Luvs2Read: Thanks. It's still gonna take longer for me to post because I have to take frequent stretch breaks to the tune of 15min/hour, messing up my writing style and time, but I'm still chuggin' away at it...lol...And, yeah, Sophia and Carl have to have their fun...lol

topstory: SPOILERS! I haven't 100% decided whether or not I want to go that route, but it's one of the ones I was thinking about. And, yeah, the gang is definitely heading towards some major changes!

"Clear to the rally point, dudes," Jerry said, heading back to the Sanctuary after a short stay in the Hilltop as Ani and Daryl were heading towards DC. "See y'all on the flip."

"Thanks, Jerry!" Ani told him as she passed him, following Daryl, albeit slower than normal, into the city.

He revved it up after they passed the horse and Ani couldn't help but bring her ATV alongside his motorcycle and comment about how serene it all was. In true Daryl fashion, he simply told her she was supposed to be following him while ignoring the comment about the scenery. Ani laughed at his blatant disregard and revved her ATV as far as it could go and overtook Daryl completely, without a care in the world for his wants. He shouted out his displeasure before gunning his own engine and quickly surpassing Ani, finding her laughing at his antics. She started turning the ride into a back and forth where she would try to surpass him and keep him behind her, though she was still very mindful of her surroundings. They killed a few walkers along the way while she was egging him into a race for the few miles they had left before getting to the rendezvous spot. Daryl couldn't say he was upset that she didn't stay behind him, but it was still annoying how she was testing his patience already. He knew she wasn't doing it on purpose or even had any of it planned; she hadn't been able to ride or drive the ATV in a long while and was just having fun.

They met up with everyone else and began the, much slower, journey into the city with the wagons the Hilltop had spent the winter making. They'd waited until the worst of the rainy season had ended and they'd gotten the start of the crops planted, but nothing had sprouted just yet. According to their last correspondence with Maggie before meeting up with her and the others, the Hilltop had been able to get a head start on growing spring crops. It helped that both Maggie and Beth grew up on a farm and, between the two of them and Sophia and Enid, the gardens were already beginning to sprout for their crops. The Kingdom also were having some success in seeing their crops reviving for the year, Alexandria, too. It seemed like things were going to be doing well for the other three settlements once the spring rains cleared fully. When they were questioned about things at the Sanctuary, Rick assured the Dixons that the trip they were on would change things. Anne, formerly Janis, knew that at least one of the museums had a bunch of heirloom seeds and that was all the Sanctuary needed to get up on its feet. Ani and Daryl just glanced at each other after his attempt at reassurance before revving their engines and going to check the way ahead.

They traded off clearing the way for the bigger wagons and larger force with Rick and Michonne the closer they got into the city. Not only was it beneficial in not needing to stop the wagons to deal with walkers, but Ani and Daryl could easily swing around behind the group to make sure they hadn't been noticed from the back. It was the first time most of them had been that far into the city and even Ani felt off surrounded by the tall brick buildings heading to the museums. The plan was to hit up two of the larger museums and see what they could manage to get with the force they'd brought before heading back to the settlements. If things went well, they would come back into the city if the walker herds didn't make it more difficult than it was worth like they had most of the last year. Had it not been for Maggie's request and the fact that the Sanctuary was in desperate straights as far as food went, they probably would have simply left things as they were. Plenty of scavenging parties went into DC to scrounge up whatever they could find, which was how they knew how scarce fuel really was, and went back to their individual settlements with their bounties. What they were currently doing, however, was the first large-scale trip they'd made and certainly the first trip that involved the wagons.

Tara, Abraham, and Maggie had all come from Hilltop with half a dozen of their people to help with the wagons and horses. Carol and Ezekiel had come from the Kingdom along with a few of their 'trusted guards' to help keep lookout. Oceanside sent Cyndie and a few others along in the hopes of getting better designs for canoes and fishing gear. Ani and Daryl were the only ones who came from the Sanctuary, mostly in an attempt to keep the peace while partially because neither of them wanted any Saviors there. Beth had stayed back at the Hilltop to take care of Hershel while Maggie was out and Sasha had gone on patrol duty to make sure the routes were safe. Per Ani and Maggie's insistence, Carl was on guard duty to make sure that none of the Saviors tried to pull a jail break for Negan while everyone else was in DC. It was honestly the perfect time to pull a coup when the majority of the main players of all settlements were no where to be seen. Rick had denied something like that would happen at all, but relented when they both threatened not to go to DC. As it was, the only reason Maggie had agreed to the trip was because she knew the most about what would be useful for farming. She had nearly doubled the number of patrols around the Hilltop in the weeks before the trip and even expanded the areas of patrols. Even Carol had admitted that they'd done similar and also double the number of people they had on watch before coming to the big city. It seemed like the only one who was convinced that nothing bad was going to happen because of the Saviors was Rick.

In all honesty, Ani hadn't been a fan of Rick's nonchalant way of tackling the problem that was the Saviors and the Sanctuary. He seemed to have it stuck in his head that everything would resolve itself as long as they kept working together even when everyone around him told him otherwise. It was almost scarily close to how Negan was and Ani had begun to see them as two sides of the same coin. They both had a sort of messiah complex, both believing it was their right and their mission to make things better for those around them. The only real difference was that Negan knew his delusion and made it a reality through violence while Rick was oblivious to it and trying to pretend that fake niceness was making things better. They both had persuaded the other communities to provide for the Sanctuary via their own stores, just with different means. Negan had put the fear of himself into the people and ruled with an iron fist and a barbed-wire-wrapped-bat while Rick had used words, inspiration, and gratitude. While it wasn't ideal to have a set amount of goods expected to be taken at any moment like during Negan's reign, Rick's idea of the settlements giving what they could when the Sanctuary was in need wasn't much better. Ani honestly wasn't a fan of either man's way of giving out justice for wrongdoings, either, what with the choices being locked up for life in Rick's court or the medieval barbarianism of Negan's punishments. Maggie and Ani had agreed that Rick was walking a fine line and his idealistic views were going to come back to bite them all in the ass one day.

They reached the first museum with relative ease and quickly began climbing up the steps, though Daryl stopped Ani as soon as she got off her four wheeler. He reiterated that she wasn't to lift anything heavy or try to play hero if they got into any trouble. She was to bug out and get back to the ATV and gun it back to the Sanctuary if anything went wrong. If they somehow got surrounded or swarmed by walkers, Ani needed to stay towards the back and let him take care of the majority of it. She could help, but she needed to take care of herself first and foremost and he wouldn't hear a word different than that. If she didn't behave herself, he really would tie her down to the bed at Sanctuary and then lock her up in the room at Hilltop once they got there. Daryl wasn't going to listen to her try to beg and plead and change the rules; she was going to listen to him and do what he wanted her to. Ani took the opportunity to call him dad again and tease him about how controlling he was being. She knew he was just worried about her and knew that he wasn't telling her she couldn't help or be herself; she just couldn't be everything for everyone. She needed to be cautious for him and for Lou and at least try to remember to think before she acted. They had had more than one conversation regarding that fact over the last couple of weeks and had both done their best to make promises and compromises for the other's sake.

"Where'd ya fish up that dumb ass hat?" Ani asked Carol, who had stopped to say hi to Daryl before they followed the others into the foyer of the museum.

"Henry gave it to me," the older woman answered. "And I like it. It's not a dumb hat. It's a nice hat."

Both Ani and Daryl scoffed at her words before Ani said, "If ya say so."

Everyone formed a semicircle around Rick and Michonne as Rick held one of the doors into the main entrance of the building open and whistled into it. Ani wasn't sure if she really was ready to go into the place because it already smelled of dust, damp, and, well, old; she wasn't looking forward to death being added to the mix. Not to mention, without electricity, many buildings like the one they were in would be very dark and have windows few and far between to preserve the art within. On top of that, there were multiple floors, including the vault, that would have rooms completely void of any light at all. Ani wasn't looking forward to having to go into one such room and walking right into the hands of walkers or, worse, spider webs. She hadn't even thought of the possibility of any of that until she saw how dark the room beyond the little crack in the doorway was and was internally berating herself for her thoughtlessness. At the same time, however, it wasn't like it would have changed her mind about coming along if she had thought about it before the trip. While it was a ridiculous notion, and it was ridiculous as Daryl had told her more than once, she would never have a reason to visit the place again and she was excited to see the museum's exhibits.

Ani had been to several of the museums Atlanta had to offer when she was still in college and working with the police department. Her family had gone on trips to visit various historical monuments and places throughout her time with them. But she had never once been to the nation's capitol and never really thought she would go. When she was still living with her best friend, Jesse, they had made plans to take a road trip and hit up every national and historical monument and establishment they could find. Jesse had wanted to know if they all were the same and had the same 'boring' stuff that they could find in their little corner of the universe while Ani had wanted to say she'd visited them all once she found out how many there were. It had never happened and it had just been a bit of a pipe dream that ended up getting lost in a plan to road trip to every national and amusement park on the East Coast, but it was fun to think about. DC and the museums there were supposed to be the end of the trip because Ani didn't want to go to New York and deal with all the buildings. It was bad enough living in Atlanta and being surrounded by high-rises and skyscrapers when she hated how it felt. She'd only stopped talking about it when she realized that both Daryl and Lou were asleep and she was the only one excited about it. Daryl had apologized in the morning and told her he was glad she was excited, but he didn't get the thrill of going to a place just to raid it for goods. They'd been doing that since the beginning, according to him, and they'd probably be doing it for a long time to come.

"We're good for now," Michonne whispered after chopping the head off a single walker and checking the room for more. "Sweep protocol when we get in."

They opened the door and were met with the lobby and registration area, covered in cobwebs with what could have once been a camp's rubbish left behind. Things were strewn here and there without a care in the world as if people had gotten out of the place in a hurry and never touched it again. Ani had no problem staying behind Daryl with a bow knocked and ready to be pulled and released as they all spread out to sweep the lower floor. They needed to make sure that they weren't going to be cut off from the outside by walkers and also needed to ensure the place was secure from other people. While it didn't look like anyone had been in the building since the beginning of the outbreak, it didn't mean that someone else didn't want it to look that way. The walkers they did find were obviously very weak and weren't putting up much of a fight when trying to get around barriers. In fact, they were relatively easy pickings and few and far between as they made their way to the main hall of the building. At some point there had been an obvious camp in the room right at the beginning but had long since been abandoned. Sudden movement to the right made Ani jump and ready to shoot one of her arrows, but it was only a couple of birds that flew up to the ceiling and out of a large hole in it. No one else seemed to take issue with the thought that the infrastructure of the roof was compromised, though, so Ani put it to the back of her mind and hoped that it wouldn't be another 'Big Spot' incident.

"Y'all got your lists," Rick told them. "Circle back here when you're done. Be safe."

"This is gonna work," Maggie said as they all started walking into the foyer that connected all the exhibits on the floor to the stairs.

"Um, are ya sure 'bout that?" Ani asked, looking at the ground and the glass square tiles that showed them the grotesque scene of at least two dozens walkers mulling about a room.

Maggie didn't answer her and instead simply took a step out onto the glass and started walking towards the stairs on the other side of the room. Michonne and the others followed and Daryl grabbed Ani's wrist and pulled her along behind him while looking down himself. It was extremely off-putting to Ani as her mind went into overdrive about all the things that could go wrong and how they could fall through the glass and into the walkers. The imagery almost made her gag, but she did her best to simply shake her head and continue following after her husband. Nearly everyone had made it across the glass when growling and groaning came from somewhere and Cyndie gave everyone still walking across a quick warning. A walker had broken the run down railing a few floors above and it and the bricks fell right onto the glass. It was skewered through with rebar and stuck to the rock it fell with, the glass beneath it cracked though still intact. Daryl took care of it with his crossbow as it was still alive while Ezekiel told them all they'd figure it out on the way back through.

Their group, Maggie, Cyndie, Ezekiel, Daryl, Ani, Tara, Michonne, and Carol, splintered as they got to the second floor. Ani followed Daryl and Cyndie as they started looking for one of the exhibits with some tools for building. It was eerily silent, which made Ani start to hum lowly as they made their way through room after room in an attempt to find what was on their lists. She was thankful that there were at least enough holes in the walls and windows in the more open halls to keep it from being overly dark in the building. There had already been a few cobwebs she'd jumped away from only to jump into others and begin quietly shrieking as she frantically tried to get them off her. Her little freakouts had both Daryl and Cyndie chuckling while he came to her aide and got the majority of the things off of her, though some were in her hair and tangled into her wild locks. A promise of a shower and a massage when they got back home got her to calm down to a point, but she still complained about having cobwebs in her hair. That had sparked a conversation about how she felt about spiderwebs if she freaked out over cobwebs between her and Cyndie, where Ani admitted that she hated cobwebs more than spiderwebs. Spiderwebs were pretty and at least served a purpose; cobwebs were like rundown barns falling apart in the countryside. The only purpose they served was to remember that someone had lived there once, and in the case of cobwebs, that someone was a spider. The pair laughed it off as they came into a round hallway, a few exhibits lying around, but otherwise finding it abandoned.

"What ya thinkin', love?" Ani asked Daryl as he read about how people lived in the pioneer ages.

"Seems like what we're doin' now," he commented.

"Yeah, kind a. Different, though. All the buildin's are there for us. Ain' like tryin' ta do bushlivin' or anythin' like that."

"That'd be nice, though."

"What?"

"Livin' out in the woods."

"Hell yeah, it would be the dream," Ani told him, looking at him with all the love and affection she held for him on her face for the world to see.

Their little moment was broken when they heard Cyndie try, and fail, to lift something and turned around to see her standing by a canoe, Daryl asking, "You need help with that?"

"Uh, yeah," she said, wiping her eye quickly and sniffling. "Uh, sure."

Daryl walked over to where she was standing and looked at the canoe before looking at Cyndie and asking, "You alright?"

"I was just, um...just thinking about my brother," she told them. "We were fighting during a canoe ride at the county fair. It's funny, you know? How certain things just bring up random memories like that. Do either of you get flashbacks like that? The people you've lost?"

"A lot," Ani told her. "Hell, ya mentionin' the county fair had me thinkin' 'bout a time when me and Jesse were at a fair that had one a them Zippa rides. Ya know, the one that had the big spinny thingy and then the little sitting areas that spinned on their own when the big spinny thingy was goin' 'round?"

"Oh! I used to love those things!" Cyndie said as Daryl watched on.

"Yeah, well, me and Jesse-she was the closest thing I had ta family back then- we're ridin' in one and then the damn thing stops! We're stuck, upside down for a minute or two 'fore we tipped the damn thing and prayed ta the gods we didn' somehow detach. Scariest thirty minutes a my life. Swore I'd neva go back on one and then, the next year, me and Jesse, right back on the fuckin' thing. Last time they had it, too."

"Why?"

"Broke down or somethin' like that. I don' really know what happened, jus' that it neva showed back up," Ani said. "I'm more likely ta get flashbacks a the people we've lost along the way, though. I'll do somethin' and Rosita'll pop up in my head bitchin' me out for it or I'll get in a mood and it'll be 'er voice tellin' me ta suck it up, buttacup. Goin' on runs and thinkin' 'What would Glenn do?' 'cause we're in a sticky situation and 'e was good at gettin' out a those. Raisin' Lou and wond'rin' what Hershel would say. There's all the little things that make me rememba everyone that's been in my life. Some are more worth rememb'rin' than othas."

"Your family?" Cyndie asked.

"My birth family, yeah," she answered while nodding her head.

"Happens to the best of us," Daryl told them before Cyndie headed to the other side of the canoe while he took position to help her lift it. "Keep a look out, Ania."

"Nah shite, Sherlock," came his reply.

~x~

"Alright, easy," Rick said as the group worked together to bring a very old, very heavy wagon down the stairs without breaking the glass. "Last step. Easy."

Ani was watching the others with one eye while remaining vigilant as the amount of noise they began making could draw attention. It was a blessing in disguise that she could volunteer to do that rather than have to awkwardly deny helping with the wagon. She'd already been given a warning look by Daryl for helping Tara bring some tool and weapon molds down the stairs and out to one of the wagons. There was no way in hell the man would sit back and let her help move the heaviest item they were taking from the museum. It had been very slow going to begin with, but they were at the very bottom of the stairs and things had started coming to a halt. The glass was compromised and they couldn't let too much weight settle on any pane for any length of time because of it. It creaked and groaned under the pressure of the wagon's wheels and Ani flinched constantly as one pane began to break. They managed to get it across, though, and Cyndie and Maggie made their way across carrying some farming equipment. No one spoke while they worked aside from the occasional 'careful' coming from one of the people working their way across the glass. It was mostly just the main crew, Rick, Michonne, Daryl, Cyndie, Maggie, Carol, and Ezekiel, making the trips. Everyone else was either using ropes and the building's support pillars to help disperse the weight of the others and items or standing watch. Thankfully, the only walkers that they had really seen were the ones under the glass that were still just mulling around.

"No sudden moves," Rick said as he began his journey back across with Daryl and the canoe. "Just keep going, nice and slow." He and Daryl were almost all the way across while Carol and Ezekiel were about halfway with the plow when the glass started cracking fast, causing Rick to shout to the other two, "You got to go!"

"Save the plow!" Ezekiel shouted, throwing the plow as hard as he could right before the glass gave out beneath him.

Everyone shouted as he hung just out of the walkers' reach from the rope that all those bringing things across the glass had tied around their waist. Things seemed to slow down as Ani moved to the edge of the glass and began shooting her arrows into the walkers closest to Ezekiel's legs in the hopes of creating a barrier that would buy the man some time. A flurry of motion showed Carol trying to lay out a thick blanket on the broken glass so he could, hopefully, pull himself up without injury. Rick and some of the others were pulling on a rope attached to one of the pillars that was connected to Ezekiel's to help get him back on their level before the rope gave out. He was being pulled and pawed at as she and Daryl did their best to kill the creatures and the others were doing what they could to haul him up to the glass's edge. The man was pretty good at being able to hold himself in a decent position, though, and between Rick, Siddiq, Cyndie, and Enid pulling on the rope and Carol and Daryl waiting cautiously at the edge of the break, they managed to get him to safety with little more than frayed nerves. Ani couldn't help the sigh of relief and sappy smile that crept onto her face when Caryl practically pushed the man into a pillar to make sure he had made it to safety. The hug and kiss she gave Ezekiel had Ani thinking of the numerous times she and Daryl had been in life-threatening situations and how the older couple had truly fallen for each other based on their own sappy smiles.

"It's kind a cute," she told Daryl after she walked up to him.

"What is?"

"The pair a 'em. Got young lovebirds in Carl and Sophia, got old lovas in Carol and Ezekiel."

"What does that make us?"

"Match a the century," Ani shot at him with a playful smirk, making Daryl scoff.

"Alright," Rick called to everyone. "Hard part's done. Let's get this stuff loaded and back home before sundown. We don't want to lose the light."

The people that had stayed outside to tend the horses began helping load what they could into the two wagons they'd managed to bring with them. Compared to the wagon from the museum, though, theirs were quite small and unable to carry as large a load as they had expected, which meant that the bulk of the heavy things went into the museum wagon as horses were attached to it. It hadn't taken nearly as long as Ani had assumed it had taken inside the museum as the sun was still pretty high in the sky when they exited it, which was a godsend. She couldn't wait to get back to Lou and knew that Maggie was feeling the same as the two women swapped stories about their children. Hershel was beginning to cruise around on things when he wasn't in his playpen and babbled away constantly. According to Maggie, he thought he was funny because he'd take something from her during play time and hide it behind his back and pretend to lose it. She'd been playing that game with him since he was able to start recognizing toys and now he found it funny to do it to her. Maggie said it was cute and kind of made her feel like Glenn was looking out for them and keeping them both smiling. Ani told her how Lou was now saying mama and dada whenever he wanted her or Daryl and she could swear he was trying to come up with a word for Catty. That one was probably in her mind, though, as no one else seemed to agree with her back at the Sanctuary and told her she was just hearing things.

"They grow up so fast," Maggie commented. "Lou's about to be a year old, Hershel's nine months. It feels off, bein' out here without 'im."

"Would ya bring 'im out 'ere?"

"Would you bring Lou?"

"We took 'im out huntin' with us," Ani told her. "When we got them elk and sent one ta Hilltop? He was with us, strapped ta my back. I think 'e likes the woods. He's quiet and observant for a baby, and huntin' with 'im was easy 'cause a it."

"He didn't cry or anythin'?"

"When 'e started gettin' hungry, but we were already settin' up camp by then," she said with a shrug. "I think it's 'cause I've always had 'im on a schedule. It was jus' easia for me ta get us both on the same schedule than it was ta try ta undastand why 'e was cryin'. Like, sometimes 'e'd cry jus' ta cry, prolly growin' pains or somethin', but it's not often. It's easy ta know if 'e needs a diapa change if 'e's been fed not that long ago or if 'e's tired when it's close ta a nap time and knowin' those things 'cause that's when it always happens."

"True. Can't say I've got as strict a routine as you, but me and Hershel have settled into one. I hate breastfeedin', though. Now that he's got teeth? Little sucker uses 'em as a teethin' toy," Maggie said with a wave of her hand.

"Yeah, I absolutely hate it, too. It's gettin' betta, though, and we're goin' ta be workin' our way off the teat as soon as 'e's a year old and switchin' 'im ta cow's milk. Part a the reason I'm excited ta come ta the Hilltop. Can' raise nah cow at the damn factory."

"You've got other reasons, too," Maggie told her with a knowing look.

"Ya can tell, can' ya?"

"I'm surprised nobody else has said anythin'."

"Yeah, well, we haven' told anyone yet. Kind a wanted ta see Carson first."

"Why?" Maggie asked in concern.

"It's jus' different. Feels...I don' know. I don' like how it feels, so I want ta talk ta Carson, 'cause it could be somethin' else."

"Like what?"

"I don' know, Mags," Ani sighed in exasperation, "but the last thing I want ta do right now is stress out ova somethin' I ain' even completely sure happenin'. Betta ta be safe than sorry, ya know?"

"Better to be safe than sorry about what?" Carol asked as she came up with a box of seeds. "This is heading to the Sanctuary. Hopefully, you'll be able to grow crops."

"Yeah," Ani said without any real conviction.

"What's wrong? Is it something with Sophia?"

"Nah, I was jus'," she paused, looking between Carol and Maggie, who were standing next to each other. "I was jus' talkin' 'bout Bobby and Catty. How it was betta ta be safe than sorry ta send Bobby with ya ta the Kingdom afta what happened."

"Oh," Carol said, sounding surprised before her look softened just a bit and she told her, "Well, you'll be happy to know, the King adores her. He changed her name to Bast, though, after the-"

"Egyptian goddess a cats?" Ani finished with a chuckle. "I mean, I'm not upset that 'e renamed 'er, jus' find the man 'imself ta be ova the top."

"He's charismatic," Carol told her with a shrug of her shoulder. "I like it. And Bast matches that charisma, if I'm bein' honest. She's not the friendliest creature in the world, but she knows how to make an entrance and steal the spotlight. She doesn't mind me but has bonded really well with Henry. I think it helps that she's the only animal kept outside of the stables at the Kingdom and we built a small habitat in Shiva's old cage. Ezekiel actually said that the cage was much better suited for Bast than it was for Shiva. You should come see it, though it's probably not the smartest idea to bring Catty."

"Nah, I don' plan on bringin' the two a 'em 'round each otha any time soon. But I'll think 'bout comin' ta the Kingdom for a visit. Bring the whole clan," she laughed.

"So, it's a clan now?"

"Or a crew. Band. Gang. Group. Family. I mean, pick what ya want, they're all the same in that sense," Ani said with a shrug as Rick and Siddiq loaded the last of the goods into the museum's wagon.

"You're good!" the man said before heading to his horse and mounting it, causing the women to separate to their own means of transportation.

"Alright, me and D are goin' ta go ahead and make sure the way ahead is clear," Ani told him as she passed by, heading towards her husband and stopping next to him as he started up his motorcycle with a big, bright smile. "So, was I a good girl?"

"Stop it," he replied, though he couldn't hide his amusement as he smirked, chuckled, and shook his head. "You keep up, you hear?"

"Yes, daddy."

"Stop."

Ani just laughed outright as she got on her ATV and started it up, following Daryl as they slowly headed out. They couldn't just gun it in the city due to the risk of walkers surrounding the horses on top of the risk of the horses bolting when they heard the noise of their vehicles. The way out of the city was pretty clear and, aside from the occasional walker here or there, the route they'd decided to take had been relatively void of threat. Every once in a while, they'd start heading back towards the group to make sure they were still on their trail before circling back to keep the route clear. It wasn't until they got to the bridge that would allow them to get to each of the settlements easily that they found any kind of problem. Ani was kicking herself and thinking that they should've known it was going to happen when half the damn thing had crumbled during the winter. She hadn't come up with contingency plans for a downed bridge and now she was trying to think about all the routes that they could take back now that it had become complicated. It was made even more complicated by the thought that they were carrying goods meant for five communities and they'd now have to divide and conquer and somehow still get everything where it was supposed to go.

"We'll figure it out," Daryl told her. "Let's get back and let 'em know."

Ani just sighed and nodded her head before guiding her ATV around and following Daryl back to the group to let them know about the damage. They met up with Sasha along the way on her own ATV who told them that she'd had to take the long way around and hadn't found the bridge until a little while ago. Even Sasha said that it had been inevitable that the bridge came down due to the lack of integrity of its structure, but it was still a huge blow to the ego to find it gone. The shack that had stood as a relay point was gone, too, which was another major loss for the settlements' communication abilities. According to Sasha, one of the local herds had come through a little while after they had and that was all it took to collapse the bridge. She let them know that there was more than one route currently compromised by a herd and they'd need to plan carefully in order to get home. The others weren't exactly happy with the news that the bridge was out, either, Maggie's face, especially, growing darker with the revelation that the easiest way home was gone. Rick had them show him what damage was done and how bad it was before he continued on. His reasoning was that they might be able to find a way across without it if it left enough rubble and, at the very least, determine what could be done to fix the road.

"There were two other herds that merged with 'Sylvia,' making it even bigger," Sasha told them all after they got back to the bridge. "One came through before and knocked the bridge out near the end along with the walkie repeater."

"What about Route A?" Daryl asked. "Is that clear yet?"

"The herd is still too close," she told him.

"We can get to Alexandria from this side," Michonne suggested.

"Nah!" from Ani combined with a much calmer Maggie's, "No."

"Route A's taken days to clear before," Maggie told Rick. "I need to get home to Hershel."

"And we got ta get back ta Lou," Ani added.

"We can take Route D," Carol suggested. "It's early enough in the day."

"Keep an eye on the trade road in case anyone else tries to move through," Rick told Sasha as he walked away, wordlessly agreeing with that plan. "Gabriel, y'all can head back to Alexandria from here. Tell Carl we'll be there in a couple days. The rest of us...We can go to the Sanctuary or Hilltop, stay the night, and head on from there. Take care. Get home safe," he said as everyone began heading out and splitting up.

Those heading back to Alexandria set off by themselves while everyone heading towards the Sanctuary or Hilltop traveled together. Abraham sprayed a warning about the bridge before telling Sasha he'd meet her back at Hilltop in the morning and was going to stay in Alexandria for the night with Carl to help keep an eye on things there. Sasha was fine with that and traveled with the group as they headed down the longer, less often cleared path. Route D was, by far, the worst route for the time of year that they could possibly be forced to take because it was always flooded by the rain and then left sticky with mud. Ani absolutely hated the route and actively called it the 'Devil Route' because of how many times the place had been a disaster zone in the spring and fall. It didn't help that the entire way was covered in trees right up to the road with no real touch of human development aside from the weathered road. More than once on scavenging missions while reestablishing the Sanctuary's old routes, patrols had reported being surprised by walkers coming out of the trees without hearing the usual rustle because that's just what the road sounded like. Laura had admitted that they rarely took that route because of it and normally only would if they were trying to confuse someone they were bringing back to the Sanctuary. Ani was loathe to take the route and, as soon as Michonne called for everyone to stop, she started swearing under her breath that she was going to burn it to the ground.

"The horses can't pull the wagon through this mud," Michonne told Rick as they all dismounted to see what could be done.

"Maggie, I think they need a break," Kenneth, one of the Hilltop's best horse caretakers commented after they'd been trying to get the wagon unstuck for five minutes straight.

"Maybe we should leave the supplies," Maggie suggested, turning to Rick. "Send a group back in a day or two."

"Could leave a few guard dogs up in the trees," Ani added in agreement. "Sasha could stay for now while we send a relay out ta Alexandria ta get Abe out 'ere, too. Send Jerry when we get ta the Sanctuary. Maybe Cal or Jesus could head ova from the Hilltop?"

"It's risky," Michonne commented. "We've seen herds run through and destroy bigger things than this."

"We can swap out the horses," Rick told them with a sigh, "split up, take 'em out in the clear, give 'em a rest while we see what we can do about the trailers.

"Ania, you keep a lookout," Daryl shot at her as soon as she moved to help. "We got this."

"Somethin' goin' on between the two of you?" Carol asked as she and Daryl pulled out the canoe.

"Naw, just don't need her helpin' with this," Daryl told her, denying the woman the real answer.

"If you say so, Pookie."

"Stop."

It didn't take nearly as long to unload the large wagon as it had to get it loaded up, which was also an annoyance to Ani, but it took seemingly forever to get the wagon out of the mud. At first, the men thought they could just push it out like a car and everything would be alright only to find that it wasn't quite that easy. The wooden wheels weren't as readily able to grip onto the items they tried putting under them as a car was and impeded their ability to push it out. Next, some tried pulling on the shaft of the wagon while others pushed, but that did nothing to help get the thing to move any more than putting something under the wheels did. One of the guys from the Hilltop suggested they try something similar to what they had in the museum and Ani had to roll her eyes as they all started pulling ropes out once again. She was pleasantly surprised by the fact that they got the ropes situated properly on the first try but less so when walkers started coming out of the woods maybe a hundred yards away. She told herself screw it and went to the back of the wagon where Ezekiel was trying to help push it and put her back flat against it as everyone else pulled once again. It took a few more times and the walkers had become an obvious beginning of a herd, but they finally managed to get the thing out of the mud puddle and onto stable ground.

Rick called for her, Daryl, and Michonne to help deal with the group of walkers while the others raced to reattach horses and reload supplies. Thankfully, the denser part of the walkers were still far enough away that they only had to deal with a dozen or so close to their group. Everything was loaded and one of the horses had been attached to the shaft of the wagon as she, Daryl, and Michonne moved back towards the others when the worst happened. It had been such a flurry of movements that Ani wasn't entirely sure what all had instigated the result. All she knew was that Rick had said it was time to go and Daryl had grabbed her arm and pushed her ahead, running after everyone else. They'd made it just past the wagon when Kenneth pulled himself away from Rick to save the horse that had already been attached to the wagon. Rather than saving the horse, though, the young man ended up getting bit by the walker he tried to save the horse from on the arm and then kicked by the horse in the chest. Practically everyone started running back the way they'd come with knives out while Siddiq and Maggie went to Kenneth's side. Ani wasn't all sure what happened after that, only that the plow was broke, they'd managed to kill the entire herd thanks to it being relatively small, and the boy was dead. She watched on as Maggie and Siddiq cried for him before turning away with an angry look on her face.

It was Zack and the Big Spot all over again; they'd made it out with a lot of goods for the group, but lost a life in the process. Ani wondered if there would ever be a time when a large group could go out and get supplies without losing someone in the process. The horses were called back and another was attached onto the wagon before everyone solemnly mounted and began moving again. What had once been a caravan of relatively content people idly chatting away as they traveled horseback to their communities became a parade of remorse. The idle banter among the others was gone and the only sounds were those of Daryl's bike and hers and Sasha's quads and hoof falls on the road. There was nothing anyone could say when it came to such a loss after getting a great haul from a run. Guilt and grief clouded judgment and Ani could tell that Maggie was blaming herself harshly for letting the young boy come. Rick was as stoic as ever as he tried to come to terms with the loss and come up with an explanation in his head that made it okay that they lost a life while saving so many others. Most of the people from the Kingdom, along with Ani and Daryl, didn't even know the boy and therefore said nothing so as not to make things worse. When they stopped to splinter off between the Sanctuary and the Hilltop and items were exchanged between the wagons, Ani couldn't handle the anger she was feeling. She let Daryl know what she was doing before taking off and gunning it all the way back, barely stopping and shutting off her engine before running into the building. Ani ran straight through to her room and barged in, grabbing up her son and just holding him tightly as she tried to get in control of her sobs in front of a very confused Sophia and Merle.