The announcement was made in the prison exercise yard. The conference room could not fit this many people.
The people from the prison, together with the sixty-odd survivors who had just been moved over from Woodbury, formed a dense, silent crowd across the concrete ground.
Calista and Rick stood on a slightly raised set of steps.
Calista wore her usual crisp outfit, her back straight.
Rick stood half a step beside her, his shoulder wrapped in bandages. His complexion was still poor, but his gaze had steadied.
The crowd murmured uneasily. Most of the people from Woodbury kept their heads lowered, their eyes shifting away. They had not fully recovered from the shock and fear of the Governor's downfall, and any change still triggered instinctive panic in them.
The prison group exchanged looks with one another. Tension, expectation, unease, every kind of expression was there.
Rick took a small step forward, raised his uninjured right hand, and pressed it down slightly.
The noise gradually quieted. Every eye turned toward him.
"Everyone's here," Rick began. "There are some things we need to make clear to all of you."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the faces below, some familiar, some unfamiliar.
"The Governor is gone. Woodbury is gone too.
"Where we go from here is a choice every one of us has to make. As for the prison, Calista and I have talked it over, and we've decided... to join Rock Fortress's system."
The word "join" stirred a wave of suppressed gasps and whispered discussion.
"This is not forced!" Rick raised his voice a little, pushing down the commotion. "Hear me out. From now on, the prison will be Rock Fortress's southeastern outpost. We'll still be here. This place will still be everyone's home.
"But going forward, Rock Fortress will send people here to help us get things organized, to help us live with more structure. People from the prison will also be able to go to Rock Fortress to study, train, see their doctors, and read their books."
He stopped, and as expected, he saw some faces soften, especially among those with children.
"But," Rick continued, changing his tone, "no one is being forced. Today, right here, everyone chooses for themselves.
"If you want to stay here, you're welcome to stay. If you want to go directly to Rock Fortress, that's fine too.
"Calista has procedures for how the trip will be arranged.
"No matter which path you choose, we'll be one from now on. We'll look after each other."
When he finished, he stepped back half a step and gave the floor to Calista.
Calista stepped forward and laid out the details of the division in clear, concise terms. Registering intentions, evaluating skills, distributing supplies, arranging escorts.
Her explanation was organized, her presence calm. As she went through each point one by one, the crowd below shifted from blank confusion to thoughtful silence.
"Now," Calista said at last, "anyone who has already made up their mind can step forward and say so, or come register with us privately after the meeting."
A brief silence followed.
Then Maggie was the first to step out.
Sunlight fell across Maggie's face, catching the fine down along her skin. Her eyes did not waver in the slightest. Her steps were steady as she walked straight to the front of the crowd and said to Calista, "I'm going to Rock Fortress. And not just me. I want to take Dad and Beth with me."
A low murmur spread through the crowd.
Glenn stood where she had been moments before, his body visibly stiffening.
Hershel sighed but said nothing. He had seen this coming.
Beth bit her lip, looking at her sister and then at her father. Her fingers nervously clenched the edge of her clothes, but her eyes were filled with anticipation.
Maggie ignored the whispers. She looked at Calista, then at Rick.
"Rick, it's not that I think this place is bad.
"This place is home, and you've done so much for us. But I have to think about my family. Rock Fortress has better doctors and a safer environment. Beth and Dad can be better cared for there."
Her words were practical, so practical that no one could argue with them.
Many people with families, especially those with children and elderly relatives, had a visible change in their eyes.
Rick looked at Maggie and slowly nodded.
"As long as you've thought it through. Hershel, Beth, what about you?"
Hershel took a step forward.
"Maggie has her own mind. At my age, I can manage anywhere, but Beth is still young."
He glanced at his younger daughter.
"It wouldn't hurt to see a new place."
Beth looked at her father, then at her sister, and finally said softly but firmly, "I'll go with my sister."
Jimmy took her hand.
Maggie returned to the crowd. When she passed Glenn, she glanced at him quickly.
Glenn's lips moved, but no sound came out.
With Maggie starting things off, others began to state their choices one after another.
Otis and Patricia naturally followed Hershel. Carol and the others held the same thoughts as yesterday.
Carl said he liked both places, but wanted to stay with his dad for now and visit when his mom was close to giving birth.
Tyreese, Sasha, and Boone, the newer arrivals, discussed it briefly and decided to stay at the prison with Rick for the time being.
Most of the people from Woodbury chose to stay.
They instinctively feared Calista and the others, who had effortlessly crushed the Governor's armed convoy. Staying at the prison felt safer to them. Besides, Rick seemed easier to talk to than Calista.
The exercise yard grew noisy. People gathered in small groups, discussing their choices, while the occasional hushed argument broke out within families.
Choice became an invisible sieve, slowly sorting the crowd apart.
Glenn still had not spoken.
He stood rooted in place like a post, watching Maggie, Hershel, Beth, and Jimmy gather together. He watched the small group choosing to go to Rock Fortress slowly form around them.
Glenn's face showed little expression, but his fingers kept picking at the seam of his pants. He looked extremely anxious.
Rick noticed.
He nodded to Calista, signaling for her to handle the remaining registration. Then he slowly walked down the steps, crossed through the crowd, and came to Glenn's side.
"Want to talk?" Rick asked.
Glenn looked as if he had suddenly woken up. He raised his head sharply, then silently followed Rick into a relatively quiet hallway nearby.
Rick stopped beside a window and leaned against the wall.
"Don't know how to choose?"
Glenn drew in a long, hard breath.
"I... Maggie... she's right. It's better there. Safer. Hershel and Beth are both going. Her whole family will be there. I understand her."
"You're afraid that if you go, there'll be no one here to take care of things?" Rick asked.
"I'm afraid..." Glenn's voice dropped. "I'm afraid that if I go, I'll drift away from you. I'm afraid Maggie will think that if I choose that side, I'm not one of us anymore."
He looked up, his eyes a little red.
"Rick, we fought our way out of Atlanta together. We've been through so much together. Things have only just started to look like they have a future, and I..."
"You're afraid Maggie will break up with you?" Rick said plainly.
Glenn went stiff. He did not deny it. He just lowered his head in defeat.
Rick looked at the young Asian man in front of him.
He remembered the first time he met Glenn, the boy who had saved him in Atlanta.
In the blink of an eye, that boy had become a man. But that soft, loyal heart inside him had not changed.
"Glenn," Rick said, pointing outside. "Look over there."
Glenn followed his gaze toward the exercise yard.
The crowd was still talking, but Lee and Kenny had already begun registering people in an orderly way, and Maggie was helping maintain order.
"Rock Fortress and us are one from now on," Rick said slowly. "So tell me, which side is which?"
Glenn froze.
"There is no 'this side' or 'that side' anymore." Rick turned back to Glenn. "From now on, there's only 'us.'
"Rock Fortress is coming to help us. If you go to the main base to study and train, that means you're helping us make this place better."
He patted Glenn on the shoulder.
"You're not leaving, Glenn. You're the bridge. Understand? The bridge connecting the prison to Rock Fortress's main base.
"Go learn. Go see. Then bring the good things back. When Maggie misses home, bring her back to visit. No one else can do that job."
Glenn stared at Rick in a daze.
Rick's words were like a key turning in a lock, opening the knot that had been stuck in his heart.
A bridge.
Not betrayal. Not separation. Connection.
"C-Can I do that?" Glenn's throat was dry.
"If you can't, who can?" Rick said with a faint smile. "You're quick, and people like you. The man Maggie chose can't be that bad."
That last rough-edged line made Glenn's nose sting.
He suddenly turned away and wiped hard at his face. When he turned back, his eyes had changed.
"Then I'll go with Maggie," Glenn said. "But I'll come back often. Very often. Any news, anything that needs someone to run between both places, leave it to me."
"That's it." Rick nodded. "Now go. Talk to her properly. Don't act like this is life and death. You'll have plenty of chances to see everyone."
Glenn nodded hard, turned, and ran toward Maggie. After two steps, he stopped again and looked back at Rick. His lips moved, and in the end he only managed to squeeze out one sentence.
"Thanks, Rick."
"Get lost," Rick said, waving him off.
...
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