AFTER THEIR DISCOVERY, RICK AND HIS GROUP SPENT A FEW DAYS TRYING TO COME UP WITH A PLAN.

They told Deanna and a few trust worthy people about the canyon, but didn't want to worry anyone else until they knew how to deal with it.

And once they did come up with a fool-proof plan, they gathered everyone into Deanna's house to inform them,

"My team... we saw it early on," Heath, a member of the group that just got back on a long-term run, began to explain the reservoir, "back when we were on one of those first scouts, finding out what was around here. There was a camp at the bottom. The people, they must have blocked the exits with one of those trucks back when everything started to go bad. They didn't make it. They were all roamers. Maybe a dozen of them."

"No one's been back since?" Maggie asked from her spot on the couch,

"DC, every town worth scavenging are all in the other direction. And I never really felt like having a picnic next to the camp that ate itself." Heath reasoned,

"So all the while the walkers have been drawn by the sound and they're making more sound and they're drawing more in." Michonne stated,

"And here we are." Rick glanced around at everyone, "Now what I'm proposing, I know it sounds risky, but walkers are already slipping through the exits. One of the trucks keeping the walkers in could go off the edge any day now. Maybe after one more hard rain. That exit sends them east. All of them. Right at us. This isn't about if it gives, it's when. It's gonna happen. That's why we have to do this soon."

"This is... I don't even have another word for it." Carol spoke up, still putting on her facade of the innocent, weak woman with her blouses and casseroles, "This is terrifying. All of it. But it doesn't sound like there's any other way.

"Maybe there is." Carter stated, "I mean, couldn't we just build up the weak spots? I could draw up plans. I worked on the wall with Reg. Construction crew, we can try and make it safe."

"Even if we could, the sound of those walkers is drawing more and more every day." Rick shot the idea down, "Building up the exits won't change that."

"We're gonna do what Rick says, the plan he's laid out." Deanna spoke from her spot near the window, where she was staring out of. 

Vivian wasn't even sure she was listening until she spoke up just now. Her mind had been elsewhere the past few weeks, not that anyone blamed her.

"I told you all, we're gonna have Daryl leading them away." Rick continued,

Marcie opened her mouth to speak, but Sasha beat her to it, "Me, too. I'll take a car, ride next to him. Can't just be him. I'll keep 'em coming, Daryl keeps 'em from getting sloppy."

"I'll go with her." Abraham stated, "It's a long way to white-knuckle it solo."

Rick nodded, "We'll have two teams. One on each side of the forest helping manage this thing. We're gonna have a few people on watch from now on. Rosita, Spencer, and Holly. So they're out. So who's in?"

Michonne raised her hand slightly, "Me."

"I will." Marcie stated, "I can ride Buttons, help where needed."

Vivian took a small step forward to offer her help, but Rick shook his head at her. She narrowed her eyes at him, but kept her mouth shut.

"I'm in." Glenn said after a quiet conversation with Maggie,

Gabriel raised a finger, "I'd like to help as well."

"No." Rick shot him down, "Who else? We need more."

Gabriel wasn't a fighter, they all know that. But after what he said to Deanna before Aiden and Noah's death, Rick wanted nothing to do with the priest.

"I'm in." Finn stated from his spot next to Vivian,

"There's got to be another play." Carter spoke up again, "We can't just control that many."

"I said it before, walkers herd up." Rick explained, "They'll follow a path if something's drawing them. That's how we can get 'em all at once."

"So, what? We're supposed to just take your word for it?" Carter asked before glancing at the others, "We're all supposed to just fall in line behind you after..."

"After what?"

"After you wave a gun around screaming, pointing it at people. After you shoot a man in the face. After you-"

"Enough!" Deanna snapped, turning away from the window,

Others began to volunteer, even Nicholas. Vivian knew it was going to turn into a shit show by the look on Glenn's face,

"You sure you can handle it?" Rick asked him after glancing at Glenn for a moment, 

Nicholas nodded, "You need people."

"We'll make this work. We'll keep this place safe.Keep our families safe." Rick addressed the group, "We will."

"The plan." Carter stated, "Go through it again."

"Man, he just said it." Daryl snapped at him,

He ignored the hunter, "Every part again. The exact plan."

Rick went over it again, and the group dispersed. Those who volunteered stayed behind so they could go over the details, and what to do if shit went south.

Once the meeting was over, Vivian went up to Rick, fury in her eyes, "What, so Nicholas is good enough to help but not me? He got Noah killed, him and Glenn turned up covered in blood, but you trust him more-"

"I need you to stay back, keep this place safe." Rick stated, cutting her off, "Most of our fighters are gonna be out there dealing with this herd. Thanks to Daryl and Marcie, we know there's people out there, bad people. We're gonna leave this place vulnerable." He reasoned, "I need you to stay with the kids. Please."

The anger left her eyes and Vivian sighed, crossing her arms, "Is that the only reason?"

"I don't want you out there so soon after Aiden and Noah." He answered,

"I'm fine, Rick-"

"No, you're not. And that's okay. You're allowed to not be fine. But these people here, they can't protect themselves. This is where you're needed." He forced her to look up at him with a hand under her chin, "Okay?"

Vivian stared into his bright blue eyes for a moment, "Okay." She whispered,

He nodded, stepping back and walking out onto the porch, where Finn and others were waiting with a map of the area. Vivian watched the two for a moment before sneaking out the back door, not wanting to interrupt their meeting.

Rick glanced down at the map for a moment before pointing at an intersection, "Marshall and Redding. We force them west here."

"How?" Deanna asked,

"We block it off so they can only go one way, west, away from the community." He explained,

"Block it off with what?" Carter questioned him,

"Cars." Rick answered, "We'll use the RVs, some of the bigger trucks, park them end to end."

"We'll be drawing them away. They're gonna keep moving." Michonne added,

"Yeah, but that many? Just bouncing off some sedans?" Carter began to doubt the plan, and Marcie didn't blame him, "And then when they start slipping through and the ones that walk away start distracting the rest and you stop drawing them away?"

"Man's got a point." Heath commented,

Finn glanced over to Rick, "What about the plates? The big-ass metal ones from the construction site." Everyone stared at the Davis brother, "We can use them to fortify the whip wall. It'd help disperse the force of impact and direct the rotters clean. Like-like a pool table. Eight ball, corner pocket."

"That's an army out there." Carter stated, "And what happens when this doesn't hold? And they push on through. The curve in this hillside is gonna send them right back east. Right back here. You seriously want to risk that?" He pressed his finger aggressively into the map,

"No." Rick answered, "So you need to help us to make it hold."

"These walls, you built them." Morgan spoke up, trying to inspire them, "So you've already done the impossible."

"Carter. Please." Deanna begged,

They knew, the others in the community would be hard to convince to join them, to help them, unless Carter was in. He questioned everything, and doubted a lot of decisions.

It could lead to this community's downfall.