Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead or its characters. I only own Elise Young.
A/N: Hey, guys! Thanks for reading this so far. I really hope you can give it a chance and continue to read it because I already have so many ideas in mind. I know the first chapter wasn't all that informative, but things will pick up and you will find out more about Elise as time goes on.
Happy reading!
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Can't Make It Alone
Chapter Two: Night Time
Later in the evening, Duane had finally fallen asleep next to his dad.
Elise sat on the mattress next to their guest, and he watched her as she concentrated on mending an arrow beside him. Her fingers moved carefully but quickly, and he realised as he studied her hands that this task wasn't without it's accidents. Her hands were covered in small scars, obviously from where she'd cut herself while working. Once finished, she placed the mended arrow in her quiver and leaned back against the couch, watching Duane sleep peacefully. That young boy had already been through so much. Elise and Morgan were grateful he could sleep, even with the dead roaming around outside their new home.
"Carl...He your son?"
Morgan broke the silence that had lingered over the room for a while, and Elise looked up at their guest expectantly, drawing her knees up to her chest. Morgan had mentioned something about the man speaking. She'd been too annoyed about the gun to listen properly, though, so she was more than prepared to hear what had happened from the man next to her.
"You said his name today." Morgan spoke up again, watching the man's pained reaction to hearing the name in question.
"He's a little younger...Than your boy."
"And he's with his mother?" Elise asked softly, brow furrowed.
"I hope so." The man replied, his head turning back to Morgan when he heard Duane's voice.
"Dad?"
Morgan smiled, reaching out to touch his son's head lovingly. Their relationship was so strong and so special, it made Elise's heart ache. She realised she'd probably never have a bond like that with a child. Despite her inner turmoil, she smiled at the boy as he snuggled into the pillows a little, waiting for the inevitable question that Duane had been asking for most of the day.
"Did you ask him?"
She chuckled quietly and gave Morgan a warm smile, taking a drink from her water bottle which lay at the side of her. Duane was always a curious and imaginative child, with many bizarre, yet wonderful ideas. She waited expectantly for Morgan to speak, running a hand through her curled hair.
"Your gun shot..." Morgan began, "We got a little bet going...My boy says you're a...bank robber."
Elise giggled sweetly and the man beside her let out a warm chuckle. She wondered, if this man decided to make it on his own to go and look for his wife and kid, would he let her go with him? It wasn't anything against Morgan and Duane. She just wanted to move somewhere else. Somewhere that didn't draw the ghosts of their pasts to them every night. She didn't want to be confined any more. She wanted to go off in search of other survivors. She wanted to go and try and find some kind of answers to this epidemic.
"Yeah... That's me. Deadly as Dillinger. Kapow." The man replied, "Sheriff's deputy."
"Aha..." Morgan answered with a nod.
The group startled as a car alarm went off, and the man shrunk back in his seat when Elise pulled one of her knives out from beside her and moved behind the couch suddenly, almost cat like. She was on alert, wide-eyed and deadly silent. Morgan saw that the man was unnerved by this, but he hurried to calm his frightened son, who had shot up from bed in a wild panic.
"Hey, it's okay. Daddy's here." He said softly, putting soothing hands on Duane's shoulders.
"I bet one of them's just bumped a car." Elise explained, edging towards the window, "It's happened once before. Went off for a few minutes."
"Get the light, Duane." Morgan instructed, beginning to approach the window along with Elise and their guest.
All of them looked through the gap in the drapes carefully, watching the walkers as they wandered around the street. Elise had learned to longer view these things as people. They all needed shooting; it would be the kindest option. It was the only way they could ever be stopped. Elise wondered if a cure could ever be found for this. If she survived this whole thing, would she be one of the people responsible for having to get the world's population going again? Most of the planet had to be wiped out by now, surely. She almost lost her balance which drew her out of her thoughts, and as she regained her composure and held onto the window ledge for dear life, her eyes went even wider at the thought of attracting walkers.
"It's that blue one down the street again." She said quietly, as she straightened herself up and focused, noticing Duane approach to look as well.
"That noise...Won't it bring more of them?" The man asked, voice barely above a whisper.
"If it does, there's not much we can do about it." Elise shrugged, "We'll just have to wait it out until morning."
Suddenly, Duane let out a gasp, and Elise's eyes immediately locked onto the reason why. His poor mother was out there again, wandering around like a lost soul. It broke her heart to see how painful this was for Morgan and Duane. She'd seen what had happened to this woman. She shouldn't still be up and about but...God... None of them had it in them to kill her. All they had to remember her by was some photos of her. Her beautiful smile, her happy times with her family... Elise was saddened by it. She only had a few photographs. One of her and her family all together, one of her and her sister, and two more that she never shared with anybody. Even Morgan and Duane hadn't seen them, even though they knew of her past.
"She's here..." The child breathed, only to be grabbed by the young woman and brought away from the window.
He immediately raced from her grasp and collapsed into his bed sobbing, pained by the sight of his dead mother walking around outside. Elise hurried to quieten him, sitting beside him and grabbing a pillow before placing it on her knee. Carefully she lifted Duane and turned him so he could hide his face in the pillow and she rocked him, hushing him and soothing him. Her heart broke for the poor little boy.
"Shhh, sweetie...Cry into the pillow." She said softly, "Remember? We have to cry into the pillow..."
Morgan hurried to his son's side while the man stayed by the windows, watching the woman as she moved towards the porch. Morgan rubbed his son's back as Elise rocked him and hushed him still, but he kept his focus on the other survivor in their home.
"Shhh, it's okay." Elise whispered, "I want you to take big, deep, quiet breaths for me, okay? Can you do that, Duane?"
As Duane began to do what he asked, Elise pressed a kiss to his hair, whispering praise and more words of comfort to him to soothe him some more. Morgan turned the boy into his own embrace and held him tight, fighting his own emotion as he thanked Elise with a weak smile and a gentle squeeze of her hand. As the man came back to them, Elise moved to his side, clearly fighting tears of her own. After knowing and experiencing what had happened to Morgan's wife, seeing her out on the street was like reliving it all over again.
"She, um..." Morgan began, controlling his emotions while he could, "She died in that other room... On that bed. Nothing I could do about it. That fever man..."
"Skin gave off heat like a furnace." Elise spoke up, swallowing the lump in her throat, "I've never felt anything like that in my life. She should've been put down but... As you can see, none of us had the strength to do it."
The man just nodded quietly in response. Elise carefully stepped over to Morgan, wrapping her arms around him to comfort him the best she could. She'd seen what happened to that beautiful woman. She never wanted to see it again.
The next morning, the group awoke to a soft humming coming from the kitchen. Elise was making breakfast, and smiled softly as she heard the men and Duane stirring in the other room. She quickly got the breakfast onto plates and began to bring it through. No doubt everyone was starving.
"Good morning, guys." She said with a warm smile as she brought a plate through for Duane and one for their guest, who they'd come to know as Rick Grimes, "Here, Rick. Get some of that strength back in you. And you, champ."
Duane took the plate gratefully and waited respectfully as she returned with plates for herself and his dad. As the group tucked into their meal, Elise smiled as Rick's face was graced with a blissful expression when he put the first spoonful of eggs in his mouth.
"Where'd you get these?" He asked her, watching her wink in response.
"We have a few boxes left." She said, poking at her food for a second before looking over at Morgan, "Do you think we can let him take on a walker today? I mean, his wound is almost healed...Just a little bit of healing left to do."
"Are you up for that, Rick?" Morgan asked, watching as Rick swallowed another mouthful of breakfast.
"I could try." He said with a soft grimace, "No harm in that, right?"
"Don't overdo it." Elise warned him, "It takes some swinging. You'll need some muscle in your arms."
"Like yours, you mean?" Duane said, laughing as she flexed her muscles and began to pretend to kiss her biceps.
"Damn, those are big..." Rick commented with a chuckle, "You work out a lot before all this?"
"Champion archer." Elise laughed, "My entire body has to be strong for that. I'm grateful too, given the situation. There are next to no walkers out there. We could easily cover you."
"Okay." Rick answered, nodding with a smile on his face, "Yeah, I'll try."
After their meal, everyone got dressed and freshened up and Rick allowed Elise to change his bandages before she helped him into some clean clothes. He studied the young woman as she washed her hands and folded up the towels she'd used. Her face had petite features, but her prettiness didn't smack you in the face. It was subtle things she did that made her beauty stand out. It may have been the auburn curls hanging by her face, or the way the light caught her face as she smiled. There were a lot of things that brought out the prettiness in her. She looked dainty but it was clear there was a lot more to her than met the eye.
"How old are you, Elise?" He asked her, hearing a small laugh from her.
"Twenty-four." She said quietly, "You wondering what I did before the world went to hell?"
As Rick nodded, Elise let out a huge smile and then laughed out loud. Rick was confused by this, but waited for her to regain her composure. Elise was remembering the old days when she could walk around and just buy food when she was hungry or she could go outside without being chased and almost eaten by another person. She remembered the darker days of her life too. In her view, darker than this mess they were all in.
"I wanted to be able to support myself during college, so I worked at a few stores, then a couple of coffee shops." She began, "Then I ended up in a Walmart. Got to spend my weekends cleaning up after lazy, dirty bastards and got abused by our great American citizens. It sucked, but it paid the bills. Anyway, I was at college training to be a teacher. Got into a kindergarten as a teacher and had a great couple of years until whatever this is broke out."
"I notice you're keen on music." He said, gesturing to her Guns 'n' Roses vest top.
"I'm a piano player by nature, but I play bass and acoustic guitar too." She told him, "I played in a band locally. We had a lot of fun, but I lost those guys so early on in this thing..."
Retrieving her baseball bat from under the bed, Elise handed it carefully to Rick, who stood slowly from the bed, using it as support. He got used to the feeling of the bat in his hands, getting into the stance as if to practice taking a swing. Elise knew he was ready to go and take on a walker. Adrenaline was often enough to give you the energy to bash their heads in, but it helped to have good stamina and upper body strength too.
"Alright, officer." She said with a smile, "Let's go kick some ass."
Grabbing her bow from the living room, Elise swung her quiver over her shoulder and grabbed an arrow. Rick eyed the pink bow in her hand and watched as she lined the arrow up, eyes flashing towards Morgan and Duane. She looked dead set in her concentration. She looked so on edge that the slightest noise would make her fly to the other side of the room, but it was just pure focus. Morgan gave Rick a helmet to protect his face from the blood spatter, and the group headed to the door.
"Let me go first." Elise told them, "There's one sitting just on the driveway, but I'm gonna clear any stragglers on the street."
Morgan nodded and opened the door, letting Elise out first. Bow aimed, she stepped out slowly, scanning the street for any random walkers. Much to the auburn haired woman's relief, the street was clear save the one on the driveway. Still keeping her eyes and ears sharp, Elise let out a sigh of relief.
"Okay, Rick...Show us what you got." Elise whispered, beckoning him out.
"Are we sure they're dead?" Rick asked as he got to the porch.
"You have to ask, just one more time. They're dead." Morgan explained, "Except for something in the brain. That's why it's gotta be the head."
As Rick slowly approached the walker, it took no time in getting up. It turned and suddenly stumbled towards him, bloodied mouth opening and closing at the sight of its next potential meal. Rick charged it and hit it repeatedly with the bat, finally collapsing on the ground as the helmet fell from his head. He was clearly in pain and exhausted from the heavy, hard movements he'd just made. It was tiring work and bloody work. Not to mention you had to get used to dealing with the fact that these things were no longer people. Just empty, rotting corpses.
"You alright?" Morgan asked, approaching the man on the ground as Elise gave the still twitching walker an arrow to the head.
"Need a moment." Rick said quietly, breathing heavily as the strain caused him pain to his healing wound.
"Come on..." Elise breathed, pulling her arrow out of the corpse's head and wiping it on her shirt before going to help him up, "Up we get..."
Easing Rick to his feet, Elise looked to Morgan and nodded quietly, turning to help Rick back into the house. When he'd rested, they were going to pay a visit to the cop's old house. He knew his wife had taken their son and left. There were no photo albums or picture frames left, as he'd explained, and no clothes. They were just going to stop by for his key to the police department and then after a weapons raid, Rick was going to head for Atlanta. Elise had made her decision.
She was going to ask if she could go with him.
-TBC-
Hope you enjoyed!
Thanks for reading so far!
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