VIVIAN GLANCED OVER AT RICK AS THEY DROVE OUT OF THE CITY,

"What?" Rick smirked, looking over at her before moving his gaze to the road,

"You gonna stay with us a while, Officer Friendly?" She asked, playing with the bracelet around her wrist,

"I'm looking for my family." He told her,

The brunette nodded, "Yeah, but for a little while, stay with us. You should rest, gather your resources. Hell, you saved all of us. We'll give you food, water, shelter, until you go back out."

"Well, thank you. That's kind of you."

"Kind of you to break us out of there." Vivian smiled, "We ain't too far out of the city. We're camped out at a quarry. There's lots of us."

They went silent for a moment and Morales peeked his head between the seats, "Best not to dwell on it." He told Rick, "Merle got left behind. Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back... Except maybe Daryl."

"Daryl?"

"His brother." Vivian explained,

The siren began to get louder again and Vivian watched with a smile as Glenn and Marcie sped past them in a red sports car.

"At least somebody's having a good day." She sighed,

It wasn't long before they got into more forested area. Less buildings, more trees. Marcie gripped onto the handle nervously as Glenn sped up the canyon.

"You can slow down now!" She yelled,

"Don't want any biters following us!" He responded,

Soon Marcie caught sight of cars and an rv, surrounded by tents and people. Living people.

Glenn put the car in park, "Come on," He told her and got out with a smile,

"Holy crap. Turn that damn thing off!" An older man on top of the RV wearing a fishing hand and holding a rifle yelled down at them,

"I don't know how!" Glenn responded,

Three people came up to them, asking questioned. Marcella felt overwhelmed and stepped to the side. Once Glenn popped the hood of the car and the man disconnected the battery, everything became so much quieter. The lowered the hood and everyone's eyes turned to Marcie, "Who's that?"

"That's Marcie." Glenn answered, "She's one of the people that helped us out of there."

"One of them? How many people did you bring back?" The bulky man questioned,

"Just two."

The man shook his head, "Are you crazy, driving this wailing bastard up here? Are you trying to draw every walker for miles?"

The older man on top of the RV glanced around the valley, "I think we're okay."

"You call being stupid okay?"

"Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source." The man gave him a look, "I'm not arguing. I'm just saying." He turned to Glenn, "It wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?"

"Sorry." Glenn glanced over at Marcie, "Got a cool car."

Just then, the van pulled up behind them. Vivian grabbed her pack and turned to Rick, "Come meet everybody."

The brunette got out of her truck and smiled at the sight of Amy and Andrea clinging to each other.

Morales' kids ran up to him, followed by his wife. Vivian gripped her pack tighter and spotted her best friend sitting by the fire, her baby in her lap,

"How's my god-baby?" Viv smiled, reaching for the small,  twenty month old in her best friend's arms,

"Fussy, as usual." Jillian handed the baby over

Vivian swayed with the baby in her arms, "Oh, he's not fussy. He just has standards." The baby giggled and tugged on her necklace.

Jillian wrapped her arms around the brunette, "We didn't think you were gonna make it back."

"I didn't think so, either." Vivian replied as Trevor came up to her and ruffled her hair,

Marcie walked over to the driver's side of the truck, where Rick sat, "Vivian said we could stay a while." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose,

She nodded, "Then we'll stay a while. Few days at most. Catch our bearings. Then we'll go find your family."

"Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello!" Vivian watched as Marcie walked over, Rick following her, "The guy's a cop like you."

Rick glanced up and paused when he first saw the bulky man with the gun. It was like a blast from the past.

And Shane stared back with the same look.

With a confused look, Marcie glanced between Rick and the man. Rick looked so shocked. Then she followed his gaze and paused as a little boy ran towards him.

She had seen that boy before. In the photo Rick had in his car.

Marcie smiled as Rick lifted the boy into his arms, "Dad!" He cried as he walked towards his wife and they embraced each other.

Vivian walked over to the girl, the baby still in her arms, "I guess you guys are staying longer than just a while."

While Rick and his family caught up, Glenn gave Marcie a tour of their camp. There was about twenty-five to thirty people, of all ages. The youngest was Jillian and Trevor's kid, Liam, at almost two years old, and the oldest was a married couple, Thomas and Lily, who were in Georgia celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary when things went south.

"Sorry, we don't have any spare tents. You could sleep in the RV, but it's pretty full as is." Glenn said as they made their way towards the fire,

"That's alright. I'm used to sleeping in cars anyways." Marcie responded, gripping her bag that they remembered to grab during their haste to leave the store,

Food was being handed out to everyone, and Glenn handed her a can of beans. It wasn't her favourite, but it was food.

Marcie glanced around, trying to find somewhere to sit. There were multiple small fires set up around the camp to accommodate everyone. She decided to sit at the fire with the most people she knew. Glenn, Dale, Rick and his family, Andrea and her sister, Amy, Vivian and her friend Jillian, Trevor, and their baby Liam, along with Shane all sat around a fire. She slowly made her way over as sat between Glenn and Vivian.

"Disoriented." Rick stated, his arms around his wife, Lori, and Carl laid against him, "I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion... all those things but... Disoriented comes closest."

"Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short." Dale commented,

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever."

Carl looked up at his father, "Mom said you died."

"She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it." He told him,

"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna Med-Evac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." Lori explained,

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell." Rick replied, "And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun."

"Yeah, looks don't deceive." Shane spoke up, "I barely got them out, you know?"

Rick shared a look with his best friend, "I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it."

"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." Dale commented and Marcie smiled as she took a bite of her food,

"Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?" Shane called out and they all turned to see that Ed's fire was bigger than everyone else's,

"It's cold, man." Ed argued,

It was clear that Shane had become the leader of the camp. Whether he was voted in, or just naturally took charge. Marcie had a feeling it was the latter.

"The cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?" Shane explained,

"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once." Ed snapped,

Shane stood and walked over to his fire, "Hey, Ed... Are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?" He asked quietly,

Ed turned to his wife, "Go on. Pull the damn thing out. Go on!"

Carol, his wife, moved to pull the log out of the fire with a stick. Marcie knew that Ed wasn't one of the good people left in the world. He seemed selfish, and unforgiving.

Shane stepped on the log, putting it out before he turned to the wife, "Hey, Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?"

"Fine. We're just fine." Carol answered, "I'm sorry about the fire."

Shane shook his head, "No, no, no. No apology needed. Y'all have a good night, okay?"

"Thank you."

"I appreciate the cooperation." Shane spat at Ed before retuning to the fire,

Once he had sat down, Dale spoke up, "Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind."

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me." T-Dog said,

"I cuffed him. That makes it mine." Rick argued,

"Guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy." Glenn commented,

Marcie didn't know Daryl, but if he was anything like his brother, she didn't want anything to do with him.

Vivian rolled her eyes, "Merle may be an asshole and a racist, but that's not Daryl."

"How do you know?" T-Dog asked her,

"He doesn't glare at just you, he glares at everyone. It doesn't matter who tells him, he's gonna be pissed either way." She answered,

"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him."

"We could lie." Amy suggested,

Andrea shot her down, "Or tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." She turned to Lori, "Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."

"And that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?" Dale asked, "Word to the wise... We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." T-Dog admitted,

"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Vivian asked,

"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that... Not that chain, not that padlock." He explained, "My point... Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us."