After the tour ended, Glenn and Maggie followed Calista to the communications room in the industrial park.
Danny was there, and the radio equipment had already been tuned.
Glenn picked up the microphone, took a deep breath, and pressed the transmit button. "Prison Camp, this is Glenn.
Maggie, Lori, and I have arrived at Calista's base. Repeat, we have safely arrived at Rock Fortress."
Rick had been counting the time on the other end. The moment the connection came through, he immediately asked with concern, "Copy that, Glenn. How's Lori? What's it like over there?"
Glenn glanced at Maggie beside him. Maggie gave him a small nod.
"Lori has already settled in. The conditions here are good. Much, much better than we imagined. They have their own medical team, and they've already given Lori a full checkup."
Glenn chose his words carefully. "Rick, Tennessee, Rock Fortress... it's hard for me to explain clearly over the radio.
The level of organization here, what Calista and the others are doing...
Maybe once Lori's condition stabilizes a little, you and Hershel should come see it for yourselves. I think it's necessary."
There was silence on the other end of the radio for a few seconds before Rick's voice came back. His tone gave nothing away, but it sounded a little heavy.
"Got it, Glenn. Stay safe and keep in touch. Over."
After ending the call, Glenn set the microphone down with a troubled expression, his emotions tangled.
He knew how Rick would take it.
Rick was a responsible leader. This might only add more pressure to him, but Glenn felt he had to say it.
The prison had been cleared bit by bit through everyone's hard work, and he wanted it to become better too.
There had to be things they could learn from Calista's side, whether it was rules, systems, or something else.
As night fell, scattered lights came on across Blackberry Ranch. Glenn and Maggie were arranged in the guest room next to Lori's.
They lay in bed, both wide awake.
"Glenn," Maggie said softly in the dark, "how did you feel at the industrial park today?"
Glenn was silent for a while before answering honestly, "Shaken. Maggie, they're not just surviving. They're rebuilding.
They have plans, and they're carrying them out step by step. Rick is working hard to keep the prison going, but it feels like we're always stuck in place. Or we barely take two steps forward before getting pushed one step back.
I asked Lee. Not a single person at Rock Fortress starved or froze to death all winter. There was only one accidental death from a fall. They even had enough strength left to take in a lot of survivors during the winter.
And us? Several of the new elderly people already..."
"If Dad saw the pastures and farmland here, he'd think he'd found paradise."
Maggie finished the thought for him, her voice a little distant. "I talked with Leah and Calista today, and it felt strange.
It's like they've already reached a place we can't touch. Glenn, honestly, I'm a little scared."
"Scared of what?"
"Scared that I... don't want to go back." Maggie struggled with the words, a vague guilt twisting in her chest.
"I know that's wrong. Rick needs people. Dad and Beth are still there, and so is everyone else.
But here, there's electricity, clean water, doctors, factories. They can produce tools, building materials, clothes, even toilet paper and tampons.
I even saw a school today. It's inside that resort hotel in the middle of the residential area.
Lori giving birth here is a hundred times safer than at the prison.
I... I just..."
Glenn turned over and took Maggie's hand in the darkness.
He understood how she felt.
Everything he had seen and heard today had shaken him just as hard.
As her boyfriend, Glenn wanted to give Maggie a safe, stable future. As part of the group, he had loyalty and responsibility toward Rick and the prison.
Those two feelings were clashing violently inside him, leaving even him conflicted.
"Don't think that far ahead yet, Maggie," Glenn finally said, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself. "Lori comes first.
We promised Rick we'd stay with her until the baby is born. We still have time to watch, think, and figure things out."
Maggie leaned her head against Glenn and slowly said, "Okay."
...
That afternoon, in the prison communications room.
Rick listened to Glenn's voice, his back held straight.
"...Lori has already settled in. The conditions here are good. Much better than we imagined... Maybe once Lori's condition stabilizes a little, you and Hershel should come see it for yourselves..."
The conditions were good. Much better than they had imagined.
Rick's first reaction was relief. Lori and the baby's safety would clearly be much better guaranteed.
A safer place with better medical care. That was exactly what he had dreamed of, yet for now, it was something he could not provide for his family.
As an ally, this was undoubtedly good news.
But come see it for yourselves. It's necessary.
There was something in Glenn's tone that Rick found deeply unfamiliar.
A wavering after being convinced, maybe even shaken? A faint admiration for another force?
"I understand, Glenn." Rick ended the call cleanly and looked out the communications room window.
Outside the window was a sight he knew well. The prison.
This was Rick Grimes's home, the camp they had built with blood, sweat, and countless difficult days and nights, the place they were working so hard to keep running.
Every person here, every gun, every mouthful of food, was his responsibility.
Sometimes Rick felt that after the apocalypse, he had become too tired. Somehow, he had become the leader of a group, always forced forward by one crisis after another, even losing track of his closest friend.
From waking up in the Atlanta hospital and escaping, to the quarry camp, then the fallen nursing home, the exploded CDC, and the farm overrun by a herd of walkers, it felt as if every time, they had been just a little short on luck.
Every time, they thought they would finally be able to live a good life, but hope was quickly crushed by reality.
So many people depended on him, and their number was still growing.
He had to lead teams to clear the prison, lead people out to search for supplies, and manage everything in the prison as a whole. It felt like he could never stop, not even for a moment.
The prison was already the best home they had, and it was still getting better. But was life in the prison now truly worthy of all the hardship they had endured along the way?
And the place Glenn described was highly organized, safe, prosperous, and had even restored industrial production.
Rock Fortress was like a mirror, too polished and bright, suddenly standing beside the rough territory of the prison.
Rick suddenly felt lost. He stared at his reflection in the window glass and wanted to sharply question the tired man with sunken eyes staring back at him.
Why can't you do it? Are you still not trying hard enough?
What tightened Rick's throat even more was Glenn's attitude.
Had Glenn and Maggie already started to feel that Rock Fortress mattered more than this place?