The communities made an arrangement to go to Oceanside, they had good land to train on and that's exactly what we'd been working on.
Down on the beaches Michonne led an attack plan that could be used against walkers, and the whisperers. I usually stayed at the back with Daryl, our job was to observe the train people, make sure the plan was executed correctly. We usually just talked amongst ourselves.
We were heading back for the day and I met Judith and RJ as they ran back from the beach with their buckets. RJ sat down on my lap as he dumped out his bucket. "What did you guys find today?" I asked. We dug through RJs bucket first, and I jumped back when I saw a whisperer mask. I saw the look Judith was giving me and I grabbed it quickly running to find Michonne. "Look what they found washed up on the beach." I handed her the mask and she sighed. "What do you think this means?" I shrugged, "you should talk to the other leaders. But it's definitely concerning." She nodded, "yeah, I will. Thank you."
Later that day a group of five headed out and I stayed back to stay alert in case anything happened here but I hung out with Judith for the most part. "Do you think they're back?" She asked. I shook my head, "I don't know. I hope not." She nodded, "me too."
We sat down at a table with RJ, and Judith said she had a story to tell us. She used the figurine that looked like Dad and began telling us the bridge story. "The brave man rode the horse very very far, trying to lead the herd away. But after a while the horse got scared and ran away, leaving the brave man all alone. So the man walked all by himself to the bridge, remember how he built the bridge all for his friends?" I nodded and RJ said "yeah." Judith smiled, "well the millions of walkers followed the brave man onto the bridge, and on the other side all his friends were waiting." I saw Michonne was back, she was listening intently and watching my reaction. "The brave man couldn't let the walkers reach his friends and hurt them. So he blew up the bridge, and all the walkers fell into the water, and he saved all his friends. The end." I bit my lip to try and keep myself from reliving that moment on the bridge.
RJ shrugged, "did the brave man go and see his friends after that?" Judith shook her head, "no, he died and went to heaven." RJ nodded, "so will he come back one day like walkers?" Judith sighed, "no not like that, but people like the brave man are never really gone anyway. He lives inside our hearts and makes us brave too."
Michonne knelt down, "is anyone gonna say hi." Both of the kids looked up, "Hi mom." RJ then looked at her, "mom, I didn't like when the brave man died. Why did he do that?" Michonne squeezed my hand, "well there are some people that you love so much, that you'd do anything for them. Just like I would do for you, and Judith, and Leah." RJ smiled, "and my dad?" Michonne agreed, "yes, and your dad."
I stood up and looked down at them, "I'll be back in a bit." I took a deep breath as I got around the corner "Hey what's up?" Daryl asked. "I just listened to Judith tell me a story about a brave man who blew up a bridge to save his friends." He nodded, "that's a shitty story." I agreed, "what are you doing?" He pointed out at the dock, "Carol's coming back today." I smiled, "can't wait."
I took a shift standing guard until late at night when I heard someone scream there was a fire, I looked over towards the border and they weren't wrong. The flames stuck up above the trees and it was clearly spreading. "It's close to her borders," Michonne whispered. "It's gonna get to our hunting grounds and then Oceanside," I protested.
"Let's go." Carol yelled urging us to run. I pushed my way to the fire and stood at the front grabbing buckets of water dumping it onto the biggest flames, as others dug a trench. We fought through the night and just as it was almost burnt out I heard loud growls getting closer. "Fall back." Michonne yelled. I took a few steps back pulling my machete out and holding it up.
The walkers began to circle around us and I swung through as many as I could while staying behind the fires.
I threw down my machete as I struggled to catch my breathe. "The tree LEAH." I heard Aaron yell. I looked above me as I heard a horrifying sound from the tree I was directly under. "DUCK LEAH." I threw myself to the ground as Daryl chucked as axe at it causing the tree to fall the other way. He rushed over pulling me off the ground and I grabbed a hold of another tree to keep myself balanced.
"We need to go." Michonne warned. I agreed falling back to oceanside. I fell down on a log there tipping my head up trying to clear the burning pain in my throat.
---
After the fire we went back to Alexandria and from there on out it was clear we were at war again. Constant streams of walkers were sent our way and we were continuously forced to fight them.
"They keep coming from the direction of the border." Aaron warned. "You all know your training, we got this." Michonne said.