Somewhere in Georgia.
The Governor and his men are busy looting a medium sized grocery store and there are bodies lying dead all around them. They were the people who were formerly occupying this place before the scouts from Woodbury discovered them and they got raided not long after.
"We should have at least spared the women." Caesar, a man of latino descent and one of the Governor's trusted allies, complained a little while watching his companions load their loots onto the trucks.
Shane looked at him with a raised eyebrow and responded with contempt. "And what? Get us killed in your sleep? These people had resisted us fiercely and a few of ours even died. They aren't people who will easily be tamed just because you suddenly feel sympathy for them."
"Haha! He's probably horny and wanted to bang one of them!" Merle happened to overheard them and let out a mocking laugh while walking over.
"Shut up man! We need people!"
Caesar turned his head towards Merle and angrily bumped his shoulder against him before walking away. It's clear that he does not like him one bit just from his expression.
Merle raised his hands in the air as he watched him walk away. He slowly turned his head towards Shane and asked. "What's up with that guy? It's not like my words do not have an ounce of truth in it. I've seen how he constantly ogled that latina woman living beside us back at camp."
Slightly shaking his head, Shane sighed. "You never shut up, don't you? There's never a day why I'm not surprised why Rick and the others abandoned you in that building back then. You have a very foul mouth."
Merle let out a snort and corrected him. "A foul mouth..that never lies."
Shane stifled a laugh before getting closer to him and whispered. "Anyway, have you found them?"
Merle slightly became serious but restrained that slightly crazy look on his face to avoid suspicion from the people around them. "No, they disappeared fast after that day. It seems they are already familiar with the roads around that area where we met them."
"It means they're camp is not far from that place." Shane quickly deduced that Rick's group weren't travelling far from wherever their camp is now. He actually returned to the farm after Shane and Merle met Daryl that day, but they only arrived to an abandoned farmland.
"Why are you so hung up on them? It's not like they even like you. No one came looking for you, remember? Let's just forget them and focus on Woodbury, that place is our home now." Merle can somewhat understand him since he was also abandoned. The only difference was that he had a brother who cared and came back for him, while Shane willingly left the group.
"Lori and Carl needs me." Shane replied with a grunt and glared at him.
Merle stared at him for a moment before letting out a snort. "Man, wake up. Rick is already with them. They don't need you anymore, unless you kill Rick, that is."
Shane's eyes glowed with a dangerous glint and his following response sent a shiver down Merle's spine.
"And that's what I plan to do."
"What?"
Somewhere in Georgia.
After driving continuously for two hours, the trio eventually came to a stop near the City of Tifton.
"We've been driving south for a while now. Just where did Rick and the others go?" Michael was feeling a little frustrated and at the same time, also worried for them.
"Over there, there's some letters painted on the trees along the tree line." While looking at the window, Rosita noticed something outside that quickly got her attention.
The two turned towards where she's pointing at and finally noticed the letters painted on the trees along the road.
Michael drove the car into a crawl as they started reading the letters one by one as they drove past them.
"B.Y R.G." Andrea muttered and quickly started connecting the letters together.
"Heading to Florida by R.G. That's what it said. Though I don't know who or what R.G means." Rosita quickly connected the letters, but got confused because of the latter two letters.
"It's Rick, Rick Grimes. That's his name." Andrea turned to Michael and realized who was behind the graffiti.
"I know." Michael responded calmly, but deep inside. He is confused at this sudden turn of events, and it made him curious what transpired in his absence that made Rick decide to go South without informing camp.
'Why did they head South? What did they discover while they were out here?' He was confused, but at the same time, a sudden quench for curiosity started boiling inside him.
"Come on, let's continue down south." Andrea said with obvious worry in her tone.
"Why did they head south? Do we have another place there?" Rosita stuck her head out between them and asked out of curiosity.
"We don't. That's why it's baffling that they've driven far behind the agreed twenty miles for supply runs." Andrea responded to her question, and was a little annoyed that Rick had broken one of the rules that supply runners should adhere to.
"Don't we have any radio to contact them?"
"We don't. We can only hope that they have left more signs on the road for us to follow." Michael responded as they passed through the small city without any incident.
"What should we do if they really went to Florida then?" Rosita asked and sat back onto her seat.
"Then we dive in and look for them. If they're in danger, more so that we should." Michael replied and when he took a turn. They were suddenly met with three survivors walking along the road.
They were two women and a young man.
"Hey! Stop! Help us please!" One of the women shouted and tried to run after them while frantically waving her hands.
But Michael ignored them and continued driving, though he slowed down considerably. He looked at Rosita. "Take a pack of biscuits and three bottles of water. Throw them out of the window."
Rosita did as she was told and took some supplies from the back.
"Shouldn't we help them?" she asked before throwing the supplies out of the window.
Michael stepped on the gas and accelerated while looking at the rearview mirror. He saw the woman earlier picking up the supplies Rosita had thrown out and only after that did he address her question.
"I've seen plenty like them. They could just be baits to lure unsuspecting groups like us before a larger group of them swoop in and rob us. You shouldn't easily trust people while you're out here."
Instead of understanding him, his words not only made Rosita confused, so did Andrea.
"Then why did you help us back then? And the community does not seem to have any problems taking in other survivors." Rosita questioned.
Hearing the dissatisfaction in her tone, Michael smirked and responded. "For someone who needs help, they looked healthy and energetic before they came running after us. Also, if you failed to realize, when you're in a small group such as theirs. Who'd be in their right minds to flag down a vehicle that's potentially carrying hostile entities that could gun them down? None, because I'd be running somewhere to hide if I were them. In addition, maybe Andrea and the others were just lucky that they didn't pick anyone with nefarious motives towards us, or maybe they already did and those people are just waiting for the right time to strike."
"..."
Andrea wanted to say something, but she eventually realized that Michael was actually making sense and it horrified her. They had been taking in people without even thinking about the potential risk it could result in.
"That still does not explain why you just took us in then." Rosita still argued.
"It's because I don't see you as a threat at all." Michael chuckled and received a cold snort from Rosita.
'And I already know what kind of person you are from watching the series many times.' Michael added inside.
Screech!
The car suddenly came to a screeching halt, and the inertia almost threw Rosita from her seat.
"What the hell man?!"
Michael ignored her and gravely looked at Andrea. "The survivors you had taken in. You gave them the three questions, right?"
Andrea repeatedly rubbed her chest and hurtfully glanced at Michael. "I did, why?"
"Good, what about the others then?"
His words caused Andrea to freeze, she started thinking and replayed the scene of her memories in her mind.
"I..I don't know."