➳ ON the road to Hilltop, Michonne and Saddiq were on the horses in front of my own while D.J. directed the homemade car with horses moving it for them. My girls sat in the back with Luke and his group.

"How much further have the patrols cleared?" Michonne asked D.J., who was seated next to Yumiko in the front.

"Till the Route D river bend," D.J. replied, shrugging. "Their rig's about five miles past that." A beat went by before he added, "If their story checks out."

Yumiko nearly broke her neck to glare at him, staring him down and honestly appalling he would say such a thing like that. He was the once the one to talk to, but he had become a good man since then.

Nevertheless, I just rolled my eyes and took a deep breath before looking down into the cart down beside me and my horse.

"How are you girls doing?" I asked my kids, who looked up at me when I spoke to them. Mollie sat beside Luke in one of the chairs, with Tara Rose in her lap as she protectively placed her arms around her little sister. "Okay?"

Mollie nodded and answered for them, "We're good, Mom. I'm just ready to get there and see everyone again."

I nodded and sighed out, "I know, honey. Me, too."

I could hear Magna complaining about how Michonne has her knives and how she wants them back. I sighed before Yumiko turned and told Michonne, "Look, I'm sorry about Magna. She can be a bit hotheaded."

"That's one word for it," Michonne countered, still a little annoyed by the complaining woman. I didn't care for the attitude, either.

"She's been on edge since we lost Bernie," Yumiko tried to defend her girlfriend. I can understand that internal suffering, too.

Saddiq peaked his head forward and asked, "Was he with you long?"

Yumiko glanced away and sighed out, "Long enough. He loved getting under Magna's skin. He, um, used to wear this absolutely horrid shirt. It was like looking into creation itself. In paisley. God, it was horrendous. But Magna hated it. She said just looking at it gave her a migraine. So, Bernie wore it every day for a week." There was a moment of silence before Yumiko added, "Honestly, I think she came around on the shirt. Just like she came around on him."

"Like family," Michonne squeaked out, speaking truth right now.

Yumiko looked up Michonne and questioned, "This place... Hilltop. Is it safe?"

"It is."

"What's it like?" Yumiko wanted to know more since she appears to be very inquisitive, which I admired.

"It's been a while since I've been there," Michonne claimed, sighing. "You'll have to ask Tess back there about it."

Yumiko glanced back at me before looking up at Michonne again. "Then, how do you know it's safe?"

"I promised my daughter that I would get you there, and I will," Michonne claimed, briefly glancing down at Yumiko. "You're just gonna have to trust me."

Magna pointed to me and questioned, "What's your take on it?" I stared down at her in question. "Hilltop's safe?"

I nodded and openly admitted, "Yes. As long as my twin brother and best friend are alive, Hilltop is always safe and sound. They take good care of that place." I gulped and, then, whispered, "It used to be my home."

—

➳ WE finally came upon the place that Magna and her team used to have their supplies kept at. Immediately, Luke started to freak out. "Oh, no. No, no, no, no," he panicked, looking over at the damage. "Sickos tore the damn place up. Look at this place."

We strolled up without getting out just yet when Yumiko commented, "I didn't think it would be this bad." Luke sighed and sat back in his chair, clearly upset about the damage. "Is this all that's left?"

We started to slow our horses down so we could go around and examine what had happened. I hopped off from my horse and started to follow everyone else, but I turned back around and said to Mollie, "Stay here with your sister and keep her safe. Let me know if you hear or see anything, okay?"

Mollie nodded and promised, "Alright, Mom. I will."

With that said, I kept on walking and tried to keep up with my crew when I heard Michonne ask the new crew, "The herd you ran from did all this?"

"No," Magna replied, sighing. "A bigger one must've come through here."

As we came closer to where they used to call home, most likely, I started to hear Walkers growling, and I wanted to know where they were coming from. DJ started to put a pep in his step before he called out, "Tess. Over here."

I walked with him, noticing a few Walkers down and out, but wanting to eat on us, though. DJ killed one with his machete, who was stuck under a tire, while I took out my own machete and took down another one close-by.

Luke, Kelly, and Connie were busy getting the ones who were stuck under the boxcar. I spun around and saw them taking out their anger onto them, which I couldn't blame them for.

Afterward, I turned back around and started to poke around the area, which had clothes and such sprawled out everywhere with mud here and there. This was definitely where they had stayed at once.

"It has to be here," I heard Luke saying, turning to look at him with Connie standing beside him. "It's... It's just got to be here."

"What's going on?" Saddiq and I asked in unison before smiling at one another, turning back to Luke and Connie.

She started to use sign-language to tell us, but it's unfortunate how we didn't understand just yet. If they ended up staying at Hilltop, I hope someone would teach me.

"No, I'm not telling them that," Luke countered to Connie before placing his hand on her back. "Yes, I have a love of the musical arts, but Connie here does not appreciate my..." Connie was signaling towards her neck before Luke started to laugh and disagree, "No, it is not a fetish. It's not a fetish. It's not a fetish."

Saddiq and I started to laugh, seeing how cute it was for Connie and Luke to laugh about a fetish. Luke asked her, "Can you please just help me find it? Please? Thank you."

I smiled and walked up to them, placing my hands on my hips. "I'll help you two," I said before I faced Connie. "As long as you teach me how to do sign-language."

Connie smiled and nodded before doing some signs with her hands. Luke butted in and chirped, "She said that it's a deal."

Just as we all grinned at one another and started to look around, Michonne suddenly called out, "DJ, collect all their weapons."

"Hell no," Magna practically screamed, running across that dirt. "We're taking what's ours."

DJ started to load up the weapons into a duffle bag while I stood back and watched the action fall out. "No. I'm not letting my people take five armed strangers into Hilltop."

Yumiko started to walk up when she quizzed, "Your people? What about you?"

"I came to see if your story checks out. It does," Michonne countered bitterly. "Siddiq, DJ, and Tess will take you the rest of the way."

"So, not only have you not been to this place in who knows how long, you aren't coming with us, and we can't have our weapons?" Magna hissed, as I feared an actual fist-fight was about to go down between her and Michonne.

It was only a matter of time, I believe.

"You want your weapons, take them." Michonne kept acting like the bad-cop. "Then, you're on your own out here."

"Michonne," came Saddiq's warning tone, but it was to no avail.

"You want an escort to Hilltop, a chance at something better, they stay with us," she kept on until I was almost wanting to swallow my rolling eyes. I thought that if they wanted to kill us, they would've done it already. Still, I can see why Michonne held her guard up like she did. I was there with her when it happened.

Luke suddenly raised his hand and squeaked out, "I vote for the second one."

"So, we're just supposed to trust her if she doesn't even trust us?" Magna stood her ground, questioning everything now.

Kelly suddenly stepped out in the middle and said aloud, "I mean, guys, we... We made it this long. I-I say we take our chances out there."

"Nope," Luke spoke up again before turning to Connie. "Second one. Are you with me? Second one?"

"Stop it," Yumiko demanded, coming straight up to her people. "Luke's right. They wouldn't put us back together just to pull us apart again. They wouldn't." Then, she glanced back at Michonne and asked, "You said we'd be there by morning?"

"That's right," Michonne claimed calmly.

"Look, I know you don't like her rules. I don't, either," Yumiko started to say to her people again. "But, we made it out here a long time on our own, with less than this. So, for a real chance for a safe place to live, we can make it a few more hours." Turning to Magna, she yelled out, "Okay?"

With that said, Magna angrily spun around and left everyone in the dust as she headed back to the cart and horses. "Sun'll be down soon," Michonne breathed out. "We should find shelter."

—

➳ WE found a factory to settle in for the night, as I tucked in Tara Rose and kissed her cheek. I lied next to Mollie, who didn't like to sleep anywhere but her bed. Still, she tried to sleep.

I had just shut my eyes in an attempt to get some sleep before tomorrow, but not before I heard Luke yell out, "Aah! No!"

I sat up immediately, and so did everyone else. My girls shot up, but I placed my hands on them and held them down. "Stay here and keep each other safe. It's okay. Be right back."

I jumped up and started running with my crew to find out what had happened. This was coming upon Luke bent down to the ground and sad about a broken instrument. "The hell is going on?" Yumiko breathed out, looking at what just happened.

It appeared to me that Luke spooked Michonne, who came over here and chopped his violin in half. I smiled and asked him, "Totally not a fetish, right?"

Through the pain of losing the violin, he sighed and managed to look up at me with another smile of his. "Yeah, I swear."

I stepped up and held my hand out for him. "Here, let me help you now." He reached out, and I grabbed his hand, helping him up. We all started to walk back over to where the couches and chairs were in the dark factory.

Michonne sat on the blue couch while Luke sat down in the red chair next to it before I felt him take ahold of me and made me sit down on his lap rather than by myself. He was crushing hard, which actually made me laugh.

"T-This is... This is unbelievable," he said, looking at the broken violin in his left hand while his right was wrapped around me. "It's utterly unbelievable."

Michonne tried to speak next, "Listen, I..."

"Mnh-mnh-mnh-mnh," Luke hummed out, waving her away. "Do you... Do you know what this is? This is... This is an original Stradivarius, circa 1725."

Yumiko mocked him in the background, and I shook my head with a smile. "He found it in a mansion outside of Philadelphia before it was overrun by sickos," she started to explain about the valuable violin. "In the kid's room, of all places."

She laid her down on Magna's lap, and Magna said, "Like the kid was gonna miss it."

The two ladies chuckled before Saddiq innocently asked, "What? Oh, so you've been traveling with a collection of instruments all this time? Why?"

Luke was appalled by the question before he answered, "It's art. Just like Tess here."

Magna grumbled under her breath, "Here we go."

"Look, for a very long time, historians and archeologists have wondered how ancient humans survive the Neanderthals? Okay?" Luke started to explain as I sat back, listening to his input. "How did we defeat them when they were bigger and they were smarter and they were stronger, faster? They had better tools than us. So, why are we still here and they're not?"

Man, he was definitely smarter than I thought. I mean, this guy might have just been a regular ol' music teacher once upon a time, but he knew his history, and I really liked that, to be honest.

"And, then, they found a cave," he went on with the history lesson. "Okay? And, in that cave, they found a 40,000-year-old flute."

"A... flute?" Saddiq and I asked in unison once again. We were getting better and better at doing this on accident with each other.

"Yes. A flute," Luke chuckled out. "Yeah. And, then, they realized that maybe ancient humans didn't defeat Neanderthal. Not in the way that we think of the word defeat, okay? They came together as an answer to defeat. They sat around a campfire. They shared their stories with each other in the form of music and paintings. And... And, they created a common identity. And, then, they – y'know – they they built communities, and they grew. And... And, then, as they grew, Neanderthal retreated; and then, after a while, they just died out."

Now signaling towards his violin, he continued, "So, this, yeah. This. This. This is the one thing that separates us from the animals. For better or for worse, it brings us together. And, if we're trying to rebuild something, you can't ignore that."

I smirked, liking what he's trying to explain to us in his own fashion. Music meant more now than I ever thought before, thanks to Luke.

"After everything you've seen and done, you still believe that's all it'll take?" Michonne suddenly questioned, which shocked me that she would speak up whatsoever.

"Yeah. It's survival of the fittest," Luke claimed, tightening his grip around my waist and enjoying the company that we shared together. "Sharing with each other... That's part of what makes us stronger."

Then, after this, I decided it was finally time to go to sleep as I peeked over, seeing my girls already sleeping next to one another. Mollie had her arms wrapped around Tara Rose's even smaller body. It was sweet.

I sighed and stood up, but before I could get away, Luke grabbed my hand and whispered, "Hey, could I speak to you real quick? Privately?"

I nodded before he took hold of my hand and led me away from the others, back over where his violin was killed by Michonne. I wondered what he needed to speak to me about this late and away from the others, too. I was nervous, and I couldn't tell just how much.

Once over there, he nervously tried to straighten up his clothes and everything before facing me. "Okay, well," he sighed out and dusted himself off. "I-I just wanted to say that I... Okay, so, despite what happens tomorrow morning with us going to Hilltop and all that, I'm hoping that you and your girls will stay for a while."

I smirked, tilting my head to the side. "Why?"

"W-Well, because," Luke tried to explain, getting real close to me now. He put his arm up on something that stood tall beside us and smirked. "I just... I like you."

I leaned in closely and whispered, "You don't even know me, Luke."

He smirked and shrugged. "Well, I'll just have to get to know you better," he claimed, and this is when it hit me. Those butterflies... The ones that I haven't felt in so long, not since Dwight and Alden. I haven't felt them, but I knew what was going on inside my tummy. I didn't know Luke, yet he acted like we had known each other forever now. "Maybe if you and your girls stay for a while, we could get to know each other better."

Finally, after fighting with myself about it for a while, I sighed and nodded. "I would like that very much."

With that said, he smiled even brighter than before, and it felt good that someone liked me better than I liked myself again.

—

➳ MORNING came earlier than I wanted it to, but I got up without any hesitation. Even my girls didn't fuss, as they were beyond ready to see their Uncle Paul and Aunt Tara.

Suddenly, DJ ran inside and announced, "Walkers! Let's move!"

"Grab your stuff," Magna said to everyone. I grabbed ahold of my girls and hurried them along. "Let's go."

We all headed out of the factory, armed with weapons and each other; all except Magna and her group. Yumiko said to Michonne on the way out, "Michonne, DJ needs to give us our weapons!"

DJ called out when she started to run ahead of us, "Michonne! Hey!"

"How are we supposed to fight?" Kelly asked, seriously concerned for herself and her group. So was I, too, actually.

"Michonne! We need our weapons!"

"Mollie, get ready," I said to her as I shoved Tara Rose behind us. We stood around her as a shield. "Baby, stay behind us. Mollie and I will keep you safe. Keep up. Let's go."

We started running altogether. I took my machete out and started to tear through some heads. Meanwhile, Mollie got her Beretta gun out and started to aim, taking down each Walker that came our way. The girl knew how to use a gun. I'll give her that.

Horses were neighing off in the distance as we hurried through the rows of abandoned cars to get to them, while Tara Rose and Mollie kept running with me. "Mollie, on your right!"

She spun around and shot at the Walkers, coming her way on her right, before we kept on running.

"DJ! The weapons!" Yumiko pleaded with him for her team's weapons. He actually came running towards her and put the duffle bag down, yanking it open for them to grab them and run.

I didn't focus too much on what everyone else was doing while I tried to always make sure that my girls were safely behind me. "Mommy!" Tara Rose started to cry, so I ran up to her and grabbed her up while she held onto her bunny plush toy.

"Mollie!" I screamed out her name, hoping she would hurry up. "Come on!"

Suddenly, we stopped when Michonne cursed and took off, seeing Walkers getting closer and closer to the horses.

"We can't circle up, so we split up," Yumiko said, dominating herself as the temporary leader. "Luke, you're with Siddiq and DJ. The rest of us follow her."

The women took off before us, and Mollie appeared to want to go, too, but I held her back and sat Tara Rose down. "Mollie, stay here with the guys and keep your sister safe," I demanded, not wanting to hear attitude afterward. "I'm gonna go with Michonne and them. Can you do that?"

"Yes, Mom," she answered before she took out her gun, and I bent my head down, just in time for her to shoot an incoming Walker. "Just go!"

With that said, I took off without my girls in tow, but with my signature machete out and ready to strike down every Walker. I ran through the field and took out several of them without taking count. Paul and I were definitely twins in more ways than one, especially with the machetes.

I ran up, just as Yumiko had taken down a nearby rusted owning-type thing down on some Walkers. Then, one came up and tried to get her, but Magna took care of it before it could get her.

With that said, I started to run before yelling back to them, "Yumiko, let's go!"

She nodded and hopped down from the truck's bed before recollecting her arrows, running with the rest of us. "That's the same herd that attacked your rig," said Michonne.

"How do you know?" Magna asked, especially because nobody else knew. Then, we all glanced up at some Walker walking up to us. His guts were out all over the place, with his neck looking ate into, and he wore a really weird shirt, too.

"Oh, my God," breathed out Yumiko in disbelief. I saw Magna's eyes become red with fresh tears, and this is when it hit me who this was. It was Bernie, the one that they just lost yesterday. Here he was.

Everyone stood back as he passed by Michonne to get to Magna, who was crying already. Michonne quickly came up behind him and took care of him for them, and allowed him to fall back to the ground.

Magna was crying really bad, and more than anything, I wanted to comfort her. But, we did need to go already.

"Michonne!" Saddiq called out to her. "Let's go!"

"We have to go," Michonne stated, now leading the way to a clear path to leave.

I saw my girls with the guys and felt relieved. I looked to Magna and Yumiko, clearly heartbroken. "We need to. C'mon."

—

➳ BACK on the road, we were halfway to Hilltop now, and you can definitely tell just how everyone was beyond exhausted. Myself included.

"I know what it's like... to worry about your family," Michonne started to say, probably referring to Bernie. "To carry the burden of protecting them. To feel guilt when they suffer."

"She'll be fine," Yumiko claimed; even though she sniffled. "We all will."

"Because you have to be," countered Michonne, glancing down at Yumiko. "I would know."

"I just want us to have a home, y'know?" Yumiko empathized, which I could definitely understand. "Somewhere safe."

Michonne nodded and reassured, "You will." Then, one beat later, Michonne added, "This is as far as I go."

"Mommy," called Tara Rose, so I glanced down at her in the cart. "We're still going to Hilltop, right?"

I nodded and reassured, "Yes, honey, we are. We're still going to go see Uncle Paul and Aunt Tara."

Suddenly, my head whipped around when I heard horses coming from the distance. "Michonne?" I called, and she quickly snatched out her sword from behind her.

Two men came up on horses with spears in their hands, slowing down when they saw us. "Those spears," Michonne spoke up once they had officially stopped. "You from Hilltop?"

"We are," one man claimed, older. "You?"

"Alexandria," Michonne spoke back.

"We're headed there now," the man continued. "We have a message."

"'Message?" I squeaked out, getting my horse to go closer to hearing this. "What for?"

"We have one of yours, Rosita Espinosa," the man claimed as my heart started to drop. Oh, dear God. "She's been injured."

"Injured?!" I exclaimed, fear written all over my face now. "How?!"

"Let them know Michonne and the others are headed to Hilltop," she interrupted me before I could break out into song, I suppose. "Tell them we're safe."

With that said, the men took off on their horses while we sat back. "Michonne," came my warning tone. "We need to go. Rosita needs us."

"I know," Michonne said back before she headed off on her horse, and I got my horse to follow closely behind her. "Once we get there, are you staying for a while?"

I shrugged and claimed, "I don't know yet. I want to stay, but my home is Alexandria. Still, we all miss my brother and Tara."

She nodded and responded, "Maybe it's for the best." Then, she took off again and left me in the dust.