"Carl!" Lori yelled as she went to run off in the direction of the shoot. Tessa quickly reached out and grabbed a hold of Lori's shirt sleeve. "Let go of me!"
"Lori you can't just run out there," Hershel said in that quiet authoritative voice that he was so good at. Lori stopped fighting Tessa and ran back into the house with Carol on her heels. The group that remained on the front porch was quiet as they stared out into the night. Tension was radiating off of everyone. Tessa knew that something bad was fallowing that gunshot. She had known it since she had woken up earlier that day. Suddenly, it looked like the horizon was starting to squirm.

"Shit," Tessa breathed out. There were walkers, hundreds of them, all heading in the direction of the farm.

"Are…are they all comin' this way?" asked Beth, with her arms crossed over her chest. Tessa turned and looked at the scared girl.

"Hershel," Tessa said as she looked back towards the approaching heard of walkers, "we should leave this place." Tessa knew that there was no way they could save the farm. The unmistakable gurgle of a walker was heard from behind the house, and shortly after a female walker came hungrily towards the group. Hershel raised his double barrel and shot the walker between the eyes.

"No," Hershel said as he lowered the gun and looked at Tessa, "this is my farm, and I'll die here." Tessa let out the breath she didn't even know she was holding. This was a hopeless fight, but if Hershel wanted to fight, then they were going to fight.

"All right," said Daryl from his perch, "it's a good a' night as any." He hopped off of the railing and landed on the grass. Daryl turned back to the house to catch eyes with Tessa. "I'll see you in the morning," he said to her before he ran off towards his bike. Tessa closed her eyes and took three deep breaths. Daryl is going to be all right, she kept repeating in her mind. She opened her eyes again to Maggie handing her a gun. It was time to get serious; the walkers were nearly upon them. Tessa took the gun, made sure it was loaded and went to stand beside Hershel. Maggie and Glen got into one of the cars and were going to head towards the heard. Tessa looked back to see Beth, and Pricilla, huddled close together on the steps to the house.

"You two stay there, and if you see a walker behind us, yell," Tessa said in an authoritative voice that wasn't quite like her. Beth nodded as the two women pressed even closer together. The walkers were here, and Hershel was all ready firing, Tessa took a deep breath before she brought the gun up and started to fire.

It was like everything was happening at once. Tessa and Hershel were taking walkers down left and right. Gun shots were echoing from every direction, but the walkers just kept coming. Tessa shot one walker, and spun to stab another in the head just as the barn went up in flames. Tessa stood frozen for a fraction of a second before she pulled her gun up and started firing again.

"Hershel this is insane!" Tessa shouted over the noise. "We need to leave!" Hershel kept firing his gun. It was like he hadn't even heard her. Tessa was almost out of bullets, and she knew that Hershel was running dangerously low as well. He just kept firing. Tessa had to give him one thing; he certainly fought for what he loved.

"Tessa!" came a voice from behind them. Tessa turned to see T-Dog in the driver's seat of a truck, with Lori, Beth and Pricilla running towards it. Tessa saw a walker close in on them. She was going to yell a warning, but it was too late. The walker bit into Pricilla's arm. Beth screamed as Lori dragged her towards the truck.

"Hershel, they've got a truck, let's go!" Tessa urged Hershel. Hershel shot his gun one more time before turning to look at Tessa.

"You go. I'm going to fight till there's nothing left of me," he said before turning back around and shooting another walker. Tessa stood there frozen. She couldn't just leave Hershel here to fight for himself, but everything in her told her to run.

"Tessa! Let's go!" came T-Dog's voice again. Tessa was going to say something to Hershel, but Hershel turned and glared at her.

"Go!" Hershel yelled. Tessa jumped, but then slowly started to back away before she booked it towards the truck. She jumped onto the bed of the truck right before T-Dog sped away. Tessa continued to shoot at walkers until she could not see any more.

Tessa had no idea where they were. She felt numb as she watched the road retreating behind the truck. It was dawn now, and the truck continued to bounce down and abandoned road. The truck took a sudden sharp jerk as T-Dog changed direction. Tessa was being thrown around like a rag doll in the back of the truck, but she was to numb to say anything. Everything was lost. Daryl, a makeshift family, everything was gone, just like that. A part of Tessa had been expecting to loose everything. In this apocalyptic world, it had to be expected, but that didn't change the numbing feeling that was spreading throughout her entire body.

After what felt like hours of being in the car, they finally pulled onto a highway. T-Dog carefully maneuvered the truck around the long abandoned cars that littered the road way. When they finally came to a stop, T-Dog, Lori, and Beth spilled out of the truck. It took Tessa a moment, but she eventually fallowed the other three. There was a car on the side of the road with supplies and writing on it. Tessa could just barley make out the name Sophia written on the car.

"This is where you lost her?" Tessa asked to anyone who would listen to her. T-Dog was just about to answer her, when the sound of an engine cut through the air. All four of them stood quietly, holding their breath. A red truck came to a stop a few cars away. Rick, Carl, and Hershel spilled out of the car. Lori and Beth went running to the men. Tessa just stared. It was unbelievable that they had decided to come here, but Tessa didn't dare to hope that the others would as well. As the men walked over to the car, Rick was talking about something, but Tessa wasn't listening, there was another engine coming there way, and behind that, Tessa swore she could hear a motorcycle. As another car came to a stop, Glenn and Maggie got out, and reunited with Hershel and Beth. Shortly there after, Daryl came on his bike, with Carol behind him. Tessa couldn't help herself. A huge smile spread across her face as she walked over to the bike. Daryl was smirking as he got off of his bike. He put an arm around Tessa and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Told ya I'd see ya in the mornin'," he whispered so just she could hear him. Tessa smiled as she tried to keep her eyes from watering over. Daryl meant so much to her, that the thought that he might actually be gone for ever had threatened to rip her apart. But he was here, and she relished in his strong arms around her.

When they pulled apart, Daryl kept one arm draped across her shoulder, as they made there way towards the rest of the group.

"How'd you guys figure to come back here?" asked Rick. Glenn shrugged.

"Figured it was the only logical place to meet up with anyone. It's the only place that we all knew was here."
"I just saw this guys taillights zigzagging all over the place. Figured he had to be Asian," Daryl said with a joking look at Glenn. The group laughed as tensions started to fall.

There was a quick head count. Andrea wasn't with them, and it was pretty safe to bet that a walker had gotten her. The group discussed where to go, and eventually came to the census to keep to the road in the cars until they could find some sort of shelter. The group started to pile back into the cars. This time Tessa got on the back of Daryl's bike and wrapped her arms tightly around him as they took off. It was getting dark, and the cars fuel levels were running low, so the group decided to pull over for the night.

Everyone was sitting around a fire. There was some talk, but Tessa was lost in thought. Daryl hadn't left her side since they were reunited and it calmed Tessa a bit, but there was just an uneasiness that she couldn't shake. After a few more moment of thinking, Rick spoke up.

"There's something I need to tell all of you," he started. Everyone got quite and looked up at Rick. "Randall wasn't bitten when he turned into a walker." There were stunned gasps, but Rick continued anyways. "Back in Atlanta, Jenner told me something. He told me that this thing, whatever causes people to become walkers, it's in all of us. We will all become a walker when we die. Now that were out on the road, we can't keep running this group like a democracy. We need a leader, and that leader will be me. It's the only way to ensure our survival."

Tessa got up and walked away from the fire. She had heard enough, and if anything else important came about someone would tell her. She didn't disagree with Rick, and given his tract record, he was the best option for a leader, but being out in the open, it was bringing back unwanted memories. Tessa just needed to be alone. She didn't wander far, she could still hear everyone as they talked about the new information, but she was far enough away that they wouldn't bother her. She had her back against a tree when she heard footsteps. The sound was so familiar to her that she didn't need to look up.

"Ya okay?" Asked Daryl as he sat next to her. Tessa nodded.

"Just a lot of information to process is all." Daryl nodded and was silent for a while. Tessa wondered what he was thinking, but knew him well enough not to push.

"It's weird," she continued, "being out here again."

"Again?" Daryl asked quizzically. Tessa smirked as if she had her own private joke.

"I was in the woods for about a week before Hershel found me. I must have been near a nest of walkers or something. There were so many of them I swore I was going to die," Tessa paused as the memory took over. "Daryl you need to promise me something." She turned to look at the man she cared so much about to find me staring intently at her.

"Okay," he said hesitantly.

"When I die, I want you to put a bullet through me head." Daryl just stared at her in silence. Whatever he had expected her to say, that wasn't it. After a moment of silence, he finally responded.

"Only if you do the same for me." Tessa nodded as she rested her head on Daryl's shoulder. Everything is about to change, she thought to herself, as Rick finally put the fire out.