More Than This

by Graveyard Whispers

Naomi Payton was Daryl Dixon's childhood best friend. In truth, they were each others only friend. But sometimes growing up means growing apart and when Naomi's ambitions and Daryl's loyalty to his brother drive a wedge between them, will the world falling apart be enough to bring them together again? Hell, will they even find each other again?

30. Clearing

(A/N: sorry for the double notification, the upload didn't work the first time)

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Naomi

"You wanna talk about it?" Carol asked.

"About what?"

"Whatever it is that's getting you down," she said. I looked at her. Was it that obvious? She gave me a sympathetic smile. "You've been… quieter than usual."

"Sorry," I said. "It's been a long night and... an even longer day before it."

All I'd wanted to do was rest, but when Carol had come to me in the evening and told me that she still wanted to leave Alexandria, I couldn't delay it any longer. She'd looked even more tired and desperate than I felt. She'd asked me for help once already, and waiting for her thoughts of leaving to pass clearly hadn't worked. Anyone could see that Carol was suffering. She'd been quiet and withdrawn, her eyes permanently red-rimmed like she was on the verge of crying. How could I say no to her again?

"Yeah, I heard about Lucas," Carol said. "Do you think he'll be alright?'

"I hope so," I said. Every time I thought about it, I felt sick. "It's hard to know."

"The man who shot him," she said. "It's the same one who took Daryl's bike, right?"

"Yeah," I said. "When Daryl got it back, I just assumed that Dwight was dead and hadn't been accepted back into Negan's group, but… I guess not."

"Do you think they attacked you in retaliation for us killing Negan?" Carol asked.

"Most likely," I said. "I know we got everyone at his base, but that doesn't mean that Negan didn't have more followers who were off-base at the time."

Carol nodded. "I think I heard them radioing to someone while we were… y' know. I guess it could've been Dwight. Or one of the others he was with."

"Probably," I shrugged. "Is the reappearance of Dwight what prompted this? Or did you just feel like a midnight walk through the woods?"

"It had something do to with it, yes," Carol said. "The thought of another fight like the one we just had... so soon. I just…"

"It's okay," I said. I could see her teetering on the edge of self-doubt. "We got this. Give yourself permission to sit this one out. It might not even come to anything."

"You think?"

"They ran off licking their wounds," I said. "There weren't that many of them, we have a whole town, and they've lost their element of surprise. It'll be a few days before they try anything again. If they try anything again, they'll find Alexandria well defended. Rick knows, and he's arming everyone. You ain't gotta worry about us. Focus on you."

"Thank you, Naomi," she said, giving me one of the saddest smiles I'd ever seen. "This has not been an easy decision to make."

"I know," I told her. "Leaving the others must be hard. You've been with some of those guys since the start. They'll miss the crap outta you."

I was thinking primarily of Daryl. But I knew it extended to Rick and the others too. They'd been through a lot together, losing Carol would hit them all. For the first time, I worried that Daryl would be mad at me for helping her do this. But it was too late to worry about that now, the Kingdom was real close.

"I'll miss you all too," Carol said. "But this feels right. It really does."

I believed it. Carol already looked more relaxed than she had when she left. Her shoulders were less tense, her eyes were brighter. She even managed a little smile when she looked at me.

"Just over this next verge," I told her. "Sorry about the walk. We'd have been quicker driving, but I think it's best to stay off the roads. In case Dwight and his band of merry creeps are still lurking somewhere."

"Oh, I don't mind," she said. "It was kind of nice. Quiet."

She was right. It had been kind of nice to walk through the woods so early in the morning. We'd encountered a few Walkers, always more active at night, but it was nothing that the two of us couldn't handle.

The school sprawled out ahead of us in the growing light. Carol and I tucked our weapons away and approached the gates with our hands raised above our heads to show them that we came in peace. It didn't take long before we were surrounded by tired-looking guards who were clearly nearing the end of their shifts. Just like when Daryl and I had been here before, they forced us to our knees, and we calmly handed over our weapons. We had been expecting this.

I asked for Bryce. They looked at me like they didn't trust me, so I asked for him again. Knowing him by name seemed to give them pause for thought. They looked at one another.

"Wait here," one of them told us. Like we had any damn choice in the matter; we'd surrendered everything we had, and were surrounded. Even though I knew everything was going to be okay, it's hard to fight that instinctual fear when someone is pointing a gun at you. I heard footsteps coming back from deeper inside the Kingdom. One of them broke into a run when they got closer.

"Naomi!" Bryce said brightly, coming up behind us. And then to the guards around us, he said, "Let them go. I know her, she's telling the truth."

The Kingdom's soldiers lowered their weapons. Before I'd even finished standing up, Bryce had scooped me up in a massive hug.

"Ooof," I said as he squeezed me just a little too tight. "Good morning."

"I wondered when the hell you'd be back," he said, letting me go. I could tell by the state of his hair that he'd been hauled out of bed for this.

"Sorry," I said. "I would've come sooner, but I got sick."

"Sick?"

"I'm fine now," I brushed it off.

His gaze flickered over to Carol and then back to me, "And you've brought…?"

"This is Carol," I told him. "We… uh… came to ask a favor."

"What kind of favor?" he asked.

"An audience with the King," I said, loud enough that the rest of the guards would hear and know I was familiar with the way things were run here in case any of them still had any doubts about us. "We'd like to secure a place in the Kingdom."

"For both of you?" Bryce asked, with so much hope in his eyes that it made me feel a little guilty.

"Eh, no," I said. "Just Carol. For now."

I saw that hope die in his eyes a little, but his smile stayed fixed in place. He nodded and turned his attention to Carol again, "Alright. Come with me."

He took us into the Kingdom a different way from when Daryl and I had been frogmarched through to meet the King the first time. We were allowed to come through the main gates and, although we walked with Bryce and a few other guards, it felt less like an armed escort. I watched Carol take it all in. The buildings that had once been a school now turned into homes. The vegetable plots that some people were already out tending to. Two kids ran from one building to another.

We entered the theatre through the front too. No dodgy back doors for us this time. The stage sprawled out in front of us, and we walked down the center aisle like we were about to go in and see a real play. Shiva was sleeping in her cage, which didn't help anything feel more real.

"Is… is that a tiger?" Carol asked, scrutinizing the big cat on stage.

"Yeah," I said, wondering how warning her that the King had a tiger could have slipped my mind. "Her name's Shiva, she seems pretty cool."

"Sure," Carol said, trying to take all of this in her stride, but I could see a little glimmer of concern in her eyes about what kind of place I'd brought her to. I wasn't sure that actually meeting the King would do anything to ease those concerns. He was... eccentric, to say the least. It didn't take long for him to enter. I wasn't sure he'd remember me, but his face broke into a smile when he saw me.

"Ah," he said. His booming voice echoed around the empty theatre. "Lady Naomi, you have returned."

"Well, shit, Lady is a bit much," I blurted out, feeling myself squirm at being addressed so formally. "Just Naomi is fine, Your Majesty."

The King was amused by my discomfort. I caught Carol's eye, and she gave me a look that said, plain as day, 'Where the hell have you brought me?' If this didn't work, and Carol didn't want to stay here, maybe the bizarro nature of the Kingdom would help her rethink how bad it would be to come back to Alexandria. If tigers and Kings weren't her thing, maybe home would look a little better.

"Just Naomi," the King repeated. "Who is this fair maiden you have brought with you today?"

"This is Carol, Your Majesty," I said, glancing at her to make sure it was alright that I was speaking for her.

"It pleases me to meet you, Carol," he said to her. "I am King Ezekiel. Welcome to the Kingdom."

Carol said nothing. From her cage, and at the sound of her master's voice, Shive sat up and gave an almighty yawn. The silence carried on.

"You have been addressed by the King, yet you remain silent," the King said. "Do I detect skepticism? Perhaps you think me mad. Tell me… what do you think of the Kingdom, Carol? What do you think of the King?"

I waited nervously for her answer. Her eyes were wide and bright.

"I… think you're amazing," she said. "It's amazing.."

Bryce tugged on my elbow, bent his head close to mine and said, "Come on, let's leave them to it."

He took me by the arm and led me away from the stage. I was nervous about leaving Carol here. Worried that she might decide not to stay after all if I wasn't there to have this conversation with her. How could I ever go back to Alexandria and face Daryl and Rick and the others if I failed to convince Carol to stay someplace safe? As we exited the theater, I turned to Bryce.

"Will you keep an eye on her for me?" I asked. "Carol. If she decides to stay, will you look out for her?"

"Of course," Bryce said. Always dependable. Always had room to look after someone else. "I'll make sure she settles in."

"Thank you."

"Do you want the grand tour?"

"Sure," I said.

He took me away from the theater and to where former classrooms had been turned into living quarters. He showed me the boiler room that still provided some places with hot water and the wells where they collected freshwater. We stopped by where some of the playing fields had been turned into farmland. I saw their pigs and held back questions about how the hell Shiva hadn't eaten all of their livestock by now. In a fruit garden, he picked a peach and handed it to me, taking one for himself.

"You happy here?" I asked him, taking a bite. He thought about it for a moment.

"I'm as happy as anyone can be now that the world's ended," he said. "The Kingdom is safe. There are kids here that can grow up sheltered from the worst of it."

"Good," I said. We'd come to a stop by another open, green space. Unlike everywhere else we'd gone, it wasn't immediately apparent what this one was for. "What's growing in this one?"

There was a wry smile on his face like the whole tour had been leading up to this on purpose. Bryce said, "Ezekiel has reserved this one for recreation and study."

"Study?"

"Yup," he said. "The King is big on education here. I teach Literature when I'm not on guard duty."

"You do?" I said. "To who? The kids?"

"Whoever wants to learn," Bryce shrugged. "Plenty of adults looking to keep themselves occupied. And… we could always do with more teachers."

It took me a second to get what he was saying and why he was looking so expectant. "Me?"

"Why not? You'd fit right in. You should stay," he said. I hesitated, not sure how to let him down again. The first time had been easier. "Stay with Carol. At least for a little while."

"No, Bryce, I can't."

"Come on," he said. "You'd like it here."

"I don't doubt that," I said. "But, I can't."

"Sure you can," he said. "Surely, your mystery community won't mind you staying away for a few days? One day?... A night?"

He knew I was holding back on him. He narrowed his eyes. I sighed, "I promised Daryl I'd be back by the evening."

"Ah," I saw the disapproval seeping into Bryce's eyes as the puzzle pieces fell into place. "Daryl."

I felt that little defensive streak in me flare up like it did every time Daryl came up in conversation with Bryce.

"I know what you think about him," I said. "But he's a really good guy."

"I'll have to take your word for that," Bryce said. I wished more than anything that Daryl had had a chance to make a better impression on him. But the first time Bryce had met him, he'd left behind a trashed my dorm room and a cut on my hand, the second time he'd been a jealous grump and made us leave early. "It's nice that you've found an old friend in all this, but - speaking as your friend - I'm just glad it's nothing more than that."

Oh, God.

"Actually…" I knew he could read into my face exactly what I was about to say. I felt like I was in a confessional. "I guess I have… news."

"Oh," he wasn't even trying to hide his disapproval. "Naomi, no."

"It's good news," I said. "It's… new news, but I'm happy about it."

"You are?"

"Yeah," I said, and then I borrowed a phrase from Daryl. "Crazy happy."

Bryce looked at me like I'd just told him something completely impossible. He scrutinized my face with more attention to detail than I'd ever seen him study anything else. I didn't know if he was looking for the truth or a lie. Or both. Eventually, he took a deep breath. "You really mean that, don't you?"

"Yeah," I said. It was the most embarrassingly easy answer in the world.

"I don't think I've seen you look like that when talking about someone since..." his brow furrowed as he tried to think back "… well, ever."

He didn't look super happy about it. I tried to put his mind at ease, "Bryce, you gotta trust my judgment on this, man."

He nodded reluctantly. "You understand why it makes me nervous, right?"

I did. If Bryce had introduced me to someone who'd thrown a bottle at him and spent the rest of the time being standoffish and rude, I probably wouldn't have been thrilled about them getting together either.

"Yes," I said. "From what you've seen of him, yeah. I get it. But you have him so wrong."

It was frustrating, just how wrong he'd got him.

"Really? Because it sounds like he's forbidding you from staying out and seeing other friends, and that's a huge red fla-"

"No, that ain't it," I said, cutting him off before he started accusing Daryl of being something he wasn't. "We got into this… dumb fight yesterday, and I didn't want to deal with it, so I asked for a day to cool off. And then Carol came to me and told me she wanted to leave, so I agreed to bring her here. But I can't stay."

"He can't wait another day?" Bryce asked skeptically.

"No," I said. "I made a promise."

I knew that wouldn't seem like such a big deal to Bryce, but he didn't know just how many people had let Daryl down. His Momma dying when he was little, his Dad swinging from passively neglectful to actively abusive and his brother bouncing from their home to jail to disappearing off on some shady shit for weeks. Daryl could be an angry and volatile kid, easy for people to write off as "troubled" and turn their backs on. He trusted almost nobody. I knew he was getting better at trusting people, but he'd lost a lot of them too. These days, you could lose someone to a stray bullet or an unseen Walker in the blink of an eye. Now, Carol had left and, although I hoped it would be temporary, I knew he'd take it badly. There was no way in hell I wouldn't come back to him. I'd made him a promise, and I would not be the last in a long line to break that kind of trust.

"What did you fight about?" Bryce asked. His face had this stony determination about it, looking at me like he'd keep me in the Kingdom permanently if my story wasn't good enough.

"It's dumb," I said. The more time passed, the less mad I was. "When I got to Alexandria -"

"Alexandria?"

"My community."

"Oh, it has a name?"

"Yeah, and it's less vague than the Kingdom."

"Touche. Carry on."

I told him about Deanna and the interviews she taped with everyone who came to Alexandria. I told him about Daryl watching mine behind my back, the way I'd blown up at him about it, and all of his complaints about how closed off I could be.

"Well," Bryce said when I was done. "I can see how that was a total invasion of your privacy."

"Yeah, I know," I said, hoping I'd told the story well enough to portray Daryl's side of things fairly. I didn't want to just give Bryce another reason to dislike him.

"But," he continued. "Trying to get anything out of you is like trying getting blood from a stone. So I can see what drove him to it. Easier to get a confession out of a -"

"Hey," I cut across him. "I'm not that bad, am I?"

"Oh, you're a living nightmare," he said with a stinging amount of conviction. "The only times I can ever remember you asking me for anything is when you needed someone to look after Mia. But when it comes to yourself… feels like you'd rather drown than ask someone to throw you a liferaft."

"Jeeze, don't hold back," I said. "I think I liked it better when you disapproved."

"I'm not saying I approve," Bryce said, sternly. "But he is not wrong about this."

I let that sink in. I'd known Daryl hadn't been all wrong, but hearing it from a second source made it even worse. Truth was, deep down, I wasn't that mad anymore. Sure, at first, it had felt like a total violation of trust. There had been this all-consuming shame that he knew all the worst things about me now. But the worst part of all of it was that he'd had to hear it from a dumb tape and not from me.

A commotion at the gate distracted both of us. I saw a familiar face trying to make a peaceful negotiation.

"Were you followed?" Bryce asked.

"No," I said, starting a quick walk over there. "He's one of ours, though."

"Lower your weapons!" Bryce called over to the guards by the gate. They looked at the pair of us.

"I know him," I told them, and then I looked past them. "Morgan! Is everything okay? Why are you here?"

"Carol," Morgan said. "She's with you?"

"Yes," I said, wondering why there was a slight panic in his eyes. "She's talking to the King. Didn't Tobin get her letter?"

"He did," Morgan said. "But she didn't say where she was going. Aaron had to give me one of your maps to get here. There was a little panic around Alexandria about you two."

"She's safe," I assured him. "Why did people worry? Didn't her letter say-"

"Aaron noticed you were gone before Tobin found Carol's note," Morgan said. My heart sank.

"Shit," I said.

"We thought you'd gone to find Dwight," Morgan said.

"Dwight?" I repeated. "Why the hell would I try and find that asshole?"

"Lucas…" he started and clearly didn't know how to finish. My heart leaped into my mouth. "He's not in good shape. There was some concern you might have gone after Dwight... as some kind of revenge."

Did that mean Lucas was dead? Or had he just gotten even sicker? I couldn't bring myself to ask, I didn't know how I'd find the energy for the journey home if the news was too bad.

"Now," Morgan continued, "Once we found Carol's letter, we figured you might have come here, but by that point…"

"Daryl had found out," I filled in the blanks for myself. "He's gone to find Dwight, hasn't he?"

"Yeah," Morgan nodded.

"Oh, God," I said. "Oh, God. I need to go."

I grabbed up my things and looked at Morgan. "Carol's staying here for now. Will you tell her I had to go and sort this out, but I'll be back soon?"

Morgan nodded.

"You'll be back soon…" Bryce said skeptically. "For real this time?"

"For real this time," I said, giving him a curt smile and the fastest hug I've ever given anyone. I took off out of the gates before either of them could say another word. I worried I was already out of time. Daryl was a much better tracker than I was, and Dwight had run from that railroad. If I didn't get to Daryl before he got back to the tracks, there was a good chance that he'd wind up finding Dwight. And he'd be outnumbered.

I had to stop myself from breaking into a run, knowing that if I used up all of my energy now, I'd be no use by the time I got there. I walked close to the roads, choosing to take the most direct route possible rather than wasting any more time being too cautious. Heading in the general direction of the railway tracks, I listened hard for the sound of Daryl's bike.

The roads were silent for hours. The forest was much the same.

Until it wasn't.

One sound broke the hours of tense silence I'd been walking in. A whistle. Loud and piercing. Distant, but not distant enough. I stopped. Listened for any kind of response. I played it over in my head, tried to pinpoint where it had come from, but the forest distorted it. The echo softened by the canopy of leaves above my head and disguised as it bounced from one tree to tree. The silence was crushing. Every creak of a branch in the breeze felt like a person drawing nearer. I felt isolated. But not alone out here.

"Daryl?" I called when I couldn't take the silence anymore. I knew it wasn't him. I knew it. I just wanted so badly to see him and feel safe that I couldn't stop myself from calling for him.

It was silent for so long that I started to believe I might have imagined it. I forced myself to pick up the pace. And then I hit a roadblock. A real one. Deliberate. No mistaking it. This wasn't a tree that had fallen over in some freak accident. Someone had built it here. I stopped.

Another whistle, in the same cadence as the first but from a different part of the forest.

Closer.

Behind me?

Shit.

Daryl

Almost everyone gets the same look on their face when they're about to tell me something they know I'm not going to like hearing. Aaron is no different. I looked up from my bike. Knew at once that this was going to be bad, so I put my tools down. He cleared his throat, "Uh, hey, man. Have you seen Naomi?"

I was surprised it was me he was asking. Thought maybe that meant he couldn't know about our fight, which was crazy because we'd been yelling at each other right outside his damn house. I thought the whole goddamn town would know by now. But either he hadn't heard, or Naomi hadn't told him. Because she never fucking told anyone anything. I shrugged like it was nothing and said, "Nah, sure she's around somewhere, though."

"Uh, sure," he said. That I-don't-want-to-tell-Daryl-something look on his face just intensified.

"What is it, man?" I asked. I was already in too crappy a mood to deal with him dancing around whatever this was. "Just spit it out."

"We think she left."

"What do you mean she left?"

"Denise stopped by earlier. I mean a lot earlier. Sun wasn't even up. Lucas had taken a turn for the worse and… she thought Naomi should know," Aaron said. "But when we checked her room, Naomi was gone."

I could tell he was trying to say it in a way that wouldn't make me freak out, but there is nobody on Earth who could say the words 'Naomi was gone' in a way that would make me calm. I'd already climbed on my bike. Without thinking, my feet had already started to move, the instinct to protect her overwrote any kind of thought. I knew she'd asked for space, I knew she'd asked me to leave her alone for a while, but I couldn't stop myself. This was too much space. This was too reckless a move for me not to have her back.

"I'll get her," I said to Aaron, but I was reassuring myself more than him. "I know where she's gone, I'll get her."

Before he could say anything else, I started my bike and tore through Alexandria to the gates. Rosita was standing by them. Abraham was standing up at the lookout point. Glenn, Maggie, and Michonne stood around a box of all of our weapons, getting ready to hand them out to everyone in Alexandria in case Dwight and his group of bastards came here.

"Where are you going?" Rosita asked. I didn't wait for her to open the gates, I stopped my bike, and leaped off to do it myself. No time to hang around and explain. Every second counted now.

"Out," I said, the gates had slid as open as I needed them to be.

"No shit," Abraham yelled down at me as I started my bike again. "You got specifics?"

I left them all in the dust. Didn't stop to close the gates behind me, I knew Rosita would get it.

Racing toward where I hoped she'd be was the only thing that slowed my heart to a normal pace. Shitty things only feel less shitty when you're doing something to fix it. Something that makes you feel like you have a bit of control over any of it. Maybe I should've stopped to get more information from Aaron. Like did she take a car or was she on foot? I guess if they hadn't worked out that she was gone, there must have been no cars missing. I had to believe that Aaron was smart enough to have checked whether or not she'd been by Olivia's. And every second spent asking dumb questions was one more second she was on her own out there.

Please be on foot. You'll be so much easier to catch on foot.

The road ahead of me was all clear. I got up to the place where the fallen tree lay across the road. I turned down the railroad tracks, rode as far as I dared before I worried about Dwight hearing the bike coming. Then I pulled up by the side of the road and did my best to hide it in some bushes. I walked the rest of the way.

I could picture her there, on the railroad tracks, right in the spot where Lucas had been shot so vividly that it shocked me when I saw she wasn't there. It hurt to see them empty like that. Just Lucas's blood staining the ground.

I should've killed him. I should've killed him out there in the burnt forest.

If I'd been smart, if I'd just done the right thing then, none of this would've happened. Lucas wouldn't have been shot. Naomi wouldn't have run off after Dwight to avenge him. It seemed so reckless of her. The kind of shit I would do. But she hadn't been in a great place the last time I saw her. She'd been so tired. So wounded by what I'd done. So broken up over Lucas. And Dwight had talked like he'd known Alexandria. Like he'd been near it. I'd seen the way she'd trembled when he threatened her home, I knew what kind of shit that would bring back for her. So, I got it. Why she'd cracked like this. Why she'd gone running after someone who'd hurt a friend and threatened everything else. Part of me even kind of supported it. I just wished I'd been less of a jackass, so she might've asked me to do this with her. Me and her, taking on the world, really felt like something we could do. But only together.

I started walking in the direction I'd last seen him go in, running off through the trees like a goddamn coward: him and his asshole friends.

They couldn't have gotten too far. Some of them had been injured. I knew they had because I shot them my damn self. Their hurried footprints were still in the mud. I'd be able to get a good amount of tracking done before I reached the point that they'd have gotten their shit together enough to even attempt covering their tracks. If they had knocked down that tree as a trap and had kept watch on us, they had to have some kinda camp nearby. I was so caught up in looking for signs of Dwight that I didn't even think to look for signs of Naomi. I just scoured every last patch of earth for any hint of that asshole.

And then I wasn't alone out here no more.

I could hear them. Moving through threes behind me. Assholes. I doubled back a little, turned, so I was hidden by a nearby tree and then fired my crossbow at them. The bolt stuck in a tree right by Rosita's head. I stepped out, so she knew who to direct her glare at.

"Watch the hell out, asshole," she snapped, pulling the bolt from the tree.

"Yeah, I did," I said. You'd be dead if I didn't. Michonne and Glenn were coming up behind her. Glenn looked worried, and Michonne had this firm determination about her like she wasn't about to take any shit. Sadly for her, neither was I. I looked at them all, "You shouldn't have come."

"You shouldn't have left," Michonne said. Behind her, Glenn stared at me with this pleading look not to lose my temper. Too damn late. I was already riled up that they were trying to slow me down like this. I didn't have the time to waste arguing with them, and they were out here making noise that might draw Dwight's attention from wherever he was holed up. Might make me lose my edge if I was close to finding him.

"When I split off from Shasha and Abraham, he was out there in the woods in that burned-out forest with them girls," I told them. "Put a gun to my head, tied me up. I even tried to help him."

"So, you think it's your fault?" Glenn said.

"Yeah, I know it is," I turned away from them all. If they were too nice to see it that way, it wasn't on me to explain it to them. "I'm gonna do what I should've done before."

I heard Glenn's footsteps run through the dirt to overtake me. His worried, anxious face darted in front of mine and stopped me in my tracks.

"Daryl… We need to get back there and figure this out from home. Our home. We need you, and everyone back there needs us right now. It's… it's gonna go wrong out here."

It going wrong out here was exactly what I was afraid of. Just not for me.

She might need me out here.

"We'll square it," Michonne said, with the kind of seriousness I could buy into. "I will. I promise you. But bringing the fight to them, on your own, it's not an option. Just come back."

"I can't," I said. "Naomi left."

Michonne nodded like she was finally starting to understand. "You think she's here? Trying to square things with Dwight?"

"If she knew how bad Lucas was," I said. "It's exactly what she would've done."

"You got any proof of that?" Glenn asked. "Because I'd have thought if she knew how bad Lucas was, she'd be there visiting him."

"Huh?" I said. "That so?"

But the moment he said it, I started to doubt myself. But what was the alternative? That she'd up and left Alexandria for some other reason? Where? Why? For how long?

Because of our fight?

"Yeah," Glenn said. "She might've gone off somewhere else. You don't know she's out here, man. It's not worth the risk."

He'd almost had me, but it was the wrong thing to say. There was no risk in the world I wouldn't take for her. "Yeah, to you, maybe."

I turned away from him, but then Glenn said, "Daryl…" like he was going to keep going, and I rounded on him.

"Man, I can't! That's my girl out there! You think I'd be out here tryna stop you if it was Maggie you was running after? Huh?" I said, staring him down. He said nothing, knew there was nothing he could say that wouldn't make him a hypocrite or a liar. "Yeah, I didn't think so."

I turned away from them all, kept walking through the woods. He did not try to call after me again. There were a few minutes where I didn't hear anything. And then more footsteps, but just one set this time. I looked around a saw Rosita was following me.

"What you doing?" I asked her. I couldn't see Glenn or Michonne, wondered if she was the only one left trying to talk me out of it or if something I said had got through to her.

"Don't sit right with me either," Rosita said. "The way they ambushed us like that. The way they were holding Eugene captive. Threats they made… Lucas didn't deserve to get shot like that either. You want to make those guys pay, I'm in."

"Alright," I shrugged. It never hurt to have someone watching your back. "Just keep quiet, and don't slow me down."

She didn't say anything, She just kinda glared at me like she might already regret her choice. I ignored it, turned my attention back to the ground. Forced myself to slow down, take in everything. Panicked footprints still heading in different directions, trampling shit left right and center. After a while, it was like they doubled back on themselves. I followed them, saw the burnt-out remains of an old campfire. Holes in the ground like something had been pitched there. They'd moved off.

But not far.

Walking a little further through the trees, we would up snaking back toward the railway tracks. And then I could smell smoke. Not like a forest fire, more deliberate and contained. A bonfire. There was an active camp nearby.

"Hey," I hissed, tapping Rosita on the arm. I pointed at faint smoke through the trees. She nodded to let me know that she'd seen it. We moved downwind so that the smoke would be carried towards us and hide us a little. I could hear voices. Relaxed chatter. And then my heart dropped. Glenn and Michonne were tied up to a nearby tree. I looked at Rosita, she'd seen them too.

No Naomi.

Maybe Glenn had been right after all. Maybe she was someplace else. Maybe thinking Naomi had come after Dwight had just given me an excuse to do what I'd always wanted to and go after him myself. So, where the hell had she gone? Would she ever come back? She'd made a promise.

I made eye contact with Glenn, raised a finger to my lips. Beside him, I saw Michonne notice us too. He struggled to sit up a little straighter. Both of their eyes widened. Glenn tried to yell over to us. What the hell had he not understood about me trying to keep him quiet? I raised my finger again. But he just tried to yell out some more. The guys close to him had to have heard it.

And then I heard the unmistakable click of safeties being switched off behind us. I glanced at Rosita, saw she was already lowering her gun.

"Hi, Daryl," Dwight's voice behind me. Glenn had slumped back again. He'd been trying to warn us.

I started to lower my crossbow, didn't hear his gun go off. I just felt it. Close range. Right into my arm and then there was nothing but darkness. I didn't even feel myself hit the floor.

When I came round, burning pain was the first thing I was aware of. Right across my arm. So hot, I could feel it making me sweat. And then light in the dark. It came through the cracks and bullet holes in the door in front of me. Then I heard my friends; Glenn and Michonne and Rosita. Ragged, scared breaths as we sat together in the back of an uncomfortable van. I tried to sit up and look for a way out of this, but when I moved, my bullet wound's burning pain got sharper. I groaned.

"Hey, Daryl," Glenn whispered. "You awake?"

"Yeah," I whispered back. "You know where we are?"

"We've been stopped for a while," Michonne said. "No idea where they've brought us."

Please, not Alexandria. Please, not Alexandria.

It was my fault that these three were here. If they hadn't come chasing after me, they wouldn't be in the back of this van. On the other side of the door, I could hear muffled voices but not the words they were saying. It sounded like there were more men now, but maybe they were just close. Or maybe I'd miscounted how many were with Dwight.

Dwight opened the door, and I squinted out. We weren't in Alexandria. We were somewhere else in the forest. A big clearing full of people and cars. It was pitch-black, but they had turned every headlight on, so the place was flooded with too much light.

"C'mon. Chop chop," Dwight reached in for me first. "You got people to meet."

I stumbled out, scanning the shadows for any kind of escape route.

Then I saw Rick. Kneeling on the ground, looking up at us as we piled out of the back of the van one after the other. Next to him, Maggie was shaking. Sweaty and pale. I wondered if they'd shot her too by I couldn't see any blood. She leaned against Abraham, who seemed to be the only thing keeping her upright. Sasha knelt on Rick's other side. Next to her, I saw Aaron looking at me with nothing but fear. And then Carl, trying to be brave in his Daddy's old cop hat. Eugene looked like he'd taken a beating, which was saying something because he'd taken a bullet the day before. No Carol. That was a small relief.

My family. Kneeling in the dark with nothing but each other. And I couldn't do shit.

What the hell happened?

Did those bastards manage to get to Alexandria after all?

But it was more than just Dwight. Much more. We were hugely outnumbered, and we'd underestimated just how many sorry pricks Dwight knew. He didn't even seem to be the one in charge here. There was this other guy, balding on top with this dumbass mustache. Looked at all of us like he'd conquered something when the truth was one of his bitches had shot me in the arm before I could even turn around. In a fair fight, I was sure I could beat his ass. I struggled against the guy holding me. If I could just get one of them. End one of them...

"On your knees!" Dwight said, and shoved me down. My arm ached, my knees hit the dirt. Rosita, Glenn, and Michonne followed. There was so much fear in that clearing I could almost taste it.

My whole family was out here. Lined up like we were waiting for some kind of firing squad. Facing this big-ass trailer. Or, it was almost my whole family.

At least Naomi wasn't in Alexandria. At least she's safe.

It was the only comfort I had. Even if they did plan to shoot us all in the head, at least I had that. At least she'd live on.

"Alright, we got a full boat," one of them said, coming to stand between us and the trailer.

"Not quite," Dwight said. "We got room for one more."

No.

Felt my stomach drop to my feet. If I hadn't already been sweating from the pain, I'd have broken out into another sweat. Dwight fixed me with this horrible smile that twisted up the burnt side of his face. Cold eyes. Like he was already enjoying this. He motioned to someone on the other side of the trailer. I heard the struggle of feet scuffing along on dirt.

No.

Two guys pulled her into the clearing, and I couldn't hear anything except my own heart beating in my ears.

No, no, no, no.

Naomi's eyes widened as she took us all in, scanning every face in front of her. Searching desperately until her eyes met mine. She saw the state of me. I must've looked like shit, all pale and sweaty and bleeding. It was only then that the fear in her eyes turned to terror, and I saw her fists clench like she was going to fight to get to me. Her mouth opened like she wanted to say something to me. I shook my head at her, didn't want her giving these assholes any reason to hurt her. Dwight swiftly forced her to her knees at the end of the line next to Glenn.

I wanted her beside me. Close enough to protect. Close enough to fight for. Fight with. Me and her, taking on the world, had just got a whole lot more real. These sorry pricks had no idea the hell I'd reign down on them if they hurt any of us.