Chapter 74-Traveling

Carl's P.O.V

It had been about 3 hours since the group had left Hilltop, the sun already starting to set on the horizon, Carl walked beside Jesus in the front. "We should stop soon and eat," Carl tells Jesus, who nods.

"Yeah, I agree, we're about to reach the first town. There's a building we cleared that we can stay in to rest for a little bit," Jesus tells him. Carl nods as he looks around.

"We're about to enter a town. Weapons out, be alert," Carl orders as he pulls his hatchet out of the holster. Everybody nods as they pull their weapons out. They step out of the woods a few minutes later and saw the remains of buildings up ahead, clearly on the town outskirts. Carl stabs a walker in the head as it comes up to the group, Jesus leading them into the nearest building

Alicia's P.O.V

Alicia looked at the door as there was a knock. "Come in," Alicia says. Maggie opens the door and walks in with Hershel. "Hey, what are you doing here?" Alicia asks as Hershel runs into Ofelia and Merle's room to play with the kids.

"Well, decided to pop in, and Morgan didn't seem to have a problem with it when I talked to him, so I figured I'd come and see you," Maggie says as she walks over to her and sits down.

Unsaid between them was that Negan was gone, having left as well.

"You mean you're lonely because your girlfriend left," Alicia says with a smirk.

"Yeah, I needed some entertainment, and you're my backup," Maggie says with a smile.

"Ouch," Holding a hand over her heart dramatically, Alicia grinned and stood "Well, since you're here, you can help me."

"With?" Maggie asks.

"One of the cows is sick, and I know your Dad was a vet, so you can help me look at it. I've been doing a little bit of reading to see if I could figure it out, and I could use an assistant," Alicia says.

"Fine, I'll help you take care of the cow. Not exactly a way to start a girl's day," Maggie says as she follows her.

"Oh hush!" Alicia shoved her playfully as they headed to the barn.

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl walks beside Rachel. "So, how did Alicia convince you to do this?" Rachel asks him as they step out of the woods.

"It didn't take any convincing, she just asked me, and I agreed," Daryl tells her flatly. "We can go back if you don't want to do this."

"No no, I want to," Rachel says as they get to the shore. Daryl looks at Rachel as she sets two spears down. "You ever been spearfishing?" Rachel asks Daryl.

"I did it once with my brother, Merle. Some dudes showed up, and Merle got in a fight with them. All four of us ended up in a cell together for the night. Good times." Daryl says with a smirk.

Staring at him, Rachel said slowly "Well hopefully that doesn't happen this time."

Daryl snorted and said "Well what about you then?"

"Yeah, we did it a lot at Oceanside, and I happen to be pretty good at it." Rachel says, her face falling slightly at her old home's mention, but she shook her head as she grabbed a spear and holds it out to Daryl, who takes it. "The person who gets the least has to skin them all." Rachel says to Daryl.

"Skin and gut 'em." Daryl says to Rachel, who paled slightly, but nodded as they step into the water.

Carol's P.O.V

Sitting down eating, she looked up as Carl and Jesus came up as the group rested. "When we go back out there, Kenny, Clementine, Nick, Cole, and Strand will take the rear. Sherry, Daniel, Charlie, Laura, and Tobias take the left. DJ, Norris, Luciana, Alden, and Al take the right, and Jesus, Carol, Negan, Arthur, and I will take the front," Carl tells everybody who nods and went to their sections of the building to rest for a bit. Then Carl looks at Carol, who is smiling at him. "What?" Carl asks her, his one eye furrowed.

"I was just thinking about the little boy who used to run around the quarry with Sophia and catch frogs with Shane. You've grown so much since then, I swear I'm looking at a Mini Rick right now." Carol says.

No doubt seeing the sadness in her eyes mentioning her lost daughter, Carl came up and put a hand on her shoulder "I miss her, Sophia. I wish she could have seen all this, Alexandria, Hilltop, the Kingdom. I know she would have loved Ezekiel and Henry."

"Me too, she always loved those fantasy stories" Carol says softly in remembrance. "Lori would be just as proud of you as I am." Carol tells him. She kisses Carl's head, stands up, and walks over to Sherry. Carl blushes and lowers his head, then panicked and looked around relieved that everyone else was distracted.

But then he heard a throat clearing and paled, turning to see Arthur and Negan behind him...Arthur was just staring at him with a smirk while Negan had a hyena's grin on his face, clearly saying he was not letting this go anytime soon.

"Mama's boy," Negan says with a grin.

"I will kill you," Carl warns to Negan, who just lets out a laugh.

Enid's P.O.V

Enid walks to the door as there is a knock. Opening it, she saw that it was Aaron, who is standing behind an embarrassed Arya. "You lost something," Aaron says as Arya walks back into the house quietly.

"Thank you, Aaron," Enid says. "Where was she?"

"She was trying to climb over the wall, she had her bag, and it had food and water." Aaron says. "I'll keep this quiet, Enid. Maybe she was just leaving to find Carl. I don't know but make sure it doesn't happen again," Aaron says. Enid nods as Aaron walks away. Enid shuts the door and looks at Arya, staring at her with her arms crossed.

"What the hell were you doing?" Enid growls. "I thought we were past this, Arya. You trying to run away."

"What? No no No! Mom I wasn't running away." Arya says. "I was going to go find, Dad."

Enid sighs. "Come on," Enid says.

"Where are we going?" Arya paused, clearly expecting a lecture or yelling...not...that.

"I want to show you something, come on," Enid says as she grabs her gun and leaves the house. After a moment of pure confusion, Arya decided to take her chances and followed her mother.

Nick's P.O.V

The group was back on the road, with Nick walking in the back beside Strand. "Look at us man, from that shitty Military base and in a cell together in Los Angeles to walking on the side of the road looking for a community that may or may not try and kill us." Nick says with a smile.

"It has been a long time since Los Angeles. Made it across the damn country to boot. You know, I probably would have been better off never meeting any of you. I probably wouldn't have almost been killed on my yacht." Strand says dryly, making Nick laugh.

"Ok, that was Alicia. I had nothing to do with those assholes. We would have probably died in Los Angeles if you didn't let us on that boat." Nick tells him.

"Probably yes. But...yes, I'm glad I did let you on the boat. It has led to some interesting adventures and people." Strand says as he glances at Cole.

"Yeah, now we have five communities, Alicia and Mom are married, and Alicia has kids. You and I are dating, and all of that was because you let us on that boat," Nick says.

"You're welcome," Strand says with a smile, making Nick grin.

Strand's smile fell then looked at Sherry, who was talking with DJ and Morris...then back "So is Dwight ok with it?"

Nick shrugged "He was cool. He did say that she's been hurt enough and made me promise not to hurt her."

"Careful boy." Strand said with a small amount of concern "Dwight is definitely not one to cross."

"Oh relax, I'll be fine."

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl throws the last fish and glares at Rachel, who is smirking. "I told you I was good," Rachel says.

"You only beat me by one," Daryl says. "I'll win next time."

"There will be a next time?" Rachel asks.

"Yeah, this was fun." Daryl says a bit grudgingly. "You're not nearly as irritating as I thought."

"You're still as grumpy as I thought," Rachel says to Daryl, who shakes his head as he grabs the bucket and walks back towards the campgrounds. "Thank you for bringing me out here."

"Yeah yeah..." He looked at the bucket again "Dammit if he was here Merle would never let me hear the end of that."

Alicia's P.O.V

Alicia and Maggie walk out of the barn after looking at the cow, Maggie rubbing her hands with a towel. "I would say you have a pregnant cow," Maggie says. "You should ask Beth to come by. She helped my Dad out a lot with the animals then I did. She'd know what to do." Maggie says as Daryl and Rachel walk back through the gate.

"I see you have a bucket of fish." Alicia says, rubbing her nose at the smell

"Yeah, and I lost a bet. It's been a productive day." Daryl says as he sets the bucket down, Rachel beaming with pride. "You find out what was wrong with the cow?"

"Pregnant is our best guess," Alicia tells Daryl, nodding.

"You wanna stay for dinner?" Daryl asks Maggie, who nods, beaming.

Enid's P.O.V

Enid leads Arya through the woods until they arrive at a small clearing. "You wanted to show me trees?" Arya asks her.

"No." Enid says as she leads her over to a tree. "When Carl first got to Alexandria, I thought he was weird. One day I came out here, and he followed me. We hid from a group of walkers in the tree. That was our first moment together, and I felt something for him for the first time. After he got shot, this is where I came, and I couldn't stop thinking of that day." Enid tells her. "I come out here every once in a while to think and remember that day. I know you miss him. I know you hate that he left. I feel the same, but you can't try and sneak out, Arya. You being here is the only thing keeping me together." Enid says.

Needless to say Arya's face fell more and more at the story, and looked at her feet.

"I'll stay, I promise. I won't try and sneak out again," Enid then nods as she hugs her, Arya hugging her back, after a moment, Arya stated "By the way, you telling me not to sneak out is weird. You just admitted you did it." Arya says.

"One, I was older than you were. Two, I didn't think Alexandria would last, and three, shut up," Enid tells Arya, laughing as they walk back towards Alexandria with it filling the air.

Jesus's P.O.V

The group was setting up camp for the night. Jesus walked over to Kenny, Carol, and Carl. He sets a map down in front of them and points at the community. "This is where it is. We'll walk tomorrow and then sleep. We should get there around midday the day after tomorrow." Jesus says.

"We should have two people hang back in case it goes bad, and we don't come out." Carl says. "They can get back to the communities and tell everybody what happened."

"Who should stay?" Kenny asks.

"Charlie and Alden can stay." Carl says. They nod as Carl motions the two of them over. Charlie and Alden walk up to them.

"What's up?" Charlie asks.

"We were talking, and we want you two to hang back just in case this goes wrong. If it does, someone will need to get back to the communities and tell them what happened." Carl tells them.

"Yeah that sounds fair." Alden agrees as he looks at Charlie, who nods grudgingly.

She paused then "Wait me?"

Carl said firmly "Yes you're smart and capable enough to do it."

She looked at him then, looked over to where Negan and Daniel were playing chess...both conveniently not looking at her, silently wondering if either or both of them put Carl up to this to keep her out of the potential danger...after a sigh she turned and walked off.

"Let's get some sleep," Carl says. They all nod as they start to spread out around the camp. They had set up strings and cans to tell them if any walkers showed up while Jesus walked over to his sleeping back and laid down as he went to sleep, knowing a big day was tomorrow

Thanks for reading. I think we'll get to the community next chapter or maybe at the end of the next chapter. I don't know; I'm just planning this one chapter at a time. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.