The Face of Change

The Governor seemed to disappear into thin air. It has been about two months since that night at Woodbury, two months since Andrea's death. We had expected for him to rally up his men and storm the prison once again. Some days I wake up in a cold sweat thinking that today will be the day that it happens, but I am always wrong. Apart from the Governor, it has also been a month since we've had any accidents. We were turning this prison into a place that we could build some sort of life in. All our dreams and plans we made during our very first night in the field were becoming our reality. We have pastures with pigs and horses, gardens filled with crops and vegetables, and most importantly we have people to maintain it now.

I was currently standing under a large picnic tent, flipping meat on the barbeque as some of our people sat in front of tables surrounding me.

"Morning," a man called out, causing my eyes to trail up at the source.

"Sup, Doctor S.," Daryl responded as my eyes landed on him. He was walking towards me, sauntering up with his arms swinging as he had ripped the sleeves off of his button-up shirt.

"Morning, Daryl!" another man called out.

"Hey, Daryl!" Daryl's head swung in every direction as everyone greeted him.

I chuckled at it, watching him become uncomfortable and confused as to why everyone cherished him.

"Smells good," he said, making himself a bowl of the meat.

"Just so you know, I liked you first," I said, giving him a teasing smile.

"Stop," he rolled his eyes. "You know, Rick brought in a lot of 'em, too." He was questioning why they were so grateful towards him.

"Not recently. You give a stranger sanctuary, keeping people fed, you're gonna have to learn to live with the love."

"Right."

"I need you to see something," I said, my tone sounding more serious now. He looked up at me, furrowing his brows. "Patrick, would you take over for me please," I called out to the younger boy that stood only a couple of feet from the barbeque.

"Yes, ma'am," he said, perking up when I spoke to him. He pushed his glasses up on his nose before taking the tongs from me.

I chuckled, "Patrick, calling me Scar is just fine."

"Sorry ma'am-- I mean Scar," he stumbled on his words and lightly chuckled again.

I led Daryl around to the front of the courtyard, looking over the field to the outskirts of our fences. We had walkers piling up along the fence line, so many that we could hear their groans and gurgles from a couple of yards away.

"It's getting as bad as last month. They don't spread out anymore." We looked across the field watching them, we had a few people in shifts standing between the fences, stabbing the walkers in the skull to try and maintain the number that piled up.

"With more of us sitting in here, we're drawing more of them out," Daryl responded.

"It's manageable, but unless we get ahead of it, not for long."

Daryl sighed, finishing up the last of his bowl of deer meat. "Come on, we got a run to gear up for."

We walked along to the main gate where Sasha, Tyreese and Glenn were already packing up the cars with any supplies we needed for the trip. I grabbed a vest from out of the trunk, throwing it over my head and strapping the sides together. It was hot out today, the black vest clinging to my torso and already making me sweat. My eyes then landed on a young boy walking up to the car along with Beth, he was saying goodbye to her.

"Who's that?" I asked Daryl.

"Beth's boyfriend," he snickered before walking past the two of them. "It's like a damn romance novel," he teased them and Beth scurried off, leaving the boy behind.

"Hey," a man's voice called out, catching all of our attention, "I'd like to start pulling my weight around here," he said, he was asking to come with us.

"Bob, it's only been a week," Sasha responded, turning him down.

"That's a week worth of meals," he argued, "a roof over my head. Let me earn my keep."

"You were out on your own when Daryl found you--"

"That's right."

"I just wanna make sure you know how to play on a team," she said, concerned.

"You know he was a medic in the army," Glenn piped up, leaning on the hood of the car.

She thought for a second before finally agreeing, "Okay."

Mark and Lincoln then walked up to the cars, these two never seemed to be apart from one another. Two grown men that managed to find a best friend in all of this.

"We ready to go?" Linc asked, his machine gun thrown over his shoulder lazily.

"We're ready," Tyreese answered him, shutting the trunk of his car.

------

The drive to this supercentre we were going to didn't take long at all, there had been no trouble along the way. Daryl pulled up on his motorcycle first, Lincoln rolled our truck to a stop behind him allowing me to get out.

"Army came in and put these fences up. Made it a place for people to go. Last week when we spotted this place, there were a bunch of walkers behind this chain-link keeping people out like a bunch of guard dogs," Daryl explained as we all began to crowd around the opening.

"So they all just left?" Bob asked, confused as to where the walkers were now. From out here, the place looked deserted.

"Give a listen," Sasha quieted him.

We all stood in silence, listening to the faint sound of a speaker blaring out opera music in the distance.

"You drew 'em out," Michonne said, impressed by her idea to do so.

"Put a boombox out there three days ago."

"We hooked it up to two car batteries," Glenn added in.

"Alright, let's make a sweep. Make sure it's safe. Grab what you can and we'll come back tomorrow with more people," Daryl ordered, finally stepping through the opening in the chain link.

We walked slowly in a single file line, our guns at the ready for whatever lay beyond the point of the chain links. My eyes couldn't stop focusing on the graveyard that laid before us. It was clear to me that this was once a refugee centre that went horribly wrong. We walked past tents of triage centres, medical supplies scattered all over the pavement, bodies rotted to the beds they had died in, and only pillows that had been stained red from the patient being executed.

Daryl snapped me out of my daze upon the scene around me as he pounded on the front windows of the supercentre, drawing any walkers trapped inside towards us.

"Just give it a second," he said as he sat down on the cement ledge.

We stood in silence as we expected the walkers to make themselves known on their own. I got comfortable as we waited, leaning against one of the brick pillars.

"Okay, I think I got it," Beth's boyfriend spoke up, talking to Daryl. I still didn't have a clue what his name was.

"Got what?" I asked, intrigued.

"I've been trying to guess what Daryl did before the turn," he said, sitting down beside him.

"He's been trying to guess for, like, six weeks," Daryl scoffed.

"Yeah, I'm pacing myself," the boy argued jokingly, "one shot a day."

"Alright, shoot."

The boy thought for a second, rubbing his nose like he was nervous about the guess he was about to make. He took a deep breath in, "Well, the way you are at the prison, you being on the council, you're able to track, you're helping people. But you're still being kind of… surly." He paused. "Big swing here. Homicide cop." He gave his guess and I couldn't stop myself from bursting out laughing. Glenn chuckled too, we were the only ones to have known Daryl when he was… problematic. A time when he was only out here for himself.

Daryl looked at me, "What's so funny?" he asked, offended by my outburst.

"Nothing," I giggled, "It makes perfect sense."

"Actually, the man's right. Undercover." Daryl began to pull his leg.

"Come on, really?" the boy asked, excited that he got it right, he was gullible.

"Yep. I mean I don't like to talk about it 'cause it was a lot of heavy shit, you know?" Daryl said before a small smirk crept onto his face, blowing his cover.

"Okay. I'll just keep on guessing, I guess--"

The sound of three walkers then startled us as they threw themselves at the windows we had previously banged on, ricocheting off the glass.

"We're gonna do this, Detective?" I asked, making fun of him.

"Let's do it!" he called out, ushering the rest of the group over.

We assembled into our designated positions. Michonne and Sasha each had a hand on the doors as Glenn and I stood square in front of them. I nodded my head at the two of them, signalling that we were ready. They swung open the set of doors swiftly, sending the three walkers stumbling out. I immediately slammed my crowbar down the middle of the first walker's skull causing it to fall limply to its knees. That's where Tyreese came in, grabbing the walker by its arms and dragging it out of the way. Three walkers were not something that was a challenge for us so within seconds we had the place clear.

"Alright, remember today we do the sweep and only grab what we need," Sasha reminded us as we entered the store.

The warehouse was dark, it was a large facility and the only light source was coming from through the windows, or the few holes that had diminished the ceilings. Everyone split off, taking different sections of the store to look for the necessary supplies. I had a few items on my list; ropes, gardening tools, wires, and seed packets if I could find them. I weaved through the aisles, throwing whatever I could find that I thought would be useful into my backpack.

The place was quiet which was a good sign, it meant that the only walkers in here were the ones we had just removed and we could return again tomorrow to get our bigger items. Once I retrieved what I was sent out for I couldn't help but make my way to the snacking aisles. I wanted to see if I could hit the jackpot on anything that had been left behind. I squinted my eyes at the signs hanging above each aisle when I found the word I was looking for, candy. I turned down the aisle when my eyes landed on Mark standing in the middle of it, his eyes focused hard on exactly what I had been looking for.

"Aren't you supposed to be looking for cooking appliances?" I asked, my tone was light, jokingly.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the gardening section?" He didn't answer my question.

"I already got my supplies," I laughed looking at him, he still didn't break eye contact with the candy in front of him. He was trying to decide what he wanted, but I don't understand why he didn't just take it all, it's not like we have to pay for it.

"You're pretty tight with Daryl, huh?" he asked, completely throwing me off guard by his sudden question. He finally looked over at me, his eyes meeting mine.

"Yes," I answered, unsure of why he asked.

"Hmm," he nodded his head, returning his gaze back to the candy. I furrowed my brows at his mannerisms when he asked that. And why did he ask it in the first place?

Feeling uncomfortable I reached out for what I was looking for, it was the last one left. Just as I did Mark finally made his decision, reaching out and grabbing the same bag of liquorice that I had just placed my hand on. As soon as he picked it up I whipped my hand back to my side. We both laughed.

"Here you have it," he offered, handing the liquorice over to me.

I shook my head chuckling, "No, it's fine. Besides, it took you so long to decide."

"I'm serious you have it," he said firmly, placing the package in my hand. I looked up at him, accepting it. "I hope there's room for one more in your life," he said, a small grin forming on his lips. Now I understood what he was asking me.

Just then a loud band caused us to whip our heads around in fright. I could hear a multitude of bottles hit the ground and shatter before a shout echoed through the superstore followed by another heavy bang.