RIDE OR DIE | DARYL DIXON

exiled

THEY STOOD over his grave and shared the same silence. Though it was empty and they didn't have the actual chance to lay him to rest, they still created it for him. In the back of their minds, he was in it. He wasn't torn apart by walkers. He wasn't left behind at the warehouse. He was laying peacefully beneath them. She held Glenn's hand as they looked down at the fresh mound of dirt and the cross they placed at the head of it. Next to it was another fresh grave, dug for Deanna's son, who also couldn't be laid to rest properly. Two empty graves in the matter of one day. 

The whole town was grieving.

They walked together down the street in silence. They both noticed Nick cleaning out the back of the van, and they initially were going to continue on, but Glenn couldn't bite his tongue.

"Nicholas, don't talk, just listen." Glenn stepped back to the open doors of the van.

Nick ducked out of the van, fidgeting with the bloody cloth in his hand that he had been using to clean.

"Those four people you lost on that run, that's on you. And Noah, that's on you, too." Glenn's eyes burned into Nick's as he spoke. "Those five lives, you have to carry that. People like you are supposed to be dead, but these walls went up just in time, so you're not. You don't go outside those walls anymore. Not by yourself, not with anyone else. And that's how you're gonna survive."

Nick took a step forward, sharing the same look of anger. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

Glenn didn't move. "I'm someone who knows what you are. I know what you did. And it's not gonna happen again."

"I've been protecting this place, helping provide for it. You just got here." Nick gritted his teeth. 

Glenn shook his head. "Don't forget what I said."

Nick raised his eyebrows. "Are you threatening me?"

Glenn laughed. "No. I'm saving you."

Nick didn't say a word. He backed up slowly and watched them both continue down the street. They weren't in a hurry to get anywhere, but the second they heard glass break, they sprinted the rest of the way down the street.

"Damn it Rick, I said stop!" They heard Deanna yelling.

People were already crowding around the street, watching Rick hold a man in a chokehold on the ground. Both of them were bloodied, glass shards sticking out of their skin in different places, their blood and sweat mixing on the asphalt beneath them.

"Or what?" Rick shot up and pulled out the small revolver Carol gave him, aiming it at those who pressed towards him. "You gonna kick me out?"

"Put that gun down, Rick." Deanna's voice was quieter as she backed up, her arms raised.

"You still don't get it." Rick rocked back and forth on his knees. "None of you do! We know what needs to be done and we do it. We're the ones who live." He turned on his knees, fully facing Deanna. "You! You just sit and plan and hesitate. You pretend like you know when you don't! You wish things weren't what they are. Well, you want to live? You want this place to stay standing? Your way of doing things is done. Things don't get better 'cause you want them to. Starting right now, we have to live in the real world. We have to control who lives here."

"That's never been more clear to me than it is right now." Deanna lowered her eyes on him.

"Me? Me? You- you mean me?" Rick laughed manically. "Your way is gonna destroy this place. It's gonna get people killed. It's already gotten people killed. And I'm not gonna stand by and just let it happen."

Willow glanced over at Carl standing beside Enid, watching his father unravel before everyone. She walked over to him slowly, leaning down to him. "Don't take this the wrong way, okay?"