The start

Punch the Clock

"They said explore. Let's explore." Rick tells us.

"Nah, I'll stay." Daryl says.

"I'm gonna stay too. Jay you wanna go?" I look at her.

"Sure." She says.

"Stick with Carl." I tell her as she runs off the porch to catch up with him and Judith.

"Alright. Lori and me, we used to drive through neighborhoods like this. Thinking, 'One day'." Rick looks out at the neighborhood. I look down at the ground.

"Well, here we are." Daryl mumbles.

"We'll be back." Rick says as he walks down the street. I stay seated on the ground as Daryl messes with his crossbow and sits on the railing.

"Time to punch the clock and make the casseroles." Carol walks out the door with a smile on her face.

"What?" Daryl asked confused.

"Make dinner for the older people-- moms who need a break, people who can't cook. Get to meet a lot of the neighbors that way."

"Alright." Daryl scoffs.

"Gosh Carol, never knew you could play an innocent character before." I chuckled.

"Haha, funny. Have you taken a shower yet?" She looks at Daryl.

"Mm-hmm." He hums.

"Liar." I muttered.

"Take a shower. I'm gonna wash that vest. We need to keep up appearances, even you."

"Hey, I ain't starting now." Daryl says.

"I'm gonna hose you down in your sleep." She walks down the street.

"Please do!" I shout.

"You look ridiculous." Daryl calls back. Glenn, Tara and Noah come walking up to the house.

"Deanna wants us four to meet up with Nicholas and Aidan for a run." Glenn says.

"Alright. I'll meet y'all at the gate." The nod their heads and meet up with Aidan and Nicholas. I turn toward Daryl who was still messing with his crossbow.

"So you going on a run with those people?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah, Deanna says if we want to be here we have to have jobs. She thinks going on runs will be best for me." I lean on railing he sat on.

"Don't let them wait any longer." Daryl scoffs.

"Daryl." I look at him. I get this place is still unsettling but he can relax. He didn't have to act like an ass.

"You know what, I'm heading on the run. I'll see you when I get back." I sighed angrily as I walked toward the gate. He doesn't understand how he's affecting other people. I stand at the gate as the group of five walk up to me.

"Harley? Nice to meet you. I'm Aidan." A guy I've never met before reaches out his hand as I shook it.

"Nice to meet you too." I reply back.

"You remember Nicholas on gate duty." The guy nods his head as the gate opens we head out. They hand me my hunting knife and revolver.

"What's the plan?" I asked.

"We've been increasing our radius mile by mile, spreading in a semicircle around the town." Aidan says as we walk in a field.

"We've made it." Nicholas says.

"We break into two groups when we step outside our vehicle. If shit hits, we fire a flare. One group gets the other." Aidan says. Not so bad but the flares attract walkers.

"Good system." Noah says.

"It is. Still, you're standing here because we lost four people last month." Oh wow. Guess there system isn't as good as they thought.

"What happened?"

"We were on a run, roamers came out, they didn't follow the system." Aidan says a little uneasy.

"They were good people." Nicholas turns to us but keeps walking.

"They were. They were just scared. Look, I can be a hard-ass. And I know I'm a douchebag. Someone's got to call the ball around here and that someone is me. If you're on this crew, you do exactly as I say." Aidan says. Not sure if I trust this guy.

"Sorry you lost your people." Tara says.

"Yeah. We got ours." Aidan smirks.

"Managed to snag one of the deadheads that took them down. Strung it up there." Nicholas says. Why not just kill it?

"What? Why?" Glenn asked.

"Now we have a little pregame ritual.
Get our heads on straight. " Nicholas says.

"Remind us what we're up against. Son of a bitch! Help me find it." We can see the tree has only thing that was strung up was wet meat. The blood was dripping right off of it.

"Look at this shit. Blood's still wet. It's nearby." Nicholas says as he whistles.

"Shh! Hey-- hey, hey. It's gone." Glenn tells them.

"It took down one of our friends. It's nearby, we're not letting it go." Nicholas starts whistling again as a walker stumbles toward us. I pull out my knife.

"Hey! Hey, over here." Nicholas claps his hands as the walker comes over to him. Aidan and Nicholas grab on to it. The rest of my group pulls out their weapons.

"No, don't touch it. The rest of you, back off." Aidan tells us. That thing comes over to me or the others we will kill it.

"This is ridiculous." I tell them. These things will kill us and they are stringing them up like toys.

"Get him." The walker stumbles over to Tara.

"Damn it! No, hold on to it!" Tara tries to push it off of her but Glenn stabs it in the head.

"What the hell?!" Aidan exclaims.

"Yeah, what the hell?" Tara says out of breath. I walk over to her.

"You good?" I ask her kicking the walker away from us. She nods her head.

"You almost got her killed!" Glenn yells.

"I told you all to stay back! I told you to listen to every damn thing I said.
I told you that." Aidan gets in Glenn's face.

"Back off." I walk in between the two men.

"Lets head back. Noah come on." I grab Glenn and Tara by the arm.