Welcome to the second half of season 3!

A lot of stuff is gonna happen.

And, as is inevitable in the world of TWD, shit will hit the fan, and it'll hit the fan hard.

Anyway, on with the story!

Carl's POV

-Six Months Later-

"As of yesterday they were still in that hotel in Fort Worth. I can take another search party out to try and find Alejandro and his group." Reagan said as she stood up from the table.

"Good, I'll come with you in case any of them need medical attention." Talia responded.

"Take as much ammo as you need, just in case. We've pretty much got an endless supply now that we have that factory up and running." I said.

The young woman nodded and left the house, Talia following her out.

"What do you think happened to Alejandro and his group?" Jen asked.

"I don't know. They haven't reported in for two days now and we still haven't found them, I just hope when we do find them they aren't like  that group from TX Precision." I responded before heading to the stairs.

"He's still not doing so good. You sure seeing him like that is a good idea?" Carol asked as she grabbed my arm.

"You guys keep saying that I need to not see him, but that's exactly what he needs right now." I responded.

"The last time you saw him we had to lock you up for a week to keep you from going and getting yourself killed." She pointed out, holding my wrist tighter.

"That was when it first happened." I said. "What did you expect me to do, sit here and pretend like they hadn't put my boyfriend in a coma?"

"No, but I did expect you to be smart and not try to take on the entire group by yourself." She answered.

I sighed and yanked my wrist from her grip.

"I can keep myself from going to Fort Worth guns blazing, I promise." I said before starting to walk up the stairs.

"Ok, but I'm holding you to that." She said. "If you run down those stairs looking like you're ready to take on an army I will personally keep you from doing that, even if I have to shoot you in the legs to keep you from leaving."

I made it to the closed door leading to the room that Ethan, Cain, Abel and I shared, that is until Ethan had been shot multiple times and put into a coma. I was about to open it when someone spoke.

"He's still not awake... is he?" Abel asked sadly.

I turned to him and saw that he was leaning against the wall next to the door to the master bedroom.

"No... not yet." I answered.

"Can we see him?" He asked. "Talia hasn't let Cain or I. She said it was best that we don't see him like that."

"I was about to." I answered. "Do you and Cain wanna come in with me?"

"Cain's still knocked out." He answered. "After getting his ass beat by Miguel he passed out and he's still in there." He continued as he pointed at the door beside him.

"Well, do you want to come in with me?" I asked.

He nodded and I opened the door so we could both walk in.

"You know that Talia wouldn't want you guys in here, right?" Jordyn asked from beside the bed.

I looked over and saw that she was currently using a pump to keep my boyfriend breathing.

"You gonna kick us out?" I asked.

"No. I think she's wrong on this, he needs you guys here when he wakes up." She answered.

I pulled up a chair and sat next to her, grabbing Ethan's hand as I did. Abel pulled up a chair on the other side of the bed.

"You want to take over while I go get a smoothie ready for him?" The girl asked.

I nodded and took the pump from her and started pumping air into his lungs. She left the room and almost fully closed the door, leaving a small crack so that she could get back in when the smoothie was ready.

"How long do you think it'll be before he wakes up?" Abel asked as he looked down at Ethan.

"I don't know... I hope he wakes up soon." I answered as I stared down at him. He was extremely pale, bandages covered his stomach and chest in multiple places where he had been shot. A bag of some liquid that I couldn't name hung next to the bed and a tube went from the bag to his arm, the liquid flowing into his system to keep him hydrated. Another tube had been put into his stomach and was used when we needed to feed him.

The door pushed open and Jordyn walked in carrying the smoothie and sat back in her chair. She started to feed the smoothie into the tube that went into his stomach.

The three of us sat like that for a while, me pumping air into his lungs the entire time. When Jordyn had finished feeding him she decided to leave Abel and I alone with him.

"Want me to take over for a bit?" Abel asked as he gestured to the pump.

"Yeah sure, my hands are getting tired." I answered.

He got up and sat in the chair Jordyn had been sitting in and took over for me.

"So what happened with Cain and Miguel?" I asked. "Why were they fighting?"

"They were both out of hand. They were arguing about us still sending search parties out for Alejandro's group. Cain said since we hadn't heard from them, and hadn't found them, that they were probably dead. That got Miguel pissed off and he started saying that Ethan wouldn't wake up. They kept arguing and then it escalated into a full on fight. Nobody could get them to stop." He answered.

I sighed and shook my head.

"We're all just worried and angry about everything that's happened. Once things start to cool down they'll make up." I said.

He nodded and then we sat in silence for a while.

Talia's POV

"This is where they were last time they checked in. It's where we've been starting all our search parties." Reagan said as she parked the truck.

We all got out of the vehicle and saw several trees that all had chunks missing from their trunks.

"We've marked off trees in every direction that we've searched. There's really only one more way to go." The party leader said as she pointed towards the only tree that wasn't marked off.

"Then let's get going. We need to find that group." I said.

Reagan nodded and got everyone moving. We started walking through the woods, heading west from where the group had checked in. We stopped to eat lunch at around midday and then continued on. After a while we had left the forest and we could see a small town. As we got closer to the town we found a sign that had partially fallen over.

"Welcome to Stephenville." I read out loud.

"Let's just hope that they're in there somewhere." Reagan said quietly.

She is clearly worried, not just because we haven't heard from the group, but because her boyfriend is in the group.

"Hey, don't give up on them... they'll be in there." I whispered as I put my hand on her shoulder.

She stared at the small town and took a deep breath before speaking again.

"Let's move!" She shouted to the entire search party. "We're burning daylight, and we definitely don't want to be away from the farm for much longer."

We headed into the town, and luckily found signs that people had been there recently. That was only further proven by sudden gunshots echoing from down the street.

"Let's go!" I shouted as I pulled my pistol out and started to run.

We ran until we could see where the shootout was happening. We hid behind a truck that had been flipped over and Reagan readied her sniper rifle and looked through it towards the shootout.

"I can't see any of our people, but I can see a few people in one of those buildings over there, they're shooting at a house." The girl said.

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go see if our people are getting shot at." Landon said as he pumped readied his shotgun.

"We need a plan before we do anything." I said as I grabbed his arm and kept him from running down the road.

"Let's sneak around the back of the building where those people are shooting from." Akio said as he drew his pistol and cocked it.

"We need to know if it's our people getting shot at before we go and attack those other people." Reagan responded. "Landon, Ezekiel, you guys come with me to figure that out. Talia, you take the rest of us to get behind the gunners, like Akio said. I'll radio you and let you know what we figure out and we'll go from there." She said as she gave me a walkie talkie and pulled another one out for herself.

I nodded and the the three of them snuck off in the direction of the street behind the building that was getting shot at. I led the rest to the road behind the building that the people were shooting from and we hid behind another car while we waited for Reagan to radio me.

Reagan's POV

"Shit. There's shooters on this side to. We're not gonna be able to get in that building this way." I muttered as we hid in an alley and watched as several more people shot at the building from this side.

"Can you tell if any of the shooters are our people?" Ezekiel asked.

I moved around the corner and aimed my rifle at the first one of the shooters that I saw.

"It's not our people." I said as I switched my gaze on each of the shooters I could see.

"Then shoot them so we can find out if our people are in that building." Landon said.

I moved back into the alley and looked at each of them.

"Just do it. We may not like to kill people unless we need to, but we need to know what's going on." Ezekiel said. "Plus, if they are shooting at our people then we need to know."

I nodded and then stepped back out into the street and aimed at the first shooter. I pulled the trigger and his head snapped to the side as he fell over. I quickly switched my aim to the next person and did the same, watching as they collapsed as well. Finally I moved to the last person who was looking around trying to find the person who had killed her two friends. I aimed at her forehead as she turned and faced me and before she could aim her weapon at me I pulled the trigger.

"Ok, they're all dead, let's go." I said.

We ran down the street and looked into the building that had been getting shot at.

"Took you long enough to find us." Cindy said as she looked out the window and saw us.

"Why didn't you guys report in that you were getting shot at?" Ezekiel asked.

"We tried, these people have a sharpshooter or something, as Alejandro pulled the walkie up to tell you it got shot." She answered. "Why they didn't just kill him instead I don't know. We're almost out of ammo and we have both wounded and dead."

"Is Alejandro ok?" I asked.

"Yes, he's fine." She said as she rolled her eyes. "You lovebirds are lucky."

We all walked in and I radioed Talia.

"Kill them all, it's our people that are getting shot at." I said.

Carl's POV

"Please wake up soon... I miss you Ethan." I whispered before kissing his pale cheek.

Abel had fallen asleep a little over an hour ago so I had taken the pump back. Jordyn had come and gone to change the bag of liquid or feed him, but she would always leave after doing whatever she needed to do.

I laid my head down on the bed while I held his cold, limp hand in one of mine and continued pumping with the other. I could feel tears flowing down my face.

What if Miguel's right... what if Ethan never wakes up?

"I need you to wake up... please... I don't know what I'd do if you died on me." I whispered.

Suddenly I heard someone knock on the door.

"Who is it?" I asked as I turned towards the door.

"It's me, Carl." I heard Jen say.

"Come in." I said simply before turning my attention back to my boyfriend.

The door opened and Jen pulled the chair that Abel had been sitting in before he had moved over here to take over pumping and sat down next to me.

"He's not getting any better, Jen... what... w-what if he doesn't?" I asked as I continued to cry.

"He will." She said as she took the pump from me.

"H-how do you know?" I asked.

"Because he has you here with him." She answered.

I sighed and squeezed his hand, wishing more than anything that he would squeeze mine back.

"You want to know something?" She asked.

I just shrugged.

"Ok then, I won't tell you what he asked me a while back." She said.

I looked over at her and could see that she was smiling.

"What did he ask?" I asked, my curiosity piqued.

"Remember when you walked in the living room that one time a while back and Ethan and I had been talking, and I left when you walked in?" She asked.

"Yeah... I said you didn't have to leave, but you did anyway." I said. "What does that have to do with what he asked?"

"I'm getting to that, patience." She said with an evil smirk on her face.

"Oh come on.. you can't leave me hanging like that." I said.

"Ok, ok. Well that's when he asked me." She said. "He asked if I'd be ok with you guys getting married even though you're both really young."

I stared at her in surprise.

He was thinking about that... woah... I mean, I know I'd love to get married to him, but I had no idea he wanted that so soon.

"A-and what'd you say?" I asked.

"I told him that whenever he was ready for that, yeah, I'd be ok with you guys getting married." She answered.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. I mean, come on, if I was gonna have anyone as a son-in-law I'm glad it's you." She answered.

I smiled but then remembered that he was still in a coma and my smile was wiped away.

"Don't give up on him. I haven't given up, I know things are looking bad, but it'll work out." She said before patting my shoulder. "Now, I need to go see if Talia and the others found Alejandro's group. I'll be back later."

She walked out of the room as I took the pump back and continued to help Ethan breath. One of my hands still gripping his unmoving hand. Jordyn walked in to change his bandages, cleaning the wounds before putting new, clean pieces of cloth over each wound.

"You want me to take over for the night so you can get some sleep?" She asked after she finished.

"No... I'm staying right here with him." I said as I shook my head.

"Ok, that bag needs changed in the next hour or so, there are full ones right there." She said as she pointed to several full bags hanging from the side of the night stand. "Those bandages won't need changed until tomorrow, so you don't need to worry about that. And he'll need a smoothie later tonight, I'll go make it and bring it up to you for later."

I nodded and she left to go make the smoothie. After a few minutes she came back and set the bottle of the thick, brownish liquid on the nightstand.

"Goodnight." She said as she walked out and closed the door behind her.

I stared down at our connected hands, still wishing he would hold my hand back, but knowing he couldn't.

"I won't give up... I won't. You're gonna wake up, and after that we're gonna get married." I whispered.

His hand moved slightly and my eye widened in shock.

Maybe I'm just seeing things...

Then his fingers tightened around my hand.

Oh my god... he's... he's holding my hand.

I looked at his face and saw his eyes flutter open slowly. He looked around until his gaze landed on me and he smiled, or tried to as the pump made it hard for him to fully smile.

"Ethan?! You're awake!" I said happily.

Hey guys! So, wow, that was quite the chapter. A ton happened even if it wasn't super long.

Firstly, you officially met the final new character for the season. Here's the face claim.

Amandla Stenberg: Reagan

"If there is even the slightest chance, shouldn't we take it?"

Question Time!

1. Did you expect such a huge time jump?

2. How do you feel about Reagan so far?

3. Did you expect Ethan to be in a coma at the start?

4. Are you mad at Miguel for saying that Ethan might never wake up?

5. Did you think that Alejandro and his group were alive?

6. Did you expect Jen to tell Carl what she told him about Ethan wanting to marry him?

7. How happy are you that Ethan is awake?

8. Did you like the call back to the show that I did, Carl was holding Ethan's hand while he was in a coma and Ethan grabbed his hand, just like in the show it was Carl and Rick after Carl got shot in the eye?

Ok, that's it for now, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

THANKS FOR READING!