I added in a bit with the Deanna interview. Sorry, but if you care to read it it's at the end of the last chapter. Hardly mandatory though.
"You all have your assignments." Rick's voice came through the sound of the walkie talkie strapped to Glenn's side. "You know where to rendezvous. Daryl leads them out, Sasha and Abraham join them at the bottom of the hill. Glenn and Kat; you hit us when you take care of the walkers at the tractor place. That's the one thing we gotta get ahead of. Everyone keep your head. Just keep up." Rick encouraged.
"Come on, keep up!" Kat yelled to the others as her and Glenn were powering ahead. "They left from the wrong exit, they'll make it here faster than you think!"
"Glenn." Rick said through the speaker. "You have to hurry, the noise could distract the herd right off the road. Talk to me."
"We're here." Glenn responded as they came up on the building as he ran past a walker trapped under the tyre of a tractor, stabbing it in the head as he ran by.
"Sounds like a lot." Heath said, listening to the walkers inside the building.
"We need them quiet." Glenn said back.
"So, what's the plan?"
"We take them out a few at a time." Glenn answered.
"Come on, the doors around this way." Kat ushered them around the corner.
"Nicholas, get the door." Glenn nodded. "You let one or two out and you close it. You keep doing that. That's the trick, that's how we control it.
"Wait, what if he can't close it?" Heath asked.
"We take them on." Glenn stated.
"We take them on?" Heath asked uncertainly.
"We can handle a dozen." Kat said confidently. "We have guns." She'd handle more than that on her own, but she wasn't about to brag about it. Nor was she about to freak him out by saying she thought there was more in there than just a dozen.
"If we get into trouble we go behind the building, into the woods and we draw them away." Glenn said.
"They've been on runs since they got here." Nicholas spoke, surprising the both of them as he spoke to Heath. "They know what they're doing... Me and Aiden... we didn't."
"Look... Daryl's leading them this way and they're closing in." Kat said. "I'm meant to be with him, watching his back, but I'm not. I'm here dealing with this because if we don't do this it could mean trouble for everyone."
"That noise is going to pull that herd right off the road and then we have serious trouble." Glenn added.
"Okay." Heath nodded.
"On three." Glenn said as Nicholas got ready to open the door. They were using guns so Kat stood back, readying hers. She'd rather have dealt with it more quietly, but they weren't confident enough and she wasn't confident in throwing them into something. "One, two... three."
Nicholas ripped open the door, but nothing happened. Behind it was a tin barricade. A roll down security door that was locked from the inside.
"Fuck." Kat muttered.
Glenn looked over to her. "You swear more than you used to." He said.
"Really? Now's the time to berate me?"
"Come on." He nudged her, pulling the group around the other side to the glass windows. "We can shoot the glass." Glenn said.
"This is a bad idea." Heath stated. He was hard enough to convince when they could argue they'd have control over it.
"This is the only idea."
"I think... there's more than a dozen in there." Nicholas said.
"Probably." Kat admitted.
"We stay back. We get on opposite ends and we draw them to each of us. Kat you stand in the middle but keep further back or they're just gonna come straight at you. You." He turned on Nicholas. "You get back and you stay back. Things go south you tell Rick," Glenn said firmly, shoving the walkie talkie into his hands, "and you draw them away." He didn't leave room for argument. "Ready?"
"No, but since you're doing this thing anyway." Heath answered before Glenn shot at the glass and the walkers began to tumble out.
"Shoot them as they come." Glenn said. Three came. Then another three. They kept coming, near on two dozen. Glenn fired, Kat fired, Heath fired.
Their system worked well enough. The ones on the sides were distracted by the guys, parting off to the left and right to head towards Glenn and Heath while the others in the middle kept their attentions on Kat. But their bullets started to run out. Kat was quick to holster her gun and pull her machete from her hip.
Heath fumbled more and Glenn tried to reload, doing so quickly before firing again, but Nicholas soon intervened. He ripped a walker away from Heath that was getting too close as he tried to reload. Glenn stabbed one and Kat decapitated another and split a second's skull in two. They stood there at the end. Out of breath, with corpses lying about.
"Get it." Glenn said, nodding for Nicholas to take care of the last one walking towards them lazily. Nicholas stepped forward, glad to take care of the task. "Let's go." Glenn said once they were done.
Kat held out her hand as they walked, asking for the speaker at Glenn's side. He passed it over and she turned on the receiver.
"We're done here. Daryl, where are you? I can head out towards the road and meet you there."
"Nah, I'm good." He responded. "Keep going with Glenn." His voice was understandable, but the wind noise and crackle was loud, especially over the sound of the motorbike.
She paused a moment before responding. "If you're sure."
"Yeah, yeah. Just keep them on the road for me." She didn't like it. He was with Abe and Sasha, but they were at least in a car. The lot of them were riding out the front of the herd, standing right in the path of thousands of walkers.
Kat gave the walkie talkie back to Glenn and they picked up the pace to find Rick.
"Everyone." Rick was saying as the group of for came to a jogging stop in the woods just out from marker red. Sasha and Abe would be with Daryl by now and they'd be heading for orange. Orange was the big turn they had spent a lot of the last few days building up a barricade to keep the walkers on track. They could see the herd through the trees, marching down the road. "We need to finish this. We have to keep moving and fan out down that thing." He said. "Front to back. Like we said; cops at a parade. Glenn, you take the back - you've got the other walkie."
"Got it." Glenn nodded, heading for the back with his group.
"If they get sloppy we fire our weapons, pull them back on track."
"I'll hit the front." Michonne nodded
"Okay. One after the other." Rick nodded.
Kat went to go after Glenn, but Rick stopped her. "No, you stay near me. If things get out of control either end we'll move to help."
"Alright." She nodded.
The walkers on the road did well at keeping in line, it was the ones that were coming from behind, drawn by the sound that were the issue. But all things considered it was going well. For a couple thousand walkers on a road, trailing along behind a motorbike and a sedan things were looking good...
... until the sound a loud horn ripped through the air, carrying across the woods.
"What's that?!" Kat turned to Rick.
"Sounds like a car horn."
"Rick!" Glenn came coming. "It sounds like it's coming from home. The walkers at the back are being pulled off the road."
"We need to move." Kat said. "Rick." Kat grabbed his attention nodding to where Glenn and his group had come from. "They're heading right for us."
"Go." He said. "Everyone! Go!" He yelled.
They couldn't push that many more back into the road. And they couldn't fight them. There were too many. Alexandria was behind and on the other side was the herd. Rick ordered them to run so they did. They moved through the trees, up the hill, sprinting to put some distance between them and the dead.
"It's half." Carter said. "It was more than half."
"Rick." Daryl's voice came through the speaker.
"I'm here." He answered.
"What's going on back there?"
"Half of them broke off, they're going towards Alexandria. We ran ahead. There's a horn or something. Loud. Coming from the east, it's not stopping."
"Imma gas it up, come back." Daryl said.
"No, you keep going."
"You're gonna need help." Daryl argued.
"Gotta keep the herd moving." Rick said back.
"Not if it's going down we don't."
"The risk of that herd turning around... the bad back there gets worse." There was silence for a long beat. "Daryl."
"Yeah, I heard ya." Daryl said before the line went quiet again.
"Alright, listen up." Rick turned to everyone else, speaking up and grabbing their attention. "Here's the new plan. I go back, get the RV, circle around the woods on Redding." He explained. "I get in front of them and lead them away again."
"RVs a mile back. I'll go with ya." Tobin said.
"I can handle it. Just get home. They might need you there. Glenn, Michonne, Kat." Rick said with a wave of his hand to pull them closer to him.
"If something's in front of you, you kill it. No hiding, no waiting. You keep going."
"You can't do this on your own." Glenn stated.
"Glenn, I can do this."
"Rick, no." Kat said firmly with a shake of her head. "No one splits up. No one goes out there alone." She said firmly. "This was meant to be my job in the beginning. I'll go with you, get the RV. Glenn and Michonne lead the others back to Alexandria." Kat said determinedly.
"You need to help me." Michonne said to Glenn when he didn't look comfortable with the plan. "We gotta get these people back."
"Yeah. Thing is... they're not all gonna make it." Rick said.
"Rick..."
"You try to save them, you try." Rick cut Michonne off. "But if they can't keep up you keep going. You have to. You make sure you get back. Kat-"
"No." She stated quite simply. "You might be our leader, but don't think I'm not going to pull you up on a stupid idea. You're not going alone."
Rick looked back to the others to see Michonne smiling with a shrug right before the horn stopped.
"We have to get going." She said before Glenn turned to her and quickly pulled her aside.
"I should go with Rick. I'm a quicker runner."
"No. I can keep up just fine." She stated. "Get back to Maggie."
"Kat..."
"Glenn." She cut in firmly. "Get back to Maggie... and my future niece."
Glenn rolled his eyes. "It's a boy."
"It's a girl." She said with a cheeky grin before giving him a quick hug and her and Rick were off back down the road to the RV.
"Daryl." Rick spoke into the speaker. "Kat and I are going back for the RV. We're gonna drive it out and catch up to the rest of the herd, get them back on the road."
"Just the two of you on foot?" Daryl questioned.
"We got this." Rick stated before turning off the speaker and picking up the pace. They sprinted down road under the scorching sun. There was no shade and sweat dripped behind them. Rick was quicker, but Kat was able to keep pace just fine. Whatever had caused the horn back home was in the back of their minds, but it seemed a distant thought in comparison to the herd heading that way.
Front of the Herd.
"Hey." Daryl drove up next to Abe's open window in the car. "We gone five miles out yet?"
"Give or take some yardage. You got a reason for asking?" He answered.
"Next intersection. Imma spin around and go back."
"The plan is to go fifteen more." Sasha argued back.
"Yeah, imma change that." He said. Things seemed to be going fine on their end. It was the missing half of the herd and the people he cared about caught out in it that had him worried. Rick and Kat running along the open road alone, heading for a notoriously unreliable RV.
"The magic number is 20." Abe continued. "That's the mission. That's making sure they're off munching on racoons the rest their lives and not us."
"You want to go we can't stop you..." Sasha added, "but without you they could stop us."
Daryl rode alongside the car without a reply for a long while. He stared at the road ahead, glanced in his side mirrors at the herd behind and then to the sign they past that read 'Alexandria.'
"Nah," he shook his head at them, "I got faith in ya."
"Daryl!" Sasha yelled, but he was gone, turning off down a side road and speeding away.
Back of the Herd.
"Leave them or take them out?" Kat asked, her voice broken from the force of her feet hitting the pavement as her and Rick continued to sprint down the asphalt.
"We take them out. But be quick." He answered as the two came upon the three walkers crouched over a corpse on the road, ripping it apart.
Kat didn't recognise the body. Blood covered their face but they had to be from Alexandria. Rick took one walker while Kat took the other two, giving him the opening to quickly search the body for more weapons.
"Rick, it's Glenn." The voice came from the speaker again before the two hit the road and continued running. "We're at a town five degrees east of the green marker. If you get around on Redding in the next 20 minutes you should be good. I think that's how far we're ahead of the heard. I gotta go. Good luck, dumbass."
It was another few minutes when they came up on the RV. It was behind the barricade, just hidden by it save for the orange balloons that were tied to the roof and peeked out the top. It was easy to get to but the trouble was making sure it started.
It took a couple turns of the key but the RV kicked into gear and Rick sped the RV down the road.
"I think this is about right." Kat said, looking to the side at the trees as they came to a slowing stop a few miles later. "The walkers should be coming out of the woods about here."
"Alright." Rick nodded, reaching for the walkie talkie again. "Glenn, we're in place by our best guess. You guys make it back yet?" There was silence on the other end. "Glenn? Tobin, you there? Daryl?"
"I'm here." He responded.
"Won't be long now. We'll get them going your way again." Rick said.
"How far out are you guys?" Kat asked, pulling Rick's hand with the walkie in it closer to her. It was Sasha that responded.
"About 7 or 8 miles."
There was the sound of distant shots that grasped Kat's attention as she turned to look in the direction it came from. "What the hell is that?" She asked, slowly standing to move to the window to get a better look.
"What?" Came Daryl's voice, concerned. "Katherine." He snapped a little more directly when no one responded. Kat looked over at the speaker as Rick moved to answer. She honestly couldn't remember a time when he used her full name.
"There's gun fire coming from back home." Rick said. "We gotta sit with it and hope they can handle it. I think they can. They have to. We keep going forward for them. We can't turn back cause we're afraid."
"We ain't afraid." Abraham answered.
"This is for them. Going back now before it's done, that'd be for us. The herd will be almost here." Rick finished.
Kat tried not to think on what could be happening back home. Rick put the speaker down before reaching for some tissues at the front of the RV and pushing them into his hand.
Kat had noticed the blood earlier but thought it was just walker blood. He'd cut his palm at some point. She doubted he even knew how. She stepped forward and took his hand in hers to have a look. It was nothing too deep, but the blood was still fresh because of his consistent use. She snatched the tissues away and reached for the glove box, opening it up and reaching for a bandage inside.
"Aaron stashed some in here after Eric injured his foot." She answered as she wrapped it around his hand. "You think we can cleanly redirect them? Without barricades or anything? It's a hard right turn."
"Even if we don't, we'll get most of them. It's better than nothing. We can deal with the rest back home."
Rick picked the walkie up, turning on the channel to speak with the others again as Kat sat back and up onto the passenger's seat.
That was when the door to the RV was kicked in and a man came in shooting. Rick jumped forward, dropping the radio and knocking Kat back and down into the footwell of the front cab.
"Rick? Kat?" Came Daryl's voice.
Rick jumped up and charged at the man, knocking him down as Kat started to get to her feet. A second came in and ripped him off his friend, jumping on his back. Rick slammed the guy into the wall as Kat reached for her gun, shooting the man on the ground before he could get back up.
Rick rammed the guy on his back back into the wall a second time, this time loosening his grip. When he fumbled and Kat got a clean shot she fired again.
"Kat!" Daryl's voice was calling, hearing the struggle and the gun shots through the radio and getting no reply.
Kat moved to pick it up. "It's okay, we're alright. Just keep going. Keep those walkers on track." She replied as Rick moved to the dead man's corpse, leaning forward to reach into his pocket, something catching his eye.
Rick pulled out a jar of apple sauce. The same kind of apple sauce they fed to Judith. They had come from home. "If you need help-"
"We're okay." She reassured. He hated not knowing what was happening. She could hear sound of his motorbike through the radio. It was crackling and louder than before. It implied speed. He'd turned around. "Daryl... go back." She said softly as his bike teetered to a slower pace.
Rick nodded to the side mirror and Kat stepped back and fell silently in line with Rick, looking where he was and seeing three more people in the side mirror of the RV. They were sneaking along beside it. Kat quietly reached for the automatic rifle in the front seat and handed it over to Rick.
"We've got this." She said softly on the end before turning off the speaker just before Rick opened fire, pounding bullets through the side of the vehicle until he'd emptied the clip.
There was no sound after that. They lay dead on the outside much like their friends on the inside.
"They came from home." Kat said.
"Yeah, but they're not there anymore."
"But did they retreat?" Kat asked. "Or were they just done?"
"Can't think about it now." Rick said before nodding for the tree line. Kat moved to look out the other window to see the beginning of the second half of the herd moving out onto the road.
Rick ran to the front seat to get the RV going. Her turned the key and it splattered but didn't kick in. Again and again and again.
"No, no, no, no, no." Rick muttered.
"I'll go out." Kat spoke, getting to her feet. "Sounds like the battery. Might need the terminal tightened or a jolt." Kat said as she moved quickly for the door. Rick was up and after her before she could get out.
"No." He snatched her arm, pulling her back. "It's too late."
"Rick-"
"Look!" He said sharply. He was right. The walkers were passing them. They were across the road and heading for the other tree line. On a direct trip to home. There were too many to go out there.
I was going to keep Kat with Glenn, but... it just didn't work. Glenn was under the dumpster for a whole night waiting for the walkers to clear. It didn't make sense in my head how they both could have gotten under it if they both fell and if Kat was on top of the dumpster or somewhere near by... she just would have cleared them herself.
This is also just a bit of a filler season in my opinion in a lot of ways and I want to get through it quickly and keep my chapter count down.
This was also a pain of an episode to write and I kinda just wanted it done. Sorry. But I did get like 3 episodes in 1 because this whole first half of the season is like 3 days of split stories.