The New World 6

6 months ago

Not too long after that night when Pete killed Reg, almost everyone was battling their own turmoil. Deanna mourning the loss of her husband. Jessie mourning the loss of her husband and father of her children. Sam and Ron mourning their father even though he was abusive. Rosita helping Tara recover from a run with Eugene and now mourning the loss of Noah during the run because Glenn and Maggie told her. Abraham took it upon himself to bury Reg, the level-headed seemed like a father or adviser for everyone in the community. Carl went to check on Enid. Daryl had gotten Sabrina to eat a bowl of cereal with him since she hadn't eaten anything that night. The married couple had invited Morgan to join them since he had a long journey and about that time that he started eating, Rick had come in, in this daze and that's when Morgan decided to break the daze and silence.

"It wasn't over."

"We should talk more tomorrow." Rick stated softly then finally made his way slowly over to the kitchen island with blood covering him still. "Listen...I don't take chances anymore."

"And you shouldn't." Morgan said in agreement.

After that short encounter, Sabrina and Daryl called it a night. Daryl kicking off his boots, plopped down on the bed with a groan and Sabrina crawled into bed, snuggled up against Daryl and fell asleep instantly.

The next morning, Daryl had gotten up pretty early, and found nobody in the house so he went to go work on his motorcycle while letting Sabrina sleep in since she was growing a life inside of her, she needed all the rest she could get. It wasn't long after he started that Rick came back and went inside for a bit. Hearing the door open, Daryl didn't have t raise his head up to know who it was, he knew by the sound of the footsteps.

"So is he ok wit' it?"

"It was pretty much his idea" Rick said coming down the porch steps. "He gets it."

"It's got a bed 'nd bath, bu' it's still a cage, ya know?"

"He gets it." Rick said again. "He told me what happened out there with the trucks."

"He tell ya 'bout those guys he met? The Ws."

"Like that walker we saw? Yeah. We need more watch points. And I'm gonna tell Deanna we don't need to go looking for people anymore."

Daryl scoffed a bit at Rick, which Rick didn't miss. "You feel different about it?"

"Yeah, I do." Daryl said.

"Well, people out there, they gotta take care of themselves, just like us. I'm gonna get him out. Shouldn't leave him in there any longer than we have to." With that, Rick walked off.

The front door opened again, looking over to the door Daryl saw Sabrina rubbing her eyes and yawning with a cup of juice.

"Morning." She yawned out.

"Mornin'." Daryl said wiping his dirty oily hands on a wash cloth as Sabrina made way down the porch steps.

When Sabrina got to her husband she gave him a kiss. "So you all done fixing the bike up?"

"Yeah. Now it's time ta chow down." He said tossing the rag onto the ground next to the bike. "Ya eat yet?"

Sabrina shook her head, "I'm not hungry."

"Sabrina, ya know ya have ta eat somethin'. Ya got our kid growin' inside ya." Daryl stated sternly.

"I know that."

"Then let's get ya somethin' ta eat." He said in a tone that rang 'you're gonna eat anyway'.

With a sigh she followed Daryl up and into the house to eat at least a bowl of cereal. Roughly a half hour later Rick had come back to the house and told the group that there was going to be a meeting held at Deanna's house about the gully of walkers that weren't too far from the community. He had stated that while burying Pete outside of the walls they ran onto the gully. Sabrina had turned a ghost white at the thought of a gully filled with walkers that was close to what she called 'home'. But she held it together and got freshened up then the whole gang headed to Deanna's home. Upon entering her home, there were a few new faces there. The new faces introduced themselves as Heath, Scott and Annie. Sabrina smiled at them and introduced herself and Daryl while everyone starting taking seats or finding a place to stand.

"My team, we saw it early on, back when we were going on one of those first scouts, finding out what was around here. There was a camp at the bottom. The people, they must have blocked the exits with one of those trucks back when everything started to go bad. They didn't make it. They were all roamers. Maybe a dozen of 'em" Heath explained.

"No one's been back since?" Maggie asked.

Heath shook his head before answering. "DC, every town worth scavenging are all in the other direction. And I never really felt like having a picnic next to the camp that ate itself."

"So all the while the walkers have been drawn by the sound and they're making more sound and they're drawing more in." Michonne stated.

"And here we are. Now what I'm proposing, I know it sounds risky, but walkers are already slipping through the exits. One of the trucks keeping the walkers in could go off the edge any day now. Maybe after one more hard rain. That exit sends them East. all of them. Right at us. This isn't about if it gives, it's when. It's gonna happen. That's why we have to do this soon." Rick explained.

"This is--I don't even have another word for it. This is terrifying. All of it. But it doesn't sound like there's any other way." Carol pitched in.

"Maybe there is." Carter said. "I mean, couldn't we just build up the weak spots? I could draw up plans. I worked on the wall with Reg. Construction crew--we can try and make it safe."

"So you want to waste all of our resources and material on trying to keep the walkers down there? When we can use those things to make this place more secure. Please tell me how that makes sense?" Sabrina snapped.

"Even if we could, the sound of those walkers is drawing more and more every day. Building up the exits won't change that." Rick intervened calmly.

"We're gonna do what Rick says, the plan he's laid out." Deanna finally chimed in.

"I told you all, we're gonna have Daryl leading them away." Rick said pointing to Daryl.

"Me too." Sasha said. "I'll take a car, ride next to him. Can't just be him. I'll keep'em coming, Daryl keeps 'em from sloppy."

"I'll go with her." Abraham chimed in. "It's a long way to white-knuckle it solo."

"Well have two teams. One on each side of the forest helping manage this thing. We're gonna have a few people on watch from now on. Rosita, Spencer and Holly. So they're out. So who's in?"

"Me." Michonne said after Rick was done.

Sabrina saw Glenn whispering to Maggie about something on the lines of 'keeping an eye on her'. But Sabrina was confused by that, keep an eye on who? Her because she was going on six months of being pregnant and Daryl told Glenn to have Maggie keep an eye on her? Then she over heard something about that not being the only reason to want Maggie to stay in Alexandria during this mission. Sabrina pondered on that for a moment and even though Sabrina wasn't using them, there seemed to be a bit more tampons and ads than normal. And that's when it clicked in her mind, Glenn was protecting Maggie and their unborn baby.

"I'm in." Glenn said after his whispering debate with Maggie.

"I'd like to help as well." Father Gabriel chimed in.

Sabrina glared over at him while Rick shot him down. "No. Who else? We need more."

"There's gotta be another play." Carter said. "We can't control that many."

Sabrina rolled her eyes at Carter then stood up from the window seal where her and Daryl had been sitting at. "I get that you're terrified. All of us are. But you're not making any sense. Here, let's use all the material we have left to keep them barricaded down there and let their sounds draw even more in. You're idea will in the end, fail and jeopardize everyone here. Can you wrap your head around that yet? If we go with your idea, the blood will be on your hands in the end."
Rick gave Sabrina a look then looked back at Carter. "I said it before, walkers herd up. They'll follow a path if something's drawing them. That's how we can get 'em all at once."

"So what? We're supposed to just take your word for it? We're ll supposed to just fall in line behind you after...."

"After what?" Rick poked at Carter.

"After you wave a gun around, screaming, pointing it at people. After you shoot a man in the face. After you--"

Sabrina was about to blow up on Carter but Deanna intervened. "Enough!"

"I'll do it." Heath pitched in.

"Me too." Annie said.

"Whatever you need, I'm in." Tobin said.

"Now who else?" Deanna asked.

"I'll go. We have to do this. I need to help." Nicholas stated with his hand raised, as if trying to make things right with Glenn.

"You sure you can handle it?" Rick asked.

"You need people." Nicholas countered.

Rick nodded before speaking again. "We'll make this work. We'll keep this place safe. Keep our families safe. We will."

"The plan, go through it again." Carter said.

"Man, he jus' said it." Daryl finally spoke up, getting tired of this Carter guy's mouth.

"Every part, again. The exact plan." Carter said ignoring Daryl.

Rick grabbed a map, rolling it out and the ones that were going on this mission circled around him.

"Marshall and Redding. We force them West here." Rick pointed to the said roads.

"How?" Deanna asked.

"We block it off so they can only go one way, West, away from the community."

"Block it off with what?" Carter asked, finally agreeing to the plan.

"Cars. We'll use the RVs, some of the bigger trucks, park them end to end."

"We'll be drawing them away. They're gonna keep moving." Michonne stated.

"Yeah, but that many? Just bouncing off some sedans? And then when they start slipping through and the ones that walk away start distracting the rest and you stop drawing them away?" Carter asked.

"Man's got a point." Agreed Heath.

"We got plates. The big-ass metal once from the construction site. We can use them to fortify the whip wall. It'd help disperse the force of impact and direct the walkers clean. Like a pool table. Eight ball, corner pocket." Eugene said, coming out of nowhere.

"That's an army out there. And what happens when this doesn't hold? And they push through. The curve in this hillside is gonna send them right back East. Right back here. You seriously want to risk that?"

"No. So you need to help us to make it hold." Rick said. "

"These walls, you built them. So you've already done the impossible." Morgan pitched in, trying to help Rick's case.

"Carter. Please." Deanna said looking at him.

With a defeated sigh, Carter finally agreed to go along with the plan even though he still didn't like the plan.
Once the plan was layed out, Rick called it a day and said that the real work would begin tomorrow by taking the material and setting them up along the specified roads. With that being said, everyone was dismissed.

"I'm gonna go out and help set up." Sabrina said to Daryl as the two of them walked back to the house.

"No ya not. I don't want ya out there riskin' yours 'nd our kid's life."

"Daryl--"

"Sabrina, I said no." Daryl stopped in his tracks and look at her, which made Sabrina stop. "If somethin' happens out there, 'nd nobody was able ta save ya, I wouldn't be able ta live wit' myself. Can't ya see tha' ya bein' here behind the walls is helpin' me protect ya?"

Sabrina's mouth opened and closed like a fish because she didn't know what to say. She finally found a simple word. "Fine."
With that the two of them headed back to the house in silence. Once inside, Sabrina went into the kitchen to get a protein bar then headed up to the bedroom and shut the door. Siting on the bed, Sabrina started to cry softly. She understood that Daryl was trying to protect her but she wanted to do something more than clean a house and cook...but what other choice did she have? She's six months pregnant and wouldn't be able to run fast or far if walkers surprised them. Being behind the walls were the safest thing for Sabrina right now.