Fear the Dead, Fight the Living
Daryl POV...
As me and Aaron made our way through the field I saw a walker up ahead and shot it then walked over grabbing my crossbow, "There's more of them around here than there used to be. Don't know if any people are-"
"Shh." I cut him off and pointed at the a patch of woods in the distance where I saw a fire going, "Someone is."
The next day we made our to where the fire was from last night we saw arms and legs on the ground, "Whoever did this took what was left with them. This just happened." I point out and we move forward to see a woman's body tied to a tree with her insides out
"She's tied up. And they fed on her. Tore her apart. This just happened?" Aaron asked me
"Yeah."
"How the hell did this happen?" He asked as I walked over to the body and lifted her head seeing a W on her forehead then it growls at me so i grab my knife killing her.
Phoebe POV...
I walked with Eric after bringing the last kid home when we hear glass shattering and I ran towards the noise seeing Rick and Pete fighting on the ground, "No! Stop it!" Jessie yelled trying to get Pete off but he smacked her, I rushed over and helped her up
"Are you ok?" I asked and she nodded her head
"Dad, get off!" Carl yells at him but Rick pushed him away
"Carl!" He looked at me and I shook my head, last thing Rick needs is to hurt his son then I see my mom protect Sam
"Stop it! Stop it right now." Deanna yells at them
"You touch them again or go near Phoebe again and I'll kill you." I hear Rick say
"Damn it, Rick! I said stop." Deanna told him again and Rick pulled out a gun
"Or what? You gonna kick me out?" Rick asked
"Rick" I warned him as I drew mine on him seeing Deanna look over at me
"Put that gun down, Rick." She tells him
"You still don't get it. None of you do! We know what needs to be done and we do it. We're the ones who live. You, you just sit and plan and hesitate. You pretend like you know when you don't. You wish things weren't what they are. Well, you want to live? You want this place to stay standing? Your way of doing things is done. Things don't get better because you- you want them to. Starting right now, we have to live in the real world. We have to control who lives here." He indicated to Pete and I kept my gun on him
"That's never been more clear to me than it is right now."
"Me? Me? You-You mean- you mean me?" Rick asked her and I see Michonne slowly walk over behind him, "Your way is gonna destroy this place. It's gonna get people killed. It's already gotten people killed. And I'm not gonna stand by and just let it happen. If you don't fight, you die. I'm not gonna stand by-" He was cut off when Michonne hit him over the head knocking him out and I put my gun down then Deanna looked at me, I nodded and handed my gun to Michonne.
"Where'd you get the gun?" I heard Michonne ask Rick as me, Glenn, my mom and Abraham walked into the small room Deanna wanted Rick to stay
"You took it, right? From the armory? Phoebe's too?" My mom asked him and I looked at her, "That was stupid. Why did you do it?" She asked and I looked back at Rick
"Just in case."
"Deanna's planning to have a meeting tonight. For anyone who wants to." Glenn says
"To kick Rick out?" Abraham asked
"To try." I replied
"We don't know that. Maggie's with Deanna right now. She's gonna find out what it is."
"At the meeting, you say you were worried about someone being abused and no one was doing anything about it. You say you took the guns just to be sure that Jessie and Phoebe were safe from a man who wound up attacking you. You say you'll do whatever you want them to. Just tell them a story that they want to hear. It's what I've been doing since I got here."
"Why?" I asked her turning to face her
"Because these people are children and children like stories."
"What happens after all the nice words and they still try to kick him out?" Abraham asked
"They're guarding the armory now." Glenn pointed out
"We still have knives. That's all we'll need against them." My mom said and I shook my head
"Well, tonight at the meeting, if it looks like it's going bad, I whistle. Carol grabs Deanna, Phoebe take Spencer, Michonne, you grab Reg, Glenn and Abraham cover us, watch the crowd." Rick told us
"We can talk to them." Michonne says to him
"Yeah, we will. If we can't get through, we take the three of them and say we'll slit their throats."
"Like at Terminus?" Glenn asked him
"No, we just tell 'em. They give us the armory and it's over."
"Did you want this?" I asked Rick
"No. I hit my limit. I- I screwed up. And here we are. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm just gonna sleep some more." Rick told us and I stormed out heading to the house.
I laid on my bed and stared at the ceiling, I missed Daryl, I really hoped he was ok, Aaron too. I closed my eyes rolling over to his pillow and inhaled his scent then ended falling asleep. When I woke up I felt sick and ran to the bathroom to throw up, I leaned against the shower after I was done and closed my eyes again then got up and rinsed my mouth out then splashed some water on my face, "Oh crap"
Daryl POV...
"Somebody came through here a while ago." I told Aaron as we made our way through the woods
"If we see them, we hang back, set up the mike, watch and listen."
"For how long?" I asked him
"Until we know. We have to know."
"You've sent people away?" I asked
"Yeah." He answered
"What happened?"
"It was early on. It was three people. Two men and a woman. Davidson was their leader. Smart as hell, strong. I thought they'd work out. They didn't. I brought them in and I had to see them out. So me, Aiden, and Nicholas, we drove them out far... gave them a day's worth of food and water and left them." He explained
"They just went?"
"We had their guns. We had all the guns. I can't make that kind of mistake again." He told me
"We checked the forest, we checked the roads. We can't find him. Sometimes they slip away. It happens." Aaron pointed out as I looked through the binoculars at some walkers at an abandoned factory, "But... you don't come across something like this every day."
"We do this now, it means we're giving up."
"Home is 50 miles back. It's time to go." He says, I wanted nothing more then to get home to Phoebe but I can't just leave it's not who I am, not the man I want to be for her, "You saw it last night. There's bad people out here."
"That's why we ought to keep looking for the good ones."
"We need more people and we'll find them. But when we do, we'll need to feed them." He says
"All right." I banged my knife on the fence to attract the walkers and we started killing them through the gate then made our way inside and got to the trucks, "Huh, whoa" I hear Aaron say and he bent down to a license plate, Wasn't sure I'd ever see one of these." He says and I turned away, "Hey, listen, I don't like giving up either, but the guy is in a red poncho. You can see him from a mile away. We've gone a lot of miles here. No sign of him. But... if we come away with a trailer full of cans, I'd say that's a good trip." He says walking over
"Here we go." I told him and opened the back of a truck revealing walkers as the back of the other trucks open as well and more walkers came out so we ran back down. Only to find more walkers standing where we came in from, I grabbed my knife and started killing some.
"Over here!" Aaron yelled and we went between to trucks then crawled under one to get away from the ones that were coming towards us
I grabbed a chain that was under the truck, "Come on!" I told him and crawled out then lifted the chain up and whipped it across the heads off 3 walkers killing them then see one grab Aaron so I killed it then we made our way through and I opened the door to a car, "Come on! Go!" I tell him and we get it, he crushed a walkers head with the door and shut it as the walkers piled up on the car
"Glass will hold for a while, right?" He asked
"Maybe. Maybe we can make it so they can't see us. In a couple hours, something will come by, they'll follow it out. There's got to be something in here we can use to block the view. We can cut up these seats." I pointed out and he showed me a note, TRAP, Bad People coming, DON'T STAY. I read and looked around. Damnit
Phoebe POV...
I was walking down the street when I saw my mom walk up to the house they were keeping Pete in, I stared at her with confusion as she walked inside so I followed her.
"Come at me." I hear her tell him and I looked through the window, "No? Yeah? No. The way this has played out, you have a chance." She said and I opened the door
"Mom, what the hell are you doing?" I asked her moving over to them
"What needs to be done, this man hit on you while Daryl is away," She says and looked back at Pete, "See Rick got stopped, but if her husband was here he wouldn't not after you touched her." She tells him and I glance at Pete then back at her
"Mom that's enough, doing this isn't gonna help Rick at all"
"You're here. Your wife's there." She told him ignoring me, "You're a small, weak nothing. And with the world how it is, you're even weaker. Play your cards right, maybe you don't have to die. And I want my dish back clean when you're done." She finished and left, I looked at him then followed her
"Mom. Mom!" I called after her and she stopped then face me, "Are you out of your mind?" I asked walking up to her, "First you act mean to Sam, then you tell Rick he's gonna have to kill the only doctor here, now you go to that man and threaten him. Do you really think that you doing that is gonna change anything? Because it won't and if things go south tonight not only could Rick get kicked out but my child could lose..." I stopped after what I just said and she looked at me
"Child? You're...are you pregnant?"
I looked away from her and sighed, "I'm not sure, I haven't been feeling myself lately and today after I took a nap I got sick and threw up, granted that could have been from anything, but...I don't know" I told her and she moved towards me reaching for my hands but I backed up, "What I do know is my mom is a changed person and it scares the hell out of me." I told her and walked up to her grabbing her hands, "I am watching you change and I don't like it. Please mom, I told you once that I want to help you from falling, let me." I said and she pulled me into a hug, "I love you mom"
"I love you too sweetie, I'm sorry"
Daryl POV...
We still sat in the car and I looked out at the walkers then chuckled, "What?" Aaron asked me
"I came out here to... not feel all closed up back there. Even now, this still feels more like me... than back in them houses. That's pretty messed up, huh?"
"You were trying." He says
"I had to, for Phoebe"
"No, you didn't. Listen, I saw you with your group out there on the road. Then you went off on your own by the barn. Storm hit and you led your people to safety. That was it. I knew I had to bring you people back. You were right. We should have kept looking for that guy in the poncho. I shouldn't have given up. You didn't." He pointed out then I grabbed a smoke reaching for my lighter
"I'll go. I'll lead them out. You make a break for the fence." I told him lighting it
"No, no, no. This was my fault."
"It wasn't a question. And this ain't your decision. It ain't nobody's fault. Just let me finish my smoke first." I said
"No. You don't draw them away. We fight. We go for the fence. We do it together. You do it for your wife. All right?" He asked me and I looked at him, "Whether we make it or not, we do it together. We have to."
"All right." I agreed then snuffed out my smoke, "You ready?" I asked him grabbing my knife
"Yeah."
"We'll go on three. One, two-" I started to count but then a walker gets killed against his window and the door opened, we saw a gap in the walkers and made our way out seeing a guy with a stick standing there as we continued to fight our way through, "Come on. Come on, get in here." I told both of them and once they made it in I closed the fence then shot one then looked at the guy
"That was- oh- thank you. I'm Aaron, this is Daryl." Aaron introduced
"Morgan."
"Why?" I asked him
"Why? Because all life is precious, Daryl."
"Whoever set that trap, they're coming. But I have good news. We do. We have a community not too far from here. Walls, electricity, it's safe. If you'd like to come join us-" Aaron started to tell him but Morgan cut him off
"I thank you. But I'm on my way somewhere. Fact is, I'm lost, so... if you could tell me where we are." He says handing me a map and I look at it, I see Rick's name at the bottom, it was the map Abraham left him. I looked at Morgan.
Phoebe POV...
"We're going to start." Deanna told all of us as we gathered in front of their house by a fire
"Can we wait? There's still people coming. Glenn, Rick." Maggie says to her
"We're going to start. It's already dark. We're going to talk about what happened. Not the fight. Not what precipitated it. We're dealing with that. We're going to talk about one of our constables, Rick Grimes. We're going to talk about how he had a pistol he stole from the armory, about how he pointed it at people. And we're going to talk about what he said. I was hoping he'd be here."
"She said he's coming." Michonne told her
"I'm sure he'll be here. And I'm sure we can work this all out." My mom added from next to me then smiled
"And after being out there and then not being how you were out there... it can drive you crazy. Rick just wants his family to live. He wants all of you to live. Who he is is who you're gonna be... if you're lucky." Michonne defended
"Rick Grimes saved my life over and over. There's terrifying people out there. And he rescued me from them. People like me, people like us need people like him. I know what happened last night was scary. And I'm sure he's sorry for that. But maybe we should listen to what he was saying." My mom defended, I knew she was just putting on a show to help, but it was still weird
"Simply put, there is a vast ocean of shit you people don't know shit about. Rick knows every fine grain of said shit... and then some." Abraham says
"Phoebe?" Deanna asked me and I looked around
"I knew Rick before the beginning, like I told you" I indicated to Deanna, "Like Michonne says he just wants his family to live, so do all of you. We have all lost people out there just you all lost people. I lost my sister," I tell them and I felt my mom shift next to me, "Rick supported me and Daryl when we wanted to keep looking for her and everyone else wanted to give up. He lost his wife, my friend, and I stepped up to help him not just with his newborn baby but with pulling him back from where he was falling. Rick stole a gun, yes. But he would never have shot it. He's a good guy, he lead us farther then I thought he would and not once gave up the fight. He saved us, me and my mom wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for him" I finished
"Maggie?"
"My father respected Rick Grimes. Rick is a father, too. He's a man with a good heart who feels the things he does, the things he has to do. And all of us who were together before this place, no matter when we found each other, we're family now. Rick started that. And you won't stop it. You can't. And you don't want to. This community, you people...that family...you want to be a part of it, too." Maggie tells everyone
"Before we hear from anyone else, I-I would like to share something in the spirit of transparency. Father Gabriel came to see me the day before yesterday and he said our new arrivals can't be trusted, that they were dangerous, that they would put themselves before this community. And not one day later, Rick seemed to demonstrate all the things Father Gabriel said. I had hoped Gabriel would be here tonight." Deanna told everyone
"I don't see him here, Deanna. So you're just saying what someone said." Jessie told her, "Did you tape him?" She asked
"He's not here." Maggie pointed out to Deanna
"Neither is Rick."
"Excuse me" Maggie says and walked away
"I just want to keep my family safe." Tobin says to Deanna, "You know? And I don't even know what that means anymore, but if it means that we've got to get rid of-" He got cut off when we hear footsteps and I see Rick walk over carrying a body then dropped it in front of everyone.
"There wasn't a guard on the gate. It was open." Rick told us
"I asked Gabriel to close it." Spencer says to Deanna
"Go." She told him and he left
"I didn't bring it in. It got inside on its own. They always will-the dead and the living, because we're in here. And the ones out there...they'll hunt us. They'll find us. They'll try to use us. They'll try to kill us. But we'll kill them. We'll survive. I'll show you how. You know, I was thinking-I was thinking how many of you do I have to kill to save your lives?" He asked and I looked at my mom, "But I'm not gonna do that. You're gonna change. I'm not sorry for what I said last night. I'm sorry for not saying it sooner. You're not ready, but you have to be. Right now, you have to be. Luck runs out."
"You're not one of us." Pete tells him walking up to us and I see Michonne's sword in his hands, "You're not one of us!"
"Pete, you don't want to do this." Reg tells him rushing over to him
"Get the hell away from me, Reg."
"Pete, just stop." Reg Begged
"Get away from me."
"Reg. Reg." Deanna pleaded and I moved over to her to protect her
"Get away. Get away!" Pete yelled at him
"Now, Pete, stop. Pete-"
"Get away!" Pete yells and pushed Reg away but ended up cutting his throat with the sword, I put my hand over my mouth as Abraham and Michonne went and tackled Pete
"No, no! Oh, no, no!" Deanna screamed and grabbed Reg as he fell to the ground
"This is him!" Pete yelled
"Shut up!" Abraham told him
"This is him!"
"Oh, God! Oh, my love. My love, my love," Deanna sobbed, "No, my love, no. No, my love."
"It's him! This is him!" Pete yelled again and my mom came over to me wrapping her arms around me as I fought back tears
"Rick...do it." Deanna told him and without hesitation Rick turned and shot Pete
"Rick?" I hear someone ask and I looked up to see Aaron and Daryl standing there with another guy, and I looked at Daryl then back down at Reg and Deanna. Everything was gonna change now.