I sat down with shaking legs, already afraid as to what I about to hear. Now that I got a good look at Sam, I saw that he was paler, he looked almost scared to hear whatever Maggie was going to say. Jesus took Hershel from Maggie's arms and all eyes were on my friend as she started to speak.

"Jesus was out on patrol when they were attacked." Maggie started. "They thought they were attacked by Walkers; they looked and moved just like them. But he told me that he heard some of them whispering, to each other and to them, threatening them. Jesus and his group managed to kill the ones attacking them, except one. A teenaged girl no older than sixteen named Lydia."

"What d'you mean they looked like Walkers?" Michonne asked. "Were they covered in guts?"

"I wish," Dante said with a shake of his head. My breathing hitched up and I glanced to where Ezekiel was holding Eliza in his lap.

Maggie continued. "Jesus brought Lydia back. We put her in the cellar for questioning, and while she was down there, Jesus took off her mask." She paused and I felt the hair on my arms begin to stand up. "These people that Lydia was with, they wear Walker skins to disguise themselves."

I felt like I was going to throw up for a good solid minute before Maggie moved on. "Lydia told us about how they were only defending their territory from outsiders. From what she told us, these people don't believe in society. They believe that when the world ended, it was time to return to our 'animal instincts' and live life the way it was supposed to be lived, apparently."

There was a moment of silence while everyone let this sink in. I looked up to Maggie tentatively. "What happened to Daryl?" I asked. My voice sounded quieter. Right after I asked the question, I was terrified to know to answer.

Maggie looked at me sympathetically. "They came to the Hilltop for Lydia. Their leader-this woman called Alpha-she came forward and told me she'd exchange her prisoners for Lydia, her daughter. Her people brought Dante, Ken, Sam, and Daryl out then. Dante, Ken, and Sam, they were all fine. But Daryl's leg had been broken from his horse falling on him and he was severely dehydrated and badly hurt. They had set his leg but he was still really hurting. But he's alive, Terry. He's at the Hilltop right now."

He was alive. That was all I needed from that and I let out a loud sigh of relief, a smile spreading across my face unwillingly. Jesus smiled lightly at me. "Sorry, we couldn't bring him with us. He's way too weak to travel right now. But once this fair's over he should be fine."

Maggie had smiled as well, but it was much shorter lived and it had looked tense. "I'm afraid there's more." She said. "Carl and Lydia, they sort of became friends while she was at the Hilltop."

"What's Carl doing at the Hilltop?" Sam asked, looking genuinely confused.

"He's learning how to blacksmith there from Sutton." Michonne answered. Rick had practically frozen the moment he had heard Carl's name.

"Carl became attached to Lydia in a really short amount of time." Maggie explained, looking only at Rick. "Maybe a half hour after they left, Carl went after her."

"He did what?" Rick stood up so suddenly it startled Judith from where she was sitting in Michonne's lap. "When did this happen?"

"Just this morning." Maggie said, trying to remain stoic in front of Rick.

"I have to go after him." Rick said, already getting up to leave the room. Michonne stood up after him, as did the rest of us.

"I'm going too," I said, following Rick out the door.

"Terry!" Sam exclaimed.

"These people had Daryl for almost a week." I reminded him. "They killed Seth. I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to figure out these people. Sam, can you take Eliza to Presley? And tell Dwight where I went." Sam had no choice but to nod in agreement.

Dante caught up to me and Rick. "I'll help you guys. I know the area. We tracked them pretty far."

We were loading up the horses when Carol appeared, looking baffled at us. "Where the hell are you guys going?" She asked.

"Carl's in trouble," Rick said bluntly. "We're going after him."

Carol blinked. "I need some adventure nowadays." Before any of us could stop her, she was already saddling up a horse with ease.

Dante blinked at her. "These people are dangerous, ma'am. And there are a lot of them. They can be anywhere, they blend in with the dead. You think you're being attacked by a small group of Roamers and then guys start trying to stab you. Also, their leader was very clear that any more interaction was unwelcome. We're taking a huge risk going into their land. We could be starting something."

"Well, now I have to come." Carol told him firmly.

"Hold down the fort for us while we're gone, Ezekiel." I told the older man.

"Gladly," Ezekiel said to me, but he was looking at Carol. I glanced at Carol just in time to see her blush slightly. Rick, however, didn't have the time to see two of his friends blushing at each other, and he led the way through the protective gates and westward. Dante charged his horse after him and Carol and I were left to follow.

We were riding for almost two hours, and I was starting to feel more nervous the farther went. Daryl and Smitty had come here first, and they must've run into a group of these Whisperers. We rode our horses down a neighborhood street where the houses on either side of us were showing signs of rapid decay. Some houses had gaping holes in the sides, letting us see directly into them. Grass was overgrown in the lawns and creeping onto the sidewalks and street.

"How much longer?" Rick asked, glancing around at our surroundings.

"Quite a ways," Dante replied. "I was about six miles from here when we were stopped. They're beyond that." He stopped himself short and frowned hard, looking conflicted.

"You okay, Dante?" Carol asked.

Dante shook himself briefly and glanced over his shoulder to our group. "Sorry, guys. I didn't think I'd be back here so soon after they let us go. These people terrify me. They're dangerous...it's almost like they're not human. Hearing them talk to each other...hearing the way they think...it's unnatural."

"Well shit," I said with a slight shake of my head. "Now you're scaring me."

Rick was staring at Dante. "Based on what you're saying, these people haven't attacked since the first encounters with us. They seem somewhat reasonable." He paused and let out a small sigh. "I have to hold onto that hope that Carl's fine, that he's alive and he's still out there."

"We have every reason to believe that's true." Dante replied. I was reminded of how I felt when I didn't know where Daryl was. I hoped that Carl was okay and that these people hadn't hurt him.

"Carl's a badass," I told Rick. "He'll be able to take care of himself."

Throughout this conversation, a Walker had been walking across the street, not even looking at us. But at my words, the Walker turned its head slowly towards us and stared us down with a more focused gaze than any Walker I had ever seen.

"Your son is quite a handful," The Walker hissed, the flap of loose skin around its mouth moving with its words. I pulled on the reins of Cupcake the horse to stop her as the feeling of disgust rile inside of my belly. The Walker planted itself in front of our horses and from up here I could tell that his eyes were blue, a regular human shade of blue. But his face was covered in Walker skin that was hanging loosely around his face and the skin under his clothes looked like Walker skin too. He was wearing a full body suit made of rotting Walker skin, and he reeked of them.

He was horrifying.

Rick recovered from the shock of the Walker-skin-wearing-man first. He narrowed his eyes at him and said, "I'll say this once, take me to him or you're dead."

The Whisperer tilted his head and his blue eyes blinked from behind the mask. "You talk aloud without any concern for who may be listening." He turned his head towards the sides of our party. I followed his gaze and the hair on my arms stood up when I saw more of them around us, some holding knives. "You are in no position to threaten me."

The Whisperers surrounding us got even closer, staring at us with human shades of blue, green, hazel, brown. But while their eyes looked alive, the rest of them looked as dead as any Walker out there.

"I will take you and only you to your son." The main Whisperer said in a soft voice to Rick. "The rest of your group will stay here under our watch."

Rick looked to us behind him and said, "I have to go find Carl."

"Go on," Carol said with a nod. "We're not going anywhere." Rick nodded at her and dismounted his horse. He walked to the main Whisperer until they were face to face.

"Take me to my son." He ordered. The main Whisperer narrowed his blue eyes at Rick before turning his back and slowly walking away, looking just like a Walker with the way he moved. Rick looked over his shoulder at us for a brief moment before going after him.

I dismounted Cupcake and grabbed a hold of both her reins and Rick's horse's reins. Carol hesitated before joining me on the ground. Dante stared at us for a long while before joining us, giving the Whisperers frightful looks every now and then. I felt bad for him, seeing as how he was back here when he had just gotten captured. But I had to admire him too, he had willingly come here to guide us to the Whisperers.

Who were getting even closer. I turned to glare at the one closest to me, a tall Whisperer with hazel eyes glaring down at me. We held each other's heated gaze for a long time before the Whisperer tilted his head.

"You are the Sanctuary leader, aren't you?" He asked.

"How the hell did you know that?" I asked, feeling sort of violated that this Whisperer knew this.

"Our Alpha and a few others have infiltrated your groups." He explained, keeping a monotone and quiet voice the entire time. "We wanted to know about you and your people, to see how you all live and how you've survived."

"We have seen how you live." Another Whisperer said, this one was a woman with green eyes peering out at me. "I myself have walked your streets. It's a joke."

Dante, Carol, and I all exchanged looks. The Whisperer who claimed to have "walked our streets" continued. She said, "Life is blood and pain and sacrifice. You all think you've accomplished so much, but we look around at what you've done, and we see children playing a game of make believe. Your people have built a shrine to a long dead world."

"And how about you guys?" I asked. "We've made homes for ourselves. What have you done in the last five years?"

"We have returned to the way life was meant to be lived." The tall Whisperer replied. "We are animals who always pretended we are not."

"You people work and toil your days away, working towards restoring a life where you exercise so you can sit in a chair and let a box lie to you until all your thoughts are gone." The other Whisperer said darkly. Her eyes were flashing. "Our lives are true. We live the full lives we were always meant to. We have received and embraced the gift of freedom."

Carol huffed and shook her head. "You're all full of shit." The Whisperers bristled around us. Carol narrowed her eyes at all of them and continued. "You say you're free, free to do what exactly? You wear Walker skin and it looks like you sleep outside in the cold."

"We are animals." A new Whisperer said from behind us, causing us to turn around just to face him. "And animals need a leader. Our Alpha asserted herself as that. She showed us the way and asserted herself as our alpha. In nature, there's always an alpha and a beta. If the alpha doesn't assert themself...there is chaos."

"My God, you really do believe this." I muttered under my breath. "There's chaos in this world no matter what happens. No reason to dress up like Walkers."

"They protect us." One of them said. I was starting to lose track of which Whisperer was which; they kept moving around, circling us like predators circling their prey. The thought made me swallow hard as I tried to keep most of them in my sights at all times. Dante and Carol had positioned themselves so that we were all back to back.

"Rick needs to hurry it up." Dante hissed softly. I just nodded in agreement. These people were terrifying, and I didn't want to be anymore than we already had to.

We were surrounded by the Whisperers for almost an hour before Rick came back with Carl and a long haired blond girl in tow. I blinked at the blond teenager just as the Whisperers somehow melted into the shadows of those half destroyed houses.

"It's about time you got back!" Dante called out to them the moment they were close enough to hear. The blond girl flashed bright green eyes at him.

"Keep your voice down." She hissed. "The Dead Ones can come and eat you."

Rick held his horse so that Carl and the girl could get up there. "Let's get out of here. Alpha said that she had marked the border between us and them."

"That's good, isn't it?" I asked, mounting Cupcake.

"She came back with a machete covered in blood." Rick said curtly.

A new and fresh wave of worry slammed into me as Dante and I led the way back down the street towards home. We rode for a few minutes before the demolished neighborhood ended and we came across a wide field that looked dead. Dead and broken bits of straw littered the field, but about halfway in the field is what made me halt Cupcake and the group of people behind me.

"No," I breathed, sliding off of the horse and making a wild dash to the twelve poles slashing right down the middle of the field. I heard the footsteps behind me as the others did the same as me. I made it to the posts with weird, rounded tops. But when I got close enough, I saw that the tops weren't rounded.

They were heads impaled on the posts.

I pressed my hand against my mouth to muffle the scream I could feel rising in my throat. I skidded to a halt in front of the posts and I heard the distinct sounds of Carol screaming behind me. I dropped to my knees as I took in the face of every head impaled on those posts.

Olivia from Alexandria.

Josh from the Sanctuary.

Carson from the Sanctuary.

Tammy from the Hilltop.

Luke from Alexandria.

Erin from the Kingdom.

Ken from the Hilltop.

Amber from the Sanctuary.

Micah from the Kingdom.

Oscar from the Hilltop.

Claudia from Alexandria.

And Ezekiel from the Kingdom.