I was heading over to A Block the second I woke up, only stopping for a moment to clean my hands with sanitiser and grab my holster of weapons. The darkness of the tombs kept me tired, but I carried on. I prayed that after I had gotten some rest, seeing them in their conditions would make me less sad than it did last night.

Daryl made me put my gear on before leaving, saying that he either needed me to help with the fences or drive out with Michonne to take the bodies out and burn them. If someone less volunteered then I might back out, still very tired from the events of the day before, but I got ready either way.

Hershel was the first person I passed when I entered the doorway. "I was just coming to find you," he said.

I wanted to ask about Glenn or Isaac, but I assumed that the reason Hershel wanted to find me was because he wanted to tell me their conditions. He had no other reason to seek me out unless he needed help, which was also possible. He looked exhausted, and now I wished that he'd have gone to bed or something. I felt so bad for him.

"You look tired."

"I am," he gave a nod. "It was a busy night. But I'm okay."

"You sure?" I asked cautiously.

I know the kinds of things he had to do last night because I had done them before. Putting down our people, almost watching his son-in-law die. I know what he had to do last night, how many walkers he must've killed. Putting down our members was tough, and I don't think Hershel had done it before now. He never had to do it before now.

"I will be," was his new answer.

I gave a nod. "Is Glenn okay?"

"He's breathing on his own now," Hershel assured me. "He's going to be just fine. His condition is stable enough now that I'm going to help Michonne with the bodies when she's finished moving them. At least that way you don't have to."

"You should get some rest," I told him.

"I'm not the only one," he said and pretended to look down at his imaginary watch. "What time do you call this, young lady?"

"Some people call it morning," I grinned. "I'm not so sure about it."

Hershel hummed. "Well, it seems you could have gotten more rest then."

He moved to walk past me and out of the Cell Block despite having found me, but I had a little more to ask about before he could get too far away. My mind wandered to the things he did, taking care of everyone in here without having a moment for himself.

"Hey, Hershel?" I called back before he could leave. "I don't think Isaac is going to stay here much longer."

"I know, I'm going to clear out a cell in the tombs near D block for him later," Hershel gave a nod and stopped in the doorway. "Close enough that we can keep an eye on him. He knows he can't return to D until he's better."

"Okay, I'm just checking," I said. "There were threats of sleeping outside."

"Yes, I got much of the same when I was checking up on him last night," Hershel chuckled and left the cell block.

I smiled, because if he was complaining about leaving, then it meant that he was probably getting better. It surprised me that they were able to keep him in there as long as they had, and thought that I would hear more stories about forcing him to stay.

Glenn was the first person I saw when I reached the top of the stairs, and he was still lying on the ground with his head on a pillow. I assumed that one of the reasons he was still there was for the IV to go into his arm, which at that moment was hanging from the bed.

"Hey," he smiled weakly.

"Where's Maggie?" I asked, glancing around the cell.

"Just getting a drink." His head rolled on the pillow as he glanced back to the stairs. "She wouldn't let me do it myself."

"Good," I nodded. "You don't need to."

Seeing him now, awake, did not make any of this easier, and I was still remembering the condition he was in last night, the thought making me more upset that he even got that bad, that we took so long that he could've died.

I sat down on the ground beside him, and all I could do was stare as his hand reached to grab my own. He squeezed it, moving it down so he could hold it in his own arm resting on his chest.

"You okay?"

I shook my head. "You almost died."

Why does this keep happening to you? Whatever the number was at this point almost seemed like too much, Wiltshire, the kidnapping, the well, this. I'm sure there was more that he didn't tell me about. Glenn didn't deserve all of the pain he'd gone through.

"Almost," he said. "I told you I'd be fine when you got back."

"If you think this is fine, you need a reality check," I told him.

Glenn laughed, coughing a little as he did so. "I'm glad you're back."

There was a nice silence for a little while that made me feel better. There was no coughing, no blood, or gagging. It was better than it was last night, and seeing him well now made me feel a lot better. I was glad Maggie didn't let me stay here with him, because I would have spent most of the night sobbing.

My eyes went to the door as I thought, finally being able to take a moment to relax. The sun came in through the windows in the cell block, and despite the concrete rooms and grey walls, everything looked cosy for once. It was going to be a good day.

Glenn squeezed my hand, shaking it a little to get my attention, "You should go see Isaac, he could use the company."

"Trying to get rid of me?" I raised a brow.

"You got me," he smiled. "After all this time, I need a break from you."

I frowned jokingly and whispered, "I knew it."

I wasn't going to leave him though, not until someone came back to sit with him. Maybe he was sick of getting all this attention, but after almost losing him, I didn't want to leave him alone. Glenn would put up a tough front, but he was a social person and always wanted company.

"Maggie was right though," he said after a moment. "It's good that he's here, that you have someone around your age. A friend your age," he added in the sternest voice he could muster. I assumed Maggie had told him about the crush and he was playing the overprotective brother in this scenario. "Even if he is scared of dirt."

"He saved your life, you know," I told him.

"I know, I was awake for that," Glenn grinned. "Not as bad as the tube, I'll give it to him."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure he'd be glad to hear that."

Glenn rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb and gave a small shrug. I'm not sure Glenn and Isaac had even really spoken before tonight, which made me wonder why Isaac tried to save him to begin with.

"Thank you for watching him," I said.

Glenn shook his head. "Like you said, he's the one that saved me."

"You know what I mean," I nudged his shoulder with my free hand.

"I know," he smiled. "You're welcome."

There was metallic patting, and in a second, Maggie came in through the cage above the staircase holding a bottle of water. She smiled when she saw me and came to sit down next to Glenn's head at the doorway.

"I didn't see you come in," she said.

"I saw Hershel," I said with a shrug, before asking, "Did you sleep?

Maggie shook her head. "I didn't have to."

"Both of you should get some sleep today," I told them.

"We will." Maggie slid in the gap beside me, so she was inside the cell sitting on the ground next to Glenn with a bottle of water in her hand. She handed Glenn the water bottle, and he released my hand to take a sip. "Have you seen Isaac today?"

"No," I answered honestly.

Maggie gave a nod and peered out the door towards the cell Isaac was in. "I think he's up, Bob checked on him earlier."

"I know."

"Well?" she dragged out in a sing-song voice, looking at me expectantly. When I didn't answer her she asked, "What are you waiting for?"

"She's spending time with her big brother," Glenn said, putting the water bottle down and snatching my hand in his own. "Because she doesn't need to see a boy." Glenn pulled on my hand, getting my attention despite the embarrassment I was feeling. "They're the worst."

"Don't listen to him, I found a good one. Though, I am second guessing that now," she jokingly gave him a stern look.

"I'm going, I'm going!" I cried, standing up to escape the two of them.

Maggie chuckled, but I didn't give her the time to start making any more jokes before I was halfway to Isaac's cell. I wished that I'd walked a little slower to give my face a chance to return to its normal colour. If Isaac said anything, I had no lies in the bank; there was also a small chance he could hear Glenn and Maggie from down the hallway.

He was sitting on the bed when I arrived, but the second he saw me, he jumped up so fast. He had a fresh face mask on, and he was immediately pocketing things he wanted to take with him as he rambled out some greeting.

"You're here," he was saying. "Good, I'm out of here."

"I came all this way and you're leaving?" I asked jokingly.

Isaac was standing next to me at the door when he shrugged, "You can come, I guess."

"You guess?" I raised a brow. "Why even wait here? Why not run away the second the sun came up?"

"I knew you'd be here to see Glenn."

So you did want to see me? Something I kept inside my head because the question seemed redundant. Though, I did have to wonder why he wanted to see me so badly. The thought of it made my chest warm and tingly, and my face had a whole different reason to stay the shade of red.

Isaac was past me at this point, leaving me to follow him past Glenn's cell and down the stairs. I had to ignore the look they both gave me as I followed Isaac out of the Cellblock. We were out the front of the prison in a minute, and I watched as Isaac's arms extended out to the sides as he walked into the sun.

"Oh, thank God," he sighed. "Didn't think I'd ever miss being outside."

"Nice?" I questioned.

"Yeah."

We walked across the courtyard to the fence, and I was surprised when he sat down on the edge of one of the planters, even if it was over a plastic tarp that came over the side. I sat down next to him as he tried picking at the tape with his gloved fingers.

"Still can't get the gloves off?"

"No, but I will." I barely felt it, but I saw Isaac's swift movement as he took the knife from my holster.

"Hey!"

"Hershel confiscated the one I was given after the walkers. Something about worrying I'd cut myself trying to get them off."

"Were you trying to get them off?" I questioned.

"I had your brother's infected blood spat up on my face," he said. "I needed a new everything, not just a mask."

"Just . . ." I wanted to reach for the knife and take it away before he could get the gloves off, but I didn't want that action to hurt either of us. "Just don't cut yourself."

"I won't," he said.

There was a deep concentration as he slipped the knife under the tight glove that had been taped down and turned it upwards. I watched his eyes mostly, the way they narrowed in glee as he smiled, his cheekbones rising as the knife cut the glove away.

"Sweet freedom!" He threw the first glove on the floor. "I can't tell you how gross my hands feel right now."

"I can guess," I said as he cut the other one away.

"Oh, here. You don't have to guess," as he said that he reached over and wiped his bandage into my arm, and I could feel how damp it had gotten from his sweat. I cringed, my shoulders coming up as my face contorted and I tried to lean away.

"Isaac!" I squealed. "You're such a hypocrite! If I did that to you, you'd die! I washed my hands before seeing you, so you weren't thinking about that all the time and then you just did that!"

"I know," he laughed. "You're a braver man than I, Miss Daniels."

I stopped, squinting as I looked at him out the side of my eyes. "How do you know my last name?"

"Hershel calls you Miss Daniels, sometimes."

"I forgot I told him," I said honestly.

I remembered now because it was at the farm and I didn't know how polite to be with him. That stopped when I found out about the walkers in the barn, so we continued on a more informal relationship. He hasn't called me Miss Daniels to my face since the farm, and after the bar only called me Ace. I think the bar was the first time he used my first name.

"Maybe he doesn't like the name Ace," Isaac suggested, "you know, seeing as it's a fake name."

"It's a nickname," I crossed my arms.

"Fake name."

I rolled my eyes. "The derivative for nickname translated to also-name, which means that Ace is also my name."

"Also your fake name."

"Not fake," I frowned. "If my dad had his way, it would've been on my birth certificate."

"But luckily your mother got her way, I'm assuming," he raised his brows, and I gave a nod. "I thought for a second there that maybe you were adopted by a gay couple, nothing we'd ever confirmed. Anyway, what is the name on your birth certificate?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I asked sarcastically.

"I would like to know, but I doubt you're gonna tell me," Isaac said. "If Rick doesn't know, then I'm certainly not going to know." I wondered how he knew that Rick didn't know, even though no one did. "Maybe it's for the best though, I don't know why I think you have a good first name, it could be terrible. Or common, which might be worse."

"So, you're coming around to Ace?"

"I guess," he shrugged. "It is cool."

"Is that why you made fun of it when you met me?" I questioned. "Because of how cool it is?"

"Exactly that reason," he nodded and grinned.

Before I realised what was happening, Isaac was looking at his hands again, running his finger under the edge of the bandage, trying to find the end so he could unravel it. When I realised what he was doing, I made a move to grab him by the sleeve.

"No, hey!" I half expected him to push my hand away, but he just followed me with his other hand and continued scratching at the bandage, trying to find the end. "You have to leave the bandages on."

"But they're all sweaty," he frowned.

"Then you have to get new ones on," I told him.

"But they'll be the same way."

I raised both eyebrows and looked at him. "Am I going to have to get the tape again?"

"Most likely," he said. "But for now, this is coming off."

He got the end of the bandage out and started pulling it from around his hand. As the loosened material fell away, he discarded it on the ground near where the broken gloves were. And then I saw his hand, how red it was.

"Oh my God," I reached to grab his wrist again, pulling his hand closer to me. I grabbed the other bandaged hand and removed the bandage to see that it was the same. They were so dry, flaky and cracked. He must've been in so much pain. "Isaac . . ."

"Yeah, uh. It—it got bad in there." His voice was much different now, no longer happy or joking, just completely serious. "I'm glad you didn't see me like that."

"I saw you," I reminded him, part confused and part sincere, a way of saying I didn't care that he was like that.

He shook his head. "It was worse than when you saw me."

"Were your hands like this when I took you to A?"

"No, after," he promised. "I-I did it after."

I looked back at his face, but he was just staring down at one of his hands on my own. I hoped that I wasn't hurting him, but he made no move to pull his arm away despite how long I'd been holding his wrist.

"Is it okay that I'm—?" I trailed off, unsure of the right ending to my question. Is it okay that I'm so close to you right now? Is it okay that I'm so nearly holding your hand? Is it okay that I'm touching you?

"No, yeah." He nodded almost immediately, his eyes flicking up to meet mine for a second. Then his hand turned over, pulling back until it was under my hand as he locked his fingers between my own. "It's more than okay."

With anyone else, this moment could have been something more, but it meant the world to me. This was the first time he was willing to touch me, to let me touch him. It wasn't just grabbing him by his sleeve or on rubber glove replacements for his skin.

Isaac was holding my hand.

I desperately wanted this to mean something. That this was his way of telling me that if he didn't have the mask on or contagious pneumonia maybe he was okay with connecting in other ways. Did he want to kiss me?

The sound of a car entering the prison seemed to startle the both of us, and we each retracted our hands, the roughness of his skin scratching against my fingers. I looked back to see Daryl driving the truck back up to the prison, the one that had been holding the fence in place. At least he hadn't seen us.

I turned away from the truck when I saw someone else that had seen us. Michonne was standing on the back of the trailer, taking a break from moving the corpses by watching us. She was grinning at me, placing a hand on each of her cheek and closing her eyes in a silent joy of making fun of us. When she was done with that gesture, she gripped one of her hands in the other and brought it up to the side of her face.

My cheeks heated up, and I turned to look away from her.

Hershel was coming out of the prison as the car rolled into the courtyard, and Daryl stepped out with Tyreese. They spoke for a while, a conversation that I couldn't hear for the most part, not until Hershel started walking towards Michonne.

"How about Carol?" Daryl called after him. "She up in A block with Lizzy?"

"No. Talk to Rick about her," Hershel said. "She's okay, just talk to him."

Daryl took another minute and began talking to Tyreese as Hershel left with Michonne. I couldn't believe that he was still working after everything he did. Hershel was a tough son of a bitch, as I heard Daryl say family before he asked about Carol.

And then I remembered that I hadn't seen Carol in a while either.

"Do you know what happened with Carol?" I asked, glancing at Isaac. "I haven't seen her. Did she get sick?"

"I know what happened," he said. But then his expression changed, holding something that resembled more of a realisation. Maybe it just hit him that I didn't know what happened, the entire reason I asked. Everyone was so secretive about it, so maybe that's why he was more alert. "You should probably go with Daryl and talk to Rick about it."

"Is it bad?" I asked, but Isaac just gave me a look. If he knew then I assumed that maybe she'd gotten sick overnight and died, but no one seemed sad enough for that to be what happened. I don't know what else could have happened for everyone to act this weird about it, but it was apparently something I needed to know. "Is it something that means I'll have to do some kind of work?"

He gave a nod. "Probably."

Great. I sighed, swallowed and stood up."I'll be back out in a bit, I guess."

Daryl was on his way in when I saw him again, so I ran off after him. I assumed whatever this was about, it was better for Rick to say it one time and not repeat it on my arrival. Things involving Carol were a hundred percent going to make Daryl angry.

"Daryl!" I called, stopping him in his tracks. "We have to talk to Rick about the same thing, I think."

"Carol?"

"Yeah."

"Come on then," he gave a nod of his head, gesturing for me to follow him.

Rick was in D Block, coming in for a break from a morning at the farm with Carl. I was just glad that he was not down on the field while I was out there with Isaac. Rick was standing at the top of the stairs, and I could see a look of regret on his face as we neared him.

"What's happened to Carol?" Daryl asked as he entered the room with all the cells in D Block. "I got told I needed to talk to ya 'bout it. Is she okay?"

"Come up here," Rick gestured for us both to follow him onto the balcony.

I ran up the stairs after Daryl.

"What the hell happened, Rick?" Daryl asked as he came around the railing.

Rick was quiet for a long moment, waiting for us both to be ready for whatever the news was. I assumed that maybe she got the sickness from being around the kids and died with it, but Rick didn't look nearly sad enough for that to be the case.

"Carol was the one who killed Karen and David," he said, not at all easing us into it. I had to blink a few times to make sure I heard him right. "She told me; she killed them to stop the illness from spreading."

"She—" Daryl started, but I could tell he didn't understand it either.

Carol had fought with us in the war, but even then I never expected her to be the kind of person that could just kill people in cold blood. People we knew. We were friends with Karen and David, and she killed them just because she thought it might stop more people from being sick. It just didn't seem like her.

"Where is she?" Daryl asked.

Rick breathed out a long sigh. "Gone."

"Gone where?"

"I drove her out to a nearby town with a working car and sent her away," Rick said. I was still taken aback, still unsure of how any of this happened in the two days we were gone. "She couldn't stay here after doing something like that—it was wrong. It wasn't out of self-defence. Karen and David were strong, they could have lived through what happened, but she took that chance away from them."

I couldn't find the words, my mouth felt numb. I couldn't tell whether I was angry, upset or scared that she was now on the road alone. We'd been on the road before, and it almost killed me. The only reason I lived through that was because I had people around, but she had no one. I couldn't decide whether she deserved to have anyone after what she did. She killed people in our group. The only connection I could make to something like that was how the Governor killed his advisor, and gunned down his men. She did the same.

But I knew her. Carol was family, one of the people I knew the longest anymore. She was there when I made it to the Atlanta camp, I played with and babysat her daughter. No part of me ever believed that she could do something like that.

Daryl had been pacing for a little while, I only noticed when I looked to see what his reaction was. "Man, you couldn't have waited till we got back?"

"Until Tyreese got back?" Rick questioned.

And I didn't even think about Tyreese. He would have killed her. Rick couldn't have locked her up because the second Tyreese got close enough he would have beaten her to death. If she stayed, she would be dead. Rick had to send her away if he wanted her to live.

"I could've handled that," Daryl was quiet this time, contemplating, but still angry.

"Yeah, we handled it so well last time," I said, glancing over cautiously. Daryl scoffed, and spun around, waving me off with a flag of his arm.

"Hey. Hey," Rick called after him in a whisper, and Daryl turned around. "She killed two of our own. She couldn't be here."

I agreed with Rick on that front. I was glad that he was the one to find out what happened with Karen and David. The thought of me being the one to take Carol away, drop her off, I don't know that I could have done it. I didn't believe I could have looked her in the eyes and sent her away like that, even after she killed our people. And I never would have been able to stop Tyreese from killing her, which would have put us in the same position,

"She's gonna be alright," Rick said. "She has a car, supplies, weapons. She's a survivor."

"Stop saying that like you don't believe it!" Daryl hissed.

Rick gave a nod, glancing at me for a second before breathing out a sigh. "She did it, she said it was for us. That's how it was in her head. She wasn't sorry."

"Man, that's her, but that ain't her," Daryl muttered. He went quiet for a long moment in thought, and then asked, "What are we supposed to do about those two girls?"

"Lizzie and Mika?" I asked, frowning.

"Their dad died when our people turned, got bit," Rick said. "He asked her to take care of them. I told her we'd look after them. I haven't told Tyreese yet. I don't know how he's gonna take it."

Daryl gave a nod and walked past us. "Let's go find out."

I went with them to find Tyreese, knowing that we would probably need more people there to stop him from starting anything else. Rick could not end up with a broken hand because Tyreese was upset that Rick let Carol go.

Daryl said that Tyreese was heading into the tombs, the last he saw, and so that was the direction we chose to go as well. I tole them that he could have been down by the cells where Karen and David were left before Carol got to them.

"Tyreese?" Rick yelled out. "You down here?"

"Rick, that you?" Tyreese was on his way back down the tombs when we found him, and he gave us a wave to follow him when he saw us. "You guys got to see this."

"Can we take a beat? There's something we need to talk about."

"It can wait," Tyreese said. "Come on."

We followed him around the corner to the end of a hallway, and I couldn't see what was so bad at first. It was so dark there, and even with Rick pointing his torch around to illuminate the hallway, none of us seemed to know what was so bad.

"Look." Tyreese pointed his torch down, and then I saw it.

Against the ground was a small wooden board, with a gutted and dead rat strung up against it. It reminded me of the ones that were dead at the fence, but this looked ceremonial, for some reason. Like something a cult would do. We did not have a cult, so I was completely out of guesses for whoever would pull some BS like this.

"The hell?" Daryl asked.

"I was just looking for . . . answers . . . and I found this," Tyreese said. "Same person that killed Karen and David did this." I heavily doubted that, but I didn't want to be the one to break the news about that to Tyreese. "Remember the rats at the fence? They showed up the same day she was killed. We got a psychopath living with us."

Maybe that wasn't too far of a stretch, but Carol wasn't the one to have done this. The rat corpse looked new (a sentence I never thought I'd have to use) and Carol had to have been gone for at least a day at this point. I wasn't too aware of decomposition traits, but I think this was far too fresh for Carol to have been the person to have killed all the rats.

"Tyreese," Rick started.

"We got to find him, Rick," Tyreese said. "And I'm not gonna sleep until we do."

And this version of Tyreese was back. I was glad we got a break from him on the road, but I had to remind myself that he was still grieving, still angry. And he was going to get a whole lot worse when he found out that the person who killed his friend and girlfriend was still alive.

"Tyreese . . . whoever did this, I don't think that's who killed Karen," Rick said.

Tyreese frowned. "Why?"

Nobody got the chance to answer before there was a huge bang, and the room shook around us. Dust started falling from the ceiling in the same way it had at the Big Spot. I looked up, having to cover my eyes as I wondered what the hell could be going wrong now.