[Finished] Living Among the Dead

23. Thank You

"Rick!" Daryl calls through the radio.
"I'm here."
"What's going on back there?"
"Half of them broke off. They're going toward Alexandria."
Mason... "Daryl..." I say, and can distinctly hear the panic in my own voice.
"Towards you?" Abraham asks through the radio.
"We ran ahead. There's a horn or something. Loud, coming from the east. It's not stopping."
"I'm gonna gas it up, turn back." Daryl says, to which I nod enthusiastically.
"We have it. You keep going." Rick corrects.
"They're gonna need our help."
"Gotta keep the herd moving."
"Not if it's going down, we don't."
"The rest of that herd turns around, the bad back there gets worse."
I take the radio off Daryl's shoulder, "Rick!" I seethe whilst pushing the button to speak down, "My son's back there!"
"And we have to keep the walkers from getting there." I hand the radio back to Daryl, my heart in my stomach.
"Daryl?" Rick asks through the radio.
"Yeah, we heard you."
I glance back to where my son is; probably in danger and I'm out here, just like I'd sworn not to be.
"We'll get there," Daryl reassures me. "We'll get there and he'll be there."
"You don't know that," I respond, tightly.
"I don't." He agrees. "But we'll finish this, and we'll get back"
I nod, trying hard not to panic. And then the horn stops.
"It's stopped!" I observe.
"Could be a good thing." I nod, knowing that neither of us believe his words.

Rick drives parallel with Abe and Sasha's car and yells, "Hey, we gone five miles out yet?"
"Give or take some yardage. You got a reason for asking?" Abraham responds.
"Next intersection we're gonna spin around and go back."
"The plan is to go 15 more," Sasha corrects.
"Yeah, I'm gonna change that. Five's gonna have to work."
"The magic number's 20." Abraham contradicts. "That's the mission."
"The mission doesn't allow me to go make sure my son's alive and well," I snap.
"The missions making sure they're off munching on infirm raccoons the rest of their undead lives instead of any of us."
"You can't tell me your not wanting to go and make sure Sev and Rosita are safe."
"You two want to go, we can't stop you," Sasha intervenes. "But without you, they could stop us."
Daryl glances back at me, I know I am pleading him with my eyes, and so he says, "Nah, I got faith in you."
I hear Sasha yell "Daryl!" As Abraham yells, "Don't do it, man!" But Daryl is already speeding us off.

We hear Glenn's voice over the radio, "Rick, it's Glenn. We're in a town five degrees east of the green marker. If you get around on Redding in the next 20 minutes, you should be good. I think that's how far we're ahead of the herd. I'm gonna try to set a fire and distract them. If you don't see smoke, they're still coming your way. I got to go. Good luck, dumbass."
"They split up," I gather.
"Sounds like it."
"Rick isn't dumb enough to try and take on the half that broke off alone, right?"
He doesn't answer me, which means we both know he might be. "Shit."

Our radio is heard after a long while, it's Rick's voice, "Glenn. I'm in place by my best guess. You guys make it back yet?" After a moment of silence Rick repeats, "Glenn." A little more silence. "Tobin, you there?" He waits another minute before saying, "Daryl?"
"I'm here."
"Won't be long now. They're almost here. I'll get them going your way again."
"How 'bout that, Daryl?" Sasha's voice can be heard. "He's gonna be coming our way."
"There's gunfire coming from back home. We gotta sit with it and hope they can handle it. I think they can. They have to. We keep going forward for them. Can't turn back 'cause we're afraid." Rick states.
"We ain't afraid," Abraham's voice is heard.
"This is for them. Going back now before it's done, that'd be for us. The herd has to be almost here."
I sigh, "I'm sorry."
Daryl shakes his head, "Don't."
We then both hear the gunfire over the radio, and I jump, almost knocking Daryl and I off the bike.
Once Daryl get's our balance back he gets back on the radio, "Rick? Rick?" No response, so he pulls over, "Rick? Rick?"
"What do we do?" I ask.
He doesn't respond, just starts driving again, this time in the other direction, we eventually meet back up with Abraham and Sasha, leading the heard away from Alexandria.

[A.N.] I know this is a shorter chapter, but there isn't a lot that can happen on a bike trying to keep the Walkers away from Alexandria.
Obviously Mason was with Carl and Enid helping them protect Judith, because he would always be there to help Carl. He's getting better with his gun, seeing as Carl has been helping him learn combat. Sev was with Maggie and Deanna when the Ws came in, and so their fighting alongside Maggie.
I get the importance of Daryl's character growth with this episode, worrying about his new home and all, but I also never completely saw it in character. Even before the Zombie Apocalypse  he didn't have that kind of life, and I just don't see it  being comfortable for him.
So I really like the fact that I can write in a reason that would cause his character to actually leave Abraham and Sasha alone (something I have always felt was EXTREMELY out of character). The person he's growing to love having a child back at Alexandria, however; would be quite the motive to break protocol and decide to head back. Especially if she's practically begging him to take them back so she can see if Mason's okay.
End of Chapter Question today is Did you guys think leaving Sasha and Abraham in the show was completely out of character of him? If not, please try to help me understand the reasoning.