New Beginnings

Their breaths unfolded like smoke in the air as the cold burdened their shoulders. Evelyn's feet ached, but she didn't let a word of it slip. Her eyes flowed to her best friend and the only person left on this Earth that she truly trusted; Cherry walked alongside her as she always had, her head held high and her signature ice pick gripped tight in her right hand. That was the thing about Cherry - she was always ready.

Evelyn found the courage to look back at her small, disheartened group. They were weary. Exhausted. Frozen over and scared half to death of everything around them. They'd just survived another night in the new world, hunkered down in a broken down shack as Cherry and Evelyn tirelessly fought off the dead. The two hadn't slept in days, and any food the group was able to scavenge had gone to the youngest, nine year old Dean, and the weakest, former cancer patient Beatrice, who - though she'd been in remission when the outbreak hit, was still falling ill without warning from time to time. Evelyn's face scrunched up with focus as she stared at them.

"Are you alright?" she murmured as they continued forward, watching as Todd kept Beatrice going, and Amanda and Alicia each stood close to Dean as they walked. Amanda's eyes never left the ground. She remained silent as Alicia finally addressed Eve.

"We're okay. How much farther do you think?" Alicia's voice was soft, but nevertheless required answers.

Eve looked to Cherry. "We have to push through. We can't afford to slow down, the signs say it's just down these tracks."

"Yeah, but they don't say for how long. It could be miles." The group came to a stop as Evelyn turned to Alicia. Cherry's eyes remained on the surrounding woods, icepick at the ready as they all talked.

"Maybe it is miles; and if that's the case, we can find somewhere to hole up for the night. But we've still got six hours of daylight, we can't waste it." Evelyn stood her ground, trying not to find the eyes of Dean. She'd found in recent times that he was her weakness.

"We're exhausted, Evelyn," Beatrice spoke up, gently patting Todd's hand. "All of us. I know you are, too."

Evelyn shook her head. "I know you're tired, I know; you've done an amazing job getting here. But... I've seen what happens to groups that slow down. We have to keep moving, Terminus is our only chance." The group all stared at her, and she, for a moment, faltered. She took that opportunity to turn away and look ahead of them. "I promise I can get us there. You just have to trust me."

"Listen to her." Cherry had finally spoken up. Evelyn's heart was relieved at the sound of her best friend's voice. She watched as Cherry turned to the group for a moment, continuing on, "We've gotten this far. Let's just keep moving for now. If we have to stop, we'll do that later." Alicia gave a sigh and nodded, and Evelyn took that as the group's acceptance, offering them all an encouraging expression as she turned to keep going.

bang.

A gunshot rang out. Cherry shouted for the group to get down. Evelyn ran to the group, her arms around them, Cherry standing at the ready. Three men came from the trees, evil snickers falling from their lips. A pair of hands grabbed Dean.

At the Prison

His boots crunched sticks and twigs, eyes focused on the bushes and brush around him. An artificial leg walked behind him, soft hands reaching out occasionally and picking berries from their stems. "What do you think, Hershel?" Rick's voice questioned respectfully, turning with his hand rested casually above his holster. "Can we do anything with these?"

Hershel slowly nodded his head, deep in thought. "I think we can. There's a lot of potential in that soil. We need to pull some of these roots and get them growing on our side of the fences; we'll see where we go from there." Rick slowly nodded in agreement. It made sense to him; he found his gaze moving to where the prison stood just a couple hundred feet away, the edges of the fences visible through the trees and brush. Their fallen prison was starting to become a home - and Rick knew that this was the next step towards their better future.

"Alright. Let's bring some more of them out here to give us a hand, we can start later today. I think if-" Rick's words were suddenly cut off by a gunshot, and sharp, helpless screams just a short distance away. Immediately, he was running to the sound, gun in hand, finger on the trigger. He ran through trees, he knew exactly where the sound had come from, he could feel himself getting closer - when two gunshots suddenly rang out, one right after the other, without hesitation. The yelling stopped, the screams melted into the distance. Rick kept running; Hershel was following as fast as he could.

Evelyn

Evelyn knelt by her group with her trusted, standard police-issue Glock in hand, aimed at the trees in case the bandits had any other friends. Cherry's chest rose and fell quickly, her own silver revolver smoking where it sat tightly in her palm. She stared at the three dead men, one of them proudly sporting her ice pick in his skull, the other two with bullet wounds they wouldn't recover from.

A twig snapped, and both of the women turned their guns on the new intruders, ready to fire. "Back off!" Evelyn's voice was strict and honest - she would pull that trigger without a moment's hesitation.

The two men now standing at the edge of the train tracks held their hands up in the air, and an impasse of silence fell upon the survivors. Evelyn watched as her best friend walked to one of the bandits, fiercely pulling her ice pick from his head. Cherry's eyes never left Rick as she approached him, staring him down. Her gaze was intimidating, her ice pick raised and gun at her hip. Rick didn't utter a word, trying to size the two of them.

"We don't mean for any trouble," Hershel carefully spoke, his eyes resting gently on Evelyn's. Cherry looked to Evelyn; they shared a brief glance.

"Who are you?" Eve demanded, her gun still raised and eyes still untrusting. "I've seen plenty of groups use a sweet old man or an innocent kid to overtake helpless people, but let me tell you right now, we are not one of those cases. You try anything, and we will end you and be on our way." She gritted her teeth, not willing to compromise. Evelyn stared at Rick; there was something vaguely familiar about him, but she chose not to trust it. His silence was starting to get to her. She quickly cocked the hammer back on her gun, "I said, who are you[?"

"My name's Hershel, and he's - " With no warning, a figure came from the shadows, a crossbow held in one hand as the other rapidly grabbed onto Cherry, immediately dispatching her.

"Drop it!" the man shouted, holding her tightly to him and raising his crossbow.

"Let her go!" Evelyn's voice was loud and the group was instantly protesting at the sudden intrusion; Eve turned her gun on the man, and Rick watched as her finger prepared to squeeze the trigger. "Let her go, or I'm dropping you like a deer!" Chaos was falling around the group of them, and it was going to attract a problem.

"Whoa, whoa!" Rick finally intervened, shouting above all of them, "Everybody just needs to calm down!" Evelyn immediately stopped her yelling, turning to the now completely familiar voice, "Let's all calm down, so we can get home safe..!" Rick was now standing in between them, his hands still raised. He looked to his own right-hand man, Daryl, currently standing with Cherry in his clutches. "Daryl... Let her go, we can talk this out. Nobody needs to die today."

Evelyn's breath was shaky, and though her weapon was still raised, her mind was racing with memories. She stared at the man. He'd grown a beard, and he'd changed... He had definitely changed. But she'd heard him say those words before.

"Officer Grimes?" she finally said, her palms sweating and brow furrowing as she stared at him. He turned to her, and they paused for that moment. His brow finally raised in understanding. He slowly lowered his hands. She slowly lowered her gun.

"Rick?" Daryl called; Rick nodded, though his eyes were still on Evelyn. She hoped he remembered - but wasn't sure if it mattered anymore.

Daryl begrudgingly let Cherry go, and Evelyn noted how she shoved him off, grabbing her ice pick from the ground. Evelyn gestured to the three dead men beside them. "You with them?"

Rick slowly shook his head, hardly giving the men a glance. "No. No, ma'am." She hadn't heard that in far too long, that word. "Ma'am." Who said that these days? In a world like this? She shrugged it off, and finally holstered her gun. She turned to the group, running her eyes over them, making sure they were all still there, still uninjured.

"How's Dean?" she asked, meeting Alicia's concerned gaze.

Alicia wrapped an arm around the young boy who hadn't spoken a word in days. "A little shaken up, but I think he'll be okay."

"And Beatrice?" As Evelyn spoke with her group, Rick took note of their condition. They didn't have much of anything with them; it appeared that the two leaders of the group had been the ones carrying the large packs, as both packs had been dropped to the ground and left untouched since the bandits had stopped them. There were three women, one of them older and sickly; a child, and a man in his forties who looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks. They all were malnourished, exhausted. They were a weary group.

Beatrice slowly nodded, hanging onto Todd. "I'm alright. We're okay, Eve." Evelyn acknowledged her words and turned back to the unfamiliar men. She made eye contact with Cherry, looking for guidance on the next step. With a nod of approval from the group's strongest protector, Evelyn made a bold move with Rick.

"We were just on our way through. Bandits jumped us. We..." Eve trailed off, not sure how to phrase her question. Cherry saved her from standing in silence.

"Where you folks based, anyway?" Cherry questioned, her fingers twisting absent-mindedly around the handle of her ice pick.

"Don't worry about it." Daryl had been the one to respond, and the two of them were staring each other down.

With a laugh, Cherry turned on him, "I wasn't asking you."

Rick ignored their quarrel, his expression thoughtful. He turned to the other one. "I remember you." Evelyn didn't expect the words, but nodded solemnly in reply. "Can we trust you and your group? Or is this going to be a problem?"

"Yes. We're good people." She took a breath, and looked back at the five group members waiting on the tracks. She turned back to Rick. "We've got a nine year old with us, and he hasn't eaten much. We'd appreciate if you could help us get some food in his belly, and then we'll be on our way."

Rick listened intently. His hands found his hips, his head hung. There was only so much food to go around, and the community building back at the prison was going through it faster than he and Hershel could keep up with. He found Hershel's gaze, who stood there with hands in pockets and trust in his eyes. His vote was clear. Rick's next move was to look to Daryl, who took a moment to eye the group one last time. He lingered on the young boy, not much younger than Carl. He thought of Judith. With a sigh, he gave Rick a nod.

Rick pursed his lips and stepped toward Evelyn, looking between her and Cherry.

"How many walkers have you killed?"