Newly Revised

"Daryl? I'm sorry, baby. I ain' gonna be able ta make it out ta ya," Ani's voice crackled over the walkie.

Daryl grabbed the one up on his shoulder, squeezing the call button and asking, "Ania?! What's goin' on?"

"Bad people came...attacked. Between the gunfire and the air horn...Got it taken care a, but the horde...Are ya okay? Do ya still got 'em followin' ya?" she asked him, her voice sounding a bit broken, as if she was trying not to cry.

"Yeah, they're followin' just fine. Why? What's wrong?"

"Baby, we can' get out. The horde, it must a broke, we're goin' ta be surrounded in a few minutes' time."

"Hold on, Ani, we're close!" Rick's voice came over.

"I see ya!"

"You said there was an attack?" Sasha asked.

"Yeah. People died. I...I couldn' save Reg. They found 'im in 'is home and killed 'im. Were choppin' 'is legs and arms off in the street when Merle found 'em."

"I'm gonna gas it up, turn back," Daryl told them.

"We have it, you keep going," Rick replied, even as he was panting as he spoke.

"They're gonna need our help," Daryl insisted, Ani being quiet having him even more concerned.

"We...we got our contingency. Ya got ta keep goin', D. Ya...ya got ta. Oh shite! Rick, I got the gate, fuckin' run!"

"Not if it's goin' down, I don't!"

"The rest of the herd turns around, the bad back here gets worse. Thanks, Ani," Rick insisted, the sound of the gate closing coming through the walkie.

"D, baby, ya got ta do ya part. Ya got ta keep that herd movin'. Keep...keep it goin' in the right direction. I got...I got this back here," Ani's voice sounded pained as she spoke before she scoffed. "Looks like ya got ya wish for me ta stay in Alexandria."

Not with the damn horde bearin' down on you, he thought to himself as he told them both he understood. He looked behind him at the herd following them, the thing stretching for miles behind the car and motorcycle. They'd been going for a while now, and the walkers hadn't been overly active aside from following them along. They didn't need to be there to keep them moving, and there was still plenty of time to get back to Alexandria and rig something up to lure the rest of the herd away. Daryl couldn't bear to leave her and Merle back there without some way to get them out. They had limited resources and while the contingency plan was a good one, they'd be even more trapped if they had to follow it. Ani had done a lot in the planning, but there had been little preparation in things going so wrong that they were literally surrounded by walkers. They needed to get back to Alexandria and take care of what was happening there and whatever happened with the horde happened. If anything happened to the two of them, or even Sophia, he didn't think he'd be able to forgive himself.

"Hey!" Daryl yelled into the car to Abraham. "We gone five miles out yet?"

"Give or take some yardage," Abraham answered. "You got a reason for askin'?"

"Next intersection, we're gonna spin around and go back."

"The plan is to go fifteen more," Sasha told him.

"Yeah, I'm gonna change that!" Daryl told her. "Five's gonna have to work!"

"The magic number is twenty," Abraham chided. "That's the mission. That's makin' sure they're off munchin' on infirm raccoons for the rest of their lives or dead off a cliff instead of any of us!"

"You want to go, we can't stop you," Sasha tried to reason. "But without you, they could stop us."

Daryl mulled it over in his head, wanting to go home for the first time in his life as he turned to Abraham and Sasha, he yelled, "Nah, I got faith in ya."

He heard their protests, he heard them yelling for him to come back, but he didn't care as he the engine and gunned it down the road with every intention of making it home and to Ani. Rick, Abraham, and Sasha could be damned for all he cared, and even Ani herself was going to have a reckoning when he got back home for brazenly lying to him and telling him everything was going to be okay. The only problem was that the further away from Sasha and Abraham he got, the worse he felt, he possibility of them getting overrun without him there to help was very real and weighed heavily on his shoulders. Guilt crept up on him until it was so heavy he didn't have a choice but to pull over less than ten minutes later. He pulled the walkie off his shoulder and held it in his hands as he bent over the handlebars trying to decide what to do.

"Ania? Baby girl?" he asked after a couple minutes of arguing with himself.

"I'm here, D."

"I need you to tell me what to do, baby girl," Daryl said, his voice breaking, not caring if everyone heard him. "You tell me, right here, right now, you want me to come back or not?"

"Ya know I do. But ya can'. Ya got ta keep the rest a 'em movin'. Sash and Abe, they can' do it without ya. I love ya, Daryl, and ya know I want ya here. But ya got ta keep 'em movin'. Can' be selfish all the time," she told him with a sad laugh. "I love ya, baby. I'll keep myself safe for ya. Jus'...jus' promise me ya'll do the same."

"Yeah, I promise. I love you. I'll be back as soon as I can," he told her, following the road to the next intersection and meeting back up with Abraham and Sasha.

"Good to have you back, and that one of you have a head on their shoulders," Abraham told him.

"Shut it," Daryl growled out, knowing that Ani had been right in them not being able to be selfish this time.

~x~

"Where's Glenn? Nicholas? Beckie? Andy? Sturgess? Where is everyone?" Ani asked as Michonne, and Heath came in with an injured Scott.

"Glenn and Nicholas split off to take care of the walkers at that tractor supply place. I don't know what happened after that. Everything happened so quick, the walkers were on top of us before we had a chance to make a proper run of it," Rick told her. "It went to hell. That air horn. That's what did it. What do we do, Ani?"

"We go with the contingency?"

"Which is?"

"Everyone hide out in their houses, lights low, noise low ta null. Wait it out?" Ani said, looking lost. "Or we could move everyone ta the sewas, hide out down there 'til the noise dies down, but I don' think anyone else wants that. Gods, it sounds so bad. And that fuckin' smell!"

"Ani, I need you to focus," Rick told her, knowing she was trying not to panic. "I know, I know. It looks bad, looks like we're trapped, but we're not. Not yet anyway. We just need to come up with a solution to the problem." Deanna was barely holding on with the loss of Reg and the rest of Alexandria was on the street looking as scared as they should, egging Rick to address them, "You can hear it. Some of you saw it. It got back here, half of them. Still enough to surround us twenty deep. Look, I know you're scared. You haven't seen anything like this. You haven't been through anything like this, both the horde and the attack. But we're safe, for now."

"The panel the truck hit seems to be in pretty damn good shape," Merle added in. "We reinforced it just to be sure, but it should hold just fine."

"But will the towa?" Ani asked him quietly, causing him to side-eye her harshly, essentially telling her to keep her mouth shut with a look. "Fuck."

"Either way," Rick told the group, having missed the silent conversation beside him. "The wall's gonna hold together. Can you? The others. They're gonna be back."

"Damn straight they are!" Ani yelled.

"They're gonna be back," Rosita agreed, even if Abraham wasn't hers anymore.

"Daryl, Abraham, Sasha; they have vehicles. They're gonna lead 'em away just like they're doin' with the others. And then Glenn and Nicholas are gonna walk back through the front gate after. They know what they're doing. And we know what we need to do."

"Ya got two options, both a which are relatively safe," Ani told the group. "The first, we wait it out in our homes. Keep noise ta a minimum and use as little light as possible, keeping ya shuttas pulled so nah one can see in. The less noise, the betta. The less light, the betta. The more the windows and doors are cova'd so ya can' see in, the betta."

"And what's our second option?" Olivia asked timidly.

"We hide out in the sewas unda Alexandria. I know it ain' ideal, but it is guaranteed a hundred percent ta be safe. Went down there myself ta double check it this past week. There's plenty a safe, dry ground down there that don't really have wata ways 'cause a the sewage system in general, so they were prolly meant ta be there in case a floodin' or a break in the system or somethin', but they're big enough and safe enough ta hide in 'til this all blows ova. Prolly only goin' ta take a few days, max, if we did that, hell, if we're lucky 'nough ta have somethin' pass by while we're in our houses, so everyone jus' needs ta be able ta keep their heads 'til then."

"Can they get into the sewers?" one of the other women asked.

"Not that I could see. Only exit I found was barred shut. Only way in or out are the manholes," Ani informed her. "Look. If ya want ta go down there, I spray painted orange and white arrows. The white arrows lead ta the safe zones I picked out jus' in case and the orange mark out exits, none a which are goin' ta be any good right now."

"Why not?" Tobin asked. "Can't we use the exits to get out?"

"Nah, unfortunately. Not with the horde this close. Wouldn' get the cova off and get out 'fore they were on top a ya. None a this is ideal, but it's what we've got. Make this place seem dead, they might move on on their own. If not, the othas will get us out once they finish their mission."

"This place is dead," Francine told her, earning a disapproving glare from Merle.

"The quarry broke open," Aaron told her. "And those walkers were heading this way. All of them. The plan that Rick and Ani put into place stopped that from happening. He got half of them away," he told them before sighing and admitting what had happened with the attack. "I was out there recruiting with Daryl and Ani and I tried to get into a cannery to scavenge. Daryl and Ani, they wanted to keep looking for more people. We did what I wanted, and we wound up in a trap set by those people. They must have followed our tracks. Those people who attacked us, they found their way back here because of me."

"Nah, ya not takin' the blame on that. Bad people do bad things. The world's jus' made it easia ta get away with it," Ani told him. "Ain' no one's fault that shite went south. Shite's always gonna travel the way ya least wantin' it ta. We dealt with it and killed 'em. That's all that mattas."

"There'll be more to talk about," Rick agreed while looking at Morgan. "For now, decide where you want to wait it out."

"Deanna?" Tobin asked, the woman just walking away. "Deanna?" he repeated louder.

"Let 'er grieve for now," Ani told him. "She's lost a son and 'er husband in a short span a time. She needs time ta process." Ani walked over to Maggie, then, looking at the woman before they both clasped each other for comfort at their missing counterparts. "He'll make it back," she told the woman. "I know he's goin' t a come back for ya. Ya and the baby, so please, don' do anythin' stupid, least not without me."

"They need you here. If it's too risky, I'll come back. I promise," Maggie told her quietly, earning a nod.

"I'll stick close ta the wall, wait for 'em ta come back or see a sign a them comin' back."

"Thank you."

~x~

"Hey," Sophia asked as she walked up to Ron with Carl. "You okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" he replied sarcastically.

"Have you seen Enid?" Carl asked, making Sophia roll her eyes and sigh quietly; of course he'd ask about her.

"Not since I saw her with you."

"I think she went over the wall just before the herd came," Carl informed him. "Now she's trapped out there."

"What makes you think she isn't dead?" Ron asked

Sophia scoffed as Carl answered, "Come on, man." Ron stood and scoffed at them, going to turn away before Carl offered, "Look, I'll go find her. I just need your help. If you maybe climb up-"

"I'm not helping you," Ron snapped.

"This isn't for me," Carl reasoned. "It's for Enid. Your friend."

"My girlfriend," Ron corrected. "Or, I mean, 'cause she was anyway, right? See you're still following him around too," he told Sophia.

"Leave her out of this," Carl said, taking a half step to stand in a defensive position slightly in front of Sophia.

"Look, you don't want to just leave her out there, do you?" Sophia asked him.

"I told her to stop going over the wall," Ron told them. "I told her there's bad people out there and that it was stupid and dangerous."

"Not if you know what you're doing," Carl insisted.

"Well, I'm not gonna let you go," Ron said, looking like he was fed up with the conversation.

Carl was too as he started walking away, "Come on, Sophia."

"Carl," Ron called, chasing after the pair. "Carl, you're not going out there."

When he tried to grab Carl, he shoved Ron away, telling him, "Back off!"

That led to a little tousle between the boys that had Sophia shouting as Carl pushed Ron flat on his back, "Knock it off! You guys are being stupid!"

"What's goin' on 'ere?" a fourth voice called from behind the kids. "Lova's tiff?"

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked Ani, looking even more pissed now.

"I'm jus' askin' what's goin' on. Ya do realize 'e's goin', like, supa easy on ya, right? Carl can and does wrestle with Merle regularly. Ya jus' a skinny little teenaga who's scared out a 'is mind right now. Now, tell me, what's this about?"

"Enid went over the walls," Sophia told her, not wanting the fight to continue or Carl to leave and not caring if she was being a tattletale; it was better to rat him out than lose him.

"Aye, I kinda figya'd that when Olivia said she was missin'. Ain' nothin' that can be done 'bout it right now. Glenn, Nick, Abe, Sash, and D are all out there. They'll find 'er and bring 'er back."

"So we're just leaving her?" Carl asked.

"Ain' got a fuckin' choice right now, Carl! Ya think I want ta be 'ere 'stead a out with Daryl like I'm s'pposed ta be?! We don' get ta go lookin' for 'em. We don' get ta help 'em. We jus' don'. Not this time. Someone goes ova the walls right now, it's jus' goin' ta get someone else killed," Ani told him, bringing him into a one armed hug. "I'm sorry, bud, I am. But we can' go out there. And ya, get ya ass back home and don' let me see ya scrappin' like that again. Ya betta than that, Ron."

"You don't know a damn thing about me," the boy scoffed.

"I know ya already headin' down the same road mentally as ya daddy. And if ya don' learn how ta control that anga and rage, ya goin' ta hurt the people ya love, too, jus' like 'e did. And I know that's the last thing ya want ta do. Learn how ta defend yaself and make peace with it, or ya goin' ta find yaself in an early grave like ya daddy," Ani replied. "Now go home! Ya two, too!"

Ani left the trio of kids to head to the infirmary, stopping in her tracks as she watched Denise kiss Tara on the front steps of the house Tara lived in. Smiling widely, she let them have their moment and continued on her way to check on Beth. Scott was stabilized thanks to Denise's help and determination not to give up. She'd been able to use a needle to suck the infection out of his wound without taking the scab off, Ani impressed by that. She'd had a cat once with an infected wound and all she'd done was plaster Neosporin on it until the scab came off and the infection came out. She would have never thought that you could drain the infection in a way that didn't leave it for days to fester. It had really given Denise the confidence boost to take Beth's advice to go talk to Tara after the woman came in to give the doctor support. Ani told her about what she'd seen outside and they'd both been more than happy for the pair outside. Her smile turned sad, however, when she thought about what was happening outside the walls and the fact that they didn't even know how long they would be able to last inside them.

"That's not really surprisin', though," Beth told Ani, pulling her from her depressing thoughts. "Tara came in and lied about having a headache just to check on Denise."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it was sweet," Beth told her. "You really didn't know you could do that?I thought you knew medicine too?"

"I know herbs. I know cuts. I know how ta stave off infections past keepin' 'em at bay ta begin with. I don' know medicine outside a psychiatry, and even then, it was jus' the pills I didn' give out and everythin' I needed ta ta treat the mind. So, nah, I don' know medicine. I know a few things for a quick pinch, things they teach ya in Girl Scouts."

They stayed in the room until it was around the time for dinner, Ani walking up to her house only to balk and look down. She tried to contact Daryl at the infirmary, and again on her way home, but all she got in return was static. Taking a deep breath, she willed herself into the house and made a small meal for her and Sophia before heading up to her room. That's where she finally broke down clutching Daryl's pillow, Merle found her a while later crying her eyes out. He couldn't help but sigh and reach out for her, taking her back downstairs to sit in the living room rather than the bedroom. She fell asleep a while after that, Merle covering her with Daryl's poncho and shutting off the lights. They're gonna get worse and worse if shit like this keeps happenin'. Every damn time they're apart it seems shit hits the fan, he thought to himself as he stood on the porch, Francine coming up the steps.

"How are they?"

"Phia's fine, but Ani. She's worse than Maggie, and Maggie's gone and got herself knocked up."

"Well, she is on the spectrum," Francine said as she wrapped her arms around him. "She'll be alright once Daryl gets back. Are you gonna stay with them tonight or come over?"

"As much fun as comin' over would be, sweet cheeks, I gotta stay with the girls. They need me right now. Why don't you head home? I'll come see ya tomorrow," he told her.

"I'll be looking forward to it," she said, giving him a kiss before walking down the steps, walking backwards with a little wave and a smile before heading to her house.

"Ya know," he called out, a devilish grin on his face. "You could always stay over, just gotta keep it quiet."

"Well, I think I can manage that."

~x~

"Alright," Sasha said over the radio after what seemed to be damn near a lifetime.

"That's twenty?" Daryl double checked.

"It will be," came his response. "Six forty two is a mile ahead. We gotta put distance between us and them before the turnoff."

"So floor it," Abraham's voice filtered through.

"Alright, try to keep up," he told them, revving the engine and getting some speed more than basically idling down the road.

"Daryl, have you seen this car?" Sasha asked him incredulously. "Believe me, we want to get back there, too."

They managed to put a good bit of distance between the herd and themselves before the turn off and the road back home. It was pretty damn smooth sailing as they made their way back towards Alexandria, at least until they hit the small town that marked the halfway point. Gunfire rang out from behind them just as they passed the first buildings, Daryl crashing his bike bad as a car chased Sasha and Abraham. Daryl quickly stood and picked up his bike to get it started again, only just managed to get going when two cars began chasing him, bullets raining all around him as he tried to escape. He ended up rounding a corner to an area full of walkers, maneuvering around the damn things as one of the cars crashed behind him. The car that followed was too big to enter the trees, the only advantage he had, slowing down and cutting the engine after a little while. As the SUV passed the spot he was hiding and traveled on, Daryl crossed the road and moved along an old trail until he found a burned area and just couldn't handle the pain anymore.

He fell from the bike in pain and exhaustion onto his back before getting a scare in the form of a walker growling right by his ear. Looking at the thing with worried and tired eyes, he couldn't bring himself to care about the hollow, burnt out husk of a walker with one of those fancy crotch rocket helmets over its head, rendering it harmless. He just laid there trying to figure out just what the fuck had happened and hoping that Sasha and Abraham had managed to make it out of there. It was obvious that it had been a trap, but there was no way of knowing that they'd be there today when the plan was to do it tomorrow. There was a possibility the trap hadn't even been set for them and they had just stumbled across it, but that made it even worse because the people who set it were willing to take out anyone they came across. Grunting as he stood up, he pulled his bike up and started pushing it through the woods, not wanting the sound to alert anything as to his whereabouts, walker or human alike. There were so many burned walkers and the trees looked to be half charred as he grunted and heaved, trying to get through the woods.

When he managed to get down an embankment with the bike, he pulled the walkie off his shoulder and hit the call button, "Sasha, Abraham, you there?" When all he got in return was static, he tried again, "Ania? Baby girl, you there?"

He was dripping blood from his arm from when he'd taken the fall earlier, taking in his surroundings before he fully looked at the damage. It hurt, sure, but he hadn't realized he was injured worse than he thought. The gloves Ani had given him were ruined and the leather and plaid jacket Aaron had found for him was ruined. Trying to get out of the jacket was painful as he made muffled sounds but he realized that his arm would have been gone if it hadn't been for the jacket. Well, maybe not gone, but the amount of blood from road rash wasn't a joke, and most of his arm would be on that road if it weren't for the fact that he'd been wearing the jacket. Daryl couldn't be happier that Ani had insisted that everyone kept packs on them at all times when they were outside the walls, the little back he had fastened to a clip under the seat. He planned on dressing his wound, but the sound of rustling from close by had him on the edge. Quickly hiding his bike using some fallen branches, Daryl made his way into the woods with his bow up, following the sloppy trail heading slightly away from him. Keeping his bow up, he quickly discovered where the person was and rounded a tree, two women holding their hands up in surrender.

"You found us, okay?" the darker haired woman said. "Here we are. We earned what we took!"

"What?" he asked in confusion before a noise behind him had him checking right as a third person popped out and hit him over the head with a branch.

When he began to come to in the middle of the night, he heard them talking about some soldier who hated someone and someone they needed to get to stop living in the woods. When he fully woke up in the morning, his hands were tied with rope and a man was kneeling in front of him with a gun. The guy looked more frightened than intimidating, his green eyes as wide and frantic as his blonde hair was greasy. Daryl could probably take the man even with his hands tied, at least if he had been in better condition. With the entire left side of his body in pain from the crash, he couldn't risk getting shot and not making it home to Ani. Somehow, he needed to find a way to either get away from these people or convince them to go back with him.

"Get up," the man said. "Hey, get up!" Clicking the safety of his gun off, he held it right in Daryl's face as he explained, "We're moving. Here's the deal. You don't say shit, and I don't kill you."

"I ain't who you think. I'm just tryin' to get home to my wife," Daryl told him rather than moving.

The man moved closer to him, making a show of pulling the hammer back and shoving the gun back in his face. "Say something else. Go ahead." Pulling on his bindings, the man forced Daryl to his feet, moving behind him with the gun and instructing, "Follow them."

They'd been walking for about an hour when the darker haired woman pulled out some water and handed it to the blonde girl, "Here. Drink the rest."

"We should save it," the blonde responded.

"We'll find some more," was her response. "Drink. You're supposed to stay hydrated. It all works together." When the younger girl handed the water back to the older, she held it out to Daryl, "Have it."

Daryl just walked past her, making the man grab the water from her and hold it in front of him, "We don't need you falling down. Drink." Taking the bottle, he finished off the water as the man told him, "They find us, maybe we give you to them, they let us call it even. You see, we're reasonable people. Everybody's got their code. You feel you gotta kneel, that's fair enough. We don't."

As he grabbed the bottle back, Daryl growled at him, "Only one person I'd ever kneel for, and she's back home. Like I told ya, I ain't who you think I am."

He had no clue what the hell these people were talking about, let alone what they meant by kneeling; the only time he'd ever knelt in his life was in front of Ani in the bedroom. That was a completely different kind to what these people seemed to be talking about, almost as if someone made them kneel like they were royalty or something. It was odd as hell to think that someone made people bow down to them like they were above everyone else. And who the hell was this 'them' the man kept bringing up that they seemed so damn intent on running from anyway? The man claimed that they were reasonable, but they didn't even give him a chance to talk or even bother to listen when he did. If they had, things would be a hell of a lot different; he wouldn't be tied up with a gun pointed at him, for one. He might be on his way back to Ani by now with Sasha and Abraham and maybe even these people in tow, for two.

"Shut up!" the man said, turning back to him and grabbing the back of his shirt. "Let's go."

They traveled further through the woods, passing by husk after husk of burned walker, the blonde saying, "I can't believe we're back."

"It's not home anymore," the older one said. "But it's better than where we were."

"This is a pit stop," the man said from behind Daryl, still holding onto his shirt. "We pick up Patty, nothing more than that."

"How'd you do it?" the blonde asked as she looked at the burnt forest around them.

"You saw where we left the truck?" the man asked her.

"Mm-hmm."

"We opened the valve and drove all the way in from Farmview Road," the man said. "Ran from the tree line 'til we got to the pavement. Lit up a matchbook from the Sweetwater and dropped it in on the trail. Then we just ran for the car. Got in and the dead ones were there. They were beating on the hood, and then—and then BOOM! Knocked 'em on their asses and I took an ax to each one."

"Then we just watched it go up," the older woman said. "No more moans, no more of that wailing. It was just the fire, just burning them all away."

"You did all this?" Daryl asked, impressed if it was true; Ani would be impressed.

"It was right at the start," the woman told him. "Everything stopped—the TV, the radio. We were here. The forest was full of them. And the other ones in town, they were drawn to it. They just walked right into the flames. We got most of them. Thought we ended it for us, and she was in DC. We thought everyone was fighting them wherever they were."

"Yeah, we thought that was what everybody was doin'," the guy said. "Fightin' it. That we'd all win together. We were stupid."

"Y'all don't think you're bein' stupid right now?" Daryl asked, still not understanding what the hell they were doing or who they thought he was.

The man pulled his gun back out and pointed it at Daryl yet again, Daryl barely even blinking at the act, "You sayin' I should kill you? I mean it, are you gonna try to pull somethin' on us? Or are we just being thick here by not removin' all doubt? Right now, by me not pulling this trigger, is that a mistake? I'm serious. I really wanna know. You made a choice to kill for someone else, to have them own you for a roof and three squares, so maybe I'm not considering all aspects here."

"Man, I ain't did none of that," Daryl tried to tell him again. "Look, I got somewhere else to be, someone I gotta get back to. We can make a deal. I can help you out. Get you someplace safe, 'least safer than where you were. Just let me go and we can get there together."

"You're one of them," the man said with such conviction that Daryl knew he wasn't going to get anywhere. "You're hurt and you're alone and you'd say anything. We should've never trusted you people to begin with. Go on. Keep moving." It couldn't have been more than ten minutes later that they finally broke through the trees, Daryl being roughly shoved forward as his three captors stopped at the sight of an overrun compound of some kind. "Son of a bitch."

The three walked closer to the fence surrounding the compound, the older woman dropping the bag that had their belongings and his to the ground. Daryl positioned himself carefully, slowly inching closer to the bag while their backs were turned and they spoke amongst themselves. There were no walkers on this side of the fence and none close by in the woods with absolutely no one else around. All he had to do was wait for the right moment and he could grab the bag and hightail it back to his bike and Alexandria. It didn't take long for him to get his opportunity as the blonde girl swooned in the middle of their argument. Both the older people immediately went into panic mode, taking any and all attention off of Daryl. Reaching for the bag, he grabbed it and ran as the man shouted that they needed it and shot his gun. He was a lousy shot against a fast moving target or wasn't trying to actually kill him because he missed all five times he fired his gun. Daryl ran as fast as he could until he found relative cover, coming to a sliding halt over a fallen tree and leaning his back up against it, checking to see if they were following. He managed to get the knot on the ropes partially undone using his teeth and forced his hands through as quickly as possible before grabbing at the bag.

Panting heavily, he held it up and hit the call button, "Sasha, Abraham, are you there?" Getting static for an answer, he called again, "Ania, baby girl, you gotta be there."

His only answer was the sound of a walker coming closer and closer to his location when he didn't have a weapon on him at the moment. It was covered in hogweed, a poisonous plant that could cause blindness, making Daryl frantically try to pull his crossbow out of the bag. He struggled to get it out, the damn thing getting stuck on one of the limbs of the bow until he grabbed it with one hand and threw it off. He barely had enough time to swing around and take aim before he had to kill the thing so it didn't get too close and he wouldn't be affected by the hogweed. Turning back around, he'd intended to grab the bag and get the fuck out of dodge and back home, but the red Igloo cooler was hard to ignore, especially when it was markedInsulin Must be Kept Cool. One of those bastards had to be a diabetic if they had this damn thing, which meant he'd just signed one of their death warrants. It would have been nothing to him when he was younger to just leave them for their actions. Now, however, he just shoved the cooler back in to the bag and hefted it over his shoulder. Daryl knew it wouldn't be just his guilty conscience weighing on him, but Ani's anger at leaving someone who needed help to die.

"Dammit!" he shouted. Making his way back towards the trio and keeping to their backs, he kept his loaded bow up and ready, as he said, "Drop the gun. Drop it!" he commanded as the man stood and pulled the weapon. "Give it to me." Stuffing it in his pocket, he told them, "I came all this way. What you got for the duffle?" When they stared at him blankly, he angrily said, "You put me through too much shit just to give it back. Principle of the thing. What you got besides the gun?"

"Nothing," the older woman said.

Daryl contemplated what she said for only a moment before looking at the man and gesturing with the bow, "What was that thing you were carving?"

Pulling the wooden soldier out of his pocket, the man said, "My grandfather taught me how-"

"Don't care," Daryl cut him off. "It'll do." When the man handed it over and Daryl had stuffed it in his pocket, he took off the duffle bag and tossed it at them, "Take it. It's all there. Good luck. You're gonna need it."

As soon as he said that, the sound of breaking trees and squeaky breaks sounded, making him hide behind a tree near where they were crouching. A large truck rolled right through the area, pushing down brush and branches alike, several men surrounding the area. The person he could only assume was the leader and stood in front of the large truck shouting threats and promises that all they had to do was return what they stole and all would be forgiven. Daryl observed their surroundings, watching as men began to stalk slowly towards them from the front, leaving them only being able to retreat back the way he'd originally come from. When the trio began to move, he acted without even thinking and made them follow him to get them to safety.

"Come on," he told them, pointing in the direction he wanted them to go. "That way."

The young blonde was having problems moving, so he shoved the older woman out of the way, telling her to go before turning to the blonde and telling her to get up while hefting her to her feet. He practically carried her as they ran, hiding behind a copse of trees that was surrounded by fallen branches. Making another split second decision, he handed the man back his gun before they heard static and radio transmissions. Daryl observed their surroundings, the only advantage other than their hiding spot being a walker trapped by a large rock. He could see a man walking closer as the blonde girl began deteriorating, speaking to her sister quietly as her sister rummaged through the duffle while he made a split second decision. He reached out and grabbed a branch, shaking it just a bit to get the man's attention just before he passed by the walker. Daryl hid as far behind the tree as he could while still being able to keep an eye on the situation. As expected, the walker was able to reach out and grab the man, biting him on the arm, his screams and hollers echoing through the woods as Daryl watched, the man killing the walker. He grabbed his own walkie to radio in to someone, presumably the leader of the search party, who came running and in one clean cut took the man's arm off. Breathing a sigh of relief, he listened as the men called off the search and began walking away from them, the others all relaxing slightly as well.

"We thought you were with them," he told Daryl as the older woman gave the blonde a shot.

"I told you I wasn't," Daryl replied in irritation.

"We knock you over the head, tie you up, threaten to kill you...why the hell did you come back?"

Daryl mumbled a sound before saying, "Maybe I'm stupid, too. And my wife, she wouldn't want her left out here. She'd be pissed at me if I left a sick girl behind."

They began walking through the woods, Daryl still helping the blonde girl, Tina, along as she was still recovering from diabetic shock. They had properly introduced themselves finally, the man being Dwight, or D, making Daryl scrunch his nose up, and the older sister being Sherri. He'd introduced himself and listened as they talked about how they'd gotten into their situation. They'd been on the run from the people from their last camp that wanted them to pay more and more for Tina's medicine. In the end, the leader had made them an offer they didn't want to take and so they stole all of it, everything they needed to keep Tina's diabetes under control. They knew those people would give chase, but they thought that, if they could get away, if they could outrun them, they could get away, and it seemed like they were right. After a while, Tina was able to walk on her own again, Daryl happy to not have to hold onto her anymore.

"So you knew 'em?" Daryl asked. "And still you thought I was one of them?"

"Where we were—we were there since the beginning," Dwight told him. "We still didn't know everyone. Back when we first threw in with them, it was as good a place as any. Then things got harder, people got harder. Human nature kicked in and it became it's own special kind of shit show."

"People will trade anything for safety," Sherri told him. "For knowing that they're safe."

"Everyone," Dwight agreed. "So they got nothin' left except just...existing."

"Hey, no place's safe anymore," Daryl told them, thinking of how he'd thought Alexandria was safe but it was now surrounded by walkers. "Can't promise people that anyhow."

"You could promise the people who want to hear it," Dwight corrected him as the young woman ran ahead. "Hey, Tina, hold up!"

They took off running after her, finding the burnt husk of a greenhouse, two bodies preserved in glass inside as Tina cried, "Carla and Dally. That's them."

"Me and Tina used to babysit them when they were kids," Sherri said as Tina carefully made her way inside. "Everyone said they went up north when it all started. We didn't know."

"I did this," Dwight said.

"We did this," Sherri corrected.

Screaming erupted from inside the building as the inactive, glass-encased walkers came to life and snarled at Tina. In her panic, she got up too quickly and fell right on the walker, breaking the glass of both it and the other as she tried to get away, freeing both. Before anyone could get to her, her neck had been bitten into, as had her arm. Daryl killed both walkers as Sherri ran in, apologizing to her sister as the girl laid dying and telling her they had to try. He couldn't handle the sound of the sobbing, the despair in the woman's voice reminding him of Ani. She would probably be a mess when he managed to get back, the fear and stress she had to be under making her either an emotional wreck or emotionally shutdown. The last thing he wanted was for her to be worried about him on top of it all and become compromised because of that, too. Wanting to get away from the crying woman, he headed back outside and pulled out his walkie, trying once again to radio home.

"Ania? Please, baby girl. You gotta tell me what's goin' on back there." he pleaded.

Static was his only answer on the walkie, but from behind, Dwight asked, "Ania? Is that your wife?"

"Call her Ani. Only I call her Ania," Daryl told him, figuring that was answer enough.

"You're worried about her?"

"We were leadin' a horde away from home when some people attacked back there. My wife, she went back to warn 'em about what was happenin'. People came, had W's on their heads. Attacked home and made some of the horde break off. They're surrounded by the dead. Come on. I'll help you dig some graves, but then I gotta get back to my wife." They'd dug two out of the three in relative silence while Daryl contemplated whether or not they'd be willing to come back to Alexandria; not every place was as bad as the one they'd come back to. "Hey, how many walkers you killed?" he asked Dwight. "Just answer the question."

"A lot," Dwight answered, flabbergasted. "Couple dozen at least."

"How many people you killed?"

"None."

"Why?"

"Why haven't I killed anybody?" Dwight asked as he began working on the grave again. "Because if I did, there'd be no goin' back. There'd be no goin' back to how things were."

"I'm from a place where people are still like they were, more or less, better or worse. My wife, she helps hold it together. My brothers and hers helps keep it safe. Nobody works for anybody, everybody works together for the better of everybody. Can't promise it's always gonna be safe, but it's a place."

Dwight just looked back at Sherri before nodding his head. They finished the graves before laying all three bodies in them and burying the dead. Not much else had been said while they were working, only enough to lead them along as Daryl headed back towards his bike. Seeing the debris he'd hidden it in, he quickly moved to it and began clearing it off. They wouldn't all be able to fit on the bike, but they could find a car once they made their way back to the road. There was no way Abraham and Sasha hadn't made it out of that trap and they would need a new ride, too. With Dwight and Sherri's help, they would be able to find the pair a hell of a lot faster and get back to Alexandria. Maybe they'd even be able to get the horde away from their home with the two helping them out.

"I can walk it from here," he told them. "'Til we meet up with my friends. They got a car, you can ride with them."

"How many friends did you say there were?" Dwight asked.

"I didn't," Daryl told him, heaving the bike upright and starting forward. "There's two of 'em."

"Where are they?"

"We'll find out."

"How do you even know that they got away?" Dwight asked, his voice sounding more and more anxious by the minute. "That they didn't get taken?"

"I don't," Daryl called out as he pushed the bike forward only to hear the hammer click at the same time as seeing Dwight pull his gun in the rearview mirror of the bike. "Oh, dammit," he said more to himself, hating how stupid he'd been to answer any question.

Dropping the bike, he quickly put distance between him and Dwight, preparing to bring his crossbow around his front, but the man already had his gun raised and trained on him. He'd been willing to help these people, willing to take longer to get back to Ani and make sure she was fine, and they were throwing it right back in his face. This was the entire reason he hated being the nice guy and having a bleeding heart anymore. Every time they managed to do something good for someone else, it got shat on by those people or someone else to the point that they lost every time. He didn't even have his walkie to radio back home to see if everything was going alright. Daryl couldn't understand why these people who had been so afraid of those hunting them would be willing to go right back to the people hunting them. It made no sense to him; once you got out, you stayed out, and you never tried to go back or make amends. Even Ani with her bleeding heart and penchant for helping people, like he had tried to help Dwight and Sherri, had left and never looked back when she finally got out of the hell hole that was the Parker residence. He and Merle had stayed as gone as they could from home and never once looked back once they were on the road together. Hell, they hadn't even looked back at who they had been before they'd integrated with the group. But Dwight and Sherri would rather run back to the place they'd run from like frightened little dogs with their tails between their legs as he and Dwight held their weapons on each other.

"I'm sorry," Dwight told him. "Give her the crossbow."

"You gonna go back?" Daryl mocked. "You gonna be safe?"

"Shut up!" Dwight told him.

"Ain't no where safe no more. Not here, not there, hell, not even where my wife's at."

"Give her the crossbow."

"You gonna kneel?" Daryl asked, which only made Dwight move his aim a little off, firing the gun just past his ear; Daryl scowled deeply as he realized the man meant business before he handed over his only and most prized possession from before that he had left.

He backed up as Sherri took the gun from Dwight, who righted the bike and started it, as she grabbed some gauze from the side of the duffle before telling Daryl, "Patch yourself up," as she threw it at him. "We're sorry."

"You're gonna be," Daryl replied before they took off.

He bent down and grabbed the gauze off the forest floor, pulling the damn wooden soldier from his pocket and staring at it angrily. Making his way back towards the walker in the helmet, he found a flat piece of metal he hadn't noticed before, probably from where his bike had landed when he fell. He wiped it off and realized it was a part of that truck they'd been talking about. It wasn't hard to find the thing hidden in the brush nor to clean it off, the fuel truck a much needed asset in Alexandria. Daryl didn't even think about it as he opened the door, the walker inside falling over before he killed it. He hopped in the driver's seat after throwing the corpse out of the truck before leaning down to hotwire the thing. He cussed in happiness as the engine roared to life, letting him start the trek back to the town he'd lost Sasha and Abraham in. Daryl couldn't just go back home without Sasha and the man who proclaimed himself to be Ani's brother, even if his presence annoyed the crap out of Daryl. It was easy enough to catch their trail, driving around until he spotted his last name written on a door. Sasha and Abraham came outside shortly after he'd pulled up and gotten out, carrying some rockets and cigars as well as some other equipment with them.

"Hey, hand me that radio," Daryl told Sasha once they were on the road, pushing the call button as soon as it was in his hand. "Ania? You copy? Rick? Anybody?" Static came over the radio, prompting Daryl to say, "Say it again."

"Help."