Rick was still trying to convince Hershel to come back home while I was keeping watch. "Look, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore, Cleaning up after you. You know what the truth is? Nothing has changed. Death is death. It's always been there, whether it's from a heart attack, cancer, or a walker. What's the difference? You didn't think it was hopeless before, did you?" Rick said pausing for a moment so what he was saying would sink in.

"Now there are people back at home trying to hang on. They need us, even if it's just to give them a reason to go on, even if we don't believe it ourselves. You know what? This isn't about what we believe anymore. It's about them." Rick said and he paused. I figured his words had actually gotten to the poor old man when I watched him give Rick a glance and then he downed the last of his drink. And flipped his glass over signaling he was done.

"Uh guys." I said as I backed away from the window and watched as two men walked into the bar. The first man was medium build, not very tall. He looked like he could have been related to Daryl. The other man was a kinda short and very round guy. He had on a hat and a saddle bag. He looked like a fucking Oompa-Loompa.

"Son of a bitch. They're alive." The taller man said, Rick just stared at them not too sure what to say or do at that point. I didn't think they had noticed me since they hadn't bothered looking in my direction. The two came in and one took a seat at a table while the other sat at the bar. Rick poured the taller men a drink. I jumped up onto the bar and sat there watching them.

"I'm Dave." The tall guy said, then he gestured over to the fat one.

"That scrawny-looking douche bag there is Tony." He said and this caused Tony to laugh.

"Eat me, Dave." He said

"Hey, maybe someday I will." Dave replayed back to the man then Dave continued.

"We met on I-95 coming out of philly. Damn shit show that was." Dave finished and Glenn being Glenn introduced himself.

"I'm Glenn, it's nice to meet some new people."

"Rick Grimes." Rick said not long after Glenn.

As he passed out drinks Dave noticed that Hershel wasn't drinking and nor was I.

"How about you, pal? Have on?" He asked.

"I just quit." Hershel said.

"You've got a unique sense of timing, my friend." He said.

"His name is Hershel. He lost people today, a lot of them." Rick said cutting in, my presence was still basically nonexistent even though I was basically sitting out in the open.

"I'm truly sorry to hear that. To better days and new friends. And to our dead. May they be in a better place." Dave said, raising his glass and then taking his shot.

"I just realized I didn't get your name honey." Dave said, turning his attention to me.

"Corporal Raven Walker." I said with no real emotion in my voice and he nodded in response and leaned over setting his glass on the other side of the table. That's when Rick and I both caught a glimpse of his gun that he had stuffed in the back of his pants.

"Not bad, huh." He said holding it out for Rick to see better.

"I got it off a cop." He said pausing.

"I'm a cop." Rick said, feeling a little offended.

"This one was already dead." Dave said in his own defense. That's when I noticed Tony's death gaze on Rick.

"You fellas are a long way from Philadelphia." Rick said, finishing his drink.

"It feels like we're a long way from anywhere." Dave said.

"Well, what drove you south?" I asked now, having my instincts kick in and a growing suspicion that these two weren't the only ones.

"Well, I can tell you it wasn't the weather. I must've dropped 30 pounds in sweat alone down here." Dave said and that caused Rick to grin.

"I wish." Tony responded.

"No, first it was D.C. I heard there might be some kind of refugee camp, but the roads were so jammed, we never even got close. We decided to get off the highways, into the sticks, keep hauling ass. Every group we came across had a new rumor about a way out of this thing." Dave said and then Tony cut in.

"One guy told us there was the coast guard sitting in the gulf, sending ferries to the islands." Tony said and Dave jumped right back in.

"The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the country, Kansas, Nebraska." This seemed to wow Glenn.

"Nebraska?"

"Low population, lots of guns." Tony said.

"Kinda makes sense." Glenn said and Dave cut in.

"Ever been to Nebraska, kid? A reason they call 'em flyover states." Tony chuckled and Dave followed. It was quiet for a moment then Dave kept asking his questions.

"How about you guys?" Dave asked Rick since he basically was our leader.

"Fort Benning, eventually." Rick said, looking over at me.

"Well, I hate to piss on your cornflakes officer, but... we ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning. He said the place was overrun by lamebrains." Dave said killing any hopes of going there for safety or security. I honestly didn't really think it was going to last anyway.

"Wait, Fort Benning is gone? Are you for real?" Glenn said with sadness in his voice and Rick hung his head. I knew he was disappointed in the news he had just received.

"Sadly, I am. Oddly, the truth is there is no way out of this mess. Just keep going from one pipe dream to the next, praying one of these mindless freaks doesn't grab hold of you when you sleep." Dave said.

"If you sleep." Tony added.

"Yeah, it doesn't look like you guys are hanging your hats here. You holed up somewhere else?" Dave asked. I looked at Rick and he didn't say anything so I quickly came up with an answer.

"Not really." I said quickly.

"Those cars out front yours?" He gestured to the doors.

"Yeah, why?" I asked now feeling my defenses kick into full gear.

"We're living in ours. Those look uh... kinda empty, clean. Where's all your gear?" Dave asked us. He was fishing for information.

"We're with a larger group out scouting, though we could use a drink." Hershel said quickly.

"A drink? Hershel, I thought you quit." Dave said with a sick grin on his face. We all looked at each other and deep down I knew both of these fuckers were going to have to die.

"Well, we're thinking of setting up around here. Is it... is it safe?"Dave asked us.

"It can be, although I have killed a couple of walkers around here." Glenn said cutting in.

'Fuck you idiots your giving him what he wants.' I thought to myself.

"Walkers? That what you call them?" Dave asked Glenn and he nodded.

"That's good. I like that. I like that better than lamebrains." Dave said, scratching the back of his neck.

"More succinct." Tony added.

"Okay, Tony went to college." Dave said.

"Two years." We all paused for another moment while I watched Dave rack his brain for ways to get information out of us.

"So what...so what you guys set up on the outskirts or something? That new development?" Dave asked us.

"Trailer park or something? A farm?" Tony said getting up and standing over by Dave.

"Old McDonald had a farm." Dave started to sing. I rested my hand on my thigh right over my hand gun. "You got a farm?" Dave asked and we all fell silent except for the sound of pissing and faint singing. It was Tony taking a fucking piss in the corner and singing old McDonald to himself.

"Is it safe?" Tony asked.

"It's gotta be. You got food, water?" Dave asked, leaning forward in his chair.

"You got cooze? Ain't had a piece of ass in weeks. Unless you're up for the task baby?" Tony said from his pissing corner. I literally wanted to fucking throw up.

"Listen pardon my friend. City kids, they got no tact. No disrespect." I shook my head.

"So listen Glenn..." Dave tried to continue but I cut him off as I jumped off the counter.

"We've said enough." I said as I walked over standing next to Rick.

"Well, hang on a second. This farm... it sounds pretty sweet. Don't it sound sweet, Tony?" Dave asked.

"Yeah, real sweet." Tony said walking back to Dave.

"How about a little southern hospitality? We got some buddies back at camp, having a real hard time. I don't see why you can't make room for a few more. We could pool our resources, our manpower." Dave said, now testing my patience.

"Look Dave, I'm sorry but, that's not an option." I said now taking more of a leadership stance.

"Doesn't sound like it'd be a problem." Dave said.

"I'm sorry. We can't." Hershel said and Rick followed.

"We can't take in anymore." This caused Dave to laugh and rub his brow in frustration.

"You guys are something else. I thought...thought we were friends. We got people we gotta look out for too." Dave said and I scoffed and leaned back onto the bar next to Rick.

"We don't know anything about you." Rick said.

"No, that's true. You don't know anything about us. You don't know what we've had to go through out there, things we've had to do. I bet you've had to do some of those same things yourself. Am I right?" Dave said now trying to convince us to let him and who knows how many other fucking men into our camp.

"Cause ain't nobody's hands clean in what's left of this world. We're all the same. So come on let's...let's take a nice friendly hayride to this farm and we'll get to know each other." I rolled my eyes and took Rick's drink from his hand and downed it.

"That's not gonna happen." Rick told Dave.

"Rick..." Dave started to say but Tony cut him off.

"This is bullshit." Tony said.

"Calm down." I told him, downing another shot.

"Don't tell me to calm down. Don't ever tell me to calm down." Tony said, raising his voice at me.

"Whoa." Glenn said.

"I'll shoot these three assholes in the head and fuck you till you wish you were dead and take your damn farm!" Tony said and that's when Rick got up about ready to knock Tony on his fat fucking ass.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Relax." Dave said getting up and in between Rick and Tony.

"Take it easy. Nobody's killing anybody. Nobody is shooting anybody right Rick? Raven?" Dave said, jumping over the bar as Rick turned to face him, his hand over his gun Tony placed his hand on his own handgun.

'Great a blood bath. Just what I knew was going to happen.' I said putting my hand over my gun again ready to blow a hole through Tony's head first and then Dave's.

"Look." Dave said as he placed his gun on the counter.

"We're just friends having a drink that's all." Dave said. "Now where's the good stuff, huh?" Dave said digging through the bar. As soon as his head ducked down Ricks instinctively went to his gun. Then Dave popped his head back up holding a bottle of dark liquor.

"Hey, look at that. That will work." Dave said, unscrewing the bottle and pouring himself a glass.

"You gotta understand... we can't stay out there. You know what it's like." Dave said.

"Yeah, I do. But the farm is too crowded as is. I'm sorry. You'll have to keep looking." Rick said his normal hard ice cold demeanor on his face.

"Keep looking. Where do you suggest we do that?" Dave asked Rick. My eyes were too trained on what Tony was doing to be watching them.

"I don't know." Rick told them.

"I hear Nebraska's nice." I said looking over at Dave for a second this caused Dave to laugh.

"Nebraska. This guy." Then Dave reached for his gun but Rick put a bullet in his head and Tony pulled his gun out but I put a bullet into his temple before he could even raise his gun. I walked over to him and put 3 more bullets into him before Rick put his hand on my shoulder.

"Fucking piece of shit." I said walking over to the window making sure there weren't anymore of them left out there. We all just looked at each other; we knew there were more of them and we had a war on our hands.