Daryl's Angel: Saviour (Book Two)

Chapter 29: Horde

I've found that things in Alexandria move very quickly or not at all, or at least that's the feeling I get when I hear about another town meeting. Daryl comes to the infirmary to get me. I go with him, although Elliot opts to stay back with Denise and get her more situated.

The rest of us gather in Deanna's home, crowding the living room, some of us spilling into the hallway by the stairwell. Daryl and I make our way to the window, where Daryl immediately takes a seat on the broad windowsill.

"Do you know what's going on?" I whisper as I settle in beside him.

He shakes his head. "Rick and Morgan were out there burying Pete," he replies, keeping his voice low. "Something big must've happened."

Daryl's right on the money. Rick clears his throat and, once the chatter dies down, announces that he and Morgan have discovered a quarry not far from Alexandria that's teeming with walkers—more walkers than any of us have ever seen in one place before, corralled by large semi-trucks blocking any exits.

"My team...we saw it early on, back when we were on one of those first scouts, finding out what was around here."

The man speaking is relatively young with dark skin and coiled dreads pulled up in a high ponytail. He wears a pair of black glasses. His name is Heath, and he, along with his scouting group, only returned today from a multi-week run that left before my group arrived.

"There was a camp at the bottom," Heath continues. "The people, they must have blocked the exits with one of those trucks back when everything started to go bad. They didn't make it. They were all roamers. Maybe a dozen of them."

"No one's been back since?" Maggie asks. She's seated on the couch next to Glenn.

Heath shrugs. "DC and every town worth scavenging is all in the other direction," he says. "And I never really felt like having a picnic next to the camp that ate itself."

"So all the while the walkers have been drawn by the sound," Michonne says, "and they're making more sound and they're drawing more in."

"And here we are," Rick says. He puts his hands on his hips. "Walkers are already slipping through the exits. One of the trucks keeping the walkers in could go off the edge any day now. Maybe after one more hard rain. That exit sends them east. All of them. Right at us."

His words hang in the silent room. I can't even wrap my head around a horde that size, and what they could do to the walls should they make it here. I feel Daryl's hand brush mine, pinkies crossing.

"This isn't about if it gives, it's when," Rick says. "It's gonna happen. That's why we have to do something about it, and soon. We have to lead the walkers away, herd them up and get them far away from here."

"This is—I don't even have another word for it. This is terrifying," Carol says, all wide-eyed. Her gaze darts around the room, always watchful. "All of it. But it doesn't sound like there's any other way."

"Maybe there is." It's Carter who speaks this time, one of the construction crew members. "I mean, couldn't we just build up the weak spots? I could draw up plans. I worked on the wall with Reg. Construction crew—we could try and make it safe."

"Even if we could, the sound of those walkers is drawing more and more every day. Building up the exits won't change that," Rick says. "We have to take care of this now, and I have an idea of how we can do it."

Silence again, and this time, I see attention moving to Deanna. She stands facing one of the front windows, her back to all of us, wrapped in a self-hug.

"We're gonna do what Rick says," she says without once turning back. "Whatever plan he lays out."

Rick nods. We focus our attention back on him.