Silent warrior: A Daryl Dixon Fan fiction

Chapter 35: Rash Decisions

The next few days are more quiet than I've ever witnessed. Everyone is on edge, trying to not even leave their house. Maggie is getting worse with worry as the hours ticks by, and I even find myself thinking about everyone who hasn't returned yet. I try and keep busy by taking extra shifts and checking on the walls to make sure it is reinforced enough. They did a good job reinforcing the area that the truck hit, but we don't know if it's enough. I walk the perimeter of the area and notice blood seeping through a crack. I stand there, watching it slowly drip into a pile on the grass "you think it'll hold much longer?" A woman's voice asks from behind me.

I turn around to see who's talking to me and it's Michonne. I shrug back "for now; all the sound they are making is just drawing more. Eventually they will put enough pressure to knock it down" I solemnly reply.

"Ya, you're right" she agrees. We stand there silently for awhile trying to think of something "we should talk with Rick" she finally breaks the silence. I nod in agreement and follow her back to the house.

I thought i'd feel strange and unwelcomed going in but it's like nothing changed. Rick sits at a table, bouncing his baby girl on his lap when we walk in. He passes the baby to Tara and we follow him out of the room and back to the front of the house. I tell him about the blood I saw and he rubs his fingers through his bearded scruff thinking.

He says "If we can somehow get outside the walls, get back to our cars at the quarry, we could use them to draw them away."

Michonne adds on to his idea and it's obvious why Deanna has them working together "We'll set up more watch points. Coordinate the shooting of guns and flares so we could pull them out in even directions."

He nods "We'd need to get all our people on it. Carl, Tara, Rosita, Carol" he says turning away now.

"What about everybody else?" I ask him, Michonne also looking at me wondering as well.

"Well, let's just keep this to our own for now." He straightens looking back to her and to me.

"Really?" she replies, not happy with his response.

"Look, if we had the time to bring the people along, sure. But we haven't had a chance to catch our breath." He defends his reasoning

"Really?" She repeats again before sighing. "We're in here together. We're catching our breath right now. Anything else is just excuses." she challenges him.

"She's right. I've been here even less time, and we need everyone" I agree with Michonne.

I can see it in Rick's eyes that he's processing what we said back to him. Even though Deanna is in charge of Alexandria, Rick makes the calls now. He eventually just nods back to us, not saying anything more. The sound of footsteps grabs all of our attention and Deanna comes up and stands along side of us. "Deanna" Rick addresses her.

"Rick" she says back. She's more composed then she has been lately and I'm happy to see her put together again "Michonne, Shannon" she addresses us as well.

"What's that?" he asks the older woman, eyeing the rolled up paper in her hand.

She beams proudly "plans for the expansion."

Rick looks at her with burning eyes, as if she was oblivious to the current situation "we got a few other things on our plate right now." he responds calmly.

I go to speak but she holds her hand up to stop me and with a small grin, without missing a beat, she says "I know. These are for what Alexandria can be after this. Because one way or another, there's gonna be an after this." Her eyebrows raised with her grin in confidence and she turns and walks away.