meanstreak
rick grimes 𝘹 fem!𝘰𝘤
© WANDARYEN ──── 2024

"It'll be tight. 15 people in one house." Rick stood in front of the entire group with my father at his side.

"Don't worry about that. With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up — " My father shook his head as Maggie came up to the blue truck we were standing by, setting down a box on the back bed. "With 50 head of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell."

Hershel nodded in agreement, "She's right. We should've moved you in a while ago." Part of the group turned away to start packing up the camp and moving things into the house.

Rick placed his hands upon his hips as he eyed the area, before nodding his head. "All right, let's move the vehicles near each of the doors facing out toward the road. We'll build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft. That should give us sightlines both sides of the property. T-Dog, you take the perimeter around the house. Keep track of everyone coming and going." Daryl pulled the strap of his crossbow over his shoulder and stood by.

T-dog looked at Rick, "What about standing guard?"

"I need you and Daryl on double duty." T-Dog nodded and they both walked off. "I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough that we can all survive there a few days if need be."

My father came around the vehicle, carrying things several stacks of things before putting them into the bed of the truck. 

"The upstairs bedrooms are set up," I lifted my chin in both his and Rick's direction. "Beth will be staying with me, so that's a spare room. I pulled extra blankets and pillows from the closet."

"Shane'll assign shifts while me and Daryl take Randall offsite and cut him loose." Rick added.

"We're back to that now?" I glanced over at Shane as Rick walked over to him. "It was the right plan first time around. Poor execution. That's a slight understatement you don't agree, but this what's happening. Swallow it—move on."

Shane stared up at Rick, "you know that Dale's death and the prisoner—, that's two separate things, right?" He then looked away, shaking his head. "You wanna take Daryl as your wing-man, be my guest." Rick watched Shane closely, thanking silently him before walking off.

After getting my bedroom settled with Beth and cleaning up her room to make it more spacious for the others, I walked out the house while wiping my hands on my jeans. Rick and Daryl we're speaking on the porch and I decided to join them, leaning against one of the pillars and crossing my arms over my chest.

"Take him out to Senoia—hour there, hour back, give or take. We may lose the light, but we'll be halfway home by then." Rick spoke.

"This little pain in the ass will be a distant memory." Daryl sat down on the ledge of the house porch. "Good riddance." Rick looked over at me and offered a small smile.

I nodded at him. "I could come with you. I'm pretty familiar with that area. I commuted a lot while I was in college."

"Mean streak and a college degree," Daryl muttered jokingly. I rolled my eyes in his direction but couldn't stop the lingering smile itching to show.

Rick shook his head. "I appreciate the want to contribute but I'd prefer just Daryl and I — just in case." I nodded in understanding. "Carol's putting together some provisions for him, enough to last a few days." The three of us glanced at the car that was driving up to the house with Shane in the driver seat.

It got silent for a moment, until Rick spoke up. "That thing you did last night—"

"Ain't no reason you should do all the heavy lifting." Daryl responded. "Either of you. I've seen Sienna put more work into keeping us alive than the rest of them."

"We're working as group now. The winter is going to be our hardest fight yet." I spoke gently, causing Daryl to nod his head in agreement.

Rick nodded, "So are you good with all this?" He gestured to the map he held in his hands. Daryl looked up at him, "I don't see you and I trading hay makers on the side of the road. Nobody'd win that fight." He then glanced over his shoulder as Shane started walking up. "I'm gonna take a piss."

Once he walked off, I was about to turn away too until Rick caught my wrist gently and I turned back. "Sienna — "

"Hey, man, you seen Carl lately?" Shane walked up to the porch railing, tilting his head up to glance at us both.

Rick nodded his head behind him at the house. "He's inside with his mother."

"Look — he came to me. Okay, I wasn't supposed to say anything, but he was out in the swamps yesterday and he came across a walker stuck in the mud. He got scared, ran off." Rick looked down then over at me before looking down at Shane. "The same walker that killed Dale?"

Shane nodded, "that's the one."

I frowned instantly, placing my hands on the railing as I looked between the men. "Is he alright?"

His gaze faltered briefly before fixating it towards Rick. "He needs to talk to someone."

"I'll have Lori talk to him." Rick spoke up.

"Look, man, I think — I think he wants to talk to his father."

"Well, I need this Randall thing done already."

I slowly looked over at Rick, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion. I wanted Randall home just as much as the next person but Carl was more important. I couldn't imagine the blame he was putting on himself.

Shane sighed, "Man, that needs to wait, okay?"

"It's my call." Ricks voice suddenly became stern.

"How about I ride out with Daryl? Good for us to spend a little time together."

Rick didn't hesitate, "Nah, I need you here."

I didn't want to speak in this moment, and I really wished I had walked away when I had the chance. The tension in the air was building between these two. They had plenty to work out before we all got cosy inside the house for the next several days and I didn't want to get stuck in the crossfire between these two.

"Don't think I'll handle it right, huh?"

"Didn't say that."

"What you say?" Shane raised an eyebrow and Rick looked away, avoiding that type of conversation like a curve ball. "You know, your son gave me this. You should get that back to Daryl, huh?" He placed a hand gun on the railing and sighed. "Freeing that prisoner..more important to you than Carl." He left us both and went back to the car, pulling away.

Rick stared down at the gun before running his hand over his face. I looked up from the porch and let my gaze falling around the farm. I waited a moment to speak, Rick shifting on his feet, as I started playing with my fingers.

With a sigh, I spoke. "I would never tell you how to run your family—, you and Lori have your own issues to workout but I do think you should talk to Carl. He needs his father. Just five minutes. Randall can wait until then."

"I'm suddenly starting to feel like I forget how to be a father." He dropped his face into his hand with frustration.

"Maybe don't think of it as such," I encouraged. "Let him tell you what's on his mind — he clearly needs to vent or cry or get angry." I moved closer towards Rick, tilting my head to the side with my hand now reaching for his wrist to move his hand away from his face. "He sounds like he's really struggling and probably feels like he's suffering the most out of all of us. Just doesn't know how to express that yet."

Rick looked down at me, his hand falling into mine as I offered him a smile. "Thank you," he nodded once.

After helping the group move the rest of the things into the house and settling the cars in front of the doors, I hurriedly came around the house with sweat covering my forehead when I heard Shane screaming from across the farm.

"Rick! Rick!"

"What now?" I muttered tiredly, squinting in the distance, and seeing the group starting to gather around the barn. It looked like panic and commotion, causing me to quickly run over.

My boots kicked up some dirt along the way and my throat care sore from the heavy breathing until I came to a stop beside Glenn and Maggie.

"What happened!?" Lori gasped, placing her own hand over her heart.

"He's armed! He's got my gun!"

Rick abruptly stopped in front of his friend and held him steadily with his hands on his shoulders. "Are you okay?"

Shane nodded, raising his hand and gesturing towards his face. "I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me. He clocked me in the face."

I forwarded my eyebrows, looking at the barn and examining the door before looking towards Shane again. Rick nodded, "All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house. Glenn, Daryl, come with us. T, I'm gonna need that gun."

"Just let him go. That was the plan, wasn't it, to just let him go?" Carol wrapped her arms around herself like a security blanket.

"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our front step with a gun." Lori rushed over to Rick, grabbing a hold of his arm as she protested. "Don't go out there. You don't know what can happen." Rick ignored her plead and shrugged her grasp off. "Get everybody back in the house. Lock all the doors and stay put!"

I quickly pulled the gun out of its holster, checking the barrel before clicking it shut then walking up to the men until Rick held out his hand in front of me. "Where do you think you're going?"

I raised my eyebrows up at him, "I'm helping. I've wanted this bastard off my property for a while now, away from my family."

Rick pondered the thought for only a moment before nodding. "You're going with Daryl and Glenn. Shane and I will search outwards."

The three of us hesitantly followed the footsteps throughout the woods, nightfall coming upon us rather quickly. Daryl was moving low, his crossbow tight in hands before standing up straight.

"We're just back to square one." Glenn sighed.

"If you're gonna do a thing, you might as well do it right. There's two sets of tracks right here. Shane must've followed him a lot longer than he said." Daryl nodded his head towards the ground, then gestures towards the footprints.

I kept my gun pointed towards the ground, glancing around the area with squinted eyes in the night until I noticed blood on the tree before us. "Look," I nodded.

Daryl walked up towards the tree, using two fingers to touch the blood then shaking his head. "It's fresh blood."

"There's more tracks. Looks like they were walking together." Daryl and I looked away from the tree towards Glenn. We followed his movements before Daryl kneeled down. "Yeah, there was a little dust up right here."

Glenn raised a brow, "What do you mean?"

"I mean something went down."

"It's getting weird," Glenn commented.

Daryl kept his sight focused on the ground, "having a little trouble." He pointed out until we heard rustling noises coming from beside us.

We quickly stood up in a stance, pointing our weapons in the direction the sound was coming from. But it was too dark to be able to see a single thing out here.

I squinted my eyes through the dark, the only I was able to hear was the heavy breathing from another person and it didn't come from the three of us.

As it got closer, its mouth opened and released a growl, its arms stretching out and quickly grabbing onto Glenn's shoulders.

"Shit!" I put my gun away quickly and retrieved my knife from my back pocket.

"Come on!" Glenn gritted in frustration, hitting it with the butt of his gun before Daryl jumped and pulled it down to the ground. As they fought back and forth, I was able to finally recognize that it was in fact Randall we were fighting with.

Glenn held it down by its shoulders as Daryl pulled out his knife and stabbed it in the head. I exhaled slowly as I put my knife back into my pocket but pulled my gun back out for safe measures.

Daryl bent down, inspecting its body for bite marks. "Got his neck snapped." He pointed out, "He's got no bites."

"Yeah, none you can see." Glenn added.

"No, I'm telling you he died from this." Daryl looked up at us.

I raised my eyebrow, knelling down next to the older man before shifting my gaze between both of the boys. "How's that possible?"