Apparently, Amy had to communicate better. The morning after Amy, Miranda, and Michonne informed the group that they would be organizing the bags from the CDC. No one argued or volunteered to help except for Edwin who wanted most of the medical supplies stored on what was now being called the med bus. It made sense, other than the large first aid kits he put together for each vehicle, all the medical supplies would be close at hand for their doctor. Hector, Daryl, and T-Dog all agreed to take the look out points on the wall while they worked.
Merle was resting out of the way in the med bus, feeling even worse than he had the last few days. Swinging through moods like Tarzan, his brother was the one who ended up restraining him to the cot so he couldn't take another swing at the doctor. Jim was forced to rest beside him, he was still weak and could not run if there was any danger. The mechanic tried to argue but under the dead eyes of Edwin Jenner he laid back down.
"I think we need to talk about the division of labor around here." Jaqi joked as she watched the woman efficiently filling bags and tubs with supplies. Nearly everything was being placed in trailers or the back of trucks. The medical supplies were stuffed under the med bus, forcing Michonne to officially move in with Amy.
"Yeah, why don't you take these bags and place one in each of the cars?" Amy asked, motioning to the filled military packs. Each one had a smaller drawstring backpack attached with a little red cross drawn onto them.
"What's in them?" Andrea wondered curiously, not bothering to wait for an answer. Jaqi joined her in opening up two packs, pulling out food. Each pack had ten MREs, four one-liter bottles of water, and an assortment of rice and canned foods.
"Where did all this food come from?" Jaqi demanded, about to start taking things inside to cook for the group.
"What are you doing?!" Jamie huffed, ripping the bag away from the old woman none too gently. "It took forever to get all the bags packed with equal food."
"Jamie." Amy pulled her away, taking the bags away from the women as well. "Go help your brother with the birds."
The preteen gave older women the stink eye before turning back to Amy with a pout. "Fine."
"You need to talk with that girl."
"I asked you to put these bags in the car, not tear them apart." Amy sighed, rubbing Branden's sleeping head.
"We were going to make breakfast for everyone since you're sharing food now." Jaqi sniffed with a sneer on her face.
"Sharing food?" Amy questioned, looking at the woman like she was out of her mind. "Between Glenn, Michonne, and I we had a full tent filled to the brim with food for the camp. That's not even mentioning the boxed stuff we kept in mine and Dale's RVs. So, I'm confused as to how I ever stopped sharing food."
"Then, where is it all?" Jaqi demanded, waving her arms around the chaos of large tote containers being moved between vehicles.
"Jaqi." Amy barked, shocking Jaqi and Braden out of his sleep. "You are not on inventory and never volunteered to do it. You went on a single run, which you all came back empty handed and missing a whole ass person. This morning when we came out at the crack of dawn you didn't want to help then either. There's baskets of muffins that need to be eaten before they go bad in the auditorium. Take your ass back there if you can't help."
"That's not fair." Andrea cut in before her sister turned back to the bags she had to repack. "She didn't know."
"Oh, I'm sorry that I was unaware a grown ass woman needed me to hold her hand." The younger blonde snapped back. Her anger was irrationally spiking at the sight of her sister. "This all needs to be done before we can leave, you understand that? While you guys were all relaxing in that tomb, we've been out here doing shit. Why is it that I need to point blank tell you this is the apocalypse, move your ass or get eaten."
"Well, I wouldn't have even been here if Dale hadn't forced me to come back." Andrea hissed angrily, Jaqi backed away quickly realizing this was much bigger than her misspoke words.
"Yeah, you would be dead." Amy nodded her head sarcastically. "Good job, Andrea. You ditched me when I was a kid and then promised Dad you would look out for me on our trip. Two months into the end of the world and you wanna check out? Mom and Dad are in Europe if they're not dead, I'm alone and my big sister wants to get blown up. Sorry, if your mental health isn't my top fucking concern right now."
"You could have stayed with me!" Andrea screamed, drawing attention from people inside the building. Rick and Shane came rushing out, looking around the courtyard in confusion. " We would be with them now!"
"Yeah but I don't want to die!" Her younger sister hissed back with venom, running her fingers through Braden's hair to sooth him. "I want to fucking live, Andrea! I want to build something so that these kids can grow up and live! People have survived worse and we can too."
"Amy." Rick started after Andrea stalked back to the building with tears in her eyes.
"No, unless you both are here to help I'm not up to talking anymore." The young blonde stated firmly, shoving food back into the backpacks.
"I think we need to talk about all these supplies." Shane countered, hugging his shotgun like a teddy bear across his broad chest.
"Move those into Jim's truck." Miranda stalked over, pointing the two former cops away from the emotional blonde. "We are wasting daylight with no help."
"Well, we didn't know there was so much to rearrange." Rick shook his head at all the cargo. Unsure of just what was in all the bags and totes. Even their children were helping with the lighter bags. "I was thinkin' we should cut down on some vehicles, save the gas."
"Dale's RV." Michonne nodded solemnly, loaded down with a three year old strapped to her back and four duffle bags on each arm. "Good call, Jim's been saying we should tear it apart for scrap for weeks."
"Hey!" Glenn interjected incredulously. "Why did Dale tear apart my car if his RV is falling apart?"
"You didn't have the keys." Amy laughed at the asian man's pouting face. "Sorry bud, if you can't drive it without hot wiring it every time, it's not really yours."
"Actually, I was thinking about the trucks and maybe one of the big RVs. Diesel is harder to find." Rick explained gently.
"You can keep these bags. "Amy nodded, oddly calm, before standing up and turning to Miranda and Michonne. "Let's get this shit done so we can hit the road before noon."
"Wait, we didn't mean you had to stay with your bus." Rick stepped forward with a panicked Shane.
"Edwin, you got anything to knock Andrea out?" Amy ignored them while the others started picking up speed, Glenn joining them. "I just know she's going to freak out and want to do something stupid. So, for the time being we'll keep her in the med bus. Maybe get her some anti-depressants?"
"We can talk about this!" Shane shouted, raising his shotgun to aim at the blonde and her child.
"You." Amy pointed at him with her own gun, keeping her free hand on Braden's head and turning her body away from the shotgun. "You do not talk to me, you do not look at my family. You hear me, you can play those games with Lori, not me and not them. So put your damn gun down."
"I think there's been some miscommunication here." Rick tried to step in front of Shane only to find the men on watch were now pointing their guns at them.
"No, no miscommunication." Amy said wryly, looking back at the group that was hovering near the door nervously. "I wrote off most of the camp when they felt they could say shit about my kids. Like they had a right to vote on whether they live or die. You guys can keep your dick measuring contest out of my business. Neither of you are being anything but a hindrance to the survival of my people. So, unless you can start being productive I'm going to have to be a little red hen about this."
"We're a group, we have to look out for each other." Rick reached out as if to lay a hand on her shoulder but thought better of it. "I know it's scary but we're doing everything we can to find a safe place. You just have to trust us."
"Trust you?" Amy said slowly, everyone but Lori, Carol, Jaqi and their kids were now standing behind Amy. "Shane's job at the camp was to get water until I gave him weapons. He fucked that up and a third of our number are dead. You just woke up from a coma and the first thing you did after calling every walker in Atlanta to your location was to leave a man handcuffed to a roof."
"You know that I was going back for him in the morning." Rick defended himself angrily. "It was never my intention to leave him there in the first place."
"Okay." Amy nodded her head and lowered her gun, waving her arms for him to continue.
"What's your plan? Where are we going? How are we getting there? How much gas do we have? How long could we last on the food we have now? What about winter?" Miranda fired off questions after pushing her children into their RV. "What are your plans for the children? Classes? Activities? Should we keep them all together or space them out in cars?"
"Come back when you have a plan." Michonne hissed, wrapping an arm around Amy's shoulders.
"You have a plan, right Rick?" Lori asked, watching as Jenner directed a swaying Andrea to the med bus with a worried Dale following.
"So, what's the plan?" T-Dog asked when he saw most of the group gathering by Amy's bus.
Shane and Rick walked up, looking contrite after watching the rest of the group finish loading the cars, even a shamed Jaqi. Carol and Lori stayed in the building reading books with the kids. Jenner wasn't in a place, mentally, for any kind of confrontation so he stayed in the med bus organizing his inventory.
"My idea is to find somewhere with walls or somewhere isolated enough to build them." Amy pointed at the map to where it was mostly farmland.
"What about Fort Benning?" Rick asked having agreed with Shane it might be best if he spoke up for the both of them. At least for now.
"I'm not comfortable trusting the military again." Michonne said sternly, her hands occupied with Andre. "I saw some of the other quarantined areas they had blocked off for civilians around Atlanta. I would rather have somewhere fortified for ourselves before looking for others."
"I agree." Hector nodded.
"Yes, we need to have a home base for our children before we look for more trouble." Miranda smiled at her husband encouragingly.
"How are we doing on supplies?" Rick asked tentatively, looking anywhere but Amy.
The young blonde pushed a tablet towards him without a word while the others talked about animals they could find. Their inventory was neatly laid out in Microsoft. Swiping, he found charts with how much they had as well as where it was. Further on he found weapons, clothes, gear, and medical. However, there was a note that stated to see Dr. Jenner for medication allot. Shane snatched the tablet away with a clenched jaw, grinding his teeth. Just the night before he had thought their group had nothing but a can of beans and potato chips.
"You really had all this stored away from the group?"
"No, most of that was in the supply tent." Glenn reached around him to point out all the box ramen and canned food.
"The storage tent was right by Dale's RV." Miranda waved the men away with an exasperated hand motion." It was always open except when Glenn was asleep, there were five rooms that anyone could go into if they needed anything. We've all gone into it for clothes or camping supplies so why is everyone so confused by the amount of food we have?"
"Back to it." Amy spoke up, completely ignoring the interruptions. "I like the idea of a boarding school and by google, there are quite a few in Georgia. The one I like best is Nemours Academy, there's nothing but a tiny town for miles. Also if we take this route, we pass a lot of farmland. It would also be just a short trip if a couple of people wanted to check out Benning while the rest of us scout out for animals."
"I think that's a nice compromise." Dale said, smiling approvingly at the blonde.
"So, I think we need to agree on stops along the way." Hector used a highlighter to mark their route. "There's no one clearing accidents and if the highway outside the city is anything to go by we may need an alternative route for large traffic jams."
"Not to mention we aint gonna wanna be on the road at night."
Amy pulled a small six inch GPS out of her pocket, laying it out on the hood for everyone to see. It had terrain pictures but it was slow to load. Most of the group was shocked that she was still using technology. The young blonde zoomed in on some areas with the handheld before marking it off on the paper map on the hood.
"I'll have Jamie and Billy looking for dirt roads and trails we can use. All the vehicles have four wheel drive." Amy nodded, putting away her handheld to look around at the expectant faces. "You're both right, we probably will get stuck somewhere and we will need a plan."
"Ya got tha' winch on your bus." Daryl nodded to the blonde's Earth Roamer. "'N I thought that ya built tha' death trap on Jim's truck ta mow through shit?"
"It's mostly for the walkers. I sharpened it to tear through the dead so they couldn't cling underneath."
"Well, it would push a few cars out of the way if you went fast enough." Glenn agreed with Daryl, anything for them not to have to stop somewhere.
"It would take too long to have to drag the cars out of our way with her bus." Rick chipped in, both hands laid on the hood with his stance wide to take up more space. Amy had seen the men her father hired try this tactic, making themselves bigger to intimidate.
"Well, it's always nice to have a plan in place." T-Dog mumbled sarcastically, making sure to keep an eye on the only exit.
"The traffic jams could be a good place to get more supplies." Glenn suggested. "Some of us can take the time to reroute while we scavenge."
"Yeah, gas, food, clothes, and who knows what else." Michonne nodded.
"More weapons." Daryl grunted, getting a weird look from Amy. "Not guns, something quiet."
"Yeah, there were some hatchets in the truck but I haven't really found many hunting knives or bows for that matter. Although everyone should at least have a tactical knife, right?" Amy looked around seeing most people looking at her blankly. "Can we all agree that all children should stay in the vehicles until we make some kind of perimeter if we're stuck somewhere?"
Rick Grimes
Rick had no idea how the talk had gotten so far out of his hands. His best friend and partner pulling a gun on a young woman and baby had nearly given him a heart attack. It was just another blow after not getting a response from Morgan again. He had to believe that they were just fine, he found his family so he was sure they could survive just fine on their own for a while.
The convoy was much bigger than he would have preferred, though his suggestion of cutting down on the diesel vehicles was shut down hard. Amy preferred threatening to leave then compromise, she had to see how difficult it was to find enough fuel to keep both buses running. So, he reasonably assumed she would give up her RV so that they could keep the med bus going just a little longer. It was essential to their group that they had a place the doctor could work if someone was injured.
Lori and Shane reassured him that they understood where he was coming from. Amy was just difficult and had a problem with authority, she ignored Lori and Shane's directives enough times. He couldn't help but glance at his wife in worry, he could see she was stressed about something. Probably all the dangers this new world held.
"So, none of those children are hers?" Rick asked curiously, glancing at the rearview mirror at Carol who sat with Carl and Sofia.
"No but Billy is so cool!" Carl exclaimed with an excited smile. "He has a slingshot and a knife! Mom said I can't have one even though Amy brought back a bunch and told Shane it would save on ammo."
"How does a young woman just…" Rick pauses, glancing at his wife significantly.
"No one knows." Lori scooted closer to hiss in a low voice with Carol leaning forward to nod in agreement. "They say their parents are gone but she didn't even know the little ones last names or anything. It must be so awful."
"I wouldn't trust her." Carol whispered a little too loudly. "She's deceitful and you should have seen how disrespectful those children are, brandishing their weapons and ignoring the adults."
"What do you mean?" Lori asked curiously, turning back to her friend eagerly.
"Well, you know how she behaved at camp, flirting with a married man." Carol widened her eyes when she felt the first sign of tears. "I know that Ed and I didn't have the happiest of marriages but..she and those children."
"I don't remember her interacting with anyone unless we invaded her camp." Lori patted the crying woman's hand in sympathy. "I'm sure she would never try to come between a man and his wife."
"Ed was telling me how she teased and flirted with him while I was doing chores, making sure they were alone so they could…" Carol covered her face in sorrow. "I'm just glad I kept my Sofia away from her and those children. They would have been a bad influence."
Rick looked at his wife who cut her eyes to him in disbelief. He had heard many things about the blonde since he arrived in camp and very little about Ed. However, from the little he did hear about the man he wasn't sure he could trust a woman who would want him. Involuntarily his eyes cut to Carol who was hugging her daughter close, crying on her neck.
"She's young and beautiful, you remember what that was like." Lori laughed lightly, squeezing his hand with a perfected plastic smile. "You should worry about her friend and that sword. Michonne is out every morning exercising, I get tired just watching her."
"What about the rest of the camp?" Rick asked curiously, he had gotten a basic run down from his partner but other than a select few he had not had the time to really talk to them.
"Well, Dale is a real sweetheart." Lori gushed. "Carl loves him because he would let us use his RV on the hot days when he ran his AC.
"Yes, he always let me explore when he watched me."
"What do you-"
"Of course there's also the Dixon brothers, I'm sure you already know all about them." Lori quickly cut him off with a hint of desperation in her eyes. Rick pondered what his wife was so worried about before it dawned on him she was a grieving widow. She probably needed time to herself so she could be strong for their son. He couldn't help giving her a squeeze.
"Well, Merle certainly leaves an impression."