Bryce had not been with this group for long, a month or maybe more. He knew them well enough now that he was glad he was on their side. They were walking through the woods that surrounded the church they had just taken up residence in, they had saved the priest in which it belonged to and were now scouting the area around it, seeing what was there. They came across a small camp, no emergency measures against walkers, and just a burnt out fire and a half-eaten can of spaghetti. Rick, the leader of their group, a man with a wild beard and wilder eyes, knelt down to examine the fire.

A hooded figure walked out of the woods. Only a pair of deep brown eyes and a dark fringe gave any sort of feature away. "What are you doing?" It was a boy's voice, maybe a year older than Bryce, he sounded angry. Despite having no visible weapons, he scared Bryce. The boy laughed at all their guns pointed at him.

"If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead. I just want you to turn and go, you won't want to be here when I find what I'm waiting for." He said. He wore a cloth, that looked like the skeleton of a jaw over his mouth.

"How do we know you won't kill us?" Rick asked with a frown, he may be ruthless, but he wasn't unreasonable.

"You can take my gun, I don't care, please just go." The boy sounded desperate.

"Why?" Bryce spoke up, earning a glare from Rick.

"I'm waiting, look, I don't want any trouble, okay." The boy sighed.

"For who?" Rick asked.

"The cannibals." He answered.

"Why?" Michonne, a formidable yet kind woman with a sword asked.

"Because I want to kill them."

"From terminus, the cannibals from terminus?" Rick asked, the boy nodded slowly. "We want them dead too. How many walkers have you killed?"

"I- 100 maybe more." He answered.

"How many people?"

"Seven. It was me or them... and I have no morals." The boy shrugged.

"What's your name?" Rick asked.

"Cas." The boy answered.

"Got any more food?" Michonne asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Come with us. We can share resources, hunt and kill them together, we can give you shelter." Rick said.

"How can I trust you, how do I know you won't take my stuff and kill me?" The boy asked.

"You can keep your weapons." Rick told him.

"Fine." Cas nodded. "It's behind you, under the pile of leaves."

Michonne pulled out a large duffel bag that seemed packed with stuff. "Where did you get these?"

"I stole them from terminus." Cas shrugged. "There's medicine in there too, and ammo."

"What do you need ammo for a machine gun for?" Michonne was digging through the bag curiously.

Cas pulled out a machine gun from under his coat. "I don't know how to use it. But it scares people away."

"You used it?" Rick asked. Cas nodded.

"I got surrounded, someone let a hoard into Terminus as I escaped, the cannibals were busy, I had to run." Cas didn't seem too bothered that he almost lost his life.

"You call it a hoard?" Sasha, a skilled fighter and kind woman asked in amusement.

"I do. What do you call it?" Cas asked her.

"A herd." Rick answered.

"That makes them sound like cattle, no one's afraid of cows." Cas laughed.

"I am." Bryce mumbled, Cas looked at him.

"Bet you're afraid of rotters too." He said, Bryce nodded. "Don't worry, it's brains they want."

"Are you done insulting people?" Rick sighed, he seemed to be regretting his life choices, again.

"I'm never done, but it is getting dark soon, so we going or we gonna wait for the hoard to leave terminus and find us?" Cas asked.

"Take down your hood." Michonne ordered, Cas rolled his eyes, but did so, pulling his mask off as well.

"Happy?" He asked.

"Yes, let's go." She laughed at the boy. They seemed to like him, well Sasha, Rick and Michonne did, Bryce wasn't too sure, but then he wasn't entirely sure that many of the group liked him either.

Cas picked up a large rifle that he had hidden behind a tree and followed them, looking completely calm, but Bryce could tell he was watching out for an attack.

"How long have you been on your own?" Bryce asked the dark-haired boy, who looked at him with a blank expression.

"A while." Cas answered, he had a slightly different accent to Bryce, which made him curious as to where he was from.

"Where you from?" Bryce asked.

"Alabama," Cas shrugged. "You always talk this much?"

"No."

"Then shut up."

They reached the church twenty minutes later, the group walking in silence, pausing only to get rid of a few walkers that crossed their paths.

"What a hiding place." Cas muttered, looking at the building with apprehension.

"It's better than nothing." Bryce said. "It's better than what you had."

"Tell that to the three days I was out there before you came." Cas answered, "Bet you've spent a LOT of time out here." He added sarcastically.

"What's your problem?" Bryce asked angrily, how much could he know about him?

"You're gonna die out here, you flinch at a gun being taken off safety, the heck you still alive for?" Cas was rude, but he was right, and that angered Bryce, he realised now why he didn't like that Rick had brought the boy into the group, Cas was better than him and he knew it.

"I can hide." Bryce mumbled back.

"You can hide!" Cas laughed loudly. "Wow, you sure are useful."

"At least I'm not a killer." Bryce answered back.

"Look around sweetcheeks, you're surrounded by killers, no one gets that option anymore. Kill or be killed, or in your case let people risk their lives for you." Cas followed Rick into the church.

"Cas?" It was Tara, a girl who had joined the group a week, maybe more before Bryce, she hugged the boy, who stood there shocked.

"Tara? What happened?" Cas asked.

"After you left, he went to kill people." She answered.

"The others, are they- "Cas didn't bother to finish as she nodded at him.

"You two know each other?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, he left when Brian, the governor as you call him took over." Tara explained.

"I was at Woodbury before that, I knew what he was, I tried to tell them." Cas sighed, it was the first time he had showed any real emotion.

"Hey, it's over now, he's dead okay?" Rick told the boy, who nodded. "Everyone, this is Cas, he's gonna join us for a while, and I'll see if he wants to stay after that."

Cas was introduced to the others, Abraham, a ginger-haired soldier who's only goal in life seemed to be to get the cowardly Eugene, who's only brave act was that he had a mullet; Rosita, Abraham's girlfriend; Maggie, a kind woman, who was married to the exceptionally brave Glenn; Carl and Judith, Rick's children; Tyreese, a big, muscular man who was kind at heart, but killed walkers like a machine;Bob, a brave man who seemed to have some sort of relationship with Sasha; Daryl, a closed off man who is good with a crossbow; Carol, a woman with slowly increasing skill at fighting and finally, Gabriel, a priest that they had saved earlier that day. Bryce still thought that letting Cas go with them was a bad idea, but maybe the boy was right, maybe he was useless.