Hershel immediately pulled his head back from the edge of the hayloft, his face pale as he stared at Magnus Vane.
“How the hell did we end up in here?” Magnus shrugged and put on his most innocent expression.
“How should I know?” In reality, now that the alcohol was wearing off, pieces of the previous night were beginning to return to him.
After the party ended and everyone else had gone to sleep, Magnus had apparently staggered out of his tent and made his way to the second floor of the Greene farmhouse.
Still drunk and convinced he had come up with an incredible idea, he had talked Hershel into leaving with him.
Hershel initially refused, but Magnus’s enhanced physique had made that irrelevant; he had actually climbed out through the second-floor window with the older man on his back and carried him all the way into the barn loft.
Apparently, drunk Magnus had decided Hershel needed to rediscover some youthful excitement.
“If we’re gonna deal with those walkers, we’re gonna deal with all of them!” Magnus vaguely remembered declaring once they reached the loft.
Thinking back on his drunken confidence now, he scratched his cheek and seriously considered swearing off parties forever.
Fortunately, Hershel didn’t seem to remember much of what had happened either.
After one suspicious look at Magnus, the veterinarian simply sighed and led the way toward the loft’s exterior exit.
Once they were outside and walking across the grass, Hershel finally broke the silence.
“You saw everything in there?” Magnus didn’t bother pretending otherwise.
“Yeah.” Since Hershel clearly didn’t remember the drunken conversation about clearing the barn, Magnus decided not to mention it.
Hershel stared ahead for several seconds.
“I have my reasons.” Magnus glanced toward him.
“You still believe they’re sick people.
Family, neighbors, people who might be saved someday.” Hershel had already revealed that belief during their first negotiation, so there was nothing surprising about the question.
“Yes,” Hershel admitted after a pause.
That belief was exactly why the barn existed.
He hadn’t only locked away members of his own family who had turned; any walker found wandering near the property had been brought there whenever possible.
Hershel still saw containment as compassion rather than danger.
Magnus stopped walking and looked directly at him.
“Then you’ve basically parked a bomb twenty yards from where your daughters sleep.” His tone sharpened immediately.
“If that barn gives out, those things aren’t going to recognize Maggie or Beth.
They’re going to tear them apart.”
Hershel remained silent.
“If one of those walkers grabbed Beth tomorrow, would you still call it sick and wait for a cure?” Magnus asked.
“Would you stand there while it tried to eat her because killing it felt wrong?” Hershel’s jaw tightened, but he still didn’t answer.
Magnus didn’t need one; the hesitation itself said enough.
The truth was that Hershel had already begun changing since Magnus’s group arrived at the farm.
Living beside Daryl, Merle, Andrea, Amy, and Magnus had forced him to see how differently experienced survivors viewed the dead.
Even the party the previous night had affected him more than he wanted to admit.
Seeing Maggie and Beth laughing around the fire had reminded him that protecting the living had to matter more than preserving memories of the dead.
But understanding something and accepting it were different things.
Magnus watched Hershel walk with his head lowered and decided not to keep pressing.
He hadn’t given up on changing the veterinarian’s mind; he simply knew pushing harder right now would make Hershel dig in.
Rick and the others would eventually reach the farm, and once that happened, reality would probably force the issue on its own.
Magnus already knew how stubborn beliefs like Hershel’s tended to end in this world.
Everyone had to adapt eventually.
Age didn’t matter.
Good intentions didn’t matter.
The outbreak had rewritten the rules for everyone.
Magnus had changed because he wanted to survive, and he expected the people around him to do the same.
Adaptation meant being able to protect yourself before somebody else—living or dead—made the choice for you.
Hershel needed to reach that understanding in his own way, especially if Magnus eventually intended to bring the Greene family with them when they moved on to somewhere more defensible.
A person unwilling to kill a walker at the wrong moment could become just as dangerous as the walker itself.
By the time Magnus finished thinking, they had already reached camp.
Andrea hurried over the moment she saw him and began checking his arms, neck, and clothes for bite marks.
Hershel received almost identical treatment from Maggie, Otis, Jimmy, and the rest of his family, who surrounded him and started inspecting him from every angle.
Neither man looked particularly pleased about it.
“That’s enough!” Hershel snapped, slapping Jimmy’s hand away before turning toward Magnus.
His expression remained irritated from both the hangover and their conversation.
“Maybe you should stay away from hard liquor for a while.
Apparently it isn’t good for either of us.”
Magnus understood the meaning beneath the complaint.
Hershel wanted some distance restored between the Greene household and Magnus’s camp, especially after waking up in a barn full of walkers because of whatever drunken stupidity they had gotten into together.
Part of it was embarrassment, but another part was Hershel’s discomfort with how quickly the two groups were becoming intertwined.
Magnus simply smiled and let him have the last word.
Before anyone could continue the conversation, several figures appeared near the edge of the farm.
The fire engine had blocked the view, so nobody noticed them until they were already approaching the camp.
Magnus turned at the sound of footsteps and immediately recognized the man in front.
“Magnus?”
Rick Grimes stopped in surprise.
So this was the farm Magnus had mentioned before they split up.
Rick’s eyes immediately swept across the property, taking in the open fields, farmhouse, barn, vehicles, and relatively clear surroundings.
Compared with the highway and the ruined areas they had traveled through, the Greene farm looked almost ideal for a temporary camp.
There were few walkers in sight and enough open ground to spot trouble well before it reached them.
Daryl stepped closer to Magnus and lowered his voice.
“Ran into Rick and Carl in the woods.
Figured I’d bring ’em here.” His tone made it clear there hadn’t been much debate about the decision.
Daryl considered this Magnus’s camp now, and bringing people he already knew here felt natural.
Carl stood beside his father, holding one of Rick’s arms as he looked toward Magnus with obvious curiosity.
“Hey, Magnus.” The boy’s eyes immediately drifted toward the massive Stone Sledgehammer nearby.
After seeing Magnus fight at the quarry, Carl had clearly decided there were worse people in the world to learn from.
Magnus nodded to him.
“Hey, Carl.”
Inside, however, Magnus was considerably more pleased than he showed.
Rick’s group had only been gone for roughly a week, yet it felt much longer.
Magnus had been waiting for them because their arrival changed what he could realistically attempt next.
With Rick, Shane, Daryl, Merle, and the others together, taking and holding a larger fortified location—eventually even the prison—would become far more realistic.
More importantly, Carl had reached the farm without being shot.
That alone meant the timeline had already shifted significantly.
Magnus’s earlier decision to bring Daryl and Merle here had changed who was moving through the surrounding woods, and this time Carl had avoided the kind of accident that could have left him fighting for his life.
Magnus quietly accepted that as one more reminder that his presence was already reshaping events.
From this point forward, relying too heavily on how the television story originally unfolded would become increasingly dangerous.
A loud voice suddenly cut across the camp.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in.”
Rick didn’t even need to turn to know who it was.
Merle Dixon leaned against the side of the fire engine with an apple in one hand, taking a large bite while wearing the same irritating grin Rick remembered from Atlanta.
“Magnus said you people would probably show up here sooner or later.
Told him he was full of shit.”
Rick’s expression tightened.
Then his eyes shifted slowly toward Magnus.
“You said we’d come here?”
Magnus’s smile faded slightly.
Rick stared at him.
“How did you know?”
[Chapter Rewards]