XLII

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Delilah followed the group deeper into the woods until Daryl stopped, kneeling down to the ground to uncover a shovel. "The hell are we still around here for?" Abraham asked cautiously while Rick starts to dig. "Guns, some supplies. Go along the fences. Use the rifles. Take out the rest of them." Rick explained making the group question.

"What?" Glenn boomed towards his friend.

"You can't be serious, man." Shane shook him head while watching his friend dig. "They don't get to live." Rick stated, looking back at his group.

"They're already dead, Rick. They all cant take down those walkers." Shane stepped up, trying to stop him.

"Yeah, Rick. We got out. It's over." Glenn intervened. Rick grabbed his colt python and cocked it. "It's not over till they're all dead." Rick argued back, determination and tiredness in his tone.

"The hell it isn't. That place is on fire. Full of walkers." Rosita joined, disagreeing with Rick.

"If we go back there, we're done. Like Shane said, they're already dead." Delilah quoted, desperately trying to help Rick not make a stupid decision.

"I'm not dicking around with this crap. We just made it out." Abraham started to agree.

"The fences are down. They'll run or die." Maggie said, her shoulders shrugged. The more people spoke up, the more slower Rick moved. He listened to his group and slowly realized they were right.

The sound of someone walking up to them in the distance made Delilah turn her head in sync with everybody else. Carol walked up to them with her skinny figure. When Daryl noticed he ran to her, their arms wrapping around each other.

The rest of the group watched with a smile on their face. Rick walked up to her. "Did you do that?" He asked and Carol just nodded. Rick took her into a hug.

"You have to come with me." She told them.

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Carol led them quickly through the trees. Delilah kept the pace with her hand in Shane's beside her. The walk was short but quiet. Carol almost had a skip in her walk. Delilah noticed how almost excited she looked waltzing in front of them.

Walking up the final hill up to a cabin the groups eyes landed on Tyreese. Judith's tiny body resting in his arms. Rick dropped everything and ran towards his daughter with Carl copying him. Shane let go of her hand and watched it unfold with his eyes on the little baby in Ricks arms.

Delilah looked up at him and noticed a happy frown on his face. She grabbed his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. Sasha ran up to Tyreese with open arms and tears down her face. Rick passed Judith to Carl before resting a bit. The group took a few minutes to reunite together with hugs and and rest before something had to be done.

"I don't know if the fire is still burning." Rick stated, looking up at the white smoke. At that point Delilah drug Shane to Carl to go see the little baby. "It is." Carol answered Rick.

Judith had her hand wrapped around Delilah's finger while Shane conversed with Carl, stroking the baby's head. Rick decided it was time to go and clear the area before either walkers or humans show up.

"We need to go." Rick gathered while turning away from the smoke. "Yeah, where?" Daryl pointed out the obvious.

"Somewhere far away from here." He answered, gathering the group to walk away.

They relapsed onto the train tracks to go the opposite direction of where they came from. Covering every Terminus sign where ever they go.

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Nightfall came in fast as the group followed the empty road in front of them. The next morning involved more walking with slight breaks looking and listening for streams of water. The white smoke behind them slowly disappeared as they got farther away. Shane helped Delilah keep up pace since her leg was still injured and healing.

The group cut through the woods, looking for water or anything at this point. Leaves rustling alarmed them, all putting their guns up at the source. Daryl walked out of a bush and was faced with barrels of about ten guns. "I surrender." He jokingly scoffed making the group let out a relieving sigh.

In the distance a scared scream for help echoed through the trees. Delilah jumped getting her gun ready. Carl starts to panic and run off to the source. "Dad, come on." He rushed, running towards the screaming before Rick could stop him.

Delilah sprinted with the group, finding a priest on a big rock with walkers grabbing his feet. Carl shoots a walker closest to him while Daryl and Rick take out a few reaching out for him. Shane takes down the last two and the terrified priest stares at them with disbelief.

"Calm down." Rick eased, the priest slowly getting off the rock. "Are you okay?" He asks the innocent priest as he gathered himself. There wasn't an answer, he looks at rick and suddenly pukes on his shoes. Delilah cringes with everyone else at how pathetic this man was.

"Sorry." He apologized covering his mouth and getting back into shape. "Thank you, I'm Gabriel." He introduced himself giving everyone a smile. "You gave any weapons on you?" Shane asked, looking the priest up and down. Gabriel looked at him dumbfounded. "Does it look like I have any weapons?" He said, looking down from Shane's intimidating stare.

"We don't give two short and curlies what it looks like." Abraham states making Shane nod.

"I do not have any weapon of any kind." Gabriel shook his head at the group. "The word of god is the only protection I need."

"Yep...sure didn't look like it." Shane scoffed while biting his bottom lip. Gabriel laughed and looked at him. "I called for help. Help came."

Gabriel then asked for food and Carl gave him some pecans out of his bag. Gabriel accepted gratefully and gave the boy a smile. He started to babble on about a church before Rick interrupted him. "How many walkers have you killed?" He started asking the three questions.

"Not any, actually." Gabriel answered blankly.

"How many people have you killed?"

"None"

"Why?"

"Because the lord abhors violence." Gabriel answered innocently with a smile. Delilah was almost impressed. They were almost a year into this shit show and he can proudly say he's never killed. She almost wished she could say the same.

Gabriel took them to his church which wasn't very far from where they found him. Rick and Shane intimidated him one more time before he opened the doors to his church. Delilah stepped in, looking all around the place. Drawing coated the walls with bible versus. She waked up to a bible in Gabriel's office with Michonne. She scanned through it, highlighter ink filled the pages. The two of them looked at each other and shrugged.

Delilah walked out of the office with Michonne. Rick was talking to Gabriel and the others about a nearby place to get food. "There's a food drive the church did before all this started. There must be stuff still there. It's stashed in a building not so far from here. That's why I was out of my church. You guys could go check it out." Gabriel suggested making Rick shrug.

"Yep and you're coming with us." Rick said, walking past him.

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