Naomi

He knows!

He knows I'm alive.

It felt like a dream. I had to grip the handle of the knife real hard to stop my hands from shaking. It wasn't nerves or fear that made me jittery anymore; it was the anticipation of getting out of here. Seeing my family again. I was going home! Sure, it might take them a while to find me. Might take even longer to actually get me out, but it would happen.

As sure as I knew the sun was still rising and setting over the earth I was buried under, I knew Daryl would find me. Didn't need to see it to know it was in motion.

I couldn't think about it for too long, or I'd never get anything done. Hope and joy bubbled up inside me and made me want to dance around this damn bunker to a beat only I could hear. But people would notice that. It would make them suspicious. Or they'd sedate me again.

Cutting vegetables was a good enough distraction. It gave me an excuse to keep my head bowed to hide my smile. I'd graduated from onions (Thank God), and today, I'd been permitted to slice other things under Nora's tutelage. None of these vegetables were trying to blind or maim me in any way, so it was a huge improvement.

"You're getting much better at this," she said. The teenage version of me, who still lived somewhere deep in my brain, craving the approval of any authority figure, punched the air. "We might be able to move you onto sauces one of these days."

"It don't come from a jar?" I asked, mostly as a wind-up.

Nora sighed, but the ghost of a smile twitched at the corners of her mouth. "No. It doesn't."

I grinned at her. To my surprise, she smiled back. My good mood was infectious.

"I had my doubts about you," Nora said, wiggling her wooden spoon at me. "But you seem to be settling in now. Something has changed and I think it's being here and learning to cook."

'Course you do.

Lots of things had changed. My smile was genuine now. There was a tension I'd been carrying as long as I'd been here that had melted away the second I'd heard Daryl's voice. I felt lighter than I had in months. I'd been humming in the damn kitchen.

"Maybe I'm just glad to be away from those damn onions," I said.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "It's the kitchen. You're settling in. Nothing says 'home' like cooking a meal for people you care about."

Home.

I'm going home.

He knows!

A thrill ran up my spine every time I thought about it. Nora chuckled at the involuntary smile that spread across my face like she was right. Like dicing carrots had cured my borderline homicidal rage at being sealed in a bunker against my will with maniacs experimenting on children.

"When did you learn to cook?" I asked to distract her from any more questions about my change in demeanour. And also to distract myself from thinking too hard about the horrors I'd uncovered here.

"My Mom taught me. She started when I was very young. I'd help her make dinner. It was something we did together," Nora said. "Her Mom taught her. I was teaching my son, before…"

She stopped. The same tone and misty eyes everyone got these days when they thought about the Before Times. It was the most personal information she'd ever shared with me. She was usually so stoic, stern, and closed off.

"He's not…in here?" I asked.

Nora shook her head. "He was out of state, visiting his father. But they're safe. They have a… similar setup to this one."

I nodded as if that was a normal thing to say, and every family knew a network of preppers to hide with when a mysterious virus swept the world and made the dead walk.

Was it the same place the Colonel was talking to on the radio…?

Nope.

Not my business.

My business is getting home.

Instead of digging deeper, I said, "Glad he's safe."

"When the Colonel gets word that the world is safe for us to return to, I'll see him again," she said. "And when that time comes, I'll cook him his favorite meal. Nothing in this world beats the feeling of making good food you can share with the people you love most."

"I'll take your word for it," I said, but when I looked down at the cutting board, those silly little vegetables didn't look so silly. Not when I thought about plating them up with a steak and putting them down in front of Daryl.

Daryl and I had always been fighting for scraps - roadkill, dumpster diving, and a sprinkle of shoplifting spiced our meals even when we were kids. It had never really been about how it tasted. Good food was saved for those who were doing more than just surviving. That was what I wanted for him - a life that was safe enough that our biggest worry when it came to food was how to season it.

It was the kind of life I wanted for Mia, too. More than scraps. Good food to help her grow.

Mia.

I'm gonna get to speak to her.

Tonight.

I thought about Mia around that table, giving her a meal she'd pick the broccoli out of because she'd always hated it. I'd tell her off, but I wouldn't really mean it. Daryl would probably eat what she didn't want on the sly to cover for her and then confess it to me the moment she went to bed, and we were washing up. I ached for those small moments of family normality.

Of course, when I got back, it wouldn't be the three of us around the family table anymore…

Well, shit.

… I guess Daryl doesn't know everything.

"Naomi," Sherry interrupted my thoughts. I glanced at a clock on the kitchen wall. I'd been expecting this interruption, but it had snuck up on me. "Can you take these back to the supply closet for me?"

"Sure," I said, taking the box of unused canned sweetcorn from her.

"I'm done here, for now, right? Prep is over?" I looked to Nora for permission. I couldn't risk her saying no, but it felt smart to keep her on my good side.

"Of course," Nora said. I hadn't seen her this relaxed before. It was crazy how talking about family can have that effect on someone. Softening them a little, letting them relax into the person they were before they lost them. "Good work today."

It was the closest I'd come to a gold star since school, and boy, did I take it that way. I practically skipped out of the kitchen. Felt like I was walking on air all the way to the storage room. Dwight was already in there, waiting. I hurriedly closed the door behind me.

"We did it!" It came out as a squeal. I wanted to shout it. Jump up and down. Dance around this bunker until they got so sick of me that they sent me outside, and I could sit and wait for Daryl to pick me up.

Dwight's eyes widened and flickered to the door, concerned we'd be overheard. In the kitchen, Sherry would deal with any requests to go to or from the storage room, but there was no guarantee how long we'd get in here before we were interrupted. I questioned Dwight on everything he knew about this place, every detail of his scavenging trips, the allotments they'd pick things up from, and anything he might have overheard from the people he traveled with. I went over everything so many times and from every conceivable angle that I could think of that he must've been so sick of my damn questions by the end. I needed to be thorough. The weakness of this place could lie in the smallest details.

When I'd gotten everything out of him that I thought I was going to, I headed back to my room and wrote down everything I could remember while it was still fresh. Then, it was just a case of waiting and acting normal. A hard thing to pull off when I was too excited to eat.

Time slowed to a crawl. Yesterday had been easier. I'd had no idea it was the day I'd finally get through to them, but now I knew that when Marissa knocked, I'd not only get to hear Daryl's voice again but Mia's too… It felt like that knock took a week to come.

When it finally did, I'd been waiting, pacing by the door for about half an hour. Curled up at the bottom of a cleaning cart didn't feel cramped anymore. Felt like the best journey I'd ever taken.

Instead of leaving me in the Comms room, Marissa stood guard outside. Now that we'd made contact, she was willing to put her neck on the line. Whatever time I could get to communicate with the outside was worth protecting. If the Colonel returned early, she'd stall him, warn me, and try to get him away again.

I sat down in front of the radio. For the first time, I switched that thing on without any despair - just hope and the joy of doing something I'd been looking forward to all day. Not having to cycle through frequencies gave me another jolt of happiness. I hadn't realized how much I'd been clinging to my sanity by my fingernails until I had something solid to hold onto.

"Hilltop? Are you there? Can you hear me?"

They'd been waiting. The reply was immediate. "Naomi!"

Mia.

She's okay.

She's really okay!

I thought I'd been prepared to hear her voice again, but it choked me up immediately. While Daryl's voice had calmed me, and soothed me right down to my restless and homesick soul, Mia's was a burst of energy. She sounded so damn happy. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. Remembered when she'd shout my name like that while she ran toward me across the schoolyard.

"Mia! Are you okay? How's… how… how are feeling? You were so…ill when I left, are you doing okay, sweetie?"

"Yes. I'm good!" she said. I listened for any hint of a lie but couldn't find one. She sounded good. Happy. The relief was so strong it hurt. The guilt that had been gnawing in my gut for weeks started clawing its way out of my windpipe. Damn near choked me.

"I'm so sorry I left. I didn't mean to leave you…I never thought that I'd… I'd never have left you on purpose, you know that, right?" I said. "I love you so much. I never meant to leave you on your own."

"You didn't. I had Daryl" she said, and I stood no chance against the tears I'd been fighting back. The damn burst, my heart aching with guilt, and with the knowledge Daryl had been exactly the kind of man I'd always believed he would be. "I'm fine. I got a scar, but it's kinda cool, actually. And it doesn't hurt anymore."

I furiously wiped the tears from my cheeks, taking a deep breath to push the rest of them down. Before I could compose myself, she blurted out, "I rode a horse today!"

Instead of a sob, a laugh burst out of me. It must have taken all of her mental energy to hold off telling me that right away and let me get the sappy stuff out of the way first. While I hoped that 'sister coming back from the dead' would beat 'first horse ride' for the biggest news of her week, I knew it would be a tight race.

"You did?"

"Yeah… it was scarier than I thought," she admitted quietly. Like she was confessing something at church. "It feels a lot higher off the ground than I thought it would. Maggie makes it look so easy."

Maggie.

God bless her.

"Maggie's teaching you? That's great!" I said, wondering how long they'd both been at Hilltop. "How is she? How's baby Hershel?"

There was a slight pause, and then Maggie's voice came through, "We're all good here, Naomi. Let's focus on getting you home, yeah?"

God bless her again for trying to keep us on track. I could have sat here talking about nothing with Mia until the Colonel came back, but Maggie was right. Mia could talk my ear off about her riding lessons when I got home. Maybe she'd even let me watch one if I promised not to cheer too loud on the sidelines.

"Right. Yes. Of course," I said. But then, because I couldn't resist, I added, "You there too, Daryl?"

"'Course I am," he said immediately. That voice of his sent a warmth right through me, and my stomach flipped. "You all right, Naomi?"

Pregnant!

I'm pregnant!

The words had almost slipped out on that first call, and they threatened to do the same now. Looping like an alarm in my head every time I heard his voice. Not telling him felt like lying to him. But…this wasn't a social call. We had shit to do. To plan.

Telling him would derail everything.

So instead, I said, "Yeah. I'm all good."

"All right," he said, but there was something in his voice that sounded like he didn't believe me. Turns out I struggled to lie to him even when those blue eyes of his weren't piercing their way through to my soul.

Shit.

Fuck it.

Do I just tell him?

Mia was listening. Maggie, too. Rick was probably there. Without weirdly asking for some kind of roll call, I had no way of knowing how many people were listening in. I'd never broken news of this magnitude to him - to anyone - but I was pretty sure it wasn't the kind of thing he'd like hearing in front of other people. I knew he'd be over the moon, but the conversation would likely get emotional. Something he'd rather avoid with an audience.

It would be an extra layer of worry, too, on top of everything else he'd be fretting about.

"How long have you got, angel?" he asked, a note of panic in his voice. I'd been quiet for too long.

"I don't know," I said, trying to push all of the personal shit aside so that I could focus. "But not long. Listen, it ain't just me and Dwight in here. Sherry, John, Marissa, Amber, and Mark are here, too. They all want out, and they're all willing to help."

"Woah, woah, really?" Daryl asked. "How many goddamn people have they got down there?"

"About a hundred," I said. "Or so I've been told. Haven't seen everyone, but this place is huge, and there are cameras everywhere."

"They armed?" Daryl's mind, predictably, was fixed on how many people he'd have to fight rather than any kind of awe over how someone had built a place like this.

God, I miss you.

"Some of 'em," I said. "But not a lot. I think there's a way of getting us all out of here without any fighting. You'd be outnumbered, I don't want to risk anythin'."

There was a silence, during which I could only assume Daryl was making some ominous and violent threats against anyone keeping me here. Risk be damned. Somebody must have subdued him because then Maggie spoke again, "Is Amber okay? Last time I talked to her she told me she was… expecting."

It threw me for a loop. I wasn't sure how many people had known about Amber's pregnancy before she'd disappeared, but I guess it made sense that she'd talk to Maggie about it. Now that the topic of pregnancy had come up organically, I felt even weirder about keeping mine to myself.

"Yeah, she's good," I said. "Baby's growing well. Both of 'em - healthy, but…depending on how long it takes to find us, it could make it difficult to get her out."

"God," Maggie said. "Must be hard for her."

You have no idea.

"She's doing okay," I assured them. "Much better now we got a real chance of coming home."

My voice cracked at the end, and I couldn't get anything else out for a moment. I hadn't bargained on how hard it would be to talk to them all without breaking down. Hearing home without being able to get to it wasn't as awful as being cut off from it, but it was still hard. It would be hard for them to hear, too. There was a pause, and then Mia spoke.

"Why won't they let you leave?" Such an innocent question. Of course she had it. I'm sure they all did, but the adults knew not to ask it.

I think they want my baby.

I'd avoided that thought as much as possible. Cold dread washed over me every time it snuck up from the deepest recesses of my mind. If I told Daryl that, I'd return to find the world as nothing but scorched earth, and everyone in this bunker would be str.

"They're very… secretive about this place," I said, which wasn't an outright lie; it just wasn't the whole truth. "And I think they're scared that if they let us go, we'll bring an army to their doors to take what they've built."

"That's dumb," Daryl said. "If they let you go, I'll leave 'em alone."

"I tried tellin' them that," I said.

"Then I guess they made their choice," he said. His conviction, his certainty, brought a smile to my lips. "So, what can you tell us? Is there a way to get in?"

"No," I said. I could tell from his tone he was taking a mental inventory of the explosives at his disposal and how much he might need to bring with him. "This place is built from reinforced concrete and could probably survive most things except a direct hit from a nuclear weapon."

There was a slight pause. "Eugene says we ain't got one of those, and he can't make one."

"That's… for the best," I said, trying not to laugh. "I don't think there's a way to get you in , but when you're near, I can get us out. "

"How's that?"

"There was an evacuation drill recently, and they opened the doors. I tried to…get out, but…it's a real labyrinth down here, and I couldn't find an exit," I said. "But if you can find us, and find a route through the mines to the bunker, we can stage another emergency. It'll open the doors; we can use the chaos to slip away, and you can lead us out."

"You sure it's a mine?" Daryl asked.

"Yes," I said. "A decommissioned one."

I described every detail I could remember from my brief escape attempt. I told them everything I could about the dirt room I'd woken up in with the trapdoor I'd tried to get back to. I tried my best to describe the route from there, through first the dirt and then the rock tunnels, to the shiny blast door that now sealed me here. Daryl asked a few questions, and then I moved on to tell them everything I'd learned from Dwight.

I gave them the details of every place he'd scavenged and any landmarks that might help them to place those locations on a map. I told them about the times they'd been near Sanctuary, and the visits they made to allotments where some of the food for the kitchen was grown. I couldn't give them any concrete directions. Dwight, John, and Mark were still outsiders, untrusted, and blindfolded on journeys out of the bunker, so they wouldn't be able to give anyone directions back to it if they fled on their mission. Dwight estimated that their car journeys usually lasted around three hours, a detail that seemed to stick with Daryl.

"Was it the same when they found you?" Daryl asked. "The same three hours?"

"I don't know," I said. "I was unconscious for most of it. But I can check with Dwight."

There was a short silence.

"Once we set off, I uh…" he cleared his throat. His discomfort at having to say whatever he was gearing up to say was palpable, even given how many miles I was from him. A three-hour drive, I guess. "I won't be able to talk to you anymore. Can't take the radio. We'll have to… pass messages between us, y'know?"

Shit, that's right.

Fuck, I should tell him now. Before the choice is taken from me.

If it took them too long to find this place, or if something got in the way, I risked him dropping dead of a heart attack if he found me walking out of here with a baby in my arms.

I'd paused for too long, indecision tying up my tongue. Daryl cleared his throat again and spoke quietly, "But 's'alright, ain't it? 'Cause I'll see ya soon."

There was something so needy in his voice it broke my heart a little. There was so much I wanted to say to him, and I was sure after so long apart, he'd be the same. But I couldn't. Not with so many people listening in.

"Of course," I said quickly. "Real soon."

"We'll find you," he said. "I ain't ever givin' up."

"I know," I said. Marissa knocked on the door. It had been the longest time I'd had in here, but it was still too soon. "I gotta go. Don't try to contact this place, and don't answer unless you know it's me. I love you."

"Love you," Daryl and Mia said in unison. I moved the dial back to the frequency it had been on when I'd sat down, cutting them off from me again.

A heaviness settled over me. All the giddy lightness I'd felt earlier crashing down at once. I now had to survive another twenty-four hours before I could talk to them again. At least that gave me time to decide what kind of information I would pass on next time. I could ask for a minute alone with Daryl and tell him about the baby with nobody else listening, but…

There was another reason, a far more selfish one, that was holding me back. The first time I'd held his hand, we'd been two scared kids, and his back was bleeding from his Daddy's belt. The first time I'd kissed him, we'd been on the verge of war with the Saviors. The first time I'd told him I loved him, I'd been drenched in the blood of a man whose throat I'd slit. Was it too much to ask that when I told him we were having a baby, it wasn't over a radio from a bunker I was trapped in?

I want to see his face.

I wanna see that smile.

Daryl

The sun had been up for about an hour before Rick knocked on the door. I called for him to come in while I finished pinning things to the wall of Maggie's office. Thank God it wasn't Greggory's office anymore; he'd have thrown a fit about how we should be preserving the house. As if things would go back to normal any day now and kids would start coming back for field trips.

"It's a lot of mines to search," Rick said, holding a cup of coffee for me. "Thought we should get an early start on narrowing them down."

"Way ahead of ya," I said, stepping back from the maps I'd spent hours pouring over. "Appreciate another pair of eyes on this before everyone else gets here, though."

I felt the heat radiating through the cup as I took the cup from Rick. He walked further into the room, eyes widening as he stared around at the walls. I took a sip in the silence and then set it down on the desk. Didn't really need the caffeine. Adrenaline had been buzzing through me since I'd woken up.

"Daryl, this is…" he faltered and I suddenly saw it through his eyes. The walls of Maggie's formerly neat and tidy study were covered in papers and maps. My writing on scraps of paper was everywhere - repeating everything Naomi had told us, adding my thoughts, theories, and plans. My writing ain't all neat and pretty like Naomi's so it looked… deranged.

"Yeah, I know it's a lot," I said, feeling my ears heat up.

"No, it's… thorough," Rick said. Almost sounded like a compliment. Then worry creased his brow. "Did you sleep?"

"A little," I said. I hadn't wanted to, but I knew I'd need to be rested for what was coming next. It was easier to sleep now, knowing that each night brought me closer to her. One day soon, I might even wake up right next to her again.

"Walk me through it," Rick said, trying to focus on my writing.

"There are clusters of mines all over the goddamn place, but everything in here ," I swept my hand across a large area of the map I'd circled, "is within a three-hour drive of the lake. Only some of those mines are marked like they're abandoned. And only some of them are close enough to a town or somethin' that would have be likely to have tourists or-"

I was interrupted by another knock on the door. Mia opened it without waiting for an answer, a plate of food in one hand.

"Maggie said you hadn't had breakfast yet, so I thought…" she stopped. Stared around at the crap all over the walls. "Woah… Dad, this is… woah."

Rick's head turned to look at me so fast I thought I heard his neck click. Tried not to let it phase me, tried not to worry about whether or not people would think I was worthy of being called 'Dad' when they heard it. Mia thought I was. And that was all that mattered.

Unless Naomi doesn't.

Something clenched in my gut. I couldn't fight the feeling Naomi was hiding something from us. From me. Mia, too, probably. Knowing her, it would be something she didn't want us worrying about, or something she was trying to handle on her own. But there was a small part of me that worried it was more… personal than that.

She ain't forgiven me for what I did .

That small whispered ' I love you' hadn't sounded like a lie. Hadn't felt like one. But maybe only because I wanted it to be true. Needed it to be true. But maybe that was the lie. Maybe she was afraid I wouldn't come for her if I didn't think she had forgiven me for getting Mia shot.

It didn't matter.

I'll bring her home anyway.

Mia passed me the plate and walked over to read the map on the walls. I watched her study it for a moment, shoving some Hilltop scrambled eggs into my mouth to try and push down the worry about what she might think of my frantic scribbles. My notes had felt so methodical and logical when I'd written them, but having other people's eyes on them made them look like the ramblings of a lunatic.

"You think it's one of these," Mia tapped three points on the map.

It wasn't a question, but I answered anyway, "Yeah."

"You can read all that?" Rick raised an eyebrow.

"Of course I can," she said like it was obvious. Because to her, it was. "Same shorthand Naomi uses, right?"

"Right." I nodded.

Mia looked back at us, a tentative glimmer of excitement in her eyes. Felt the same as the small spark of hope that had been growing in me all morning. "It's close to here."

"Damn close," I said. Neither of us could stop ourselves from smiling.

Rick was more skeptical, which I couldn't blame him for. It probably looked like I was basing all of this on a crazy hope that she wasn't that far from home. "Why these ones?"

"For her to survive falling in that lake, they'd have needed to get her medical attention pretty damn fast," I said, my finger hovering over that damn lake on the map. I would have to work out how to drain it when she got back. Or attach some kind of flotation device to her. I moved my finger to another spot not far from it. "The three assholes we ran into when I was tryna propose to her were here . They know this area. Naomi told us that some of Dwight's scavenging missions take them near Sanctuary."

"Dwight also said the scavenging journeys are around three hours by car," Rick countered. "The mines you've picked out are too close for that. I'd say they're less than an hour away, depending on the route."

"I know," I said. "But it's weird, ain't it? Everywhere they go is always exactly three hours away? Nah. I don't buy it. Plus, Dwight is blindfolded for most of it . For all he knows, they're driving in circles or going weird routes to throw him off, so he can't rat out their location if he escapes. They're close. The dickhead in charge just doesn't want anyone he's stolen from us to know that."

That had been an early morning thought. One that had pulled me out of bed and started all of this scrawling and planning. It had felt so concrete in the small hours, but now I worried it could have been sleep deprivation. I waited for Rick to disagree, to come up with something I'd missed, but he didn't. "So you wanna start with these three?"

"Yes," I said. "And I could be wrong, but… something doesn't feel right. Naomi said they were paranoid about being found. I think they've been trying to make Dwight think they're further away than they are. I think we start here. Over the bridge."

"The bridge is out," Rick said. "Michonne had to blow it. There was a herd heading out way big enough to be a danger to us all."

It was a blow, but not a fatal one. A little delay wasn't going to stop me. I could wade across that damn river myself if I had to. Wasn't that deep.

"I'm sorry, man," I sighed. I knew how important that bridge had been to Rick. It had been his sole focus for weeks. We'd only just rebuilt the damn thing.

"We'll rebuild," he said, and I wondered how much Michonne had needed to talk him down until he'd accepted it like this. "It's what we do."

"What else have I missed?" I asked. My focus had been so consumed by mines and maps that I hadn't checked in with anyone.

"Anne and Gabriel are missing," he said, immediately making me uneasy. "But I got people out looking for them."

"Good." I said. I didn't have space in my brain for any more missing people. Maybe the Colonel had taken them too. He seemed to have a thing for our people.

"We'll need to take an alternative route without the bridge," Rick said, stepping closer to the map. "And we gotta be on the lookout for that herd. It's a big one. I think two of the herds we've been tracking have merged. Again. I'm not sure how it'll affect their movements, but we don't wanna get caught in it."

I nodded. I so badly wanted to dismiss it, but I knew he was right. Herds were getting bigger and bigger these days. Keeping track of them and diverting them away from our communities was a real headache. We didn't always get a lot of warning when one was approaching, despite the precautions we took. Their movements couldn't exactly be predicted. They didn't move like packs of animals. Didn't migrate. They weren't smart enough for that. But they were a damn sight more dangerous.

Half an hour later, Rick gathered everyone stationed at Hilltop in the big house. More people had arrived since the news had spread. Carol perched up on a table, feet swinging in the air. Bryce had joined us, with news that Aaron was healing well. Maybe too well because it had taken Bryce a while to persuade him not to come with us. Now, Bryce was standing, arms folded, looking at the maps and notes on the walls. Made me warm to think that he probably understood Naomi's systems too, so if he could read my shitty writing, he'd understand what it all meant.

Maggie stood by the door, a swaddled baby Hershel in her arms. She'd oversee things here while the rest of us were out there. Glenn was coming with him, and I'd be forever grateful to him for tearing himself away from his family to help mine out. Jesus, Lucas, Tara and Denise were huddled around a table, looking solemn but determined. Perla had made a beeline for Mia when they'd come in and hadn't left her side since. I was so glad she'd have a friend by her side for all of this. Especially when I wasn't planning on taking her with us.

When they were all gathered, I explained it all again. I filled everyone in on what Naomi had managed to tell us and walked them through my thinking about where that meant she was. I showed them the route we'd need to take now that the bridge was out and echoed Rick's warnings about looking out for the herds.

"Mia," I said. At the sound of her name, she straightened up.

"I got a really important job for you. Are you up for it?"

"Yes," she said. Dead serious. Like my little lieutenant.

"Like I said to Naomi last night, we can't take the radio with us while we're out there," I felt another horrible twist in my gut as I said it. Saw the same thing reflected in Mia's eyes. Being cut off from Naomi again was hard to stomach. It would be hardest for Naomi, stuck down there without any family. At least Mia and I had each other. "I want you to stay here and talk to her when she calls. Give her messages from us, and pass on what she says to me. Can you do that?"

I waited to see if she'd fight me on it, knowing she'd imagined being there for the moment we got Naomi back. Truth was, I didn't want to bring her with us. For everything Naomi had said about doing this without the need for a fight, I knew it might not be that easy. Something could go wrong. Couldn't have Mia caught up in it if it turned violent. If we ran into that herd, I wanted her to stay safe. I'd tried to think of the best way to do it, and this was it. But I didn't know if she'd buy into the reasons I gave her or if she'd see through it and notice my fear.

"Yes," she said, and then I saw a mild panic in her eyes. "I'll write everything down so I don't forget it."

"Okay, good," I said, realizing I might have overdone it, making her feel like she was being abandoned at Hilltop alone while the rest of us were relying on her intel. "Your Aunt Carol's gonna be there to help you and make sure neither of you miss anything."

Carol looked up in mild surprise. Guess I should have checked with her first. I glanced at her quickly to make sure she was okay with it. She nodded.

"I can help, too," Perla said, and Mia relaxed even more. I nodded my thanks.

"Alright, get anything you might need," I told the group. "Unless there are any major objections, I'd like to head out as soon as possible."

"You don't wanna wait until tomorrow?" Rick asked. "Let Naomi know the plan tonight?"

I hesitated. It was a decision I'd been torn between all day. Leaving now meant I wouldn't get to say goodbye to her or hear her voice one last time before we went. The temptation to talk to her again was strong. The pull to see her was far stronger.

Plus, I didn't want to say goodbye to her. Not ever again.

"The sooner we head out, the sooner we can see her, right?" I said. "I don't wanna lose a whole day of searching."

"If you're sure," Rick said, nodding like he'd accept my decision either way.

"I'm sure," I said. "We got Lieutenant Mia to fill her in on the plan while we're already on our way."

Mia beamed at me.

While everyone scurried around packing their bags, I sat by the front door. I'd never really unpacked, so packing hadn't taken long. I had a bag for me and a bag for Naomi. Before my thoughts could start spiraling out over what kind of state I might find her in, Carol sat beside me.

She let the silence sit for a moment and then said, " Aunt Carol, huh?"

Damnit.

I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. "Shut up."

"What? Am I Godmother too?" she asked. I didn't like the glint in her eye or the amused chuckle.

I tried to laugh along, but a thought struck me. "I mean…if somethin' did happen to us. Or… if I can't get her back. Something goes wrong out there, and neither of us make it back…"

"She'd have a village," Carol said. "Myself included. Although I might have to fight Bryce for custody."

I laughed. "I'm sure he'd let you have weekends."

Silence settled again. People started gathering by the door, bags and weapons ready. My nerves ate away at me. I had to keep telling myself this would take a while, that I wasn't going to see her today, but my mind kept skipping forward to when I'd see her pretty face—that smile.

"You sure you don't want me out there with you?" Carol asked.

"Nah." I knew the toll this kind of thing could take on Carol. She was capable of so much. But the person she needed to be to do it almost almost broke her. "If we need backup, we'll call ya."

"I'll be there," she patted me on the back as she stood up again. "Go get her."

Carol moved off, and Mia came running out of the office, almost knocking Tara on her ass as she flew past, "Dad!"

Her eyes were wide, panicked, as she scanned the room for me. I stood up. "Woah, where's the fire?"

"Thought you might have left already."

"Without saying goodbye? 'Course not," I said. I could still see the worry written all over her. "I'm sorry we gotta split up for a while, but pretty soon… we'll have your Mom back."

Mia winced at the word 'Mom' and I knew at once I'd made a mistake. She looked up at me, eyes brimming with nerves. "What if she… what if she doesn't want me to… what if she thinks it's weird that I've been calling her that while she was…?"

She won't.

I got why she was worried. Same reason I was. The time for speaking for Naomi was over. Everything we'd assumed she would or wouldn't have wanted had been to make ourselves feel better. And now she could burst that bubble with the truth.

Unlike me, Mia had no reason to worry about that.

"Naomi loves you more than anything," I said. "Whatever you wanna call her won't matter."

Mia chewed on her bottom lip. "You think so?"

"I know so," I said. Mia's anxiety didn't waver. I didn't know how to tell her about the ways Naomi had worried about the role she played in Mia's life, not without betraying her trust. So, I pulled her in for a hug and said, "I promise you."

Mia hugged me back. She was quiet for a moment, and then she said, "Hurry home."

"As soon as I find her," I promised. "I love you."

"Love you too."

Mia let go and stepped back. Her eyes were bright, and she tried not to cry. Despite it all, she managed a smile full of hope.

You're the best kid in the goddamn universe.

Mia stood at the gates, waving as we drove off. She shrank to a speck in the bar-end mirrors of my bike, and I felt like I was leaving a limb behind. It was the right call, for sure, but we'd been each other's rock for so long that it felt wrong to leave her.

We'd reached the first mine on my list before sundown. The entrance was a small hike up a hill. We set up a camp at the base and drew up a rota for those who'd take a night watch in case a herd or something else came near.

As darkness fell, I sat by the fire, radio in hand, waiting for Mia to call. Denise sat down next to me. She didn't say anything, which I appreciated. I looked over at her, "What do you know about pneumonia?"

It threw her for a moment. She frowned, "Do you have a cough?"

"Not me. Naomi. She got it after she fell in that damn lake. That's bad, right? Pneumonia. People die of it, don't they?"

"It can be deadly," Denise said carefully. "But not usually for someone Naomi's age. Did she sound okay? Was she coughing at all? Did her breathing sound labored?"

"No," I said, thinking back on both of those calls. She'd sounded fine. Happy. Excited. Emotional.

But also…like she was hiding something. I didn't know how to say that, though. I had nothing concrete to go on except a lifetime of knowing her. A childhood of knowing how bad the other had it, even if we didn't say it out loud. I could read her silences, her pauses as easily as her handwriting, but it wasn't something I could explain to anyone else.

"Sounds like she's right as rain," Denise said. "But I'll check her over when we get out all the same."

"Thank you," I relaxed a little. "And, um, one of them's pregnant. Amber - you know her?"

"One of Negan's former wives?"

"Yeah," I said. "From what Naomi said, it sounds like everything's fine with the baby, but…probably good to keep an eye on her when we get them out. Right?"

"Not really my area of expertise," she looked nervous. "We should get her straight back to Dr Carson."

Mia called the radio after midnight and filled us in on everything Naomi had managed to tell her. Dwight had confirmed that the car journey to get her to safety after her dip in the lake had been significantly shorter than usual. He hadn't realized it at the time and couldn't give us a good estimate of how much shorter it had been, but he'd been distracted by saving her. I couldn't feel even a bit of frustration that he hadn't been looking at a clock.

Naomi had also sent a warning that there were cameras everywhere, watching them most of the time. That made me want to kick something until it broke - the thought of some creep watching her every move. But it was good for us to know, in case we were spotted on approach and lost any kind of element of surprise. I gave Mia a bunch of questions to ask her next time.

Routine settled in pretty fast. We spent the day mapping the mine up the hill. Moving slowly, making sure we always knew the way out again. At night, we waited for Mia's call so we could pass messages to Naomi. If we had a question for her, it took at least a day to get an answer and vice versa. The first night that she didn't call made us all uneasy. She'd warned us it happened sometimes, that Marissa couldn't always get her to the Communications room, but it was still unnerving. I spent all day worried sick she'd been caught until Mia called that night and told us she'd heard from her.

It took just over a week to fully map that first mine. It turned up nothing.

We set up camp by the second one, only to find on Day Two that every tunnel ended in the same dead-end. Rubble piled up after some kind of cave-in. I tried every possible route three times to make sure I hadn't missed anything. I wouldn't put it past this Colonel guy to block them in with a bunch of rocks, making it look like a cave-in.

Reluctantly, we moved on. Although I kept this place in the back of my mind if all of the other mines in a three-hour radius didn't work out.

The next place immediately sent a prickle of anticipation down my spine. There were signs for it. Driving down the road toward the nearest town, the words 'Cavern Mine Experience' signposted as being a few miles out of town. Damn near fell off my bike when I saw it.

We turned off into what had probably once been a carpark. Overgrown now, but you could see the roof of some kind of building nearby. Nobody dared say anything in case we jinxed it, but Glenn gave me an eager slap on the back. Tara's jaw clenched to stop herself from smiling.

I left my bike where it was and took a few tentative steps towards the other end of the car part, where a metal gate was padlocked between two high, mossy walls.

"Well, they did tours," Rick said, nodding to a poster stuck on one of the walls. It was a little weathered now, colors faded in the sun, but it was definitely advertising a tour of the mines. After the last two disappointments, I tried not to get my hopes up. Rick glanced up at the sky, "There aren't enough daylight hours left to do a proper search. I suggest we find a place to set up camp and start looking for the entrance tomorrow."

I nodded my agreement and gestured to the building. "Let's check that place out."

The gate was an easy climb. I threw my bags over first and then dropped down in front of what had once been a welcome center and probably a gift shop. I waited for the others, listening for any sounds that didn't come from us.

One by one, they climbed over the gate and we swept the place in our usual way. Covering each others' backs and on the lookout for signs of walkers or hostile survivors. There weren't any signs of people living here.

A window was smashed. Debris was strewn all over the place, but it didn't look raided. Things were broken and out of place, but nothing had been taken. It wasn't the kind of destruction that had come from being looted or scavenged.

A herd had been through here recently. A big one.

They'd knocked over stands of souvenirs and sent them scattering across the floor. Keychains with little pickaxes and hardhats. Shelves of something that had probably once been novelty mugs were shattered. I kicked away a few ceramic shards.

And then I froze.

There was a trapdoor beneath my feet.

Wood splintered around a hole in the center of it. Like someone had tried to smash their way out from underneath. I crouched down, the splintered wood beneath my fingertips. Every hair on my arm stood on end.

Is this it?

Is she right under my goddamn feet?

"Over here," I called, not taking my eyes off the trapdoor. I ran my fingers down the wood until I got to a large brass handle. "I think I got something."

I heard them crowding around but didn't look up at any of them. Their footsteps creaked on the wood. A set of them moved away again. I pulled on the padlock, testing it. It wouldn't open easily. I could break it open, but that risked alerting anyone underneath. I bent closer and put my eye to the hole. Pitch-black nothing stared back at me.

Glenn's boots walked back and he passed me a screwdriver. I unscrewed it at the hinges. Then I unscrewed the place the lock was fixed to the floor. Fuck the padlock. Glenn and Rick helped me lift the whole door off. I sat on the edge of the square hole, legs swinging into darkness. It was only when Tara shone a torch light down that we could see the bottom. It didn't look like there was anything in there. Or anyone.

I gripped another torch between my teeth and dropped down into the dark. A dirt room. A wooden door right where she said it would be.

Is this it?

Is there where she woke up?

The thought of her, so alone and so sick in a place like this made me feel sick too. As Rick dropped down behind me, I tried the door.

It opened.

I swung my torch around to illuminate my own arm. I'd written down what she'd thought the directions were between the room she'd woken up in and the door to the bunker. Beyond this door, she'd seen a dirt tunnel.

Check...

I walked out into it. Naomi's had been lined with doors. I walked a few paces further in.

Check….

My spine tingled. More torchlight filled the tunnel as some of the others jumped down and joined Rick and I.

"Is this it?" Bryce asked in a whisper. I didn't dare say 'yes'. I couldn't face being wrong.

I kept walking, reaching the point where the tunnel widened and the walls turned from dirt to rock.

After that, there were a series of turns. Naomi had been less sure of that, so we took it slow. Left someone at each turn so that we could find our way back, until it was just Bryce and I left.

We turned one last corner, and the light from my torch bounced back at us so strongly it made us wince.

A metal door gleamed at the end of the tunnel.

I got you.

I know where you are.