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SlumberingVoid — Oh yeah, I'm very excited to cover the Pamela knowing Deanna part. I think Tara is probably the best leader any of the communities have ever had, but I'll always have a soft spot for the great and wise Deanna Monroe. Thankfully Mikey carries on her legacy.

-Mikey-

While Rosita went to work out a way to sneak a carriage and Eugene out of Alexandria without Michonne finding out, Mikey decided to check on the new arrivals that would soon be cast back out to the wild beyond their walls. Mikey didn't feel good about it. He found himself feeling less good about almost all the decisions the council made regarding outsiders over the years.

In the infirmary, the girl who hit her head, Yumiko, was still unconscious. Siddiq tended to her carefully while Magna sat by her side, her eyes watching the doctor's every move. Connie stood behind a chair at the foot of Yumiko's bed that Kelly was sitting in with her head in her hands.

"How's she doing?" Mikey asked, passing DJ, who stood guard by the door.

"She had a concussion, and she's a little dehydrated," Siddiq said. "But she could be back on her feet by tomorrow."

"But should she be?" Magna hissed.

"That's not for me to say," Siddiq answered, stepping aside to place some medicinal herbs back in a cabinet.

Magna stormed over to the window, watching the water mills scoop up handfuls of the lake and send it rushing under the bridge that ran across it.

"Hey, doc, what's your story?" Luke asked. "Were you here from the start?"

Siddiq looked saddened by that question, and Mikey got why.

"No, I was a stranger, someone they took in."

Luke's face betrayed that he saw the irony in that. "Okay..."

"But it was different then," Siddiq told him.

"Okay... is there a reason that things changed?"

"There's a reason for everything." Siddiq nodded, pointing at Mikey before going back to Yumiko. "Mikey is our longest-standing resident."

Their whole group looked at him.

Mikey smiled politely, pointing to the door. "If you guys want to follow me, I'll help you get settled for the night."

Magna rolled her eyes. "Lucky us."

On their way to the houses down the street from the Brownstones that were perfectly empty for situations like this, Mikey spotted Judith leaving her house.

"Hey, Jude," Luke called, waving.

She came trotting over with a math book clutched under her arm.

"Oof," Luke hissed. "Math?"

Judith rolled her eyes. "My mom insists."

Connie signed something with a smile, and Kelly snickered before translating it.

"She says that she loved math at school..." Kelly shook her head, signing her response as she said it. "That's because she was good at it."

"I like it too," Judith told them both.

"Shoot," Mikey said, glancing at the book she was holding, then to his watch. "Is it already four? I'm sorry, Jude, I lost track of time."

"No worries," she giggled at him, waving her free arm. "I'm erm... I think I can handle it. It's just distance questions today."

"I'll make it up to you tomorrow," Mikey said. "Pretty sure I've still got a few books tucked away that you've not read."

"Nuh-uh," she gasped. "You have not been holding out on me!"

"How else would I make up for instances like this?"

Judith scoffed at him, and they left her to the homework on her front steps, heading down the street and onto the porch of 105. Mikey lifted the welcome mat and scooped up the key buried in all the dust trapped under it.

"This house is huge," Kelly gasped.

"Cell's still a cell," Magna said, folding her arms.

Mikey opened the door, beckoning for them to follow him in. "This one used to have a pool table."

They all wandered into the immediate living room. Magna marched over to the sofa and dropped into it with her still arms crossed, coughing violently at the dust storm that exploded out from under her. Kelly started rooting through a basket by the fireplace stocked with board games and blankets. Luke made a strange gasping sound when he found a guitar tucked behind one of the chairs in the corner of the room. Connie ran her finger over the mantle, looking at the dust that stuck to it.

"Sorry about the dirt," Mikey said. "Place has been empty for a few years."

"So this is the place you stick people that you don't want to see?" Magna asked, glaring at him from the sofa.

"The house maybe," Mikey answered, then pointed out the window to the house across the street. "But I live just there in 101, so I'm in hollering distance."

Connie signed the one thing Mikey knew. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry it isn't permanent," he said. "But the fridge has been stocked up for you. The plumbing's hooked up, so feel free to shower and whatnot. If you need anything else, DJ will be outside."

Morning came around fast. Mikey didn't sleep. He spent the night at Gabriel's house, discussing whether they should tell Michonne and the others that neither Rosita nor Eugene came back yesterday. By the time the sun was up they had made the decision to trust that they simply got stuck out there for the night and would be back before anyone noticed.

It was a hot morning, and the horses were restless while the stablehands hooked them up to the wagon that would take the new arrivals far enough out that they wouldn't find their way back to Alexandria.

"Sorry, guys," Yumiko sighed, a fresh bandage wrapped around her concussed head. "If I knew we were going to be booted as soon as I recovered, I would've hit my head a bit harder."

"You know, it's not too late," Magna snickered.

Mikey handed over a rucksack to the group, Luke taking it. "I'm sorry this is the way it is. There's enough food in there for a few days. Gabriel put in some fruit from his garden. Siddiq's topped you up with clean bandages and medicine for that head, too."

Luke shook Mikey's hand. "You're a godsend, man."

Then he shook Siddiq's hand, who smiled with a pang of guilt in his chest that Mikey knew was there. Gabriel smiled without any trip of emotion when Luke shook his hand, being better at hiding it. Then Luke flicked the rim of Carl's hat that Judith was wearing again, grinning down at her. "Thanks to you especially."

Mikey had thought it especially rude that neither Michonne nor Carl had shown their faces, but then, just as Luke's group were getting ready to climb into the wagon, two horses rode us the dirt road beside the crop fields. Michonne and Carl stopped in the wagon's way.

Carl wasn't wearing his bandage over his eye again.

"Change of plans," Michonne said, she tossed a small toy figure of a sheriff to Judith. Carl pushed his lips to the side and smiled at her briefly. "There's a place a lot like this one. The leader might take you in. I'll escort you personally, talk to her."

Siddiq and Gabriel looked at each other.

"You're taking them to Hilltop?" Mikey asked.

"With you and Siddiq," Carl said. "Sure am."

Mikey glanced at Gabriel for a moment then. "As much as I'd love to see this... with Aaron gone, I've got a few things here that need my attention."

Michonne pressed her lips together and nodded. "Siddiq is coming, though... you need to keep an eye on your patient 'till we get there."

Unable to keep track of all the people talking, Connie asked her sister what was happening. After Kelly told her, Connie knelt down and signed thank you to Judith.

Judith beamed at her, then the rest of them. "Good luck."

While everyone got ready to ship out, Carl climbed down from his steed to speak with Mikey.

"You sure you don't want to come?" he asked.

"You sure you want to go?"

Carl took a second, a heavy breath, too. He nodded. "Michonne and I might have promised Judith we'd get these people there safe."

Mikey chuckled. "I do wish I could be there to see Rhys' face. Yours, too."

Carl didn't look so happy.

"What's wrong?"

Carl shook his head. "Nothing, jus' a little worried about if he's not there."

"Right," Mikey said, nodding.

Judith came running over then, handing Carl his stetson. "You're gonna need this."

Carl chuckled, sinking down onto one knee so she could crown him with it.

"Think I'm going to need the luck?" Carl asked, looking up at her from under the shade of the hat.

"Nope," she said confidently. "Just think Dad will want to be along for the ride on this one."

-Kelly-

The journey back to our rig was long and hot, and Magna complained about her knives most of the way. I kicked her leg and told them all to chill out and that we should see how this whole thing plays out first — that earned me a glance from DJ, who was driving the wagon. We kept the rest of our conversations to signing after that. We all understood why Magna was so on edge. Since losing Bernie, she hasn't been herself. Yumiko tried explaining that to Michonne after Magna shot her one too many dirty looks.

Our rig was a mess when we finally arrived. The shipping container once pulled by our four noble steeds, Bobbie, Rosslyn, Dingo, and Shepard, was now flipped on its side, crushing three walkers that must have been too close. Connie killed one with the heel of her boot, Luke got another with a stick, and me killing the last with a heavy rock.

I watched Magna rooting through a bunch of shirts spilling from a burst-open suitcase. Carl came to stand next to me.

"She need a hand?"

I shook my head. "Bernie used to wear this butt-ugly paisley shirt. If it was there, you'd see it from space."

"Herd must have come through and wiped this place out," Carl said. "Sucks about your stuff."

I tried my best to smile at him. "It's just stuff."

Siddiq fished a recorder from one of Luke's boxes of instruments, scoffing as he showed it to Michonne. "This is the first instrument I ever played as a kid! My aunt got it for my birthday, and I had it a whole week before my mom decided, for her own sanity, that I liked painting better."

He raised it to his lips, but Michonne snatched it from him before he could play, sporting the first smile I had seen from her.

"Maybe for my sanity, you don't."

While Luke enlisted Connie and Siddiq to help him look for his prized Stradivarius, Michonne told DJ to collect all our weapons.

"Hell no!" Magna barked, storming up to Michonne and Carl. "We're taking what's ours."

Michonne drew a slither of silver from her katana's sheath. "No. I'm not letting my men take five armed men into Hilltop."

"Your men?" Yumiko asked. "What about you?"

"Carl and I came to see if your story checks out. It does. Siddiq and DJ will take you the rest of the way."

I noticed Carl's brief look of confusion.

"So not only have you not been to this place in who knows how long, you aren't coming with us and we can't have our weapons?"

"If you want your weapons," Carl hissed, "you can take them, and then you can try your luck on your own out here."

"Guys," Siddiq sighed.

"No, he's right," Michonne said. "You want an escort to Hilltop, a chance at something better... they stay with us."

Magna grimaced at them for a long time before Luke raised his hand and said, "I vote for the second one."

And after some debate, we all voted for the second one.

Michonne told us we'd be at Hilltop before the afternoon rolled around tomorrow, so we collected up what was left of our stuff and got back on the road.

We found shelter in a nearby factory.

It was cold, damp, and stank of rust and oil, but there was a roof and there was enough space to shelter the horses, so we settled in for the night.

Just as I managed to find a position not too uncomfortable to fall asleep on the concrete floor, I heard Michonne and Carl whispering outside.

"I thought we'd go with them?" Carl asked.

"We don't owe them that," Michonne sighed. "I promised you and Judith we'd find them somewhere safe, and that's what's happening."

They weren't arguing, or at least if they were it was in the way that me and Connie do when we know we're still both on the same side.

"You sure that's why you wanted to go all the way?" Michonne asked.

"We don't even know if they're alive anymore."

"Maggie's smart, Carl. Sasha and Tara are smart. I don't doubt Hilltop is still standing."

"Then why don't we go all the way with them? Hell, I'll go."

"Because I don't know how they'll react if they see me... or you."

"Yeah, I call bullshit," Carl chuckled.

"Oh yeah?"

He must have nodded or not reacted because he didn't speak.

"Last night," Michonne said then, "Judith told me that she's forgetting your dad's voice. But she knew he would have been proud of what she did, bringing these people in."

Carl chuckled dryly. "She's good at that."

"At what?"

"I might remember his voice, but I haven't done anything that would have made him or Mom proud in a long time."

"Hey," Michonne hissed, "you know that isn't true. You've made hard choices to keep both of your siblings safe."

"Maybe," Carl whispered. "Or maybe going with them tomorrow is a chance for both of us to make him proud."

There was a sudden crash from where the horses were stabled and our gear was stowed. I sat up, looking around, only seeing Luke missing. I saw Michonne and Carl both silently rushing inside and towards the sound with their weapons out, I tried to call out but my voice got stuck in my throat.

"Drop it... and turn around slow."

"I can't it'll— it'll—"

"She told you to drop it!"

"You— you don't understand, I can't—"

THWASH!

With the chance of getting back to sleep seeming slim for everyone but Connie, who didn't wake so easily, the rest of us sat around together in dismantled car seats from the wagon. Blankets and bedrolls laid out over a few sofas we found in a storage room.

Luke cradled his broken instrument.

"This— this is unbelievable," he mumbled. "It's utterly unbelievable."

Michonne sat down on the car seat beside his, a look of guilt over slicing it in two when she thought he had a weapon.

"Listen... I—"

Luke shushed her with a finger held up like a disappointed teacher. "No-no-no... do you know what this is? This is an origional Stradivarius, circa—"

"Circa 1725," Yumiko laughed, to which Luke responded with a prompt fuck you in sign that she ignored as she lay her head down on Magna's stomach on the sofa they claimed. "He found it in a mansion outside of Philadelphia before it was overrun by sickos. In the kid's room, of all places."

Magna snorted, dropping an arm over Yumiko's middle. "Like the kid was gonna miss it."

Yumiko laughed, and none of the others seemed to get the joke.

"So you've been travelling with a collection of instruments all this time?" Siddiq asked. "Why?"

I snorted, knowing the long-winded history lesson that was coming from the grimace of discontent on Luke's face.

"It's art," he said.

"Here we go," Magna sighed.

"Look, for a very long time historians and archaeologists have wondered... how did ancient humans survive the Neandathals?" Luke explained. "Okay? How did we defeat them when they were bigger and they were smarter and they were stronger, faster? They had better tools than us. So why are we still here, and they're not?"

No one spoke. Michonne and Carl sat back in their seats like they didn't care all that much. Siddiq was sat forward, fascinated. Even DJ looked interested.

"And then they found a cave," Luke said. "And in that cave, they found a forty thousand year old flute."

"A flute?" Siddiq asked.

Michonne sat up, squinting at Luke like she couldn't possibly see where this was going.

Carl stayed leant back in his seat, his eye half closed, his hat hiding most of his face in shadow.

"A flute!" Luke laughed. "And then they realised that maybe ancient humans didn't defeat Neanderthal. Not in the way we think of the word 'defeat,' okay? They came together as an answer to defeat. They sat around a campfire. They shared their stories with each other in the form of music... and paintings... and— and they created a common identity. And then they, y'know, they built communities, and they grew. And then, as they grew, Neanderthal retreated, and then after a while they just died out." Luke tapped his fingers against his Stradivarius excitedly. "So this, yeah, this— this is the one thing that separates us from the animals. For better or for worse, it brings us together. And if we're trying to rebuild something, you can't ignore that."

I glanced at Michonne when she opened her mouth to speak, her face almost angry.

"After everything you've seen and done... you still believe that's all it takes?"

"Yeah, it's survival of the fittest," Luke said, bumping her elbow. "Sharing with each other... I mean, that's part of what makes us stronger."

Michonne looked like she might have more to say, more to argue, but she pursed her lips and leaned back.

"Just looks like a violin to me," Carl said, sitting up, nodding at the broken Stradivarius.

Luke scoffed.

Carl thought for a moment. "Do you have any guitars?"

Luke shook his head. "None that survived that herd. Do you play? You look like the kind that—"

"I don't," Carl said, sitting back, getting a look on his face, maybe thoughtful. But his face fell into shadow again before I could decide. "Someone I knew."

The morning was quiet until walkers seemed to pick up our trail. It seemed like things were getting really bad for a moment before Michonne trusted us with our weapons.

We managed to make it to the wagon before this ended like our last camp.

But we realised this must have been the same herd.

We realised when Magna recognised Bernie among the dead. His paisley shirt stood out in the crowd despite the blood that dulled its colours.

It had been a long time since I'd seen Magna cry. She didn't cry when we lost him. I guess she had been holding it in. And I guess seeing him like that was the crack that finally let the tears flood through.

The ride back was quiet until Michonne told us we were close to this Hilltop place.

Yumiko nodded.

"I know what it's like to worry about your family," Michonne told her, glancing over to Carl as he rode on the far side of the wagon to her. "To carry the burden of protecting them... to feel guilt when they suffer."

"Magna will be okay," Yumiko said, clearing her throat when her voice got husky from the grief we never seemed to get time to process. "We all will."

"Because you have to be," Michonne told her. "I would know."

"I just want us to have a home, you know? Somewhere safe."

"You will."

Michonne told DJ to stop the wagon then. Carl glanced at her, but Michonne shook her head.

"This is as far as we go," Carl said, a slight grit in his voice.

Siddiq suddenly started a conversation with the two of them that seemed to turn the air stale as it unfolded.

"I should have told you guys about Maggie leaving sooner. I'm sorry."

"Where is she?" Michonne asked him.

"With Georgie," he said. "Someplace far... helping her with some new community. That's all I know."

"Did she take them with her?" Carl asked him.

Siddiq shook his head. "As far as I know, she only took Hershel."

Michonne gave him a stern look.

"I wanted to say something sooner," Siddiq told her. "But I promised someone I wouldn't. So I didn't. But this means you can both come with us to Hilltop. You should."

"No," Michonne sighed. "We're needed back home. I kept my promise."

Siddiq grimaced, looking at Carl who had turned his attention to watching the treeline. "When we first met, you took me in and broke bread with me despite what was safe for your people. I still think about that. The day my whole life changed."

I found it kind of surprising to think of Carl bringing people in. He had barely said a word since we met him. Over the last few days, I had been trying to work out who hated outsiders more between him and Michonne.

"You risked everything for me that day, you helped me honour my mom, you got in a fight with Rhys trying to—"

"It's not that simple anymore," Carl said. He said it like it was, though. Like to him, it was the most simple thing in the world.

There were hoofbeats rushing towards us then. We all sat up in the wagon, readying our weapons.

Two men approached on horses, clad in steel-plated armour and wielding spears.

"Those spears," Michonne said, noting the latter. "You from Hilltop?"

"We are," the older of the two men answered in a gruff voice. "You?"

"Alexandria," Michonne told him.

"We're headed there now. We have a message. We have one of yours... Rosita Espinosa. She's been injured."

We watched as Michonne looked at Carl, she opened her mouth, but...

"Let them know Alexandria will be there soon," Carl told the riders.

They nodded, circling around us before riding back the way they came.

Michonne glared at him for a moment, but then she gave in, and the wagon and horses followed.

A/N

Okay, back to where we were next chapter! Rhys and Carl will meet, no more surprises!