Stranger [The Walking Dead]

7 ; Infestation

It had been rough with the whole Pete murdering Reg thing. I wasn't sure how to take it. Things had gotten intense. They had to bury his body, but Rick didn't want him in Alexandria's walls. I got why; he'd been a piece of shit, and we didn't like those kinds of people. I felt bad for Ron though.

Still, he'd had kids, and they'd want to go to the place to mourn their father, as much of an asshole as he was.

It'd been less of a colder winter than what I thought it was. They'd kept Pete's body someplace cold until it was warm enough to attempt to find a place to bury him.

The good thing had been that Tara had woken up that night. I'd been there to see her, and then Glenn and Nicholas came in. I'd been beside her when the two had come in. It wasn't long before Maggie and Eugene came in. Tara had been quick to joke about Eugene's hair before asking for Noah to come protect her from him.

I'd broken the news to her about it. The look on her face had me saying sorry before I left.

I ended up on the gazebo. Enid joined me not long after, holding my hand. Carl had joined us, on Enid's other side. None of us said anything, instead just keeping quiet over the whole thing.

It had been a long night.

But now, things were getting worse.

Rick and Morgan had tried to go and bury Pete elsewhere, outside of the walls. But they'd returned, telling us about an old camp in a quarry where the walkers had all just piled in over the last few years of the apocalypse, the noise drawing them in.

Rick, Deanna and the other adults had planned it over the winter, and once the weather started to get warmer so that the walkers would move easier when they followed. They'd set in walls on the streets, directing the herd certain ways, away from Alexandria. If the walkers got loose, got off track from the one we'd designed for them, they'd end up heading straight for Alexandria.

"You're not goin' to have lookout," Daryl told me, and I frowned, crossing my arms over my chest. "An' yeh ain' goin' on this dry run, or the actual one either."

"Why not? I'm used to big herds like that."

Daryl shook his head at me. "Not to that extent, Robbie," he said, looking more like a parent than I'd ever seen. "Just stay here. Be a kid. Talk to Carl and that Enid girl you spend so much time with."

"I wanna help. You know I'm good at that kind of stuff."

"I know you are. But I want you safe," he said, placing his hands on my shoulders. "Goin' out there means riskin' your neck. You're capable, but I want you to not have to do this shit. Don't, for my sake."

I looked at him, feeling a pout about to reach my lips before I sighed and nodded. "Fine, OK, you're right."

He smiled at me, patting my shoulder before he started to walk off.

"Not even shifts on watch?"

"Maybe, if you're good," Daryl called back, and I stuck my tongue out at him, then turned and walked the other way.

We'd gone out in groups to dig up the ground and set up the plates like the ones that were in the wall around Alexandria. It had been ... stupid, in a way. A fair amount of them had panicked when a few walkers had appeared. Myself and some others had been quick to stop the threat of the dead when the weaker ones from Alexandria hadn't dared go near them.

But the weather was getting warmer, and it was time to do the dry run. I felt uneasy at that. The dry run felt like a bad idea, but they had to go on it, just to see how things could play out.