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The World We Live In

Oceanside

"It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war." — John F. Kennedy

Returning home to Alexandria again from the junkyard was a bit peaceful, despite everything else was going on at any given moment. As soon as that front gate was rolled closed, it was like leaving their troubles outside the walls. Not quite, obviously, but just enough. Seeing the homes and the families walking around, going about their lives as best as they could, keeping up that sense of normalcy they all so desperately craved; it was always a nice sight to see. Rick loved it, especially, when he could walk through his front door and swoop up Judith into his arms, from whoever was babysitting her, and plant kisses all over her face. Her innocence and how unaware she was toward the outside world still was a breath of fresh air that Rick could live vicariously through every once and awhile. When he did any domestic, fatherly duties, it felt a little like the old world. It actually made him chuckle at how he used to think that world was so chaotic and overcomplicated, when now it felt just the opposite. If anything, the world was crazier and he had even less time now to just live his life. Nowadays no one could just live their lives. They were fighting uphill battles just to survive each and every day. Quite literally, as it were.

But the battles they’d fought and the battles still yet to fight were all served a purpose.

They fought to survive. They sacrificed nearly everything so the world could be simple again. They fought so that their friends and families—their children—could flourish in the new world without having to look over their shoulders; without wondering if they would go hungry or get attacked and killed.

Rick fought so his son and his daughter could grow up, not just in a world better, safer, more peaceful world. He fought so they could simply grow up.

So, when opportunities that would afford not only his community, but every community, the chance to get out from under Negan’s thumb and someday achieve that better world, Rick was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and question it.

When Tara told Rick she had something to tell him, he was all ears. There was just something about her tone, her guilty face and the anxious way her fingers fidgeted at her sides that told him she wasn’t about to share her grandmother’s famous peach pie recipe. Since she had been coming to see him to tell him whatever it was she knew, and knowing Georgie, Daryl and Michonne were at his house already, he felt that whatever Tara had to say, it would be best if she told them, too. And, since they would all be in one place, there wouldn’t have to be too much repeating.

In the privacy of his home he had Tara sit down with them at the dining table. Rick, at the head of the table closest to the kitchen, sat turned in his seat, facing Tara at his immediate left. Georgie, at his right, was old hat. They didn’t even think about it anymore, the way they gravitated to each other; be it unconsciously or not. Michonne sat at Georgie’s right, and Carl across from her to Tara’s left. Daryl stood despite there being the chair at the opposite end of the table from Rick, but that wasn’t surprising. Daryl was never one for just sitting around. Then there was Judith, sitting in the middle of the living room with a plush baby doll and a few plastic mixing bowls from the kitchen to keep her occupied while the adults—and Carl—talked.

They talked about yet another community out there called Oceanside that was made up of women. The only males were very young children who hadn’t been killed by the Saviors during an attack some time back. Tara had come across them after getting separated from Heath on their two-week supply run, and she had kept Oceanside’s to herself until now.

“They—” Tara paused and let out a sigh, sitting hunch at the table as she started intermittently between her fingers and Rick. “They have guns. A lot of them. I saw it.”

“What?” Daryl questioned, a bit aggravated.

“That group,” her gaze flickered over to him. “Um, the women I met.” She sighed again, looking away from Daryl and back toward Rick. “They have an armory. They have guns.”

“Why didn’t you tell us before now?” Rick asked, leaning forward with a calmer demeanor than Daryl was conveying.

“I made a promise, Rick. I promised to keep their existence, their location a secret. They lost their husbands, their fathers and their sons to the Saviors following a failed rebellion. They don’t want to lose anything or anyone else. I made a choice then, but I’m making a new choice now. I don’t want any more of us to die, but we need guns to protect us. Those women have guns. I can show you where they are, we can go there and we can ask them to join us. Maybe we can all come together and fight together.”

“You said they’re called Oceanside?” Georgie garnered Tara’s attention next. “So it goes without saying they’re by the water. Point out on a map whereabouts on the water they are and we’ll go to them. We’ll plead our case and convince them to fight with us. If I was them, and the Saviors killed every man here, and other communities came together, asking us to join them in fighting back, I sure as hell wouldn’t continue to hide. Hiding and not fighting is just showing their daughters that what the Saviors did was okay; that bad men can get away with anything they want.”

Tara shrugged. “They’re scared.”

“What if they don’t want to fight?” Carl wondered; his dirty fingernails picking at the edge of the table. “What if we go all the way there to convince them to fight with us and they say no? What do we do?”

Rick chewed his bottom lip in thought and the others fell silent as if waiting on him to be the one to answer those questions his son raised. “You say they have a lot of guns,” he started, looking back at Tara after a brief glance toward Carl. “So, if they don’t want to fight with us, we’ll ask them to borrow the guns and that we’ll bring them back once this fight with the Saviors is finished. If they say no…well…we’ll take the guns anyway, and we’ll still bring the guns back afterward as a show of good faith.”

Michonne nodded in agreement with that sentiment. “We don’t need any more enemies. We’re trying to build a network of people and communities we can trust and do trade with when all this is said and done.”

“A better world,” Georgie added, patting her hand down upon Rick’s.

From beside Tara, Carl chuckled under his breath and it caught the attention of the others.

“What?” Michonne asked with a smile.

“I was just thinking that, since Oceanside is by the water, maybe we could have a beach day someday,” the teen replied with a smile of his own as he looked up from under the wide brim of his hat and the hair he kept in his face to cover most of his bandage. “I was picturing Judith splashing around in a little bathing suit, all of us having this sandcastle building competition, and some swimming as long as it was in an area where there were no shipwrecked walkers floating around.”

The corners of Rick’s mouth turned upward, envisioning what his son had just described, and it was definitely a nice thought. “Maybe someday,” he nodded; hoping it was something that really could happen for all of them.



The rest of the night had been spent studying a map and drawing up a detailed plan for getting to Oceanside and what to do once they got there. The meeting took place at the Monroe family’s empty townhouse, simply because Deanna and Reg had a lot of different maps of the area and all of Virginia as a whole. Being inside the house without any of the Monroe’s left anymore was a little weird, and felt as if they were walking over a fresh grave, since Spencer had only been dead about a week. However, it was just a house and they couldn’t linger on the past. Right now the Monroe townhouse was an ideal location for a strategy meeting with others. Plus, if their voices got too loud and carried, at least Judith wouldn’t be woken up if the meeting went on well past her bedtime. She wouldn’t be disturbed because there wouldn’t be a group of adults in her home to disturb her.

At the meeting, it wasn’t just those that had been present at Rick’s house earlier with Tara explaining about Oceanside. It was also Aaron, Eric, Gabriel, Tobin, Francine, Scott, and even Jesus (who had arrived to Alexandria not long after the others had returned from the junkyard) with Enid in tow. After hashing out every last detail, it was decided, after some back and forth, that there would be no waltzing into the Oceanside property to talk it out first and then ask for the guns. Considering what Tara had also told them about, Natania, the leader of the matriarchal community, about how her paranoia about the Saviors and fear that they are unstoppable has resulted in her ordering any stranger her group encounters being slaughtered on sight, Rick’s group decided, taking the arsenal by force was the only option.

They still threw around the idea of returning the guns eventually, or at least some of them, once the fight with the Saviors was over. They also still all had hope that perhaps approaching Oceanside as a group, presenting the promise of a better world for all by joining together with Alexandria, the Hilltop, the Kingdom and the junkyard group, would inspire Oceanside to take up arms with them against the Saviors. Though, they weren’t holding their breath. For one, the Scavengers—as they were more commonly being referred to—weren’t completely trustful, and secondly, the Kingdom hadn’t even agreed to fight yet. It would take more convincing.

And guns.

A lot more guns.

That night, Enid stayed with Tara and Jesus stayed with Aaron and Eric. The rest of those at the meeting headed to their respective homes to get some sleep, to physically and mentally prepare themselves for next task ahead of them the following morning. And that following morning, which marked seven days since Spencer was disemboweled out in the street and Olivia was so cruelly shot dead, the group heading out for Oceanside began to rise to meet the day.

Barbara, the other ginger Alexandrian, with an affinity for headbands, came over to the Grimes house after Rick had woken her up, asking her to babysit Judith. Having lost her own children, much like Georgie and several others in the community, she also welcomed the chance to stretch her maternal wings wherever possible to make fill that void in her heart.

The RV was loaded up with the guns and ammo they had already found, and a few other essential supplies they might need if stranded away from their community longer than planned. Besides the RV, they were also bringing the van, which offered plenty of room in the back for loading up more weapons.

Watching everyone make their way toward the vehicles, Rick turned to Tara. “Are you ready if this goes south?”

“It won’t,” Tara assured.

“If it does, you don’t need to feel bad.”

“I do feel bad. I will.”

“Tara…” he trailed, looking at her and then toward the vehicles. “You don’t have to.”

While most fit comfortably into the RV during travel, with Michonne at the wheel and Rick acting as navigator with the map Tara had outlined for him the night before, Aaron drove the van with Gabriel as his only passenger, and Daryl rode solo on his bike alongside the RV.

They traveled the distance from Alexandria to Oceanside, and it wasn’t a short jaunt either, but their group had enough patience.

Reaching a small river—or rather, a glorified creek—which was marked off on the map, they pulled their vehicles over and loaded up the lone boat at the water’s edge. The group took three trips across the water, with one person remaining each time in the boat, to ferry the first group across, return for the second group, and repeat the process with the third and last. Each group carried a small amount of supplies they needed with them for the task ahead, namely guns and some dynamite.

After the last group docked along the water’s edge on the opposite side of the small river, they joined the others that had been waiting and followed behind Tara as she led them through the woods ahead.

A short while later, they neared the outskirts of Oceanside’s perimeter, in which Tara would sneak in alone and subdue Natania as peacefully as she could; taking only a small window of time to convince her to give up their guns and fight with them. Once she was in, the rest of the group would wait to move in afterward as soon as the signal was given, but only if Tara couldn’t convince Natania during that window. If she could, Rick and the others would enter Oceanside and peaceful talks would begin. They were prepared for either outcome, but everyone seemed to be more prepared for some kind of fight, and preparation for that fight was underway as Tara had gone off alone. Rick had helped Michonne up into a tree and watched as she climbed carefully up into it; the tree acting as a watch post where she would use the scope on the rifle she carried up with her to take out any walkers and just keep a general eye on the area. Jesus and Daryl worked together, rigging up the explosives they’d be using as part of their plan while Aaron and Eric kept watch together; making sure the former pair weren’t interrupted by anything undead amidst their cautious task. Everyone else, meanwhile, had begun to encircle the outskirts of Oceanside’s perimeter, so that they could enter in from all different direction and surround the community; catching them off-guard.

Walking up beside Georgie, who had gone ahead to her spot on the outskirts alone, Rick slapped her ass in place of a proper greeting. Standing at her right, he turned and smiled briefly upon her; finding that she was rolling her eyes at him. Whatever amused or sarcastic remark she had been planning to say, fell away from her as both seemed to change their focus from his love tap to the task at hand as they stared forward.

“In the movies, men are always fair game, but women and children are off the table,” Georgie commented as Rick listened. “This community is nothing but women and children.”

“Apparently so.”

“We’re not killing any of them. We all agreed on that.”

Rick nodded. “We did,” he assured. Turning to look at her again, he added, “Killing in self-defense is another thing, though. If one of those women points a gun at any of our people’s heads and looks like they’re gonna pull the trigger, that woman’s life is back on the table, no different than were she a man. Tara told us about how they are. How they kill strangers on sight, regardless if those strangers are good or bad. They’re in that community, letting fear rule them instead of fueling them.”

Georgie snickered. “Have you been working on that line long?”

With a chuckle, Rick shook his head. “Just came to me.”

“I like it.”

“Thanks.”

“Well,” she spoke; her voice trailing for a moment. “Let’s just aim for no bloodshed, alright? One day of no bloodshed or injuries would be a nice change of pace.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “It would be.” Looking down at his wristwatch, Rick let out a sigh. “It’s time.”



The first explosion that went off was loud, as explosions typically were, and were met with terrified screams of women and children echoing off the trees from within Oceanside. A moment later, a second explosion went off and was the cue for Rick and the others to move in. Michonne, from her post in the tree, used her scope to follow a few of the Oceansiders that had been making their way toward their arsenal. To prevent them from reaching it, Michonne shot at the ground a few feet in front of them; calling back to her brief stint at Terminus while she tried fleeing from gunfire at her feet alongside Rick, Daryl and Carl, only to realize the gunfire at their feet had been meant to lead them toward a specific location the shooters wanted them in. Such was the case now. Michonne was not just lookout, but she was also there to help corral the Oceansiders toward the center of the community.

The explosions were going off outside the walls and were set off mainly to keep anyone from going in that direction, as well as to scare them, but only just a little. Following that second explosion and Michonne’s gunfire outside the arsenal, Daryl led Jesus, Aaron and Eric out of the trees toward that location and subdued two of the women, binding their hands together in makeshift restraints before leading them toward the community’s center. With the third explosion, Tobin led the next group out of the woods — which contained himself, Francine and Scott — to corral the women and children trying to flee near that location. Carl, Gabriel and Enid came out of the woods then, as well, followed moments later by Daryl’s group, which was escorting the two women from the arsenal.

“Get down over there. Keep quiet,” Daryl ordered as he ushered both women toward the front of the group of women and children already on their knees on the ground. Some even had their hands on their heads as if they were hostages in a bank robbery.

Well, in manner of ways, they were.

Bringing up the rear of Daryl’s group, Rick and Georgie walked side by side.

“Now, we made a lot of noise,” Rick announced as they approached and walked around toward the front of the women and children. “We want to wrap this up quick so you can send people to redirect anything coming this way.”

“Tara said your forests are relatively clear, so we won’t take any chances,” Georgie assured.

No one needs to get hurt,” he added, stressing almost every word. “This is just about what you have, what we need.”

“Nobody’s taking anything!” a woman’s voice shouted.

Rick’s group immediately looked over to find an older woman with greyish-blonde hair, who was leading Tara forward with a gun to Tara’s head, and was presumably Natania. She was being followed by a girl no older than sixteen or seventeen that Rick’s group could assume to be a girl named Cyndie, whom Tara had explained was Natania’s granddaughter and was the one who helped Tara escape Oceanside the first time.

“You need to let everyone go and leave right now,” Natania warned. “Just walk away or this one dies.”

Everyone kept their hands on their weapons but they weren’t about to back down. They just let Rick take point as he eyed Natania; mindful not to let Tara become collateral damage during this confrontation.

“Yeah, we’ll leave you alone. But we’re taking our weapons with us,” Rick retorted. “That’s not gonna change.”

Georgie held a hand up. “It’s Natania, right?” When she noted the older woman had her attention at the moment, she continued more gently, “Put the gun down, and let’s talk about what we can change.”

“No,” Natania parried; her gun still pressed against the back of Tara’s head. “Leave, right now.”

Tara, wondering if this might be the day she died should Natania’s trigger finger be itchy, looked up toward the trees where she spotted Michonne, peering through her rifle’s scope at her. “Michonne, don’t!” Tara pleaded; knowing the other woman was looking for a clear shot to take Natania out.

“We just wanna be left alone,” Natania continued.

“Yeah, we’ll leave you alone,” Rick assured. “Just let go of her. Now. Or we’ll kill you,” he added with a slight hint of menace in his voice. “None of us want that.”

“They want us to fight the Saviors,” the teen girl, presumably Cyndie, told the rest of her people.

Natania glared at her, and then back at Rick. “We tried that. We lost. Too much. We’re not gonna lose anymore—not our guns, not our safety. Not after everything we’ve done to get here.”

“We’re gonna win,” Tara declared. “With your guns, with or without your help.”

“Natania. Put the gun down,” Rick beseeched, after looking upon the scared, nervous and even curious faces of the women and children down on their knees.

“You kill me and you die,” Tara added. “And my people take the guns, and nothing changes.”

“Maybe we should try,” said one of the women Daryl’s group had brought round from the arsenal.

“Grandma, stop,” the teen girl pleaded with Natania; confirming she was the Cyndie that Tara had spoken of. “It’s over. Just talk to them, okay?”

“It’s not over!” Natania shouted, holding onto her last vestiges of hope that everything would pan out her way. “They’ve forgotten. You’ve all forgotten. Some of you actually want to fight them? After everything? We can lose our guns, but us leaving this place to fight? After everything? I have to remind you! Yes. I am gonna do this, and then I’m gonna die. But it’s that important. This is your life, all of you. Remember what it looks like. Remember what they did to us! You need to see this. Open your eyes!”

“Rick!” Michonne shouted from the trees. “Walkers!”

Without hesitation, Cyndie hauled back and punched her own grandmother in the head; knocking the woman to the ground, unconscious. Enid, standing directly behind them with her gun raised, just kept standing there, but in shock over such a gesture.

As a herd of walkers began to approach from the trees, everyone was on the alert.

“Everybody up!” Rick ordered. “Get the children behind us! They’re coming!”

Rick’s group instantly raised their weapons and stood side by side, flanking each other to protect the unarmed women and children.

“First shift, join them on the line,” the woman from the arsenal, that had spoken up before, spoke to her people. “Knives out. Dead only. Dead only!”

Rick turned to woman, who held her bound hands up to him and which he cut free for her.

“Don’t go anywhere,” he warned before he passed his knife to her.

She took the knife and used it firstly to cut free the binds of her friend’s hands; the other woman who had been trying to reach the arsenal with her. Both women wasted no time in joining the front line with Rick’s group; blades at the ready.

“Everyone, shots within ten feet of the line,” Rick instructed. “That’s it.”

The closer the walkers got, the more everyone was able to see how strangely unique they looked. The walkers were soaked head to toe, with seaweed strewn over their heads, clothes and limbs, and actual barnacles imbedded into their gaunt, and yet bloated, rotting flesh.

“Now!” Rick shouted.

Immediately, Rick’s group and Cyndie with her grandmother’s gun opened fire; including Michonne from her post up in the tree. Those walkers that hadn’t yet been taken down with a bullet to the head and had gotten to close were swiftly taken down by blades to the heads by the Oceansiders that had been standing with Rick’s group. Even a girl no more than twelve years old rushed forward with a blade of her own and brazen fearlessness and took down a walker much taller than her without batting an eyelash.

This kind of fighting side by side is was Rick’s group had wanted, what Tara had hoped for; joining together to fight against their common enemy, for the greater good.

In the aftermath of the walker takedown, everyone walked around to inspect the fallen walkers and make sure they were one hundred percent dead. Any of those that might still be moving were finished off with an abrupt bullet to their brainpan or a swift stab of a knife through the eye.

As Rick approached the woman he had given his knife to, she stood up to face him and handed the knife back over, which he accepted with a kind nod of his head before offering his hand to her. After a hesitant moment, the woman looked at his hand, which was still bandaged from being impaled, and then she shook it. Natania, who had since come to, had stood up, with a sizeable goose egg forming on the back of her head and scowled deeply at the scene before her.

It wasn’t just the mass of dead walkers upon the ground, but the fact that her group had come together with Rick’s, even if it was just to protect everyone from walkers, and were now shaking hands as a sign of respect for one another.

“No,” Natania bit out loudly, as she began to walk away with all eyes following after her. “We’re not fighting them with you. So take your damn guns and go.”



Bells were ringing within Oceanside as all the guns from the arsenal were rounded up and placed either into woven straw baskets, trunks or bags for easy transport, or simply carried in the arms of Rick’s group. The residents of Oceanside simply sat or stood around, doing nothing more than watching as every last one of their guns and ammunition was being carted away.

Rick took one last good look around at the people and the Oceanside community as whole before being approached by Gabriel.

“We don’t need all this, do we?”

Rick sighed. “Yeah,” he nodded. “Yeah, we do.”

Accepting this, Gabriel continued forward with the others, and Gabriel’s presence beside Rick was soon replaced by Georgie, who was being quickly followed by Tara; the latter of which was carrying a rifle on her back and two in her hands, all while staring forward with a determined look upon her face.

“We’re gonna bring them back when this is all over,” Tara announced to the Oceansiders.

As Cyndie stood up and walked over to Tara, Michonne finally came out of the woods and walked up between Rick and Georgie.

“Thanks for the heads up before,” Rick thanked.

“I got your backs,” Michonne smirked. Looking around at, well, everything, she continued by asking, “How much do you think we got?”

“More than enough,” Georgie replied.

“Good. That’s good.”

“D’you get down from that tree okay?” Rick asked with a slight smirk.

“I did just fine.” Michonne smiled with a small nod of her head, and then walked on ahead with her sheathed katana strapped to her back and her rifle slung over her shoulder.

Rick reached out and tapped Georgie’s elbow and the two of them walked after Michonne and past Tara, who was she breaking away from her tête-à-tête with Cyndie.

“Thank you,” Cyndie called out, stopping Tara in her tracks; causing Tara to look back for a moment. “For what you’re doing.”

With a nod, Tara continued forward and fell in step with both Rick and Georgie.

Meanwhile, the brazen twelve-year old girl from earlier started to follow. “You’re not leaving us any?”

“Nope,” Tara replied without missing a beat. “See ya later, Rachel.” She then held up her middle finger to the girl and shot a grin over her shoulder.

Rick looked at Tara with a raised eyebrow. He was really interested in knowing what that was all about, but held his tongue; instead choosing to keep his amusement with the gesture to himself and remain straight-faced. And maybe it wasn’t just amusement, but also envy, since there had been more than one occasion in his life, especially since this new world began, that he had really wanted to give the bird to a child, and not necessarily his own.

“You okay?” Georgie asked of Tara.

“Yeah,” she nodded. She then looked from Georgie to Rick. “You’re right. I don’t have to feel bad.”

As Tara picked up the pace to walk on ahead alone, Rick and Georgie looked at each other and more or less shrugged.

They’d got what they’d come for.

They had an arsenal now.

“No one died today,” Georgie remarked, a faint smile at her lips.

“Well, no one with a pulse died today,” he clarified with a faint smile of his own. “No one died, no bloodshed, and we got guns. I’d call that a good day.”

“A very good day indeed.”



At the water’s edge, waiting to cross that small river again to return to all their vehicles, Georgie stood staring at the direction the water flowed while the first of several trips back and forth began. Because of all the weapons they had taken from Oceanside, it was going to take longer to travel from one side of the river to the other because. It was going to be fewer people the boat with several of the guns at a time so that there wasn’t too much weight that might bog the boat down. Rick had gone with the first trip and returned for a second trip. On his second return, he got out and let Eric and Aaron take his place.

Stepping over to where Georgie stood, Rick followed her gaze; staring at nothing particular other than the water. “Tonight we’ll do a proper inventory of everything we got and then, first thing tomorrow, take those garbage pickers their share.”

Georgie nodded. “We’re gonna have to put together this fight against the Saviors real soon. The amount we’re keeping, they’re bound to find in Alexandria during their next visit, and you know they’ll be doing that sooner than later.” Turning to look upon Rick’s profile, she frowned. “We need to formulate some sort of definitive plan ASAP and send word about it to Hilltop, and even the Kingdom.”

Rick couldn’t disagree. “We will,” he assured. “But let’s just get home first, take inventory, and then go from there.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t keep the guns within Alexandria.”

Confused, Rick turned to meet her gaze. “Where do you suggest we put them?”

“Still at home, just not within the walls. I mean, if we want a decent amount to plan a proper attack or any sort of fight with the Saviors, can we do it in just a couple days? It might be best to store the guns in one of the abandoned, neighboring houses outside our walls. Like, in an attic or something. Why would the Saviors think to look there? They’ll be preoccupied with what we have in our pantry and in our homes, not outside the walls.”

“I guess you have a point.” As silence fell between them, Rick averted his eyes upon Aaron returning across the river in the boat with only Tobin and Scott this time; having left Eric behind on the other side with Carl and Enid; who had gone during the first trip across the river with Rick, Tobin and several weapons and stayed. “We’ll flesh out some of those details tonight. We’ll prepare ourselves for the worst, just to play it safe.”

Georgie nodded. “Okay.” Then, she added, “Maybe we should consider getting Judith and any other young children out of Alexandria. If a fight happens, you know it’s gonna come to our doorstep, and we don’t want any kids caught in the crossfire.”

“Carl can take Judith and go with Jesus back to the Hilltop. She’ll be safe there.”

“You think Carl will be content to leave us behind with a fight on the horizon?” She gestured across the river. “He’ll argue with you about it.”

Rick looked over at his son, who was helping Enid, Eric and Scott properly load up the weapons in the back of the van. “Yeah, he probably will.”

“Maybe we send Judith with Enid instead. Carl might have a handicap but at least he’s still a decent shot with his gun. I’m not sure how Enid is or how she’d be in a firefight. I’ve seen Carl prove how capable he is.”

With a sigh and a shake of his head, Rick placed one hand on his hip and tapped his fingers along the handle of his Colt. “Stop convincing me to let my son fight a dangerous fight with us.” When the pair looked at each other, Georgie could see that Rick was actually smirking and didn’t seem overly concerned. “Carl would probably sneak away from Hilltop after making sure Judith was okay there, and then make his way back to Alexandria to fight, even if I told him not to.”

“Well, as stubborn as you Grimes men are, at least you’re standup guys.”

Rick grinned, moving his hand from his hip and reaching it around to give Georgie a casual slap on the ass. “Yeah, well, stubborn is as stubborn does,” he leaned in and muttered in her ear.

As he stepped away from her to help load up the boat for the next trip across the river, Georgie furrowed her brow. “Are you calling me stubborn, too?”

“Well, I’m not calling you not stubborn,” he remarked over his shoulder.

Georgie rolled her eyes; smiling as he continued to walk further away toward the water’s edge. As Michonne stepped away from Tara and Jesus, she came over to join Georgie; still holding the sniper rifle she’d used up in the tree at Oceanside.

“We got a lot of guns,” Michonne stated. Her expression made her seem rather relaxed and content. “I kinda wish we didn’t have to give over any to Jadis and her people.”

“Yeah, it would be nice if we didn’t need their numbers.”

“If the Kingdom would just help us, I don’t think we’d need Jadis’ group.”

Georgie nodded in agreement. “I don’t know that I completely trust her,” she admitted. “I mean, she’s already on my bad side for what she did to Rick just show she felt he was worthy of fighting alongside. He could’ve lost his hand completely, or worse. And what they did with Gabriel—they just seem rather shady. If only the Kingdom would fight and if only the Oceanside would take their heads out of the sand and fight back.”

“We could win this,” Michonne remarked; following Georgie’s train of thought.

“We need to start planning details for this fight. Not just soon. Tonight. Rick and I were just discussing as much a few moments ago. The Saviors will be back for another tribute any day now and we either need to be prepared to fight them when they show up, right then and there, or hide these weapons until we’re ready, because the Saviors will find them.”

“We could bury them. Maybe place them in airtight containers and weight them down in the pond at home,” Michonne suggested.

“I recommended we hide them in the abandoned houses outside our walls.”

Michonne raised her brow in consideration and nodded. “Yeah, that could definitely work, too.”

Rick came back up from the water’s edge, having sent Tobin and Aaron back across the river with more guns, and this time with Tara and Jesus joining the trek across the water. Approaching Georgie and Michonne, he looked between both women with a raised eyebrow; likely wondering what they were discussing, or possibly in cahoots about.

“You two all set to make the next trip across?” he asked. “Francine will go with you, too. Daryl’s gonna sit this one out with me.”

Raising her own eyebrow at him, Georgie folded her arms across her chest. “And what’ll you two be up to?”

“Just making sure everything is good over here before we take the remainder of guns with us.” Stepping forward, Rick smiled and placed a kiss upon Georgie’s nose. “Don’t worry your pretty little head over me.”

The fairly recent memory of feeling like she’d lost Rick for good back at that abandoned carnival behind the high school popped into Georgie’s mind and the frown lines upon her forehead deepened. “I try not to,” she muttered, wondering if he understood what she was thinking about.

Rick held her gaze for a moment longer than needed, reading between the lines of her tone, which was more serious than before when they were speaking. “I know,” was all he said.

They were both on the same wavelength at that moment.

“Okay,” Georgie nodded. “But I’m coming back across with Tobin to bring your and Daryl’s asses back to the other side.”

“Georgie…”

“You really gonna leave Tobin to paddle the boat by himself without anyone there to fire a weapon should we come under attack by something or someone while out on the water?” Smiling knowingly, Georgie brought a hand up to the side of Rick’s face and gave it two gentle pats. “Logistics, my love. Logistics.”

Rick sighed deep and heavily before rolling his eyes back at her. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Stepping behind her and Michonne, he gestured toward the boat which was already returning with Tobin and Daryl. “Get your asses to the boat already,” he added with yet another slap to Georgie’s ass.

After Georgie’s brief reaction by swatting at his hand, both women shook their heads with smiles upon their faces as they were joined by Francine at the water’s edge. Daryl had hopped out of the boat and pulled it closer up onto the embankment and was already loading it up with half the amount of the guns left on their side of the river. As Georgie, Michonne and Francine climbed into the boat, Rick stood there, looking around the woods behind him, and then forward toward the boat when he was convinced there was still no threat in the vicinity. As Daryl stepped into the water with his hands on the boat’s edge, he helped give it a push to help Tobin get going. Michonne had grabbed the second paddle from Tobin and was soon helping him get them across the river.

As that penultimate trip commenced, Daryl walked up the embankment toward Rick and then turned to follow Rick’s gaze upon the boat.

“We got our arsenal back,” Daryl remarked.

“We got our fight back,” Rick replied with a grin.



It was dark by the time Rick and the others reached Alexandria. Because so, Jesus readily took up the offer of staying another night there and also agreed, during the travel back to Alexandria, to leave the next morning and take Judith with him. And, as expected, when Carl overheard his name being dropped in regard to leaving for Hilltop to be with Judith and sit out the upcoming fight, whenever it happened in the coming days or weeks, he denounced that idea without hesitation. Enid, however, quickly offered to go instead; stating she had been staying at Hilltop with Maggie, anyway, and would be happy to look after Judith if that’s what was needed of her.

The RV approached the gates first, which were promptly rolled back by an awaiting Rosita, which got those present inside the RV muttering amongst themselves because they had all been made aware the night before that Rosita had gone off to the Hilltop. Not only that, but Rosita and Sasha had also teamed up and gone off to the Sanctuary alone, which was another reason why Georgie had been adamant on discussing an attack plan against the Saviors that night. If Rosita and Sasha’s trip to the Sanctuary had gone south, retaliation from the Saviors against Alexandria would be in the works and imminent. Of course, everyone was also concerned for Rosita and Sasha’s well-beings, but seeing that it was Rosita greeting them, their hopes seemed considerably up. Once the vehicles were pulled inside of the community and parked, everyone clambered out of their respective vehicles and made a beeline for Rosita.

Enid was first to approach and speak up. “Hey—hey, are you okay?”

“Where’s Sasha?” Jesus asked.

Rosita frowned, which wasn’t her standard facial expression for the last few weeks, and took pause before answering. “There’s someone here.”

With a nod of her head, she directed those who wanted to follow after her, and they did. Making their way around to the townhouses, Rosita led them toward the particular townhouse that Morgan had built the cinderblock jail cell in, which had previously been the empty, unfinished sublevel floor where Rick, Morgan and Jesus had all been kept, under lock and key, at one point or another. When Rosita brought them to the jail cell, she unlocked the barred door and pushed it opened; the clanging and creaking of the metal echoing off the walls. As she stepped inside and aside, Rick, Jesus and Tara managed the first glimpses within the cell first before the others present could.

As Georgie and Michonne stepped forward a little, Daryl came up from behind them with a clear line of sight inside of the cell where the Savior by the name of Dwight, who was responsible for Denise’s death, stared back at everyone and stood up. After a brief moment, Daryl suddenly lunged forward, practically knocking the others out of his way to go after Dwight, but Rick was quick to turn and hold his friend back.

“Whoa. Whoa,” Rick muttered, as he began to struggle, even with Michonne’s help, to rein Daryl in; almost everyone moving into the cell to assist. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. Come on. Whoa.” Rick eyed Daryl, who only had his eye on Dwight, and placed a hand upon Daryl’s chest to get his focus.

“He says he wants to help us,” Rosita announced.

With a nod at Daryl to make sure he was okay and going to stay put, Rick slowly turned around and eyed Dwight with justified skepticism. “That true?”

“You wanna help?”

Dwight nodded with a sense of conviction about him. “I do.”

Rick nodded in response and began to step forward a bit; both men trying to determine what the other was thinking, or possibly just sizing each other up. “Okay,” Rick replied; removing his Colt from its holster, holding it up to Dwight’s face, and then cocking the hammer. “Get on your knees.”

Doing as he was told, Dwight dropped down to both knees, but let his gaze wander from the floor to Daryl and then back to the floor.

“Look at me,” Rick ordered; his voice quiet and low. “Why?”

“‘Cause I want it stopped. I want Negan dead.”

“So why don’t you kill him?”

“It can’t just be me. They’re all Negan.”

“That girl you murdered…” Tara spoke up, and moved forward to get in Dwight’s face; with Rick stepping aside slightly for her to do so. “She had a name. Her name was Denise and she was a doctor. And she helped people.”

For his sake, Dwight did look genuinely guilty about it. “I wasn’t aiming for her.”

Without warning, Daryl blustered past. Tara let out a small gasp of surprise as she was bumped aside so Daryl could grab Dwight and slam him up against a wall and aim a knife at his head. Breathing heavily with righteous anger, Daryl glared at Dwight so deeply that his eyes might as well have been knives as well.

“Do it,” Tara urged. “Do it.”

“You wanna end it this way…you go ahead,” Dwight whispered. “I’m sorry. I am. I know you want to.”

“He could just be here to see if you were here,” Rick remarked; thinking about how the Saviors had been looking for Daryl.

“We can’t trust him,” Michonne echoed most of their thought patterns.

“He owned me. But not anymore,” Dwight continued, holding Daryl’s death stare. “What I did, I was doing for someone else. She just got away. So now I’m here. So are you, because of her.”

“Do it!” Tara barked.

“There’s another choice.”

“Daryl. Daryl, you knew her.”

“Negan trusts me. We can work together, we can stop him,” Dwight pleaded. “You knew me then, and you know me now. You know I’m not lying. I’m not.”

“Do it,” Tara again urged. “Do it!

Daryl hesitated a little longer and then abruptly dropped his knife. Rick stepped to the side of both of them to make sure there was no sort of physical retaliation from Dwight against Daryl.

“They have Sasha,” Rosita finally admitted. “If she’s even alive.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” Jesus wondered. “He could be our only chance to get her back.”

“Because I don’t trust him. I trust Daryl.”

Georgie turned from Rosita, who looked a weird mix of angry, heartbroken and indifferent. Folding her arms across her chest, she stepped up to the left of Daryl but still slightly behind him as she eyed Dwight. Giving him a quick but observant look, she turned her gaze over to Rick. “He could still be useful to us,” she stated.

Dwight’s eyes flitted over to her. “Negan’s coming soon.”

“We know that.”

“Tomorrow,” Dwight specified; which definitely grabbed Rick’s attention. “Three trucks probably. Twenty Saviors and him. I can slow them down, bring some trees down in the road, buy a little time for you guys to get ready. If you can take them out, that’s where we start. You kill them, I’ll radio back to the Sanctuary.”

Rick looked from Georgie, to Daryl, and then back to Dwight. “The Sanctuary?”

“Where Negan lives. That’s what they call it,” Dwight replied as he began to look between Rick, Daryl and Georgie. “I can radio back to them and say everything’s okay. You drive the trucks back, and I can lead you right inside, and with the right plan, we can wipe out the rest. Check to see if your friend’s still alive. Then, we get the workers on our side, build our numbers up, and go from outpost to outpost and end this.”

Georgie turned slightly and stared over at Rick, who suddenly felt her eyes upon him. “I don’t like him. But this plan of his, so far, is doable,” she commented, as if Dwight wasn’t there. “If he’s telling the truth, and I think he is, this could be our best chance—possibly our only chance.” She watched as Rick held her gaze and even how Daryl’s eyes seemed to be averting slightly to her as well, though not as blatantly as Rick, or even Dwight, was. “How many chances are we gonna get?”

With a deep and long sigh, Rick closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them back up, his focused had returned fully upon Dwight. “Keep talking.”



Slightly later that night, Dwight was walking freely out the front gate and climbed into the vehicle he likely arrived to Alexandria in. Daryl was standing at the top of the road, staring after him with his fists balled up at his sides as Rick and Georgie approached; their gazes following their friend’s. Michonne and Jesus soon followed and joined them as well; standing a couple paces behind. Tara, meanwhile, was sitting on the porch of the nearest house and seemed none too happy for obvious reasons.

“We just started it—the whole thing,” Rick announced.

“If he starts, I’m gonna kill him real slow,” Daryl warned as Dwight started his vehicle up. “When this is done, I don’t give a damn if he’s sorry. I will kill that sonofabitch.”

Watching as Dwight drove away, Georgie turned her focus onto both men, “If he’s lying, this is already over.”

As Rick began to walk away, Jesus stepped forward. “I’ll leave now. I’ll get Enid, you pack a bag for Judith and we’ll take her with us back to Hilltop. We need to get there ASAP and let Maggie and the rest of the people there know what’s gonna happen. The Hilltop will be needed here.”

“No,” Rick stopped in his tracks and shook his head. “Stay at the Hilltop. Stay there in case things go wrong, so we have another card to play; another safe place the Saviors think they can control. We’ll have Jadis and her people to fight with us. We have Oceanside’s guns.”

With a little bit of hesitation, Jesus accepted this and nodded. “Okay. We’ll get going.”

As Jesus walked off, Rick turned to Georgie. “How tired are you, on a scale from one to ten?”

She smirked back at him. “Seven, seven and a half. Why?”

“You up for a trip back to the junkyard. We gotta get those guns we promised to Jadis and her group and we need to bring them back here by morning,” he replied. “You said it at the river. We don’t know how soon the Saviors will get here. We know it’s tomorrow now, but we don’t know when tomorrow it’ll be, so the sooner we get our numbers up, the sooner we can be ready for what comes next.”

Georgie nodded. “You know I’m with you for all of it,” she assured. “Let’s pack that bag quick for Judith and see her off with Jesus and Enid first. Then you and I head out.”

“Okay.” There seemed to be a flicker of doubt and worry in his eyes.

Reaching her hand out to his, the uninjured one, she grabbed onto it and gave it a firm squeeze. “Hey,” she muttered with a knowing smile. “Answer me one thing.”

“Anything.”

“What do you miss from the old world?”

Without missing a beat, Rick smiled back at her. “It’s been a long while since we played that.”

“I know it has.”

With a sigh, Rick leaned forward and squeezed her hand back. “Sitting in the Drive-Thru at McDonalds; looking forward to that first bite of my Quarter Pounder with cheese.”

Georgie grinned. “Let’s get this done, let’s finish this, and then the only thing we have to dwell on anymore is the superficial things from our old lives that we miss.”

Slipping his hand free of Georgie’s, Rick dragged it up her arm and snaked it around to the back of her head. Casually, he pulled her forehead against his; letting their warm breaths mingle with one another. “Tomorrow night, it’s your turn to tell me what you miss.” Leaning back so he could look her in the eye, he added, “Because we will get a tomorrow night.”

Notes

Finally another updateyay! All I'm gonna say is my plan for future chapters will be delayed on purpose after I finish writing the chapter that encompasses season 7's finale. Season 8's premiere episode seemed to have multiple timelines going and I'm not sure what some of those scenes with Rick were pertaining to and, more importantly when they pertain to. I don't want to write something only for it to be contradicted a few episodes later, especially since this story follows the show and, yes, involves a character insert with slight deviation from the ongoing TV show plot. That being said, I'll just shift my focus to my other story, Roads Not Taken, during that interim. Sooooo, enjoy...and, as always, please R&R!

xoxo —Holly

Comments

Completely understand. Thank you for sharing your talent with us all. Looking forward to your new story updates on Road Not Taken and the sequel to We Can Change.

Grimesgirl63 Grimesgirl63
1/7/19

Thanks for the update today!

Grimesgirl63 Grimesgirl63
8/26/18

Sorry to hear about your aunt.

Grimesgirl63 Grimesgirl63
3/31/18

Thanks for the update today!

Grimesgirl63 Grimesgirl63
7/29/17

Nicely done!!!

Grimesgirl63 Grimesgirl63
1/30/17