One and Only (On Hold)

Bit

I watched Rick as he kneeled down, looking over the quarry, with Atlanta in the distance as the sun began to rise on the horizon. Rick sighed before looking back at me, and I gave him a gentle nod before he pulled the walkie out of his belt.

"Morgan, I don't know if you're out there. I don't know if you can hear me. Maybe you're listening right now. I hope so. We found others... my family, if you can believe it. My wife and son, they're alive. I wanted you to know that. There's something else you need to know. Atlanta isn't what we thought. It's not what they promised. The city is... do not enter the city. It belongs to the dead now. We are camped a few miles northwest, up by a big abandoned rock quarry. You can see it on a map. I hope you come find us. But be careful. Last night walkers came out of the woods. We lost people. Watch yourself, Morgan. Take care of your boy. El and I will try you again tomorrow at dawn."

***

Andrea had been leaning over her sister since she died last night. And it didn't look like she had even moved a muscle. Lori was going to try to talk to her, because we all knew that Amy would be coming back to life at any moment.

"Andrea. I'm so sorry. She's gone. You got to let us take her. We all cared about her and I promise we'll be as gentle as we can." Lori put her hand on Andrea's shoulder and I frowned at the heartlessness of that woman. She couldn't even make herself sound upset. Daryl moved over to my side where I was standing with Rick, Shane, Dale, and Carol, and Merle followed close behind him, moving to my other side. They both had pickaxes and had been going around, making sure the dead were dead. Glenn and T-Dog were taking the bodies and piling them up to either be burned or buried.

When Andrea didn't move or respond Lori sighed in annoyance and moved over to where we were waiting.

"She still won't move?" Rick said as he grabbed Lori's hand.

"She won't even talk to us. She's been there all night. What do we do?" Lori looked over to Shane for answers, instead of her husband, and I, personally, thought that was very telling in where her heart truly was.

"Can't just leave Amy like that. We need to deal with it same as the others." Shane said gruffly, looking down at Lori. Rick looked between Lori and Shane, before he nodded to himself and let go of Lori and began to walk over to Andrea.

"I'll tell her how it is." Rick said as he walked towards her. I saw Andrea shift, and I knew what she was going to do before she did it.

"Rick, wa-" before I could warn him, Daryl had grabbed my arm to stop me from moving forward to protect him, and Andrea had pulled her gun on him. Rick's hands shot up in a defensive position and he froze in place.

"Andrea." Rick said softly, trying to calm her down.

"I know how the safety works."

"All right. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Rick began backing away, back towards us, and Daryl let go of my arm.

***

It had been almost an hour before Daryl finally let it out.

"Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb." Rick glanced at me as I moved to Daryl's side with Merle behind me, preparing myself to calm him down.

"What do you suggest?" Rick said calmly.

"Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"No. Let me try to talk to her. I spent every day for the past seven years comforting families who lost loved ones. Let me try." Daryl and Rick looked at me and Rick nodded so I took that as an okay to go ahead and try. Before I had made it two steps though, two hands grabbed my arms, yet again.