Diana's house was already full of people when Elide and Rosita joined them. The atmosphere was tense and Elide felt quite lost without Carl. Rick was standing in front and had apparently already addressed most of them. When he saw Elide, he nodded to her and made it clear that she should come next to him.

Hesitantly, Elide walked next to him, trying to ignore all the stares on her. It made her uncomfortable that everyone was looking at her, especially one of the men who was standing a few metres opposite Rick.

Rick, on the other hand, didn't mind the attention, after all, he wanted it that way.

A dark-skinned man Elide had never seen before was explaining how it came, that there were so many walkers in the quarry. He said that his team had found the quarry and that there was a camp there that had not made it.
Since then none of them had been there and the thought that something like that could theoretically happen to Alexandria at any time gave Elide the creeps.

Michonne nodded in understanding and exasperation. "So all the while the walkers have been drawn by the sound and they're making more sound and they're drawn more in."

It was lucky that people didn't have to go this way to do their tours.

"Now what I'm proposing, I know it's sounds risky but walkers are already slipping through the exits," Rick explained to the people here. Elide stood right next to him and heard him breathing relaxed despite all this excitement and tension. He was a born leader. "One of the trucks keeping the walkers in could go off the edge any day now, maybe after one more hard rain. That exit sends them all east; All of them, right at us."

Rick glanced urgently at the group and also glanced briefly over at Elide, who was looking at him silently as she bit her lower lip uncertainly.

He turned away and shook his head. "This isn't about if it gives it's when it's gonna happen. That's why we have to do this soon."

Carol was a brave and intelligent woman, which was why she pretended to be a common and inexperienced woman during her stay here. Elide admired her greatly. "This is...uh...I don't even have another word for it, this is terrifying," she said playfully frightened as her gaze went round. "But it doesn't sound like there's any other way."

Then suddenly the man Elide thought nothing of from the moment she arrived spoke. "Maybe there is," his gaze landed on Rick. "Couldn't we just build up the weak spots?"

Elide shook his head, barely noticeable. He talked some more, saying that he too had helped build the walls and knew his way around, but even if it was all true, it wouldn't do any good, why didn't the guy understand?

Rick explained, but judging by his face, he still didn't understand, or at least he didn't want to.

"We're gonna do what Rick says," Deanna said, who was staying out of everything the whole time, just silently looking out the window. Elide felt sorry that her husband had to die under Pete's aggressive behaviour. She didn't really know him, but he was the reason why hundreds of people could live safely behind walls and it hurt her heart that such a person had to die.

Rick nodded gratefully to Deanna while Sasha, Abraham and Daryl talked about working together to draw the walkers away.

"All right, we'll have two teams one of each side of the forest, helping manage this thing," Rick looked to Elide at the sentence, making her look up in confusion. It was a strange look she couldn't interpret.

"We're gonna have a few people on watch from now on; Rosita, Spencer and Holly."

He pointed to each of the three.

"So they're out. Who's in?"

Michonne was the first to come forward, of course, followed by Glenn and another man standing to Rick's right. Elide looked at the people and actually had hope that all would be well. They were all motivated and believed in the plan. Believed in Rick.

Gabriel volunteered too, but Rick wouldn't let him and asked others to volunteer.

Elide sighed. Had Rick expected her to help too? Did he want her to? Secretly, she would already want to help, after all, she was now surrounded by people who had experience out there. She herself had experience too and if she could help the community with that, why not?

"I'll help too," she finally said and cleared her throat. Rick immediately looked to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "I know."

Surprised by the answer, Elide kept quiet and averted his eyes. He knew? What was that supposed to mean.

"There's got to be another play, yeah, we can't just control that many," the man who had also spoken up earlier interjected again. Rolling her eyes, Elide lowered her arms.

"I said it before, walkers herd up, they'll follow a path if something's drawing them, that's how we can get them all at once," Rick explained surprisingly well. Elide in his place would have yelled at him long ago.

"So we're supposed to just take your word for it? We're all supposed to just fall in line behind you, after-."

Elide raised her eyes, eyebrows drawn together. "After what?" Rick demanded in a dark voice.

"After you wave a gun around. Screaming, pointing it at people, after you shoot a man in the face." The guy wouldn't stop at all when Deanna turned around.

"Enough!"

He immediately fell silent and looked down for a moment before his gaze met Elide's. His eyes were on her the whole time and even when she looked away and back at him more often, he stared at her.

More people came forward until they had had enough people.

The man looking at Elide demanded that they should go through the plan again in detail, step by step.

Daryl snorted. "Man, he just said it," he hissed, glaring at him, but the man didn't listen.

After another discussion with the man, the crowd dispersed and they decided to go over the plan in two hours so everyone could eat some more and rest.

Rick was talking to Michonne and Elide was standing relatively loose at the window when the man from just now stood in front of her. She was startled and immediately took a step back, her hand on her knife out of reflex. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he said.

Elide merely nodded. "What do you want?"

He lowered his head slightly, causing Elide to screw up her face and look at the man in confusion. What did he think he was doing talking to her?

"Why do you trust this man?" he wanted to know in a whisper, sounding more than just threatening to Elide. His eyes bored into hers.

"First of all, learn to talk to a younger girl," she hissed in disgust before taking a step back. "And second, Rick saved my life and I owe him a lot. You should learn to respect him because he's going to save your life too."

That was actually true. Rick hadn't killed her, no, he had given her a chance and taken her in when she could have been anyone else. He saved her from that life alone. And she couldn't be more grateful to him. If he had sent her away or killed her then, she would never have had the chance to get to know Carl. And he meant more to her now than anyone ever had.

The man in front of her suddenly grabbed her arm, causing Elide to startle. She was only wearing her red T-shirt, which allowed Elide to feel the man's cold and rough hand very precisely on her bare skin. Never before had a strange man grabbed her like that. She just froze, staring at the man with wide eyes as her arm throbbed in pain. "You're making a mistake, girl. Rick is going to send us all to our deaths." He jerked away from her and walked out of the house.

Elide had held her breath unnoticed and couldn't move yet. She'd never had a reaction like that before. But damn, she was a young girl and he was like what, fifty? He had grabbed her roughly and threatened her.

Her heart was beating abnormally fast and the sweat on the back of her neck was an uncomfortable feeling.

Rick was done talking and wanted to go to Elide to explain why it was so important to him that she be there. He suspected she would be interested. But no sooner had he reached her, she was startled out of her stupor and ran out of the house. Rick looked confusedly at Glenn, who just shrugged his shoulders.

Elide opened the front door and ran into Daryl on her way out, who was actually trying to get back in. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and was immediately alarmed when he saw how upset Elide looked. He'd never seen her like that before and Daryl recognised quite clearly the emotions and behaviour of the people around him.

Elide ran past him, but he was still able to grab her by the arm. "Hey, what happened?"

Elide pushed him off her and ran. Daryl looked after her worriedly and decided to go after her, which she heard and only made her more panicked. Was this what a panic attack felt like? She was freaking out and maybe she was exaggerating. But how was she supposed to know what was happening?

Daryl, of course, was a lot quicker and gently held her back by the shoulder, so she just let it happen and told herself that Daryl would never hurt her in her life.

Elide turned to him, eyes wide. He carefully examined her face but could see nothing but red cheeks and widened eyes. She was not crying. However, when he looked at her body, he immediately noticed the red spot just below her sleeve.

"What happened in there?" he wanted to know again, asking this time with more emphasis in his voice, which was softer than the times before when he spoke to her.

Elide closed her eyes before opening them again and shaking her head. "Nothing. I had a panic attack, nothing to worry about," she breathed out of breath, trying to force a smile on her face.

Daryl didn't believe her, of course, and just snorted in disbelief. He knew best of all what it looked like to lie and pretend everything was okay. He had done the exact same thing when he was her age. "Don't lie to me, kid." He did see the stain and he knew it came from a hand.

"I'm not," she replied immediately. She started to calm down, but the feeling of the man's rough hand, remained on her arm. It hadn't even been anything 'bad', but the way he had touched her, bad-mouthing Rick, that was the bad part.

Daryl's gaze went searchingly over the area as he stopped at someone and Daryl tensed as his eyes narrowed. Elide turned cautiously and caught sight of the one she hoped not to see standing there. The man, or rather Carter, Daryl recognised immediately.

He looked right through Elide.

"Does he have anything to do with it?" he wanted to know in a lowered voice, not tolerating any more lies in his tone, even though he already knew what was happening.

Elide didn't know how quickly everything could spiral out of control and why she, of all people, was being targeted for this man's frustration.

Finally, Elide lowered his gaze and swallowed hard. "Yeah."

Daryl stood up straight and nodded in understanding. Oh, how pissed he was right now. "Did he touch you?"
Daryl's voice was menacingly low and through his deep accent, Elide could barely understand anything.

She dug her fingernails into her palms.

"Not like you think," she answered truthfully, looking at Daryl. "He threatened me and talked bad about Rick", she explained, pressing her nails deeper into her skin with each word until she felt it pull uncomfortably. "He also harassed me," Elide added.

Daryl said nothing more but walked straight towards Carter, who looked at him fearfully. Elide understood too late what Daryl was up to, but when she saw him speed up the last few metres, lunge and punch Carter in the face, she started sprinting too. "Daryl! Stop, please," she screamed hysterically, trying to push Daryl away. He let go of Carter.

"Touch that girl again," he hissed. "Then I won't guarantee anything."

"And you," he pointed a finger at Elide. She looked at him in awe. "Don't ever lie to me again."

Elide was at a loss for words and her head began to hum. All at once everything became too much for her and she couldn't even realise what had happened within the last hour. The Carl and Enid thing, the herd, Rick, Carter and then Daryl who was just trying to protect her.

She tried to understand what was going on. And suddenly she didn't want any of that anymore and just wanted to get back to her family, especially Mason. It was clear to Elide that she now had a new family who would protect her with their lives. Especially Daryl and Glenn. But nothing would replace Mason.

Daryl noticed Elide drifting off and at the latest when she gently closed her eyes and let herself fall, he reacted and caught her.

He glanced briefly at Carter, who stood up with his hand on his bleeding nose and looked angrily at Daryl, before running back to the house with the young, unconscious Elide in his arms.

Carl happened to be standing by the window, watching pale and with a heavy heart as Elide passed out. The only thing he wanted to do right now was go to Elide.

__

I hope it was more interesting than the last chapter.
I never liked Carter, tbh.

plus, passing out is not cool, especially during a panic attack. It only happened to me once but bro, after that I didn't understand the world XD

thanks for reading. don't forget to vote & comment, bebes<3

ALSO I changed elides face claim, so go & check it out!