It was dawn before they reached the highway. On the way, Parker and Daryl found Glenn and Maggie in their car, and Lori and the rest in another, taking them to the highway in procession. When they started slowing down, Parker saw Rick, Carl, and Hershel, not waiting for the motorcycle to fully stop before getting off. 

"Aunt Parker!" Carl shouted, running towards his aunt. She caught him as he jumped into her arms, hugging him tightly.

"God, you had us so worried, you idiot!"

"I'm sorry," Carl apologized. "I'm glad you're alive."

"Parker," Rick gasped, a look of relief on his face as he placed a hand on the back of his sister's neck and kissed her forehead. "Jesus, you okay? I thought I lost you back there." Parker let out a sigh of relief as Lori appeared from behind a car and Carl ran towards her.

"Well, if Daryl didn't get me out of there you probably would have lost me." Rick nodded in appreciation at Daryl.

"Thank you for keeping her safe."

"Anytime," Daryl replied. With the threat of danger gone- mostly. Parker went over to Daryl, watching as Hershel reunited with his daughters and Lori reunited with Rick and Carl. Daryl put an arm around her waist.

"Where did you find everyone?" Rick asked Daryl, staying close to his family.

"Well, those guys' taillights zigzagging all over the road. Figured he had to be Asian, driving like that." Daryl joked.

"Good one," Glenn laughed.

"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl asked, looking around and seeing that a few were missing.

"We're the only ones who made it so far," Rick responded.

"Shane?" Lori questioned, standing up, keeping a hand on Carl's head. Rick shook his head and Glenn looked around.

"Andrea?"

"She saved me and then I lost her," Parker whispered, looking at her feet guiltily.

"We saw her go down," T-Dog added.

"Patricia?" Hershel asked. Beth shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at her dad.

"They got her too. Took her right from me. I was... I was holding onto her, Daddy. She just-" Beth broke off for a moment as Hershel hugged her. "...What about Jimmy? Did you see Jimmy?"

"He was in the RV," Rick replied. "It got overrun."

"You definitely saw Adrea?" Carol asked.

"There were walkers everywhere," Lori answered.

"Did you see her?" Carol repeated.

"I'm gonna go back," Daryl announced.

"No," Rick shook his head.

"We can't just leave her," Daryl stated.

"We don't even know if she's there," Lori said reasonably.

"She isn't there," Rick told them. "She isn't. She's somewhere else or she's dead. There's no way to find her."

"So we're not even going to look for her?" Glenna asked.

"We gotta keep moving," Rick said. "There have been walkers crawling all over here."

"I say head east," T-Dog proposed.

"Stay off the main roads," Daryl added, grabbing his crossbow as a walker approached them. "The bigger the road, the more walkers, more assholes like this one. I got him." Daryl shot the walker in the eye and went to retrieve his arrow. Parker sighed, looking at the three cars and motorcycle and then at all the people.

"Who's going with who?" In the end, Hershel, Maggie, Glenn, and Beth were in one car. Rick, Carl, Lori, T-Dog, and Carol in the other. And Parker and Daryl on his motorcycle. They set off, and as they drove, Parker kept her arms around Daryl's waist, her head resting against his back.

"Are you okay back there?" Daryl asked after a while. "Are you falling asleep?!"

"I might be," Parker responded, sitting up a little straighter. "It will be dark soon."

"Yeah, hopefully we'll find somewhere," Daryl replied. "Just wait, okay? I don't want you to fall off,."

"You care about me," Parker joked, poking Daryl's cheek.

"I take it back," Daryl slapped her hand away. "Stop. Maybe they'll be nice enough to scrape you off the road!"

" That's mean." Parker laughed. "Are you being serious?!"

"No, dumbass," Daryl responded with a shake of his head, "Don't let go, are you stupid?"

"Good. because I wasn't planning on it." A couple of hours later, Rick honked to stop them and they all got out of their cars. Rick ran to the front of the group, where Daryl turned to look at him.

"You out?"

"Running on fumes," Rick answered, everyone jogging over to regroup.

"We can't stay here," Maggie complained, hugging herself.

"We can't all fit in one car," Glenn pointed out.

"Well glad we got that out of the way." Parker climbed off the motorcycle, standing next to Carl.

"We'll have to make a run for some gas in the morning," Rick told all of them which did not earn him a good reaction.

"Are we spending the night here?" Parker asked, rubbing her arms to try to warm up.

"I'm freezing," Carl complained, Parker hugged him from behind, placing her sweater on his shoulders. "What about you?"

"I'm sweating. Too hot for me out here." She lied, giving him a small smile which he happily returned, snuggling further into his aunt's embrace.

"We'll build a fire, yeah?" Lori offered up the idea, as Rick took off his jacket.

"You go out looking firewood, stay close," Daryl instructed. "Only got so many arrows. How you doing on ammo?"

"Not enough," Rick replied, offering Parker his jacket which she handed to Lori. She'd much rather have her and Carl stay warm, he was a kid and she was pregnant.

"We can't just sit here, with our asses hanging out." Maggie huffed angrily.

"Watch your mouth," Hershel warned. "Everyone stop panicking. Listen to Rick."

"Alright, we'll set up a perimeter," Rick said. "In the morning we'll find some gas and some supplies. We'll keep pushing on."

"Rick, we're stranded now," Glenn said.

"I know it looks bad. We've been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other. I wasn't sure. I- I really wasn't, but we did. We're together. We keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere. There's got to be a place."

"Rick, look around, okay?" Glenn sighed. "There are walkers everywhere. They're migrating or something."

"There has to be a place," Rick insisted. "Not just where we hole up but where we fortify. Hunker down. Pull ourselves together and build a life for each other. I know it's out there, we just have to find it."

"Even if we do find a place and we think it's safe, we can never be sure, for how long?" Maggie spoke up. "Look what happened with the farm. We fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe."

"We won't make that mistake again," Hershel responded.

"We'll make camp tonight, over there," Rick decided, pointing to a stone structure. "Get on the road at the break of day."

"But what if walkers come through or another group like Randall's?" Beth asked walking over to Rick.

"You know I found Randall, right?" Daryl asked. "He had turned, but he wasn't bit."

"How's that possible?" Beth asked, everyone looking over to Rick after seeing his reaction.

"Rick, what the hell happened?" Lori asked.

"Shane killed Randall," Daryl responded, answering that for him. "Just like he always wanted to."

"And then the herd got him?" Lori guessed. Rick seemed to be having an internal battle with himself, before saying the words that no one had ever expected to hear.

"We're all infected."

"What?" Parker asked.

"At the CDC, Jenner told me," Rick elaborated. "Whatever it is, we all carry it."

"And you kept that from us?" Parker asked, her voice filled we betrayal. "Rick, that was over two weeks ago!"

"And you never said anything?" Carol asked.

"Would it have made a difference?"

"You knew this whole time?" Glenn asked.

"How could I have known for sure?" Rick responded. "You saw how crazy that mo-"

"That is not your call!" Glenn cut him off. "Okay, when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told for the good of everyone."

"Well, I thought it best if people didn't know," Rick countered, and that was the end of the conversation. They made camp as night fell and Parker sat with her head on Daryl's arm as the fire crackled in front of her. There were low-voiced conversations, Carol asking Daryl why he's staying and trying to convince him to leave, Maggie suggesting they risk it alone. Nobody trusted Rick anymore. Rick keeping that secret had driven a wedge between the group, one that had caused their trust to falter. Parker understood why Rick kept it a secret. He didn't know for sure, and even if he had told everyone, what difference would it have made? It would have only increased the panic, and made everyone more likely to react badly to situations. A rustling of leaves made everyone tense and Beth asked the question they were all thinking. 

"What was that?"

"Could be anything," Daryl responded, standing with his crossbow raised. "Could be a raccoon, could be a possum."

"Walker?" Glenn asked.

"We need to leave," Carol told the group. "I mean, what are we waiting for?"

"Which way?" Glenn scrambled to his feet, a gun at the ready.

"It came from over there," Maggie pointed out.

"Back from where we came," Beth added.

"Yeah," Maggie confirmed.

"The last thing we need is for everyone to be running off in the dark," Rick ground out. "We don't have the vehicles. No one's traveling on foot."

"Don't panic," Hershel whispered, trying to keep things under control, sensing the rising fear of the entire group.

"I'm not... I'm not sitting here waiting for another heard to blow through," Maggie said. "We need to move, now."

"No one's going anywhere," Rick responded sharply.

"Do something," Carol whispered to Rick.

"I am doing something!" Rick snapped. "I'm keeping this group together. Alive! And I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this! I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!" Parker realized that all the pressure Rick was feeling had finally crushed him, showing his real emotions. "You saw what he was like. How he pushed me, how he compromised us... how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing. Led me out to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no choice. He was my friend, but he came after me." Carl turned and sobbed into Lori's shirt as Rick paced back and forth. "My hands are clean. Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say there's a place for us, but maybe its.. maybe its just another pipe dream. Maybe- maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you... why don't you go and find out yourselves? Send me a postcard. Go on, there's the door. You can do better? Let's see how far you get." No one spoke, too surprised by how angry Rick had suddenly become. "No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight... if you're staying, this isn't a democracy anymore."

Authors Note:

Still no update on the site but here is the end of TWD season 2. See you soon..