season one, episode five.
"wildfire"

007. my family, they're alive.

LYDIA HAVEN sits in a field with rick grimes the next morning with a walkie talkie in hand. they are trying to reach morgan again, the both of them looking over the dead city. "morgan," rick begins, "i don't know if you're out there...i don't know if you wanna hear us. maybe you're listening right now. i hope so."

lydia listens with a light smile, adjusting eden in her lap. "we found others. my family, they're alive, if you can believe it...lydia's here, with eden." he says as lydia muttered a hi.

"i wanted you to know that...i found them." rick says slowly as lydia listens. the both of them have no idea the true meaning to those words, and they still wouldn't until much later on in the apocalypse.

"there's something else you need to know. atlanta isn't what we thought. it's not what they promised. the city is...do not enter the city. it belongs to the dead now." rick says firmly as lydia sighs, hoping that morgan and his son will make it.

"we're camped a few miles northwest up by a big abandoned rock quarry. you can see it on a map. i hope you come find us. but be careful. last night walkers came outta the woods. we lost people...watch yourself, morgan. take care of your boy. i'll try you again tomorrow at dawn." rick says before turning off the walkie.

lydia looks over at him, a reassuring smile on her face. "cmon, let's find the others." rick nods at her and the two of them walk back to camp.

andrea is still sat by amy, and hasn't moved all night. everyone is sat around the camp, their head in their hands as they stay silent, apart from lori trying to convince andrea to let amy go.

daryl decides to break the silence and slam his pickaxe into every walkers head he saw. "do you mind?" lydia raises a brow when a bit of blood splatters on her worn down converse.

"nah." daryl replies and smashes the walkers head in as the blonde rolls her eyes at him, watching as he and t-dog chuck the walker bodies into the fire.

"she still won't move?" rick asks quietly as he came and sat down next to lydia, both of them ignoring the look lori gives them.

"no. lori tried talking to her...she didn't reply." she says quietly as rick sighs, "i'll try, but i don't want eden near... amy." she speaks again as rick nodded, and smiles at eden expectantly as lydia chuckles.

"you want her for a little bit?" she asks as rick nods and lydia smiles, handing eden to rick who grins. "her bottles in the bag. i haven't started to feed her solid food yet." she says as she took of the backpack for what was probably the first time since the outbreak.

rick nods gently, and looks after eden whilst lydia heads over to andrea. "hey. i came to pay my respects." she says quietly as andrea doesn't reply.

"i know this is hard. i lost my mama and dad when this whole thing started. it was awful. i still miss them everyday. but it gets easier, i promise. and we are all gonna be here for you." she explains quietly as a tear rolls down andrea's cheek.

"thank you." the woman whispers, her voice breaking. "it's amy's birthday." she days quietly as lydia feels awful, sighing.

"i'm sorry. why don't you give her the necklace you got at the store. put it on her so she can have it when the others take care of her?" she says with sympathy as andrea sighs.

they faintly hear daryl complaining about amy as lydia winces, knowing it was making it worse for andrea to hear it.

"i'll leave you to think, okay? i'm here for you." lydia says, patting her shoulder before getting up to see the others.

"the dead girl is a time bomb." daryl whisper yells in annoyance.

"what do you suggest?" rick asks with a sigh, gently rocking eden who is looking up at him curiously.

"take the shot." daryl says firmly as lydia rolls her eyes. "clean in the brain from here! hell, i can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance." lydia blinks. kinda impressive.

"what do you want, a medal?" lydia replies as daryl flips her off making her grin sarcastically.

"no, for god sake. let andrea be." lori interrupts before sitting down. the men shares a look before shrugging in agreement, daryl scoffs and walks away. 

"wake up, jimbo. we've got some work to do." daryl says as he walks away.

"hey, what you guys doing?" glenn suddenly panics as daryl and morales drag one of the dead people from camp to the fire. "this is for geeks! our people go over there!" glenn points loudly, tears brimming in his eyes.

daryl rolls his eyes. "what's the difference? they're all infected." he said carelessly.

"our people go in that row over there." glenn says firmly this time. "we don't burn them!" he yells, "we bury them. understand?"

lydia smiles at the boy as daryl and morales nod apologetically and drag the body to the correct row. the blonde looks over at rick and her daughter, he seems to be covering her eyes and then dramatically pulling them away to entertain her as lydia smiles.

"she on solid foods yet?" shane asks, holding up a piece of leftover fish and waving it in lydia's face.

lydia grimaces, "i'll stick to the bottles if that's the food option for her." she replies making shane laugh lightly.

"you reap what you sow!" daryl exclaims to glenn from his last comment, "y'all left my brother for dead! you had this coming!" he yells as everyone sighs, watching him walk away.

"—then show me!" jacqui suddenly yells at jim as they all glance over. we cannot catch a break. lydia thinks to herself.

jim whispers something to her as jacqui gasps, turning to look at the group, "a walker got him! a walker bit jim!" she yell as everyone crowds around them in shock.

"i'm okay." jim whispers in a panic, not wanting anything bad to happen to him.

"show it to us!" daryl remarks. "show it!"

jim picks up a shovel and aims it at them when they call out for him to calm down. "easy jim!" shane exclaims, whilst daryl just yells, "grab him!"

"put it down!" they exclaim as t-dog grabs a hold of jim and daryl jogs over to pull up his shirt and they all saw a nasty bite. gasps filled the campsite as jim had tears in his eyes. "oh, my god..." lydia mumbles, it was huge.

"i'm okay. i'm okay, i'm okay." jim whispers, his voice cracking.

jim goes and sits by the rv as the rest of the group discusses what to do. "i say we put a pickaxe in his head, and the dead girl's and be done with it."  daryl says honestly as shane looks up.

"is that what you'd want if it were you?" shane asks as lydia thinks yes to herself.

"yeah, and i'd thank you while you did it." daryl replies with a scoff.

"daryl's right." lydia speaks up as daryl glances at her curiously, wondering what she will say, "i'd want the same, yes, it's brutal, and upsetting but it's quick. they wouldn't even know it. no more pain." she finishes as daryl nods.

"jim isn't a monster, lydia." rick replies as lydia rolls her eyes. "i didn't say that—"

"he's sick man. we start down that road, where do we draw the line?" rick says in annoyance.

"don't raise your voice at me while you're holding my child. i'm just saying it will take the pain away from them." lydia replies calmly as rick sighs and mutters an apology.

"the lines pretty clear, zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be." daryl replies.

"what if we can get him help?" rick suggests desperately. "lydia and i heard the cdc was working on a cure."

"i heard that too. heard a lot of things before the world went to hell." shane speaks up as rick shakes his head. "what if the cdc is still up and running?"

"man, that is a stretch right there." shane scoffs as rick raises a brow.

"why? if there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the cdc at all costs, wouldn't they? i think it's out best shot. shelter, protection..." rick lists.

"okay, rick, you want those things, all right? i do too, okay? now if they exist they're at the army base. for benning." shane tells them all as lori frowns.

"that's a hundred miles in the opposite direction." she cuts in.

"that is right. but it's away from the hot zone." shane continues, "listen to me, if that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed, we'd be safe there."

"the military were on the front lines of this thing. they got overrun weve all seen that!" rick argues, "the cdc is our best choice and jim's only chance."

"you go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" daryl yells as he runs towards jim with the pickaxe. rick acts quick, he gently but quickly hands eden to lydia and runs at daryl with a gun.

"we don't kill the living." rick says firmly.

daryl turns around to slowly face him. "that's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head."

"we may disagree on some things, not on this. you put it down. go on." shane replies as daryl rolls his eyes and shoves the pickaxe into the floor as rick also lowers his gun.

"come with me." rick says to jim, pulling him up.

"where are you taking me?" jim asks in confusion.

"somewhere safe." rick replies gently.

LYDIA WATCHES with a small frown as she notices carol hesitantly walk over to daryl who was about to finish ed's walker body off. carol has tears in her eyes and shakey hands as she reaches out for the pickaxe.

"i'll do it. he's my husband." she says softly as lydia looks down at eden, who is napping and then back to carol and daryl. the man looks at carol hesitantly, an expression on his face that lydia can't read as he slowly hands it to her.

tears fall down carol's face as she looks at her husband, lifting the axe up and harshly slamming it down onto its head. lydia winces, still not completely used to the violence, and looks away. daryl watches her carefully, slightly concerned as carol goes a little crazy on the man.

carol wipes her tears and hands the axe back to daryl who doesn't say anything, except nod at her as carol walks away. lydia pats the seat next to her with a sympathetic smile. "you okay?...sorry. stupid question."

carol nods slowly, "i'm sorry for what he did." she whispers as lydia sighs, staring ahead of her.

"you don't be sorry. you done nothing wrong. i won't speak to much on him cause i'll say shit you won't wanna hear right now. but just know i'm here for you." lydia says sincerely as carol nods understandingly. "we've got you, carol. you've got us."

"it's just sophia's gonna grow up without a daddy now." carol cries as lydia sighs, nodding understandingly.

"i know. you're a strong woman, carol. she don't need a father. especially one like that. eden's gonna be the same. and hell, it's hard, but i'm glad she ain't got him around."

carol listens, nodding along every so often. "you're a sweet girl, lydia. thank you." she smiles as lydia returns it, before glancing over at andrea who looks at amy in shock.

"oh shit." lydia whispers, noticing amy had now finally turned into a walker, her hands moving slowly and she begins to growl slightly. andrea places a hand on amy's cheek and gasps in disbelief when amy's eyes open.

"amy." andrea whispers as amy turns her head and looks at her, her hand lifting up slowly, which andrea doesnt notice. "amy. i'm sorry."

andrea speaks quietly to amy who suddenly sits up and attemptes to bite the woman, who seems to not care in that moment. "rick, shane." lydia calls out warningly as she jogs over to the two of them.

the two men glance at her, and then where she is looking and widen their eyes as they too make their way over slowly. "i love you." andrea whispers, before pulling the trigger no one knew she had.

lydia jumps in a fright, and luckily carol had covered edens ears for her as the others stare at andrea who has tears in her eyes.

they do not do much after this, apart from shane and rick going to dig more graves and a few of the group following daryl who is in the truck carrying all the bodies up.

"i still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. it's what we said we'd do, right?" daryl says to rick and shane as lydia walks over. "the china man gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along?" daryl continues as he looks at them expectantly.

"yes, that's exactly what we do." lydia replies for rick and shane.

"these people need to know who the hell is in charge here." daryl ignores her, "what the rules are."

"there are no rules." rick replies firmly.

"well, that's a problem. we haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. we need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead." lori speals up from behind as they glance at her. "it's what people do."

"well, that's what we are doing." daryl replies, having getting quite agitated as it is. "not now." lydia sighs tiredly.

andrea walks up and insisted on pulling amy's body by herself, dale tries to help as andrea shakes her head. "i can do it. i can do it." she repeats with tears flowing down her cheeks.

she pulls amy's body in the grave they dug as carefully as she can as everyone watches with a frown. andrea leaves quickly and lydia glances at rick and lori who seem to be discussing something important while carl rushed off.

lydia walks back down to camp and headed into the rv where jim was with carol, who was trying to cool his fever. "how are you doing?" she asks.

"his fevers worse." carol answers for him, lydia noticing jim was struggling to speak.

she turns her head at a slight knock on the wall which revealed to be rick and lori joining them. "you need anything?" lori asks the sick man.

"uh...a w-water. please." jim stutters as lori nods, "i'll get some." she replies, leaving them to get the water as jim thanked her.

"lydia, you'll help me?" lori asks as lydia frowns lightly. it was clear lori doesn't want lydia around rick without her there.

"uh sure—" she begins, but carol waves her off.

"i'll go with ya lori, getting stuffy in here anyway—been here too long. here, i'll take eden too." carol speaks up, lydia let her take eden and watches as she leaves with a frown.

lydia awkwardly smiles at rick who sits down next to her, opposite jim. "you save a grave for me?" jim asked, avoiding eye contact.

"nobody wants that." rick replies as lydia nods in agreement.

"it's not about what you want." jim replies tiredly. "that, uh...that sound you hear, that's god laughing while you make plans"

"what i want, jim. if...if god allows, is to get you some help." rick replies with a small smile. jim begins to cough as lydia hands him a bowl for him to spit and throw up in, causing her to grimace and look away.

"it's getting real bad." lydia says slowly as jim sniffles.

"watch the mangroves." he replies. "their roots will gouge the whole boat. you know that right?"

rick covers his mouth, sighing slightly as jim continues. "amy is there. swimming. you'll watch the boat, right?" he asks again. "you said you would."

rick nods slowly. "we'll watch the boat. don't worry." lydia replies for him as jim smiled weakly and looks to the side.

lydia leaves the rv to find eden, but as she turned a corner she felt her arm being grabbed and her body pushing against the back of the rv where no one was. "what the hell!" she exclaims in a panic as shane covers his mouth to silence her.

"i heard you know." he says slowly, weirdly calm.

"know what?" she scoffs, trying to get him to let her go.

"you tell anyone—especially rick—then we'll have a big problem, i can promise you that. you saw what happened to ed." he says as she tries to push him away again.

"are you threatening me?" she exclaims as he puts his hand over her mouth again, lydia hopes someone hears her.

"listen to me, lydia. do you understand?" he says in a threatening tone as she stares at him, frowning, trying to cover her fear.

"hey, what're you doing?" a voice says, noticing lydia struggling to push shane off. the hero of the hour, daryl, walks behind the rv with a frown. daryl makes it known he doesn't care about anyone at camp, and he knows he probably never would, but he doesn't like the fact that shane is holding a woman down when she is clearly trying to get away.

"nothing. absolutely nothing." shane says, letting go of her and walking the opposite way as lydia catches her breath, standing up straighter to walk away as daryl watches awkwardly, not sure on how to handle it.

"thank you." she speaks up quickly as he nods, and lydia walks past him, trying to cover the shaken look on her face.

she puts on a smile seeing eden who is now with glenn, the young boy has sat her down on the floor and glenn seems to be showing the five month year old baby a gun. "i don't think she needs to know about those yet." she announces herself as glenn awkwardly looks up a her.

"sorry." he replies as lydia shakes her head with a small smile.

"it's alright. she'll need to know at some point, just not while she's a full on baby." she says sarcastically as glenn laughs.

"i've been thinking about ricks plan." shane speaks up suddenly to everyone at camp, he, rick and dale have came back from being in the woods. lydia can't help but notice the disturbed look on dale's face.

"now look, there are no guarantees either way." shane says, and lydia can't even look at him. she realises she has to watch her back even more carefully now she knows he is watching her.

"i'll be the first one to admit that. i've known this man a long time. i trust his instincts. i say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. so...those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. okay?"

lydia looks down, she doesn't know what to do. she'd be better off with other people, since being on her own before was so hard. however, shane, who is basically the leader, has just threatened her, and in all honesty, she is scared of the man. she has seen with her own eyes how he beat up ed without any emotion in his eyes.

"i'm going to radio morgan, you coming?" rick taps her shoulder as she jumps slightly, but shakes her head gently. "hey, you okay?" he asks with a frown.

lydia looks over at shane who was watching them, and then back to rick. "i'm fine." she replies, forcing a smile on her face as he nods slowly, not convinced, but leaves to where the radio was.

"you are coming with us, aren't you?" glenn asks her with a frown as lydia faces him, and sighs quietly, showing she was indecisive. "oh, c'mon, lydia, you can't be on your own again, you've got yourself and a baby to think about here." glenn continues as she nods silently to herself.

"i know." she says, getting up to go to her tent for the night.

DAY 63 since the world went to shit.

2 months.

lydia joins the group the next morning as glenn smiles at her, which she returns. she can't leave them, she has made new friends, and like glenn said, she has eden to think about.

"all right, everybody listen up." shane begins  as she tries not to roll her eyes. "those of you with cbs, we're gonna be on channel 40. let's keep the chatter down, okay? now you gotta problem, don't have a cb, can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. that'll stop the caravan. any questions?"

"we're, uh...we're not going." morales speaks up, motioning to his family as everyone frowns. "we have family in birmingham. we want to be with our people." his wife continues.

"you're on your own, you don't have anyone to watch your back." shane replies with a frown.

"we'll take the chance. i gotta do what's best for my family." morales says firmly.

"you sure?" rick asks as morales nodded. "we talked about it. we're sure."

"alright...shane." rick says as the man nods and the two looks through their bag of weapons. rick hands them a 357 and a box of ammo, "the box is half full." shane replies as daryl scoffs lightly.

"thank you all...for everything." his wife smiles as they all hug them, "good luck." lydia tells them as morales smiles at her.

their daughter even hands her teddy bear to sophia who begins to cry, "channel 40 if you change your minds." rick tells them as morales nods.

they leave as the group all got into their vehicles. lydia and eden were going in the rv with dale, glenn, jim and jacqui however the rest of the group decided not to since they didn't want eden near the sickness, so she went in the truck with andrea and t dog.

unfortunately, a little while into the trip, dale's rv broke down so they all had to stop and check it out. "—i'm out of duck tape." dale finished, saying that he used to take the engine to make it work.

"i see something up ahead." shane speaks up with the binoculars as they glance at him. "gas station if we're lucky."

"y'all, jim...it's bad. i don't think he can take anymore." jacqui runs out of the rv as they frown.

"rick, you wanna hold down the fort?" shane asks. "i'll drive ahead see what i can bring back."

"yeah, i'll come along too and i'll back you up." t dog speaks up as lydia is glad to get away from shane.

"you all keep your eyes open now. we'll be right back." shane calls out before driving off.

rick goes to see jim as lydia feeds eden with the very few bottles she has left. "we'll find her some food soon." carol reassures as lydia smiles slightly, not believing her but trying to stay positive.

"jim wants us to leave him here." rick speaks up slowly when t dog and shane are back as everyone begins to protest, "it's what he said he wants."

"and he's lucid?" carol asks with a frown.

"he seems to be." rick replies. "i would say yes."

"back in camp when i said daryl was right and you shut me down. you misunderstood. i really don't want to kill jim but it takes the pain away, which he is constantly going through, and you are only just realising this. none of y'all ever actually asked jim what he wanted. well, now we have an answer." lydia speaks up, crossing her arms.

"we just leave him here?" shane asks, turning to rick, "take off? man, i'm not sure i could live with that."

"it's not your call." lydia argues, "either one of you. none of us have the right to decide what to do for him. whatever he wants, whatever he needs to get him through the pain, we do it." she finishes as shane sighs, rick nods in agreement slowly.

the two men go and get jim and sit him down by a tree, letting him lay down as he sighs in relief. "hey, another damn tree." he says softly, chuckling.

"hey, jim. you know it doesn't need to be this." shane says again as jim nods.

"no. it's good. the breeze feels nice." he says slowly.

"okay, alright." shane whispers, standing up straighter.

"just close your eyes, sweetie." jacqui told him with a small smile. "don't fight." she says as jim closes his eyes and she kisses his cheek.

"jim. do you want this?" rick holds out a gun for him to take.

"no...you'll need it." jim struggles to breathe. "i'm okay."

everyone says their goodbyes as jim ruffles eden's baby hair making lydia smile. "goodbye, jim." she says slowly, before heading into the rv this time as she watches him out the window closing his eyes.

she sits in the front with glenn and dale, and lets jacqui stay with eden to keep her busy and distracted.

after a long while in the car, they all stop outside where the cdc is located and see hundreds of dead bodies and flies surrounding them. lydia covers eden's face, letting her breathe but not allowing her to get too close to the bodies.

she gets out her machete and puts eden in the sling which is getting small for her, zips up her backpack and follows the group around the bodies and to the entrance. "stay quiet, let's go." shane whispers.

a few of them cough at the smell, swatting away flies and glenn even gags a few times causing lydia to laugh slightly at everyone getting mad at him.

they get to the doors and were unsure of how to get in, so shane pounds on the door as rick tried lifting the shutters. "there's nobody here." t dog says bitterly.

"then why are these shutters down?" rick replies determinedly.

"walkers!" daryl exclaims as carl beginsto cry, seeing a few walkers coming towards them.

daryl shoots it in the head, "you led us to a graveyard!" he exclaims at rick who looks back at the doors.

"shut up! rick this is a dead end." shane calls out as rick sighs, feeling defeated but not giving up.

"where are we gonna go?" carol asks in a panicked tone as eden wakes up from her nap and begins to cry causing lydia to sigh, and apologise to everyone, knowing there was a risk of walkers hearing.

"she's right we can't be here this close to the city after dark." lori speaks up in annoyance.

"fort benning, rick, still an option." shane says hurriedly as rick looks away.

"on what? no food, no fuel, that's a hundred miles." andrea disagrees, "eden's running out of bottles and we have nothing to feed her—the children are hungry and so are we." 

"hundred and twenty five miles i checked the map." glenn speaks up, before quickly apologising seeing the look shane sent him.

"forget fort benning. we need answers tonight, now!" lori shouts.

"we'll think of something!" rick calls out.

they all begin to run away back to their cars as rick stops, frowning. "hey! the camera! it moved." he calls out as they turn back at him, most not believing him.

"you imagined it." dale says, shaking his head.

"no, it moved." rick replies surely, walking towards it.

"even if it did, man, it's an automatic device. it gears, okay?" shane tells him, trying to convince him so they can get the hell out of there. "look at this place it's dead! you need to let it go!" shane yells as he tries to pull rick away.

rick bangs on the doors and looks up at the camera as lori shouts at him to stop and come back. "i know you're in there, i know you can hear me! please, we're desperate! please help us! we have women, children, a baby, no food!" he lists, tears in his eyes as lori tries pulling him away.

"we have nowhere else to go please!" rick yells as walkers slowly stand up and made their way over.

"rick we gotta go!" lydia yells in a panicked tone, letting out a slight scream and fighting off a walker that appeared out of nowhere to try and grab her.

"if you don't let us in, you're killing us!" rick screams again as shane grabs ahold of him and drags him away as everyone shouts at rick whilst the ex sheriff continues to shout at the camera.

all of a sudden, the shutters open and they all widen their eyes, shielding their eyes from the bright lights.

they were finally safe.

but for how long?

happy birthday ariana grande queen of music

crazy that there's only this ep & another and that's season 1 done