VIVIAN STOOD IN THE YARD, WIPING AWAY THE SWEAT AS SHE LEANED AGAINST THE RED TRUCK,

"Alright, let's get the other cars in." Rick ordered, "We'll park 'em in the west entry of the yard."

"Good." Daryl tossed the large chain they used to drag the bus out of the pathway, "Our vehicles camped out there look like a giant 'vacancy' sign."

"After that, we need to load up these corpses so we can burn them." Rick continued,

"It's gonna be a long day." T-Dog sighed,

"Where's Glenn and Maggie?" Carol asked, "We could use some help."

Vivian grinned. She saw the two sneak up into the tower last night, and they never came back down, "Up in the guard tower."

"Guard tower? They were just up there last night." Rick replied,

Everyone turned to the tower that was closest to the courtyard, "Glenn! Maggie!" Daryl called out to them,

Two heads popped up in the window and Vivian snickered, seeing how messy their hair was. Glenn stepped out, shirtless and buttoning up his pants, "Hey! What's up guys?"

"You comin'?" Daryl asked and everyone else joined in on the laughing,

"What?"

"You comin'?!" Daryl repeated and Glenn turned to Maggie to say something before they both turned to the group on the ground, "Come on, we could use a hand!"

"Yeah, we'll be right down!" Glenn called out,

They all began walking towards the cars again, "Ah, young love." Vivian joked and Carol nudged her slightly,

"Hey Rick." T-Dog stated and they stopped to turn to him.

T-Dog was looking up at the courtyard and the group followed his gaze. Everyone's smiles fell when they spotted the two surviving prisoners.

"Come with me." Rick ordered as he walked up the path to meet them. Vivian put her hand on her gun as they approached, "That's close enough." Rick stated, "We had an agreement."

"Please, mister. We know that, we made a deal." The white one with the moustache stated as Glenn and Maggie stepped out of the guard tower from behind them.

They were surrounded. No way out if things when south.

"But you gotta understand..." He looked over at his fellow prisoner, "we can't live in that place another minute, you follow me? All the bodies, people we knew. Blood, brains everywhere. There's ghosts!"

"Why don't you move the bodies out?" Daryl asked them,

"You should be burning them." T-Dog added,

"We tried! We did!"

"The fence is down on the far side of the prison." Oscar stated, "Every time we drag a body out, those things just line up. Dropping the body and just running back inside."

Axel approached a little closer, "Look! We had nothing to do with Thomas and Andrew, nothing! You trying to prove a point? You proved it, bro. We'll do whatever it takes to be a part of your group, just, please, please, don't make us live in that place."

"Our deal is not negotiable." Rick stated clearly, "You either live in your cell block, or you leave."

Oscar turned to Axel, "I told you this was a waste of time. They ain't no different than the pricks who shot up our boys. You know how many friends' corpses we had to drag out this week? Just threw 'em out like... Those were good guys!"

Vivian fought the urge to scoff as she crossed her arms over her chest, "Good guys who had our backs against the really bad dudes in the joint like Thomas and Andrew. Now, we've all made mistakes to get in here, chief, and I'm not gonna pretend to be a saint, but believe me... we paid our due. Enough that we would rather hit that road, than to go back into that shithole."

Rick turned to look at Vivian and Daryl. Daryl shook his head while Vivian nodded, giving Rick mixed signals.

And with that, the men grabbed the prisoners and brought them to the entrance, closing the gate in their face and locking it, "Come on, dude!"

The others were gathered by the bus, discussing what they were going to do.

It felt like the Randall situation all over again.

"Are you serious? You want them living in a cell next to you?" Rick asked T-Dog, who was sticking up for the men, "They'll just be waiting for a chance to grab our weapons, you want to go back to sleeping with one eye open?"

"I never stopped." T-Dog responded, "Bring them into the fold. If we send them off packing, we might as well execute them ourselves."

"I don't know, Axel seems a little unstable." Glenn reasoned,

"After all we've been through? We fought so hard for all this, what if they decide to take it?" Carol asked,

Vivian thought back to Dale, and what he would do. Rick had already weeded through their group, took out the bad ones. What if they kept Axel and Oscar around? They could always use the extra hands.

"There's only two of them, we easily outnumber them." Vivian stated, "At night, we could lock their cells. Just... don't leave them alone with the kids until we can all trust them."

"And how long are we gonna do that for before they slit our throats while we sleep?" Rick asked her,

"There you go, assuming the bad in people again." Vivian retaliated,

"They're prisoners, Viv." He stepped closer to her, "They can't be trusted."

"So? Where I come from, everyone's a criminal. I know plenty of felons, and most of them are good people who made bad mistakes." She argued, staring up into his eyes,

For Dale's sake... she needed to fight for him and those two men.

"It's just been us for so long..." Maggie spoke up, "They're strangers. I don't... it feels weird all of a sudden to have these other people around."

"You brought us in." T-Dog defended.

"Yeah, but you turned up with a shot boy in your arms, didn't give us a choice." She replied,

"They can't even kill walkers." Glenn hissed,

"They're convicts, bottom line." Carol stated,

Vivian scoffed, "They're convicts, that's your argument? We've met plenty of bad people who weren't convicts who tried to kill us."

T-Dog nodded, "Those two might actually have less blood on their hands than we do."

"They could be in here for unpaid parking tickets for all we know." Vivian added,

"I get guys like this." Daryl spoke up, "Hell, I grew up with 'em. They're degenerates, but they ain't psychos. I could have been with 'em just as easy as 'm out here with you guys."

Vivian raised her hand, "Same here."

Her father was in and out of jail, her brothers have records. She's gotten in trouble with the law before, but never ended up in prison.

"So you with me?" T-Dog asked the hunter,

"Hell nah!" He scoffed, "Let 'em take their chances out on the road, just like we did."

"What I'm saying, Daryl-"

Rick interrupted him, "When I was a rookie, I arrested this kid. Nineteen years old, wanted for stabbing his girlfriend. The kid blubbered like a baby during the interrogation, during the trial, suckered the jury. He was acquitted due to insufficient evidence, and two weeks later shot another girl." He moved his gaze between Vivian and T-Dog, knowing those two were the ones who needed to be convinced, "We've been through too much. Our deal with them stands."

The group walked away and Vivian turned to T-Dog, "We tried."

He nodded, holding a hand out to her and she wrapped her fingers around his, "We tried."

The group continued on with their day. Vivian went up to the prison a few times to check on Liam before continuing to help the others in the yard.

"Move the cars to the upper yard. Point them facing out." Rick tossed his keys to Glenn after the piled all the corpses into a pile in the field, "They'll be out of the way but ready to go if we ever need to bail." Rick turned to T-Dog and Vivian, "We'll give the prisoners a week's worth of supplies for the road."

"Won't need supplies if they get eaten the moment they walk out of the gate." Vivian grumbled,

"Their choice."

"Their choice or yours?" Vivian snapped at him,

Rick grabbed her arm and pulled her off to the side, "Hey!" He placed his hand on her chin and forced her to look up at him, "Hey, whose blood would you rather have on your hands? Liam's, Carl's, or theirs?"

Vivian forced his wrist away from her, "I was doing this for Dale. Remember him? He always tried to see the good in people and I'm trying to teach my kid the same thing." Tears filled her eyes, "I come from a family of convicts, and I would trust them with my life out here. I would trust them with Liam's life."

"Viv-"

"Are you just never going to let anyone in again? Send people out to die? They won't make it out there, Rick. You know it, we all know it." She told him,

"I trusted Shane with my life, and he killed Marcie and tried to kill me. He suckered all of us just like that kid suckered the jury. I'm not making this mistake again, Vivian." He stated before walking off,