VIVIAN FOLLOWED AFTER RICK THROUGH THE TREES,

They came across a rabbit or squirrel every once in a while, and Rick stuffed it in a bag before resetting the trap.

"Just give him time." Rick stated, "He'll forgive you."

"I don't blame him." Vivian sighed as she stepped over a log, "I shouldn't have said those things to him. I just... god, watching him shoot that kid, killing him. He's still a kid himself." She paused and looked over at Rick, "Once you have that first kill... there's no going back."

Vivian had yet to kill a living person, she's not sure she could do it. In the heat of the moment, if it was kill or be killed, she was confident she could pull the trigger.

But staring the person down, watching the life leave their eyes... jut like Carl did... she's not sure if she could do it.

Rick paused and reached a hand out to her to make her stop as well. Vivian followed his gaze, staring down at a dead wild hog that laid yards away, flies surrounding it.

Movement caught their eye to the right, and Rick grabbed Vivian's arm to pull her behind a tree. Her back was pressed against the bark as Rick stepped close to her front, trying to conceal them.

She felt his breath against her cheek and her heart beat skyrocketed. He was standing so close, and her first instinct was to fist the fabric that bunched at his waistband.

Vivian kept her eyes on his chest, now embarrassed. Rick stared down at her for a moment before peeking out past the tree.

At first glance, it seemed to be a walker heading towards the hog. As it kneeled down beside the rotting animal, Rick reached down to remove Vivian's hands from his shirt before they began to step away quietly.

But the 'walker' caught the movement.

"Wait."

The two paused and made eye contact with each other. It was a living, breathing person.

"Please."

She was foreign, and she sounded desperate. Vivian knew she couldn't resist and turned to look back at the woman who was staring at them with her wide blue eyes.

The apocalypse hadn't been kind to the woman. She was skinny, and her skin was covered in dirt. Her hair hadn't been washed in a long time.

"Please?" The woman begged, her hand raised towards them, "Please, help me." The two shared a look and waited for her to continue, "I know you don't know me. Okay, I know that. But can you please help me get this to my husband?" She motioned to the pig, "We haven't eaten in days."

Rick took a few steps forward and Vivian stayed back in case the woman decided to attack.

You could never be too careful anymore.

He reached into his bag and held out a sandwich wrapped in tin foil that Carol had made the two of them, "Here. Go ahead."

The woman stepped forward to meet him and took the food, "Thank you." She looked like she was about to cry, like it had been a long time since anyone had shown her any kindness, "Do you have a camp around here?"

Rick hesitated for a moment before nodding, "Yeah."

"Could we possibly come back with you? We've been doing... very badly on our own." The woman asked,

The sheriff looked back at Vivian, since she was head of the council, and she stepped up next to him, "We'd have to meet him. Need to ask him some questions, both of you."

"What questions?"

"Just three." Vivian answered, placing a hand on her holster, "When we get there." She nodded towards the woman, "You have a gun on you?" The woman shook her head, "Can I make sure?"

When she nodded, Vivian stepped forward and began to pat her down, checking her sides and ankles, finding a knife in the woman's waistband.

Vivian took it out and handed it to Rick while she checked the rest of her. Once she was clear, she stepped around the woman to make eye contact with her, "Look, I don't know you, so I'm just gonna tell you this. You try anything, and I mean anything... you're gonna be the one who loses."

"I don't have anything else to lose." The woman told her,

"No," Vivian moved her gaze up and down the woman's body, examining her frail form, "You do."

She couldn't risk anything happening to her and Rick. There was too many people depending on them.

Rick stepped forward and held the knife back to its' owner, "Go ahead." He urged her,

The woman began to walk back towards her camp and Rick glanced over at Vivian, "Was that necessary?"

She locked eyes with him, "Yes."

They followed after the woman, who introduced herself as Clara, and Vivian kept her hand on her gun.

There was always the possibility that Clara was leading them to a large group, ambushing them.

Or she truly was out there alone, only with her husband, struggling to survive.

"We were going to Puerto Vallarta for our honeymoon." Clara recounted as they trekked through the woods, "When they shut down the airports, our connecting flight never connected. They wouldn't let us leave the terminal, so... we slept next to these huge marble sculptures from Zimbabwe. Then, on the fourth night, the things just came through. There were a lot of us and..." She paused and glanced over at the duo, "now it's just Eddie and me. And I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for him. And it isn't that... he saved me over and over again or that he showed me the things that I had to do or... to be willing to do. If he wasn't still here... I-I couldn't be. I just- I couldn't.

They watched her as she began walking and Vivian spoke up, "What were they?",

Clara looked back at her, "What?"

"The things you had to be willing to do?" Vivian repeated,

"Um..." Clara hesitated, "eating whatever we could find-- animal carcasses and rotten fruit-- and... leaving people behind." Her face scrunched up in sadness, "Hiding from people who needed my help. Unlike the both of you."

"This is not charity." Rick spoke as they began to walk again, "You have to have numbers. People are the best defense against walkers or people. We help each other."

"You call them 'walkers'?"

Vivian shrugged, "They kinda just... walk around."

Clara glanced at her, "Not all of them."

The woman had gotten more quiet as they got closer. Vivian still wasn't comfortable, on high alert, while Rick was trying to keep things calm,

"I saw those sculptures at the airport once. My favorite was the kids playing leapfrog." He commented,

"Mine, too." Clara licked her lips, "What Eddie and I had to do, did you do things like that?"

Rick and Vivian shared a look. Everyone had done those things, leaving people behind, like Merle on the roof, or Marcie and Andrea at the farm.

Rick shooting his best friend.

Vivian cutting Lori open.

"Did you?" Neither of them gave a verbal answer, but it was still an answer, "Do you think you get to come back from them?"

"I hope so." Rick responded,

"Yeah? I hope we answer your three questions to your satisfaction." Clara replied,

They exited the trees, entering a field surrounded by tall grass. Clara walked ahead of them, "It's just ahead."

Vivian spotted a bright orange tent hidden by the grass and Clara called out her husband's name, "Eddie. Oh, thank God you're still here."

Viv paused, not seeing another person at the campsite. Was... was Clara seeing things? Like how Rick was right after Lori died.

Clara kneeled down by a box, "This is Rick and Vivian. They're gonna help us. Everything's gonna be okay."

Vivian stepped forward to glance into the open tent. There was two sleeping bags, but only one looks slept in.

Clara charged at them, taking out her knife. She let out a scream and Rick quickly pushed Vivian to the side and he dodged the foreign woman,

She fell to the ground and Vivian quickly regained her footing, taking out her gun and aiming it at Clara, "Damn it!"

She knew she couldn't trust the woman, that something was off. And if Rick had been out here, without his gun, with his guard down... who knows what would've happened.

"I wanted to take the boar." Clara sobbed, "I just knew- I knew I'd get you here so much quicker. He's starving." She motioned towards a burlap sack that sat by a pile of other junk that she was sitting by only moments ago, "He's slowing. He needs something alive." She raised up onto her knees and Vivian clicked the safety off,

She mentally begged Clara not to make her pull the trigger. Not when the woman looked this pathetic.

"Please, I told you, I can't be without him. And so I kept him. It was wrong. I can't do things like this. And- and you have to do things like this. Let me be like him." Clara begged, looking up at Vivian, "Don't stop it. Don't end it after."

Tears filled Vivian's eyes. She knew what Clara wanted her to do.

"No." Vivian whispered,

Clara raised her knife again, but this time her blade aimed towards her own abdomen, "Let me be with him."

Rick pulled Vivian away once more as Clara pierced herself with her own blade, "No!"

She stared at the blood that was now leaking out of the wound, staining the ground below her. Why did it Clara take so long to end it all? Why now? Why have an audience?

And why did it have to be Vivian?

The brunette lowered her gun, putting it back into the holster before pushing Rick away, kneeling beside the woman who had now collapsed onto the ground, struggling for breath,

Rick stood behind them, watching. He was frozen, unsure of what he should do.

But Vivian always seemed like she knew. Every move she made was always the right one.

She stroked the woman's hair, trying to giver her comfort in her last moments, "What were... the questions?" Clara gasped, "The three questions?"

"How many walkers have you killed?" Vivian asked gently,

"Eddie-Eddie killed-killed them all." Clara struggled to answer as the blood loss increased, "Until..."

"How many people have you killed?" Viv continued,

"Just me." Clara whispered, "Just me."

Then came the question that both of the duo needed to know..., 

"Why?"

"You don't- you don't get to come back. You don't get to come back from things." Her voice and breaths seemed to fade, "You don't..."

She became silent, and her body stilled.

Vivian removed her hand, but continued to kneel beside the now dead woman. Rick grabbed the sleeping back from inside the tent and laid it over Clara's body,

"We need to go." Rick mumbled, placing his hand on Vivian's shoulder.

She quickly stood, pushing his hand away before speed walking back towards the prison.