Disclaimer- I do not own the Walking dead.

Shadowoftheblackdeat- She can deal with most things but you take away Daryl and this is what you get but at least she had people to help her, to stop her from losing herself. They definitely don't make his life easy. Hahahaha yes, I will definitely be putting that in the story very quickly, probably in the next chapter. I can imagine it, and what a sight it would be.

Here's the third chapter in just as many days. I hope you guys are still loving the story.

Enjoy

Danny's POV

We break once on our journey so I could feed Riley and Judith and so Daryl could take another look at the map to make sure he knows exactly where he's going after Washington. I spent the first half of the journey in the back of the truck but with not far left to go I joined Daryl on his bike.

He touches my leg to get my attention so I look over his shoulder and that's when I see the gates. The main gates that house the four houses inside are partially open, I guess whatever powers them isn't the solar powered generator that the house I saw operates on, or if it is it's broken. Merle explained how the generators all work and as long as they're okay we should only have to replace the battery that connects them to the solar panels. As long as someone understands how they work and can figure out how to fix them then we'll be golden.

Daryl slows the bike down as he passes through the gates, he only pulls in enough to get every single car in. I climb off and slowly turn in a circle to look for the house I saw on the flyer. There it is, in all its glory. It has its own five foot wall surrounding the property and its gates are closed.

As everyone gets out of the cars I head over to it, gun in hand. I peer through the gate. The grass is understandably extremely overgrown but I can just make out some of the allotments as they spread out beyond the back of the house.

"Those", Herschel's hand appears as he points through the gate. "Are tomatoes and as long as they haven't had any pests they should be good. It looks like they're still producing".

"You think you'll be able to turn back into a farmer for this place?" I ask him with a small smile.

He nods with a smile of his own. "I'm looking forward to it. If the rest of the place looks as good as what we can see here then I think this is the place for us. We can make this place a fortress".

"You think you can get the generator working?"

"As long as nothing is compromised you might find it's already working".

I look to my left to where the intercom for the gates is. After staring for a second I reach out and press the button. It buzzes and for a split second I wait to see if anyone actually answers on the other end.

"I saw movement inside", Oscar declares from behind me. I look back at him to see him standing there with a pair of binoculars. "Ground floor, it should be coming past the second window from the left of the door any time now."

I grab Herschel's arm. "Move away from the gate". He does and then my rifle is in front of me. I take it from Daryl and raise it to look through the scope. I see it, the shadow moves across the window and it's definitely a person but I can't see them clearly. I can't tell if it's alive or not.

The intercom buzzes as someone presses it again, a quick glance in that direction tells me it's Merle, he keeps pushing the button until Carol slaps his hand away.

"Stop it". She tells him.

When the thing passes by the last window, it's closer and I can see it clearer. "It's a Walker", I tell anyone who's listening. At least that makes it highly unlikely that there will be anyone living inside. Oscar and Daryl move up to the gate and after a quick tug they realise it's not gonna open.

"We'll have to get inside somehow, grab the fob or panel to open it", Daryl says. "Hopefully it's just not opening because the power is on and not because it's stuck".

"I'll wait here", Merle starts, "And watch you attempt to climb over". Merle then points to the side of the gate where a yellow warning sign hangs saying 'Warning, Anti climb paint'. Axel moves closer and reaches up above his head to grab the gate then after a minute of silence we all partake in to watch what he's doing with mild curiosity. Finally he pulls his hand away and turns it to face us while wearing a smirk. His hand comes away black.

"The sign is tellin' the truth". He then wipes his hand on his trousers to try and get the black paint off, which from the looks of it doesn't come off that easily.

Daryl shakes his head and then turns away from him. "Merle, bring the truck closer. I'll use it to get over the wall. Oscar, Trevor you come with me".

As Merle goes to get the truck I grab Daryl's arm and drag him off to the side, out of earshot of everybody, he twists his arm out from my grip and places his hand against my waist.

"We're only gonna go in enough".. He starts before I can say anything. He knows I was gonna say I didn't want him to go, it's too soon. "...To open the gates, we'll come straight back out. You'll only lose sight of me for a minute. That's it."

But a minute is all it takes. I don't say that though, I know that no matter what I say it will make me sound clingy and over protective. He's not incapable, and checking out a house is going to be very easy for him. The reason I don't want him to go is all for very selfish reasons, it's for me. I don't want him to leave my sight.

I suck air in from between my teeth. "Sorry". Even though I never said a single word I know he knows everything I was thinking.

"Ya ain't gotta be sorry. Ya give me five minutes if you don't see me in that time then feel free to send Merle in to get my arse". The corner of his lip lifts up in a smirk. A smirk that I know wants to be a full blow grin because his cheek is twitching with the effort to not do it.

I squint and tilt my head to the side a little. "Are you laughing at me?"

A little bit more of a smile comes out. "You are undeniably cute. I could see how hard ya were tryin' to not tell me what you were thinkin'". I can feel my cheeks heating up. He rubs his hand a little against my side.

I push his shoulder, he rocks back with the shove. "Go but you have five minutes. No more".

Merle pulls the truck up as close to the wall as he can possibly get and then Daryl, Trevor and Oscar and clambering up onto the roof. I move back over to the gate to watch as they land heavily on the ground one by one. They wait for a second, Daryl locks his eyes on me which is when I raise my rifle towards the house. They then take off at a run along the front yard. When they make it to the front door Daryl nods at Trevor and then Trevor opens the front door and then Daryl shoots an arrow. He then walks through the open doorway, Oscar right behind him. The two of them disappear from view but after Trevor steps into the doorframe he doesn't go anywhere which makes me realise the other two haven't gone very far into the house.

Suddenly the gates click and then they're opening up.

We made it.

Merle willingly offered to stay by the gates with everyone who hasn't gone into the house. Glenn, Maggie, Trevor, Oscar and Sasha have gone in with Daryl to look through every room this place has to make sure there aren't any more Walkers hiding inside. I'm with them but I won't be sweeping the place. I've only gone as far as the entrance hallway. Glenn, Maggie and Sasha are on their way up the big staircase to sweep out the top floor while Trevor and Oscar are going through the ground floor rooms one by one.

I look at the dead female Walker on the floor, she's lying below the intercom for the gate. My buzzing must have drawn her through the house. I move into the doorway of one of the rooms on the lower floor. Daryl has already checked this room so I'm okay to have a peek inside. My attention is instantly drawn to the piece of paper that's lying on the floor fluttering around in the breeze caused by the open front door. I pick it up,

'My Love, I waited for weeks hoping you would come back but with each passing day I knew that that dream wouldn't come true. I can't imagine how my life could go on without you so tonight I will be joining you so we can be together again. All my love Jane

I look at the woman on the floor and then back at the note in my hand. She killed herself because the person she loved most went out and never came back. She couldn't live in this world alone.

I fold the note up until it can fit neatly in the palm of my hand and walk right out of the house. You kill every Walker you come across but you forget that they were once humans who had families, people who were relying on them, waiting on them only to never have them turn up because they had turned.

This house belonged to this woman whether it was from before or her and her partner made it theirs after. When it comes to removing her body I'm gonna make sure she gets buried here.

I make my way around the side of the house, I walk past the solar panels that are in charge of powering this house, they're clean which means she couldn't have died too long ago. She was still taking care of them hoping that whoever it was she was waiting for would come home. I keep walking past them until I come across the well. It's not a traditional looking one made of brick with a little wooden triangular roof on top of it. I knew it wouldn't be but whenever you see the word well that's usually what comes to mind. It's a big metal thing that stands about four feet off the ground. I peer over the rim but I can't see anything. I'll have to ask Herschel what sort of well he thinks it is. Is it just a rain collecting one or is it situated on top of an underground stream? He told me they were the main sort of wells for people who wanted to live self-sufficiently, the ones he had back at the farm were a mixture of rain collection and from the lake situated behind his land.

I keep making my way around the house until I emerge onto the giant field behind, it's full of allotments. There is a path that wraps and weaves it way through them all until it stops at a giant greenhouse right at the back of the field. Wow. I just…. This is so much better than I had thought it would be.

There are four other houses in this area, I don't know if they're all like this but if they're not and they just have the space maybe we could get animals.

Thanks to Axel's little show and tell we know the gates are covered in anti-climb paint and the walls are high but to make them a lot harder to climb over we can put something on top of the surrounding wall. Maybe start with this house first and over time maybe spread out to the wall that surrounds these four houses.

I was awed by the farm but I knew it had flaws. I was willing to live in the prison because it had some sort of wall surrounding it but neither of those places felt safe, not fully; But this place. We can make this work. We can make this place our home and to make sure we can keep it we never let up on the safety.

I turn to make my way back to the front of the house. I hadn't intended to wander out of view, but I flinch as I see Sophia standing against the edge of the house.

"Damn it Sophia, I did not know you were there".

She grins at me. "Sorry but Merle told me to follow you because you were wandering off."

I hold my arms out to the side as if to show off the area behind me. "Do you see this?"

She moves away from the house, and then, as she's walking closer she suddenly laughs and jumps a few times in pure excitement. She then comes running over and slams straight into me. "We made it. You got twenty five people through this… Grand adventure" She says those last two words a little sarcastically but I know she won't call it what I know she probably wants to call it.

"It was a shit show".

She pulls back. "Yeah it was but you got us all through it and gained people who wanted to go where you were bringing us. We all believed in you, I believed in you." She walks around me to look out across the field. "I can't believe this".