Chapter 21-His name

Octavia's P.O.V

3 months after the farm

Octavia drove a van down the road. "How far are we?" Shane asks as Octavia turned down a dirt road.

"We're almost there," Octavia says as she continues to drive down the road.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Clarke asks.

"We need somewhere safe and this place is safe," Octavia says. "Us being safe is more important than our demons from the past,"

Clarke nods as Octavia stops in front of a gate. She climbs out of the car and opens the gate. She climbs back in and drives past the gate. "I got it," Shane says as he climbs out of the car and locks the gate. He walks back to the car and climbs inside. The all sit In silence as Octavia drives down the driveway. After five minutes she stops the car in front of a two-story house. A shed sat beside the house as the group climbed out of the car.

"Welcome home," Oliver says as he stares at the house.

Daryl's P.O.V

3 days after Prescott

Daryl climbed out of his sleeping bag and looked at Glenn as he climbed down from the R.V. "Good morning, did you sleep well?" Glenn asks.

"Yeah," Daryl says. "How long have you been on watch?"

"A couple of hours, I took over for Noah," Glenn tells him.

Daryl nods. "I'm going to go see if I can get some breakfast. You wanna come?"

"What about watch?" Glenn asks.

"They'll hear the cans," Daryl says. "Or wake Blake up."

"I'll let Maggie know," Glenn says and Daryl nods as Glenns walks into the R.V. He comes out a couple of minutes later and Daryl and Glenn walk into the woods. "So what's the plan today?"

"We'll head into town. See what we can get, and keep going," Daryl says. "Tripp and Conrad should be getting to Eden soon. Hopefully everything with Eden and Prescott works out. They'll be a group ally," Daryl looks at Glenn as he chuckles. "What?"

"Nothing, I'm just thinking about the quarry and the farm and the man you were. I never thought you'd be one of the people leading us," Glenn says and Daryl smirks.

"Neither did I, I figured I'd find Merle and ditch all of you," Daryl says.

"We've come a long way," Glenn says and Daryl nods.

"We have," Daryl says as they hear a branch break. Daryl raises his crossbow as Glenn removes his gun. A man steps out of the woods.

"Hey, man I don't want any trouble," The man says.

"Then put your weapons down," Glenn says as the man nods as they hear footsteps behind them. Daryl and Glenn turn their heads and look at a teenage girl and man who had their guns raised.

"Put them down and get on your knees," The girl says and Daryl sighs as he sets his crossbow down and Glenn sets his gun down.

"I ain't getting on my knees," Daryl says and the man nods as he walks up to Daryl and punches him in the face. Daryl falls to the ground. He watches as Glenn swings at the man before he is hit by the other man and Daryl's world goes black.

Rick's P.O.V

Rick walked to the door as someone knocked. He opened the door and looked at Gabriel. "Tripp and Conrad are here, they are at the gates," Gabriel tells Rick who nods as he walks out of the house. He walked to the gate where Abraham, Rosita, Clarke, and Shane stood with their hands on their guns.

"I believe you have something that proves that you are who you say you are," Rick says and Tripp nods as he removes a map and holds it out to Rick who takes it. He opens the map and sees the note from Daryl. "Who's the leader of Prescott?"

"Francine," Tripp answers and Rick nods.

"Stand down, they're okay," Rick says and the others nod. "Rick Grimes," He says as he holds his hand out to Tripp who takes it.

"Tripp and this is Conrad," Tripp says.

"That's Shane, Clarke, Abraham, Rosita and Gabriel," Rick says. "Let's get you guys something to eat and then we can talk," Rick tells the two men who nod. "Come on,"

The two men nod as they follow Rick.

Beth's P.O.V

Beth climbed on top of the R.V and looks at Maggie. "They'll be back soon," Beth says.

"They've been gone for three hours, they are never gone this long," Maggie says.

"If they aren't back within the hour, we'll go looking for them," Beth tells Maggie who nods. "After this, I'm not letting you leave Eden."

"I'm pregnant, not useless," Maggie says.

"I know, but you should be resting, and making a nursery not being on a run," Beth says.

"I'm the big sister, not you," Maggie says with a smirk. "You worry about your boyfriend and I'll worry about my husband, baby and nursery."

"I'm helping you build that," Beth says and Maggie chuckles.

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl opens his eyes and looks around the small cabin he was in. He was tied to a chair and beside him Glenn was tied up as well. In front of them stood three men, a teenage girl and an older woman. "They're waking up," One of the men say.

"How many of you are there?" The man asks Daryl.

"Just me and him," Daryl says as he looks at Glenn. "We were just hunting for some breakfast," Daryl tells him. "We don't want any trouble or to get caught up in whatever fight you are having."

"How many of you are there?" He asks again.

"It is just us," Glenn says. "Now you untie us, and nobody has to get hurt."

"What's your name?" The black man asks.

"Daryl, this is Glenn," Daryl tells him. "If you're going to kill us, might as well give us your name."

"I'm Aaron, this is Eric, Heath, Enid, and Francine," Aaron says. "We're going to give you a minute to think about your choices," Aaron says as they go outside.

"So what now?" Glenn asks.

"These ropes ain't tight, I should be able to get out of 'em soon," Daryl says. "Just stay quiet," Glenn nods as they sit in silence.

Clarke's P.O.V

Clarke, Rick, Abraham, Lee, Kenny, Octavia, and Shane sat in Rick's house looking at Tripp and Conrad. "How many people are in Precott?" Rick asks.

"A hundred and seventy-two," Tripp answers. "You guys are doing well for yourselves here."

"We get by," Lee says. "What does your community need?"

"The same thing everybody needs, medicine, food, ammo, weapons, fuel. Every community needs those things, you have things we need we have things you need," Tripp says. "But also we need people so our homes can stay standing. I have a feeling you've dealt with groups who aren't friendly."

"We've dealt with a couple," Rick says. "You have?"

"A couple," Conrad says. "We've lost a couple of good people."

"We know the feeling," Rick says. "How many more communities do you know about?"

"There is one more nearby, Richmond. The people who run it, they kill and they take. We try to stay away from them because we can't match them in people or firepower and I'd advice you do the same. You can't beat them," Conrad says.

"If they come for us, try to take what we've built. It won't matter how many people or weapons they have. We'll kill them," Rick says. "If they're smart, they'll stay away."

"Then hopefully they stay away," Tripp says as he shares a look with Conrad. "So are we going to work together."

"Yeah, we're going to work together."

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl got his hands out of the rope as Aaron and Eric walked into the cabin. "Are you ready to talk?" Aaron asks as he walks up to Daryl. Daryl punches him in the face and quickly stands and wraps his arm around Aaron neck as Eric removes his gun. "I wouldn't do that," Daryl says as he removes Aaron's knife and presses it up against Aaron's throat and takes a few steps back as the others come into the cabin. "You're going to untie my friend or I am going to slit his throat," Daryl says.

"Don't do it, Eric," Aaron says. "They'll take us back."

"Untie him now," Daryl says as he presses the knife up against Aaron throat. Eric lowers his gun and unties Glenn who stands up. "Give him your gun."

"You don't have to do this," Eric says.

"You started this, now give him the gun," Daryl says and Eric hands Glenn the gun.

"We can't go back," Heath says.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Glenn asks as they hear voices outside.

"Daryl? Glenn?" Beth says.

"We're in here," Daryl says and after a couple of seconds Beth, Maggie, Tyreese, and Carol enter the cabin with their weapons raised.

"Making friends?" Maggie asks.

"You have no idea," Glenn says. "Weapons down, now," Glenn says and the other sigh as the put their weapons on the ground.

"Just kill us, we'd rather die then go back," Francine says.

"We ain't taking you anywhere. Like I said, Glenn and I were getting breakfast when you assholes ambushed us," Daryl says. "What are you running from?"

"You're really not with them?" Eric says.

"We ain't with anybody," Tyreese says. "We don't know anything about you people."

Daryl lets Aaron go and pushes him towards the others. "You assholes got some explaining to do."

"Two months ago, our community, it got surrounded by a herd of walkers and we thought that was it, and then a group showed up and they took out the herd, they cut through it like butter and we were grateful. We let them in and they turned their guns on us and their came in and made demands. He made us all stand in front of him as he looked at us and talked with our leader who didn't agree to his terms. So he killed her husband. He beat Reg to death with a baseball and we fell in line. His group kept coming back and took half of our shit. We worked for them and we got sick of it so we ran," Aaron says. "We thought you were with them. With him."

"Who's him?" Glenn asks.

"Negan."

Thanks for reading. I know Negan Is being mentioned a lot but it is still going to be a while before the group runs into him. But I like setting it up. Eventually you will get a chapter explaining everything with Negan. Next chapter Daryl decides to return to Eden and learns that there is another group that they need to worry about. As always suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.