CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

"Theo." Andie looks from the sign on the railroad tracks to him for a moment.

"Sanctuary for all. Those who arrive, survive." He reads. "Terminus."

"The broadcast from the day we were headed to the vet clinic." She says, and he nods. "This is what they were talking about on the radio."

"If Daryl saw this, he might go there looking for us. He could think the same thing we are." He agrees. "Hell, this is the kind of thing I think Glenn would go for."

"Michonne was with us that day too. She could remember the broadcast."

"And Bob."

"And this is the direction it seems like Daryl's headed." Andie says.

"Careful, there. It almost sounds like hope in your voice."

"You really think it's a place like the prison?" Merle asks. "Safe as we were there?"

"It's worth a shot, right?" Theo asks, this gaze moving briefly to Luna.

"You're not the slightest bit worried it sounds too good to be true?" Peter asks, and Andie takes a deep breath as she nods.

"This was your idea to begin with." He says as he looks at Peter and Malia. "You're the reason we're on these tracks."

"Derek is the reason we're on these tracks." He argues.

"Shut up and keep moving." Malia shoves him forward. "I'm sick of hearing this argument."

"Yeah, that sounds like you Hales." Theo says, and Andie flips him off as they start walking again.

They keep moving, and eventually the sun's going down. Andie's fidgeting as she looks at their surroundings, and Theo knows why. He smells it too — there's something wrong with their chemosignals.

"I don't like this." Malia says, and Merle's the only who looks back — Luna's asleep on his back.

"What?"

"The group we're following..." Peter says. "Something's off."

"They're hunting." Andie says.

"So?" Merle looks at her.

"People."

"That doesn't sound good."

"We need to move faster." She tells them. She can feel it — something's very off here.

"Don't let us slow you down." Merle says, knowing they've had to drop their pace while he's carrying Luna. "I can take care of the tyke. Go, do what you've gotta do. Just make sure you save my brother while you're at it."

"Let's go." Andie says as she adjusts her hatchet, moving much faster now. And the other four follow after her.

—

"Shit." Andie mutters as she kneels down, hiding in the trees.

"Rick and Michonne." Theo sighs as he watches the other group close in on them, exiting from the other side of the woods than they're on.

There's a blue car, clearly broken down and abandoned. Rick and Michonne are sitting side-by-side in front of a small fire, both completely oblivious to what's going on around them.

"There's a kid in the car." Malia whispers, and Andie's head snaps in that direction.

"Carl." She breathes. "Peter—"

"I'll get the kid." He tells her, disappearing a little ways away from them. He has to be quiet as he makes his way in that direction, after the guy who's headed toward Carl.

"Oh, dearie, me." A man with gray hair says as he holds a gun to Rick's temple from behind him, and another guy grabs Michonne's sword before she can get to it. "You screwed up, asshole. You hear me? You screwed up."

"We don't move until I have eyes on Daryl." Andie tells the others. "Not unless it looks like they're going to kill them before that."

"I don't know what Daryl looks like." Malia says.

"Just...follow my lead." She says. "And no guns. No shifting."

"Today is the day of reckoning, sir." The leader of the other group says. "Restitution. A balancing of the whole damn universe."

The guy that Peter's after makes it to the car, and he hits the window. Carl gasps when he sees him, and the man smiles as he holds his knife to the glass.

"Just tell me when." Peter whispers, in the woods not too far off.

"Shit, and I was thinking about turning in for the night on New Year's Eve." The leader laughs as he looks at his men. There are three other men with their guns drawn. "Now, who's gonna count down the ball dropper with me, huh?"

He starts counting down Mississippis, starting at ten, but he doesn't make it very far.

"Joe!" Daryl calls as he walks out from behind the car, and the leader stops counting. "Hold up."

"You're stopping me on eight, Daryl."

"Mm. Got our man." Malia looks at her cousin. "What's the plan?"

"I'm working on it." Andie's struggling.

"Just hold up." Daryl says, walking past two of the men with their guns aimed at Rick and Michonne.

"This is the guy that killed Lou, so we got nothing to talk about." A man wearing a leather jacket, holding a rifle speaks up.

"The thing about nowadays is we got nothing but time." Joe tells him. "Say your piece, Daryl."

"These people — you're gonna let 'em go." Daryl says. "These are good people."

"Now, I-I- I think Lou would disagree with you on that." He argues. "I'll, of course, have to speak for him and all, 'cause your friend here strangled him in a bathroom."

"You want blood, I get it." He puts down his crossbow. "Take it from me, man. Come on."

"Andie..." Theo looks at her, and she grinds her teeth.

"This man killed our friend." Joe says, his eyes on Daryl. "You say he's good people. See, now, that right there is-is a lie. It's a lie!"

The man in the leather jacket hits Daryl with the butt of his rifle.

"Teach him, fellas."

"Stay here. Stay hidden." Andie says as she stands up straight.

The brunette runs over as they have Daryl pinned against the car, beating him, and the other guy pulls Carl out of the car. Rick's shoved back down when he tries to move to defend his son, and the creep hushes the teenage boy as he holds a knife to his throat.

"She doesn't plan much, does she?" Malia looks at Theo, and he shakes his head.

Andie grabs both of the men on Daryl by their collars and yanks them back, hard. One of them coughs as he holds his throat where his shirt dug in, and the other groans as he holds his head where it slammed on the dirt road.

"Hi." She looks up at Daryl as he leans against the car, trying to catch his breath and gain his bearings, then she turns to the leader as he aims his gun at her. "Oh, see, I wouldn't do that if I were you. Joe, was it?"

"And why not?" He questions.

"Easy." She smiles as she pulls her knife and hatchet off her belt. "You didn't know I was out there, did you? So, you don't know if I'm alone. And if not, how many do I have?"

"I don't think you understand what you're walking into, sweetheart. This doesn't concern you."

"Two things. One — call me sweetheart again, and I'll rip your tongue out of your mouth. We clear? Good. Two — these are my people, so it does concern me." She tells him. "Now, I don't mind talkin' things out. You wanna tell me what happened?"

"Your man killed one of ours, so he dies. It's that simple. Daryl lied, so he's owed that beating you interrupted." He says. "I got nothing against adding you to the list."

"Listen, it was me." Rick cuts in, knowing Andie's not much for planning things out. He knows she gets in over her head, and he's afraid she's alone. "It was just me."

"See, now that's right. That's not some damn lie." Joe says as he shoves the barrel of his gun into the side of Rick's head as he leads down. Then he looks back at Andie. "Look, we can settle this; we're reasonable men."

"Mhm." She waves her knife, shooing the other two men as they take steps back with their guns raised again. "Peter?" She whispers.

"Ready when you are."

"You know, you strike me as the type for rules." Andie says, having heard a little about them from her uncle. Joe looks back at her. "I have rules too. Rule number one: if it even resembles a pedophile, it dies."

They hear a snap, and everyone but Andie looks over to see the man who was holding Carl drop to the ground. The teenager scrambles away from Peter, and he stops the man by Michonne from going after him as Carl moves toward Andie.

"Told you I wasn't alone." The brunette says as she pushes Carl behind her, and Daryl shields him with his own body from the two men who have their guns aimed at the three of them, but then they suddenly drop.

Peter's holding onto the wrist of the man who had his gun trained on Michonne. Their hands are above their heads as the werewolf's other hand is holding the blade of a knife to his throat. He's being careful not to move as he glares at Peter, knowing how easily he could die right now.

Andie steps away from Daryl and Carl before swinging her arm in the direction of Rick and Joe, and her hatchet flies through the air as Peter pulls his hand back and then drives his knife through the throat of the man in front of him. Both bodies hit the groan, and Michonne looks back to see Joe with the hatchet in his forehead as he lays on his back.

"Andie..." Theo starts out of the woods, but Malia grabs his arm as they break the tree line.

"Hold on." She tells him as Peter turns to look at his niece.

"Hey." Daryl rests his hand on her shoulder, and she jumps as she looks up at him.

"Carl." She looks at the younger boy, and he moves out from behind Daryl before slamming into her as he wraps his arms around her middle. "Are you okay?"

"I am now." He tells her, pulling back to look at her. "You always said looking after the kids was the most important job."

"He admits he's a kid." She smiles as she looks up at Daryl.

"Never." Carl argues, and she chuckles as he then runs over to hug his dad.

Andie takes a deep breath as she looks up at Daryl. "Oh, look at what they did to those blue eyes." She reaches up and brushes his hair away from his forehead. He's gonna have some bruising from them beating on him.

He pulls her to him, wrapping his arms around her waist as he buries his face in her shoulder, and she lets out a shaky breath as she hugs him back. Her arms are around his neck as she closes her eyes, turning her head toward him.

"Anybody gonna hug ole Merle this time?" He asks as he walks out of the shadows, and Andie pulls away from Daryl to look at the older Dixon.

"You brought Luna out here?" She questions, but Malia and Theo look behind Merle.

"Andie—"

"That's my fault." A familiar voice gains her full attention as two more people walk out of the shadows. "I needed him to bring me to you."

"Derek." Her eyes fill with tears as she looks at her cousin, and Daryl looks between the two of them.

He doesn't know much about the man standing before them now. He's fairly certain that this is who Theo's tried to talk about, but she'd cut him off before he could get his name out. And given the way she's looking at him now, he's definitely important to him. The jealousy stirring in Daryl is getting on his nerves.

"Derek!" Andie runs over and hugs him, her head resting on his chest as he wraps his arms around her. "I can't believe you're here."

"I told you I'd always come for you." He says, bowing to rest his chin on top of her head.

"Pinky promise?"

He chuckles. "Pinky promise."

"Yeah, the family reunion's adorable." Peter says as he walks over to them. "What are we doing with the dead bodies?"

"Nothing." Braeden says. "They were threatening to kill our girl. Leave them to rot."

"You." Andie pulls away from her cousin to look at his girlfriend. "I fucking love you. Of course you still have silencers in the damn apocalypse." She says, and the older girl chuckles. "I could kiss you."

"Oh, yeah?" Merle smirks, and both women turn to glare at him. "Yeah. Probably best you don't cheat on my brother."

"Fuck you, Merle."

"What?" Derek raises his eyebrows. "My Andie has someone to cheat on?"

Daryl grinds his teeth.

"No." Andie shakes her head. "We don't listen to Merle. He's a pig."

"And they're both in denial." Merle chuckles as he looks at his brother.

"Can we get Luna and Carl into the car so they can get some sleep?" She asks. "And someone give Theo a pacifier before he starts crying again that he hasn't slept in over twenty-four hours."

"That sounds like our girl." Derek says as he wraps his arm around his girlfriend, and she nods.

"Malia, Theo, you guys get some sleep." Andie tells them, motioning to the car.

"Wait, I wanna see you and Rick duke it out for the role of group leader." Theo says, and she shakes her head.

"I happily pass the crown back to him." She takes an imaginary crown from her head and holds it out toward Rick, bowing in front of him. "Please be our leader again. I am a grunt. I had no plan when I pulled those assholes off of Daryl, I could just as easily have gotten myself killed."

"And that's why he had me bench you when we got to the prison." Rick reminds her as he walks over and hugs her.

"Maybe I was a gymnast in another life." She reasons. "We'll never know because everyone's afraid of me having a little fun while I kill walkers."

"It ain't supposed to be fun, remember." Daryl says as he picks up his crossbow from the dirt, and she turns to him.

"You were being a dick and using it as target practice, I was doing kicks between kills — there's a difference."

"Go get some sleep." Rick nudges her toward the car. "And then in the morning we can get better acquainted with your new friends."

"Family, actually." Andie tells them. "Derek and Malia are my cousins. Peter's her biological father — but we don't usually talk about that," she whispers. "And mine and Derek's uncle. And then Braeden — she's Derek's girlfriend."

"It's good to meet you." Rick shakes Derek's hand.

"Likewise." He nods. "I'm happy to meet anyone who can keep up with that one." He looks at his cousin as Peter walks over to her.

"Why do you hate me so much? I used to be your favorite." He tries to hug her, and she punches him in the chest. He groans as he rubs the spot. "You can't hate me forever, you know?"

"Watch me."

"Leave her alone, Peter." Derek shakes his head.

"You both used to like me a lot more."

"And then we grew up." Andie tells him. "Now we see you for the self-serving psychopath that you are."

"That's rude." Peter mutters before nudging the dead body at his feet.