Prison, Georgia.
"Let me out of here! I'm sorry! I won't ever do it again! Anyone?!"
Gorman pressed his face against the iron bars and yelled in a desperate voice.
"Please!"
"Shut up!"
Another voice yelled from an adjacent cell, and Gorman flinched when he heard it.
"Shut the hell up, will you? You keep barking like a dog and it's getting on my nerves," Merle said from the neighboring cell. His face was full of annoyance, and his voice was laced with venom.
Gorman did not say anything in response and quietly retreated into his cell. He was still traumatized from the beating he had received from the man.
Seeing the silence return, Merle let out an annoyed snort and went back to reading his Bible.
The reason behind Merle's current situation was a decision made by Daryl and the others. It wasn't simply to punish him for heavily beating a man, but also to keep an eye on him and watch for anything suspicious that might take place around him.
The crew still did not trust the police officers who had joined. They weren't the only ones going through it; even Mary and her people from Terminus had not immediately gained anyone's trust the first time. They had only managed to integrate quickly because their morality had not yet been shaken by the terrible events they were supposed to go through.
Even most of Jack's crew had barely gained the community's trust to this day.
On the other hand, the officers who came from the hospital were the ones having a hard time integrating into the community, because most of them had done questionable things in the past that deserved the death penalty.
Surprisingly, the people who came from Woodbury were doing better than them at assimilating into their new environment. Of course, there were still a few who harbored resentment about what had happened, but they were in the minority.
Merle turned his head away from the book and looked outside his cell. Is no one actually gonna be stupid and take that step forward? There were a few whose looks could kill when they looked at me.
Merle thought of the few faces he had noticed when he presented a heavily battered Gorman to the rest of the community.
I hope one of them does something stupid. This is a good chance to eliminate those unstable variables within the ranks. You're not trying to do something stupid like protecting them, right, Shepherd? he thought, thinking of Amanda.
Meanwhile, inside Shepherd's quarters, she and her trusted confidants had gathered and were deep in a serious discussion.
"What do you think we should do? Should we go with the flow, or should we actually try to redeem Gorman?" she once again brought up the subject they had been mulling over all this time.
Shepherd saw one of them raise a hand and acknowledged it. "Yes, Tanaka? Do you have something to share?"
Slowly putting his hand down, Tanaka cleared his throat and looked around for a moment. "Well, isn't this a good chance to get rid of him? Not only Gorman, but also O'Donnell."
"What are you saying?! They're our friends and colleagues!" One of the officers showed obvious aversion to his words. She was clearly shaken.
Tanaka glared at her and said, "Friends, my ass. Those fools never treated us like friends. They never respected us, and they did unsavory things even before shit hit the fan."
He turned to look at Shepherd and added, "Besides, they were never one of us. If they truly had our best interests at heart, Gorman would never have pulled that stunt. Do I need to remind everyone that we barely earned the trust of the people here? And that fool burned it in one go. Hell, the Woodbury folks and the ones who came here with us have already made themselves part of this community, but here we are still tiptoeing around them because we can't let go of the authority we once had."
His words sent everyone into their own thoughts, because they realized he was right and felt guilty about it. They were truly reluctant to let go of the power they once had over others, and now that they were living here, they were forced to live under someone's thumb.
While everyone else sat in guilty silence, Shepherd was quietly delighted. She had noticed the problem long ago, but had never found a way to raise it without losing her colleagues' support. She had been hinting at it indirectly ever since the start of their discussion, so she was relieved that someone like Tanaka had finally said it out loud.
She had actually discussed this problem with Michael before during the middle of winter. He had advised her to take it easy, and a chance would come to clean up their ranks. Michael was relying on the nasty character of Gorman or O'Donnell, figuring that one of them would eventually cause some trouble. He just hadn't expected it to happen as soon as they left for Florida.
"That... I think that's the only way we can solve this issue and keep it from pestering us any further. Though if you have something better in mind, bring it up quickly," Shepherd said, looking at them one by one.
One of them sighed. "I'm still feeling reluctant, but I have to agree at this point. I also have to admit that it's been easier for me ever since we joined them, not being burdened by everyone's well-being. I've had fewer gray hairs since I stopped worrying about the things we need to provide for our people."
"Now that you mention it, life's been a little easier lately since we have more people we can rely on. We don't even need to go on those supply runs anymore. Besides, I don't want to make an enemy of that monster." The person was referring to Michael and his abnormality.
"Then I'm assuming that all of us here today are in agreement?" Shepherd's expression was serious.
"Do we even have a choice?" Officer Licari could only let out a helpless snort.
"Then I'll need to bring this news to them immediately. I'm sure a few of those jerks are waiting for us to slip up and kick us out." Shepherd chuckled and quietly left the room.
"Man, she's really eager to join them, huh?"
"I'd do it too. I don't want to go back to those days when we had to constantly endanger ourselves just to survive, and then vent our stress on the people living under us."
"Yeah, those days sucked."