Wings

The Road Again

"Roads were made for journeys, not destinations." —Confucius

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REMY

The group was back on the road, heading away from Terminus. As they went, Remy noticed Rick stop to change one of the signs to read "No Sanctuary". Good, she thought to herself.

She had no way of knowing how many of those people survived their night with the dead. She really didn't want to know. Guilt wracked her. They were...monsters. Cannibals. But the whole world belonged to the dead now. Directly, or indirectly, she had just added to their numbers.

Stop it. That's not helpful.

It wasn't. She didn't have to like it, but everything that had happened, ensured that these people, this group, good people, made it back to one another, and safely. Her old Stanley thermos was still full, heavy on her shoulder. She stopped to adjust it when she noticed that now, it was Daryl lagging behind. She dropped back too, and offered him the thermos. He declined.

"I could feel the heat from the gears grinding all the way up there."

He ignored her, dropping his head down.

"Look, I don't know what it is. You're gonna have to tell me."

"Or ya could mind yer own damn business," he huffed.

"Come on," she laughed. "This from the guy that's been all in my business from the get?"

He seemed to think about that. He shook his head. "Jus'... y' were righ'."

"Never get tired of hearing that!" Remy joked.

He shrugged it off. "Ya knew. An' I did too, I jus'....I couldn't stop it. Couldn't...I had to go with Rick."

"Hey. Stop. Of course you did! Rick is....well he's a force to be reckoned with. And he's sharp. He's a good leader. Of course you wanna follow him."

"We coulda'—"

"But you didn't. We didn't. We survived. You. Survived. And we have our people."

"Yeah. But you were always gonna. Cuz you didn't go in."

That one stung.

"I wasn't gonna leave. You think I would? You saved me. More than once. Probably the others too. The way things are now? The people we've met? I'm not...I'm not going anywhere."

Remy could tell that there was something more on his mind, but she was afraid to press him. He wasn't looking well, and there was definitely some sort of conflict going on inside. They walked in silence for a bit before she broke it.

"I...I've never actually...killed anyone. Alive, that is. I meant it when I said I wasn't much help to Carol. I wanted to be. But I..."

"Ya ain't no killer."

"I might have killed getting away from the prison. I don't know. I just shot in the direction of the fire coming at me. There was a man, back there. At Terminus. He saw me. With the dead ones. He raised his gun...I don't know why I didn't raise mine. Instead, I let a few of them in front of me, and hid back at the edge. I just couldn't...and then that man, what if he had hit Carol? Or killed one of you? And I could have stopped him."