"Every long separation is a test:

A test to see how powerful or how weak the will of reuniting is!"

– Mehmet Murat ildan

The original plan was going through the woods until the next town or at least another neighbourhood far from the group we ran into in the house but the plans changed. We found some kind of sign that said 'Terminus, sanctuary for all'. Or some shit like that, so now we had gone further into the woods and more east than the place we originally wanted to go, so that meant a few more days in these endless woods. We had been here for around five more days than planned and still we had a long way to go, I was really being a bitch about it, complaining all the damn time but nobody even asked for my opinion about this Terminus thing.

Personally, I didn't think such place existed and if it ever did then I doubt it's still up. Michonne, Rick and Carl wanted to see what the whole thing was so it was three against one. They didn't ask if I wanted to go or not. I learnt some Spanish in High School and the word Terminus reminded me of the word 'terminar' which means to end, and somehow that didn't really give me a good feeling about the place.

I tried to reason with them but they said it was worth a shot, they said maybe the others had headed that way, Rick even tempted me by saying that Daryl could be there, and he could or he could not, every single possibility could be true... or not, so without a good enough argument, we ended up like before and we continued walking down the railroad tracks.

At the moment Rick was on the lead, I was a few steps behind him and Carl and Michonne were in the back, quite far from us. Both of them were walking on the rails, trying hard not to fall, as always they had a bet on it. I would have joined them if there was a third rail and if I weren't in such a bad mood.

"I think we got about a day's worth of water left," I heard Rick saying to all of us, he didn't know Michonne and Carl were too far to hear him and I barely could. "We're lucky it's cooled off a little bit, but..."

He stopped mid-sentence, like he realized he wasn't being followed anymore. He turned around and first his gaze landed on me, then on the pair behind me.

"Don't mind them," I told him.

"What are you doing?" he asked anyway.

"Winning a bet," Carl replied.

"In your dreams!" Michonne exclaimed.

"I'm still on," Carl told her and at that instant he almost fell, making Michonne laugh.

"You spoke too soon, wise guy."

"This might go on a while. Maybe we can speed this up," Rick said, being the spoiler old man he is. I rolled my eyes at him but said nothing. I just watched him walk to Michonne and Carl while I stayed on my spot.

"Yeah, you're right," Michonne muttered. "Shouldn't be fooling around. We should probably – Carl!" Michonne yelled the last part and tried to scare Carl so he would fall but the boy didn't even react, and Michonne fell instead but I was wondering if she fell on purpose, knowing Rick wanted to go.

"I win," Carl chanted proudly to Michonne and then extended his open hand to Michonne. "Pay up."

Michonne didn't look so happy as she reached for her backpack, opened it and took out two chocolate bars, if I had known the prize I would have probably joined the bet.

"Is that really the last Big Cat?" I heard Carl asking Michonne. Carl hesitated for a while but then made his choice and went to pick the chocolate with the brown wrapper.

"Oh, come on!" Michonne whined, obviously wanted that chocolate as well.

"Hey, but you said winner's choice."

"Go ahead, take it. It's yours," Michonne exclaimed as she threw the other chocolate inside her backpack before she closed it again. "You won it fair and square."

Carl opened the wrapper and broke a little piece of it, and then offered it to Michonne, who looked tempted to take it but she didn't. Damn, girl! If you don't want it I do.

"Come on, we always share," Carl said softly and Michonne smiled at him.

"Fork it over," she whispered with a grin. Rick actually laughed at the exchange of those two, before he started walking again. He pat my shoulder as he walked past me.

"No chocolate for us, huh?" I told him as I started walking too. "Now it's our turn Rick! See who can last longer on the rails, what do you say?"

"No." He chuckled.

"Aw, why not?"

"Because you would win."

"That's not fair, Rick. We could do it and we can always share like they did."

"Maybe another time, Cecilia," he said with a smile.

"Alright."

I really thought we had more food than we actually had. When we were in that house waiting for Rick to recover, I knew we had gotten a lot of food, we got even more along the way and now we only had one chocolate bar left and maybe a couple of crackers, if that and the water reserves were the same story. We probably had just one small bottle of water for each one of us and I was sure some of those bottles weren't full.

We kept walking on the railroad tracks for several hours with only some breaks here and there. For lunch we opened the last two packets of crackers that we had. Carl and I shared one, he ate two, I ate the other two. Michonne and Rick shared the other packet. The food was too little that after I ate those crackers, I felt even hungrier, like if by eating that, it only awakened my empty stomach.

"I feel like I'm going to faint," I muttered an hour after we ate.

I was breathing heavily after we went up a little hill, that required a lot of my energy and when I got to the top my vision actually went black for a few seconds. I was used to hunger, even before this shitty world, so I didn't know why I was so weak right now, why my body just wasn't adapting to the circumstances.

Nobody said anything to me but Rick gave me some water, that helped only a tiny bit but something was something. After that we just continued walking for two more hours until Rick decided we had walked enough for the day and I couldn't agree more with him.

I let my crossbow and the backpack I was carrying fall hard on the ground before I plummeted to the ground as well. I just was so weak, my legs were shaking so bad they just gave up. I lied on my back as I took deep breaths. We were so lucky the weather was cold instead of warm, I would have fainted a long time ago if that were the case.

"You okay?" Carl asked me.

"I'm just exhausted," I told him.

Minutes later Rick walked away from us, going deeper into the woods. Michonne wanted to go with him but neither Carl nor I wanted to move one inch so Rick ordered Michonne to stay so she could take care of us. Rick wanted to set up some snares so with luck we could catch something.

If I wasn't so weak I would have gone through the woods and see if I could spot an animal and hunt it, I still wasn't good at it, even after all the effort Daryl put by teaching me but I guess it just wasn't my thing, I tried and tried but always missed or I chased the animals away.

Five days ago I actually caught a really big and fat rat but even so it wasn't enough for four people. It wasn't even enough for one if you take off the skin and the bones. I hated rats so much so I refused to eat it and now I think that it was a mistake, maybe just a tiny bit of that meat would have helped me.

Even though I felt really bad I knew I wasn't going to die. I couldn't die without finding Daryl first, without being able to tell him that I love him one more time so I had to hold on to something and keep on going, at least until I see his face again.

I slowly dozed off until I fell asleep, I did even before Rick got back. During the rest of the hours of light and the night, they decided I needed the rest more than all of them so they didn't wake me up to keep guard during the night. I woke up very early the next day, the sun was going up and it was Carl who was awake.

I smiled at him before I sat up and stretched, I felt so much better that I had gotten around twelve straight hours of sleep and I also felt less moody, I was actually in a good mood. Carl waved his hand at me to get my attention and threw something at me. I picked it up and realized he was giving me one cracker inside its package.

"I thought there weren't any more left," I told him.

"There was one more package, Michonne found it in the bottom of her bag. We got one cracker each, that was our dinner and since you didn't eat it, you can have it now. So, slept well?"

"Haven't slept so well in weeks," I told him. "I feel refreshed."

"I was worried about you, I really thought you were going to faint or something."

"I thought so too, I wouldn't have been able to keep up," I told him honestly. "So, now we have completely run out of food?"
"We still have the chocolate bar and a bag of cashew, dad said we can eat that for breakfast, said that will give us strength for the day."

"But..." I said, knowing there was a but.

"I don't know, I just feel like we shouldn't eat it. We don't know when we will find some food and I think we should save it."

"We will find something, Carl. Your dad is right, those nuts will give us strength and maybe we can walk more and finally get out of here, maybe find a house or Terminus."

"Why are you so against the idea of going there?" I shrugged.

"I have a bad feeling," I told him. "I just don't think it's genuine."

"Cici, I know there is something else bothering you, what's up?"

If Terminus actually existed and it's the sanctuary they had claimed then I wouldn't be able to stay. I had to find Daryl and how would I if I'm inside a building or whatever they have? I'll go with them until the end but once I'm sure they are okay and they'll stay, I would have to leave but I couldn't tell them that until the last moment, they wouldn't stop trying to change my mind.

"It's nothing, Carl," I lied. "I'm just tired."

"But you said you feel refreshed."

"I didn't mean just physically, you know?" I simply said, not elaborating more than that and Carl didn't ask, probably knowing what I meant.

Minutes later both, Michonne and Rick, woke up. I noticed they were practically sleeping right next to each other but said nothing, especially in front of Carl, I still didn't know how he would feel about his dad being with Michonne or any other woman for that matter and I didn't want to make the atmosphere awkward or tense, but I gave Michonne a look and she immediately understood, she just rolled her eyes at me.

Rick built a small fire to heat a can of soup, apparently they had found more food but that was mostly liquid so it wouldn't fill our stomachs for long and we would just have some spoonfuls of it.

"How hungry are you? Scale one to ten," Rick asked us.

"Fifteen," Carl said at the same time as I said, "Seventeen."

"Twenty-eight," Michonne said when Rick turned to look at her.

"Yeah. Well, it's been a while," Rick muttered. "I'm gonna go check the snares."

"Can I go with you?" Carl asked Rick, who smiled at him.

"Well, how else are you gonna learn?" Carl looked really satisfied with that answer. "Hey, you too," he said looking at both Michonne and me, neither of us felt like going but we knew we had to go.

Carl kicked dirt on the fire as I stood up and grabbed my backpack and crossbow. I was lucky I had the cracker Carl gave me because we ended up not eating the cashews, not yet at least and that soup was really nothing.

"We'll stay another day or two," Rick told us as we walked through the woods. "Get some more rest."

"We don't have food, Rick. We can't stay," I told him.

"You almost fainted yesterday, we can't keep going like this. We need to rest."

"Finish healing up?" Michonne asked him.

"I'm almost there," Rick told her.

Even when it had been more than a month since the prison was attacked and we got beaten, Rick and I hadn't recovered completely. Rick would just limp when he was really tired and his wounds were almost healed, we just still had some bruises on us. The huge bruise I had on my stomach from where that girl hit me with her rifle, was still there. Not as big and bright purple as it was the first day but I still had it. It was slowly turning green and fading but it looked so awful, luckily the pain in my stomach had stopped about ten days ago so I could relax again and if there was any danger, it wasn't there anymore. I was okay now, that was over now.

"We're close now, right?" Carl asked.

"To Terminus?" Rick questioned.

"Yeah."

"We are."

"When we get there, are we gonna tell them?"

"Tell them what?" Michonne asked Carl.

"Everything that's happened to us. All the stuff we've done. Are we gonna tell them the truth?"

"Assuming we will find people there," I muttered under my breath and Rick just gave me a look.

"We're gonna tell them who we are."

"But how do you say that?" Carl asked his father. "I mean... who are we?"

I could tell Rick wasn't sure how to answer that, Michonne didn't either but they were saved by the bell, kind of. We heard a walker coming towards us. I immediately raised my crossbow as the others did the same with their weapons, Michonne ended up killing it with her katana. After that we just continued our way and luckily there weren't any more walkers.

"There you go!" Rick exclaimed happily when he realized he had in fact caught something and hadn't been eaten by the walkers. I approached the place and saw what looked like a rabbit. "It's a small one. It'll do."

Anything would do now, now we had the rabbit and the nuts, at least those were food with a lot of protein and even calories, thing we needed desperately, not just to keep walking and do physical movement but also to just stay alive, for our organs to keep working.

"So, this is just a simple slipknot," Rick started telling us, he was determined to teach us how to set up a snare. "Tie one on both ends, then you tighten one side to a branch. Now, you see how the ground here is sort of like a funnel shape?"

"It's a trail?" Carl and I asked at the same time.

"That's right. That's where you want to set the noose. So you hide it with leaves," he said as he hid the rope with dried leaves as demonstration. "Then you put sticks all around it so any animals going by have to run this way right into the trap."

Rick was showing us how the knot works when the animal goes through, when we heard a man yelling for help. Carl stood up quickly and ran to where the voice was coming from, we ordered him to stop but of course he didn't, making us all go after him.

We caught up with him just as he raised his gun. Rick wrapped his arms around him from behind and dragged him away as Carl tried to break free. I looked at the scene and saw a man surrounded by twenty or more walkers, it was a lost cause.

"We can't help him," Rick told Carl as we hid behind some trees. We saw how the man was being eaten alive, I didn't know the man but I felt sorry for him and a sudden feeling of sadness went through me but I didn't have much time to feel that because three walkers had spotted us.

"We've got to go," Michonne whispered to us.

Michonne started running away and we soon followed her, trying to make as little sound as possible to not attract the rest of them, three walkers could be easy to kill, especially when we were four but twenty would be another story.

Once we were a prudent distant away from them, we slowed the pace as we ran through the trees, trying not to fall with a branch or something else. We ran all the way back to the railroad tracks and ran next to them, now it seemed we weren't going to stay around for a day or two.

We followed the tracks until we found a small group of three walkers, eating a body. Rick killed the first one and I killed the other two with my crossbow. I ran to the body and checked if it wasn't anyone we knew, if it wasn't Daryl and luckily I didn't know the man. I sighed in relief and then went to retrieve my two arrows. I looked back and didn't just see the three walkers that originally were chasing us but the full herd.

"Let's go," Rick exclaimed when he also realized all the walkers that were after us.

"Great, just what I needed," I muttered before I started running again.

Running on a stomach that has been mostly empty for the last five days is harder than it sounds. Your body feels twenty times heavier and your heart starts beating three times faster. You try to think positive things, even tell yourself to keep going as you think of reasons to just do that, keep on going, but your body starts to give up, to slow down and that was what was happening to me after twenty minutes of running, but luckily by now we had left behind almost all of them. Only five or so were close to us. I stopped, I couldn't keep running anymore. Carl was the first to notice and stopped too, making Michonne and Rick to do it as well.

I found some strength to raise my crossbow and shoot almost all of them. The last walker was quickly advancing as I was reloading my crossbow. I raised it again, my arms shook and I missed, hitting its shoulder. The walker lunged at me, making me fall on my butt. I tried hard to stop it from taking a bite of my flesh but honestly, my muscles were fatigued and they were giving up even when I was mentally shouting at them to keep strong. Someone pushed the walker off of me and then it was stabbed on its head. It was Rick. He turned to me and started yelling at me, mostly about how reckless I was.

"Thank you," I exclaimed, it helped shut him up. "And I'm sorry, I just wanted to stop running. I couldn't keep going, I knew I could kill them all quickly but my arms gave up and I missed. I'm sorry."

Rick said nothing to me, he just turned around and started going the same direction we were running to. Michonne offered me her hand and helped me up as Carl got my five arrows and handed them to me, I thanked them both before following Rick.

"You okay?" Carl asked me as we walked, I really was having a hard time keeping up with the rest of them.

"Yeah," I muttered as I nodded.

About half an hour later we got out of the woods and found a road, which I was really happy about. We could be close to some kind of town or neighbourhood with maybe some house or at least a cottage with food but after another hour I was beginning to think we would never find an 'urban' place again.

"Thought maybe there'd be some houses down this way," Michonne said, speaking my thoughts. "Maybe even a store. There's got to be some food around here somewhere."

"Hey, look!" Carl exclaimed.

I raised my head and looked up, I saw a car. Well, that would be better than a tree's trunk, maybe we could stay the night here. It was already around four so it would be smart to take a long break here.

As we approached the car, Carl and I looked inside the car, checking for humans and walkers, while Michonne killed a walker on the other side of the road and Rick looked around, but he found nothing.

"Cecilia," Rick muttered after we made sure the area was safe.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about earlier, I shouldn't have shouted at you, I just... worried. I thought you had been bitten."

"It's okay, I understand. I know I shouldn't have done that, it was stupid and risky and I'm sorry too."

"Well, let's cook that rabbit. I'm pretty sure we are all starving."

"Yeah, I'll start the fire."

Daryl's POV

After Beth kissed me, things got really awkward and tense between us. I tried not to be in the same room as her and I hid all the moonshine from her, I didn't want any other incident like that. I was very pissed at her for what she did, especially because she didn't even apologize.

But right now that doesn't really matter. We were ambushed by some walkers, they got inside the house, I told Beth to run and go to the driveway while I tried to fight them. Beth was taken, I don't know by who or why but I tried to find her. I ran for a couple of days, trying to find the car I saw driving away from me with her inside, but realistically, I would never catch up with a car but I had to try. I could be furious at her but she was the only person that was with me, for all I knew we could be the last people from the prison alive and I couldn't lose her but I did.

I spent a few days on my own until a group of seven men found me, their leader was an older man but he looked really strong despite his age. I didn't want to stay with them but I thought about it and I needed them, I hated to say that but I did, now that Beth was gone, I would stay with them only a few days.

This morning I left before sunrise, I wanted to catch some food and all I had found for hours had been one rabbit. I followed it with my sight and slowly moved my crossbow in its direction, waiting for the perfect moment to shoot, the same second I did, I felt something almost rubbing a side of my face fast. I felt an air wave right next to my face. The next thing I knew was that the rabbit was hit by two arrows. I turned around and a dickhead of the group was behind me, with a smug expression on his stupid face.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked as I stood, I was beyond pissed right now.

"Catching me some breakfast."

"That's mine!"

"My arrow's the one that hit first! Cottontail belongs to me," he said as I walked towards the rabbit and took the two arrows.

"Been out here since before the sun came up."

"You see, the rules of the hunt don't mean jack out here," he told me as I grabbed the rabbit. "Now, that rabbit you're holding is claimed, boy. Claimed whether you like it or not. So I was you, I'd hand it over. Now, before you get to wishing you ain't never even got out of bed this morning."

"It ain't yours," I exclaimed firmly.

"You know, I'll bet this bitch got you all messed up, hmm? Am I right?" he exclaimed, slightly changing his tone of voice to a more relaxed one, but his words were having an opposite effect on me, so I just started to walk away, not wanting any kind of problem. "Got you walking around here like a dead man who just lost himself a piece of tail. Must have been a good'un. Tell me something. Was it one of the little'uns?" Cecilia came to my mind first and as he kept talking Beth came to mind as well, I stopped in my tracks and held my knife's handle, I was getting sick of his bullshit and no one can call Cecilia or even Beth a bitch, no one. "'Cause they don't last too long out here."

"Easy," the leader of the group exclaimed and grabbed my wrist as I just took my knife out when he said that, that last sentence was what just ended my patience. He didn't knew Cecilia. "Fellas, easy. Let's just put our weapons down, see if we can't figure out what's really the problem here, huh?" He turned to look at the other man as he stepped between us. " Did you claim it?"

"Hell, yeah."

"Well, there you go. That critter belongs to Len." I just stood there, staring at the two of them, not believing they were taking this from me. "Looks like you may be wanting an explanation. See, going it alone, that ain't an option nowadays. Still, it is survival of the fittest. That's a paradox right there. So I laid out some rules of the road to keep things from going Darwin every couple hours. Keep our merry band together and stress-free. All you got to do is claim. That's how you mark your territory, your prey, your bed at night. One word, claimed.

"I ain't claiming nothing," I exclaimed, thinking it was just ridiculous.

"We're gonna teach him, right? The rules say we got to teach him."

"It wouldn't be fair to punish you for violating a rule you never even knew existed."

"There ain't no rules no more."

"Oh, there are. You know that. That's why I didn't kill you for the crossbow."

I kept my gaze on Len, who now was standing in front of me. He was so upset I wasn't being punished. As I was distracted with him, Joe grabbed the other part of my rabbit, making me turn around quickly.

"Hey!"

"Easy there, partner."

I was confused at what he wanted to do, he looked a bit hesitant as he raised the rabbit and got it closer to a tree, then he just cut it in half. He threw the other half to Len, none of us was happy with getting half but I guess at least it was something.

"Claimed. That's all you got to say," he said as Len walked away. "Hey, ass end is still an end."

About an hour later we started walking again, we were following the railroad tracks. The other six went ahead while their leader, Joe, stayed a few feet behind with me.

"So what's the plan, Daryl?" he asked me after a very long silence between us.

"How so?"

"You're with us now, but you ain't soon?"

"Yep."

"So what's the plan?"

"Just looking for the right place is all," I said after a few seconds of hesitation. I couldn't trust him enough to tell him I needed to find Cecilia, he would probably say it was a lost cause but I knew she was still alive.

"Oh, we ain't good enough for you, huh?"

"Some of you ain't exactly friendly."

"You ain't so friendly yourself. You know you need a group out here," he told me.

"Maybe I don't." I need Cecilia, she's the only person I do need.

"No, you do. You should be with us." At that moment we saw a walker coming towards us, everyone stayed calm and Joe even kept talking to me like if the walker wasn't even there, letting the other take care of it. "People don't got to be friendly. We don't have to be nice. We don't have to be brothers in arms. We just got to follow the rules. You claim. If you steal, you keel. I know that sounds a little funny, but nobody laughs when something goes missing. And you don't lie. 'Cause that's a slippery slope indeed."

"What happens if you break 'em?"

"Oh, you catch a beatin'. The severity of which depends upon the offence and the general attitude of the day. But that don't happen much 'cause when men like us follow rules and cooperate a little bit, well, the world becomes ours," he told me then he whistled to make the other six men stop. "Right there. It's our abode for the evening."

"Hey," I said, stopping Joe from walking and making him turn to look at me again. "There ain't no us."

"You leaving right now?" I said nothing. "No? Then it sure seems like there's an us." Joe turned around again and kept walking but then stopped again and looked back at me. "You a cat person, Daryl? I am. Loved 'em since I was three years old. Vicious creatures. Anyway, I'll tell you, and this is true, ain't nothing sadder than an outdoor cat that thinks he's an indoor cat."

The eight of us walked inside a small building made of sidings, that were a bit rusty now that the place was abandoned and not taken care of. Inside we found five cars, and only a minute or so after we knew there was no one else in here everyone started to 'claim' a car to sleep inside. I tried to get a car without saying that stupid word and play their game but I couldn't. Instead, I set my things on the cold ground and then I lied down in the middle of the room, I used my black plastic bag with my things inside as pillow, it wasn't as bad.

Silence fell upon us, everything was calm and it was nice to have a roof and walls protecting you from the cold but unfortunately that calm and nice atmosphere didn't last long and of course that it had to be Len the one that had to start the drama.

"You've got to be kidding me. Christ," Len exclaimed as he walked towards me making me sit up. "Give it here."

"You step back."

"My half was in the bag. Now it's gone!" So that was what it was about, that damn rabbit. I stood quickly, knowing this wasn't going to get fixed easily. "Now ain't nobody around here interested in no half a damn cottontail except you. Ain't that right?"

"You're the only one still thinking about that crap."

"Empty your bag!" he ordered, I instantly grabbed my bag to secure it.

"I said step back!"

Our argument brought the attention of the rest of the group, especially Joe's, who casually approached us, ready to intervene if he had to. He took a finally step forward and snatched my plastic bag from my hands.

"Did you take his rabbit, Daryl? Just tell me the truth," he said to me.

"I didn't take nothing."

Joe turned the bag and let my few things to drop on the ground in front of all of us, including my half of the rabbit. Joe gave it a final shake and the other half, the upper part of the rabbit fell out of my bag. I stared in disbelief at the rabbit, that fucking cheater asshole.

"Well, look at that," Joe said.

"You put that there, didn't you? When I went out to take a piss," I exclaimed angrily, speaking my thoughts. I walked forward and pushed Len. "Didn't you!?"

"You lied. You stole!" he exclaimed. "We gonna teach this fool or what, Joe?" Joe stepped in between us to stop the fight that was about to start, fucking idiot, all I wanted was to stick an arrow in that brainless man.

"Now, Daryl says he didn't take your half of the rabbit. So we got a little conundrum here. Either he's lying, which is an actionable offence, or..." he broke off with a laugh. "Or you didn't plant it on him like some pussy, punk-ass, cheating, coward cop, did you? 'Cause while that wouldn't be specifically breaking the rules, it'd be disappointing."

"I didn't," he exclaimed firmly.

"Good. Well..." Joe turned to look at me and the next second he punched Len right in the face, Len fell down hard on the ground. "Teach him a lesson, gents. He's a lying sack of shit. I'm sick of it. Teach him all the way."

The other five of the men approached the man like hyenas, anxious to do the deed. They started kicking Len and I wasn't going to lie, despite how surprised I was about how things turned out, I was glad the one on the floor being beaten up wasn't me.

"I saw him do it," Joe told me, answering the question I wanted so bad to ask.

"Why didn't you try to stop him?"

"He wanted to play that out. I let him. You told the truth. He lied. You understand the rules. He doesn't," I turned to look at the idiot as the beating just worsened. Joe picked up the half of the rabbit that belonged to Len. "Looks like you get the head, too," he said, throwing that part of the rabbit to me.

Joe walked away and I quickly knelt and put all my stuff back in the plastic bag as the others kept beating and kicking Len, he totally deserved it.

The next morning I was awoken by someone opening the door, it made a lot of noise. I sat up as I saw the rest of them already up and with their things ready, we were leaving now. All the sleep was washed off of me when I saw blood not far from where I was sleeping, Len's blood.

After they beat him up and almost left him unconscious, three of the men took him outside. I was waiting for a shotgun but it never came. The three men came back without him so they indeed killed him, but I wasn't sure how and I really didn't want to ask.

I stretched after I stood up, put my crossbow's strap over my shoulder and grabbed my bag. I followed the rest out and when I did I looked down the platform and saw the bruised and broken body of Len with an arrow in his head. A sudden feeling of guilt but mostly compassion overwhelmed me, I picked up something like a dirty sheet to cover his body but then I remembered that I could have ended like that because of him, he brought that on himself, so instead I threw the sheet back to where it was.

The other men didn't really mind me, except Joe. As the day before, he walked in the very back of the group with me, leaving a considerable distance between us and the rest of the group. As we walked through the forest, I looked everywhere, maybe I could see Cecilia around here but a part of me was wishing to not find her right now, I couldn't trust these men around her, they killed one of their own yesterday. As we walked Joe got out a flask and offered it to me.

"White Lightning," he told me as I took it in my hands. "Easiest thing to make with the least amount of supplies. I'd start slow if I was you. Your stomach's probably emptier than you think."

"I ain't been lit at dawn since before everything fell apart," I said after I took a sip of it and returned it to Joe. "Fell apart? I never looked at it like that. Seems to me like things are finally starting to fall together," he said. "At least for guys like us. Living like this, surviving. We've been doing this from the start, right?"

The others had stopped, looking at some kind of sign, that gave us the chance to catch up with them.

"Getting closer," the youngest man out of the group, Peter, Paul, P, or something like that, informed Joe.

"You seen this before?" I asked no one in particular as I read the sign.

It said 'Terminus, Sanctuary for all.' I had never read or heard or anything like that before and I was quite surprised, the first thought that came to mind wasn't about finding a place like that if it existed but maybe I could find people from the prison there, maybe they had come across a sign like this one too and decided to go, maybe, just maybe I could find Cecilia there, or Rick, or Glenn or even Beth.

"Oh, yeah. I'll tell you what it is," Joe said looking at me. "It's a lie. Ain't no sanctuary for all. Ain't gonna welcome guys like you and me with open arms.

"So, is that where we're headed?" I asked as I took a final look at the sign, before I followed Joe and the others.

"So now you're asking?"

"That's right."

"We were in a house minding our own business." I really had no idea why he was telling me that, but I let him finish before I asked. "And these walking pieces of fecal matter were hiding in the home. Shot Jason right in the forehead and strangled our colleague Lou and left him to turn. Lou came at all of us," he told me. "They lit out. We tracked them to these tracks, one of those signs, and thus we've got a destination in mind." Okay, so now I knew why he was telling me that.

"You see their faces?" I asked, what was the point in chasing them if they didn't really see them.

"Only Tony," he told me. "That's enough for a reckoning. He said it was a man and a young girl, probably his daughter."

One man of the group stopped and spotted something on the ground, I looked in the same direction and saw a small single strawberry on the ground. I knew what I had to do and now I was willing to do it. I wasn't being stubborn anymore.

"Claimed!" I exclaimed quickly and it actually worked, the man just continued his way, looking a little bit upset. I went to pick it up and quickly put it inside my plastic bag.
Maybe all this rules were actually useful, I could get used to it until I leave them, because I have to do that to not end up like Len. I need to go look for Cecilia and find her quickly, I miss her so much.

Hello guys!
I promise Cecilia and Daryl will reunite soon, they have spent too long away from each other.
I do hope the season finale will be awesome, what do you think about it? I also hope it wouldn't have to end, but what can we do?

QOTD: And I need your honesty in this one, what does this story needs to get better? More drama? More action? More/less dialogue? Anything you can think about, that could make this story better, please tell me, I would appreciate it a lot! And if you can be detailed, the better :)

Anyway, I hoped you liked it, and thanks for keeping up with me so far :)