Rick Grimes

Gone.

His son was gone.

Rick woke in the morning to Morgan shaking him violently, the other man was nearly hysterical in his rage. Apparently, he came in from watch to make breakfast and found Duane gone. When he asked T-Dog, the man had said Rick gave Chuck the go ahead to let the boys help out. However, when he went into the other houses in the cul de sac, they were gone. None of them were trackers but they were able to figure out they left through one of the houses' backdoor and through the trees.

They drove around the area for hours, nearly the entire day before Rick got dizzy and drove the Hyundai into the ditch. The SUV was fine but Lori had berated him for hours once they arrived back at the house. Morgan was a feral mess, blaming the former sheriff and wasn't the least bit guilty about blowing up on the man. It was one thing to allow the man to tell the kids jokes and help with school books while they were inside but to allow a practical stranger to take the boys out alone was the height of foolishness.

"It was my fault." T had said miserably, rubbing his bald head in agitation. "I should have checked with you, Morgan. There's no excuse, I just knew he spoke to Rick, I heard him after their prayer meeting so I assumed."

"Well, my son is gone now." Morgan snarled, his grip on the dining room chair so tight his knuckles were white. "He's gone because you couldn't take two seconds to check in with me!"

Then he threw the chair through the patio door, shattering the glass and forcing them to leave the house for another in the same sul de sace. The small group already decided they couldn't leave right away, no matter what they planned. It may not be safe but none of them had any idea where Chuck could have taken the boys. None of them were trackers, the closest Rick had come to hunting was when he stood in a tree stand with his father. It may have been illegal but his father and uncles lured the deer with corn for months so the bucks came to them. He didn't think leaving out comic books and stale M&Ms would lead his son back.

"I'm going back to Kings County." Morgan said after a week of fruitless searching, it was obvious that Chuck had left the area.

"What good could that do?" Lori had demanded suspiciously, she had been distraught and bedridden since the second night came without the return of her son. Rick was growing concerned, he remembered the miscarriage from early in their marriage. She had been in the hospital for two days because she needed assistance in..finishing it. He shivered just thinking about it.

"Maybe I can catch up with the other group." Morgan said in a dead voice, his face completely void of expression. "They had hunters and that Dixon…Merle, he was friendly with Chuck. He might know something."

"We know he's from Florida." T offered, his big frame curled in on himself since the morning Chuck and boys disappeared, it was as if he wanted to disappear completely. "Maybe he wanted to bring them home."

"Well, I'll go to Kings County." Morgan repeated, not looking at anyone or anything in particular. "You'll come to me if you find Duane."

There had been nothing Rick could say to dissuade the man since Morgan refused to even look at him anymore. Their last argument hung heavy on his conscience. The other man asked if this was what he had wanted when he forced Amy to kick him out. Even a month after Dale's death, he still had trouble clearly remembering his thoughts after the funeral. Only that he didn't want another death and he knew that he could prevent it if he were in charge. Amy was too young and no one would take her seriously, Rick had been a trained police officer since he was twenty. Years of experience and being in a position of authority had made him more than qualified.

"What are we supposed to do, Lori?" Rick had not meant to snap at his wife but the constant guilt trips and rants had frayed his nerves to the point that he couldn't even be in the same room with her. She didn't want to leave the cul de sac, she wanted to follow Morgan back to Kings County, and then she suggested that they try to find Amy.

"We need a plan, Rick!" Lori had shouted, not caring at all that they were out in the open where the dead could find them easily. With only three people, everyone had to pull their weight. So, even though she was sick and pregnant, he had to take Lori into the gas station in hopes of finding supplies. "Carl is gone! My son is gone and you're just what? Going to drive around, hoping to find him accidentally?"

"What else are we supposed to do?" Rick kept his voice low, glancing over at T who was still by the door, keeping an eye out. "We were out of food and it's not like I can track our son. It's almost winter, we need to find some place where we can bunk down. Maybe we head south to escape the cold but I will never give up on finding our son!"

The road had not been kind since they left Morgan behind in the Bronco. It was difficult to get around all of the roadblocks and traffic jams with only two people who could move the cars. Lori wasn't the best look out either. She was constantly tired and nauseous, it didn't matter if they were driving or not. Even standing in the sun left her feeling the need to vomit. They had gotten to the coast without running into a single person then one day while scavenging a pharmacy they were surrounded.

"Why don't you put down that bottle and come out with your hands out." A skinny man with a scruffy beard spoke harshly with his gun raised.

"Allen, let's make friends." Another burly ginger man stepped forward. While his words were polite, his bright blue eyes were suspicious. "My name is James and this is my friend, Allen. Where you from, friend?"

Amy's prediction of being able to sleep alone became prophetic when all of the children enthusiastically started building forts in the first floor lounge. Desks, chairs, and tables were all pushed out of the way to make room for the mega fort, something that even the trio of private school boys joined in on. The blonde had barely been able to sleep a wink with the new people joining them. Even though someone was always on watch on the roof and Daryl stayed in the room, she just didn't know them well enough. Hell, for over four months she had all of her children and sometimes Michonne's and Miranda's sleeping in close quarters with her.

After waking the older teen girls to sit with the children, almost all of the adults were up before the sun. Amy helped unload tables and chairs while Ana walked with a crutch to start on breakfast. Soon the courtyard in front of the dorms was bustling, the group was in high spirits despite knowing they would be burning their friend's and the students' bodies later that day. Rossi and Neville were locked up separately inside, she needed to make plans for those two. Holding the box with Jaqi, Dale, and John's mementoes, she briefly wondered about all the people who died at the quarry. Just because she did not particularly like them didn't mean others in the group would not like to mourn them. However, they were the ones who gossiped about her children and no one else was doing anything to keep their memories alive.

"Deep thoughts?" Tony asked, his focus on the shoebox in her hands.

She wordlessly handed the box over before unpacking a tote that had all of the cheap camp plates and silverware. It had Dale's wedding rings, Jaqi's bracelet, and John's pocket watch as well as quite a few pictures that her children had taken since she had given them cameras. Looking through them made her uncomfortable. It was only after John died that she really noticed how often he was looking at her. One of her favorite pictures of her and Daryl had the soldier glaring at the hunter in the background. Another of her and her sons, he was there with such a lovesick expression she nearly vomited. There was only one with the two of them together but it was posed with him standing beside her with the rest of the group, focusing on her as if she was the only thing he could see.

"Oh, when did you take all of these?" Andrea wandered over, her face pale and eyes bloodshot. After they had a meeting she was forcing her sister onto the med bus, it had been weeks since she said she would go. "Huh."

"John, man, he didn't have a subtle bone in his body." Tony said dryly, his smile somber as he picked up a photo of the two of them. They had their arms around each other's shoulders but again the man was looking longing off to the side while Tony was grinning. After a moment of hesitation, the soldier pulled a folded polaroid from his pocket and handed it over to Amy, not meeting her eyes. "Should probably give this to you."

"What?" She was bewildered since she had seen the same photo on her fridge in her bus. It was a picture taken of her and her children at the farm. They were all muddy from having a farming class with Sam, it started well enough. Then they got into a mud fight when Merle threw a bucket of water over them because he was bored.

"John had it." Tony said softly, ignoring the way her sister gasped scandalously. "When you know, I didn't want Dixon to find it."

"Burn it with him." Amy handed it back, unsure of how to feel. All of her memories with John had been almost tainted. She thought he was just eager to help and prove himself not that he was doing it out of some unrequited feelings. It made her feel gross and flattered. "You're putting him in fatigues, right?"

"I get it." The Soldier nodded before looking down into the box one more time before pulling out his wallet and handing her another photo of a group of twelve soldiers all standing at attention. "If you're putting up pictures for that memorial Dixon was talking about, maybe use this."

"What?" Andrea asked as soon as Tony had walked away, she leaned in close to her sister with a flabbergasted expression. "Did something happen with John that you didn't think to mention?"

"No, that's the weird part." Amy said in a hushed tone, not wanting to be overheard. John had died the day before and had been a good man who risked his life to save the group. "I've never really spoken to him alone, the most private conversation we ever had was about his Catholic mother in Jersey and the kids were with me. It was just a throwaway comment, but looking at all these pictures."

"Wonder if he said something to Daryl." Andrea pondered aloud, glancing over to see if the hunter was around. He had disappeared before sun up to explore the woods behind the school and would probably be out for hours.

"I think he did." Amy thought back to the day before when he was distant for a few hours and his comment the night before. "It doesn't matter. We'll hang up the picture with his fellow soldiers and never mention these again."

"But, it's weird right?" Her sister was studying the photo of John glaring at Daryl, Amy could admit she had never seen such hostility in the man for the month she knew him. It made her wonder if she missed anything else in their group members that she should be worried about.

"Biscuits and gravy!" Sam greeted them, enthusiastically presenting them with a large tin foil pan. "Ana even mixed up some butter for the biscuits since it's all bisquick!"

"Thank you, Sam." Amy smiled when he moved past them to place them in the stand warmers.

Andrea left her in a hurry, one hand on her stomach and the other covering her mouth. Yes, a visit to the med bus was definitely in her sister's immediate future. By the time she and Miranda had corralled all of the children outside to sit at their own children's table, almost everyone was already gathered. Only two people on watch and Daryl were still missing but the blonde couldn't help the small smile that grew on her face while everyone joined together for breakfast. Miram was kind enough to join the kids table to help feed the babies so that Michonne and Amy could join in the discussions. Then, Bella stood up a glass of some kind of juice raised in a toast.

"I would like to thank you all for welcoming us to your own apocalypse family." Bella was smiling with misty eyes that met each and everyone at the long tables. "But I would especially like to thank Amy for getting us here and having the good sense to make plans for our future stability! None of us would not be here without you."

"Well, um." Amy cleared her throat and stood when she noticed Edwin and Glenn standing as if to make their own toast. It didn't help that her sister pinched her hip after giving her a pointed look. "Thank you, Bella. I can't take too much credit, I'm just the idea girl. It's because of all of us that we are here. We still have a long way to go to make this place our home and I can't wait to achieve that with all of you. However, there are some people who didn't make it here with us. So, even though we all have had our differences, I would like to raise a glass to Dale, Jaqi, and John since they couldn't be here to enjoy this delicious breakfast with us. They will never be forgotten."

"Not bad." Michonne grinned at her a little wickedly when she took her seat to the sound of everyone clapping. "Very humble."

"Fuck off." Amy hissed into her drink, making Herschel, who was across from them, choke on his own juice.

"So, now that we're here." Edwin spoke up after most of the group had finished their food. "What's the plan?"

"Well, I figure since Merle is head of security he would need to take Brian with him while we clear out the school and start plans." Amy said after taking a long sip of her drink. "There's a lot of cameras all over campus so there must be a surveillance room somewhere. We need to figure out the water and power situation, it's almost winter so I would like for some people to read up on how we can maintain them. Definitely better to know the basics before something happens. We also need to have John's funeral and burn the bodies. Which reminds me, I need to speak to Michelle about the memorial."

"What about sleeping arrangements?" Herschel asked, glancing longingly off to the side towards the town homes.

"We should stay together until we are certain that the entire campus is secure." Amy looked down the tables consideringly, making eye contact with Merle who adjusted his new cap.

"And medical?" Edwin spoke up, looking at her expectantly.

"A team should go through the school thoroughly before we move anything in." Michonne said sternly, glancing at Ana pointedly when she pouted at the news. "It's a big place and the guys could only do a sweep before closing the doors behind them. Also, like Amy said, we should definitely check to see where we would be getting our water and power before relying on them."

"I would like to see the greenhouses that Brian spoke about." Same asked eagerly, glancing at the children's table. "I think we could definitely make our own herbology class, the kids would love it. There's no mandrakes but with the cold setting in, we need to plant soon."

It had taken them over an hour to finish going through the immediate problems they would be facing. Amy had plans for the winter once they secured the campus. The rest of the group looked a little incredulous at her ambitious plans but she didn't see a way around it. They didn't want people camping out in their backyard, afterall. It would take months or years to complete but it would stop people from settling close by.

First they would need to clear the surrounding towns, all of them. In reality she wanted to completely strip every resource any survivor could possibly get their hands on. They would be moving the cars to barricade the roads neatly. To make it extra eerie, she suggested parking the working cars with keys into a parking lot close by. The school dorm houses had the capacity for just over a couple hundred students. The town homes had not been fully examined but one street with town homes were built for families, the other two were two bedrooms. Then further into the campus was another boarding house and cabins on the lake that were for visiting families with capacity to sleep up to 400 people.

So, really, they would only need the already walled in campus for a very long time. The tiny town outside of school was mostly boutiques that had been brought in for the comfort of the students. She didn't imagine the other two hundred residents in the town could afford to buy anything in the aesthetically built main street. Seriously, what person has enough money to send a high end tailor to the tiniest town in Georgia?

"Go see Edwin." Amy ordered her sister as soon as the group broke up to get ready for the day. The first stop would be the funeral.

They would burn John first before piling the students together. Brian and his group were all very teary eyed knowing that their classmates and teachers were given a mass funeral service without any burials. However, none of them argued. Amy wondered if she could turn one of the classrooms into a memorial for all the students who died? Jean had recorded a list when Brian and the counselor identified their bodies. She was sure they had items and pictures to add.

"Let's go, Brian!" Merle waved the jittery man forward, Brian looked at Amy with big beseeching eyes as if she would excuse him. They needed someone in that surveillance room yesterday, who knows what Rossi and his friends fucked up during their little party.

"I'm fine, Amy." Andrea stood up too quickly and became dizzy, resting heavily on her sister.

"Are you pregnant?" Michonne posed the question that had been bugging her since Kings County.

"Of course not." Andrea immediately retorted, looking offended at the very question. "I used protection."

"Everytime?" Amy asked softly with a raised brow.

"Well, not with Shane but it was a safe day."

"You wouldn't be showing any symptoms yet if it were Shane." Amy reminded her gently, grasping her arms making some space between them so she could look her in the eyes. "I read that morning sickness can start as early as six weeks."

"No, Merle and I used protection." Her older sister snorted and rolled her eyes. "Trust me, the way that man brags about fucking prostitutes, there was no way I would…"

"Andrea?"

"I have to go." Andrea suddenly rushed away, her face white as a sheet with a tint of green.

"How awkward would it be if your sister had your boyfriend's brother's baby?" Michonne asked idly, reaching down to pick up Andre who had toddled over, followed closely by Billy who was helping Braden walk.

"Cue the banjo music."

"Aunt Andrea's having a baby?" Billy questioned a little too loudly and Amy sent her friend a scathing glare, she knew her son could not keep a secret.