"Talk"

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter One: About Six Months Later

Rick's POV:

It was early in the morning and I had decided to go down to our little farm we had created and work in it. Once I washed my face in the tube outside I put my headphones in and walked over to the farm and got to work. After a while of digging I hit something and knelt to move the dirt of off it and found a gun buried. I picked it up and took a ear piece out and the noise of the world around me rushed back as I stared at the gun.

I looked up then over at the fence at the walkers growling at me and trying to get at me. I smirked at them and took the gun apart and threw it into the barrel and replaced the ear piece then went back to digging.

A few hours later I saw Carl walking down to me and I walked the other half to meet him.

"You didn't wake me up." he said and I smiled at him.

"That's 'cause your father and I knew you were up all night reading comics." I said and he blushed a little before looking at the pig pen.

"What's wrong with Violet?" he asked and I looked over at the pig laying down and sighed.

"Carl I told you not to name them anymore. They're not piglets they're food." I sighed and he got a sad look in his face and looked at the ground.

"Sorry." he said and I looked at him then sighed and looked at the pig again.

"I don't know what's wrong with her. Could be nothing or she could be sick. Feel better... Violet." I said and Carl looked up at me and smiled brightly. I smiled back and ruffled his hair.

"Come on, let's get some food." I said and wrapped an arm around his shoulder and led him back to the others.

Daryl's POV:

"Morning Daryl!" someone yelled and I turned and waved at him.

"Morning Doc. S." I said and kept walking towards Carol, who was making the food, and Justin, who was leaning on the counter.

"Morning Daryl!"

Morning Daryl!" People kept yelling and I turned and just looked at them all before turning to Carol and Justin trying to hide my blush.

"Smells good." I said trying to act normal and they both smirked at me.

"Just to let you know Dar, I liked you first." Justin said smirking and I playfully glared at him before picking up a bowl and eating.

"You know Rick brought a lot here too." I said and they both nodded.

"Not recently though. You've brought people here and food recently and you've got to learn to like the attention." Carol said and I did blush a little then and Justin smiled at me.

"Hope Rick doesn't get to jealous." he said and I hit him on his arm and he laughed.

"Well, I better go and do my chores so I can have the rest of the day to myself." Justin said and Carol and I waved at him as he ran to wherever it was he was going to.

"Come on, I need to show you something." Carol said and looked at a kid that I hadn't seen until now. "Patrick can you cover for me?" she asked and held the knife out to him. He nodded and took the knife from her and we went to leave but he stopped us.

"Uh, Mr. Dixon?" he said and I stopped and looked at him. "I just wanted to thank you for the deer yesterday. It was a real treat and I would be honor to shake your hand." he said and held his hand out.

I inwardly smirked and licked my fingers clean then used the same hand to shake his hand with. I saw Carol smiling in the corner of my eye and the kid's eyes brighten when I shook his hand. I let go and he got to work and I looked at Carol.

"You sure you and Bri aren't twins?" she asked and I glared at her playfully.

"Stop." was all I said and she laughed as she led the way.

She stopped when we had a good view of the fence and I felt my eyes widen at how many walkers there now where. "I don't think we'll be able to spare a lot of people for the run today because of this. More keep coming. There's dozen more at the other towers too. That fence is strong and we have people down there trying to kill enough of them, but it won't last for long." she said and looked back at me. "Sorry Pooky." she said and blinked her lashes fast. I pushed her playfully and we both laughed as we walked back to the others.

Brian's POV:

"Hey Brian!" People yelled as I walked by and I just waved at them and kept walking then stopped and looked back at them hoping they could help me.

"Have any of you seen Justin?" I asked and they all smiled at me and pointed in the direction of watch tower C and I nodded my thanks and walked to it.

I smiled when I saw Justin sitting on the ground surrounded by kids as they looked at him. I walked closer and I could here some of the kids counting.

"-Nine, ten, eleven, twelve! I see twelve on your arm Justin!" one of the little said loudly with excitement and Justin laughed at her. I looked over her and saw she had a hold of Justin's left arm, the arm with the scars on it.

"Thank you for counting them Kristy, but didn't you find fourteen yesterday?" he asked and laughed when she nodded quickly and began to bounce.

"I know! I think they're leaving your arm!" she said and I couldn't hold my laugh in then, it was to damn cute.

My laugh got all their attention on me and Justin smiled, stood up, and walked into my arms and kissed him on his lips and smiled into it as the kids made 'aww' noises in the background.

"What's up Bri?" he asked and I smirked at him and pushed myself a little more into him and he blushed rather bad and hit my chest which made me laugh.

"Daryl asked me to go on the run with him today and I said I'd go." I said and Justin nodded at me.

"So when do we leave?" he asked and smiled at him and shook my head.

"You're not coming, Rick needs you here to help keep watch." I said and he groaned but nodded and kissed me again before letting go and sitting back down with the kids. I felt someone pull on my arm and I looked down to see Kristy looking up at me with big eyes.

"Join us Brian." she said and all the kids voiced their agreements and I sighed and being out numbered and walked around to sit behind Justin and he leaned on me as the kids cheered.

"I can only stay for a few minutes though, Daryl needs my help soon." I said and they nodded and looked at Justin and one of the little boys pointed at his side.

"Don't you have a scar there?" one of the little boys asked. Justin smiled and nodded then lifted his shirt just enough for them to see the mark and the scar.

The little boy gently touched the scar then touched the mark only to pull his hand back quickly when Justin hissed in pain.

I jumped instantly and looked at it to see what was wrong only to see everything looked normal. I looked up at him with a confused look and just just shrugged then looked at the little boy who looked ready to cry.

"It's ok Austin. I just forgot about a bruise I got there this morning, no harm done." Justin said smiling brightly which made the little boy smile brightly as well.

"Alright you kids it's time to go read with Carol. I want some time with Justin too you know." I said and all the little kids giggled as I pulled Justin close to me. As the kids got up Kristy and Austin, the two kids that loved Justin the most, hugged Justin quickly before falling the others up to the prison.

"What the fuck was that Sunshine?" I asked and lifted his shirt to look at the mark.

"I have no idea Bri, honest. It wasn't like that this morning when I woke up." he said with a confused look on. I sighed and pulled him into a hug and stood us both up.

"Well we'll have Hershel look at it later. It's probably nothing and it could very well be a bruise that you didn't realize you got." I said and he looked at me.

"I would definitely remember getting hit on my mark Bri, believe me it hurts like a bitch." he said and I couldn't help but laugh and shake my head in amusement.

"Either way I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. I better go find Dar and see if he's ready to leave and if he needs any help." I said and he nodded and leaned up to kiss me. I kissed back and smiled at him then let go and walked towards where Daryl would be.

Before I left though I turned and looked at Justin. "By the way, I thought you had twenty-six scars on your arm?" I asked and he laughed and smiled at me.

"Like I would let them see the scars my sleeve covers." he said and I laughed and shook my head in amusement then went back to finding Daryl.

Rick's POV:

"Dad look!" Carl said excitedly and I turned to see Michonne riding Lucky, which is actually the horse Justin and I freed just outside of Atlanta, and I smiled and we ran to open the new gate we made for her. Once she was in and the gate was closed she hopped off of Lucky and got a couple of comics out of her bag.

"Someone hit the jackpot." she said smiling at Carl as his eyes lit up.

"Awesome! Thank you!" he said and she ruffled his hair.

"I get to read them when you're done." she said and he nodded at her. She got into her bag again and brought out a razor and handed it to me. "I also found this. Your face is losing the war." she said smiling and I laughed at her.

"I find his facial hair to be sexy." Daryl said while parking his motorcycle and the other cars stopped behind him. I smiled at him and walked over to give him a kiss and Carl gave him a hug.

"Look who came home finally." Daryl said looking at Michonne who smirked then shook her head.

"Didn't find them." was all she said and he nodded. "I think we should try Macon, could be worth it." she said and Daryl and I shook our heads.

"Walkers the whole trip and in Macon with all these people, is it worth it?" Daryl asked and she sighed but didn't say anything. "I was thinking we'd go to the Big Spot, you know the one I'm talking about?" he asked and I nodded. "Could be worth it to go and see what's there." he said and I nodded and again.

"Ya it would be. I go to go check on the snares, I don't want to lose whatever we catch to the walkers." I said and Michonne walked around to one of the cars.

"I'll go." she said and we nodded our thanks to her as she hopped into the bed of the truck.

"But, you just got here." Carl said and she turned and leaned on the truck and smiled at him.

"And I'll be back. Save me a comic to read ok." she said and he nodded and smiled at her. I smiled at them both, loving that Carl had become as close to Michonne as he was to Justin, and that's saying something.

I turned to Daryl and leaned down to kiss him again real quick and he hit my stomach lightly as I straightened. He started his motorcycle up again and I ran to open the gate for them then quickly shut it. "Stay safe." I said as I watched them all drive away.

"Can I help with the snares dad?" Carl asked and I shook my head.

"You do your chores, read comes, and hang with Patrick. Maybe go to story time." I said and he gave me a annoyed look.

"That's for kids dad." he said and I nodded.

"Ya." was all I sighed and he huffed. I pulled lucky up to us and kissed her head. "Brush her good." I said and he nodded and went about his chores.

"Rick." someone said behind me. I turned and smiled as Hershel walked up to me. "There's nothing wrong with staying close. I understand what you're doing and soon, with everything you've grown, we won't have to do runs. You need to look the part though, get you some overalls, a straw hat, piece of straw hanging from your mouth, and a bigger ass." he and I laughed at me.

"The counsel- Brian, Justin, Daryl, Maggie, Sasha, Andrea and the rest of the leaders- wanted me to talk to you. None of us like that you always go without something to protect you, we want you to take your gun. We want you safe." he said and I looked at the ground and sighed and looked up smiling at him.

"It's just outside the fences and I have my knife. If I run into trouble six bullets ain't going to do much." I said but he just looked at me.

"Take your gun, please." he said and I sighed but nodded and watched him smile brightly at me and we walked up together to get my gun.

Daryl's POV:

I hit on the glass loudly a couple of times and turned to the others. "Give it a second." I said and Glenn looked at me.

"We need to move soon, it's too dangerous out here." he said and Brian nodded and looked around. Thinking about it this is probably the first time I've seen Brian and Justin not together. Guess that means he knows Justin's not going anywhere, something that took me a while to acknowledge.

Just then walkers started to hit on the window and we all got up and killed them quickly and dragged them out. "Ok we get and get out and stay in formation. Any questions?" Sasha asked and Tyresse smirked at her.

"Ya, was there ever a time you weren't the boss of me?" he asked and she smiled at him.

"You had a few years before I was born." she said and they laughed together and we all walked in.

We looked in silence for a while just picking up things that looked good and things we needed before there was a big crash and I scream. We all ran that way and saw the new guy that joined us a week ago trapped underneath a shelf. "You ok?" I asked and he nodded.

"Ya my foot's just stuck." he said and we all went to get it off of him when a walker literally fell from the ceiling.

"We should get out of here, like now." Glenn said and right then more started to fall we split up and went about killing walkers completely forgetting the guy trapped.

All around us walkers were falling and we were killing all that we could. I looked up when I heard a noise and saw that a chopper was about to come down on us. I got onto some boxes when I was getting surrounded and shot at walkers while also watching the chopper above me. Glenn came around the corner then and shot the walkers and looked up when we heard the chopper move.

"Daryl get out of there now!" Glenn said and helped me down. A walker was going to the new guy and I stomped on his head and dragged him out with the help of Zach, Beth's boyfriend and the kid that likes to guess what I did before the shit started, and we ran.

Only for another walker to get Zach's ankle and bit into it. He fell and the walker started to climb him and rip his neck open. I wanted to save him but there was nothing else to do. I bowed my head at him for a second and we all turned and ran for the doors and got out of there just as the chopper fell. We stopped just outside and watched the building go into flames and we looked at each other. Glenn came up and patted my shoulder and I nodded at him and we all looked at all the stuff we were able to save while I planned on how to tell Beth.

When we got home Glenn ran straight for Em, who was supposed to go with us but Glenn begged him not to and now I'm glad he won, and they held each other tightly. Brian looked to be in a sort of daze and I patted his shoulder and when he looked at me I nodded towards Justin who had just walked up and he was instantly walking to him and they held each other as well.

I sighed and looked around and saw Beth wasn't there so I went to her cell to tell her the bad news. When I got there she was laying on her stomach writing in a dairy it looked like. She looked up at me and smiled only for it to disappear when she saw my face. "What's wrong?" she asked and I took a deep breath before I answered.

"Zach." was all I said and she got a understanding look on her face.

"Ok." was all she said and walked over and took a "3" from the "30" on a board that said 'Days without accident' on it. I stared at it as the zero mocked us and she turned to me. "What?" she asked and I shrugged. "I don't cry anymore Dar. After we lost Mel, Linds, Sophia, Patrica, Dale, and Oscar I just can't." she said and I smiled sadly at her at being reminded of how we lost Mel and Linds in a run to get more food right at the beginning of bringing people into our group. Brian now watches Gus like a hawk and only let's him out of his sight when he's with the family members. He likes to be with Carol a lot because she reads to him a lot more than to the other kids.

"You ok?" she asked bringing me out of my thoughts. That's also when I noticed I had tears in my eyes.

"Just tired of losing people." I said and she hugged me tightly and I hugged her back.

"I'm glad I got to know him." she said and I nodded.

"Me too." I said.

"I'm glad I didn't say goodbye, I hate goodbyes." she said and I just pulled her closer.

"Let's get back to the others." I said and together we walked back.

Justin's POV:

It was late at night and everyone was asleep. I slowly got out of mine and Brian's bed and walked over to the mirror and looked at my reflection.

'If I had gone today Zach would still be here.' I thought and looked at where my mark is and lifted my shirt up to see it.

Only when I did it looked different.

Around it was now red, like it was starting to swell up and the birds head looked to have moved slightly. Though, that could my eyes playing tricks on me so I just brushed that off. Not really knowing what to make of it I lowered my shirt and made a mental note to talk to Hershel about it tomorrow.

Looking back at my reflection I noticed that I was starting to not feel good. 'Great, just great, that's what we need right now, me getting sick. It could just be a cold or something, I might not even have to worry about telling them. In fact I won't, we have enough going on right now to worry about one of their leaders being sick.' I thought to myself. with that decision in mind I nodded to myself and crawled back into bed and moved Brian's arm to spoon me which he instinctively tightened.

I smiled at him and snuggled into his chest and fell asleep listening to his heart beat and taking in his scent.

Had I not gotten so used to feel a little cold while inside the prison and freezing sometimes outside I would've thought more about suddenly feeling a little colder and realized our group was in a lot of danger.

 

"Talk"

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Two: As If the Walkers Weren't Bad Enough

Glenn's POV:

I woke up the next morning and looked around before my eyes landed on Em and I smiled softly at him. I looked out of the watch tower that we had made our living area and back at Em before quietly getting into my backpack and pulled out the camera I took from the Big Spot and slowly crept closer to him and snapped a picture. The noise was enough to startle him awake and he looked up at me and smiled.

I pulled the camera back and laughed as I took the picture out of the camera. "Sorry." I said and smiled at him. He smiled back at me and started to slowly sit up.

"Changing to the guard?" he said and I nodded.

"Yeah." I said and he nodded. "I'll bring you breakfast after perimeter check." I said and leaned down and kissed him. He took the picture from me as we kissed and he pulled back to look at it.

"Oh my God throw that away." he said and I took it from him and looked at it.

"Yeah... Not going to happen." I said and smiled at him then began to move then blankets to get to the door. "It's mine." I said as I started to climb down and he laughed at me. I smiled to myself as I felt him kiss my hand as I closed the door.

'God I love him so much.' I thought as I started to check the perimeter.

Rick's POV:

Carl and I walked to the little farm to start our chores of the day when we ran into Michonne taking Lucky, she really loves Lucky though she doesn't like to admit it, out to prepare to leave.

"You leaving soon?" I asked her and she stopped to look at me and nodded.

"Yeah." she said and I nodded at her.

"Be careful out there." I told her and she smiled at me.

"Always am. Any requests? Like more comics, books, stale M&Ms?" she asked and Carl turned to me smiling.

"You're the one that likes stale M&Ms." he said and I smiled at him and Michonne laughed.

"I'll definitely be looking for some then. I'll try and find something you like too Carl." she said and ruffled his hair as she walked by him. "Why don't you wear your hat anymore?" she asked him and he turned to her.

"It's not a farming hat." he said and both Michonne and I laughed at that. "See you soon?" he asked and she smiled at him and nodded.

"Yeah, pretty soon." she said and he smiled at her. I smiled to myself at their conversation and listened to Carl jogging to catch up to me.

Once he was by me and knelt down and got to work pulling the weeds out while Carl held the buckets.

We worked in silence for a while before Carl broke it. "Dad?" he said and I looked up at him quickly to let him know I was listening and went back to working. "They only were able to clear one cluster yesterday and there's probably not going to be enough people down there today... I was thinking maybe we could help?" he said and I stopped and looked up at him and sighed and went back to work.

"I have plans. I have to work in the farm to make sure everyone gets food." I said and I felt him staring at me.

"Then... Maybe I could help?" he asked and I sighed and stood up holding one of the buckets and looked at him.

"WE have plans. That's what I should've said." I told him and he lowered his head to the ground and followed me silently to the pig pin.

"Dad." he said again and I looked up at him as I emptied the bucket into the feeding hole. "I'm sorry, I've been trying." he said and I gave him a confused look and nodded at him and took the bucket he was holding and repeated my previous actions as I spoke.

"I know you have and I'm very proud of you, as is your father and everyone else." I told him and he offered a small smile before it disappeared.

"Dad, when can I have my gun back?" he asked and I looked at him and smiled at him and looked down.

"Worms will give them extra protein." I told him changing the subject. He was about to answer when shots suddenly came from the prison. "Stay close." I told him and we ran to the prison.

"Help! Please help!" two little girls yelled and Carol ran to them.

"Cell blocks?!" Em yelled and I looked at him and shook my head.

"I don't know!" I yelled back and looked at Carl. "Get in the tower with Em and don't argue!" I yelled and he nodded and locked the pig pin and ran for Em and I ran to the prison.

"Rick the fuck's going on?!" Bri yelled and I shook my head.

"I don't know." I said and we ran to the prison together.

"Walkers in D!" Glenn yelled and my heart stopped.

"What about C?!" I yelled and Sasha came out then right from C.

"It's clear." she said and I let a little sigh of relief out and we all ran to block D. "We locked it so no one can get in or out right now." she said and I nodded and Daryl ran up to me.

"It ain't a breach!" he said and I looked at him. "Hershel and T are on Guard for C." he said and I just nodded at him.

"Stay close to me." I told him and he nodded and we continued to D.

Justin's POV:

"What's going on Justin?!" some lady asked me and I shook my head.

"I don't know. Right now I need you to get as many people, especially children, out here as you can." I told her and she nodded and ran to a group of kids huddled together and led them out. I turned and let myself go faster and began to punch at walkers and rip their heads open with my knives I now carried mainly. I was doing a good job when I turned and sighed in relief when I saw Bri and the others come in then.

We got to work helping people out and killing walkers when someone yelled.

"Help!" I turned and felt my heart drop when I saw a walker going for Kristy and Austin who were trapped by a wall and couldn't move.

Forgetting that I had two big knives that I could've thrown at it I ran and made it just before the walker got to them. I moved to stand in front of them and felt the walker bite into my shoulder. I screamed for a second before I bit the rest back and pushed a knife into its skull and it let go as it fell. I held my shoulder as I panted hard and turned Kristy and Austin, who were white with fear at this point, and smiled at them reassuringly.

"Go to Rick and the others now. They'll help get you out." I said but they both shook their heads.

"Y-you're hurt Justin! We can't leave you!" Austin yelled and I smiled at him and placed a hand on both their shoulders while ignoring the pain in my right one.

"Go, you both know I can survive this. I can survive anything remember." I said and they both giggled and nodded before hugging me and running to Rick. I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself for the pain about to get in my arm and quickly stood and cut the head of the walker that had tried to sneak up on me.

Brian's POV:

"How is this even happening?!" Daryl yelled and I just shook my head and kept shooting at walkers and helping people out of the cell block. I heard someone yell for help and I turned just in time to see Justin throw himself in front of Kristy and Austin and get bit on his right shoulder. He screamed for a second before stopping them and stabbing the walker in the head making it let him go and fall to the floor. He and talked to the kids for a second before they hugged him and ran for us and he got up and kept fighting.

And the whole time I was fighting to get to him.

"Get to Daryl ok." I told them as they came to me. They nodded and ran for Daryl who pushed them both behind him and made a point to have them on the wall so no walkers snuck up behind him and Rick came to help him.

I turned back and ran the rest of the way to Justin and placed a hand on his cheek. "You ok Sunshine?" I asked and he smiled and nodded but I could tell he was in pain. He was pale, sweaty and panting hard.

"I'll be fine. It's just where I got bit is all." he said and I gave him the 'I don't believe you but we'll talk later' look. He smiled at me before killing a walker that had come up behind me and we stood back to back killing walkers. When everyone was gone and it looked like the walkers were all dead everyone stopped and looked around.

"Are we clear? Are we safe?" Rick asked and we all looked around.

"Yeah we're clear." Sasha said and Rick looked up.

"What about up there?" he asked and Daryl, Glenn and I ran up the steps to look while Rick ran up to Justin to look at his bite.

"Get to Carol now so she can clean that and stitch you up ok. And no runs or perimeter checks for at least a week." he said and I smirked when I heard Justin groan in annoyance but left to find Carol anyways. I heard a growl behind me and Daryl and I turned just in time to see Glenn get pushed to the wall by a walker we both shot without thinking and the walker fell with a bullet and arrow in his head and Daryl ran over and helped him up and patted his shoulders.

"Were you bit?" I asked and sighed in relief when he said no. The three of us walked into the cell it fell into and we all felt our hearts drop when we saw that it was Patrick.

"Poor kid." Daryl said and I nodded and looked up when Rick came into the room.

Rick sighed sadly at the scene and pulled Daryl into him who happily came closer and we bowed our heads for Patrick. After a few seconds Daryl looked around and sighed.

"That's all of them. We might to make sure the ones that didn't make it don't turn." he said and we all nodded and went to work as the others came in to help. Em ran straight for Glenn and the held each other then Em started looking Glenn over for scratches or bites. When he was satisfied he sighed and pulled Glenn to him and went about helping with the fallen.

Justin came back in shortly after that looking sad. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around him. "What's wrong?" I asked and he shook his head and looked up at me.

"I had to help Carol make sure a guy wouldn't turn in front of his daughters." he said and I pulled him tightly to me.

"I'm so sorry." I said and he nodded and pulled back and gave me a small smile. I smiled back and pulled his shirt down over his right shoulder gently to look at it. Luckily Carol got it cleaned and stitched up quickly but it was obvious Justin would be in pain for a while.

"So Rick more or less grounded you from the fun jobs." I said and smirking and laughed when Justin groaned.

"I swear that man likes to act like he's my father." he said and I smiled at him.

"Well you know he looks at you like a son." I said and he smiled brightly at me and nodded.

"He's a better dad then mine." he said and I laughed and nodded.

"That's the truth Sunshine." I said and let him go so we could go back to helping the others.

Rick's POV:

Daryl and I walked up to Charlie's cell and he came over to the door trying to bite me. I pulled him closer and stabbed his head and let him fall.

"No bites or scratches. I think he just died." I said kneel by Charlie as everyone came into the room.

"Looks like he choked on his own blood. What a horrible way to go." Hershel said and I gently stroked Daryl's inner leg as he stood by me while I was lost in thought.

"I saw this one a walker just outside the fences." I said and Daryl spoke up next.

"They were on Patrick as well." he said and everyone looked at us.

"This could be the case of the flu to the extreme." Doc. S said and we all stared at him.

"How's it spreading though. Maybe they were the only ones." Glenn said hopefully and Hershel shook his head.

"When is this group ever lucky?" he asked and everyone nodded at that.

"I had a sick pig that died quick. I found a sick hog in the woods." I said and looked up at everyone.

"Birds and pigs is how this used to spread quickly back then." Hershel said and looked at me. "We have to do something about those pigs." he said and I sighed but nodded anyways.

"Everyone in here as been exposed." he said and we all looked at each other then.

"I-I have to find Carl and let him know." I said and stood up and stopped when I felt Daryl's hand on my arm.

"I'll come with you. I need to see him too." he said and I nodded and wrapped an arm around his waist and led him outside.

We found him and Maggie helping a limping Michonne to the prison. Once Carl saw us he ran straight to us before we could warn him to stay away.

"I'm sorry. I just didn't see you guys come out." he said fighting back sobs. I held him close then.

"It's ok. I'm here, Daryl's here. Everything's ok." I said and he let go and ran to Daryl and hugged him tightly then backed up to look at us both.

"I had to use one of the guns at the fence but I swear I didn't want to." he said and I looked at the girls to explain.

"I came back to help and I fell. They helped me." Michonne said and I nodded at her.

"You ok?" I asked and she nodded and I sighed.

"What happened?" Maggie asked and I looked at her then at Carl then back at her.

"Patrick got sick last night with some flu that move quick. We think he died and attacked the cell block." I told her and watched as all their eyes widened. I looked back at Carl and knelt to look at his face. "I know he was your friend and I'm sorry. He was a good kid." I said and he hugged him tightly. I hugged him back quickly before gently pushing him from me.

"It'd be best to stay away from the people that were exposed, at least for now." I said and looked back at Carl. "Justin and the others are ok. Justin did get bit on his shoulder but he was the only one. We lost a lot of good people today though." I said and I watched as relief and sadness came into his eyes. Relief for Justin and the others were ok and sadness for those we lost.

"You stay with them ok. I'm going to get the counsel together to figure out what we're going to do." I said and Carl nodded and ran back to the girls and helped get Michonne inside.

I turned to Daryl and kissed him quickly before we turned to get the others.

Glenn's POV:

"Patrick was fine last night, and now he's died. Two people just died over night that quickly?' Carol asked looking at all of us. "We'll have to separate everyone that was in there from those that weren't" she said and Daryl spoke up.

"That's everyone in that cell. That's all of us, maybe more. Do you really think having their leaders separated from them because they were all exposed will keep this place calm?" he asked her and she looked at him.

"We know this can be lethal. What we don't know is how it spreads. Is anyone showing symptoms that we know of?" Hershel asked and I spoke up then.

"It's not just that Hersh. There's children and anyone who dies is a threat." I said and he looked at me.

"We could move them to cell A." Carol said and Daryl spoke.

"Death row? Not the best upgrade." he said and I looked at him.

"It's clean. That's upgrade enough. Think it'll be ok for Doc. S?" I asked.

Just then we heard coughing and everyone got up to see who it was.

When we got to the door we saw that it was Karen coughing and Tyresse was leading her back to the other cell block.

"You ok?" Carol asked and they turned around.

"Yeah she's ok. I'm just taking her back to my cell so she can rest is all." Tyresse said smiling at us and rubbing her back gently.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Daryl said and they both got confused.

"The thing that killed Patrick was a time of flu or something like it. It moves fast and Gus is in there and he's vulnerable. For now we need to keep people that might have it separate from the others." Hershel said and they looked at each other then at us.

"David was coughing earlier today." Karen said and I nodded.

"I'll go get him. Take her and everyone else showing symptoms to cell A and make sure it's clean." I said and they nodded.

Daryl's POV:

I watched Glenn run away from us and turned to watch Tyresse lead Karen to cell A and Sasha and the others went to get the sick. I looked at Carol and sighed.

"Do you think this'll work?" she asked and I shrugged.

"Don't know. It has to though, these people don't need more to be scared of." I said and she nodded.

"You're right. Are you ok?" she asked and I nodded.

"Gotta be." I said and walked away from her and looked at Hershel. "I'll start burying the dead ones." I said and adjusted my crossbow.

"You wear and mask and gloves." he said and I nodded and walked away from them.

As I was digging and saw Rick walking up to me out of the corner of my eye and I stopped digging to look at him. "I'm glad you were in there." I told him and he sighed.

"I wasn't much use without my gun." he said and I shook my head and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"No, you were. You earned the break you got. We wouldn't be here without you." I told him and he smiled and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"It was all of us." he said and I smiled and pecked him on the lips.

"It was you first." I said and he smirked at me.

"Rick! Daryl!" Em yelled and we turned to see him waving for us and pointing at the fences. I turned and felt my heart hit my stomach.

"Oh shit!" Rick breathed out and we took off for the fence.

Justin's POV:

"We need to find away to get rid of them so we can fix the damn fence!" Brian yelled as we tried to hold the fence up while killing walkers at the same time. I nodded at him and stabbed at a walker and tried to ignore the pain in my shoulder.

Just then Rick and Daryl showed up, along with T, Glenn, Maggie, Sasha, and Em, and started to kill walkers with us. We all just started to take walkers out but it was more than obvious we were losing and quickly at that.

"The fuck are we going to do?!" Brian yelled and stabbed at the walkers. I looked at him then at the walkers and smiled back at the others.

"I got a plan." I said and Rick smiled at me.

"So do I. I'll get the pigs. I hate too, but if they're really spreading this bug or whatever it is then they have to go. So do these fuckers." he said and I nodded at him sadly, knowing he grew rather fond of the pigs and knew they were a big source of our food.

"Alright. I'll go out there and start taking them out by hand. I'm the only one able to with my superpowers and all." I said smirking and Rick shook his head in amusement and ran for the pig pin and I ran for the gates with Brian following me. When we got to the gate he stopped me and gave me a kiss and pulled back.

"You stay safe." he said and I smiled and nodded and ran threw the gate when he opened it just enough for me to get threw. Once I knew the gate was closed I let my powers come to the surface and I ran at the walkers killing them all with my knives.

I was doing good at first, but it was obvious I was getting out numbered and I could hear the others begging me to get out of their, Brian's voice the loudest. I heard a truck coming my way and felt relief knowing Rick was coming. I killed the walker in front of me and turned to see Rick had just thrown a pig on the ground and he held his hand out to me.

"Get on here now Sunshine!" he yelled and I nodded and took his hand and Daryl floored just as the walkers attacked the pig. We stopped at three different times to drop a pig before every walker was away from that part of the fences and the others began to place logs to keep it up. I looked over and saw that Rick was silently crying and I hugged him tightly.

"Thank you." was all I said knowing he'd know what I meant. I felt him nodded and I pulled back and he smiled at me.

"Let's get back to the others and see if they're ok." he said and I nodded and we turned to watch the truck get closer to the prison gates.

When we got there Rick and I jumped off and Brian pulled me close to him and Rick pulled Daryl to him. Sasha came over to us looking pissed off and held up half of a rat. "Someone's been feeding these things!" she said and we all stared at the half rat in shock.

"Why?" I asked and she shook her head.

"I don't know but we need to find out and soon." she said and we all walked back to the prison.

Rick's POV:

I was silently taking apart the pig pin, trying not to think of what I just did to them, when Carl walked up to me. "Not this time." I told him when I saw him go to help me. He stopped and stared at me.

"Think the pigs made them sick?" he asked and I shrugged.

"Or we made the pigs sick." I said and he nodded.

"Hey dad." he said and I looked at him. "Carol's been teaching the kids... How to use weapons. How to kill" he said and I stopped working and looked at him. "Their parents don't know and she doesn't want you to know. I think you should let her. I know you're going to say it's not up to you, but it can be." he said and I looked at him for a second before I started to drench the wood with gas.

"Dad?" he said and I looked at him and smiled at him.

"Thank you for telling me." I said as I walked past him.

"Yeah." was all he said. I placed the gas down and walked back to him while searching my pockets for matches.

"I won't stop her." I told him and he looked at me in shock. "I won't say anything." I said and walked up to the wood and set it on fire. We stared at the fire for a few seconds before I looked at Carl then walked over to my tool box and knelt in front of it and opened it. "Carl." I said and he looked at me and walked over.

I stood up when he got to me with a piece of cloth in my hands and un wrapped it to reveal his gun. I stared at him as I handed it to him and saw doubt in his eyes. When he realized I wasn't going to pull it back he reached for it and took it from me. Once he had his gun I knelt back down rubbing my eyes and pulled my belt with my guns on it and stood back up to put it on.

Once I had it on I gently ran my hands threw Carl's hair and walked back to the fire and watched it as Carl slowly walked back to the prison.

I stared at the fire before looking down at my shirt and slowly took it off. I stared at it for a few seconds before throwing it into the fire then looked over when I heard growling and saw more walkers showing up.

I looked around at the other walkers that had been there then back at the fire then at the ground and sighed. I turned when I felt someone behind me and saw Daryl just standing there watching me. I gave him a small smile and held my hand out for him to take which he did without hesitating and I pulled him close to my side.

"Nothing's going to be the same anymore, is it?" he asked and I sighed and just kept staring at the fire as I tightened my hold on him.

"No, no it's not."

 

"Talk"

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Three: Things are About to get Worse

(So I couldn't find this episode to watch to help me out so I'm literally doing this by memory. So if I forget something that you guys deem important please let me know by at least 10 tomorrow night so I can add it into the story. Also because I'm doing this from memory please go easy on me with this chapter.)

Rick's POV:

"Babe we got a problem." Daryl said and motioned for me to follow him and took off. I ran after him and stopped with wide eyes at the sight.

"Tyresse was kneeling on the ground with two burnt bodies in front of him.

It was all I could do to not gag as I slowly walked up to him, only then seeing Carol and Brian there with us, and went to place a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Ty." I said and I meant it. One of bodies is wearing Karen's bracelet, meaning she was dead.

The second I placed a hand on his shoulder he stood up and pushed me really hard and stood in front of me looking ready to fight. Daryl took a defensive stance behind him ready to help me out but I held a hand out to stop him.

"Ty, I'm sorry for your loss. Everyone here has lost someone important to them. We know what you're going through." I said gently and he glared at me.

"Fuck you Rick! You may have lost someone important to you but were able to gain more! Shit, you guys actually LOST someone and they came BACK! Karen was everything to me! You find the son of a bitch that did this and you bring them to me to deal with!" he said and pointed at himself.

I nodded and looked down at the ground then back up at him and sighed. "We'll find whoever did this and bring them to justice, I promise you. Right now though we need to focus on this virus and why they had to die. Maybe the person that did this thought it would stop it from spreading, we don't know. We need to get those who appear sick and/or were exposed to it from being in D." I told him and his glared deepened.

"There's no excuse for doing what they did to them, to Karen. They were good people that didn't deserve this." he said pointing at the bodies.

"Look man I get it. If I lost Rick, Carl, Bri or Justin, or anyone from our family, I don't know what I'd do. We need to listen to Rick right now though, ok. We will find whoever did this." Daryl said and went to turn Tyresse around to look at him, but instead Tyresse turned and grabbed the front of Daryl's shirt and pushed him into the wall glaring at him.

That pissed me off and I went to help him out along with the others but Daryl followed my lead and held his hands up to stop us from getting closer. "We're on your side man." Daryl said looking right at Tyresse. I slowly walked up and placed a hand on Tyresse's shoulder and yanked him off of Daryl and placed myself between them to keep the pissed off man away from Daryl.

Though I didn't except him to punch me.

After that first punch the others worked to get us apart and Daryl looked ready to kill. I just took a deep breath, turned back around, and punch Ty right back. He fell and I straddled him and continued punching him, unable to stop. I felt familiar arms wrap around my waist trying to get me off of Ty and I struggled against him.

"Get off me! Get the fuck off me!" I yelled at Daryl but he was still able to get me off of him and he gently pushed me back only for me to feel Brian's arms restraining me.

Ty laid there breathing hard and crying while I stood there glaring at him breathing hard myself. After a while I gently pulled myself away from Brian and pulled Daryl close to me and looked down at Ty. "Carol here will look at you and patch you up. We'll get the man that did this, but if you ever pull what you just did again I will kill you." I said and he just looked at me and I turned still holding Daryl close to me with Brian following close behind.

"Let's let Hershel look at this." Daryl said gently while also picking my hand up gently and looked at the blood on it. I sighed and nodded and let Daryl turn me in the direction Hershel would be at,

"I'll be leaving the two of you here, I need to go find Justin and..." he started before stopping and staring at us with pleading eyes to understand. I smiled at him and so did Daryl, both of us knowing Brian just needed to make sure Sunshine was ok.

"We understand, say hi for us and tell him we;ll you two later." I said and he smiled his thanks and ran off in Justin's direction.

"Let's get you to Hershel now." Daryl said and we turned back and headed for Hershel.

"You're lucky you don't need stitches." Hershel said as he dabbed my cut knuckles clean.

"Still hurts though." I said and Daryl smirked at me.

As Hershel wrapped up my hand I couldn't help but notice the far away look in his eyes. "What's on your mind Hershel?" I asked and he looked up at me and sighed.

"Glenn's got it." was all he said and I felt my heart stop. I saw Daryl sit slowly out of the corner of my eye and I grabbed his hand with my free one and he squeezed it looking for comfort.

"How do you know?" I asked and Hershel looked between us.

"Em went to go and sit with him their bed but Glenn stopped him. The moment Glenn told him he had it Em came straight to me begging to help him. Glenn's being moved with the others at the moment." he said and I felt my heart break for both Em and Glenn.

"We need to find something to control this and soon! I'm going to grab some people and head to the closest town and look for medicine. If this is an extreme flu then there's medicine to help fight it." Daryl said and I squeezed his hand.

"I don't want you going out there, it's too dangerous now." I said and he looked at me with determination.

"Babe you know we need medicine. Besides, it's not like I plan to go alone. I just said I was going to find people. I know that Justin's been trying to heal this, but he can't because it's not a bite or scratch and I had to stop him from cutting himself again. We need actual medicine to fight this." he said and I looked at him before sighing and placing my forehead on his.

"Fine, but be careful. Don't leave right away, wait until sunset then head out." I told him and he went to argue but I kissed him and he stopped. "Please, for me." I said and he sighed this time and nodded.

"Fine, but if it looks like it's even getting a little worse I'm leaving right then. I'm going to get my people together." he said and I nodded and kissed him again before he stood and left.

"You know you'll have to go into lock down too Her." I told him and he just sighed and nodded.

"What does Carl think about being confined?" he asked and I laughed.

"Doesn't like it, but he knows it's important to me and his father that he's away from those that may have it. He's going but is mad." I said and Hershel chuckled and nodded.

"That sounds like Carl." he said and I couldn't stop my own laugh from coming. "Well, there you go. Don't put to much strain on it or you will end up needing stitches. No farmer for a week at least." he said and I nodded both my thanks and understanding and left to find Brian and Justin to see what they thought about all of this.

Justin's POV:

I slowly walked to mine and Brian's cell trying to act as normal as I could. I was currently feeling like shit and I didn't know how to tell anyone. If the only person immune to the virus gets sick with it it'll make people loose all the hope they have.

'I just hope I don't have this, Rick needs my help and I need to make sure these people stay calm.' I thought and stopped walking when I heard Carl's voice behind me just before I walked up the steps to our cell.

"Justin can I ask you something?" he said and I turned and smiled at him praying he couldn't tell I felt horrible.

"You know you can Carl, but shouldn't you be leaving with the others to be locked down?" I asked and he sighed but nodded and looked at me slightly annoyed.

"Yes I am, I'm going with others right now actually, but I just needed to ask you a question." he said and I nodded and slowly grabbed the hand rail when I suddenly became dizzy.

"Ok, what's up?" I asked praying he hadn't noticed. It appeared he didn't because he continued.

"I needed to know that you'd be ok. I mean, my dads and Brian said they're ok. But with Glenn getting it too I can't help but feel like our family's about to lose people and I can't have it being you, my dads, or Brian." he said and I looked at him sadly and slowly knelt and pulled him into a hug.

I looked up and saw Brian walking to us smiling and I smiled back at him. Only for it to leave when I felt something wrong.

Black spots entered my eyes and I pulled Carl more to me. "Carl." I whispered out and I felt him tense at my sudden change. "I'm so sorry." I whispered out and my world went completely black.

Brian's POV:

I ran all the way to our cell block and sighed in relief when I saw Justin kneel down and pull Carl into a hug. I walked up to them smiling and saw Justin smile at me when he noticed I was there. I got confused, though, when his smile left and he hugged Carl tighter. I was luckily close enough to hear him because he started whispering to Carl.

"Carl." he whispered out and I felt fear enter me as I watched Carl tense up. "I'm so sorry." he said and I felt my heart stop when Justin closed his eyes and fell, bringing Carl with him because of the weight difference.

"Justin? Oh my God Justin wake up!" Carl yelled and I was beside them in an instant and helped Carl get out from under Justin and pulled him to me.

"The fuck happened?!" I asked in fear and I looked at Carl and saw his eyes were wide and he was shaking in fear. He slowly shook his head and began talking as he continued to stare at Justin.

"I-I don't know Bri! We were just talking about how I wanted to know he was ok because Glenn has it and I didn't want to loose you two my dads and the next thing I knew he passed out!" he said and tears came into his eyes. I looked down at Justin and felt fear enter me.

'God Sunshine please don't have it too!' I begged and looked up when I heard someone coming. Daryl was walking to us smiling but when he saw who was in my arms and why it dropped and he ran full speed to us.

"Oh my God what happened to him?!" he asked and Carl repeated what he told me. When he was finished Daryl's eyes were wide and he looked to be fighting back tears. "You know what we have to do now Bri." he said looking at me and I pulled Justin more to me.

"Hell no! He doesn't have it, he's immune to the virus remember! Maybe he's just really tired." I said and Daryl just looked at me.

"Bri, he's immune to the bite and scratch. This, though, this is something completely new. It's like the virus and flu mixed together and formed a super flu. For all we know Justin's not immune to it. I hate it too Bri, he's my best friend, but Glenn will be in there and they can look out for each other when Justin wakes up." he said gently.

I stared at him then down at Justin and sighed. I pulled him up some and kissed his forehead before picking him up and held him bridal style then looked back at Daryl. "You're right Dar, lead the way." I said and he nodded slowly and knelt down to pull Carl into a hug.

"He'll be ok Carl. Him and Glenn are both strong people, a little bug isn't going to take them down easily." he said and I felt hope enter me at his words. He was right, Justin and Glenn WERE tough people, they wouldn't let this beat them.

Daryl stood up and looked back at me and led the way with Carl following close behind. We stopped though when Rick ran up to us and Daryl explained what was going on. "I'm leaving once Sunshine's with Glenn. I refuse to loose them both to this. The sooner I leave the more chance they have of surviving." Daryl said and Rick nodded and sighed.

"That might be a good idea babe. I just found out from Maggie that Sasha also has it. We can't loose anymore people to this thing. Get your men and leave once you're ready." he said and walked up and placed a hand on Daryl's cheek. "Please stay safe." he said and Daryl nodded at him and gave him a kiss. Rick looked down at Carl and nodded for him to follow.

"I want to see Jus off dad." Carl said and it was obvious the poor kid was scared. Rick sighed and knelt down to Carl.

"I need to get you with the others Carl. They've got Sunshine and we'll help both him, Glenn, Sasha, and the others get better. Right now though they would want you safe and as far from them as possible." Rick said gently and Carl looked at the floor but nodded and followed Rick once he stood up.

Daryl looked at me and we nodded at each other and walked to cell block A. "Oh my God! There's no way!" Carol said and covered her mouth with her, or covered where her mouth was since she had it covered to keep herself from getting this thing, hands and her eyes widened.

"I'm afraid so Car. Could you call Glenn over here? I want Sunshine with someone I trust with his life." I said looked back down at Justin who had yet to wake up. Carol nodded and turned to the door and called for Glenn. Once I could see him I could tell he wasn't feeling good at all. He was leaning on the door frame for support and had sweat coming down his very pale face and he was breathing a little hard.

"Don't tell me Sunshine has it too." he said and his eyes also widened. I looked down at Justin again and pulled him closer then looked back at Glenn.

"We don't know, just please watch. Daryl's leaving right after this to find medicine. We'll have you two and Sasha back with us in no time at all." I said and Glenn smiled at my attempted to make him feel better and took Justin from me slowly.

For a sick guy he was still pretty strong.

"I'll take care of him Bri. You guys just focus on getting medicine back here." he said and we both nodded as Glenn took Justin away from us and back to where he was before. Carol shut the door and pulled us into a hug.

"Let's get our people back to us." she said and we both nodded and Daryl left to find his men. Carol turned and smiled at me and wrapped an arm around my waist and mine went around her shoulders. "Why don't we go find Rick." she said and I smiled a small smile at her.

'Please stay strong for me Sunshine.' I begged as I looked back at the door that separated me and my Sunshine.

Daryl's POV:

"I'm glad you're staying around this time and not running off." I told Michonne as she walked up with her bag for the trip. She gave me a weird look and cocked her head to the side.

"What do you mean?" she asked and I smiled at her.

"I mean we like having you around. We've all become close to you and I know Carl loves you. You're a part of our family now." I told her and she smiled at me.

"Thanks." she said and got into the truck. I was about to follow her when I looked over and saw Tyresse walking up to us.

"I'm sorry about earlier. If you'll have me, I'd love to help get these people medicine." he said and I smiled at him and held the door open.

"Come on, I'd love your help." I told him and he smiled and got into the car. Once we were all in the car I turned it on and we headed for the gate where Brian held it open for us and closed it as soon as we were clear.

"Let's go." I said and floored it away from the prison.

Rick's POV:

I walked down to the farm to check on everything I was able to when I saw Carol leaning over a pipe and walkers coming at her. "Shit!" I yelled and ran to the fence and began to shoot the walkers. Once she was safely back in the prison we closed up the hole she came threw and I glared at her.

"That was very stupid of you." I told her and shrugged at me.

"We needed the water fixed. Now we don't have to worry about it." she said and I stared at her.

"You did that for the group, that could've ended in you dying." I said and she shrugged again and began to walk away. "Would you do anything to keep these people alive and safe?" I asked and she stopped and looked at me.

"Yes I would." she said and continued walking. I watched her for a few seconds before I spoke up again.

"Carol." I said and she turned to me. "Did you kill Karen and David?" I asked and she just looked at me.

"Yes."

 

"Talk"

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Four: Some Lines You Just Shouldn't Cross

(So I couldn't find this episode to watch to help me out once again so I'm literally doing this by memory. So if I forget something that you guys deem important please let me know by at least 10 tomorrow night so I can add it into the story. Also because I'm doing this from memory please go easy on me with this chapter. Also if you guys know of a site beside AMC that I can watch these one after Sundays please let me know 'cause that'll help me a lot.)

Daryl's POV:

"Daryl we're completely surrounded! We need to find a way out and soon!" Michonne yelled as walkers kept attacking the car. They were coming from all sides and I knew there was a lot more that we had yet to see.

I looked around and looked up at the sun roof and got an idea, a crazy idea, but it was still an idea. I looked over at Michonne and nodded at the door then looked at the others in the back. "We're going to have to make a run for it. Kill the ones close to you and keep running that way and don't stop for anything." I told them and they nodded and got ready to open doors. I opened the sun roof and got ready to climb out that way. "Ready... Now!" I yelled and we began to get out of the car and fight our way to the woods.

I got off the roof of the car and followed Michonne and Bob to the woods and we turned to see that Tyresse was surrounded and there was nothing we could do. "Come on." I said a little sadly and we took off as walkers came after us.

We ran for a while until we stopped to take a breath and heard something in the bushes. We got into a defensive stance and stood down when Tyresse came through them. Michonne and I helped him up and we took off again before the walkers could find us.

We began to walk when it was apparent we had lost the walkers and Tyresse looked at us. "We lost an entire day because of that." he said and I looked at him.

"We'll find medicine and get it back to the others in time." I said sternly and he just looked at me. 'We just have to...' I thought and looked up when we came to a gas station. We looked around and jumped back when walkers began to try and get to us but they were stuck in the thick bushes. We went about killing them and I looked at them in disgust.

"Douchebags must've offed themselves then turned." I said and Bob looked at me.

"Are they Douchebags for killing themselves, or was it mercy-killing?" he asked and I looked at him. Instead of answering I walked over to Michonne to talk to her.

"You should give up on finding them." I said and she looked at me in shock.

"How can you say that after everything they've done?!" she asked and I flinched at the memory of what Justin and Glenn told us, well, what they wanted to tell anyways.

"Do you really think I don't remember what they've done? James turned my best friend into a lab rat and let Merle..." I stopped myself from revealing Justin's secret with a shake of my head and looked at her. "Let Merle torture him then the Governor let Merle torture Glenn and Em. They're family and I want nothing more than to see their heads on a silver platter for what they've done, but the trail's been cold for months now. If they were going to show up again they would've by now." I said and she sighed.

"Stay with us Mich. We want you to. Quite searching for them and make your roots with us at the prison." I said and she looked at me. She was about to answer when Ty called to us.

"Hey, I found a car over here!" he said and we walked over and saw that he had found a minivan. I got in it and tried to hot-wire it but it was useless.

"The battery needs more fuel." I said and told them to get to work on finding something.

(ok, so, I'm not a car person so don't give me shit if I mess up on what Daryl does to the van. I just know he put a liquid into the battery or whatever and went to hot-wire it and it started so that's how this scene's going down lol)

After a while Bob came up to me with a bottle and I got to work fixing the car. He watched me in silence for a while before he broke it.

"I never thought I'd be with another group." he said and I looked at him to let him know I was listening and went back to the van. "I've been in two of them and in both I end up being the last man standing. When I would be on my own I would drink just to fill the quiet. Honestly when you stopped that day I almost kept walking." he said and I kept silent as he confessed.

"Why didn't you?" I asked and he sighed.

"Because I didn't want to have to go through that pain again." he said and I just looked at him. "In the Big Spot I was going to take a bottle, you know, to be ready for the quiet, but I stopped myself and put it back. I sat it down so hard the whole shelf fell. That's what brought the walkers to us, that's what got Zach killed." he said and I stopped and glared at him.

"That's bullshit." I said and he just looked at me. "Go start the engine for me." I said and he sighed but got up and started it and I smiled when it turned on. I whistled for the others to come and walked over to the drivers seat as Bob shut the door. "You won't need that alcohol anymore, you're not alone." I said and patted his shoulder and walked around to get in the front seat and he took off once we were all in.

Glenn's POV:

"God Hersh, I feel like shit." I told him as he gently whipped the sweat off my brow. "What are you doing in here anyways? It's not safe for you in here." I told him and I knew he was smiling under the bandanna.

"I'll you what I told Maggie and Rick, II'm in here to try and help as many of you as I can to feel better. The tea I just had you and Sunshine drink is one my wife would make to help with the fever whenever we got the flu. I figured it would help now even if a little." he said and I nodded at him and sighed and leaned my head on the rail behind me.

"It figures I make it this far only to be taken out by a damn bug." I said and Hershel glared at me.

"Shut the fuck up Glenn." Justin said speaking Hershel's own thoughts. We looked over at him and watched as he slowly made his way over to us. He didn't look any better than me. His face was deathly pale and sweat was running down every part of his body and he had bags under his eyes and his breathing was a little labored.

"You're strong Glenn, you can fight this. Rick said that Dar went to find medicine and he'll be back in time to help you and everyone else in here. You won't lose to this thing." he said and I looked at him with a sigh before giving him a small smile.

"You're right Sunshine, Dar will come back in time and they'll save all of us in here." I said completely missing Justin's flinch when I said all of us.

I may have missed it, but Hershel didn't.

Hershel gave Justin a weird look, which I also missed since it was to quick to see, before looking back at me and sighed him self and placed a hand on my shoulder. "You two keep an eye on each other." he said and we nodded together as Justin slowly sat beside me and I laid my head on his shoulder as we watched Hershel leave.

"How do you think this even started?" I asked Justin and he sighed and I felt him shake his head.

"I don't know, let's try to get some sleep though." he said and I nodded and let myself fall into a restless sleep.

Rick's POV:

I kept my eyes straight ahead as I drove. Carol was in the front seat and neither of us were talking. "I was trying to save lives." she finally said but I ignored her. "Someone had to." she said and I looked at her.

"Maybe." I said not convinced at all.

The trip went silent again until we came to a neighborhood. I parked the car and we went about trying to find anything that would be useful. We came to a house and started looking around when a walker tripped from upstairs and I pulled Carol away before it reached the bottom. Once it stopped she crawled over and stabbed it in the head.

I just watched her then looked up aiming my gun when we heard a door open upstairs. A door opened and two people came out. We stared at them in shock before I slowly lowered my gun and told them to come down.

"Who are you two?" I asked and the guy moved forward.

"I'm Sam and this is Ana. We hid in here when we got separated from our other group." he said and I nodded at him.

"What happened to you two?" I asked and Sam pointed to his shoulder.

"I dislocated it while running from those things and she broke her leg a while back before this started and it didn't heal right. I found her and we've been together since." he said and I nodded and looked at Carol.

"Fix that for him." I told her and she nodded and walked up to him.

"Just hold this and relax." she told him and he nodded and did as she told him. He yelled in pain when he held the weight of the bag with his hurt hand and as Carol slowly moved it back into place. There was a loud pop and Sam took a deep break and moved his arm around as he sat back up.

"Thanks, it feels better now." he said smiling at Carol.

"It's going to be sore for a while so keep this there and don't put to much pressure on it." she told him and I just stared at her.

He nodded and looked at me. "So, you have a group close by?"

I looked at Carol then back at him and sighed. "How many walkers have you killed?"

Daryl's POV:

"About damn time we got here!" Michonne said and I smirked to myself. Once Bob parked the van we all got out and went about looking for a way in. We found an entrance and walked until I turned to them.

"Let's split up from here. Ty, you and Bob go that way and Michonne come with me. We'll meet up in that room in ten minutes." I said and they all nodded and we went about looking for things.

"Take whatever can be used for flu, headaches, fevers, nausea, anything like that. Any of it could be useful." Michonne said and I nodded and went about taking the bottles and boxes of medicine we needed.

"Make sure you get as much as you can in your bag. We don't know if this'll work and if it does we don't know how much medicine it'll take to leave the body and we don't know how long it'll stay in the prison once we start to cure it." I told her and she nodded at me. We each took a couple more things of medicine when we heard groaning. We turned and saw walkers coming into the room.

"Oh shit." I said and got my crossbow ready when the door opened and blocked my view.

"Don't shoot them! They died like those in the prison! You shoot them and we'll get infected!" Ty yelled and I yelled in frustration.

"We got them coming this way too! How the fuck do we get out of here!" I yelled and Michonne kicked in a door and we killed the walkers in it and ran through it and climbed threw a window and onto the roof.

Bob tripped and nearly fell but caught himself but his bag was now dangling within the reach of the walkers under us.

"Let go Bob! We have enough still, don't die for that bag!" I yelled yet he didn't let go. I walked up to him and pulled on his back and yanked him up. He was lucky enough to bring the bag with him though it made a weird clanking noise. I looked at him confused then slowly picked up his bag and opened it only to see red when I pulled out alcohol.

"You mean to tell me that instead of getting medicine for our people you got your sorry ass alcohol!" I yelled looking back up at him.

He looked down looking a little guilty. "I wanted it for when it became quiet again." he said barely above a whisper. I dropped the bag and walked up to him and got right in his face ready to throw him off the roof.

"Dar, come on, we don't have time to deal with him. Let's get this back to the group and then we'll deal with him." Michonne said and I stared at him before lifting the bottle and pointing at him with it.

"If those people die and I find out you took one sip of this. I'll kill you." I threatened and he just stared at me. "My best friend is with those people and so is more of my family. I lose them and no one will keep me from killing you in the most painful way possible." I threatened one more time but he just continued to stare.

I pushed him away and turned around and followed Michonne and Ty back to the van with Bob behind us.

Rick's POV:

"I told you we shouldn't have let them go. Ana's died and Sam's not back yet." I told Carol as I paced around the kitchen. She stared at me then spoke.

"Rick, it's been two hours already. We need to leave." she said and I stopped and stared at her.

"You wouldn't have left them before." I said and she sighed.

"I killed two people Rick, you need to accept that." she said and I shook my head.

"Karen and David didn't have to die." I said and she sighed.

"I did it to try and stop the virus." she said.

"We don't know if that helped or not. Dar took people to get medicine and should be back soon. If the medicine works Karen and David died for nothing." I told her.

"Rick, they could've spread the infection had I kept them alive. I did it to protect the rest of us. You've killed before." she said and I nodded.

"Yeah, but they were going to kill me first and I've never killed one of us." I said and she smiled softly and leaned forward.

"You did once." she said and I nodded and looked away.

"He was going to kill me." I said and she nodded.

"So were they. They were going to kill us." she said and I shook my head.

"You don't know that." I said and she sighed.

"You're right, do you want to know who I think is the actual cause of this?" she asked and I turned to face her completely. "I think it's Justin." she said and I saw red then.

"The fuck did you just say?!" I asked and took a step to her.

"Think about it Rick. Justin's the only one of us immune to the bite and scratch. Say he started to get sick with the flu and didn't tell us or didn't even notice it until it was to late. Now, because he's been bitten and scratched a lot that might mean this virus or whatever it is that turns us into walkers merged with the virus and spread to the rest of us who aren't immune to the virus. Justin might be the reason for this bug Rick, and if that's the case it might be best to kill him. Don't get me wrong, I love Justin, but we need to think of the whole group not just him. He's already sick Rick, if we kill him now it might stop it from spreading." she said and by the time she was done I was standing right in front of her.

Not caring that she used to be abused or that she was a woman, I pulled my hand back and slapped her across the face. The force of the slap made her turn her head to the side and when she looked back at me holding her cheek her eyes were wide in shock.

I did nothing but shake in anger in front of her before I turned and left the room before I hurt her again.

'How the fuck could she even think that?! Justin's not the cause of this virus, he's not! She's lucky it was only me here, if Bri was here I don't think I'd be able to stop him from attacking her.' I thought and walked outside to the car with her following behind me slowly.

She helped me pack up and went to get into the car but I stopped her. She looked at me confused before understanding entered her eyes and she shook her head.

"Rick you can't be serious." she said and I sighed.

"You're not the same Carol I knew and loved. You've change and not for the better. I don't think it's safe for you to come back with me. If Ty were to find out he'd kill you. You have gotten strong Carol and you'll find a group that'll accept you and doesn't know about any of this. I really do hate to do this, but I can't let you come back with me." I told her and and she began to cry.

"It's still me Rick." she said and I sighed and just looked at her. She nodded and looked away. "I'm not leaving without Lizzie and Mika." she said and I sighed.

"Lizzie's sick Carol. And it wouldn't be fair to those little girls to put them back on the road running until you find a safe place. They stay at the prison." I said and she nodded and looked at the ground. "I also don't know why you want to blame Justin for this, but I can't forgive you for that. You know I look at him as another son." I said and she nodded but kept her head down.

I hot-wired a car for her and helped her pack it up and gave her some gas before closing the trunk. She turned and looked at me. "You take care of the others Rick. You're a great leader. Tell them all I said good-bye and that I love them and I'll be thinking of them. I'll miss all of you." she said and I nodded. She smiled at me and got into the car and I watched her drive away from me, from the group.

I sighed and got into my own car and started for the prison with what I had found. As I drove I looked over to the front seat and sighed then looked back at the road.

'I'll miss you two Carol.' I thought to myself with a sad smile.

 

"Talk"

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Five: Only Just Making It

Hershel's POV:

"Hold this just like that so he doesn't get hurt." I told Glenn as me, him and Justin worked to try and get a breathing tube down Henry's throat. They were doing a good job despite having to lean over every few seconds to cough, neither of them looked too good and it was starting to worry me.

Once the breathing tube was in a started to slowly squeeze the bag slowly to help him breath. "Good job you two." I told them and they both just nodded at me.

I looked between them and handed the bag over to Justin. "Squeeze then count to six. If you start to feel dizzy get someone to do it, we'll work in shifts." I told him and he nodded and took the bag from me and I looked to Glenn. "I need your help with a body." I told him and he just looked at me.

"You sure you want me to go with you? What if I turn." he said and I glared at him.

"You won't turn, now come and help me." I told him and he sighed but followed me to the cell and helped me load it onto the stretcher and we quietly and quickly pushed it away to try and not have the others see us.

"What are you doing Hershel?" Lizzie asked and Glenn and I looked at each other before I walked over and knelt in front of her.

"We're just taking him and a quieter place, that's all." I said smiling and she just looked at me. "Why don't you go read one of your books cover to cover. Everyone has a job around here and that ones yours." I told her and she sighed.

"I won't be able to finish it." she said and I looked at her sternly.

"And why not?" I asked and she sighed.

"Because it's going to get dark." she said and I smiled at her.

"Then you'll just to try your best." I said and she just looked at me before nodding and walking to her cell. I turned to Glenn and saw me leaning on the door frame for support and I smiled at him and walked back to help him push the stretcher.

"Why don't we just do it in the cells?" Glenn asked as we stopped the stretcher. I turned to him and sighed.

"I don't want the others to see this just yet." I told him and he just looked at me.

"Did you do this yesterday?" he asked and I shook my head.

"Justin did it yesterday." I said and he just kept staring at me.

"You've never taken one down have you?" he asked and before I could answer the man had turned and was trying to sit up but Glenn pushed him back down stabbed his head. Glenn looked at me and I just sighed.

"Let's get back to Sunshine." I said and we walked back together.

LATER

Hershel's POV:

"How are they?" Em asked as I walked up to the window. Brian and Em were standing there and both looked like they'd rather be in here with their boys. I smiled as encouragingly as I could and nodded.

"They're fine Em. Glenn and Justin were helping me with people today and they wore themselves out. They're resting right now." I said and they both sighed in relief.

"Are you ok Hersh?" Brian asked and I nodded. "You should be resting too you know." he said and I sighed.

"I'll rest when I know these people are safe again." I told them and Em placed a hand on the window.

"We want you safe too Hersh." he said and I sighed but smiled at him and nodded.

"I know, tell my girls I love them for me and that I completely fine." I said and they both nodded and walked away from the window. I walked back and turned the corner to find Glenn and Justin leaning on each other and staring at me.

"Thanks for lying for us." Justin said and I gave them a confused look.

"What do you mean? Look at the two of us, you're resting." I said and they both chuckled softly.

"If saw how we were now you couldn't keep them out." Glenn said and I nodded at him.

"Why don't the two of you go rest. I'll go check on the last couple of people." I told them and they nodded and slowly walked back to their cell.

I sighed as I watched them and turned around praying that, not only did we save these people, but those two as well.

Rick's POV:

I pulled up to the prison and I watched as Maggie opened the gate and I drove threw when I had enough room. She closed it right when I was threw and ran up to me as I parked the car and got out to get the stuff we got. "Where's Carol?" she asked and I looked at her before pulling a bag out and throwing it over my shoulder.

"I have food for everyone, we need to make sure there's enough to go around." I told her and she nodded as I walked away from her.

"Where's Carol Rick?" she asked again and I stopped with a sigh and turned to her.

"It was her." I said and continued with her confused look. "She killed Karen and David." I told her and she looked at me in shock. "I sent her away because it wouldn't be safe for her when Ty finds out. Plus, I didn't feel like we were safe with her anymore." I told her and she just nodded.

"would you have done that? Send her away?" I asked and she looked at me.

"Did she tell you she did it?" she asked and I nodded. "Then you did the right thing. I don't think I could've though." she said and I nodded at her.

"You could've if you were in my shoes." I told her and she just smiled at me before she became serious again.

"Rick there's more cluttering here than there was before." she said pointing at the fence. I looked at it and sighed then looked back at her.

"We'll deal with that in a moment. Right now I need to get to Carl." I said and she nodded as I walked up to the prison.

I walked into the place where we quarantined the kids and elderly and looked around. "Carl?" I called out. "Carl!" I yelled again when there was no answer. I heard running and turned to see Carl coming around the corner. I ran to meet him and stopped a few feet from him and smiled at him. "Everyone ok?" I asked and he nodded.

I pulled the bag off my back and nodded to Carl. "Here, it has food and stuff in it from my run." I told him and he caught it as I tossed it to him.

Carl put it on his back and looked at me. "I'm healthy dad. I've been around you, Dar, Bri and Justin along with everyone else from D. I didn't get whatever this is, let me help." he said and I sighed at him and shook my head.

"I need to know you're safe son." I told him and he just looked at me.

"You can't keep me from getting this dad." he said and I nodded at him.

"I know, but I can sure as hell try." I said and walked away to help Maggie with the fence.

Hershel's POV:

"How you feeling?" I asked Dr. S as I walked into his cell. He coughed and looked away from me before answering.

"There's a point when people people can't recover from this, and I'm at that point." he said and I sighed.

"No you're not, no one is. Daryl and the others will be here soon and we'll heal everyone in here." I said and he just sighed and looked at me but I couldn't see him well because he stayed away from the light.

"If you're not ready to lose one, you'll lose them all." he said and I just looked at him. He coughed again and slowly knelt to the ground and lifted the lid of a crate under his bed up to reveal guns. "I moved these in here just in case." he said and I quickly moved and closed up the closed the crate.

"We won't need those." I said sternly and he just stared at me. "Let me see you S." I said and he kept moving before finally lifting the lantern to his face and my eyes widened when I saw that they looked like walker eyes.

"Take a good look Hershel." he said with a hint of bitterness in his voice. I just stared at him before getting up and slowly leaving his cell.

"I'll close your cell door now." I said looking back at him and he didn't respond. I sighed and closed his door and went about closing the others.

I was closing a door when I looked over and saw Justin leaning on the wall looking at me. "You should be resting now." I said and he sighed.

"No point in it." he said and I just looked at him.

"Why did you keep telling Glenn that him and the others would be healed in time but didn't mention yourself? He may not have caught onto it but I did." I said and he sighed again.

"I knew you caught onto it, I'm just surprised you didn't talk to me about it until now." he said and I just stood there waiting for him to continue. "I didn't mention myself because I don't think I can be healed from this Hersh." he said and I gave him a confused look.

"What do you mean?" I asked and he sighed.

"I mean I can feel it doing something to my body. I don't really know what, but it's almost like the cure is trying to get it out but doesn't know how and the bug is getting stronger. I mean, look at my fucking mark Hersh." he said and lifted his shirt up and my eyes widened at it.

"His mark was bright red around the edges and the bird's head was now nearly looking down. from here I could tell it was swollen.

"Why didn't you mention this before Sunshine?" I asked him and walked over to get a better look at it. I touched it gently and pulled my hand back when he hissed in pain. "You go lay down right now Sunshine, I'll come check on you once I've closed the other cell doors." I said and he just nodded and slowly walked to his cell.

I turned around and noticed that someone was laying on the floor. I walked over and saw that it was Sasha. "Sasha!" I said and ran to her side and picked her up and laid her on her bed, completely forgetting the other doors. "Come one Sasha wake up." I begged and sighed in relief when she woke up. "You ok? I asked and she nodded.

"Just passed out is all." she said and I nodded and looked out the door when I heard someone falling. I ran out and looked at Sasha as I closed her door.

"Stay here." I said and she nodded but still looked worried. I turned around and saw that someone had died and I looked at everyone staring at the body and looked sternly at them. "Get back in your cells." I said and Justin came up and helped me get the body onto the stretcher and I started to pull it myself telling him to lay back down.

Once I was in the room where we take the bodies to finish off I covered his face with the blanket and stabbed his head. I looked over when I heard someone on the other side of the glass and saw Rick.

"How is everyone?" he asked and I sighed.

"About as good as they can be I guess." I said and he nodded. "We've lost three patients though." I told him and he sighed.

"When we get past this thing, nothing's going to ever be the same." he said and I nodded sadly at his words. Rick took a deep breath and looked at me. "I need to talk to you about Carol." he said and I gave him a confused look.

I walked back to the others in complete shock. 'How could sweet Carol do something like that?' I asked and sighed sadly at the thought. The next thing I knew someone was getting bit and guns went off and everything went to hell.

Rick's POV:

I had just got back to Maggie and was helping her out when we heard shots. I looked at her and saw that she really wanted to go help and I smiled at her. "Go help them." I said and she looked at me and shook her head.

"Fixing this fence is more important right now." she said and I shook my head then.

"Go, I'll get some help. They need you more right now." I said and she looked at me before nodding and running straight for the prison. I sighed and ran to it myself to get help.

Justin's POV:

'The fuck's going on?!' I thought as I made my way to Henry's cell to get to Glenn. Only when I got there I saw him chocking on his own blood and Henry was growling. I looked between Glenn and the now walker Henry and knelt beside Glenn and placed a hand on his forehead. "Stay strong Glenn, I'll be back with help." I told him and stood up as Henry got off the bed and began to back up.

"This way fucker." I said and he luckily followed me and I kept backing up. I kept going until I began to get a little dizzy and tripped over something and fell. I looked up and saw that Henry was trying to get me but Hershel lifted him over the railing and onto the net and looked at me.

"You ok?" he asked and I nodded.

"Glenn's in Henry's cell. He's chocking on his own blood." I said and his eyes widened. He looked back in Glenn's direction then back at me and helped me up and let me lean on him. He led me to an empty cell and laid me on the bed.

"Stay here." he said sternly and I nodded at him, not having the strength to argue, and watched as he closed the cell door and ran to Glenn. I sighed and laid back down and I felt my eyes slowly closing.

'No, I can't take a nap now, they need my help!' I thought but I couldn't stop my eyes from closing and before I knew it I was asleep.

Hershel's POV:

"Oh my God Glenn!" I yelled and fell to his side as he tried to breath. I placed a hand on his face and looked around trying to think of what to do. That's when I thought of the intubator Henry was wearing. "Stay with me Glenn, I'll be right back. Don't you die on me!" I said and ran to where I threw Henry and saw him trying to get off the net. I climbed onto the net myself and began fighting him to try and get the thing off of him.

I looked down and saw Em pointing his gun at Henry and I yelled down to him. "Don't! We need the intubator to keep Glenn alive!" I yelled and I saw his eyes widen at Glenn's name and he fired but the bullet only hit Henry's skull. I pulled the intubator off of him and met both Em and Maggie at the stairs. They followed me to where Glenn was and Em was at his side pulling his hand to him tightly.

"Don't you leave me." he said and I worked to get the tube down Glenn's throat gently but quickly. Once it was in I squeezed the bag on it and watched in relief as Glenn's breathing became normal again. "That's my baby." Em said and kissed Glenn's forehead gently. I smiled at them then at Maggie and looked back at Glenn as we worked to save him.

MEANWHILE

Rick's POV:

"Carl run now!" I yelled as the fence finally broke and walkers began to get through. We ran as fast as we could and got through the door just as the walkers caught up to us and shut the door. I looked at Carl then we took off and we headed for the tubs with guns in them. I pulled two automatic riffles out and handed one to Carl and began telling him how to use it just as the walkers got through the other fence.

We began firing and taking down walker after walker and before long every walker that had gotten in was died. I looked over and Carl and smiled at him as we grabbed poles in order to stab the walkers that may still be alive. As we did this Carl looked up and pointed at something.

"Dad look!" he yelled and I turned and felt relief seeing a car pulling up to the prison. I ran down and pulled the gate up to let them in and closed it. Once that was done I ran to the car, threw open the passenger door, and pulled Daryl tightly to me. He held me just as tightly and we both pulled back just enough to pull Carl to us.

"Thank God you're safe." I told him and he looked up at me.

"Thank God you two are safe." he said and I leaned down and kissed him. When I pulled back I looked at him.

"Were you able to find anything?" I asked and he smiled at me. I smiled back and looked at Michonne. "Let's get this to the people that really need it." I said and led the way up to cell A.

The next morning found me and Carl heading to the farm. I looked over and smiled when I saw Hershel getting into the jeep with Michonne to help her out and looked the other way to see Daryl and Brian walking to us. "How are they?" I asked and Daryl smiled at me.

"We're giving to everyone as we speak. It appears to be working, Glenn's breathing on his own and is stable." he said and I sighed in relief and smiled at him then at Brian only for it to turn to confusion when I saw his face.

"Brian?" I said and he looked at me and sighed.

"We gave the cure to Justin, but, it just doesn't seem to be reacting the same way as it did with the others who were given it." he said and I just stared at him.

"What do you mean?" I asked feeling dread enter me.

"I mean, that he should be stabilizing like Glenn did, only he's still the same." he said and I just stared at him.

"I'm sure he'll be fine Bri, this is Justin we're talking about after all." I said and we all laughed at that. "Carl and I are going to the farm. We'll catch up later." I said and kissed Daryl quickly before walking with Carl to the farm.

I was very happy to see that the plants looked ripe. I pulled down some green beans and opened them and gave one to Carl to eat and we both made a noise that clearly said it was good. I smiled down at Carl as we ate and silently prayed Justin would be ok.

And during all of this no one saw the Governor standing just outside the prison watching us in the shadows.

 

"Talk"

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Six: The Family Separates Yet Again

Brian's POV:

I quietly walked into Justin's cell and sat on his bed as gently as possible as to not wake him and stared at him as I began to pet his head lovingly. "Why won't you get better like the others Sunshine?" I whispered to him and continued to pet his hair. I sat there for awhile before I heard Justin groan and turn into my touch. I smiled at him and felt it grow when Justin opened his eyes and looked up at me.

"Morning." he said sleepily and I smirked at him.

"Morning yourself, you feeling any better?" I asked going back to be concerned.

"I'm ok." he said and I sighed.

"That's not what I asked." I told him and he looked away from me and at the wall in front of him.

"I feel like a got hit with a semi." he said and I nodded feeling my worry grow. Everyone else that was infected with this sickness is well on their way to being healthy again, most of them just really weak, but Justin just won't get better. No matter how much of the medicine he takes he just seems to get worse. Not to mention his mark's looking swollen and red which causes more worry.

"Just relax baby. We'll have you feeling better, once we know how, and you'll be healthy and back to killing walkers in no time." I told him smiling. My smile turned into a frown though when Justin refused to look at me. "Sunshine look at me." I said but he refused to move. I sighed and gently grabbed his chin and made him look at me.

"What you thinking baby?" I asked and he just sighed and looked back up at me.

"I don't think there is a way to heal this." he whispered and I gave him a confused, worried look.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked and he went to answer but was hit with a coughing fit. I helped him to lay on his side and rubbed his back as he continued to cough. Once he was done he took a big breath and let it out as he laid back down to face me.

"I mean, that I would've been about the same as Glenn by now if I was going to be healed from this. I think that I'm not going to make it out of this one." he said and I pulled him up and held him tightly to me.

"Don't you fucking talk like that Justin. I lost you once, I couldn't handle it if I lost you again. We will find something that works and you will get better." I said sternly and pulled back so I could stare at his face. He nodded at me but I could see it in his eyes that he didn't believe me at all. I sighed and lifted his head and kissed him lightly on the lips. Justin quickly pulled back then and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Brian, what if I get you sick?" he asked and I smiled at him and pulled him into a deeper kiss.

"We have the medicine, plus I wouldn't give up any chance to kiss you for a silly flu." I said and he gave me a small smile. It wasn't a sunshine smile, but it was still good to see him smile. "You go back to sleep Sunshine, I'm going to go find Rick and see what all we need to do. Hershel's helping Mich right now but once he's back he'll bring you your medicine." I said and he nodded then laid back down and was instantly asleep.

I smiled at him one last time before getting up and walking out of his cell, locking it so no one could get in except those who had keys, and left to find Rick.

Rick's POV:

"What the fuck Rick." Daryl said pacing in front of me. I sighed and shook my head.

"I had to babe, she killed David and Karen, she's wasn't safe to have around." I told him gently and he stopped to look at me.

"So you just throw her out on the road? She's family Rick!" he said and I shook my head.

"I didn't throw her out on the road babe, she has a car with supplies. She's strong now, she'll survive. I know she's family, but she killed two people without even giving them a chance to get the medicine. What if she did that to someone else? Like Glenn, or Sasha, or even Justin? What if she had decided that Justin still being sick was a reason to kill him to keep the rest of us safe?" I asked him and he stopped and looked at me.

"I wouldn't have let her get near our family, especially Justin." he said and I nodded at him and walked up and wrapped my arms around his waist to him closer.

"Exactly, I couldn't risk that. Now, Ty still doesn't know, I was planning on going to tell him now. Ty is another reason I couldn't let her come back. Ty would've killed her for killing Karen which in turn would make us kill him for killing her. It was safer for her away from here. She'll find another group and be safe, maybe we'll cross paths again someday, but for now I had to send her away." I told him and he looked at me before sighing and nodding his head.

"I guess you're right." he whispered then looked back up at me. "I'm going with you to tell Ty." he said and I looked at him ready to argue but the look in his eyes told me I wouldn't win. I sighed and nodded my head and led him down the stairs to find Ty.

Daryl's POV:

"Rick, over here!" Ty yelled and we looked at each other before jogging in the direction of Ty's voice. When we found him he ran up and nodded behind him. "Come look at this!" he said and Rick sighed but nodded.

"We will, but first we have to tell you something." he said but Ty shook his head.

"It can wait, this is important." he said and took off. Rick looked at me and sighed then we took off after him. Once he stopped he turned to us and pointed at something in front of him. Rick and I walked up to stand by Ty and I felt my eyes widen.

"What the fuck?" I asked and knelt down to get a better look at the squirrel that had its stomach cut open and held open so that its insides could be seen.

"I bet that the one that killed Karen and David did this." Ty said and I stood back up slowly and looked at Rick who looked at me then sighed and looked back at Ty.

"I don't think that the one that did this is the one that killed them." he said and Ty looked between us confused.

"Why?" he and Rick sighed again and went to answer but there was a loud bang that echoed everywhere.

"The fuck was that?!" I asked and Rick took off with Ty and me right behind him.

Brian's POV:

I was looking around the prison trying to find Rick or even Daryl when a loud bang echoed and the prison shook knocking me into the wall. 'The fuck?!' I thought and looked up when Rick, Daryl and Ty came running to me. "What's going on?" I asked and they shook their heads.

"No idea." Rick said and, together, we all ran outside where we met more or our family out their.

To say we were shocked to see James and the Governor standing outside the gates with a tank, cars, and people would be an understatement.

"Nice to see you all again." the Governor yelled to us but no one answered him.

"Why don't you come on down Rick, we have much to discuss." James yelled and I growled at seeing the bastard for the first time.

'So this is the bastard that hurt Sunshine.' I thought and my growl grew, as did Daryl's, when Merle stepped around a truck and stared at us.

"I don't make the decisions anymore, there's a counsel now!" Rick yelled and they all just stared at us.

"Is Hershel a member of that counsel?" Governor asked and, to all our horror, Hershel and Michonne were forced out of one of the trucks and onto their knees. "You come down now, or they die." he said and I looked at Rick who looked at Daryl then at me. Daryl and I nodded at him and Rick sighed before kissing Daryl and pushed Carl between us and walked to the gates and Daryl let him out then took his place on the other side of Carl.

"We should take them out now." Carl said with his gun aimed at the enemy like the rest of us. Daryl and I looked at each other then at him.

"It's too risky. If you miss they'll shoot and your dad, Hersh, and Mich will be the first ones dead." Daryl said and Carl looked at him.

"I'm a good shot. We should take them out now." he said and neither Daryl nor I answered him. We just went back to watching Rick as he walked closer to the fence.

"You're father's strong." I finally said and no one spoke up to deny that.

Rick's POV:

"Alright I'm here, let them go and we'll talk for as long as you want." I begged wanting to get Hershel and Michonne to safety. James smirked at me and shook his head.

"No, see, they're the perfect way to keep you from firing at us and to give what we want, which is for you to leave." Governor said and I looked between him and James then at the others.

"Is this really what you guys want? Please, drop your weapons now and walk through those doors and you become one of us. We look out for our people, you'll be safe here, you don't have to do this." I begged them and I could see that they all were really thinking about doing just that.

"Don't listen to him, remember, these people have the cure and they don't share it with the world." James said smirking at me and I growled at him.

"You will not get this prison or him." I said and James chuckled as the Governor jumped off the tank and held Michonne's sword to Hershel's neck. I felt myself pale and I could hear the others behind me shouting to leave Hershel alone.

"Let's try this again. Give us what we want and we'll let them live. Are you really going to risk your people for a building and a weapon?" Governor asked and I growled at him and clinched my fists at my sides to keep myself from reaching for my gun.

"He's no weapon he's a person! And everyone here is willingly to fight for this place and him." I said straight to James then looked at the Governor in pity. "There has to be a way for us to be able to live together. Look, we'll give your people half the prison and we'll take the other. We don't have to see or talk to each other until we're ready to. James wouldn't be able to stay here or Merle, but you and your people can if you're willingly to start over." I told him and I could tell he was really thinking about it.

"People change Governor," I said and he looked back at me, "We've lost our fair share of people we loved, but we were able to come back, everyone is able to come back. You don't have to do this, please, let them go and walk through that gate and I promise you'll be one of us. You can come back to yourself." I begged and the Governor looked from me, to Hershel, then to James and back to me and his gaze hardened.

"Lair." was all he said and lifted the sword up ready to give the final blow.

"NO!" I yelled and reached for my gun but before he was able to even hit Hershel something fast rammed into him knocking him to the ground.

Everyone was silent as we all stared at a panting Justin. Justin looked to Michonne and Hershel and used Mich's sword to cut their binds and handed her sword to her. "Get to the gate now." he said and the stared at him in shock still before Justin pushed the two of them and made them run.

Getting out of my shock I followed them and let them in once they got to the gate and waited for Justin to come but I could see he was having a hard time breathing.

That was when the tank plowed into the fence.

Before anyone knew it the group was being split up and a war had started. And in that whole time I lost sight of Justin.

Brian's POV:

"NO!" I yelled as I got out of my shock and saw the tank heading this way. I grabbed Carl and Daryl followed us as the group got separated. I caught sight of Em and yelled for him.

"Get as many people onto the bus and out of here as quick as you can!" I told him and he nodded and instantly grabbed Hershel, who had made it back to us, and Deb and they began herding people to the bus.

Emmett's POV:

"Please don't leave us Em!" Beth begged and I smiled softly at her.

"Stay on this bus. I'm getting Glenn then we'll head out." I said and ran off the bus before she could say anything.

I ran into the prison and avoided the derby as the tank blew it up. I looked up and saw Glenn slowly making his way down the steps and I ran to him and let him lean completely on me and took off just as the wall blew up right where Glenn was.

I led Glenn to the bus and saw that no one had left the bus and sighed in relief and that's when I noticed that a good chunk of our family was fighting. I looked down at Glenn, who I had sat in the front booth and smiled at him before leaning down and kissing him. "Stay here." I told him and ran off the bus to go help the others trying to ignore Glenn's pleas for me to come back.

Andrea's POV:

"Em have you seen my sister?!" I asked as Em helped me take down a guy that tackled me to the ground. He ran over and helped me up as he nodded.

"She's safe on the bus. She was making her way to Glenn when I left to come find you guys." he said and I sighed in relief at hearing that my sister was safe for the moment.

"Was Justin on there?" I asked him and felt my heart drop when he shook his head.

"No ones been able to find him seen he saved Hershel and Michonne." he said and I looked around trying, and hoping, that we'd get lucky and see him. When I didn't I sighed and looked back at Em to say something but we had to duck once someone shot at us. We turned and began to shoot the three people that had snuck up on us and I turned when I heard the bus moving and looked at Em.

"We just have to hope that it's one of ours driving that bus. For now let's go find the others and get out of here. We've lost the prison." Em said sadly and I nodded and watched the bus get smaller and prayed that all those people were safe.

As we ran around trying to find more of our family we heard a scream and turned to see that Bob had been shot and that Maggie and Sasha were looking him over. We ran up to them and knelt down so we didn't get hit either.

"I'm fine. It was clean so we can patch it up, for now let's get the hell out of here." Bob said and Maggie looked at us with fear in her eyes.

"What about the others, was Justin on the bus?" she asked and knew that that question was on everyone's mind. Her face fell, as did Sasha's, when we shook our heads.

"We can't leave until we find the others." Sasha said and Em sighed making us all look at him.

"As much as I want to stay here and look for them it's no longer safe. We need to get out of here and just believe we'll be able to find each other again." Em said and the rest of us looked at each other before nodding sadly and, together, Maggie and Sasha helped Bob up and we left the prison for the last time.

Daryl's POV:

"Where's Carl?!" I asked as Bri stayed where he was shooting as I used the walker that tried to get me as a shield.

"He was right behind us!" he said and I sighed before throwing the dead walker and we made a run for it as I threw a grenade into the tank and the guy, who reminded me a lot of Shane which made me want to kill him, jumped out just as it blew up. As he stood up Bri and I aimed at him and when he turned I shot him in the heart and he fell dead. Bri walked up and shot his head to make sure he didn't come back and looked at me.

"We need to find Rick, Carl, Justin, and the others." he said and I nodded and looked at the field and felt my heart sink when I saw Rick and the Governor fighting.

"We have to go help him!" I yelled but before I could move James turned the corner and punched me in the face. As I fell Bri pulled his gun out but James pointed his at me.

"Now from what I hear you two, plus that brat and his father down there, are my weapon's most important people. Because of that I'll be needing you two to come with me." James said we both growled at him.

"Fuck you!" Brian yelled and I watched James' eyes harden.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear, come with me now or he dies." James said and Brian looked at me with worry. I shook my head telling me not to give in and before anyone could speak someone else did.

"Wait!"

Justin's POV:

'Ugh my head.' I thought as I tried to follow Michonne and Hershel back to the prison I heard the tank move and turned to see it plow threw the fence and everyone began to fight.

With the little strength I still had I moved around the people quickly and made to go find Brian.

I looked forever and was about to give up and go help Rick when I saw him fighting the Governor when I heard James' voice. I followed and saw that he had his gun pointed at Dar and Bri pointing his at James.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear, come with me now or he dies." James said and Brian looked at Daryl with worry. Before they could do anything I moved on instinct to help two of the most important people to me.

"Wait!" I yelled and they all turned to me. I walked out of my hiding spot, hands up, and looked right at James. I could hear Bri and Dar telling me to run but I kept my attention on James and tried to not tip over. 'God I feel awful! But I have to get them out of here.' I thought and James laughed.

"Well that was easier than I thought it would be." he said and I just kept staring at him.

"Let them go. It's me you want." I said and James laughed again.

"And why should I?" he asked smirking and I glared at him.

"Let them go and I'll go with you willingly." I said and his eyes got a crazed look in them and he laughed louder while Brian and Daryl yelled the protests.

I saw Dar get up off the ground and before I could stop him he launched himself at James tackling him to the ground. "Run!" Daryl yelled and grabbed my arm and pulled me behind me and Brian. I tried to keep up with them, but I could feel myself getting weaker.

"Guys stop." I gasped out and luckily they heard it. They stopped and I instantly fell to the floor.

"Hold on a little longer Sunshine. We'll get what's left of the medicine then we'll get out of here and find our family ok." Brian said as he and Dar knelt down and I fell into Brian's arms.

"Please, you guys get out of here. I'm to weak and I'll slow you down." I said and I felt Brian tense and saw Daryl tense.

"Hell no!" they both yelled and I smiled weakly at them.

"You two are too much alike." I whispered and I heard Brian sigh above me and the next thing I knew I was in his arms and we were heading for the prison. Brian sat me down behind the bleachers and glared at me.

"You stay here you hear me? I'm going to open the door for Dar and we'll be right back. I'd stay here but Daryl needs help and it's just the three of us for now." he said and I sighed and nodded as I watched the three of them run to the door.

I sat there for about two minutes when I felt a knife being placed on my neck. "Don't you try anything stupid pretty boy." a voice said and I tensed at it. "Good to see you remember me." Merle said laughing and I turned to glare at him.

"Fuck you!" I said and he glared at me and smacked me across the face.

"Get up!" he said and forced me stand up and pulled me away from Brian and Daryl I went to yell for them but Merle covered my mouth.

"Aha, I wouldn't do that. You told James you'd come willingly if he let them go, now it's your turn to hold up your end of that deal." he said and I slumped against him at his words. I stared at the door sadly as we got further from it.

'Goodbye Brian, Daryl. Find the others and stay alive. I love you all.' I thought as we turned the corner and I could no longer see the door.

Rick's POV:

'Oh God I'm going to die!' I thought as the Governor tightened his grip around my neck. Just as my world started to go black his hands loosened and I rolled from him gasping for air. When I was able to breath semi-normal I turned and watched Michonne pull her sword out of the Governor's body. He fell and she stared at him before coming over and helping me up.

"W-where's D-Daryl and C-Carl?" I asked trying to catch my breath still.

"I don't know Rick, but we'll find them." she said gently and I pushed myself from her to start for the prison as she stared at the Governor before coming up to follow me.

I slowly made my way up and fell a couple of times but Michonne helped me up each time. "Carl!" I yelled and looked around. "Daryl!" I tried and saw a walker coming at us but he fell and there was Carl holding his gun from where he shot the walker.

I cried in relief and pulled him tightly to me. "Thank God!" I said and he just nodded.

"Where's Pop?" he asked and I shook my head now completely worried for Daryl. I kept looking around for him, leaning on Carl a lot, and calling out for him as Carl and Michonne followed my example and called for him.

We turned a corner and I looked to my right and started to cry in joy all over again.

Daryl's POV:

"I got the medicine. Let's get Justin and go. I need to find Rick and Carl." I told Brian completely worried for my boys now. Brian nodded in understanding and let the door fall once I was safely through and when we turned we jut stopped.

"Where the fuck is Justin?!" Brian yelled and looked around wildly as I did the same. We ran around calling for him and when we turned a corner I saw Michonne, Carl, and Rick and felt tears come to my eyes as I ran straight for them. I felt fear enter me though when I saw that Rick was beaten rather badly. Once I was close enough I wrapped my arms around Rick then pulled Carl to us and just held them.

"Thank God you two are ok." I said and he just nodded and pulled me closer to him. He pulled back to look at Brian, leaning on my fully now, and we saw that Brian looked both relieved and worried.

"Where's Justin?" Rick asked and Brian and I looked down.

"Pop?" Carl asked with obvious worry and Brian and I sighed.

"We don't know, we lost him." I said and Carl's eyes widened with tears and I felt Rick tense.

"FUCK!" Brian yelled and kicked a rock as hard as he could.

"W-we have to go. It's not safe here." Rick said and Brian looked ready to say something when we heard laughing.

"I'd listen to officer friendly over there queer boy." came James' voice which made me, Rick, Brian, Carl, and Michonne growl in anger and I pulled Carl behind me and Rick and in front of Michonne so she could get him to safety if needed.

"I'll fucking kill you!" Brian yelled and went to go at James but Rick stopped him.

"Haha, do you really think it's wise to threaten the man who holds your lovers life in his hands?" he asked and we all tensed then. "That's right, as we speak Merle's already got him loaded into a truck and headed for my lab, which surprisingly is exactly as I left it all those months ago." James said and all our eyes widened in fear.

"J-Justin's sick though, and we're the ones with the cure for it. If you don't want to lose him then take us to him!" Brian yelled and we all got confused when James laughed harder at his words.

"I know Justin's sick. And I also know why he can't be cured with the medicine you have." he said and we just kept staring at him. "Justin's sick because the virus that's been contained because of the anti-virus in him is losing the battle. Whatever this new bug is it's killing Justin and no one, not even me, can stop it. I just want him now so I can make another weapon correctly when he dies." James said and I think each of us were hit with a bolder then.

"You fucking lair!" Brian yelled and actually ran at James and punched him breaking his nose.

"Ah, you fucking prick!" James yelled and ran at Brian but Brian got his knife out and slashed it across his face. "Ahhh!" James yelled and stumbled backwards holding his face. When he looked up he glared at Brian with such hatred you could've cut through it with a butter knife.

"I know for a fact you won't let Justin die. Even if he is dying you won't let him because you need him for whatever plan you have in that fucked up brain of yours. No matter how long it takes we will find your lab and we will save Justin." he said and I looked at Brian with pride.

James glared for a few more seconds before smirking at something behind Brian, who moved just in time for a truck to pass him. the passenger door opened and James walked to it and climbed in before looking back at Brian.

"I look forward to our next meeting Brian Kinney." he said and we all glared at him.

"You'll die in our next meeting." Brian said and James just smirked and closed the door and the truck sped out of there. We stood there for a moment before a shot was heard and we turned to see a girl from the other group had shot the Governor.

"At least that fucker's finally dead." I said and we silently made our way into the woods and away from the prison as walkers swarmed it.

Carl had tried to stop and look back at the home we had for the past year now but both Rick and I stopped him.

"Don't look back Carl, don't look back." Rick said and I just pulled him closer to me and let Carl take my free hand in comfort.

Together, the five of us walked away from the one safe place we'd known for awhile with a goal to save Justin and get back with the others.

'I just hope we all survive this, things just got worse.' I thought as we traveled further into the woods.

"Talk"

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Seven: Don't Look Back

Daryl's POV:

Everyone was walking in silence, as everyone was still in shock, and Carl was walking a little more ahead of us. Rick was leaning on me for support and keeping an eye on Carl the whole time.

"Carl slow down." Rick tried to yell but it came out hoarse and pain filled. "Carl stop." he tried again his voice a little stronger and Carl stopped then.

"We have to stay together." he said and left my side to walk to Carl. He placed a hand on Carl's shoulder and turned him to look at him and all there was in Carl's eyes was anger and sadness. Rick let Carl go then and he took off ahead of us as I walked back to Rick's side and let him lean on me again.

I looked over at Brian and saw that he was just staring at Carl before before looking at us.

"Where should we go" he asked and I could here the dullness in his voice despite him acting tough. I shook my head at him and looked at Rick when he coughed some.

"I don't know Bri. Mich, catch up to him and don't let him get to far ahead." I told her and she nodded and jogged up to Carl. I sighed and looked back at Rick who looked ready to pass out. "Wherever we're going we need to get there soon. Rick needs to rest." I said and he nodded and walked up to Carl and Michonne.

"We-we need to get food and supplies." Rick said and I looked back at him.

"We will babe, we just need to find a place for you to rest." I told him and walked up to the others as we continued on.

We came across a Joe's barbecue place and stopped in front of it. "Carl keep watch, we'll clear it out." Rick said and Carl glared at him.

"You keep watch. You can barely stand, no way am I letting you go in there." he said and Rick got a hard look as did I.

"What did you say." Rick asked and Carl looked at him.

"We've done this before. I'm helping clear it out. Should let me just do it myself." he said and we all stared at him. He looked at all of us then back at the door and waited for it to be opened. I sighed and opened the door and we all charged in.

There was one walker that was trapped by chairs and tables piled on top of each other.

"I got him." Carl said and aimed his gun but Rick stopped him.

"No, he's weak. We'll lure him out." he said and grabbed a ax that was on a note asking someone to finish what he couldn't. Brian and I readied ourselves at the pile and yanked them apart when Rick gave the signal. He stabbed the walker in the head only he was to weak to do real damage and it was still going for him.

Carl then held up his gun and aimed for the walker. "Carl no!" Rick and the rest of us yelled but he fired any. The walker fell and we all looked at him.

"We said no." Rick said and Carl just starred at him. "Every bullet counts. We could've used that later." he said and walked into the kitchen to look for supplies as did the rest of us.

When we got back together we all had a few things of food and Carl had a good amount. He placed it in the bag and smirked at us.

"I win." he said and walked off. The four of us looked at each other before Brian picked up the bag and we all followed him out.

We walked for a few more hours before Rick called to Carl.

"Hey." he said but Carl kept walking.

"Carl stop right now." I said sternly and he stopped instantly.

We walked up to him and Rick nodded at a house. "Here's as good as any." he said and we walked up to it. Michonne broke the door open and we swarmed in guns and weapons ready.

We walked around looking for walkers and Carl went down a hallway by himself. "Carl stop." Rick said and Carl looked back at him but kept walking.

"It's ok, all the doors are open door here." he said.

"I said stop." Rick said sternly and Carl stopped and turned and glared at him.

"Hey asshole! Hey shit face! Hey asshole!" Carl kept repeating loudly while hitting the wall beside him hard.

"Watch your language!" Rick said and Carl just stared at him.

"Are you kidding me? If they were down there they'd have already come out." he said and walked upstairs leaving the rest of us alone. He came back at few minutes later with a cord and walked to the door. Rick was working on getting a couch pushed to the door while Carl was tying the cord to the door shut and he stopped and looked at Rick.

"It's a strong knot you don't have to do that." he said and Rick kept pushing the couch and I walked over to help as did Brian.

"Just to be extra safe." he said and Carl glared at him.

"It's a strong knot. Shane taught it to me, remember him?" Carl asked and I stood up real fast at that.

"That's enough Carl! You don't speak to him like that!" I said and Rick's hand stopped me as he still looked at Carl.

"Ya I remember him, everyday. You have something else to say to me?" Rick asked Carl and Carl moved out of the way and we got the couch at the door.

"Get some sleep." Rick said and Carl walked out of the room.

I sighed and helped Rick laying down on the couch and kissed him gently. "Get some rest, I'm right here if you need me." I told him and he nodded and fell asleep.

I looked over and saw that Michonne had fallen asleep on a chair and Brian had moved to the window and just looked outside. Carl came back with a mattress and laid down with his back to us and fell asleep. I sighed and stood up and walked over to Brian.

"How you holding up?" I asked and he sighed.

"Honestly, I feeling as if half of me was taken away. Everything we've known as safe for so long is gone and our family is split up." he said and I nodded and looked outside.

"Not to mention Justin now once again in James' hands." I said and instantly regretted it when Brian stiffened. "Sorry." I said and he shook his head.

"It's ok. He maybe the love of my life, but he's important to all of you as well. We'll get him back though, and I'll have James' life with him." he said in a growl and I smiled at him and patted his shoulder.

"Let's get some sleep." I said and he nodded and we both walked over and laid down on the floor by the couch.

Neither of us knew Carl was really listening to us.

Carl's POV:

The next morning I was the first one to wake and I turned and just looked at everyone. 'How can they act like everything's fine?' I asked myself and stood up to get the cereal bag we had found and just stared at dad who was sleeping on the couch. I shook my head and walked into the kitchen to pour my a bowl and began to eat. As I ate I looked back at were the others were and sighed before pouring them all a bowl for when they woke up. I walked upstairs with my bowl and read a book that I had found for a little while.

After a while I got bored and walked back down stairs to if anyone was awake. No one was and I looked back at dad and got the feeling that something was wrong. I walked over to him and just stared. "Dad?" I said and he didn't move. I nudged him a little but he didn't move. I knelt down and began to shake him harder. "Wake up!" I yelled and repeated it as I shook him more and more.

My yells must have woken the others because the next thing I knew I was being pushed to Brian and Daryl was taking my place on the couch.

"Rick? Rick baby open your eyes." Daryl begged and shook him a little yet he did nothing. Daryl checked his pulse and sighed in relief. "He's alive, I think his wounds just caught up with him is all." he said and everyone, besides me, sighed in relief.

I gently pulled from Brian's arms and everyone jumped a little when banging and growling came from the front door. Before anyone could move I was heading for the back door.

"I'll get them." I said quietly and Brian's hands on my shoulder stopped me.

"I'll go with you." he said and I turned and glared at him.

"I got it, just let me do this alone." I said and yanked away from him and walked out the door ignoring the others calling me.

I walked outside and quietly walked around the house while looking to see if there were more. When I got to the front door I saw that only two were there and no others were around which was good. I smirked and walked up behind them then checked one last time that no other walkers were around then turned back to them.

"Hey you!" I yelled and they turned to me growling. "Fresh meat, come this way." I said and backed up as they came to me. "That's it, come on, this way, just keep looking at me." I kept saying as I backed up more from the house with them following me. I eventually got far enough from the house and turned a corner only to find a third walker coming at me.

Freaked at this point I looked between them all and began to shoot them. One came at me and I shot its head just as it went to bite me and it fell on top of me. The next one came up and I was able to shoot it a little easier only it fell on me as well. The third was harder to kill but I was able to and it too fell on top of me.

Once they were all dead I laid there for a moment trying to catch my breath then I slowly pulled myself out from under them. Once I was free I stood up then threw up what little I had in my stomach then walked back to the walkers.

"I win." I said then walked back to the house.

When I got back I noticed that no one was around and my dad was still laying on the couch with no sign of waking up soon. "I killed two walkers, they were at the door." I told him and glared. "I still know how to survive. I didn't forget while you had us playing farmer. You just froze." I told him and moved to stand beside him. "I don't need you. I don't need you to protect me anymore. You probably couldn't have anyway! You couldn't protect anyone! You couldn't protect..." I stopped and took a breath to keep the tears at bay then looked back at him. "Glenn, Maggie, Em, Linds, Mel... Or Justin." I yelled at him. "All you wanted to do is plant vegetables. You wanted to hide. You knew they knew where we were and you didn't care! You just hid behind those fences and..." Once again I had to pause to to calm down.

"They're all gone now, because of you! They counted on you, you were their leader!" I yelled and stared at him before sitting down on the floor and leaned against the couch with my legs pulled to me. "And now you're nothing." I said then started to cry. I whipped the tears away and stood up and emptied our bag and looked at him. "I'd be fine if you died." I said then turned to leave only to see the others starring at me.

I just starred at them for a moment before pushing past them and out the door. Not really caring if I got followed or not.

Brian's POV:

"He's so grounded when he gets back!" Daryl yelled and I chuckled a little and looked at him.

"I think he just needed to let off some steam is all. We all keep forgetting he's still a kid, this whole thing's affected him differently than it did for us. He knows this wasn't Rick's fault. The prison taken and the family divided to God knows where and Justin going throw God knows what right now, none of it's his fault." I said and Daryl sighed but nodded and looked at me.

"You know, I thought we'd lose you within yourself again after this." he said and I smirked a little at that and looked at Rick.

"Apart of me wants to, but I know that won't be good right now and of no help. I just keep thinking of seeing everyone, seeing him, again and it helps me move forward." I said and Daryl patted my shoulder.

"We'll see everyone again. I know we will." he said and I smiled at him and nodded.

"You go to Rick, I'll go bring Carl back." I said and Daryl looked ready to argue but I stopped him. "Carl's not going to listen to you right now because you're his other father. Right now he needs someone else, like an uncle." I said smirking and he laughed.

"Alright, but you both come back safely." he said and I nodded and made to follow Carl.

Carl's POV:

I was sitting on a roof eating 120 oz of pudding after just escaping a walker who was currently trying to reach me from the barely opened window.

I looked toward the house we were staying at and saw Brian walking to me. I sighed and looked away though I knew he was walking up closer to me.

"What are you doing up there?" he asked and I looked at him and held the pudding can up and he laughed. "Can I come up?" he asked and I looked at him before nodding and pointing at the window he could use safely. Not long after that was Brian sitting down beside me holding a spoon and got himself a spoonful of pudding.

"I like pudding." he said and I laughed a little at that before looking back out at the trees. "Mind telling me why you just went off on your very injured dad?" he asked and I sighed.

"Are you asking me, or just making seem like a question?" I asked and his arm went around my shoulders.

"You tell me." he said and I looked at him then sighed yet again.

"I went off because I'm angry. I'm angry our home got taken, angry our family is split up for the first time, and I hate knowing Justin's in more danger than any of us. I'm angry at the Governor and James for causing this, and I guess I'm angry at dad. Angry that he didn't see any of this coming." I said and looked down. Brian grabbed my chin to make me look at him and I saw him smiling softly.

"First off, Justin, along with all the others, will be alright and I know all of us will find each other again. I don't when or how, but we will and each of us stronger than ever. Second off, don't blame Rick for this. He didn't know this would happen, none of us did. He loves you and wants to keep you safe. We all love you Carl, but you've turned into a brat lately and I know Justin wouldn't you acting this way. He loved Rick as a father and you a little brother. Don't shut us out Carl, I know what it's like and it'll slowly kill you if you don't come back. You have Rick and Daryl here, and they love you. You also have me and Mich who love you too." he said and I stared at him in shock before leaning into him and he held me closer.

"It's ok to be angry, we all are, but be angry for the right things." he said and I nodded and just stayed in his protective hold.

We stayed like that for a while before I sifted and looked back at the trees. "Do you think Justin's ok?" I asked and Brian stiffened before relaxing and sighing.

"I don't think, I know. James won't let him die, not while he still needs him." he said and I nodded and felt tears at the thought of my brother. He, if I were honest with myself, is what's what really got me angry and hurt. I know the others can fend for themselves and so can Justin, but not how he was before this. I just want him here, he'd know what to do, he'd be able to help me.

"Let's get back to your fathers, I'm sure they're worried by now." he said and I nodded and let him help me up and out of the house back to our family.

LATER THAT NIGHT

Carl's POV:

Later that night the others went to find more food while I stayed and watched dad. I guess I had fallen asleep at some point because I was woken up by something, though I don't know what. I looked to dad and realized he was the cause. His hand moved some and I jumped away and got my gun out as he started to move more then moan. I started to cry as I watched him fall to the floor and crawl to me while groaning. His hand landed on my foot and I dropped my gun and turned my head from him and cried harder.

"I can't, I just can't." I said and cried harder when he leaned up. I expected a bite but I was shocked with something else.

"C-Carl, stay inside, stay safe." dad rasped out before falling onto his back and I crawled right to him and placed his head on my knees and cried. Dad's breathing was labored but he was alive and that's what I cared about.

"I'm scared." I admitted and put my head on his. "I'm scared." I repeated and cried holding my dad.

A little while later dad woke up and I helped him to the couch. "That was brave of you to go and get food for us." he said and I smiled at him.

"I did find more, but I ate it." I said and he looked at me.

"And what was it?" he asked and I laughed and looked at him.

"120 oz of pudding." I said and he chuckled. I felt his hand on my shoulder and I turned to see him looking at me with fondness, pride, and love.

"You've become a man right before me." he said and I smiled brightly at his compliment. We sat there for a while in comfortable silence when we heard the others come back.

"Rick!" they all yelled happily and pop came running to him and knelt right in front of dad and held his face in his hands.

"Thank God you're ok!" he said and dad smiled at him.

"I'm not easily defeated." he said and pop laughed and leaned up and kissed on every inch of his face.

I smiled at them then looked at Brian and Michonne and smiled at them as well.

'Maybe there really is hope.'

 

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Eight: If There's No Hope, Then What is There?

Emmett's POV:

"Em." Andrea called though I just ignored her as I looked out at the stream we were at. "Em, let's stay here tonight. We have the stream to protect our front and the trees are close together we'll something, or someone, coming before they see us." she said and I looked at her.

"Good, you guys stay here, I'm going to look for the bus." I told her and she said and grabbed my arm as I went to leave.

"Em, we have no way of knowing where they went or if they even got out alive. It's suicide to leave this area right now." She said and I glared at her.

"We found Amy and Beth, they were on the bus with Glenn, and if they can survive then he can to." I said and she just looked at me.

"They survived only because we just happened upon them when we left the prison, there's no way they would've been able to had we not found them when we did. Besides, they even said that they had to Glenn to stay with the others while they went to find us. They, just like us, don't know if he's alive and where he is if he is alive." she said and I sighed.

"Stay if you want, look after the others until I get back. If I don't find him before nightfall I'll come back and wait here with you guys until Bob can move again." I said and she just looked at me before shaking her head.

"You just don't get it do you? If you leave we're following. Our family was just separated and we don't know who lived and who didn't, which is a scary thought that any of them didn't, and right now we'll want to stay with the ones we have at our side. We can't lose you too Em." she said and tears sprang into her eyes.

I looked at her then at the others who had started to listen in at this point and saw the same thing in their eyes that was in Andrea's, fear. I sighed then looked at Andrea and smiled. "Alright, but we move quietly." I said and they all smiled and followed me towards the road.

We walked for a few hours until Maggie grabbed my arm and pointed. "Em the bus!" she said in shock and we all looked to see that it was just sitting in the middle of the road.

Slowly, we all walked up to it and walked around looking at the windows hoping for some sign of life. Our fears turned to sorrow when I walker jumped at the window followed by more. "They were all such good people." Amy whispered and I nodded and walked to the back of the bus to open the back door.

"Wait Em there's to many in there!" Beth said and I looked at her then nodded and backed up.

"You guys open the door and let them out one by one. Don't touch them, I need to see their faces." I said and they nodded and stood by the door as I got my gun ready.

They let the first walker out, which was luckily not Glenn, and once it was dead they let the other one out and it went on for about two more walkers when they just charged at the door and the rest came out. We killed them with no problems and when they were all dead we looked at each other.

"Wait, wasn't Deb, dad, Mickey and the others on this bus too?" Maggie asked and we all got scared at that.

"But, they weren't in this herd, do you think they could've gotten out in time?" Beth asked and I looked and her and smiled.

"Knowing Deb she would've saved them all and killed anything that even thought of hurting them. They got out alright. Which means we have some people to find, they couldn't have gotten to far." I said and they all nodded eagerly. I looked back at the bus and took in a deep breath before getting on it.

'Just to be absolutely sure my baby's not here.' I thought and looked around at the mess that used to be our bus. There was a walker trapped and it was right where I had left Glenn and it looked like it was wearing his shirt. Fearing the worse, I lifted all the bodies off of it so it could stand up and when it did and I just looked at it in shock before stabbing it with the knife I had gotten out then sat in the driver's chair and laughed.

'Thank you God, thank you.' I thought and smiled at the others as they climbed into the bus after me.

Glenn's POV:

I woke up with a bad headache and no idea where I was or what had happened. I looked around slowly and realized I was still in the prison and a lot of walkers were under me trying to get me. I stood up slowly and looked around at the mess that used to be our home and felt fear for my family, but I was mainly thinking of one person.

"Em!" I called as loud as I could and no one answered me. "EM!" I yelled a little louder but still no one answered. I took deep breaths and looked at the walkers beneath me and picked up my gun before turning to the door and walked back into the prison ready if a walker popped up.

Thankfully none showed up and I made it to our old cell block and walked right to mine and Em's cell and got out what I deemed important to take with me. I sat down on our bed when I felt dizzy a little and looked up and saw the picture of Em sleeping. I picked it up slowly and smiled sadly at it before holding it tightly in both hands and closed my eyes.

Once I was calm enough I stood up and walked out of the cell block for the last time and didn't look back.

As I was leaving the prison I saw a girl sitting in a closed off area and walkers trying to get her. I looked at her and started to walk away but stopped and looked back at her and sighed.

I killed a few walkers and opened an area for me to get to and moved to her.

"What are you doing here? Who are you?" I asked but she didn't look at me.

"Answer me." I said and she looked at me.

"I'm Terra, but why are you interested?" I asked and I looked at her.

"Because you're trapped and need help." I said and she looked back at the walkers.

"After what we just did to you and your people I don't deserve it." she said and looked back at me. "I'm so sorry." she said and I just looked at her.

"Look, I'm pissed but I'm not evil. I'm not like James or the Governor and I'll help you get out of here, mainly because I need your help which you're going to do." I said sternly and she just looked at me and sighed before nodding and stood up and followed me out of the prison and into the woods towards the road.

We traveled in silence for the most part until we got to the road and saw a group of walkers eating. They looked up at us and came at us but we killed them easy and she looked at me.

"What are you even doing anyways?" she asked and I took a deep breath, I was getting dizzy again.

"I'm looking for my husband, have you seen him? Do you know if he got out? If any of them did?" I asked and held the picture of Em up to her. She looked at it and shook her head sadly.

"Sorry, but I didn't see him and everything got crazy pretty fast and it's hard to say if any of your people made it out alive." she said and I felt sorrow hit me like a bolder.

"He's alive and we're going to find him." I said and turned to walk but she stopped me.

"How do you know he's alive? Everything was so crazy." she said and I turned to her.

"Because I just know. A wise man told me once that life without hope is meaningless. I still have hope and I know that I'll find him again." I told her and she just starred at me.

"I don't think he's alive Glenn. The prison got overrun with biters the second the tank went through the fence. When the Governor died it was just starting to get bad, but once James took his weapon he and his remaining men just left us to die." she said looking at the flooring completely missing my shocked, terrified look.

"J-James got his weapon?" I asked and she looked at me weird but nodded.

"I did get to see him before he was forced into a truck by Merle. He's quite beautiful, though he looked pretty sick." she said and all the breath in me just left right then.

"Justin was beautiful, both inside and out. James' has hurt him one to many times, we have to find Em then the others then we're going to free Justin." I said and went to walk again but she once again stopped me.

"You won't find him, I don't even know where James' lab is. I know the Governor and James left for a few weeks and came back looking very happy and told us that once we got your prison and the weapon-"

"He's a person and his name's Justin." I growled at her and she held her hands up.

"Sorry." she said then picked back up. "Once we got your prison and... Justin... we'd move some of our people to his lab so that everyone could become immune to the virus." she said and I nodded.

"Well, that didn't work. Now, we're going after Em. I need to know he's safe with me before I can focus on anything else." I told her and she just sighed.

"You really do have a lot of hope." she said and I gave her a small smile.

"If there's no hope, then what is there?" I asked. She was about to answer but I growl stopped and we looked to see walkers coming out of the woods. We killed them all only the dizziness won and my world suddenly went black.

Terra's POV:

"Glenn!" I yelled when I saw him fall. I ran over and tried to shake him awake but he wouldn't wake up.

I felt people watching and I looked up to see a truck sitting there. I stood up and glared at it.

"Enjoyed the show assholes?" I yelled and three people walked out.

"You got a mouth on you little lady. What else you got?"

 

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Nine: Those Who Arrive, Survive

Glenn's POV:

I woke up with a bad headache and no idea where I was. When my vision was clear enough I looked around and saw I was in a moving truck with Terra beside me.

"Finally awake." she said smiling as I sat up. We drove by the bus you mentioned, but you were out when we did." she said and I looked at her in sadness and determination.

"How long ago?" I asked.

"About three hours ago." she said and I nodded and started to stand up. "Don't, you just woke up." she said but I ignored her as stood up and banged on the truck once I got my balance.

"Stop the truck!" I yelled and the driver flicked me off. I banged harder and Terra started to bang on the truck too. I grabbed my gun and tried to break the glass only to try and get my balance when it suddenly stopped.

I opened the back of the truck with Terra's help and jumped down while ignoring the people that got out.

"The hell do you think you're doing?!" the guy at the front yelled but I just kept walking. I stopped when I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to face a red haired man.

"Look, we need people, and we're heading to Washington to get this guy there because he knows how this started and possibly how to fix it." he started but I stopped him with a glare.

"I know how it started. Some dumb fuck gave a group of people that call themselves the Peacegivers some drug that they changed and this shit started! I also know they made a cure for it so that's no news to me." I told him and they all looked at each other in shock but I didn't give anyone a chance to speak.

"I got to get back to that bus. My husband's around that area and I need to find him then the rest of our family." I said and turned to walk away with Terra following me.

"You won't find him." the guy said and I stopped but didn't look at him. "Look, I don't care about that you have a husband, I just know you kicked those walkers asses back there and we need people like you. If you're husband really was back there then he's long gone now. Join us, make a difference." he said and I slowly dropped my bag and turned to him.

I stared at him for a moment before I punched me as hard as I could in the face. He fell to the ground and I nearly followed him but I caught myself and stood back up and kept walking. "You bitch!" he yelled and before I knew it we were both on the ground fighting.

The others were trying to get us to stop but neither of us heard them and no one, besides the scientist, saw the walkers coming out. It wasn't until he started to shoot that we saw the walkers and we all got to killing them, needing a release for our anger. When they were all dead we took deep breaths and looked back at the truck.

Red head took the gun from the scientist and threw it back on the truck. "Son of a dick!" he yelled and we all ran to him and saw that holes ran all along the button of the truck.

"Guess we're not going to Washington." I said smirking and red head glared at me.

Mich's POV:

I walked into the kitchen and saw that Rick was standing in the kitchen smiling at me. "Thank you." he said and I looked at him confused. "You made him laugh, something none of us have heard in a while." he said and I smiled at him.

"I think I'm gonna go with Bri, Dar, and Carl to get supplies." I said.

"Alright, I'll go too." he said but I stopped him from leaving. "You're staying here, you were passed out yesterday. You need to rest." I said and he looked at me.

"I've rested enough." he said and I sighed.

"You have a husband and son in there that were just yesterday worrying they had lost you. For them, stay and rest. I know you want to help, but you'll help by staying here." I said gently.

Rick looked at me then sighed before nodding and looking up when Bri and Dar walked into the kitchen. "We're heading out now." Dar said and leaned up to kiss Rick. "You get some rest babe." he said and Rick smiled at him and nodded then pulled Dar close to him.

"You come back safely, all of you." he said looked at us and pulled Carl to him when he walked into the room. Carl didn't say anything, just stood there in the hug.

He let go of his boys and patted Brian on the shoulder and nodded at me. I nodded back and followed the others out but stopped when Rick's hand on my shoulder.

"Make him smile." he said and I turned and smiled at him.

"I'll try." I said and left the house with the others.

We all walked in silence for a while, with me trying to make Carl smile every few minutes and failing badly at it, when we came across a street and picked a random house.

"You know, I used to leave in a place like this." I said as Brian and Daryl walked into a different house to get stuff. Carl looked at me quickly with interest clear in his eyes.

"Really? Were you married? Did you have kids?" he asked and that's when I got a great idea.

"I'll answer one question for each room, but only if after we've cleared it." I said and he sighed but nodded and followed me into a room and looked around. When it was clear Carl turned to me.

"So, were you married?" he asked and I looked at him.

"In a since." I said and he looked confused.

"What's that mean?"

"One room, one question." I said and left the room smirking when I heard him sigh.

We walked into another room and looked around in silence before Carl couldn't help himself. "What about kids?" he asked and I stiffened before relaxing and smiling at him.

"Did we clear the room?" I asked and he looked around trying to find something. He ran over and brought back a big poster size shape.

"Does this count?" he asked and I smiled and took it from him.

"Possibly." I said and he smiled.

"So, did you have kids?" he asked and I sighed.

"Yes, one." I said and walked away.

"What was his name?" he asked and I decided to give him a freebie.

"Andre." I said

"When did it happen?" he asked and I just looked at him. "Sorry." he said and looked at the floor.

"It's ok, it happened right when this started." I said and he looked at me and smiled.

"I bet he's in a better place now." he said and I smiled at him with tears.

"Come on, let's go finish the house." I said and he nodded and walked away. I uncovered the picture he had given me and saw it was a little girl and blood had been added to it. I looked at the door it was in front of and slowly walked over to it ready to attack if needed.

I opened the door quickly and saw a child's room but no walkers. I sighed and looked around the room and thought of my child and walked to the pink door and opened it and saw a family on two beds dead. I felt sad at seeing the parents on one bed and a brother and sister on the other and a woman in a rocking chair facing them.

"Michonne?" I heard Carl call and quickly left the room and shut the door and stood in front of it so Carl wouldn't see it. "What's in there?" he asked as he saw me shut the door.

"Nothing." I said quickly and he looked at me weird.

"Then why are standing in front of it?" he asked walking closer.

"It's a dog." I said hoping he'd buy it because he was upset enough about losing the family, especially his brother. Thankfully a dog barked somewhere nearby and Carl bought the dog story.

"Well, I think we cleared this house. Let's head back to dad." he said and I nodded and looked back at the door when Carl left again.

'That won't be us.' I thought and followed Carl.

Rick's POV:

I walked up the stairs to a bed room and laid down on the bed to red and relax some and possibly take a nap. I was laying down for maybe five minutes when I heard voices downstairs that I knew didn't belong to my family as they just left not ten minutes ago.

Quickly, or as quickly as I could at the moment, I got under the bed then remembered my book and drink and went for them both and got back under the bed just as a guy walked in a laid down on the bed and was snoring within seconds.

It was like this for a while when I decided to try and get out from under the bed when another guy walked in making me move back quickly.

"Hey." he called and woke the guy above me up.

"What." he growled.

"I'm tired." the other one said.

"You woke me up to tell me you're tired?" the guy above me asked.

"This is my bed." the guy said and the one above me huffed.

"There's other beds in this place, go get one of them." he said and rolled over.

"They're for kids. I want this one." he said and the one above me got off and got in the other guys face.

"This one's mine." he growled then they started to fight over the bed and one of them was able to get the other on the floor and was chocking him. The one being chocked looked over and saw me and tried to tell the other guy as I watched him get chocked but he was dead before he could even point me out. The other guy got on the bed and was asleep within seconds like the other one was.

Once I knew he was really asleep I slowly got out from under the bed and ran to the bathroom and closed the door and turned to see a man sitting there in shock. He went to get out of the bathroom but I tackled him and started to strangle him until he died. I cracked the door then opened the window and crawled out the window and jumped off the roof and hid in the bushes when a guy walked out.

I looked over and saw the others coming closer and got scared for them and went to attack the guy but we both heard shots on the other side of the house and a moan and he ran to kill the walkers and I ran to my family.

"Go! Go now!" I yelled and grabbed Daryl's hand when I got close to him and we all ran away from the house.

Glenn's POV:

"How the hell did you manage to kill this truck?!" Red head yelled and the scientist just answered by saying he used the gun poorly making us all huff at him.

"Hey, is this yours?" the girl in shorts asked me and held up my picture of Em. I snatched it from her and gently put it in my pocket and picked my stuff up.

"Look, I'm sorry about your truck and I hope you find a way to Washington, but I'm going back." I said and turned around and started back to where the bus was.

"Wait up!" Terra yelled and caught up to me. Before I knew it I had all of them following me back to the bus.

Red head's POV: (Complete blonde moment obviously but for the life of me I can't remember his name! Hopefully y'all know who I'm talking about and will be nice enough to review with his name as well as the scientist dude lol:p)

I watched as everyone that I had been with for so long follow the newbie willingly back from where we came from and I looked at the scientist. "What do you think?" I asked and he looked at me.

"Follow them. We'll be able to find another ride eventually. Besides, from what that kid told you earlier I'd say he's no longer in Washington. He maybe in his lab, that is if it's still there, and working on his version of helping the human population." he said and I just looked at him.

"How do you know for certain that this is your guy? Or better yet that what you think it is is the cause of all this?" I asked.

"Because I know my older brother. He's the kind of guy that would do something like this thinking it's being helpful. I know that he'd make this because I remember him calling me about finally getting what he'd been looking for for so long. Trust me, if it's anyone that's the cause of this, it's my brother James." he said looking at me before smirking.

"Besides, even if it isn't him and his lab is still there that's where he'll be and I'd like to see him again." he said and walked ahead of me to catch up. I watched him before getting what was needed and ran to catch up to them.

'God this bullshit had better be worth it!' I thought and caught up to Terra.

Rick's POV:

We had been walking for hours now following the train tracks when we came across an abandoned compartment in the middle of the tracks. We all stared up at it in shock when we saw a big sign and the words on it.

"What do you think?" Mich asked to no one in particular.

"Could be worth it." Daryl said and Brian nodded.

I looked at them then at Carl before nodding myself and looked at the sign again.

"Let's go. Let's go." I said and we walked in the direction it pointed to.

SANCTUARY: THOSE WHO ARRIVE, SURVIVE.

 

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Ten: James

James' POV:

"It's not responding well to the medicine we're giving him. It's like it's allergic to every single one of them and we have to fight just to keep it alive. If we want to progress with the subject we need to have it a little more healthier than it is now." Doc. Harold said as he walked up to me.

"Well how close is it to healing? I need my weapon to be perfect and I must get to experimenting in order for me to be powerful." I told him and he sighed but then smirked.

"Truthfully you could start now if you wished. It has no manners at all and I, for one, don't wish to work on it anymore right now. My only suggestion is to not overdue it for a while and only do simple tests because it is still close to dying even as we speak." he said and I smiled at the thought of finally getting back to work.

"Excellent! Where's Merle, he'll want to help me. He knows some ways of... taming... the weapon." I told him and we both smirked at the thought.

"He's actually in the infirmary now pestering all the doctors in there about when he can do just that. I'm sure he'll be pleased to know he can." Harold said and I nodded.

"Send him to me and don't mention anything yet. I need his help with the tests and my weapon, though weaker right now, is still strong enough to fight him off and I cannot risk losing my weapon again." I told him and he ran off to get Merle for me.

I turned back and looked out at the world outside our fence I was currently standing on and reached up to touch the scar on my face.

"The next time we meet Mr. Kinney I will take the revenge I crave." I said aloud and looked over when Merle showed up with a crazed look in his eyes.

"Doc said you needed me." he said and I nodded.

"We're starting our tests right now. We can't do much at the moment as we still run the risk of losing my weapon to the sickness that's going around. We'll do the simple, basic tests today and send him back to Doc. Harold when we're done." I said and looked at Merle and smirked when I saw the disappointment in his eyes.

"Course we were asked to tame it before we send my weapon back. Doc. Harold said it had no manners and I figured I'd let you do the taming of my weapon, how's that sound?" I asked and that crazed look came back into his eyes only this time lust followed it.

"Sounds like something I could handle." he said and I smirked and nodded and led him to get my weapon.

That night the whole area we had blocked off they had for those within it heard screams and cries of agony but not a one lifted a finger to so much as see what was happening. As all of them wanted the weapon to be perfect too.

 

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Eleven: Keep Your Faith Alive

Deb's POV:

Currently me and what little of our family I was able to get off the bus was walking in the woods trying to find a place safe enough to rest for the night.

"Ma, what about over there? We'd have the stream in front of us and the trees seem close enough together that it's nearly impossible to see. Even I'm having trouble seeing in it." Mikey said and I looked to where he was pointing and agreed with him that it was hard to see. I could barely make out the stream he was talking about.

"Alright, let's head that there and we'll make plans for what's to come." I said and led them to the clearing. Once there we all just fell to the ground and sighed completely wore out.

"Deb, what're we gonna do?" Hunter asked as he leaned on Ben's shoulder for comfort.

"We rest here, get some supplies, and go out looking for our family as well as another place to stay at that's safe." Hershel said as he walked up to stand by me. Looking at him now it makes me shudder at how close we were to losing him to the Governor. If it wasn't for Justin Hershel would be dead right now.

I smiled at the thought of Sunshine being held by Brian as they kissed without a care who was watching and Carl running up only to tackle Justin to the ground while he was distracted and Rick and Dar laughing at the scene.

"How do we even know they're alive?" T asked and I looked at him.

"We know because they're all very stubborn people. Even if Beth, Amy, and Glenn got off the bus I know they found the others and everyone's alive. We'll stay in this general area because they all will too and eventually we'll find them again." I told him though he still had doubt in his eyes.

"Have faith T. Everyone's alive I just know it." Mikey said and pulled Gus into his arms when he walked up to him.

"I have faith, I'm just worried. The others left so quick we didn't get to see which way they all went. What if we never see them again? And Justin, once that tank came through the fences no one was able to see him again. The others may have gotten out but he was alone and sick. What if he didn't make it? What if James has him again?" he asked and everyone looked down at that.

"Sunshine's strong. He wouldn't let something like this kill him, trust me that boy's been through a lot in his life, and even if he's alone he's in this area either we find him and make him safe or he'll find his way to Bri and the others. Honestly, him finding Bri is a higher chance than us finding him. It's like those two have a magnetic pull or something." I said and everyone laughed a little at that.

"Deb's right. The others are alive and ok and we'll all find each other again. For now let's look at what we were able to save and send people to get more supplies for tomorrow. This place is safe for now, but I don't like us being the exposed, we need to move and soon before we're found. By the dead or the living though I'd rather take my chances with the dead." I said and the others nodded their agreements and got to doing what I just said to do.

The next morning we all got up and began to walk, towards what none of us knew.

A few hours later of walking in silence Hunter suddenly took off making us all call for him and run after him. When we caught up to him we found some train tracks and a sign that Hunter was looking at.

"Don't ever do that again." Mikey and Ben said firmly and pulled him close to them as we all stared at the sign in shock.

"That's why I ran. I thought I saw something in the distance and this is what I found." he said as we all stared at the map of different ways of getting to a place circle on it.

"Terminus." I said aloud and looked at the note underneath it.

SANCTUARY: THOSE WHO ARRIVE, SURVIVE.

"What do you guys think?" T asked and we all looked at each other.

"If our family's out there then they're heading for this." Ben said and I nodded at him and smiled at Hershel.

"Let's go." I said and everyone nodded and began to walk.

Though, this time with smiles, talking, and a bit of a skip in our steps.

 

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Twelve: Family Brings Out the Best in People

Brian's POV:

"Can't sleep?" Daryl asked from behind me and I turned to him and shook my head.

"Get some sleep if you're tired, I'll keep watch." I said and Daryl sighed and sat by me.

"You've not slept since we left the house three days ago. What's going on in that head of yours that's keeping you from sleeping?" he asked and I just looked at him.

"It's just hard for me to sleep recently is all." I said and he nodded saying he understood. We sat in a comfortable silence for a while before Daryl looked up at the sky.

"I wonder how the others are doing right now." he said and I looked at the sky with him.

"They're all ok. And knowing all of them they're heading for the same thing we are. I know we'll be together with the others soon. And once everyone's safely inside this Terminus I'm turning right back around and looking for my Sunshine." I told and I felt Daryl look at me.

"And I'll be right there to back you up." he said.

I looked at him and smiled and patted his shoulder. "You're a great man." I said but got confused when he looked sad.

"I wasn't always." he said and looked at me.

"You want to know what I did before this shit started?" He asked and I turned to face him fully. No one, save Rick, Carl, and Justin or course, really knew about his past. Sure I knew Dar started me enough, but he's never opened up to me like he has been lately.

"The truth is," he started bringing me from my thoughts, "I just ran with Merle everyday. Did what he said we'd be doing. I was a nobody." he said and I just looked at him.

"Dar I can promise you now you're not a nobody." I told him firmly and he looked at me with doubt. "Look over there Dar. Over there is your husband, the man that loves you more than life itself, and your son lying right next to him that does nothing but love you and look up to you. Over there is Michonne who loves you like a sister and right next to you is me. The man that also sees you as a brother." I told him and he looked around and the places I had pointed.

"Then there's Justin. Who was the first person you opened up to and the first person you trusted. He's your best friend and loves you a great deal." I told him and he smiled at the thought of Justin.

"You're right Bri. I may have been nothing before this, but now I'm a man who has people to live for. Not just you guys and Justin, but the others too. You guys mean everything to me." he said and I smiled at him.

After that we went back to a comfortable silence and just watched the stars. "So what do you think about this Terminus?" Dar asked and I sighed.

"I think it's to big a chance to pass up, but I'm also not getting my hopes up about it either. I want my family safe and if this place does exist then it sounds like the refuge we need. So I think it's worth the chance to go for it." I said and I felt more than saw Daryl nodding beside me.

"Took my thoughts right out of my head." he said and I smirked at him then yawned.

"Well, it looks like I'm actually tired for once. Mind taking over for me?" I asked and he smiled and shook his head.

"Get some rest Bri, see you in the morning." he said and I nodded and laid down beside him and was out instantly.

Daryl's POV:

The next morning I woke Rick up by slowly kissing him on his lips before kissing him a bit more passionately until he moaned which made me laugh and pull back but his hand on the back of my head stopped me from going anything further. "I rather like being woken up like that." he said and I laughed at him and kissed him again.

"Can't you to get a room!" Bri, Mich, and Carl all yelled at the same time which made us both laugh loudly.

"Let's get our things together then we'll head back on the road." Rick said and I nodded and helped him up then walked around making sure we had everything we needed.

Once that was done and we had a small breakfast we grabbed out bags and began to walk towards Terminus.

 

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Thirteen: We Don't Have to Do This Alone

Emmett's POV:

"God this fog's not helping us at all!" I whispered to Maggie who nodded as we all stood in a circle and as walkers growled all around. Suddenly one came out of no where and attacked Sasha who stabbed it in the head and dropped it as more came. We all started to kill walkers and one bit Bob on his arm.

"Bob, no!" Sasha yelled and shot it in the head as I stabbed one that got way to close to biting Maggie on his chest. We all breathed deep breaths to help us calm down as I helped Maggie up and turned to see Sasha hugging Bob.

"Ouch!" he yelled and she pulled back quickly.

"I said ouch, not stop." he said with a smile and she smiled back at him and helped him up. "I'm ok, it got the bandage." he said and we all sighed in relief then.

"We need to get out of here! We can't see and that's not to our advantage!" Andrea yelled and I nodded and looked around.

"We need to wait til we can see again. Leaving in this is just as dangerous now." I told her and she sighed but nodded.

We waited together and once the fog was cleared we got up and walked towards the roads. When we got there Amy stopped and put her hand on my arm to stop me.

"Em, look." she said and I looked up to see a sign that had directions on it. Slowly, we all walked up to it and saw that we were on it's path.

"Terminus." Amy said and Andrea looked above it.

"Sanctuary: Those who arrive, survive. " she read aloud and I looked up at it too.

"What do you think?" Maggie asked and I felt hope.

"We go, our family might be there." I said and Sasha looked at me.

"That's a big risk Em, we don't know if our family's there. Or if any of them lived." she said and I pointed at the map.

"If they're alive they're heading for this. If Glenn's alive he'd go here looking for me looking for him. I say we go." I said and she sighed.

"It's to big a risk. There's no hope that it's even there. Besides, we follow this, how do we even know they'll be other maps?" She asked and Bob laughed.

"Do you really think this is the only one we'll run into? Look, if we need to take a vote we will." he said and stood beside me as did the others.

Sasha looked at all of us and sighed. "We don't have to." she said and began to walk. I smiled at the others and followed her as we headed for Terminus.

A few hours later we all stopped in a clearing and I walked off with Andrea to get firewood while the others stayed behind.

When we came back the others were asleep except Sasha and Bob.

"Look, chances are Glenn's dead, just like the others. I say we follow these tracks until we get to a town and find a tall building and settle there." Sasha said and I looked at her sadly.

"Sasha, I'm not stopping, none of us are." Bob said and laid down to sleep as did Sasha.

"Don't listen to her Em, she just needs time." she said and I nodded and watched her walk away to Amy. I looked at the group and sighed before laying down the wood I was holding, grabbing my stuff, and writing a note in the dirt telling them not to follow me. When that was done I stood and smiled at them once more then left and followed the tracks.

I walked until I found another map and smiled at it and pulled a knife out to write to Glenn when a growl came behind me. I turned and saw a walker coming at me and got a great idea.

I quickly pushed the walker to the ground and stabbed it in the head then cut its stomach open and stuck my hand in and walked back to the wall.

GLENN, GO TO TERMINUS

-EM

I wrote as big as I could and stepped back to look at it. I nodded at it then turned and walked in the direction the map told me to. I did this to the next map I walked up to and when I got to the third one I went to look for a walker only to find a town and a little bit more walkers than I wanted.

I tried to fight them off but it was obvious that my chances of getting out of this alive were dying and fast.

I took down a walker and looked around at the others breathing hard and I knew I was dead.

One walker was coming at me quickly and I just looked at it and jumped slightly when a shot rang out and it fell. I looked up and saw Andrea holding the gun in her hand. I sighed in relief as the others came to help me take down the rest of the walkers. When that was done we all stopped and the others looked at me.

"The hell made you decide to leave us like that?!" Maggie yelled as she walked up to me and pulled me into a hug. I hugged her back tightly and sighed.

"I couldn't let you guys risk yourselves for me." I said and she pulled back only for Beth to hug me.

"We're family Em, we're supposed to risk ourselves for each other. We all love you and we love the others. We'll get to Terminus and the others will be there. And if they're not there when we show up, well, we'll be able to brag about getting there first." she said and I laughed at her as did the others.

"So, we all on board with Terminus?" I asked mainly looking at Sasha.

She smiled at me and nodded. "We're all on board. Took awhile for it to happen, but we're all on board." she said and I smiled at her.

"You don't have to do this alone Em. None of us do." Andrea said and I turned my smile to her and nodded.

"You're right, let's go to Terminus, together." I said and they all nodded and helped me to leave Glenn my message then followed the path the map said to follow.

Glenn's POV:

We were walking for quite a while before we came across some tracks with a sign on them. We walked up to it and I saw something on the wall on the other side of it that had my heart speed up in hope.

GLENN, GO TO TERMINUS

-EM

I walked to the map and saw the path that led us to this Terminus, to my Em. I slowly reached to the map and petted the word on it.

'I'm coming.' I mentally told Em and smiled brightly.

 

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Fourteen: Hope Rises

Deb's POV:

It's currently been two weeks since the prison was taken and the family divided. In that time we've run across three more of those signs leading us to Terminus. We're getting closer, I just know we are.

"Hey Deb, why don't we rest here for the night." T asked and I looked at him and at the others before nodding and began to look for a safe place close by.

"Let's go to that barn over there for the night. It's safer than being out here." I said. The others nodded in agreement and we all headed for the barn.

Later that night everyone was sleeping soundly while I stayed up to keep watch while getting lost in my thoughts. 'What if this place isn't real? What if I'm leading my family into more danger? What if the others don't make it? Are they all ok? Are they alive? I hate not being with them, I'd them all be safe and where I can see them all. I just hope we get to this place and soon. That way we can go out in groups to look for the others.' I thought and jumped a little when I saw someone sit beside me out of the corner of my eye.

"Getting lost in your thoughts while one watch isn't the best idea." Hershel said with a smile. I smiled back at him then looked back ahead of me.

"What if this place doesn't exist? And even if it does, what if it's not what we think it is?" I asked him and I could feel him staring at me.

"It's real Deb. None of us would chase after a place we all thought was fake. It's real and we're getting closer to it every mile. As for it not being what we thought it was, well, if it gets my family safe then it's an ok place to me I say." he said and I turned to him with a smile when he said that.

"You're right Hersh. If it gets the people I love safe, I wouldn't care if it was a trailer park." I told him and he smiled at me.

"That's the spirit. Now, why don't you get some rest, I'll take over watch." he said and I was about to argue but the look he gave me told me I'd lose anyways. I just sighed and nodded and stood up and walked over to the others and laid between T and Mikey.

I was asleep before my head was laying down.

T-dog's POV:

The next morning, after everyone had a protein bar breakfast, we packed up and headed back for the tracks and began our long trip to Terminus.

As we walked I thought of the others and how much I really wanted to see them all. 'Shit, I'd even give anything to see Em and Glenn make out like they were about to do it right in front of everyone again!' I thought with a sad smile on as I thought of all the times everyone would yell at them to get a room while we all laughed.

"T, look!" Hunter yelled pulling me from my thoughts. I looked up and saw another sign coming closer and I jogged the rest of the way and looked at it. When I got closer I just stared at the wall behind it in shock.

GLENN,

GO TO TERMINUS.

-EM, SASHA, BOB, ANDREA, AMY, MAGGIE, BETH

The longer I stared at it, the more I felt a bright smile coming on my face. I turned to the others and saw they were all staring at it in shock and happiness too. "They're alive." I said and everyone cheered at my words.

"The paint looks to only be a day old. We're close to them." Ben said happily and I nodded in my own excitement. This was the first proof any of us had that any of our family made it.

Our happiness was short lived, though, when a growl was heard from behind us and we all turned to see a good amount of walkers coming at us.

"Shit! Everyone stand back to back! We can't lose anyone!" I yelled and everyone moved as one and stood back to back. As walkers got close to one of us we'd take it down while the others watched for more coming.

Eventually, after about ten minutes and a lot of uncomfortably close calls with some, the walkers were all gone and we were able to breath for a moment.

"That was way to close Hunter! That walker nearly bit your arm!" Ben yelled and pulled Hunter to him.

"It's ok dad. Had I gotten bit Jus-" Hunter started instinctively but stopped himself when the realization hit. Not just for him, but for all of us.

Because for the first time since Mikey got bit about a year ago we had no way of healing the virus.

"We need to be extra careful in fights from now on. We don't have a means of healing the virus and I'm pretty sure Justin and the others would kill us if we were to die." Mikey said trying to lighten the mood. It worked some since we all laughed a little, but the fear of getting bit was still there. It was a fear we'd all but forgotten.

"Let's go, these guys are waiting for us." Deb said and the mood suddenly brightened again at the thought of seeing more of the family.

We started to walk again, only this time a little faster, and we didn't stop until it was so dark it was almost impossible to see. We camped out under a watch tower of sorts and began walking once again when everyone was up and ready.

We walked about half the day when Deb stopped walking making us all stop.

"What is it Deb?" I asked and she just pointed to something in front of her. Everyone looked and gasped when we saw a building with the word TERMINUS written big on the side of it.

Everyone looked at each other before taking off in a sprint and about five minutes later we came across its gates.

LOWER YOUR WEAPONS, YOU ARE SAFE HERE. SOMEONE WILL MEET YOU. COME ON IN.

The sign said and everyone put there weapons down, but not up, and we walked in once Hunter unlocked the gate. Looking around at it there was flowers being grown in pots everywhere and what looked to be camps of sorts set up along the sides of the builds, turns out there's more than the one with TERMINUS written on it, and no one in sight.

We looked at each other confused before we all heard something a turned to see a person smiling brightly at us.

We stared at her in shock before she suddenly ran to us and hugged Hershel tightly.

"Daddy!" she yelled.

"Beth." he said with tears in his eyes and wrapped his arms tightly around her. Hershel saying her name woke the rest of us up and we surrounded them trying to reach Beth too, to make sure she really was there.

Just then Maggie showed up and tackled Deb into a hug before letting her go and joining Beth and Hershel's hug while Deb caught Andrea and I caught Amy as they ran at us.

"Thank God!" pretty much everyone yelled.

For the first time in two, long weeks, the family was happy, safe.

 

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Fifteen: I Found You

Glenn's POV:

"Glenn slow down." Abraham yelled but I didn't listen to him. I just had one thought in my head.

Find Em.

"Glenn look!" Terra yelled and I looked to see another sign with a message. I read the message and began to run fast as I could with a smile on my face.

GLENN,

GO TO TERMINUS!

-EM, SASHA, BOB, ANDREA, AMY, MAGGIE, BETH

Rick's POV:

We were still following the tracks to this Terminus that was supposed to be a safe place for us. We were walking in a peaceful silence just enjoying the day for once and loving the feeling of the sun on us.

I looked up at the sky and noticed it was about to get dark, we'd need to find a place to sleep and soon. "Guys we need to find shelter soon, it's getting dark." I said voicing my thoughts. When I didn't get a response I turned and stopped and smiled at the scene.

Carl, Michonne, Daryl and Brian were all trying to balance on the tracks as they followed me.

"What's going on here?" I asked in amusement as I walked to them.

"We're having a contest. Last one on gets the chocolate bar." Carl said and I smiled at Michonne in thanks knowing it was her idea.

"Well, can it speed up a little? It's getting dark soon and we'll need to find shelter. I said and caught Daryl when he fell towards me.

He smiled down at me and pecked my lips as I sat him down and helped Brian find his balance when he fell.

"Damn, I almost had it!" Brian yelled and we all laughed, though it nearly made both Michonne and Carl fall.

"You're going down." Carl said and I smiled at him. I haven't seen him this happy in a while.

"Oh yeah?" Michonne asked and pretended to reach out to Carl to try and make him lose his balance only she made herself fall. I helped her find her balance as Carl cheered happily.

"Yes I win!" he said and we all smiled at him.

"Alright alright, here's the chocolate bar." Michonne said and got it out of her bag. She handed it to him and he opened it instantly but stopped before he took a bite and looked at us.

"What's wrong?" I asked him but he just smiled and started to split the bar into pieces and gave a piece to all of us.

"There, now we all won." he said and we all smiled at him again as we ate the chocolate in silence and began to walk again.

As I held Daryl's hand in mine I turned back and watched Carl walk between Mich and Bri smiling and laughing and it made me happy to see.

"I don't think he's been this happy in a while." Daryl said and I turned my smile to him.

"No, not since everything that happened a few weeks ago. Come on babe, let's find shelter. Those three slow pokes will catch up eventually." I said and he laughed and nodded as we started to look for a place to sleep.

Glenn's POV:

"Glenn stop, we're resting here for tonight." Abraham said and stopped with the others at a watch tower. I stopped and turned to him and glared.

"We don't stop. We're catching up with them, that message was only a day old. We don't stop." I said and he glared at me.

"My mission is to keep Eugene safe until he can fix this shit." he said and I glared back.

"And I told you I already know how it started and I know what the cure is, well, a portion of it anyways, and he's safe with us here. We keep going." I told him. He was about to answer when a groan above us had us looking up and watching a walker fall and smash into little pieces once it hit the ground. Because it was falling on top of us we all moved quickly and Terra twisted her ankle.

"You ok?" I asked her and she nodded as she struggled to stand.

"I'm ok, I can walk." she said and I smiled at her.

"If she can continue so can we." I said and went to start walking again but a voice stopped me.

"She's going to do whatever you say because she feel like she owes you!" Angela said and I glared at her while Terra looked at the ground.

I turned my gaze to Abraham and looked between him and Eugene. "What if I give him my suit? It'll protect him if we get ambushed. I give it to him and we walk until night at least." I told him and Abraham thought for a moment before nodding. I quickly got out of the suit and gave it to Eugene and we began to walk again once he had it on.

We walked for a few hours, with Eugene trying to hit on Terra but it was a lost cause, when we came across a tunnel with another message from my family on the sign just outside of it. "Maybe we can go around it?" Angela said and I shook my head.

"No, that'll just add a day. If Em went through here then I am too." I told Abraham and he nodded.

"Then this is where we part ways." he said and I looked at him confused. "Look at it Glenn, that's miles of dark with corpses looking for meals in it. I can't take Eugene in there and know he won't come to harm. This is where we part ways." he said and I nodded at him in understanding.

We all said our goodbyes to one another, the funniest being Eugene's goodbye to Terra because she finally told him she was into girls, and Terra saying she was staying with me and they left after telling us to find them if we changed our minds.

Terra and I watched them go for a moment before turning to the tunnel and walked in with the flashlight Abraham gave us on.

We walked for a while when we came across walkers trapped in a cave in. "It must have just happened today." Terra said and I looked at the rubble in anger.

"Come on, let's kill these ones and climb it." I told her and started killing before she could argue. When they were dead we began to climb the rubble. When we got the top I held the light out and saw a good amount of walkers there. They saw the light and slowly made there way to it while we looked on in shock.

"Let's go back Glenn. We can catch up to them and go around. It's not possible to get out of this with all these here." Terra said but I ignored her until she shook me a little. "Please." she begged and I sighed and shook my head.

"I can't turn back Terra. That'll take me further from him. They're attracted to the light, I say we leave the flashlight here, let them crowd to it, and climb down over there and run for it." I told her and she just looked at me but sighed and nodded her head and I sat the flashlight down as we backed up so they didn't see us.

We went to the other side and began to quietly climb down it while watching the walkers and when I reached the bottom I turned to Terra to help her down. Only she slipped and got her leg trapped under a rather heavy rock.

"Shit." I said and began to try and lift it since her fall made some noise. It was to heavy to lift and I looked up at her when I felt her hand on my shoulder.

"Go." she said and I just looked at her in shock. "They're coming Glenn, my leg's to stuck and you can't lift the rock. Go while you have a chance." she said and I just shook my head. "Leave now!" she yelled in my face but there were tears in her eyes.

"No." was all I said and turned and began to shoot at walkers.

I shot them until I ran out of bullets and backed up to Terra when they got closer.

Just then a bright light appeared and I turned to see people standing there and they began to shoot the walkers. I quickly turned and covered Terra so she wouldn't get hit and I moved away when the shooting stopped.

Someone began to run to us and stopped when I was able to them better.

I felt my heart start to beat faster and I felt my legs moving me until I was right in front of him and pulled him into my arms. He hugged me back tightly and pulled back and kissed me.

"Hi." he said and I laughed at him. "Hi." he said again but I kissed him and pulled him into another tight hug.

"I knew I'd find you Em, I knew I would." I whispered to him and pulled him closer.

Later that night me and Em were just a few feet from the others with me leaning on the wall and Em laying under my bent legs while I petted his face. "I knew I'd find you." Em said and I smiled down at him.

"I didn't stop looking, not for one second." I told him and his smile grew. We sat there for a while just staring at each other until I reached over for a jacket to wrap around Em so he could sleep when my picture fell. Em looked at it and picked it up as he sat up and looked at me.

I smiled at him and he smiled back and got a lighter out and held the flame to the picture. "What're you doing?" I asked and quickly took it from him and he looked at me. "It's my only picture of you." I told him and he smiled at me and place a hand on my face.

"You'll never need a picture again." he said and I stared into his eyes and saw truth and promise and love in them and I sighed then held the picture over the flame and threw it once it caught on fire and pulled Em to me as we watched it burn.

When it was gone I sighed again and pulled him up with me and we walked back to the others holding hands, not quite ready to not be touching each other.

"You know this fucker had us even stop our mission because he wouldn't leave his husband. He just had to find you." Abraham said and we all laughed.

"Is it true Eugene knows how to end this?" Sasha asked and Abraham and I shared a look.

"He knows how to help end this yes, but remember we know what the cure is." I warned her with a glare and she looked down a little at that.

"You keep saying that, though you won't go into much detail, why is that?" Eugene asked leaning towards us.

I looked at him then at the others then back at him.

"Could it be that you had the cure within your group? Could it be that it's a person not a thing?" he asked and we all stared at him in shock.

"How-" I started but he stopped me.

"I'm a genius remember, I know everything." he said and I glared at him.

"Well, I'm still taking him to Washington." Abraham said and Sasha stood up.

"I'm going." she said and Bob stood with her.

"I'm ok with going, but I want to see this Terminus, I want to know if it's there, and I want to wait for the others." Em said and I nodded at him.

"Look-" Abraham started in annoyance but Eugene stopped him.

"We go to Terminus then." he said and Abraham stared at him in shock. "We need more man power, you said so yourself, is we go there, get some supplies and wait for the rest of their family we'd have the man power you want. Plus it would benefit the world if the cure and genius that could end it go together to Washington." he said and we all glared at him.

"He's a person you know." I said and Eugene looked at me.

"Fine, let's go at dawn." Abraham said and laid down for some sleep.

I smiled at the others and pulled Em down with me and the whole family curled up together. Happy to be together after being from each other for so long.

Em's POV:

The next morning found all of us packing up and walking out of the tunnel and towards the path the map had pointed out.

We walked for about half a day, with me never once letting go of Glenn's hand, when we came across a building that said TERMINUS big on the side of it. We all looked at each other then headed for it and stopped at its gates.

LOWER YOUR WEAPONS, YOU ARE SAFE HERE. SOMEONE WILL MEET YOU. COME ON IN.

The sign said and we lowered, but didn't put away, our weapons and walked inside. Flowers were being grown in pots and what looked to be camps lined the buildings and there was a woman cooking with plants surrounding her. She looked up when we got closer and smiled at us and walked around to stand in front of us.

"Been on the road for a long time I see." she said and we all nodded. "Well, let's get you cleaned up and settled and get some food in your stomachs. You're safe now." she said with a smile as she looked at all of us.

"Welcome to Terminus."

 

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter Sixteen: Wrong Family to Mess With

Rick's POV:

"Got the fire going yet?" I asked sitting down behind Daryl so he could lean on me.

"Almost got it." Michonne said and as if it heard her the fire started up.

"Good job Mich. I'm gonna go check the snares now." I said standing up.

"Can I come too?" Carl asked and I smiled at him.

"Now how else are you going to learn?" I asked and smiled more when he gained a smile that would make Justin proud.

"Bri you come to so we can all know how. Babe you stay with Mich." I said and they all nodded at me. Brian stood up and wrapped an arm around Carl and they followed me into the woods to where the snares were.

As I was explaining how to work the snares a scream was heard and Carl took off in the direction it came from.

"Carl!" I yelled and Bri and I ran after him only to see that some poor guy was being surrounded by walkers screaming for help. Carl tried to run out and help him but Bri and I grabbed him and pulled him to us.

"Carl there's nothing we can do for him. There's to many." Brian said gently and Carl stopped struggling. I nodded my thanks to him and together we gently pulled Carl back to Mich and Dar as the man screamed in pain before it went quiet.

The next morning after we'd all eaten a small breakfast we packed up and started for Terminus once again. We walked in silence for a while before Carl looked up at me.

"Will we tell them?" he asked and we looked at him confused.

"Them who what bud?" Dar asked and Carl looked to him.

"The Terminus people. Will we tell them who we were/are? Will we tell them what happened and what we've done? Will we tell them about our family, about Justin?" he asked looking between all of us.

"We all looked at each other before I sighed and looked back down at him.

"We'll tell them what they need to know at first. If they prove trustworthy later on then we'll tell them more." I said and he just looked up at me.

We went back to walking in silence then, each of us in our own thoughts, when we came across a little town just to the side of the tracks. We all looked at each other before getting our weapons out and carefully walking to it. If it was clear it was a great place to settled down until tomorrow.

We split up, though never went to far from each other, and looked around to see if they were any walkers or people around. When no one had claimed to have found anything a few minutes later I was about to call it clear when someone screamed.

"DAD!" Carl yelled and we all ran in the direction his scream came from.

We all turned the corner and stopped at the sight before us.

Jame, along with people around him and on the roofs, was there and James had Carl back the back of his shirt and a gun to his head.

Brian's POV:

"Let him go!" Rick growled out causing James to smirk.

"How nice it is to see all of you again. How are all of you?" he asked and we all just growled more at him.

"Better now that you're about to die." I sneered and he looked at me and laughed.

"Brian Kinney. You're just the man I wanted to see actually. See, I've not forgotten who gave me this." he said and pointed at the scar I gave him. "And I've been spending a lot of time, especially lately, thinking of the best way to get revenge." he said and I smirked at him.

"Honestly I think you should be thanking me. Thank scar really improved your face. Not by much, but some." I said and the others all laughed, even Carl despite where he was right now, and James glared at me before smiling.

"A comedian I see. Well, let's see how funny you think this is." he said and cocked the gun causing Carl's eyes to widen in fear.

"Let him go! It's me you want. Let him go and I'll fight you here and now just like you want." I said and holding my hands out for Carl.

James surprised us all by laughing then.

"You think I want to just simply brawl with you? Oh no Mr. Kinney I have something much wore and a lot more fun planned for you and your family here." he said nodding at the others and letting go of Carl who ran to his fathers who then pushed him behind them.

"What do you want James?" I asked him getting annoyed now.

"As I said I want revenge. I've been thinking long and hard on how I wanted to do it and I've finally come up with the best kind of revenge." he said and before anyone could ask what he meant two trucks came flying at us from no where and stopped just a few feet away and the back doors opened and tons of walkers started swarming out of them.

"You bastard!" I yelled and all of us started to shoot at the walkers, nearly getting overrun at some points, and I looked back at James and his puppets to see them all smirking at us and enjoying watching us fight to live.

I growled at him then turned back around when a growl came from in front of me and killed the walker that tried to bite me. Once the last walker fell we all stood there breathing hard and looking around knowing that all this noise just rang the dinner bell to all nearby walkers which didn't leave us much of a space to get far away from here.

I turned back to James and glared at him and walked right up to him and punched him in the face knocking him to the ground and holding my gun to him while ignoring the ones pointed at me. "Now that you've had your fun you're going to take me to Justin or you'll be dead before any of your men can shoot me down." I threatened him while letting my glared deepen.

To say we were all shocked to see James smile at that was an understatement.

"I don't have to take you to him because I brought him with me." he said and I looked up quickly and saw Merle force some one from out of a black truck who had his hands tied behind his back and a brown bag over his face.

"Justin!" we all yelled and tried to get to him but James men stood in our way.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." James said standing up and we all turned and glared at him yet again.

"And why not? I, for one, would love to have the love of my life back in my arms again so I suggest you tell your men to back down or I'll send them to an early grave." I threatened and James just smirked at me.

"You heard the man, move so that he may be reunited with his love." James said and all the men laughed a little as they cleared the path for us.

"Ok, is it just me, or are they listening to us rather easily?" Daryl asked and I just shook my head saying I didn't understand it either. Though right now all I could focus on was Justin and Merle who was still holding Justin who had started to struggle.

As we began to walk to him James started to speak. "This last month has really helped in my research. Though he was really starting to be a handful no matter how many times we tried to... punish... him for misbehaving." he paused here as well all stopped walking and glared in anger. "Yes he really did know how to scream. It was like music hearing his screams. It gave me so much power knowing I was the cause of how loud his screams got or how much pain he was in. Then all the tests we ran, God, he was a great test subject. He was so close to being the perfect weapon, my perfect weapon." James said and I had turned slowly as he talked and was slowly walking to him ready to kill.

"But... sadly there was one little problem." James said in mock sadness and that had me confused. "No matter what we did, he just seemed to not be able to fight off this sickness he had." James said and my heart stopped then and I looked back at the figure Merle was still holding. Not caring about James right now I took the lead and led the way to Justin.

"Just one last warning before you get to him." James yelled and I turned and glared at him.

"And what's that?" I asked and he smirked.

"He can really bite now." was all he said but it was enough to make my heart stop. I looked at the others and saw that they had the same expression as I did and I shook my head.

'No... That's not possible...' I thought and walked a little closer to Justin and this time Merle lifted his good hand quickly and yanked the bag off Justin before grabbing him again.

My world ended right then.

Justin, the love of my life, my baby, my partner, was struggling to get free while growling at us with angry, glazed eyes and grayish skin.

Justin was a walker.

James, Merle, and the other men laughed at our pain but I didn't hear any of it, didn't see any of it, I just saw Justin struggling to get free well snapping and growling.

"Sadly my weapon died during a test run about two or three days ago. Luckily I was able to get all the info I needed to make another weapon." James said but I didn't even have the strength to turn and kill him.

Merle laughed loudly again and smirked at us. "Let's see how you do when he's playing for a different team." he said and cut Justin's binds free and he instantly ran at me.

When he got to close I instinctively held my arm under his chin to stop him from biting me but I didn't make a move to get my gun or anything. I could hear the others behind me begging me to move but I just couldn't. I stared into Justin's glazed, dull blue eyes and imagined the bright blue that shown with so much love and acceptance and nearly let my arm fall so that I could join Justin and be with him again.

Justin was getting closer to my neck and right when he was just inches from it a shot was heard and Justin's head whipped backwards. There was a hole right in the middle of his forehead and his eyes were wide and staring up at me. I looked up slowly to see who it was that shot him and saw Carl standing there shaking badly with wide eyes and tears pouring from his eyes. I manged to take most of his weight and we fell to the ground where I just held him tightly and stared down at him as a fight broke out around us. I felt someone join me and I looked at see that Carl was now kneeling in front of us staring at Justin's face. He slowly lifted his shaking hand and gently closed his eyes before letting his hand rest on Justin's cheek.

"He could be sleeping now." he whispered and that was when my own tears fell. I pulled Justin up and buried my head in his neck and cried my heart out. I don't know how long I was there, but I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see a crying Daryl.

"I-I-we need to go. Walkers are surrounding this place." he said and I looked around and saw some of James' men being eaten while James and Merle were no where to be seen.

I looked back at Daryl and pulled Justin closer. "I'm not leaving him." I said hoarsely and he nodded at me. I picked Justin up and carried him at an abandoned truck that belonged to James' men and got into the back with Justin still tightly in my arms. The others got in and Michonne floored it out of there and back down the tracks towards Terminus.

When we were far enough away Michonne parked the truck and everyone turned to look at the man in my arms. "This can't be real." Rick said and slowly reached for Justin and more tears fell when it touched cold skin.

I looked over at Carl and saw that he was staring at his gun with wide eyes and tears landing on it and his lap and I slowly reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder making him look at me.

"You saved him. Thank you." I whispered to him and that's when Carl let you a loud sob and threw himself onto Justin as much as he could begging him to get up.

I looked to Daryl and Michonne and saw that they too were crying their eyes out and I looked back at Justin cried harder myself.

'It's not fair. it's not fair.'

Daryl's POV:

The rest of ride to Terminus was a very quiet one. Each of us, minus Michonne who was driving, were turned so we could see Justin who looked like it could just be sleeping in Brian's arms.

'Why you? Why did it have to be you? It's not fair.' I thought and looked at Michonne when she stopped the car.

"Look." she said and we all looked out to see a building just a few minutes walk in the woods with a sign that said TERMINUS in big letters on the side.

"Let's go." Rick said and we all got out and helped Brian get Justin out of the truck and we walked a little bit before I stopped and stared at them all.

"We have to bury him." I said and Brian's hold tightened on Justin. "Bri, he deserves to rest in peace and get a proper burial." I said crying again for actually talking about burying my best friend.

Brian looked down at Justin and sighed before nodding and looking for a spot to bury him at. He finally picked a spot where a lot of flowers were growing beautifully and the sun was hitting them just right.

"Right here." Brian whispered and the rest of us got to work digging a grave right in front of the flowers. When that was down Brian, who had wrapped Justin up while we dug, gently settled him into the ground and kissed his covered forehead before leaning back up and helping us fill in the hole. When that was done we all looked for some rocks and made a J out of the right where Justin's head was.

"Now we can come and see him all the time." Rick said hugging Carl closely to him with one arm and me with the other.

We all stood there for a minute before we decided it was time to go because Justin wouldn't want us to stay there when safety was not far from us. We walked in complete silence until we got to the building and Rick led us to the back where he dug a hole and placed the bag with our extra weapons in them. "Just in case." he said and we all nodded and climbed the fence and walked until we came across an open door and went through and caught the people behind it by surprise.

"Well now this doesn't happen often. Usually we meet our guests at the front gates." a boy said walking up to us.

"We wanted to see you before you saw us." I said and the guy nodded in understanding.

"Will you please just place your weapons right in front of you so we can make sure you're carrying anything else?" he asked and we all hesitated before we placed our weapons in front of us and they searched us. When that was done the guy came up and handed us our weapons back but I snatched mine up when he tried to touch mine.

I saw Rick giving me a knowing smirk beside me and I nudged him gently as Brian was finally handed his weapon. "Now, let's take you around your new home." he said smiling and led us back outside where more people were.

The man started talking but I zoned out and looked around and saw that some of the things they had looked familiar and when I saw the orange backpack I knew something was very wrong. Rick must've seen it too because he grabbed the guy and held the gun to his head as we all got our weapons back out.

"Where did you get that stuff?" Rick asked him but the guy wouldn't talk. "Where?!" he yelled and another guy spoke up.

"Easy there, we got this stuff from a dead group. killed the biters and took the stuff." he said and none of us believed him. The guy went to shoot Rick but he moved the guy in the way killing him instantly. Rick grabbed my hand and I grabbed Carl and we ran as the others shot at us.

We ran through the building and through a room where it looked like they were doing a satanic ritual and back outside where they finally cornered us. "Alright now, you do what we say and no one gets hurt." a guy said and we did as we were told. "Good, now you see that cart over there. When I call you you go there and not move unless I say so." he said and looked at us all.

"Samurai." he yelled and Michonne slowly made her way to the cart. "Sheriff." he called and I kept my eyes on Rick the whole time to make sure he was ok. "Archer." he called and I walked to stand behind Rick then. "Pretty boy." he yelled and Brian just moved to us looking dead on his feet.

And, honestly, I didn't blame him.

The only one left was Carl and he had yet to call for him.

"My son!" Rick yelled and the guy looked to us.

"Kid." he said and Carl started to make his way to us.

"Now, Samurai open the door and all of you go in slow one at a time." he said and Michonne opened it and we all slowly walked in and turned to wait for Carl. The second he was in arms reach Rick and I pulled him to us and the door slammed shut.

"Fuck, what do we do now?" Michonne asked looking at Rick. Rick was about to answer but movement behind us stopped him.

We turned ready to fight but a familiar voice stopped us.

"Rick?" he asked and Glenn walked into the light followed by the rest of our family and some people we didn't know.

"You're here." Rick said happily and we all hugged each other and Deb looked at us sadly.

"Glenn says that James has Justin." she said and we all flinched badly at that. "Don't you worry guys, we'll save him when we get out of here." she said and none of us felt like telling her the truth right now.

"How will we get out of here?" Em asked and we all shook our heads.

"I don't know Em, but one thing's for sure." Rick said trying to see outside from a crack in the wall.

"And what's that?" Mikey asked and Rick looked back at us with a very angry look.

"They've messed with the wrong family."