Chapter 21 - Beside The Dying Fire

I sit on the couch beside Andrea, my knee bouncing up and down in a mixture of fear and worry. The four men have been gone for hours and we've heard nothing but a single gunshot. I can feel Lori's worry coming from beside me as well as everyone else's in the room.

"I'm going after them." Andrea states, getting to her feet.

"Don't, they could be anywhere. And if Randall comes back, we're gonna need you." Lori states from her spot on the dining chair.

I hear the screen door open and we turn to see Daryl and Glenn walk in. I let out a silent breath of relief as his eyes meet mine. He looks relieved for a split second before he turns and looks around the room, "Rick and Shane ain't back?" He asks.

"No." Lori states.

"We heard a shot." Daryl says and Lori speaks, "Maybe they found Randall."

"We found him." He says and Patricia steps forward, "Is he back in the shed?"

He shakes his head, "He was a walker."

We all look at him confused, "Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel asks.

Glenn nods, "Yeah, weird thing is... He wasn't bit."

"His neck was broke." Daryl clarifies.

"So he fought back." Patricia muses.

"The thing is, Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other. And Shane ain't no tracker, so he didn't come up behind him. No, they were together." Daryl explains and I grow more confused.

"Could you please get back out there and find Rick and Shane and find out what on earth is going on?" Lori asks, walking towards him.

He nods and pats her elbow, "You got it."

"Thank you." She breathes, patting his shoulder.

He turns and looks at me for a moment before turning and walking back the way he came with Glenn and Andrea right behind him. I turn to Jimmy who looks at me confused and I give his shoulder a squeeze when the door opens once more. I turn and see Daryl back walk in, "You're gonna wanna see this."

We look at him confused as we all walk out into the front porch. I can smell it and hear it before I can see and fear runs through my veins. Coming on in a massive wave are hundreds of walkers, looking for their next meal. My eyes roam over them all as my mouth falls open in shock, "Oh my god." I whisper.

"Patricia, kill the lights." Hershel whispers, turning to the older woman.

"I'll get the guns." Andrea says, turning and walking after her.

"Maybe they'll just pass like the herd on the highway. Maybe we should just go inside?" Glenn suggests.

"No, unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't know about. A herd that size will rip the house down." Daryl says and the lights turn off inside.

Patricia walks back outside soon followed by Andrea and she lays the bag on the ground and opens it up. Maggie pulls out two shotguns and hands one to Glenn.

"Maggie." Glenn says and she looks at him, "You grow up country, you pick up a thing or two."

"They got the numbers, it's no use." Daryl says, looking back out at the horde.

"You can go if you want." Hershel says as he takes the gun off of Maggie and Andrea hands me a gun.

"You gonna take them all on?" Daryl asks.

"We have guns, we have cars." Hershel says, coking his gun.

"Kill as many as we can. Then we use the cars to lead the rest of them off the farm."

He turns and looks back at him and I cock my gun, giving him a nod. He returns it before walking towards his bike. Andrea, T-Dog, Jimmy, Maggie and Glenn all go off towards the cars while the rest of us stay behind, ready to defend the house.

"I'm going to look for Carl." Lori says, turning towards the house.

"I'll help you." Carol says, following after her.

I turn to Patricia and Beth, "We need to get into the house." I instruct.

They nod and we go inside and shut the door behind us. We stand by the windows and keep an eye out for anything that's going on. I stand beside Beth and I see the barn light up in flames and I wonder what's going on.

"The barn's on fire." She says, turning to Patricia who comes to look in between us.

"They're heading for it. Maybe Rick set it to draw them in." She suggests.

I hear a door slam from upstairs and I turn to see Lori running down the stairs, "I can't find him anywhere."

"So maybe he snuck outside?" Carol asks as she walks in from the hallway.

"What do I do?!" Lori yells.

"He was here. Maybe he went off looking for Rick or maybe he went off after Randall himself." Carol suggests.

"Maybe he set the fire." Patricia says, looking out at the barn.

"Maybe he went to the shed, the cellar, the attic?" I suggest and Lori nods, "Yeah. Carol, check the cellar and the attic, I'll check the shed."

Carol nods and Lori turns and runs out the door while Carol runs up the stairs. I turn to the girls, "Find anything we can use to help fend them off."

They nod and run off into the house and I walk over and pull on Daryl's hoodie, zipping it up around me. I go through my back pack and grab out the spare bolts as well as a gun I stashed in there. I quickly refill the bullets and grab my machete when I see Carol walk out the front door. I get to my feet as the women walk in, "I only found this knife Daddy gave me." Beth says, holding it up.

I nod, "Keep it on you." I instruct and she nods and Patricia holds up a kitchen knife and I nod, "That's good. Any blade will do."

The door opens up, "Bree, Patrica, Beth! We gotta go!" Carol yells at us.

I push the woman forward and follow after them, though my side aches. We walk out and Carol turns to Lori who is shooting at walkers, "Lori!"

She puts the gun away and picks up the gun bag before walking to the railing, "Hershel!" She calls out.

I see the older man standing his ground as he shoots at the walkers that stalk towards the house. She continues yelling but he ignores her and she turns to us, "Let's go!" She yells, swinging the gun bag over her shoulder.

Carol keeps her arms around the two girls and I walk on ahead, pushing myself through the pain. I run forward when I hear the sound of screaming from behind me and I turn to see Patricia being eaten, Carol and Lori pulling Beth away from her. I go to help when walkers cut me off and I pull out a gun, taking a shot with my bad hand. I hit it in the shoulder and I curse at the pain as I continue shooting, backing away from them.

More and more come and I begin to panic and I run out of bullets and I hiss, tucking my gun away as I pull out my knife and get ready to stab them. Suddenly they fall to the ground and I see Andrea there with her gun in hand.

I let out a breath of relief when I see a walker sneaking up behind her, "Look out!" I scream.

She turns and gunfire goes off as the walker pushes her to the ground. I scream out as tears stream down my eyes and walkers come after me. I run away from the scene as fast as I can, avoiding walkers as I go. Adrenaline pulses through my veins as I run for my life, knowing that if more then one comes at me I'll be dead.

I run along the paddock fence as walkers chase after me. I pull out the gun from my bag and I run, my side feeling like its on fire. I stop, the pain being too much and I turn towards them, pulling my gun out and shooting. They continue on and I stumble back onto the dirt road of the drive way. Suddenly I hear something that gives me hope.

"Get on!" Daryl yells, pulling up beside me on the bike.

I shoot one more and climb onto the back of the bike, wrapping my arms around his waist. He speeds off on the bike just as they are about the reach us and he rides down the road. I catch my breath as look back at the farm, the sight of hundreds of walkers and the burning barn the last thing I see before we ride away.

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My head lies in the middle Daryl's back, completely exhausted from everything. The sky has become lighter as we ride through a trail in the woods, walkers still around us. They try to grab for us but they're too slow as the bike goes past them. Everything is gone and I know we lost people, I can feel it. My side burns and I know I must have busted the stitches or something. My wrist aches from the gunfire, the pain intense.

We continue riding for a long time and soon Daryl calls out to me, "I'm gonna head back to the highway, if people got off the farm they'll be there."

I lift my head and nod, "Okay."

He continues riding until we pull onto the road that leads to the town. He makes his way back towards the highway when we see a car pull out in front of us and I recognise it as Shane's car, "That's Maggie and Glenn!" I yell.

"Yeah, I know!" He calls back as he speeds up to go beside them.

I look into their window and Maggie looks back at me with a relieved smile. After a while of driving we hear a car honking it's horn behind us and I turn to see the blue pick up truck, T-Dog, Lori, Carol and Beth inside. I smile and face the front again as Daryl pulls in front of the Tucson and we make a line. Soon enough we reach the turn off to the highway and we ride to where we left the supplies for Sophia. As we drive up I see three figures walk out from behind a car and I smile at the sight. We pull up, the cars coming beside us and Rick walks over, giving a first bump to Daryl.

"Oh thank God!" Lori cries as she embraces Carl and Rick, Maggie running to her father and sister.

I climb off of the bike and stand beside Daryl who looks down at me.

"Where'd you find everyone?" Rick asks, interrupting our moment.

"This guys tail lights zig-zagging all over the road, figured he had to Asian driving like that." Daryl chuckles, looking over at Glenn.

Glenn chuckles and rolls his eyes, "Good one."

"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl asks, looking around.

"We're the only ones who've made it so far." Rick sTates,

"Shane?" Lori asks, getting to her feet and looking at Rick.

Rick's eyes darken as he shakes his head and I look at him shocked, thinking that Shane would be the one of the last people to have gone.

"Andrea?" Glenn asks.

"She saved me, then I lost her." I explain, guilt overcoming me at the thought of my friend.

"We saw her go down." T-Dog states.

"Patricia?" Hershel asks, looking around.

"They got her too. Took her right from me, I was... Holding onto her daddy. She just... What about Jimmy, did you see Jimmy?" Beth asks, tears falling down her face.

Rick shakes his head and I look away sadly. I liked Jimmy, he was always sweet and kind, so willing to help when he could.

"You definitely saw Andrea?" Maggie asks.

"There were walkers everywhere." Lori states unsurely.

Daryl speaks up, "I'm going back." He says, stepping towards his bike.

"No." Rick says.

"We can't just leave her." Daryl argues.

"We don't know she's there." Lori states.

"She isn't there. She isn't. She's somewhere else or she's dead. There's no way to find her." Rick states.

"So we're not even going to look for her?" Glenn asks bewildered.

"We gotta keep moving. There've been walkers crawling all over here." Rick says, looking towards one that stumbles it's way towards us.

"I say head east." T-Dog says.

"Stay off the main roads. Bigger the road, the more walkers. More assholes like this one." Daryl says, grabbing his crossbow and shooting it in the head.

Carol grabs the bolt and hands it to him before turning making her way to the car. He pulls the drawstring back and puts it in before climbing on to the bike, me hopping on behind him. I scoot forward and wrap my arms around his waist and he starts up the bike. Everyone either crowds into the Tuscan or the other car, leaving the blue pick up behind. We pull away and make our way down the highway, looking for somewhere where we can regroup and recouperate.

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Daryl and I are at the front of the pack, leading the way. We've been driving for awhile now and I know we'll need to stop soon. A horn beeps from behind us and we slow to a stop and Daryl turns off the bike. We turn and see Rick rush forward towards us with the others close behind.

"You out?" Daryl asks, referring to gas.

"Running on fumes." Rick mutters.

"We can't stay here." Maggie says, looking around the desolate road that we've stopped on.

"We can't all fit in one car." Glenn comments.

"We'll make a run for some gas in the morning." Rick says.

"So we stay here for the night?" Carol asks.

"I'm freezing!" Carl shivers from beside Lori.

"We'll build a fire." Lori soothes him as Rick pulls off his jacket to hand to Carl.

"Well people who are out looking for firewood stay close alright? I only got so many arrows, how are you doing on ammo?" Daryl asks Rick.

"Not enough." Rick states.

"We can't just sit here with our asses hanging out." Maggie comments and Hershel scolds her, "Watch your mouth. Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick."

"Alright we set up a perimeter. In the morning we'll find gas and some supplies. We'll keep pushing on." Rick instructs.

"Glenn and I can go make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas." Maggie adds.

"No, we stay together! God forbid something happens and people get stranded without a car." Rick says.

"Rick, we're stranded now." Glenn points out, stepping forward.

"I know it looks bad. We've all been through hell and worse but at least we found each other." Rick says,"I wasn't sure, I really wasn't but we did. We're together, we keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere, there's gotta be a place." He continues.

"Rick, look around. There's walkers everywhere, they're migrating or something-" Glenn reasons.

"There's gotta be some place, not just where we hold up but we fortify. Hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a life for each other! I know it's out there we just have to find it." Rick says with a passion.

"Even if we do find a place, we think it's safe, we can never be sure for how long. Look what happened with the farm, we fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe." Maggie explains.

"We won't make that mistake again." Hershel promises.

"We'll make camp tonight, over there. Get on the road at the break of day." Rick says, pointing to some ruins by the creek.

"Does this sound alright to you?" Carol asks Daryl.

"What if walkers come through or another group like Randall's?" Beth asks.

"You know I found Randall. He had turned but he wasn't bit." Daryl explains to Rick.

"How is that possible?" I ask and Lori adds on, "What the hell happened?" She asks.

"Shane killed Randal. Took him just like he always wanted too." Daryl confirms his theory.

"And then the heard got him?" Lori ponders.

Rick speaks up after a long moment, "We're all infected." He states.

I freeze on the spot and look at him, wondering if I have heard his words right, "What?" Daryl asks.

"At the CDC, Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it." Rick explains, looking grimly at us all.

"And you never said anything?" Carol asks, becoming angry as she looks at Rick with questioning eyes.

"Would it have made a difference?" Rick asks, looking at her.

"You knew this whole time?" Glenn asks outraged.

"How could I have known for sure? You saw how crazy that-" Rick begins.

"That is not your call! Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn I told for the good of everyone!" Glenn argues.

"Well I thought it best if people didn't know." Rick says.

We all look at him for a long moment, a mixture of emotions coming from us all. He takes us all in before turning and walking away, Lori following after him. I shake my head and go to move when my side hurts and I hiss in pain.

"You still hurting?" Daryl asks and I nod my head, "Yeah, I think I did something back at the farm."

He looks up, "Hershel."

I turn and see the old man walk towards us as he looks between the two of us, "She did something to herself at the farm." Daryl explains.

"Where does it hurt?" He asks, switching into his doctor mode.

Daryl gives me a glance before turning and walking away to go get firewood with a couple of the others. I turn to Hershel and explain my injuries, him doing the best he can to fix me with what we have.

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I sit by the fire with the hoodie wrapped tightly around me, frozen down to my core. We're set up in some ruins beside a creek, pretty exposed to the elements and everything surrounding us. T-Dog and Rick are on watch while the rest of us sit around and try to get warm. Daryl walks in and kneels down beside me places some sticks onto the fire, trying to keep it burning. Carol sits on the other side of me and I keep my arms around her for warmth.

"We're not safe with him, keeping something like that from us?" She whispers, looking between the two of us.

"Why do you need him? He's just going to pull you down." She states, looking up at Daryl.

"Nah, Rick's done alright by us." He says, looking over at me.

"You're his henchmen and I'm a burden, you deserve better." She says.

My words from earlier come back and I look away from him and bite my lip, "What do you want?" He asks her.

"A man of honour." She states and I'm slightly taken aback by her words.

I knew she had a respect for him after everything that happened with Sophia. But now after hearing her words, I wonder if it's something more on her end.

"Rick is a man of honour." He says instantly, shutting her down.

"I think we should take our chances." Maggie states, looking at Glenn.

"Don't be foolish. There's no food, no fuel, no ammo." Hershel begins to argue when we hear a noise coming from the woods.

"What was that?" Beth asks as we all look towards the woods.

"Could be anything." Daryl says, getting to his feet and pulling off his crossbow, "Could be a raccoon, could be a possum. A walker."

"We need to leave. I mean what are we waiting for?" Carol asks, getting to her feet.

"Which way?" Glenn asks, looking around and Maggie points, "It came from over there."

"Back from where we came?" Beth asks and she nods her head, "Yeah."

"Last thing we need is for everyone to be running off in the dark. We don't have the vehicles, no ones travelling on foot." Rick says, coming into the circle.

"Don't panic." Hershel states.

"I'm not, but I'm not sitting here waiting for another herd to blow through." Maggie says before turning to Rick, "We need to move now."

"No one is going anywhere." He says, authority in his tone.

"Do something!" Carol commands.

"I am doing something!" He snaps, "I'm keeping this group together, alive! I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this! I killed my best friend for you people for Christ sake!"

I look at him for a long moment and I see that he is on the edge of losing it, that everything is too much for him. He killed Shane. He was out of control, he was in love with Lori. Everyone saw it. He would have done anything to have her, he would of killed us all. Despite everything, Rick does care for this group.

"You saw what he was like. How he pushed me, how he compromised us. How he threatened us. He staged the whole Randal thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no choice! He was my friend but he came after me. My hands are clean." He states and I hear Carl cry into his mother's shoulder.

He looks around at us all and his demeanour changes, "Maybe you are all better off without me. Go ahead, I say there's another place for us but maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you go find out yourself? Send me a postcard. Go on there's the door. You can do better, let's see how far you get."

Everyone remains quiet and he speaks again, "No takers? Fine. But we get one thing straight. You're staying, this isn't a democracy anymore."

He looks over us before he turns and walks away. I stare after him and realise he has been pushed to his limit, he's had enough. Everything he's had to deal with, every decision he has had to make... It would drive anyone mad. Though things are tough, I know that staying with Rick is the right decesion. I trust him, with mine and Daryl's lives. I look up at Daryl and see the same thoughts running through his mind. We're staying with Rick and we're staying together.