𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐒
i'm drowning, and you're standing three feet away screaming, learn how to swim

"I know this sounds insane, but this is an insane world. We have to come for them before they come for us. It's that simple," Rick called out, his back facing the pool of walker's below him, everyone else's eyes on them all. "This is where it all starts tomorrow. Tobin gets in the truck, opens the exit and we're off. He hops out, catches up with his team at red staying on the west side of the road. Daryl gets on his bike—" 

"You see that?" Michonne gasped and pointed forward at the break in the trucks. "It's open!" 

Everyone turned and watched as a semi began to fall off the side of the pathway, allowing Walker's to stumble through and have an opening right for Alexandria. 

"We got to do this now!" Rick yelled and everyone began to back up.

Octavia grabbed her rifle that hung around her shoulder and quickly cocked it and aimed for the walker's shoving through the trucks right in front of them. "Tobin's group, get moving, go!" 

"No, we're not ready!" Carter yelled, shaking his head and hating the entire idea at play. 

"Sasha!" Rick moved off of him and yelled to the others. "Abraham!" 

"Damn straight, we'll do it live." Abraham nodded, jogging with Sasha in the direction of the needed car. 

"You meet Daryl at red!" Rick yelled after them. "Let him take them through the gauntlet." 

"Yeah, we meet at red." Sasha nodded, already knowing the plan and moving her ass quicker. 

Rushing up beside Octavia, Daryl, and Michonne who were all watching for the walker's to break through. Swords, guns, machete, and bow ready to fire when he nodded to their leader. "Rick, I'll hit the tractor place." 

"Okay, who else?" Rick called and looked around at the faces. "We got to take them out or they'll distract the herd." 

Taking a step forwards, Octavia shouted out, "I got your back!"

"This was supposed to be a dry run!" Carter yelled at them, more than terrified.

"This is no time to be scared!" Octavia shouted, her eyes were glued on the walker's skinning themselves to pieces trying to shove through the crack of trucks.

Octavia then watched as Daryl's arrow flew and hit the walker that got through. She turned to him and grabbed his face, her dirty hand pressed against his cheek. "Be careful."

"You, too." He leaned forward and pressed a kiss against her lips before Octavia pulled back.

"We haven't even gone through the whole plan!" Carter yelled, shifting in his spot.

"You want to go back, go back. We're finishing this!" Octavia yelled at him. "Tobin, you hit it on my signal. They're heading for home. We don't have a choice!"

They all ran back a little, getting in a defensive mode. I held a two machetes in my hands, a chain on my belt loop just in case I wanted to be like the ghost rider. "Get ready to hit the flares." I raised my hands in the aid. "Now!" The flared were then released into the sky.

"Tobin, hit the truck." He moved the truck, letting the walkers out. As one moved forward, Daryl shot it on the head with his crossbow.

DARYL sat outside in the heat, in silence just focusing on his bike and just kept his mind silent the best that he could. He couldn't believe Noah was gone; he had hated that he hadn't been there for Octavia when she needed him and he didn't know how to make things seem okay again.

Octavia had stepped down off the porch stairs and walked a few steps over to Daryl with a glass of ice water in her hands. "Here," she said grabbing his attention. "Drink something."

He turned around and grabbed the glass from her, taking a large gulp and then rubbed his hand across his wet lips. "Thank you," He told her, setting the cup down on the curb next to him while he turned back to the bike.

"You okay?" She asked him, lowering herself down beside him. Her feet rested on the street in front of them while her hand gently ran across his back in comfort.

"I'm sorry." He sighed, looking down at his black hands. "I'm sorry that I wasn't—"

"Hey, no." She stopped him and moved closer, this time making him look at her. "Noah is dead," she choked out. "But, it doesn't matter now because he paid the price."

Daryl nodded his head softly before leaning forward and placing his lips gently against her own.

TAKING one last look around, Octavia was surprised at how quickly their group had cleared out and how fast the plan was already being set in motion.

Then, turning her back on the others, She sprinted up the hill after Morgan and Michonne who had been waiting for them.

She still couldn't believe this was happening. Couldn't things just go right for once? The plan had been going so well; everyone was just beginning to understand their parts but now who knows if anyone will remember in this sort of chaos?

Pumping her arms at her sides, Octavia pushed herself faster and listened to the gravel crunch under her feet. She could already feel the sweat beginning to slip down her body and grimaced as they finally met up with Morgan and Michonne. 

"C'mon," Michonne called. "We've gotta reach yellow before the herd does." 

Taking a deep breath, Rick took the lead, and they began running again.

Switching her gun for the CB radio dangling from pants pocket, Octavia clicked a small button and held the device up to her mouth. "Daryl, do you copy?"

She waited, already fearing for the worst when all she could hear was static, but after a few seconds, a voice sounded through, "I'm here," Daryl answered. "Herd's in pursuit." 

Octavia sighed in relief, just thankful to hear his voice. "All right, we're heading to yellow," she announced. "Stay safe." 

"You, too," he replied before his voice cut off. 

Returning the CB to het pocket, Octavia turned her full attention towards running and making sure that they made it to the makeshift wall before Daryl did.

Breaking off from the gravel road, they moved into the trees and struggled to avoid tripping over tree roots and bushes as they went. 

They had been running for a good ten minutes when they finally broke out of the trees and came onto a familiar highway. Turning her head to the right, she sighed in relief when they could see the large makeshift wall not that far from them.

Rick pulled out his own CB and clicked it. "Glenn, you there yet?" He asked. 

A moment later there was a reply, "Almost," Glenn answered. "We'll have it handled before they get here and we'll meet you at yellow." 

"Copy that," Rick said. 

They approached the wall and pressed up against it were several vehicles as extra leverage to make sure that it withstood the strength of the herd. Amongst those vehicles was a large RV and at the top of it rested a small bundle of yellow balloons.

They had reached their destination. 

Morgan eyed the wall carefully. "Do you think—" 

"It'll hold," Rick interrupted with a nod of his head. 

It was silent for a moment, each of them considering what could go wrong if the wall collapsed.

Then, Morgan cleared his throat. "Michonne," he addressed slowly, turning towards the woman. "Back when you were in that place... where I lived... did you take one of my protein bars?"

The woman in question faked a smile and shook her head innocently. "No," She lied.

"Well, you see," Morgan continued. "I could have sworn there was one more peanut butter left."

Michonne grinned. "That's how it is, isn't it?" She sighed. "You always think there's one more peanut butter left."

Suddenly, they began to hear a motorcycle engine roaring followed by the familiar snarls of walkers, hundreds and hundreds of walkers.

"HMM," Octavia hummed, nuzzling into Daryl's side, waking up from a nice slumber. Daryl chuckled which made his body vibrate. "Stop vibrating," she mumbled into his chest, her hand running up his chest.

"I never thought i'd see my sister in this predicament." Octavia sat up to see Dean at her doorway, a disgust look on his face.

"Go away, Dean!" She yelled, throwing a pillow at him, hitting him right in the chest which made Daryl chuckle even more.

"Okay, okay, gosh, i'll be going now!" Dean raised his hands up in the air. "Oh, before I forget, Charlie wants to have some girl time."

"Dean!" She yelled at him, her face flushed in embarrassment.

"Okay, okay." He left and she laid her head back down on Daryl's chest.

"I hate my brother," Octavia grumbled.

"No you don't." He kissed her head. "Now get ready and go before Charlie shows up here."

OCTAVIA pressed her lips together in a firm line and nodded her head slowly before reaching for the flare gun in her waistband. Everyone else then proceeded to do the same and she looked to Rick for further instruction who merely nodded.

"Go!" He yelled. 

Octavia pointed the flare gun towards the sky and without hesitation, pulled the trigger and flinched at the noise it made as it shot from the barrel.

The whole point of the flares was to keep the herd moving in one direction and try to distract them from the wall itself, but by the rattling and creaking of metal, she knew that their diversion probably wasn't going to help. 

Stuffing the small orange gun back into my waistband, I approached the wall nervously and watched through a crack in the metal as the walkers slammed against the wall before bouncing back to return on their regular course.

Octavia sighed and turned to Rick. "We have to keep moving if we're going to make it," she told him. "You ready?" 

Rick nodded. "Let's go." He started off towards the trees and Octavia was quick to follow. She was determined to finish this second half of the plan.

Octavia moved swiftly through the trees at the very edge of the forest and glanced to her left to see the herd traveling alongside her, only a few feet away.

They had long abandoned the wall to now initiate the final part of the plan which was to trail alongside the herd and make sure there were no stragglers.

Looking through the herd, she could see on the opposite side of the road that Tobin's group was moving through the trees, examining the herd and that gave her relief.

Suddenly, Rick let out a low whistle and Octavia glanced to her right to see Glenn and his small group emerging from the trees behind them.

A small smile grew on Octavia's lips at her friend's appearance.

Rick gathered everyone around so he could speak.

With Glenn on one side and Michonne on the other, Octavia crossed her arms tightly over her chest.

Moments later, another figure came forward and it was Carter who held a hand out to Rick, saying, "It's working. You were right."

Rick shook his hand and then stepped away from the man to face everyone. "We need to finish this," he ordered. "We have to keep moving and fan out the herd, front to back. Glenn, you take the back — You still got that walkie?"

Glenn held it up, "Got it," he informed.

"All right, if the herd gets sloppy, we fire our weapons and pull them back on track," Rick explained.

"I'll hit the front," Carter announced and he and Glenn split off to go to their designated places. Rick shortly followed, and Octavia followed after Michonne.

Octavia's gaze barely left the herd. She could no longer hear the motorcycle engine over the loud herd, but she had to believe that everything was going according to plan.

They continued wandering through the trees when Octavia noticed one single walker drifting off from the herd. Instead of firing her gun — like an idiot would do — she pulled out her dagger and approached the walker. She drove the dagger through it's skull before pulling back, allowing the walker to slump to the ground.

She grinned and was about to follow Michonne when suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream was heard, causing Octavia to stop in my tracks.

Whipping her head around in alarm, Octavia realized that sound was coming from up ahead and she could only assume that one of the Alexandrians had been attacked.

Glancing to her left, she could see the walkers beginning to drift off the roads and towards the screaming.

She pulled the CB to her lips, "Rick, they're moving off the road!" She announced frantically.

"I know," he replied. "I'm trying to get Tobin to do something about it."

A moment later, gunshots began to ring out from the other side of the road and despite the screams, the shots were more distracting to the walkers.

Octavia watched as the stragglers moved back towards the road, but instead of moving towards the shots, the stream of other walkers around them kept them all moving forward.

Octavia quickly made her way to the screaming only to see that it was Carter with a gnarly bite on his cheek that was obviously from a walker.

"Carter, be quite," Octavia hissed out as she saw some walkers making their way towards them. "Shut up!" She tried keeping her hand on his mouth, but there was so much blood that her hand kept slipping. "You gotta be quite." He just kept screaming, so she knew what she had to do.

She took out a dagger from her boot and stabbed him in the head, and watched as the life drained from his eyes.

Looking up, she was Met by Rick and Morgan. She sighed and stood up. "He wouldn't of survived anyway, he was bit."

Rick nodded at her before grabbing his CB. "Nice work, Tobin," he praised, stepping over the bodies at his feet. "They're back on the road."

"Copy that," Tobin replied. "What was that screaming?"

"That was Carter," Rick explained. "He got bit right in the face. Octavia stopped him."

"Damn."

Rick didn't respond to that, and instead, turned to the group who had yet to speak. His eyes then landed on Morgan and he cleared his throat. "Okay, we have a good hour until this herd reaches the green balloons when we hand them off to Daryl, Sasha and Abraham," he informed. "Why don't you head back and tell everyone what's happening? They should know." 

Morgan nodded. "Okay, Rick, I just—" 

"Will you do that for me?" Rick interrupted, getting right in his face. 

Without another word of confirmation, Rick stormed off to deal with straggler walkers that were wandering throughout the trees. Morgan then reluctantly set off into the trees in search of Alexandria which left Michonne and Octavia alone.

Octavia then set off again with her hand resting on the gun at her waist. She continuously allowed her eyes to flicker towards the walkers on the road at her left.

Suddenly, Rick joined her, and they began to walk together.

They continued walking in silence for a few moments longer before an ear-piercing wail stopped them in their tracks.

"Son of a bitch!" Octavia exclaimed. "What the hell is that?!"

The horn continued to bellow and echo off the trees like it was never going to stop.

Michonne came sprinting through the trees towards them with her eyes wide in terror, "What's going on?" She hissed. 

"It's a horn!" Glenn exclaimed, appearing alongside Heath and several others a moment later. "Oh, shit! It's pulling the back half of the herd off the road!" 

Turning their attention towards the road, Glenn couldn't have been more right. As the horn continued to pierce the sky, they watched as more than half of the herd drift off the road and come right towards them, arms up and teeth chomping. 

Octavia gulped but pulled out her machete.

Michonne held her sword high, but her attention was still on the distracting sound, "Whatever that is, it's far," she informed.  "It sounds like it's coming from—" 

"Home."