Chapter 9-Shirewilt

Two days later

Rick's P.O.V

Rick stopped the truck a mile away from Shirewilt. They group slowly gets out of the cars. "We can't all leave," Rick says. "Daryl, Beth, Maggie, Glenn, Abraham, Shane, Octavia, Rosita, Clarke, Michonne, and Noah come with me. Blake, Sasha, Oliver, Theo, Eugene, Tyreese, and Tara stay here, stay in the cars. "We'll send someone when we are ready," Rick tells them and they nod as Rick's group starts to walk away, following Noah. They walk in silence until Noah stops.

"We'll be there in less than three minutes," Noah says.

"Alright, weapons ready," Rick says and they continue to walk forwards. They see the wall and see three people on it who raise their guns at the group as they raise their guns.

"Drop your guns!" The man shouts.

"I don't think so," Rick says.

"Hey, wait," Noah says as he holds his hands up. "I'm from here, my mother and brothers are in there."

The man looks at the woman and says something and she nods as she moves away from them. "I'm sorry, kid but everybody who was here is dead," The man says and Noah's arm falls. "No one has to die today, wait for our leader, and we can talk. Why don't we all just lower our guns."

Rick stares at him as they hear people inside the community. Another man comes up and stands by the other man. "Luke's right, nobody needs to die," The man says. "I'm Lee."

"Rick," Rick says. "You lower your guns; we do the same."

"It's alright," Lee says as he motions for Luke to lower his gun. Rick notices that he is missing part of his right hand. "Why don't we talk? Two of you and two of us," Lee offers. "Come in."

"You send two people out, too," Rick says.

"I'll go out, Lee," Luke says and Lee nods as he looks at a woman who says she'll go out.

"Alright," Lee says as he drops down and a minute later, he opens the gate and Luke and a woman comes out. "That's Bonnie."

"Daryl, you're with me," Rick tells Daryl who nods. "If we're not back in an hour, kill them," he tells the large man who nods as Rick and Daryl walk into the community where a group stared at them. "Let's talk."

"Watch them," Lee tells the rest of his group as he looks at a man in a hat. "Kenny, come with me."

Kenny nods as Daryl and Rick follow Lee and Kenny through the community. "This place is a wreck, man," Daryl tells Rick who nods with a sigh as he looks around.

"It's pretty bad," Kenny says. "There is a wall down and about half of the horses have been caught on fire," Kenny tells them as they get to a house that was still in good shape and walk in. Lee motions for the two men to sit down and then he sits down beside Kenny.

"Like I said, I'm Lee, this is Kenny."

"Rick, this is Daryl," Rick says. "You know what happened here?"

"No, we came across it about a week ago, killed the walkers and parked our R.V in front of the hole in the wall," Lee says. "Your friend had family here?"

"Yeah," Rick says. "What'd you do with the bodies?"

"Put them in a pile," Kenny answers. "You guys are well armed."

"We've gotten lucky," Rick says. "Look, I don't wanna kill you, any of you, I saw the kid, means you're better than most, most groups we've run into would throw a girl aside, not strong enough."

Kenny chuckles. "That girl is stronger than this entire group," Kenny says.

"But she wouldn't stop us, we have more people and guns, but like your friend said, nobody needs to die today, I don't want anybody to die."

"So, what are you proposing?" Lee asks him.

"This place, it isn't going to work, but I wanna find somewhere that will, somewhere my son and daughter can be kids. You can join us," Rick says.

Lee looks at Kenny who nods. "Bring the rest of your people," Lee says after a moment. Rick nods as they stand up and walk towards the gate. "Open it up, Mike," Lee tells the man who nods as he pushes the gate open. Rick pulls out his radio.

"Carol bring everybody," Rick says.

"Alright," Carol says as the group looks around Shirewilt.

"You see this?" Abraham says as he looks at writing on the side that said Wolves.

"Yeah, I did," Rick says as he walks up to the large man.

"This wasn't done by walkers," Abraham says. "I would say the assholes who wrote this killed everybody here. This place is comprised. I hope you don't plan on staying here."

"We aren't," Rick tells him as Noah walks up to Lee.

"Did you burn the bodies?"

"No," Lee says. "We cleared the houses and left the walkers outside.

"Beth, Daryl. Go with Noah, make sure his family is buried." The two of them nod as they follow Noah and they hear cars.

Noah's P.O.V

Noah sat by the body of his mother and brothers as Daryl and Beth dug graves. "You should talk to him," Beth says to him.

"Why me?" Daryl asks.

"Because you know what he's going through, he's lost his entire family, Daryl," Beth says and Daryl sighs as he sets the shovel down and walks over to Noah.

"I remember the day, my mom died," Daryl says making Noah look at him. "Burned our house down and died in the process, lost my dad a couple of years before this, he was a piece of shit and lost my brother during this, had to put him down."

"Does it ever get easier?" Noah asks Daryl who nods.

"Yeah, this world, it sucks man. We'll lose someone else sooner or later, but for me, I found a family in this world, people I trust with my life and would die for, you're apart of that family now. You aren't alone, you won't ever be alone again," Daryl says. "We can't replace the family you lost but we'll be there for you."

"Thanks," Noah says and Daryl nods as he walks back over to Beth.

Shane's P.O.V

Shane walked up to Rick as he looked at the map. "So what now?" Shane asks him.

"I have no idea," Rick says. "I didn't think it would still be here, but I hoped it would be," Rick says as Kenny and Lee walk up to them.

"We might have an idea," Kenny says making Rick look at them. "When we were coming here, we went past a town called, Schuyler. Part of the town was fenced, gated, houses, surrounded by woods, no one's gonna find it easily. Looks like somewhere the military had camped."

"Why didn't you clear it?" Shane asks.

"Walkers, trapped inside, we don't have enough people or weapons, but all of us should be able to clear it no problem," Lee says.

"Where is this?" Rick asks as he motions towards the map and holds the pen out to Kenny who takes it and circles the down.

"What do you think?" Shane asks as he looks at it.

"Only about three hours from here," Rick says. "We'll stay here tonight, head there in the morning, we need at least three patrols at all time."

"I'll find some people," Shane says and Rick nods as he walks away. Rick looks at Lee's group who was talking with members from his.

"You wanna tell me your friends names?" Rick asks.

"Yeah," Lee says. "The girl there is Clementine, she's been with me since the start, you met Luke, Bonnie, and Mike. That's Nick, and that's Jane."

"We should stick together, spread out between two of three houses," Rick tells him. Lee nods as he walks over to his group with Kenny.

Carol's P.O.V

Carol walked up to Tyreese as he held Judith. "We haven't had much time to talk since Terminus."

"We don't have anything to talk about Carol, I don't want them to know about the girls, what Lizzie did, what you had to do," Tyreese says. "It's better if they believe that they died at the prison, or they're still out there. I don't even want to think about what happened at that house."

"We don't have a choice. It will haunt us for the rest of our lives," Carol tells him. "We won't tell the group about it, you're right, it's better if they don't know."

"You going to stay?" Tyreese asks. "I know you said you wouldn't."

"I'm staying," Carol says. "I belong with you guys."

"Good, we need you," Tyreese tells her and she nods as she walks away.

Lee's P.O.V

Lee sat against the wall watching Rick talk with Glenn and Maggie. "What do you think about them?" Kenny asks as he sits down beside his best friend.

"They seem like good people," Lee says. "But we don't know them, we have to be careful."

Kenny nods as he looks at Clementine who was holding A.J. "Everything we've done. It's been for those two."

"That won't change," Lee says. "They deserve a life, Kenny. They shouldn't have to grow up fearing if it's their last day on earth every day."

"Let's hope we can change that," Kenny says after a moment. "We should find you something for that arm. Can't fix my eye but we could put that stump to good use."

"We'll figure something out when we are safe. Come on, hopefully these people have some food, I'm starving."

Kenny chuckles as he follows him.

Rick's P.O.V

The group sat in the living room of the house Lee's group was staying in. "Alright," Rick says. "Tomorrow we'll leave for Schuyler. If Kenny is right, we'll be able to clear it and it should be safe," Rick says. "Lee's group will be joining you guys in the bus," Rick tells Abraham who nods.

"You said it was a military outpost, right?" Glenn asks Kenny who nods. "We'll need to reinforce those fences, Rick. They won't be able to take on a herd. I saw plenty of them in and around Atlanta."

"We'll have to see what's around the area," Daryl says. "If we can find a lumber yard or construction side, shouldn't be a problem."

"We'll worry about that tomorrow," Rick says. "We know this place was attacked so we'll have people on watch all night, Daryl, Glenn, Beth, Maggie, Mike, and Bonnie will take the first patrol until midnight. After Rosita, Lee, Oliver, Noah, Luke, and Theo will take patrol. Sasha and Carol will take first watch and then Octavia and Clarke will take second," Rick tells everybody who nods. "Alright, get some sleep, we got some work to do."

Everybody nods as they slowly start to separate, and the patrol groups leave the house.

Thanks for reading, next chapter the group arrives at Schuyler. The next couple chapters will be focused around building that place, character development, flashbacks with Shane and the next first enemy of this story. As you can tell, this is where this story will diverge from canon. As always suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.