Down by the water • TWD

What Now?

"You can hear it," Rick said as he walked toward the group forming by the gate. "Some of you saw it. They got back here, half of them. Still enough to surround us twenty deep."

Avery turned her head toward him, her eyes following each step he took. There was something steady in his expression, something controlled in the way he carried himself, and it unsettled her more than the chaos outside. She couldn't understand how he seemed so...okay.

"Look, I know you're scared. You haven't seen anything like this. You haven't been through anything like this." His tone was almost sincere. Almost. "But we're safe for now."

Around her, people gasped and murmured, fear rippling through the crowd in quiet waves. The sound of the walkers pressing against the walls filled the air, a constant, suffocating presence. Avery exhaled shakily, blinking hard as she tried to focus on Rick's voice instead of the noise.

"The panel the truck hit seems intact. We reinforced it just in case. Either way, the wall's going to hold together." Rick paused, his gaze sweeping over the people in front of him. "Can you?" he asked. "The others are going to be back."

"They're gonna be back," Rosita echoed.

Rick's eyes shifted then, landing on Avery as he continued. Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha have vehicles. They're going to lead them away, just like the others."

At the sound of Daryl's name, something uneasy twisted in Avery's stomach, a quiet, persistent worry she couldn't shake.

Rick's attention moved again, settling on Maggie. "And Glenn and Nicholas are gonna walk back through the front gate after. They know what they're doing, and we know what we need to do."

Maggie stepped forward slightly, her breathing heavier now, her composure thinning at the edges.

"We keep noise to a minimum," Rick went on. "Pull our blinds at night. Even better, keep the lights out. We'll try to make this place as quiet as a graveyard and see if they move on."

"This place is a graveyard."

Aaron stepped forward, his voice cutting cleanly through the tension. "The quarry broke open, and those walkers were heading this way. All of them. The plan that Rick put into place stopped that from happening. He got half of them away."

Heads dropped around the group, weighed down by something close to guilt. Avery watched him closely, giving a small nod as he continued.

"I was out there recruiting with Daryl. I wanted to try to get into a cannery and scavenge, and Daryl wanted to keep looking for people."

For a brief moment, Avery felt something in her chest ease. That sounded like him. He'd told her he'd try...and that was him trying.

"We did what I wanted...and we wound up in a trap set by those people. And I lost my pack. They must've followed our tracks." Aaron drew in a shaky breath as the crowd reacted in different ways—shock, anger, disbelief. "Those people who attacked us...they found their way back here because of me."

Avery's eyes flicked across the faces around her, reading every reaction. Some looked betrayed, others furious, some just stunned. The urge to speak up pressed at the back of her mind, but she held it there, knowing it wouldn't change anything.

It's not all on you, she thought.

"There'll be more to talk about."

"Deanna?" Tobin called as Deanna turned away, walking off without a glance back. "Deanna?"
-

"So he's alive?" Avery asked, her voice tight with something close to desperation as she looked at Rick.

"I talked to him right before I got ambushed." Rick held her gaze for a brief moment before looking down again. "You know him, Avery. He's coming home."