Future Ghosts • TWD

35. Together.

"Rick, we're stranded now," Glenn said softly and sadly.

"I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other," Rick said, leaning forward as if it would further his point. "I wasn't sure- I really wasn't- but we did. We're together. We keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere. There's gotta be a place."

Rosie scrunched up her face to try and rid her eyes of the few tears that had slipped out from the cold breeze blowing against her face and burning her eyes, and pulled the sleeves of her flannel down over her hands.

"Rick, look around. Ok? There's walkers everywhere. They're migrating or something," Glenn said.

"There's gotta be a place not just where we hole up, but we fortify, hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a life for each other," Rick said. Rosie couldn't tell if he was angry or not. His words didn't seem like angry ones, but the way he was saying them made it sound like they were. Either way, everyone was tense. "I know it's out there, we just have to find it," Rick growled out.

"Even if we do find a place and we think it's safe, we can never be sure. For how long?" Maggie said.

That was the real question. Even if they did think there was a safe place, how long would it really be safe for? They thought the quarry was safe, but then walkers came through and people died. They thought the CDC was safe, but then the place blew up. They thought the farm was safe, but last night...

"Look what happened with the farm. We fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe."

"We won't make that mistake again," Hershel said.

"We'll make camp tonight," Rick said. He pointed off into the trees. Following his eyes, Rosie could see that he was pointing over at some sort of rock structure. "Over there. Get on the road at the break of day."

Carol stepped closer to Daryl, her face scrunched up. "Does this feel right to you?" she asked him. Daryl just looked at her, not saying anything. Rosie looked at her too, confused as to why she was specifically asking Daryl out of everyone.

Beth stepped forward too, but her questions were directed more towards Rick. "What if walkers come through? Or another group like Randall's?"

"You know I found Randall, right? His neck was snapped. He had turned, chasin' after Rosie," Daryl said to Rick, making everyone glance at Rosie for a moment. She looked down at her boots, not bothering to return any of their looks full of pity. "Shane killed Randall, just like he always wanted to. Rosie saw it go down, so he knocked her out and left her there, thinkin' Randall'd do the rest before she woke up," Daryl told him.

Carl's eyes widened as he glanced back and forth between Rosie, Daryl, Lori, and Rick. He didn't know what Daryl was talking about.

"And then the herd got him?" Lori asked, looking at Rick.

Rick didn't say anything. He just stared straight forward, unsure of what to say. And then he walked away without saying anything, and Lori followed after him. Rosie watched for a moment, wondering what they were doing. Lori hugged Rick from behind, but a few moments later, she pulled away and stood there, still behind him. Rosie stopped watching, though, when she felt someone place their hand on her shoulder. She turned around quickly and saw that it was Daryl.

"Ain't your business," Daryl said, referring to whatever was going on between Lori and Rick. Rosie nodded and looked down at her boots again. "Ya feelin' any better?" Daryl asked. Rosie just shrugged. Her head was feeling a bit better, but now her stomach was hurting. "You should put on another shirt over top that one, even if it ain't comfortable. It's just gonna get colder once the sun goes down."