crew stated. "I mean, couldn't we just build up the weak spots? I mean, Reg, you could draw up plans. The construction crew, we can find a way to make it safe."

"Ain' nah 'weak spots' ta be built up. That size a horde, 'ventually they'll push through. They push through the wrong way, this place is gone," Ani told him. "'Sides, even if we do that, if we did make it ta where the horde was stuck for a good while, the sound a those walkas are jus' goin' ta bring more and more in and then, again, that's it. We're done. We got ta control this thing, not be controlled by it."

"We're going to do what Rick says," Deanna told the man. "Reg, Rick, Ani, Daryl, and I discussed this in detail and at length for quite some time last night. These plans weren't just thrown together. They know what they are doing and will not let this plan fail."

"I told you all," Rick spoke a little louder for everyone. "Daryl and Ani are going to be leading them away."

"Me too," Sasha said. "I'll take a car. Drive next to them. Can't just be them. I'll keep 'em coming, they keep 'em from getting sloppy."

"I'll go with her," Abraham said from his place beside her. "It's a long way to be white-knuckling it solo. Might as well ride with my girl."

"Alright," Ani told them. "Anythin' goes wrong, I can break off, head through the woods ta get ta Alexandria. Give y'all warnin' and ya follow through with the part 'bout hidin' out in ya homes, keepin' the noise ta a minimum 'til we get the all clear. Act as a secondary messenga 'sides the walkies ta keep everyone up ta date."

"We'll have two teams," Rick explained. "One on each side of the forest helping manage this thing. We're gonna have a few people on watch from now on. Rosita, Spencer, Holly, and Merle, so they're out. So who's in?"

"Me," Michonne said.

"I'm in," Glenn said after a whispered conversation between him and Maggie; Ani had to avert her eyes watching them and leaned a little further against Daryl as his arm around her waist tightened its hold.

"I'd like to help," Gabriel volunteered.

"No," Rick denied. "Who else?"

"Rick," Ani said, gaining his attention and giving him a pointed look.

"Fine. You do as I say, Gabriel, and you stay within my sights the entire time. We don't need you messing things up, again," Rick told him, Gabriel giving a muted nod to Rick and a small smile of appreciation to Ani, who nodded in return herself.

"Who else?" Rick insisted. "We need more."

"There's gotta be another way. We can't just control that many," Carter replied.

"Yeah, ya can, actually. They bunch up, follow each otha. And they follow things that move. We keep somethin' movin' in front a 'em, they'll keep movin'. That's how we keep it controlled."

"And what? We're supposed to just take your word for it? After you killed Pete? After he waves a gun around in people's faces?" Carter asked, pointing towards Rick at the end. "We're all just supposed to fall in line behind you?"

"Nah, not behind us. Behind her," Ani said, nodding her head over to Deanna. "I helped come up with this plan, I didn' make it. She did, with our help. Do ya fuckin' know anythin' 'bout walkas, Carta?" she asked, only to keep going the second he opened his mouth. "Rhetorical question, ass-hat. Ya more scared than Catty, and she'd piss 'erself stupid if she was a human. Ya don' know how they work 'cause ya the first fuckin' one ta run away when the damn things come up on the construction crew. Ya've barely fuckin' killed two in the four or five attacks there've been at the worksite!" Taking in his surprised expression, Ani couldn't help but laugh a little before saying, "I know basically every-fuckin'-thin' 'bout every-fuckin'-one in this room. I've seen all a ya tapes and have watched ya when I've been jus' walkin' 'round. How ya talk ta each otha, how ya intaract, how ya feel about each otha and the damn situation we're in. Some a ya, ya got the grit, got the guts, jus' need a little trainin'. Some a ya are like our dear little friend Carta ova there; scared shiteless and wantin' ta hide with ya thumbs up ya asses and ya head in the sand. But ya can'. Not this time. Ya have ta step up and become somethin', else ya goin' ta lose everythin'."

"Enough, Carter. We're going with this plan," Deanna told him when he went to open his mouth again. "It is the least risk to Alexandria."

"If all goes right," Ani corrected, not wanting to be dishonest in an already frightening situation. "And we'll do our damnedest ta make sure it does."

"I'll go," Heath volunteered.

"Me too," Francine said, Merle squeezing her shoulder.

"Whatever you need," Tobin said from beside Rick. "I'm in."

"Now who else?" Deanna asked.

"I'll go," Nicholas said.

"Fuck nah!" Ani immediately denied.

"We have to do this," he told her, his face all beaten up from trying to kill Glenn, something Ani herself added a black eye on him for. "I have to help."

"Ya go out there, ya ain' comin' back," Ani tried to reason. "Ya ain' stable 'nough."

"I have to help, Ani. I have to make it right."

Ani sighed and closed her eyes, nodding her head as Rick asked, "Are you sure you can handle it?"

"You need people," came his only reply.

"Glenn, ya choice."

"Let him do it," Glenn told her after seeing Nicholas's pleading look, Rick nodding in approval as well.

"We'll make this work," Rick told them. "We'll keep this place safe. Keep our families safe. We will."

"The plan," Carter told them. "Go through it again."

"Man, he just said it," Daryl growled from behind Ani, not at all thrilled about her taking the risk alongside him but not wanting to risk another fight with her either.

They had already fought both last night and that morning because of her refusal to stay in Alexandria while he went and dealt with the horde. She claimed it was the trap all over again and that he was purposely trying to take all the danger on his shoulders to protect her when she didn't want that. They were better off protecting each other and she told him that she knew he damn well knew that was true. And Daryl did; they worked better as a team than anyone else around them did and when they were in a fight together, they were always there to watch each other's backs. But the threat of thousands of walkers potentially getting a hold of her was too much for him to think of. She didn't need to be in that much danger when she could hang back and protect the home front with Merle while he went out. Merle could help keep an eye on her and keep her safe if anything happened while he was gone, which was one of the reasons he wanted her to stay gone. So many things could go wrong while they were out there leading the horde and he didn't even know if they would be able to make it back in one piece. Ani didn't care, though, and claimed that it was all the more reason for her to go and make sure they did. He understood her worries and she understood his, but she warned him that unless he tied her to the bed and locked her in the room like he was threatening, she'd be out there with him. It was an empty threat all around since she knew that if he did either of those things, she would never forgive him and Daryl knew it, too. She'd been left tied up and locked in a room enough times by the bastards that housed her before she finally escaped that hell hole. There was absolutely no way he was willing to do that to her again after seeing first hand how she had been treated in her childhood home let alone the risk of losing her.

"Every part," Carter told them, Ani rolling her eyes as Daryl scowled, being drawn out of the memories of their fight in irritation at the man more of a coward than Eugene. "Again. The exact plan."

~x~

It only took a week to get everything into play, Ani and Daryl helping when and where they could, although there was a tension in the air. Ani was pissed at Rick, and therefore only talking to him when necessary, because he'd attempted to have the Alexandrians take care of walkers on their own before they were ready. Training with Rosita had been called off between the two of them so that Rosita could try to train the people within the town, but that had barely started, meaning that they were still basically useless. Along with Morgan and Daryl, she had spear-headed the rescue for them and then verbally assaulted Rick on his choice of action in front of everyone. Many of the Alexandrians did not enjoy being compared to babies, but the thought that she wanted them to take it one step at a time and not be thrown off the deep end was appreciated. They had argued back and forth for a few minutes before her verbal lashing became so loud their own group members had to cut in so that more walkers weren't called. Needless to say, the Alexandrians learned that day another reason not to anger the small woman hellbent on keeping them safe.

Ani and Beth were training every evening in the backyard of Ani's house and had even roped Aaron into it with Beth's permission, training them both simultaneously. She focused Beth on defense while Aaron in offense, Daryl just watching and commenting about a few things. Sophia had also been taking part in the lessons, allowing Beth a chance to learn offense as Sophia learned more intense defense. Aaron would practice defense with Daryl on the offense when she was teaching Sophia, though Aaron had asked if Eric could join. She'd offered the man because Eric often times came out to watch, but he told her that he was happy keeping to the self-defense training Rosita was giving. He and Ani would make quiet remarks to each other about how hot Aaron and Daryl were when they were sparring, though, both admitting to the other they thought the other's spouse was attractive. It was hard not to think that when the four of them were together all the time; they had all become quick friends. Eric was one of the few people Ani was able to feel completely at ease and open with outside of her core group, aside from Denise. Merle and Carl would sometimes come around and spar with them, too, though when Merle sparred with Sophia, she always managed to 'beat' him with the help of Beth and Carl.

Ani had also spent some time in the infirmary, helping Denise whip up some basic tonics and elixirs, portioning out herbs so that they were ready to be made into poultice or tea, and reorganizing the infirmary based on Denise's preferences rather than Pete's. While Rosita and Beth were also in there a lot, Ani was surprised by Tara's regular appearance until she caught her making eyes at Denise, who made eyes at Tara when she wasn't looking. It was quite amusing to watch the two of them dance around, Tara's words of encouragement and Denise's flustered comments making her and Beth share secret smiles and chuckles about the two behind their backs. They had a running bet as to which one would crack first and ask the other one if they wanted to 'get coffee sometime.' Beth had brought up how the officers back in Atlanta had done that about Ani finding Daryl, so maybe making a bet about Tara and Denise would bring them closer together. She hadn't wanted to argue with Beth's logic, so just laughed along with the teen and agreed, picking within a few months where Beth said a few weeks. Rosita just called them both stupid for acting like little kids only to be told it wasn't their fault she had a stick shoved so far up her ass she forgot what fun felt like.

Ani had to admit that it hadn't been her finest moment when she'd snapped at the woman, but Rosita had become almost unbearable after Abraham left her for Sasha. The thing was, being told she wasn't the only woman in the world by the man was a slap in the face for the Latina. She couldn't blame Rose for how angry she was, but the verbal lashings she gave anyone who even smiled at the pair of lovebirds had gone on long enough. Ani had done her best to try to help the woman get everything off her chest only to be shot down with a snarky comment every time. 'Why do you care?' and blame throwing had been the most common reaction she had gotten from Rosita, and it had eventually left them both with even sourer tastes about the other. It wasn't much of a concern to Ani, though, because neither she nor Rose had to like each other to work well together. That much had been proven over the last week while they were working with training the Alexandrians together. Well, Rosita was doing the training; Ani would come by every so often to give her own pointers and adjust the basic techniques Rose was teaching them with personalized changes to make them easier for the individual. They could tolerate each other's presence and it was quite commendable to Ani how Rosita didn't like her but still worked with her well.

They had finished the path earlier that day and were planning on doing a dry run in the morning as soon as the shadows of dawn were gone. Daryl was bent over the four wheeler in their driveway, double checking everything and making sure it was properly tuned. Ani had tried to tell him everything was going to be fine, but he couldn't help but worry about her. They both had admitted to having a bad feeling, but there was nothing they could do; getting these walkers away from Alexandria was more important than what they were feeling. He looked up at her as she sat on the thing, leaning against the handlebars and watching him as he worked. Sighing heavily, he stood up and wiped his hands on a rag before standing up as she moved to sit sideways on the contraption. He stood between her legs and wrapped his arms around her neck, pulling her into him as she wrapped her arms around his middle and sighed against his chest.

"I wish you wouldn't go," he told her.

"Yeah, well, I could say the same thing," Ani responded.

"I know, that's why I'm not pushin' it. I wanna. I wanna so badly just tie you up in the room and lock you in there."

"I'd cut ya nuts off if ya even tried," she told him, both sharing a chuckle as she stood, sliding in his arms and up his chest.

"I just don't want you there."

Sighing deeply, Ani looked up at him, "I'm goin' where ya goin'. Unless somethin' happens ta make it ta where I got ta come back ta Alexandria, I'm stickin' with ya. Merle's got things cova'd 'ere and, like I told ya when I conceded bein' the go-between. I get ta be with ya unless somethin' happens, and ya get ta know I'm safe 'ere with Merle if it does. I don' like it, but it's the best a both worlds that we got."

Daryl leaned down and kissed her deeply before pulling back and picking her up, her legs wrapping around his hips as he took her into the house, "Can't argue with that."

~x~

"I know this sounds insane," Rick said as he stood on the truck bed talking to everyone. "But this is an insane world. We have to come for them before they come for us. It's that simple. This is where it all starts tomorrow. Tobin gets in the truck, opens the exit and we're off. He hops out, catches up with his team at red staying on the west side of the road! Daryl gets on his bike, Ani on her four wheeler and-"

"Shite!" Ani said, barely heard over the groaning of what was happening.

"You see that?" Sasha asked as one of the trucks blocking the other exit to the quarry fell off, opening the quarry on the opposite side, the side they were actively trying to keep intact to protect Alexandria.

They watched as it fell into the see of walkers, Rick shouting, "It's open! We got to do this now! We're doin' this now! Tobin, go get moving! Ani, get on your four wheeler, get back to Alexandria! They need to prepare!"

"No, Rick," Carter told them; Ani hadn't even wanted him out here with them, but he knew second best to Reg how to construct the walls they'd needed for this endeavor. "We're not ready!"

"Ain' got a fuckin' choice, now do we?" Ani spat at him, running over to Daryl and giving him a searing kiss as Rick called for Sasha and Abraham to get in their car. "I'll come back ta ya, catch up at the turn off on 65. Alright?"

"Yeah, be safe," he said, giving her one last kiss.

"Ya too," she told him as she ran to her four wheeler and booked it towards Alexandria.

Daryl watched her fading image until she disappeared, cutting into the woods to take the fastest route back home. He listened and watched as everyone moved into position, Carter protesting some more as Daryl swung around and trained his bow on the small opening. Taking aim and listening to Rick bark orders, finally giving the signal to start, Daryl watched as a walker literally flayed itself against the trucks to get out. He was happy Ani wasn't there to see it; ever since that hit to the head she'd become squeamish about stuff like that. Taking aim and putting that walker down, he ran to his bike, hopping on and revving the engine. He'd wanted Ani to stay in Alexandria for this trip because of her current aversion to grotesque scenery, but she had insisted. Now there would be a lot more space between them and the walkers by the time she got back, so she wouldn't have to deal with the smell or the sight so much. He listened as Rick radioed in instructions, hoping Ani would be able to be quick in her trip to Alexandria to give the warning.

Leading the horde through the gauntlet, he met up with Sasha and Abraham just as the cars they'd parked to make a pathway ended. After the gauntlet, they only had cars and supports placed to keep the walkers following the road they had planned to use. They moved slowly, reaching the area marked with orange balloons and slowing even more so that the walkers would be able to keep up and follow them. Daryl saw the flares going up that would keep the horde moving the direction they wanted it to. After another couple of minutes, he heard hooting and hollering, turning around long enough to witness Abraham running with some walkers on his trail. He managed to bring them back to the horde before hopping back in the vehicle with Sasha with a proud smile, Daryl just rolling his eyes as he continued forward. It was taking forever and Ani hadn't radioed in yet which had him worried about her, but they needed him to be on his bike and her there so that she could be safe in Alexandria if something did happen.

~x~

Ani made it back to the town, yelling at the gate to open up before she reached it so she could pass right through and get where she needed to go fast. Inside, she let Reg know what was happening before leaving to inform Deanna, who was outside the walls. Finding Deanna and Maggie in a field, shovels in hand, she let them know that the truck they'd been worried about had fallen. The walkers had been freed from the quarry and they'd been forced to put the plan in action before they could even try to do the dry run. Everyone else was heading to their points along the path while Glenn was heading to the tractor store to clear it out. Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham were already in front of the horde and should be about done with the gauntlet and taking the walkers onto the main road towards their destination. Ani needed to get back on the road so she could get to the intersection where she would meet up with Daryl. The only problem with that was that no sooner had she spoken those words, screaming erupted from inside the walls.

"Richards!" Deanna called up to the guard on the wall. "What's going on in there?"

"Watch out!" Ani yelled as a Molotov cocktail was thrown up at the man, breaking and bursting his body into flames. "We got ta get inside! My kids!"

"The kittens are-"

"The kids, Maggie! Phia! Carl! Judy! Our kids!" Ani cried at Maggie, who realized then that Ani wasn't worried about the kittens in the slightest.

"Go," she told the girl, who sprinted toward the wall, making quick work of climbing up the braces.

She dropped down inside, throwing one of her knives and killing a man who had just gutted one of the Alexandrians as well as another coming up on her. Ani took out another three with her throwing knives before she brought out her daggers having emptied her sheath. Making her way with brazen steps across Alexandria, she killed another three before she got to Rick's house. Finding Carol, Sophia, Beth, and Carl inside, Judith being upstairs, she cried in relief as she hugged the kids, kissing each of their foreheads, including Beth's. She ran upstairs to double check on Judith, happy she'd left the kittens in Sophia and Carl's care since they were both in the room with the baby. Catty was happily getting a 'massage' as the little girl rubbed her face in her fur while Bobby was batting a ping pong ball Carl had given her around. Breathing a sigh of relief as she kissed the toddler's head, she went back downstairs to the others, now starting to panic over the fact that she'd left Maggie outside of the walls. With what was happening inside them, though, it might not be such a bad thing that she was outside where she couldn't get hurt and the baby wasn't in danger.

"Ya three, stay in this house, lock the doors, and keep a gun on the points a entry, ya hear me?" she asked Carl, Beth, and Sophia. "Cars, ya and me. We're the only people who can help these guys here. Maggie's knocked up, so we got ta find 'er and keep 'er safe."

"What?"

"Ya heard me!" Ani yelled angrily. "We don' got time for nonsense, Cars! Jus' help me find Maggie and keep 'er safe!"

Leaving the house, she and Carol went in opposite directions, Carol being sneaky as she actively tried not to get noticed. Ani, however, was not being so cautious as she moved down the street with her daggers in hand, making sure as many Alexandrians were able to make it to safety as she could. She'd killed four more and wounded at least six, leaving them to bleed out or as easy pickings for the others. Everything was absolute chaos and the majority of the people either had 'Ws' painted on or carved into their foreheads. Several that she had killed had been in the process of chopping limbs off torsos or beheading those that had already fallen. It made her sick to her stomach as she moved forward to see so many of their people bleeding on the street. At least a third of their number had to have been slaughtered so far in the attack, maybe more, maybe less, but that's what she estimated. The only good thing about it was that the people she and Rosita had trained were trying to fight back. Ani was starting to think that they would be able to fend off the intruders only for things to get worse when a loud horn started blaring from near the watchtower.

"Shite! Shite! Shite!" Ani started yelling as she ran towards Eric, Rosita and Aaron carrying an injured Holly between them. "I'll get ya ta the infirmary, but then I got ta go! That horn's gonna draw the horde!"

"They're at the quarry!" Rosita snapped.

"Nah! They're not! Had ta do it now! Jus' got back and told Deanna 'fore all this shite started!" Ani informed them as they got closer to Denise's house. "Eric, ya stay in that house, ya hear me?! Ya don' leave! Not with ya ankle. I need ya ta stay and protect Denny and 'er patients. Can ya do that for me?"

"You got it, Ani," the man told her, knowing she didn't often ask for favors, more like demanded you listen. "Just be careful. I need my little buddy to chat about how hot my man is," he joked earning a worried smile from her, a chuckle from Aaron, and a scoff and roll of the eyes from Rosita.

"Now is not the time," Rosita complained.

"There is nah damn time!" Ani shot back, leaving them as soon as they got to the door and taking down another two intruders, this time pulling her gun since she didn't want these people getting close to the house and only had her gun and daggers left. "Do ya know where Maggie is?"

"I haven't seen her," Aaron told her as they climbed the stairs, Ani throwing the door to Denise's wide open and calling for her, seeing Eugene and Tara inside. "Last I knew, she was outside the walls sowing crops."

"Alright," Ani replied. "Tara, Gene, stay in 'ere. Help protect this place. Whateva else happens, the infirmary and the armory can' fall. I got ta go back out there. If I can' find Maggie, the least I can do is protect the armory."

Ani left the building only to have to dodge a swing of a knife, forcing her to drop her gun and whip out her dagger, countering the next strike by blocking his his arm. Punching his sternum with her free hand, she quickly and roughly crashed his head into the banister, knocking the man unconscious at least, before bringing her dagger down into his skull. Aaron and Rosita came out of the house next, planning on fighting against the intruders with her only for Ani to instruct them to get to the armory as she began to run for the gate. Ani hoped that enough people got to the armory so she could concentrate on making her way towards the gate in the hopes that she could get to Maggie. The kids were all safe save for the one that hadn't even had a chance to live yet and Ani would be damned if she let anything happen to Maggie before it was born. She'd knocked who she thought was another intruder down who was dragging Morgan behind her on a chain, preparing a killing strike. Morgan and the intruder, who turned out to be Carol, yelled to wait, Ani only barely able to stop the downward decent of her blade before it had a chance to plunge into the woman's eye.

"Are ya fuckin' stupid?!" Ani screamed at her as she stood up and pulled Carol with her. "Ya might blend in with 'em, but othas like me are goin' ta shoot first and ask questions lata! Jus'...jus' get ya ass ta the armory and stay there!"

"We need to get guns," Carol told her. "Hand them out to people."

Ani nodded her head, "I'll go with ya ta make sure we get there, but then I got ta get back out 'ere. I still haven' found Maggie."

She ran with Carol, helping her take down two of the three intruders chasing her, finding Olivia in the house that acted as the pantry and armory after scaring her half to death in much the same way she had Carol. As Carol grabbed as many guns as she could in a small tote bag, Ani gave Olivia a quick apology as well as a lesson in gun operation. Once they had what they needed, they ran back outside, the two mowing down each and every intruder they found and handing out guns to their people. They were beginning to retreat back over the wall as the pair went on the offensive, neither wanting to let a single one escape. Ani had no problem quickly blocking several of their escape and mowed them down while Carol shot a couple heading towards the gate before Morgan intervened. By the end of it, Carol was about to have a breakdown over the number of people she'd killed and Ani had added another seventeen kills to her count, bringing her total over a hundred.

"These were the same people who set that trap," Aaron said as he walked up. "How? How did they-"

"Prolly followed us back, waited for the right time. Most a our fightas are out dealin' with the horde," Ani told him, not letting him blame himself, even if she was doing the very same thing.

Making her way back to Rick's house, she double checked on the kids and twins, finding Enid in with them, before heading to the infirmary. There were probably a lot of injured people there who could use her help, so she pulled Beth along with her, Sophia too, as Carl headed upstairs to check on Judith. When they entered, Ani immediately went to Denise's side, giving her a squeeze on the shoulder before the woman broke down. Her shirt was covered in blood as were her hands almost up to the elbow. She'd tried to save Holly, who'd been severely injured, and failed, causing her to lose faith in herself all over again. Ani looked at the wound and told her that she'd done all that she could do and even in the old world, an injury like that would have most likely been fatal. Telling Denise to go get herself cleaned up as Beth, Rosita, and Sophia began tending to the minor injuries, Ani wheeled Holly's body outside, taking care of the final act herself. Noticing Gabriel, she passed the torch of dealing with the dead to him, finding Maggie and telling her she was heading out. She was on her four-wheeler and at the gate when she began crying in defeat; the horde was fast approaching Alexandria.