We'd buried Dale next to Jacob, everyone stood around to pay their respects as Rick gave a speech in Dale's honour.  "Dale could get under your skin. He sure got under mine, because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare and brave. Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look to Dale, and he'd be looking back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us, the truth, who we really are. In the end, he was talking about losing our humanity. He said this group was broken. The best way to honour him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives, our safety. Our future. We're not broken, we're gonna prove him wrong. From now on we're gonna do it his way. This is how we honour Dale."

Hershel had decided that with a cold winter coming, it was time to move us into the house. I was standing with Rick, dad, Hershel, Maggie, Beth and Shane. Most people were moving the communal stuff into the house. "It's gonna be a tight fit. Sixteen people in one house." Rick pointed out.

"Don't worry about that. With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up..." Hershel trailed off.

"With fifty head of cattle on the property we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell." Maggie added.

"She's right. We should've moved you in a while ago." Hershel smiled down at me.

"All right let's move the vehicles near each of the doors facing out towards the road. We'll build a lookout in the windmill and another in the barn loft. That should give us sightlines, both side of the property. T-dog, you take the perimeter around the house, keep track of everyone coming and going." Rick said to a passing T-dog.

"What about standing guard?" T-dog asked.

"I need you and Daryl on double duty." Rick answered.

"Gotcha." T-dog nodded before walking away.

"I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough that we can all survive down there for a few days if need be." Hershel said, before walking away.

"What about patrols?" Andrea questioned.

"Let's get this area locked down first. After that, Shane'll assign shifts while me and Daryl take Randall off site and cut him loose." Rick replied.

"I wanna help." I told Rick.

"I know you do, sweetheart, how about you just move yours and Sophia's stuff into the house for now? She can't exactly do that by herself now can she." Rick smiled.

I sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll do the boring stuff." I grumbled causing Rick and dad to laugh before I walked away.

I started setting mine and Sophia's stuff up in the corner of the living room with her help when Hershel walked over to us. "There's a spare bedroom upstairs. You girls can take that room, Carl too if he wants. Children shouldn't be sleeping on the floor." Hershel said to us.

"Really, Mr Greene?" I asked.

"I said you can call me Hershel." He smiled. "I said what I said, now go on now. Take your stuff."

"Thank you, Hershel." Sophia smiled.

"Thank you." I agreed, he smiled back, nodding before he walked away.

I took mine and Sophia's stuff upstairs, to the room that had previously been the medical room. Teddy and Dolly, we placed on a chair in the corner while we dumped our backpacks full of clothes in the wardrobe. We'd eventually unpack. Sophia was helping move clothes and food downstairs, but I got bored. I got the wheelbarrow from round back, a hammer and a bunch of nails from the shed before heading over to the windmill. I knew how to handle tools, living in my neighbourhood, when every spare dollar went towards my mum's habits, the house would fall apart a lot, so I quickly learnt how to take care of it

I took two planks of wood up, left them there, went back down to the ladder, grabbed the box I'd put the hammer and nails in before going back up the ladder. I'd hammered in the first two planks, before I went back down and got another two. I was hammering in the third to make the watch tower when I noticed Glenn and T-dog running towards me, very quickly. I rolled my eyes before continuing with my work. I knew they were going to stop me since I was twenty feet in the air. "Ellie! Ellie, get your damn ass down here!" T-dog yelled with a frantic look on his face which funnily enough made me laugh.

"I'm fine, relax." I responded.

"Relax? Relax, Ellie, you're twenty feet in the air!" Glenn called up.

"Doing something that needed to be done." I defended.

"I swear to god, Ellie." T-dog ran a hand over his head.

"What are you gonna do, tell my mum?" I laughed, continuing to hammer in a nail.

T-dog laughed but cleared his throat when Glenn shot him a disapproving look. "It was a little funny." T-dog said at a normal volume, but I could barely hear him from my height.

"Ellie, your dad won't like this." Glenn replied.

"I know what I'm doing. I used to fix up my house all the time. I lived in an old and poor neighbourhood; every extra dollar went to mama's habits. I know how to fix things, and I know how to handle tools. I used to be the handyman in my neighbourhood since I was more affordable than a professional. I charged two chocolate bars an hour, so someone better get me some chocolate." I laughed, joking but hoping that someone found some chocolate.

"Carol and Daryl will whoop our assess if we leave you up there. Please, come down." T-dog begged. "I'll give you a piggyback ride to the house if it convinces you."

I thought about it. "Okay, deal." I shrugged before starting to come down the ladder. About halfway down I acted as if I was about to fall which made Glenn and T-dog yell in fear and prepare to catch me which made me laugh.

"Uh huh, real funny, Ellie." Glenn said sarcastically.

I laughed more. "I know, I'm a comedian." When I reached the bottom Glenn helped me onto T-dog's back and we started walking back up to the house.

Me and Sophia were sitting on our bed, playing with Teddy and Dolly. We'd had a long day of moving things back and forth. Glenn and T-dog agreed not to snitch about me going up the windmill alone, but I still didn't think I did anything wrong. "When's Daryl leaving?" Sophia asked.

I shrugged. "After he comes to say goodbye."

We sat in silence for a few seconds before Sophia spoke. "Why's he nice to me?" Sophia asked quietly.

I looked up to her. "What do you mean?"

"I've not done anything for him other than cook him dinner a couple times. But, he's so nice to me. I don't know why." Sophia addmited.

It was in that moment I realised that no man had ever been nice to her like my dad had been. "Because you deserve it. You deserve all the kindness in the world. He knows that. I know that... Did you have any friends, before?"

Sophia shook her head. "I was too quiet. All the girls at my school were loud and outgoing, didn't give me the time of day. The boys smelt so I didn't wanna befriend any of them either."

"Good thing you got me and Carl now. My dad too." I smiled.

She grinned. "What about you? Did you have friends?"

"Uh... I had a friend. Her name was Emily, but she died when we were seven. Cancer." I responded.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Sophia sympathised.

"Everyone else I knew was for protection by association. There wasn't a school in my neighbourhood because I was the only kid who was under fifteen. The closest person to my age was fifteen, boy named CJ. If you lived in my neighbourhood and you were pregnant, you moved away, if you couldn't afford to move then you aborted it. My neighbourhood was no place to grow up. I had to travel seven miles by foot everyday just to go to school." I explained.

"What was it like?" Sophia questioned.

"Everyone knew everyone. If you weren't apart of a gang, you got jumped and robbed by all the gangs until you joined one. My mum was in The Vipers, I got protection by association. The Vipers were best known for drugs and violence. They were one of the most dangerous gangs in town. I don't even know what the real name of my neighbourhood was called, we just called it The South. There were gun fights, random stabbings, loads of drugs, sometimes even bombs." I explained casually.

"Sounds... Exciting?" Sophia furrowed her eyebrows.

"Yea." I scoffed out a laugh. "It was something. Lonely most of the time. It wasn't really scary though, it's all I grew up with so it's all I knew. Before obviously the end of the world."

"I guess you were kinda made for the danger then." Sophia commented. I didn't say anything, but it kinda hurt. I knew she didn't mean any harm but knowing how right she was stung a little. 

Carl burst into our room seconds later. "Randall's escaped, he beat up Shane and got his gun. My dad, Shane, Glenn and Daryl have gone out looking for him."