In the Shallows

"Okay, let's get the other car in. We'll park 'em in the west entry of the yard."

Daryl nodded, "Good, our vehicles camped out there look like a giant vacancy sign."
Rick sighed, walking forward, pointing towards the field, "After that, we need to load up these corpses so we can burn 'em."

I agreed with T as he claimed it was going to be long day, shielding my eyes from the sun, I looked over towards Carol who hopped down from the truck, "Where's Glenn and Maggie?"

She shrugged, "I don't know, we could use their help though."

Daryl pointed towards the tower, "Up in the guard tower."

"Guard tower?" I questioned, we all looked in that direction.

"They were just up there last night," Rick said, a little bit of humor kissing his words."

Daryl cupped his mouth, "Glenn! Maggie!" We waited a few seconds, Glenn popping through the door, his hands fumbling with his jeans, we all exchanged chuckles as we finally made sense to what they were doing. "You comin'?" I snorted, trying to contain my laughter as Glenn questioned. Daryl propped his hands on his hips, his eye squinting, a smile gracing his lips, "You comin'?" he repeated. At that point, we lost it, our laughs breaking through the air, "Come on, we could use a hand." We turned around and started back towards the vehicles, Daryl close to my side, his hip hitting mine, his voice was low, "Maybe we should-"

"-go up in the gaurd tower?" I question, a smirk gracing my lips, I slightly narrowed my eyes, "Oh honey, I'm still in the process of forgiving you."

He grunted but his smile still visible, "It's gonna happen, Lex. Just it let it happen."

I snorted, "You're like a horny teenage boy."

"Can ya blame me?" He countered, his eyes narrowing too, he flicked my thigh, "You got skin showin', it's distractin'."

I chuckled, looking away from him and towards the ground, my voice low, "Don't think your sexual frustration is any worse than mine." I looked up and blew him a kiss and quickened in my steps to catch up with Rick and Carol.

"You rotten little girl," he called out.

"Hey, uh, Rick?" We all turned towards T-Dog, my smile fell as I followed where his eyes fixated across the field and onto the other side of the fence. The rest of their smiles fell as we saw Axel and Oscar make their way to the opening, my eyes flickered towards Rick. His face practically said it all, pure anger and frustration.

He gritted his teeth, he growled "come with me," as he brushed up against my shoulder and looked at Daryl. I glanced over towards him and ushered me along, slightly feeling annoyed that I was yet again wanted to come. It was crazy how Carol or possibly Maggie would enjoy all trust and wanted-ness and I just got thoroughly annoyed by it all. I wasn't anything special, I showed skill just like the other women, how was it that I was the one Rick wanted?

We reached them, Rick growling, "That's far enough. We had an agreement."

Axel pleaded, "Please, mister, we know that. We made a deal, but you gotta understand, we can't live in that place another minute." My eyes flickered behind them, Maggie and Glenn walking out of the door and standing quietly behind them. "You follow me? All the bodies, people we knew. Blood, brains, everywhere. There's ghosts."

Daryl piped up, annoyance dripping from his lips, "Why don't you move the bodies out?"

T nodded, "You should be burning them."

"We tried," Axel whimpered, "we did."

Oscar squinted his eyes towards us, "The fence is down on the far side of the prison, every time we drag a body out, those things just line up. Dropping the body and just running back inside."

Axel walked forward, making me flinch, "Look we had nothing to do with Thomas and Andrew, nothing." He glanced over at me, "Nothing," he stated, "we'd never-we would never hurt anybody." He looked back over at Rick, "You trying to prove a point? You proved it, bro. We'll do whatever it takes to be part of your group. Just please, please don't make us live in that place." I kind of felt bad for them two but they hadn't begun to scratch the surface of what we as a whole went through to get to this place. As much as I saw these two being completely harmless, I didn't want to risk the off chance of something actually happening.

Rick gritted his teeth, "Our deal is not negotiable, you either live in your cell block, or you leave."

Oscar grunted, "I told you this was a waste of time, they ain't no different than the pricks who shot up our boys. You know how many friends' corpses we had to drag out this week? Just threw 'em out, like..." he trailed off, shaking his head, "These were good guys, good guys who had our backs against the really bad dudes in the joint, like Thomas and Andrew. Now, we've all made mistakes to get in here, chief. And I'm not gonna pretend to be a saint, but believe me, we've paid our due-enough that we would rather hit that road than to go back into that shithole."

Under other circumstances, that speech probably would have worked, but for me? It didn't do a god damn thing, if they wanted to go out on the road, then let them do it. But, they weren't going to be considered for family. Rick looked behind him towards Daryl and I, we both subtly shook our heads, knowing exactly what he wanted. Another input aside from his own.

We ushered them towards the other side of the feild, locking up the chains, I tossed the keys to Daryl as we walked back towards the rest of them, "Are you serious? You want them living in a cell next to you? They'll be waiting for a chance to grab our weapons, you want to go back to sleeping with one eye open?"

T shook his head, "I never stopped. Bring them into the fold, if we send them off packing, we might as well execute them ourselves."

I shrugged, "We did it and we're alive."

Glenn nodded, "I don't know about bringing them in, Axel seems a little unstable."

Carol agreed, "After all we've been through, we fought so hard for all this, what if they decide to take it"

"It's just been us for so long, they're strangers I don't-it feels weird all of a sudden to have these other people around."

T rolled his eyes slightly at Maggie, "You brought us in."

"Yeah," she answered, her arms crossed, squinting from the sun, "but you turned up with a shot boy in your arms. Didn't give us a choice."

Glenn sighed, "They can't even kill walkers."

"And they're convicts, bottom line."

T-Dog glanced over at Rick, "Those two might actually have less blood on their hands than we do."
I looked towards Daryl when he started speaking, "I get guys like this. Hell, Lex and I grew up with them. They're degenerates, but they ain't psychos. I could have been in there with them just as easily as I'm out here with you guys."

T nodded, "So you're with me."

"Hell, no." He looked T-Dog straight in the eyes, "Let 'em take their chances out on the road jus' like we did."

"Look all I'm saying Daryl-"

Rick caught him off, "-when I was a rookie, I arrested this kid. Nineteen years old, wanted for stabbing his girlfriend. The kid blubbered like a baby during the interrogation, during the trail-suckered the jury. He was acquitted due to insufficient evidence and two weeks later, shot another girl." He cleared his throat, glancing at all of us, "We've been through too much, now if someone else agrees with you then we'll sit here and talk out what more we can do."

T-Dog glanced over at me, waiting for me to chime in. I shook my head, biting my lip, "Don't look at me T," I inhaled deeply, "I know you think taking them in is a good idea but," I stopped short, my eyes dropping to the ground, "I can't side with you."

Rick nodded, "Our deal with them stands."

I pressed a smile, placing a hand on his shoulder before we all started to head back towards the bodies that scattered the fields. We spent a few hours piling them up in different places, preparing to burn them later on in the night. We started to head back to the vehicles, "Move the cars to the upper yard, point 'em facing out. They'll be out of the way, but ready to go if we ever need to bail."

I glanced over towards T-Dog, "We'll give the prisoners a week worth of supplies for the road, they'll be okay."

He rolled his eyes, his voice tense, "Might not last a week."

Rick sighed, "It's there choice."

T-Dog snorted, "Did they really have one?"

He stopped short in his tracks, forcing T to stop too, "Hey, hey. Who's blood would you rather have? Glenn's? Maggie's? Alex's? Or the theirs?"

T flickered a look towards me before settling back on Rick, "Neither."

I kept on walking, offering my hand out to hold Daryl's bow while he moved the the bike. I looked up towards Axel who stood with his hands tucked underneath his armpits, "Twin cylinder, is that a Triumph?"

Daryl grunted, "Don' even look at it."

"Didn't want to bored out?" Daryl revved the bike a few times, "Sounds like it could use a tune-up," Axel yelled over the noise, "I'm pretty handy with a wrench!" Daryl started to drive off, leaving Axel calling after him, "Heads are leakin', I know my bikes!"

I pursed my lips, looking at the two of them, a thin wave of guilt washing over me. "We'll give you supplies shortly." I looked down at the ground, picking up my steps towards Glenn who waited for me to pass before closing and locking up the gate. Following the gravel, I looked over at Glenn, "It's okay to feel bad, right?"

He nodded, mumbling, "You aren't the only one."

Slinging the crossbow over my shoulder, I linked arms with him and leaned my head on him as we followed the trail of cars, "It's almost scary to know that you're partially the reasoning behind their death sentence."

Glenn stopped walking, looking at me, spinning me to face him, "Hey, would you rather take them in and someone happen? I'm not looking out for myself, Alex. I'm looking out for Maggie. I don't care about me anymore, it's all about Maggie." He ran a hand through his dark hair, "Daryl would lose his flippin' lid if they hurt you. He's just like me, Alex. He's looking out for you because he cares and loves you. I feel bad, yes. But, I have people to look after, people who I've accepted as my family. Whether you like it or not, Alex, you're part of my family, I don't want two men who can't even defend themselves take away people I've learned to love."

I pressed smile, pulling him into a hug, "I know," kissing his cheek, I pulled away, "it's just hard because I want to stay human and feel emotions and not forget about empathy." I sighed, "I can feel their fear and it resembles what I feel almost every day."

"You don't have to worry, Alex. You've got Daryl, me, Rick, and everyone else. Nothing's going to happen here, this is where we make the new beginning."

I nodded, "You're right."