After all this time apart, it was weird being around Daryl again. What made it even more weird was that he acted as though no time has passed and nothing had happened between us. There was a lot that we missed in each other's lives when normally the other person was a part of most of it. But, I let this play out how it was right now. We were on a mission to find Eugene at the moment and he clearly didn't want to bring up the last time we saw each other.

"It's about a hundred and thirty, hundred and forty of them," Daryl came up behind Aaron, Jesus and I. We were crouched by a fallen tree looking at the herd Daryl just counted out.

Jesus turned to look at us, "you ever seen them do this before?"

Aaron shook his head, "no. Never."

I had a different answer, "I have, once. About a month ago when I went out to log herd movements that might get too close to Hilltop. It moved the same way as them, I don't think it's the same herd though."

I could feel all their eyes on me, they wanted more of an explanation, but I didn't really have one. I gave them all I knew about it, "it wasn't on track to Hilltop or any other communities, wasn't really anything I was concerned about."

"You never said anything to me about it," Jesus seemed a little confused as to why this was new news to him.

I rolled my eyes slightly with my subtle sassy reply, "told Theo 'bout it. Maybe if you took your position more seriously you would've known."

"Alright," Daryl cut off the side tracking I aimed at. "Rosita's trail goes right through 'em. We should get the horses, circle around, then we'll pick it up on foot."

"What about them?" Aaron flicked his head towards the distant herd in our view.

"What about 'em?" Daryl retorted.

"They're just milling around. That's not normal," Jesus was disturbed.

"No, no it ain't," Daryl panted out. "We should go. There's a storm comin'. Dog!"

The rest of us got up to follow Daryl and Dog. I kept looking back to herd, it felt like we were missing something about it. I remember the first time I came across the herd doing the same thing and it really freaked me out. There was an anxious feeling in my chest I couldn't shake and it was happening to me again right now. I hated not knowing what was going on with it.

—

"So... you've got a dog named Dog now?" I broke the silence between him and I as we walked together through a field. Aaron and Jesus were behind us, into their own conversation.

"Mhm," he hummed without looking over to me. "He's a good boy."

"Where'd you find him?" I was curious, but also just trying to get Daryl to talk to me without it being awkward. It was odd that I thought I remembered him so clearly, but now that he was here, I was a bit disappointed that my mind had let me down with that. I knew his face and his voice so well, so it was odd that he just looked and sounded a tiny bit different.

Daryl looked over to me, "he was out there in the woods." One thing that didn't change though, was his expressions. Subtle yet telling if you knew how to read them and I did. He wasn't telling me the whole story of Dog, but that was alright. Him and I were at a starting over point right now, rebuilding what we used to have. He didn't have to tell me everything and I wasn't gonna push for it.

I nodded slowly and changed the topic, "why'd you come to Hilltop? I saw that Carol and Henry showed up the same time as you."

"Henry wanted to learn to blacksmith I guess. Carol wanted someone to look out for him there cause she needed to head back to the Kingdom," Daryl answered. I looked down to my feet and smiled a bit, I knew what Carol was doing. I knew she was tired of him being out in the woods and not with family because she was tired of it four years ago. She saw a viable chance to get Daryl back with society and took it. Thank God for her.

"So you're Henry's babysitter?" I giggled a little bit as I teased Daryl.

He looked over to me and a grin tugged at his lips when he saw my face, "stop."

"It'll be good for Henry, Earl's a great teacher. He taught me everything I know about it," I revealed a piece of myself that Daryl's missed out on. I wanted to see if it got his attention on me, I wanted to know if he's still interested in me like he used to be.

"You back into blacksmithing?" Daryl was still interested. We were stopped now, Dog sitting by our feet. I went to answer his question but my ears picked up a speck of noise from the dead.

"You hear that?" I asked Daryl to make sure I wasn't going crazy. He started to look around and focused his ears.

"Yeah," he confirmed. Daryl then turned to the other two men. "The herd- it's comin' for us. The wind is carrying the sound."

I watched as he pulled a small alarm clock out of the side pocket of his backpack. He cranked the knob on it a few times before throwing it out into the field as far as he could. "Come on. Let's put some ground between us and them," he motioned for me to start walking in the opposite direction. "Forgot how damn good your hearing is."

—

We were still searching when nightfall came and I was starting to get more worried for Eugene. He's been out here on his own longer than I wished he was. The herd looked like it had grown earlier, more like two hundred walkers in it now. Luckily, that alarm clock did the trick of pulling them away from us.

I almost tripped over Dog as he circled around my legs a few times, but then he took off ahead of us. I started to run to catch up with him and I could hear the others following. We all came to a stop behind Dog, he was waiting at the entrance of some old, beaten down shelter listening for approval to move in.

"Go on, boy. Go find him," Daryl allowed Dog to jump up the steps. I followed Dog's body with my flashlight as I walked closely behind Daryl. Dog sniffed out a pile of pine needles and hay which made him start whining like he found something.

"Good dog," Daryl praised his pet as we all surrounded the area Dog pointed out.

Jesus felt around the pile with his foot, it hit something hollow and wooden, "here."

"Eugene?" I asked his name. "Are you in there?"

There was no answer for a few seconds, it got me worried that we didn't actually find him. Then we heard his shaken voice, "affirmative."

We all dropped to our knees and stared to brush the straw away. Once Daryl found the handle to the hatch, he pulled it open. I let out a long sigh seeing Eugene alive down there. He was terrified, pushed up in the corner with his blade raised just in case we were a threat.

"Hey," Aaron greeted him. When Eugene saw our face he struggled to get up to his feet, he must've been really hurt by the way he was grunting. He set his knife and some sort of cane on the surface as Daryl and Aaron went to help pull him out of the box he hid himself in.

Once he was sitting down against the wall on the same level we were on, I knelt down in front of him. He was gripping onto his right knee like it was the problem.

"Are you alright? Did you hurt your knee?" I asked quickly.

He nodded to me, "I took a bad step and dislocated it. There was a herd on our six and Rosita decided to stash me here."

"Well, if it's dislocated, we can just pop it back in," Daryl spoke.

"He's right, I know how to. Theo taught me-" I started.

Eugene cut me off though, "no. We have to get out of here. The herd that followed us here is on its way back."

"I saw their tracks, they're gone," Daryl tried to calm his fear down.

But Eugene rejected it with a shake to his voice, "no, it's not. It's already been through here twice. It's looking for me. We have to get away before it gets back." Eugene turned to look me dead in the eyes, he was clearly in distress about the herd. "This wasn't a normal herd. It's not like those we're used to dealing with."

"What do you mean?" Aaron asked before I could.

Eugene continued to explain it, "when- when they passed us by, we could hear them. They were... they were whispering to each other."

"You mean they were talking?" Aaron was trying to clarify what Eugene had said. I just got really damn confused, walkers didn't talk. Walkers groaned and bit.

"I- I know how it sounds," Eugene needed us to believe him. I did, even though this sounded impossible, but Eugene wouldn't lie about something like this. "But Rosita heard it too. She'll corroborate."

"We should get him back," Daryl was ready to keep moving even with this information. Plus Eugene needed to go to the infirmary as soon as possible.

"Yeah," Aaron agreed immediately. He began to help Eugene up to his feet, but then Dog started barking at something outside the open window. I stood up quickly and moved to stand next to Daryl. As we looked out, we could see the herd moving in towards us. This made no sense, the alarm Daryl set off should've made them move in the other direction.

"Shit, they're cutting us off," I was getting anxious.

"There's no way that's the same herd," Daryl said as he stared out. I scanned my eyes over the walkers I could see with the flashlight.

"It is the same one," I revealed. I learned years ago when I stared tracking herd patterns to make mental notes of a few walkers that would stand out in each cluster. That's how you knew for sure what exact heard you were dealing with. The herd we saw earlier had two walkers attached to each other, the were bound together by some vines. There was also another one wearing an old construction vest. I saw those walkers here too.

"No, no, no, no, no," Eugene was panicking as Aaron and Jesus got him up.

"We'll backtrack, go around 'em," Daryl laid out what we were gonna do from here.

"Old route twenty-eight isn't far," Jesus voiced. "It's the straightest shot back to the horses."

Daryl took Eugene's arm on one of his shoulders while Aaron took his other one. I pulled my machete out and began moving with them right behind Jesus who was leading the way.

We made it to the road, but not to our horses yet. The walkers were still on us but we had enough time to set Eugene down for a quick break. He was in so much pain, every step he took hurt him. Aaron and Daryl set him to lean against an old car parked at an intersection.

"It doesn't make any sense," Jesus was just as confused as the rest of us. "They shouldn't have doubled back like that and they definitely shouldn't have followed us to the barn."

"Hey," Daryl bumped my arm. "That herd you saw, they follow you too?"

"No," I shook my head. "I was camped out in the trees, they never saw me. They just kept going in circles in the same spot."

"I do have a theory to posit," Eugene managed to get words out through his panting. "The walkers are evolving."

"Oh, that's bullshit," Daryl shut down his theory right away.

"They're dead. They're not evolving," Jesus added on. I was interested though, I don't know how else this would be possible. We've never seen something like this before.

"Being dead's never stopped them from perambulating ad infinitum though, has it?" Eugene fought back with words I didn't care to process. "They're not dead in a sense that makes sense. It takes an impact to the cranium to stop them, which means the brain is alive, degraded as it may be. And if it's alive, it can change. Maybe even start remembering things too, like how to talk."

"What?" Daryl just stared between all of us at Eugene's explanation.

"It's not any crazier than the dead being alive in the first place," Jesus stated. "If they can learn to talk, maybe they can learn strategy and how to hunt."

Aaron came running back from the tree line, "they're right on out asses. We gotta get to the horses fast."

"You have to leave me behind. I'm slowing you down and tiring you out," Eugene was trying to make this easier for us to get out of. "Every time we stop the dead get closer."

"Eugene, shut up," I snapped at him. "We came here to get you, you're comin' home with us."

"You don't have a choice," Eugene spat back at me.

"Yes, we do," I was close to yelling. We don't leave people behind if we can help it. I wasn't going to bail on this mission. "The numbers are good, we'll split up. Aaron and Daryl can get you back to the horses. Jesus and I will wait for the herd to get here, then we'll pull them out in the other direction."

"No, no, no," Aaron interrupted but I kept explaining.

"We'll ditch 'em and meet you back at Hilltop," I concluded this idea.

"We're stronger together," Aaron wasn't about this plan.

"That doesn't help us," Jesus pressed into Aaron, he agreed with me. "Our only way out of this is to avoid a fight."

"No," Daryl whipped his head over to look at me. "If anyone stays, its gonna be me."

Jesus shook his head, but didn't fight it. I watched as him and Aaron got Eugene up yet again. "Go," Daryl waved at us. "Hell, I'll probably beat you back. Go!"

My feet turned and started running, but not with Jesus, Aaron and Eugene. I was following after Daryl. "Dog!" Daryl called out, that's when he saw me with him. "No, you go with them."

"It's my idea, I'm comin' with," I ignored his order. He couldn't fight me on this, there was no time to. I heard him grunt in response, but both of us just kept running down the road.