MARCELLA WOKE UP INSIDE THE VAN FROM THE PREVIOUS DAY, USING HER PACK AS A PILLOW AND HER BOMBER JACKET AS A BLANKET.

She dug through her backpack, finding some new clothes before stripping off her blood covered tank top and pulling on a black t-shirt.

She walked over and noticed Jim and Dale was going through the sports car, taking it apart while Glenn watched sadly,

"Damn, couldn't let us go for another spin before they did that?" Marcie asked, crossing her arms,

"Generators need every drop of fuel they can get." Dale told her,

She patted Glenn on the back before walking away. She sat by one of the fires and took out her knife before trying to clean it on her jeans.

Marcie glanced up to see Rick walking towards her, "Morning."

"Morning, Officer." She joked as he sat down next to her,

He held out his hunting knife, "Thank you."

Marcie nodded, taking the knife from him, "You needed another weapon beside a gun that holds like five bullets."

"I meant for helping me. Helping me find my family. I couldn't have done it without you." Rick told her, sincerely, before sighing, "I've been thinking about that Dixon man. The one on the roof."

Marcie twirled the sheathed knife between her fingers, "I have, too. After what T-Dog said last night... it's hard not to think about." She looked over at him, "You want to go back."

He nodded, "I want to go back."

Marcie looked over at Lori, who was hanging up clothes to dry, "Then I would go talk to your wife about it."

Rick sighed, placing his hand on her shoulder before standing and walking over to Lori. Marcella watched as he talked to his wife and her smile faded. She guessed that Lori wasn't so happy with the idea of him going back to Atlanta right after getting him back,

Suddenly, there were screams coming from the woods. It sounded like the kids that lived in the camp. Marcie gripped her knife and began running towards the source of the screaming, the others following.

They weren't very far into the trees when they spotted the kids running towards them. They ran to their parents while Vivian, Marcie, Shane, Rick, Morales, Jim, and Dale kept going.

The group came across a biter chomping down on the insides of a dear. Marcie took a step forward, going in to kill it when Shane pushed past her and began to beat on the corpse.

The men began to bash the walker over and over. Marcie and Vivian shared a look, "Men." They scoffed together.

The beating ended once Dale came over and beheaded the biter with an axe, "It's the first one we've had up here." The older man stated, "They never come this far up the mountain."

"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what." Jim replied,

In the woods in front of them, branches snapped under the weight of something. Marcie raised her knife as everyone else raised their weapons, prepared for more biters to come barreling through the trees. 

But instead, a man with a crossbow came out. Marcie glanced around at the group as they lowered their weapon and relaxed their muscles. They knew him.

"Son of a bitch." The man glared down at the eaten deer, "That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this," Vivian watched in disgust as Daryl began kicking the walker, "filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!"

"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale said,

Vivian sighed. Telling the Dixon's to calm down was like pouring gasoline of fire to put it out.

Daryl turned to the older man, "What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'?" He turned back to the dead animal on the ground and began taking his bolts out, "I've been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison." He kneeled down beside it, "What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?"

"I would not risk that." Shane said, putting his gun across his shoulders and resting his arms over it,

Daryl sighed and stood, "That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel," He motioned to the rope on his shoulder that held a bunch of dead squirrels, "about a dozen or so. That'll have to do."

Marcie scrunched her nose at the thought of eating squirrels. The look of them hanging on the man's rope wasn't too appetizing either.

Suddenly, the head of the walker began moving again, its' jaw moving to try and get a bite out of them,

"Oh god." Amy gagged from behind them before walking away, 

Daryl rolled his eyes, "Come on, people. What the hell?" He aimed his crossbow and shot the corpse through the eye, "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?"

He grabbed his bolt from the biter's eye before walking back towards camp with the others following,

"I'm assuming that's Daryl?" Marcie whispered to Vivian,

"Yep." The woman sighed, "Better get the popcorn. The show's about to start."

Vivian walked back over to Jillian and Trevor as Daryl called out for his brother, "Everything okay?" Jillian asked,

"Just a walker. Nothing we couldn't handle." Vivian told her, sitting on the log next to her and reaching for Liam's chubby fingers,

"Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up." Daryl called out as he reached the RV,

Vivian felt slightly at ease as she watched Daryl set his crossbow down. At least he couldn't shoot T-Dog in the ass. 

"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you." Shane said from behind him,

The hunter paused, "About what?"

"About Merle." He answered, "There was a... There was a problem in Atlanta."

Daryl glanced around at the other camp members, his eyes meeting Marcie's as she stepped up next to Rick,

"He dead?" He asked, looking back at Shane,

"We're not sure." Shane answered,

Marcie watched as his face turned red in anger, "He either is or he ain't!"

Rick took a step forward and Marcie reached for him, "Wait, Rick." She whispered but he ignored her,

"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it."

The hunter turned to him, "Who are you?"

"Rick Grimes." The sheriff answered,

'Rick Grimes," Daryl mocked, moving to get into the man's face, "you got something you want to tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Rick explained,

Marcie winced. That definitely was not the way to put it.

"Hold on. Let me process this." Daryl turned away for a moment, wiping his face before turning back to Rick, "You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!"

Rick nodded, "Yeah."

Daryl threw the rope of squirrels and Rick and he ducked out of the way. Before the hunter could get any closer, Shane burst forward and knocked Daryl away,

While on the ground, Daryl took his hunting knife out of its' sheath, "Watch the knife." Vivian called out.

She went to stand and maybe help, but Jillian pulled her back into her seat,

Daryl swung at Rick, who kept dodging his attacks. Shane came up behind the hunter and put him into a chokehold before he could do any serious damage, "Okay. Okay." Rick unarmed him and stuffed the knife into his waistband so Daryl couldn't grab it,

"You'd best let me go!" Daryl choked out,

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't." Shane responded as he brought him to the ground,

"Choke hold's illegal."

"You can file a complaint. Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day." Shane told him,

Daryl's breathing began to quicken as Rick kneeled down to meet his eyes, "I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" Daryl didn't respond, "Do you think we can manage that?"

He nodded and Shane let him go, "What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others."

"It's not Rick's fault." T-Dog spoke up, "I had the key. I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl spat,

"Well, I dropped it in a drain."

The hunter stood up and glared at T-Dog, "If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."

"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof... So the geeks couldn't get at him... With a padlock."

"It's gotta count for something." Rick told him,

Daryl wiped at his eyes and Marcie began to feel even worse about what happened it Atlanta.

"Hell with all y'all!" He yelled, "Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him."

"He'll show you." Lori narrowed her eyes at her husband, "Isn't that right?"

Rick nodded, "I'm going back."

Vivian raised an eyebrow. He was going back for that asshole? If it were her, she'd leave Daryl to go by himself into the city. He's a good survivor, he'd find Merle and make it out in one piece.

Marcie moved to grab her pack and walked over to Dale, "Hey, Dale?"

"What do you need, Marcie?" He asked from on top the RV,

"Do you mind if I unload this in the RV? Need to make room for supplies for Merle." She asked,

"Sure thing. There's an empty back pack in there if you just want to take that." He told her,

She smiled up at him, "Thanks!"

Marcie went inside and set her bag down on a seat. On the table was an empty back pack and she reached for it. As she left the RV, she spotted Rick making his way up the hill, now in his police uniform, with Shane following,

"Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?"

Daryl, who was collecting his bolts for his crossbow, glared at the man, "Hey, choose your words more carefully."

"No, I did. Douche bag's what I meant." Shane turned back to Rick, "Merle Dixon...The guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst... me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being." Rick told him,

"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori questioned,

"And me." Marcie spoke up, descending from the RV and threw the empty pack over her shoulder,

Daryl scoffed, "Great."

Rick turned to her, "You sure you want to do this?"

She nodded, "We started this together. You're not the only one who left Merle up there. Besides, who else is gonna bring you back to your family?"

"Thank you."

Vivian walked over to Glenn when she noticed the awkward tension in the air, "What's going on?"

"Recruitment." Glenn whispered,

"Who's dumb enough to go on that trip?" Vivian smirked before Rick turned toward them,

"Oh, come on." Vivian and Glenn whined at the same time,

"You know the way, both of you." Rick told them, "You've been there before... In and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask... I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you two along. I know she would too."

"That's just great." Shane sighed, "Now you're gonna risk five men, huh?"

"Six." T-Dog spoke up,

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" Daryl huffed, 

"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog asked the hunter,

"Why you?" Daryl asked, not taking his eyes away from cleaning his arrows,

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language."

"That's six." Dale stated,

"It's not just six." Shane stated, "You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp."

"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." Rick replied,

Marcie's eyes widened, "That's right. The guns!"

Shane glanced at her before returning his gaze to Rick, "Wait. What guns?"

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. We dropped the bag in Atlanta when we got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up." Rick explained,

"Ammo?"

"700 rounds, assorted." The sheriff answered,

"You went through hell to find us. You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" Lori asked her husband, 

"Dad, I don't want you to go." Carl said from beside his mother,

"To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in." Rick walked over to his wife and Lori stood, "Tell me. Make me understand."

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy. Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, if Marcie wasn't with them, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow us to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap we did if I don't warn him." Rick said to her,

"What's stopping you?"

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag we dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer." Rick said,

"These are our walkies?" Shane asked,

"Yeah."

"So use the CB. What's wrong with that?" Andrea questioned,

"The CB's fine. It's the walkies that suck to crap... Date back to the '70s, don't match any other bandwidth... Not even the scanners in our cars." Shane explained,

"I need that bag." Rick stepped around his wife and crouched in front of his son, "Okay?"

The young boy nodded and Rick stood, turning to Marcie, "Let's get ready."

Vivian went to help Glenn back the van up the road. Once he put it in park, Vivian moved to open up the back. She got in and sat on the edge as Trevor and Jillian walked over with Liam in her arms.

"I hate that you're doing this." Jillian told her best friend as the brunette reached for Liam and placed him in her lap,

"So do I." Vivian sighed, "But I'm not gonna tell Rick no. What if they go into the city and die and I could've done something to prevent that?"

"What if you die?" Jillian asked,

Vivian raised an eyebrow, "I'm from the south side of Chicago. I'm practically half cockroach. It takes a lot to kill me."

"Still, it worries me." Jillian sighed,

"Well, I'll try my best not to die as long as you keep him from missing me too much." Vivian grinned, kissing the baby on the cheek.

"Impossible." Jillian smiled, reaching to hug her friend, 

Once she pulled away, she took Liam back into her arms so Trevor could hug her, "Stay safe."

Vivian nodded, "You keep them safe."

Once they walked away, Daryl hopped into the truck and glared down at her,  "I ain't babysitting."

"Good. Me neither." She responded as she stood up, rolling her eyes before getting into the passenger seat, sharing a look with Glenn,

Marcie put some bottled water, a can of beans, and a first aid kit in the empty bag Dale gave her, enough to give to Merle to bring him back to health, at least to get him out of the city.

She had put her extra knife in her bag as Carl walked up to her, "You brought him back once... can you bring him back again?"

Marcie kneeled beside him, "Yeah, kid. I can do that for you."

He wrapped his arms around her, "Thank you."

When he pulled away, she ruffled his hair, "I'll bring him back. I promise."

The sound of a horn blaring caught their ears and they turned to see Daryl with his foot on the steering wheel, "Come on, let's go!"

"Jesus, that'll bring the walkers down on us if anything." Vivian scoffed from the passenger seat,

T-Dog got in and turned to help Marcie. She tossed her bag at him before getting in by herself, "Thanks, T." She grinned at the man,

Rick wasn't very far behind them, and Shane followed with a duffel bag in hand, "Hey, Rick, got any rounds in the Python?"

He shook his head,"No." 

"Last time we were on the gun range, I'm sure I wound up with a few loose rounds of yours." Shane smirked, digging around in his gun bag,

"You and that bag..." Rick smiled and shook his head, "like the bottom of an old lady's purse."

"I hate that you're doing this, man. I think that it's foolish and reckless. But if you're gonna go, you're taking bullets." Shane told him,

"I'm not sure I'd want to fire a shot in the city, not after what happened last time." Rick commented,

"Damn right, after what happened last time." Vivian mumbled, 

"That's up to you." Shane held six bullets in the palm of his hand, "Well... Six men, six rounds. What are the odds, huh?" He handed them to Rick, "Well, let's just hope that... Let's just hope six is your lucky number, okay?"