The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 78 - And Then They Came

A truck had crashed into the outside of the fence driven by what they were calling the Wolves. They had brought it in hopes of bringing down the fence, but it had only resulted in the driver crashing and dying behind the wheel. He'd fallen over the horn though and that had done its own fair share of damage.

More concerning though was that Glenn and Nicholas hadn't made it back with Michonne's half of the group. They had gone out to cause a distraction in town to give the others an opening, but they hadn't been seen since.

Rick had demanded answers first before giving some in regards to the walker herd that was now beginning to pool outside. But he told them all of it once he knew what he needed to.

"You can hear it." He was saying. "Some of you saw it. They got back here. Half of them. Still enough to surround us 20 deep." He said as he looked around at the gathering crowd. "Look, I know you're scared. You haven't seen anything like this. You haven't been through anything like this but we're safe for now. The panel the truck hit seems intact. We'll reenforce it just in case. Either way the wall is gonna hold together..." The looks about them were worried and concerned. A look that said they were losing faith.

"Can you?" Rick asked. "The others. They're gonna be back."

"They're gonna be back." Rosita repeated with confidence to back him up. She didn't want to think about the alternative. Kat didn't want to.

"Daryl, Abraham, Sasha." Rick listed. "They have vehicles. They're gonna lead them away just like the others... and Glenn and Nicholas are gonna walk through the front gate after. They know what they're doing and we know what we need to do. We keep noise to a minimum. Pull our blinds at night. Even better, keep the lights out. We try to make this place as quiet as a graveyard. See if they move on-"

"This place is a graveyard." A woman spoke up. There was silence in return. A ringing silence as people exchanged looks but mostly... they looked to Rick.

"The quarry broke open," It was Aaron that broke the silence, "and those walkers were heading this way. All of them. The plan that Rick put into place stopped that from happening. He got half of them away. I was out there recruiting with Daryl..."

"Aaron, don't." Kat spoke up to try and stop him, knowing what he was about to say. But he held up his hand to stop her from saying any more. He was going to tell them. He was going to give them all full transparency.

"I wanted to get into a cannery and scavenge, but Daryl wanted to keep looking for people. We did what I wanted and we wound up in a trap set by those people and I lost my pack. They must have followed our tracks. Those people who attacked us... they found their way back here because of me."

"No." Kat shook her head. "You made a decision. You chose right over left. It's not a wrong or right choice." Kat was saying, not liking the judgemental looks the others were giving him. "You chose to look for supplies to feed the people we already have instead of finding more. What followed wasn't meant to, couldn't have been predicted. It was an accident and you did what anyone would have to survive. That's not on you. This, what happened here, that's not on you either."she said with a light shake of her head, sitting on a nearby stone on a retaining wall with Luke on her lap and Maggie at her side.

Rick began to nod. "There'll be more to talk about later."

"Deanna?" Tobin called, seeing her a little ways away. She made no effort to turn and he started to leave without the attention of anyone until then. "Deanna!" He tried again, but she only kept walking.

"Let her go." Kat said softly.

Rick got a group together to start reenforcing the fence as Kat began to look around for anyone injured after the attack. Denise seemed to have done her job though, tending to anyone that needed it. Michonne had made it back with her group although she had lost people along the way. Glenn and Nicholas had split up from them to cause a distraction for the herd on their tail but no one had see them since. Maggie was worried, Kat could see that easily. Kat tried not to think about it. Glenn was their expert when it came to big groups in isolated areas.