Back at the prison camp, the survivors were peacefully carrying the bodies when a sudden scream from someone disrupted their work.
"Kyaa!"
"What happened? Did someone get bitten?!" Daryl ran towards the direction of where the scream came from, with Rick and the others just behind him.
The survivors slowly gathered towards a woman standing over body, who was the source of the scream.
"No, it's..it's my brother. I still hoped he was still alive somewhere when we got separated, but I.." The woman responded in between sobs, but she eventually crumbled and started crying.
"Don't place your hands near your face!" Rick raised his voice when he noticed that the woman was about to cover her face with her hands, which immediately made the woman pause mid-action but kept crying her eyes out.
"Escort her to the bath, she's excused." Rick turned to look at Nolan and ordered him, who quickly followed his words and helped the woman to the side to wash her hands before escorting her to the makeshift bathroom.
Rick scanned everyone with a scowl and asked, "No one among you is dumb enough and got your hands on your faces, right?"
"I didn't, I strictly followed protocol."
"I almost did it multiple times, but I would immediately remember the advice you gave us."
Listening to them, Rick was at least relieved that they at least never forgot the guidelines put in place in the community.
"That's good to hear. You already know the reason behind why we're doing that. We don't know what kind of disease we'll get if any of their rotten blood gets to our faces or to any open wound. There's a high chance we'll also turn into walkers if that happens or it might also not, but who's stupid enough to gamble their lives on that chance, hmm? That's why the directive given is for everyone to prioritize the use of spears or any type of long weapon during battles like this, with the only exception being if you don't have any choice but to discard it in situations where it's not favorable to you. Additionally.." Rick once again reminded them of the things they had to learn. Things everyone in the camp was required to know.
How to properly search places, how to lure out walkers from their hiding places, or how to avoid dumb ways to die, and many more that might increase their chances of survival while out there. This is especially true for the ones going on supply runs.
"Remember, avoid touching your faces and if you have any open wounds, get them covered up. Everyone understood?"
"Roger."
"Okay."
"I hear you."
Rick scanned them silently one more time before saying, "Alright, now get back to work."
"What?"
Daryl was intently staring at the thing that caused the short ruckus earlier when Rick approached him.
"Nothing, I just think that what happened to Erin is one of the not so greatest ways to find out that someone close to you is dead." Daryl replied with a rueful expression.
"Yeah, just what are the odds that her dead brother is among the herd." Rick snorted, feeling sorry for her.
"Hey, wait up." Rick was about to resume work when Daryl called out to him.
"Yeah?" Rick turned to look at him while Daryl gestured for them to head to a corner.
"What's up?"
Daryl didn't beat around the bush and immediately voiced a concern of his. "I just want to remind you that we used up over half of our ammunition supply. We need to stockpile on it since I'm pretty sure we've at least attracted a lot of unwanted attention with the noise we made earlier. I'm actually surprised that the herd did not turn around and attacked us with how much noise we were making."
Hearing his words, Rick realized how weird that was since even tiniest noise would attract a bunch of walkers, much less noise coming from firearms.
"Maybe there was something out there that attracted them more than us." Rick said, though it was obvious that he wasn't even sure what he was saying.
Daryl shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe survivors?"
When he said those words, the two men looked at each other.
"Shane and Merle." They uttered almost at the same time.
"Don't tell me they were the ones behind this?" Rick was a little skeptical with the conclusion he came to, but it would make sense since walkers would not be able to easily locate this place that's in an isolated corner if someone didn't deliberately lure them to their location.
Daryl was even more skeptical though when he thought of something. "Maybe Merle, but Shane? I don't think that guy would agree to something like this."
"Why do you say so?" Rick asked with raised eyebrows.
'Isn't it because of the child in Lori's belly?' He really wanted to say those words, but he immediately realized it'd be better to avoid causing more trouble than it already is since the couple had been in non-speaking terms when Rick found out she was pregnant.
"Because of us, no matter what happened between us. I doubt he'd have the guts to do this. Merle on the other hand…wait, I'm here. I doubt he has the guts to do it. This is even more confusing now." Daryl tried to come up with something and even at the end of his words, he became even more confused if it was really them.
"It's either a coincidence or this is a scheme from another survivor group."
"Coincidence sounds better. Going out for supply runs is already hard because of the walkers and we also need to constantly watch out if any of the people from Woodbury are stalking us. If another group joins the mix, it'd be a headache. Then we'll have to prepare for war and to lose people, Rick." Daryl does not mind waging a war against another group, but he'd prefer it if they just leave each other alone.
"I won't hesitate to kill, but I'd also prefer not to." Daryl sighs.
Rick placed his hands on his waist. "I understand, I'd prefer that option too. We'll have to wait for Michael to come back to further discuss this matter as it's better that he's here since he's the one who has more experience in dealing with this kind of problem."
An hour earlier, while Rick and the others were busy fending off the small herd that was attacking them.
A dark skinned woman is seen fleeing from that same herd that the small herd that was attacking the prison broke off from.
"Shit! Where the heck did those bastards come from?" The dark skinned woman was feeling confused as she decapitated a walker. She feels utterly bewildered from where those people suddenly came from and caused the walker herd to go crazy and even affected her disguise.
She hacked and kicked while trying to dodge any of their hands from reaching her, knowing that it's a death sentence for her if they managed to grab her.
It was fortunate that she was at the edge of the herd or she would have been drowned by their numbers now.
Graaahh!
A walker "charged" towards her, but she just casually stabbed its head with her sword and continued on her way.
"Ahhhhh!"
It wasn't just her who was trying to escape, those unknown troublemakers were too. Though it appears that one of them got caught and died screaming in a painful manner.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The woman continued fleeing when she immediately came to a stop when the sound of repeated gunshots started echoing in the distance.
"Those fools, are they trying to advertise themselves to these man eaters?" She would have understood if there were only one or two gunshots since whoever it was is obviously in a desperate situation, but any more than that is foolish in her opinion.
"Ahhh! No! Don't leave me! H-help!"
'I see. So the sound of a person possesses more attraction to them compared to any other noise? That's good to learn, but it needs more confirmation.' She thought the herd would move towards the noise, but then she realized something while hearing the screams in the forest.
Gratata! Bang! Bang!
She quickly turned around and continued on her way, but the sound of repeated gunfire in the distance kept poking her curiosity until she finally caved in to it.
'It never hurts to look. It might be a military outpost.' She thought while going west to avoid the herd, but as everyone would expect, there were still a lot of walkers following behind her.
If Michael was present, he would have certainly rebuked them for using firearms.