Issue #1, "The Parting Glass"
We won't survive out here. It's not safe. Might as well off ourselves here and now because there's no point in trying to make it in a world that no longer wants you alive anymore.
That's what Mike said to Michonne before she lost him.
And she had to admit that maybe, just maybe, for a second she believed him. Michonne was ready to give up. After the whole Andre situation she just felt dead, like she was invisible, like one of those roamers with no more life force left inside of her.
Scooping up the last of the fruit in her plate, she savored the taste of sweet warmness before setting the spoon down.
"Penny for your thoughts, Michonne?"
She took in the appearance of Estelle, who looked rather less tattered than she had yesterday. Of course that had been before the group discovered the cleanest wardrobe they had seen in weeks.
"I wasn't really thinking of anything," Michonne spoke in a subdued voice after regretfully swallowing the last fruit in Viverly. "Even if I was, I wouldn't tell you. There's enough sadness going around."
Estelle sat on bench and scooted closer. "You talking about Sonya?"
"Yeah. She was up all last night crying in her cell. I didn't get much sleep because of it, but I don't think she needs to know that." Michonne stood from the table and rubbed her hands together, she could feel the dust falling away.
"Should we assemble a cleaning service?" Joked Estelle as she watched Michonne, getting to her feet and grinning a grin that looked just like her father. "But seriously though, there's a lot more work to be done here. This isn't paradise."
"Of course it isn't, it's a prison." Michonne felt cold sweat spill down her chest and moaned of exhaustion. "Are there any more clothes left or am I going to have to wear one of those ugly prison jumpsuits?"
"The latter, sis." Estelle playfully tapped Michonne's arm just as soon as her face darkened with disappointment. Michonne's sister knew she hated those uniforms. Who knew what the inmates could have been doing in them?
"Michonne!"
The two of them whirled at the yelping sound of Michonne's name for their eyes to land on Wolfram, he was carrying a pink rag, his clothes and skin stained in grease. "You've got to see this. Come on."
They rushed after him.
X
"Dad, can we stop, please?" Judith crinkled her nose as she tried to wipe away grimy dirt off her arms, earning a grin from her brother Carl. "I've already been bitten by two mosquitoes already, I can't take it anymore."
Rick stepped over a large slab of rock that was stained with blood and another thick substance and looked back to make sure his children were caught up.
"How is stopping going to keep mosquitoes away from you, Judith? It doesn't make any sense." Carl said, rolling his eyes and picking up a nearby stick since he'd lost his a while back.
"It makes perfect sense," said Judith. "We set up our tent, zip the thing up and they won't be able to chew me out before sundown."
She quickly shoved Carl with her open hands and he fell on his stomach with an oof sound. "Hey!" He yelped.
"Judith, quit it." Rick hissed angrily. He stepped down a lump in the forest ground and helped Carl to his feet.
A guilty expression washed over Judith's face when she saw blood slowly dripping from a gash in his cheek. Carl glared at his sister with hooded eyes and shook his head before they continued on their way.
X
Michonne had been sure to snag her long and deadly sword that she had hung in her cell before heading outside of the prison. She slowed her run when she realized that there were a few cars parked outside the fences of Viverly.
Some of the vehicles were painted white with pink rainbows on the sides, and other things doodled that were in another language.
The Sisterhood, thought Michonne, they've come to collect.
Michonne looked up at Sid, he was standing in one of the towers with his sniper ready and aimed, across from him in the other tower was his brother Terrance doing the same thing.
"Estelle, open the gates." Ordered Michonne.
Estelle rushed forward, her sword clanking from her sheath that was strapped to her pocket, and approached the fences. She unhooked the chains until they slipped freely of the gate and fell heavily at her feet. Estelle looked back at Michonne for approval and got a leaderful nod.
Estelle nodded back before yanking the gates open. She hurriedly stepped out of the way for the cars had already began moving into the prison park yard.
The three cars entered and Estelle shut the gate again, not bothering the chain it up.
The first car's door opened and Maxine stepped out, she was wearing filthy boots and her hair up in a messy ponytail. The dirt beneath her boot clouded the air around her as she slowly approached Michonne and Wolfram.
Maxine's eyes ran over sweaty Wolfram with a venomous gaze, she stopped a few feet away and tucked her hands into the brown leather pants she wore. "So? Do you have our cans ready? The fruit, the beans, the tuna?"
Michonne squinted in confusion. "Fruit? There is no fruit." She thought back to eating the last fruit cocktail can and instantly regretted it, this could mean trouble—more so than before.
"What do you mean, 'there's no fruit'?" Maxine was very intimidating, she was gorgeous, sure. But when she spoke, her lips were the only thing that moved and it made the scene even more menacing.
Michonne looked over to Estelle, the sisters shared a look. "I mean, we enjoyed the last of it earlier. Maxine, we can provide you with the beans and tuna as long as you hold up your end of the deal."
Michonne tried her best to keep her expression confident, she couldn't let Maxine know she was nearly shaking in her shoes.
All Michonne was thinking was, at least I have my sword on my back, that way if she made a single move on the Viverly gang her head would be hitting the floor before her body could react.
Maxine quirked one of her eyebrows, a smirk playing on her lips like the crook of a spoon. "Oh, really?"
"Yeah," Michonne looked at her sister again. "In fact, we have it all crated and packed ready to go. Don't we, Wolfram?"
Wolfram nodded. "I can get it right now—"
"Fucking don't." Maxine held her arm out, it was smeared with dry blood. "I don't want no man's hands on our shit. Estelle, why don't you go collect those crates, honey?"
Estelle ran back inside the prison, and Michonne looked down at her booted feet before back up into Maxine's face. "Do you have what we asked for?"
Maxine grinned even wider. "Of course we do. Matches, gasoline, even the guns. Tracy!" She called out, back to the cars.
There was a bigger car, a black jeep, its door opened and out stepped another girl. She was dark-skinned with long stringy blonde hair. She headed to the back of the car and opened the trunk.
Michonne watched from her distance as Tracy pulled out a black case. It was heavy-looking and wide. Tracy grabbed it by the handle and struggled to drag it over to the Viverly gang.
She let it go near Wolfram, and up close Michonne saw the piercings in her nose, lip and eyebrows. Tracy walked over to Maxine, standing by her side.
The prison side door shutting made everyone look toward the sound, and it had been Estelle, carrying two crates stacked on top of each other. Michonne nearly smiled at how muscular her sister's arms had gotten since the apocalypse began.
Estelle sat it in front of the girls and took her place beside Wolfram and Michonne. "That all? Can you go now?" Said Estelle, smartly.
Michonne knew Maxine didn't appreciate the way Estelle spoke to her, but did a pretty damn good job of hiding it. "Next time I come up in here and I ask for something? That shit better be here."
With that, she and Tracy carried the crates back to their cars and got inside of their vehicles. With a wink, Maxine waited until Estelle opened the gates back up to pull out of the prison.
Once they were out of sight, Michonne released a breath and got into a squatting position. "Those girls scare the living crap out of me."
Estelle put a hand to her sister's shoulder. "I agree, sis."
X
"Hey—you're eating it all up!" Judith made a reach for the bag of gummy worms that Carl was carrying but he quickly moved it away in the swift motion of his hand. "Dad!"
Rick didn't respond to her, he was too focused on the darkness of the woods, there was something about them that didn't sit right with him.
The candy had melted out of the shape of worms but they were good enough. "As soon as I get handy with a weapon you're never going to bother me again." Said Carl, stuffing the packet into his backpack.
He then pointed to the cut in his cheek that was dry now. "See? That's what you did to me. Stop bothering me."
Judith rolled her eyes and continued on their way. "When the hell are we going to get out of these—Dad!?"
The children froze in place as a dark shadow protruded from a big bush and their father was tweaked roughly into it by a muscular arm.
"Well, why are you just standing there? Get a move on, asshat!" Judith pushed her brother's shoulders but he didn't move. She moaned angrily before heading over to the spot Rick had vanished from.
"Dad! Dad!" She screamed in a loud girly voice, something she always said she'd never do if a horror movie came to life. "Where are you?"
She looked back at Carl, a clear shock on his face. "Carl! Get with reality, you dumb baby!" She headed over to him and slapped him against the face—she did it so hard it hurt her own hand and even got Carl to blink.
"Someone took him? Someone took Dad?" Carl stepped forward and squinted into the bush. "Dad?"
Before he could tell Judith no one was there, he heard a whispery wheeze and it was followed by a walker, it fell on him, knocking him against sharp rocks, Carl could not feel pain but he felt wet liquid soaking his socks.
"CARL!" Judith rushed over and kicked the walker in the face, a flap of skin coming off on her shoe. "Ugh." She said in a disgusted voice as the thing fell over. She walked over and continued to beat it in the face with her foot until it no longer attempted to chew into her brother.
Her brother who she realized wasn't moving. Judith fell to her knees at Carl's side and shook his shoulders angrily. "Wake up, snot boy! Wake your butt up, wimpy wussy!" Her hand cracked across his cheek but his eyes did not open and his body did not respond to her.
A long, wet tear slipped from her right eye. "Carl?"
