AN: Note to my Bones readers, this one is for a fanfiction exchange for the television show The Walking Dead, coordinated by PrintDust. You can find all 15 chapters in the collection called "Holiday Exchange 2014" under PrintDust's account (link: /s/10906377/1/Holiday-Exchange-2014-Collection). If you're a fan of the show, I hope you'll go take a look and leave the other writers a review!
My prompts were from Kaligoddess and pretty easy to work with, and I chose one that allowed me to write an episode tag for the S5 mid-season finale 'Coda.' How heartbreaking was that, huh? Poor Maggie.
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Watching her grieve was heartbreaking.
After that first outburst . . . that piercing, anguished wail that still seemed to linger in the air . . . Maggie retreated inside herself until the face she showed the world was a blank slate. Cold. Emotionless. Detached.
She shed her last tears with the final shovel of dirt over her sister's grave and then she slept there, on the scarred earth beside it, not knowing and not caring that the others stood guard to allow her that one night's vigil.
Also unknown to her, there had been a heated discussion over that vigil, one that almost became something far more serious. No one wanted to stay that close to the hospital. It wasn't safe. How could they trust the people in there to keep their word?
In the end, they stayed because Glenn wouldn't leave Maggie and Rick refused to leave either of them.
And Rick had the last word. When the tension spiked high and hands moved to weapons, he stepped in.
"We leave at dawn."
And that was that. There was a new coldness in their de facto leader that made even Abraham wary.
When the sun rose, so did Maggie. She stuffed a handful of dirt in her pocket then turned her back on the grave and walked away. In the three days since, she'd spoken 26 words.
Glenn had counted.
"You know what I miss?"
The question came out of the blue. He'd volunteered to scout ahead for a campsite for the night and without a word, Maggie had fallen in behind him. They'd traveled at least a mile from the group and now, suddenly, she came to a halt in the shadows of the tall Georgia pines and looked up into the patchy blue sky.
He wasn't sure he understood what she was asking.
"What?"
"Cats."
He definitely didn't understand what she was asking.
"What?"
Maggie shrugged self-consciously and tucked her hands around the rifle strap that crossed her shoulders.
"The pets are all gone. Have you noticed that? When's the last time you saw a dog? A cat? Even Daryl was complaining that he can't hardly find rabbits anymore. I think the only reason the squirrels are still around is that they stay up in the trees."
Glenn stared at her, his brow furrowed with worry.
"Are you okay?"
"I guess the walkers got them." She continued as if he hadn't interrupted. "All they care about is that it's alive, right? Doesn't matter what it is."
"Maggie."
"I saw a herd of them take down a cow once." She was looking up into the sky again. "Cows are pretty dumb but they're big and heavy, too. They've been known to hurt people before." The bark of her laughter was without even a semblance of humor. "People. That's pretty funny, isn't it? Calling them people."
His heart ached for her.
"Maggie."
"They didn't have a plan or anything. I mean, how could they, right? The walkers are just dumb animals, too, really. They just kept following that cow until they had it pinned up against the side of a fence. It didn't have anywhere to go and it wasn't smart enough to just plow through them. So it just stood there as they tore into it. Ate all the insides, the guts and the meat. It lived until Otis put a bullet through its head. He was a better shot than me. I was afraid if I missed, I'd hit one of them. Can you believe that?" That humourless laugh was back. "I was afraid I'd hit one of them."
"Maggie, please stop."
But she couldn't. The words she'd been saving up came pouring out and he could only stand there and let them land like barbs in his skin.
"Do you remember the first one you saw?" Her eyes were raw and red, shimmering behind the tears she refused to let fall. "I do. We'd been hearing all those stories . . . Unbelievable stories. We saw the news reports on TV but we didn't believe it. How could we believe it? Dead people not staying dead. Walking around, attacking people. Eating people . . . No, we didn't believe it. It had to be a hoax, you know, like that Orson Welles thing with the Martians?"
Glenn shook his head sadly and reached for her but she shied away from his touch as if he were one of the contaminated.
"We went into town . . . It was a Saturday. It was just a Saturday. We noticed a few empty cars on the road but it was Saturday morning. Daddy said the cops must have had a checkpoint up to catch drunk drivers or something and the cars hadn't been towed yet. We parked in front of the Tractor Supply and . . . and . . ."
Her throat worked convulsively as she struggled for control.
"Baby, please don't do this . . ."
"There was blood. In the parking lot. A lot of it. Daddy told me and B-Beth to stay in the truck. We still didn't think it was them, the walkers. How could we think that? How could we think that was really happening? That couldn't be happening, right?"
An errant tear finally escaped from the jewel-bright shine of her eyes. Maggie swiped it away angrily.
"Daddy was halfway to the door when Mr. Sutton came out. Only it wasn't Mr. Sutton. Not anymore. He was almost running, with his hands out like he was looking for help but he wasn't. He wasn't. And Daddy just stood there waiting for him. He didn't understand. The devil was running him down and he didn't understand. But Beth did."
Her chin rose as if she expected Glenn to argue with her. He didn't.
"Beth did. Beth knew what was happening. She knew it right away. She crawled over Daddy's seat and jumped out of that truck faster than anything I ever saw and she ran to Daddy and grabbed him and practically dragged him back. He was still staring at Mr. Sutton, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing."
When he reached for her again, Glenn didn't give her a chance to retreat but instead, wrapped her close against his thin frame. Their weapons clattered as the tips of the barrels bumped into each other.
"Maggie, I'm so sorry . . ."
She clung to him, the point of her chin digging into his shoulder, her arms so tight around him that if the moment had been less important than it was, he might have joked about needing space to breathe. Instead he said nothing and accepted the discomfort without showing the slightest hint of pain.
"I can't remember the last thing I said to her." The neck of his t-shirt was soaked with her tears. "I can't remember, Glenn. I've been trying to remember but I can't. I can't."
"Baby . . ."
"Did I tell her I loved her? Did I ever tell her that all those times I told her she was a pain in my ass that I didn't really mean it? Did I ever tell her I was proud of her?"
"Maggie, she knew that!" Glenn leaned back far enough to look into her face. "She knew all of that!"
"But did I tell her?" The heartbroken lines of her face brought tears to his own eyes. "Did I tell her?"
Glenn cupped her cheeks in his hands and peppered her with kisses.
"Yes, you did. I heard you. And more importantly, you showed her how you felt. Plenty of times."
"I'm the only one left. It's just me. I'm alone now."
The whisper was barely audible. Her head fell to his shoulder again as if it took more energy than she had to hold it up.
His arms flexed convulsively around her. "You have me."
"For now."
There was a melancholy despair to her words that rocked Glenn to his core. He pulled away and stared hard into her eyes.
"Maggie, you will always have me. I promise."
She gave him a bleak smile, kissed him sadly and resettled her weapon on her shoulder.
"We need to find that campsite."
When she walked away, he had no choice but to follow her.
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Thanks to PrintDust for putting this fanfic exchange together. It was fun playing in The Walking Dead sandbox for a change. :-)
Thanks for reading!