Lucille and Bobby kept to themselves as they helped the others arrange the bodies. Croats in a pile, people in a line. Lucille kept sneaking worried glances towards the people she'd met in Atlanta, she couldn't help it. She knew that they'd be okay eventually, or some equivalent of it, but that didn't stop the unease rolling around in her stomach. She and Bobby continued through the night, even when others in their new group tried to get them to stop. They didn't need sleep, at least, not as much. Instead, Bobby told them that they needed the sleep after everything that happened, and to let them handle it until they were ready to help.
It wasn't until dawn that most, if not everyone, was around and about, dragging all of the bodies to and from. Rick had gone up to the top of the Quarry with a walkie a few minutes before. Daryl once came up and patted Lucille on the back and told her to go up and help Mongalez and Glenn arrange the Croat bodies for the fire. T-Dog was using a pickaxe to make sure all the Croats were doornails. All the while, the blonde woman, Andrea, never moved from her spot from her sisters side.
"Do you think she's going to be okay?" Glenn whispered to Lucille. She looked at him and back at Andrea and Amy and sighed.
"I don't know for sure. We just have to be there for her when she needs us." Glenn nodded stiffly and went to pick up the Croat in front of him. Lucille helps him out.
"How are you doing, though? You were freaking out pretty hard last night," Glenn's face blanched. "You aren't going to throw up, are you, bud?"
He shook his head.
"I may see a crap ton of Walkers on a semi daily basis when I go out to the city, but I've never seen something like this… It was a massacre." Lucille was silent for a moment.
"Do you need a hug?"
Glenn gave her a shaky smile, "Can we rain check? There's still work to be done even if you and your cousin went beast-mode it last night." Lucille smiled back and they lifted the Walker into the burn pile.
"Hey, you stay here and I'll bring over a Jerry can of gasoline that I have to kick start this mother."
Glenn nodded his head and started helping Morales, Bobby and Daryl lining up the people they lost in a row.
As she walked to where her and Bobby's tent was, she could feel someone's stare on the back of her neck. She looked around and saw that Rick's little boy, Carl, and Carols daughter, Sophia, were giving her curious looks. She smiled and waved at them as she picked up her small plastic Jerry can. Carl returned her smile and waved back half-heartedly, and Sophia smiled back at her. She made her way back to the Walker Pile, flicked Bobby on the ear as she passed. He swatted at her hand and scowled as she giggled. Daryl had switched out with T-Dog and was now shiving Walkers in the head with it.
She poured the gas on top of the stacked bodies and lit a match. The moment it hit the fuel soaked pile it ignited, giving off a rancid burned flesh smell. Lucille groaned and turned her head away. Even during a salt and burn it didn't smell this bad. She held a hand against her nose and turned to the others hauling bodies and gagged. Bobby nodded in agreement and made his way to help her continue hefting Walker bodies into the fire.
"Hey, Bobby," Lucille started, "You see Andrea and Amy?"
Bobby grunted yes.
"Did you notice their souls before Amy died?"
"I did. They were connected. Soulmates." Lucille nodded grimly. They lifted the once pretty woman into the fire and continued. They saw Rick's wife, Lori, crouch down next to the blonde and try to convince her to let them move her body. It didn't work, so Lori gave her condolences and walked away. T-Dog and Glenn made their way with more Walkers to throw into the burn pile.
"How do you think she's gonna cope? Revenge driven like Tall Man when Dean first died, or reclusive like Dean when Tall Man jumped in the cage?" Lucille continued under her breath.
Bobby shrugged, "It's hard to tell, Lu. Every human is different and their grieving patterns vary. Its like what you said to Glenn, we just have to be there for her if or when she needs us."
"Very true," she said. "Look who's coming back."
Rick was walking back down the hill and head over to Lori. He nodded a greeting to Bobby and Lucille, which they returned. He turned to talk to Lori and she looked like she was pissed about something. Lucille looked at Bobby.
"Wanna eavesdrop on their convo?"
Bobby shrugged and lifted the front end of a Walker. "Sure. Why not?"
Being part Angel had its ups and downs. This was an up; having advanced hearing that helped when listening to other people talk shit about you and then later can be called out on it. A downside would be listening to everything else in high definition, which could get distracting.
"-ust don't think we should trust them, is all. We don't know them, they could be the ones that drew the Walkers into our camp!" Lori hissed.
"They didn't, cause they didn't even know us until yesterday in Atlanta, and were with us the entire time. If you want to know where they're heads are, you can ask them or Daryl, they actually know each other." Rick replied.
"That's another thing! They know Daryl. Who's to say they aren't just as hot-headed and trigger happy as he is? I don't trust them, and if they turn out to be dangerous and hurt someone here in camp-"
"That's on me, I know that. But I highly doubt they shouldn't be trusted. Try to get to know them, while they're here. They're good people. Now what about Andrea? She still hasn't moved?" Lori sighed and shook her head.
"No. She won't even talk to us. She's been there all night. What do we do?"
"We can't just leave Amy like that. We need to deal with it. Same as the others," The curly haired guy, Shane, said, nodding towards where T-Dog, Glenn, Bobby, and Lucille were burning corpses. Rick nodded.
"I'll tell her how it is," He said and made his way towards Andrea. Lucille looked up suddenly and saw Rick walking towards the silent blonde.
"Uh, I wouldn't do that just yet, Ranger Rick," She nervously supplied. He held his hand up in response. Lucille stared for a minute before turning to Bobby.
"He gets it from you." Bobby gave her a withering look.
"What do I have to do with this?" She shrugged. Lucille looked back at Rick and Andrea, concerned.
Rick went to crouch down next to her, "Andrea-" he was cut off by her pulling a gun on him.
"I know how the safety works," She said coldly. Rick held up his hands in surrender and started backing away slowly. Lori and Shane had stood up, ready to help Rick if he needed it.
"Alright. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Andrea slowly put down her gun and turned back to her sister, steely blue eyes turning a watery grey.
Daryl walked up to the circle with Lucille and Bobby in tow. Daryl looked at them in frustrated awe.
"Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb!"
"What do you suggest we do?" Rick asked him. Daryl leaned in close.
"Take the shot."
"Daryl!" Lucille said agast.
"It'll be clean, through the brain, from here! Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance," Bobby held his hand up.
"We aren't doing that, Daryl. It wouldn't be fair to Amy nor Andrea." Daryl looked between him, Lucille, and the others before scoffing and walking away, dust and dirt being kicked up in his wake. Rick turned to Lucille and Bobby and gestured for them to sit on the big log.
"You two should sit down and rest, let the others take over," He said not unkindly. Bobby and Lucille looked at each other. He shrugged and sat down, letting out a groan as his back and knees popped. Lucille followed his lead and sat down as well.
Daryl had walked up to Jim, who was looking off into the distance with what one would call a 1000 yard stare.
"Wake up, Jimbo! We got work to do," it knocked Jim out of his haze, and Daryl patted Morales on the back and helped him heave one of their passed camp member into the fire. T-Dog was shoveling dirt into the fire to keep the flames low enough to where they wouldn't burn anything else down. Glenn saw what they were doing and spoke up.
"What are you doing? This is for Geeks. Our people go over there," He pointed to the row Bobby and Lucille had started.
"What's the difference, they're all infected," Daryl shrugged. Glenn walked closer to Daryl and hissed in his ear.
"Our people go in the row over there," His voice cracked with emotion, "We don't BURN them! We bury them. Understand?"
Daryl took a look at the kid and sighed in defeat before nodding. He nudged Morales to head toward the row of people they lost.
"You reap what you sow," He muttered indifferently. Morales finally snapped and told him to shut up. Daryl walked away from them anger spelled clearly on his face.
"Y'all left my brother for dead! You had this comin'!" He stalked off into the woods to cool down. Lucille watched him leave and breathed through her nose. She thought back to the way things were before the undead apocalypse. She remembered going on simple hunts with her Poppy and the Tall Man, sometimes Dean and Cas. She had even recently been going on hunts with Bobby in tow! That was also the reason that they were in Atlanta to begin with.
There had been a hunt in the northern part of Atlanta, and they got caught up in the panic. The city, while others said it would be the safest bet, was out of the question in her parents minds. For good reason, too, because it wasn't too long before the city was bombed. Her parents, siblings, and Dean and Cas' family unit had found that abandoned house and stayed there for those few weeks, scavenging what they could, conjuring up what they couldn't find. Surviving.
And up until she suggested that she and Bobby scavenge the city, it was a pretty good gig. The adults were against it, of course, since they were so young, but she'd somehow persuaded them to allow it. Now, she and her younger cousin were separated from their family, were unsure if they were still on their way to those coordinates, if they weren't there already. It was ultimately her fault that they were lost, and they didn't have a map of the U.S. to even try to begin looking for a way to get to the coordinates. Dear Granddad, this whole situation was a mess in a burrito of fucked up.
"Lucille?" Rick's voice broke her from her musings. She looked up at him, eyes wide.
"Yeah, what's up?" He had a troubled look on his face, and Dale looked worried.
"Penny for your thoughts, kiddo?" Dale asked. Lucille smiled sadly and looked at him.
"You sound like my Poppy. He calls everybody 'kiddo'. I'm just thinking about how everything was before… this," She waved her hand around. Bobby laid a hand on her shoulder and she patted it gently.
"So, you're cousins?" Lori asked. Bobby nodded his head.
"Why don't you look alike, then?" Shane demanded. Rick looked at him and pursed his lips.
"Shane," He warned. Lucille smiled.
"Cousins don't really look like each other too often, Shane. The only cousin I have that looks similar to me is Bobby's older sister, Mary, and even then it's a stretch," She dug around in the lining of her jacket, "I do have some photos of my family, though, if you want to look through those."
She pulled out about 10 pictures. The first one she held up was of a tall man with shoulder length hair the same color as Lucille, standing next to a slightly shorter man with light brown hair and green eyes. They were posing in fighting stances, the tall man making a funny face and weilding a knife that looked too small for him and the shorter one had a determined look and held a curved blade and his legs were stretched out too wide. On the back it said 'Sam and Dean, 34 + 39' in curly handwriting. Rick said what was on the back, smiled and passed it around to Shane, Lori, Carol, and Dale.
"Sam, the tall one, is my dad. I call him "Tall Man". Dean is Bobby's dad," Lucille said as Dale and Carol laughed and smiled at the photo. Carol handed the photo to Bobby.
"What do you call Dean, Bobby?" Carol asked. He looked her in the eyes.
"Bourbon."
"Why 'Bourbon'?"
"He likes bourbon."
"You make it seem like Dean's an alcoholic," Lucille laughed and Bobby grinned at her.
"Have you not met my dad?" Rick looked at Lori and grinned, she gave a weak smile in return.
The next photo was of a little girl with blonde hair holding a baby with black tufts of hair in her arms and a little boy with blonde hair leaning in close with his mouth and eyes open wide. The back said 'Mary Ellen and Henry Johnathan meet Robert Ashton, 4, 3 + 2 days' in quick swishes. Rick has taken up the role of reading the back out loud and passing them around when Lucille hands them to him.
"Mary Ellen? Your sister?" Rick asks Bobby. He smiles and nods his head, "What about Henry?"
"My younger brother," Lucille says, "Jessica is the youngest for my side of the family."
"You were such a cute baby," Carol announces. Bobby blushes and murmurs a "Thank you, ma'am" as Lucille gives him a once over.
"I know, what happened?" Bobby glared at her and pushed her off the log. Lucille laughed loudly and quickly sat back up. She handed Rick one more photo, it was a group photo.
Lucille and Bobby were in it and they didn't look too different from now, so it must be recent. Sam and Dean were at the back with a slightly shorter, dark haired man and and a man with golden blond hair that stood barely above Sam's shoulder. Lucille stood at the end in front of the blond man with her arm around a younger blonde girls shoulders. The blond boy, Henry, stood almost as tall as Sam and had his arm around his father's shoulder. Mary stood next to her father in a half hug, a girl of about 12 with black hair and blue eyes stood between Dean and the dark haired man and Bobby stood next to him. In the middle was a red haired woman and an Asian boy. On the back it said 'Family Photo; Dean (39) + Cas (∞) - Mary (20), Pamela (10) and Bobby (15), Charlie (28) + Kevin (22), Sam (34) + Gabe (∞) - Henry (15), Jessica (13), Lucille (17) - Home." in loopy script. Daryl was walking back from the woods, having cooled down enough to continue working.
"You're teenagers?" Asked a shocked Lori. Lucille and Bobby nodded.
"Why are Cas and Gabe's ages the infinity sign?" Shane asked. Lucille simply shrugged. Daryl stopped and looked at them in confusion. He stood between Lucille and Bobby and looked at the pictures Lucille handed him.
He whistled, "Damn, Sammy got tall. And that? That ain't fair," He said pointing at Dean accusingly. Lucille and Bobby laughed and Carol chuckled. Rick smiled and took the photo again.
"It's a beautiful family, guys. Why were you in Atlanta, if you don't mind me asking?" He asked.
"The only time we had been in Georgia was to get into a different state, so we thought why not vacation there for a bit? And then, the dead started coming back, we got separated, now we're here," Lucille shrugged.
"A Walker got him! A Walker bit Jim!" Jaquie yelled. Everybody stood up and made their way towards her and Jim. Lucille took the photographs from Bobby and Daryl and put them back in her secret jacket pocket. Daryl picked up the pickaxe he dropped a few minutes before. Within almost a minute, they had Jim surrounded.
"Show it to us. Show it to us," Daryl demanded.
Jim looked like a cornered animal. He looked around wildly, trying to see a way out, but found none. He picked up a shovel and started waving it around.
"Jim, put it down! Put it down!" Shane yelled.
"Grab him!"
"Calm down, Jim!"
T-Dog walked up behind Jim and grabbed him. Jim dropped the shovel and started shaking.
"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay," Jim kept muttering, but he seemed to be trying to reassure himself rather than everyone else. Daryl ran forward and lifted Jim's shirt, revealing his bite. Lucille grabbed Bobby's arm and he returned the gesture. Everyone looked horrified at this turn of events.
Dale told Jim to sit down behind the R.V. as everyone else conversed on their next move. Daryl looked back at Jim and swung his pickaxe to his shoulder.
"I say we put a pickaxe in his head, and the dead girl's, and be done with it," He says forcefully.
"Is that what you'd want? If it were you?" Shane questioned, pulling on his sheriff's hat.
"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it," Daryl nodded.
I hate to say it I never thought I would but maybe Daryl's right," Dale put in.
"What the fuck, Dale?" Lucille blandly spat.
"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog," Rick ground out.
"I'm not suggesting-" Rick cut him off.
"He's sick. A sick man! We start down that road, where do we draw the line?"
"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers," Daryl looked back at Jim "or them to be."
What if we can get him help? I heard the C.D.C. was working on a cure," Rick brought up. Shane adjusted his cap.
"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell," Shane acknowledged.
"What if the C.D.C. is still up and running?"
"Man, that is a stretch right there."
"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C. at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection-"
"Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning."
"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction," Lori sassed.
"That is right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there."
"Not necessarily, Mr. Policeman," Lucille shook her head.
"The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that. The C.D.C. is our best choice and Jim's only chance," Rick stressed. Daryl and T-Dog look back at Jim. Daryl looked back at everyone in frustration and started walking towards Jim.
"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care - of this damn problem!" Daryl lifted his pickaxe to hit Jim.
"Hey hey hey!"
"Daryl, wait!"
"Stop it, man!" Rick pulled out his gun and aimed it at Daryl's head.
"We don't kill the living." Shane walked between him and Jim.
"That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head."
"We may disagree on some things, not on this. You put it down. Go on." Daryl gave Shane a hard look before shoving the pickaxe into the ground
"Come with me," Rick gently lead Jim.
"Where too?"
"Somewhere safe."
Bobby and Dale walked up to Andrea and sat on either side of her.
"Just here to pay our respects," Dale told Andrea.
Bobby sat in silence when Dale told Andrea about his late wife, and how he felt when she was diagnosed with cancer, the treatments the went to, the doctors they saw. And how he felt when she finally passed. Andrea gave him a look of gratitude and pulled out something wrapped in pink tissue paper.
"Her birthday," Dale stated. Andrea nodded.
"Her birthday was always like like a week long affair. But I somehow always missed it. I was away at college or too busy for kids parties. She'd call all excited. I always said that I'd make it home and I really always meant to, but I never made it past that phone call," Andrea said bitterly. Bobby rested a soothing hand on her shoulder.
"I know things are hard enough for you without adding guilt into the mix, huh?" Andrea smiled at him and Bobby before opening the wrapping paper and clipping the mermaid necklace on Amy. Dale looked at Bobby and stood up.
"She would love it," Bobby told her before squeezing her shoulder and standing. He went off a few feet away, staring into the distance. And for a while that's all he did.
Shallow breathing.
Bobby's head whipped around to look at Andrea and Amy and saw the dead girl shifting. He saw Andrea lower her head to listen to Amy breath again.
"Andrea," He gasped a warning. Amy opened her eyes, but they weren't her normal blue. They were bloodshot and a glassy grey. Walker eyes.
"Andrea." His voice was stronger, he shifted closer to the girls.
"Hold on, Bobby," Andrea whispered. Bobby grasped the back of her shirt for an emergency measure, and Andrea didn't stop him.
"Amy. Amy, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not being there. I thought there'd be more time," the Walker sat up and tried to bite Andrea but she held it back. Bobby tugged at Andrea's shirt.
"Andrea. Andrea, stop. Let me do it, just get up and leave." Bobby was painfully aware of the stares that this scene was warenting, but he ignored them. Andrea was ignoring him, too, and the Walker was getting more ferocious.
"I'm here now, Amy. I'm here," Andrea grabbed her gun and the Walker snarled dangerously close to her face.
"Andrea!" Bobby shouted.
"I love you."
BANG!
Andrea leaned over the Walker in sorrow, and Bobby leaned against Andrea's back, wrapping her in a loose hug.
"She's… She's in a better place now…" Bobby huffed.
Daryl was walking to the flatbed truck when Lucille ran to him.
"Daryl! Wait! Can I ride with you?" Daryl looked around before nodding.
"Sure, kid," Lucille bounced into the passenger seat and they took off driving backwards to the top of the hill where Jim was apparently digging holes the day before. Rick and Shane were there finishing up the graves. Daryl turned to Lucille.
"It's stupid, not burning the bodies. They could come back, or something can come back looking like them," he grumbled.
"But you also have to understand why they want to bury them. I'm against it, too, but they don't know what's out there. What's really out there," she soothed.
"These people are stubborn as a boar. If we really wanted them to know, we could always tell them the truth. How you really met the Tall Man and Dean," Daryl shook his head.
"Like you said, they're stubborn. They'd call us nutcases, like the usual business. Say it's all a load of shit-"
"People thought the zombie apocalypse was a load of shit and look where we are now," Lucille interrupted. Daryl gave her a once over.
"You kiss your mother with that mouth?"
"Who ever said I had a mother?" Lucille smirked at Daryl's confusion and hopped out of the car. Daryl followed, giving the door a forceful slam.
"I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right? Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?" Daryl was still trying to get them to burn the bodies. Everyone else walked up the hill and made their way into the clearing.
"At first," Shane sighed.
"The Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along? These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are," Daryl scoffed.
"There are no rules." Rick forced out.
"Well, that's a problem. We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do," Lori voiced. Daryl sighed and looked like he wanted to protest, and Lucille gave him a look asking if he was going to speak up. He sighed and walked to the side, away from everyone else for the time being.
Rick, Shane, T-Dog and Morales moved most of the bodies into the grave holes. Andrea protested when they tried to move Army's body, saying she wants to do it.
"She was my sister. My responsibility." Rick and T-Dog backed off respectfully.
Bobby and Lucille both made their way to where Daryl was standing, knowing that they wouldn't be interrupted in their conversation.
"I still don't like it. It just ain't right logically," Daryl grunted.
"In the minds of Hunters, maybe. But they are the type of people we'd protect from the truth. We shouldn't drag them under so quickly when they're just learning how to swim," Bobby placed his input. Daryl sighed and began helping Rick and Shane shovel dirt back into the graves. Dale was helping Andrea move Amy's body to her grave and they set her down gently.
"I can do it. I can do it. I can do it! I can do it," Andrea struggled to get footing while making sure Amy didn't get jostled too much. Dale guided Amy's legs to fall into the grave smoothly, and Andrea rested her body into the grave. She then got her own shovel and started filling it on her own.
They stayed there for almost an hour, mourning the dead until slowly, people in the group started making their way back to the campgrounds.
"Burying other people is bad enough, but the thought of one of us-"
"Shh." Lori cut off Rick, looking down at a distraught Carl.
"Are we safe now, dad? Now that we're together?" The boy asked.
"I won't leave again. I promise you that. Not for anything. Now give me a chance to discuss some things with your mom, okay?"
"Yeah. All right,"
"All right," Lucille walked past them at that moment and turned to Rick and Lori.
"Come on, bub, we can toss rocks down in that little pond where you get your clothes cleaned. If that's okay?" Rick nodded in thanks. Lucille gave a smile and held out her hand for Carl to take, and made their journey down into the Quarry. Lucille saw Bobby sitting near the firepit lost in thought.
"Hey, Bobby!" He turned to her. "You wanna come play in the Quarry with my new friend, Carl and I? We'll be skipping stoooonnes!~" She sang and let loose a tiny dance. Carl giggled beside her and she smiled happily at him. Bobby huffed a small laugh before nodding. Lucille looked at Carol and Morales.
"Carol? Morales? You don't mind if I also steal your children and teach them how to throw stones at a lake, do you?" Morales looked at his wife, Miranda, who shrugged in compliance, and Carol hummed in thought.
"I don't see the harm in letting Sophia play. Go have fun, dear," Carol sniffed her reply, smiling at her daughter.
"I guess it's okay," Morales shrugged. The children thanked their parents and rushed toward the two Nephilims. Lucille let them run into her and she toppled over in their combined weight.
"Oh nooooo!~ Please!~ Have mercy on my soul, you heathens!~" Lucille pleaded weakly. Morales, Miranda, and Carol laughed good naturedly as their kids momentarily forgot the heartache of their lost people.
"Bobby, please. You must save me, your precious, delicate older cousin!" Bobby looked at her blankly before walking away. Lucille gasped and Carl, Sophia, Eliza and Louis looked between them.
"Bobby!"
"What?"
"You were supposed to say 'No man left behind' and pick me up and run away from these little devils!" Lucille pet Eliza and Sophia's hair. Bobby shrugged.
"But you're not a man." Lucille's jaw dropped and she turned to Eliza and Sophia.
"Take him out, girls," they nodded before tackling Bobby to the ground as well, Eliza across his calves and Sophia across his stomach and arms.
"Who's the girl, now?" Lucille sneered.
"Okay, I'm sorry! Can I get up now?" He turned to look down at the little girls that trapped him. They giggled and helped him up. Lucille stood up as well and made her way down the path to the little watering hole.
PLOP!
"I can't get it," Carl pouted. Louis patted his shoulder as Lucille picked up a rock.
"Okay, so what you want is a nice, flat stone to toss. Then you just set your arm, flick your wrist like so, and-"
The stone skipped about six or seven times before falling into the lake. Louis and Carl looked in awe and Lucille clapped them on the shoulders.
"Kersploosh! Your turns, boys!"
They searched vigorously for a flat rock to toss. Lucille looked down a few feet and saw Bobby coaching the girls. He was kneeling between them twirling a flat rock and glancing back and forth at them. Lucille smiled and walked over to to them.
"-then you just angle your arm horizontally and when your arm is extended, release your rock." He demonstrated, and his, too, went six or seven feet before joining his cousins rock in the lake. Sophia and Eliza are amazed, just like Louis and Carl were a minute ago.
"Of course, you do need to practice to get better at it, but stone skipping is a fairly engaging past time now that TV, computers, internet and the works are no longer accessible." Eliza suddenly turned to Bobby and gently poked his face. He turned to her and smiled softly.
"Yes, Eliza?"
"You have a pretty face." Bobby was taken aback.
"Um, thank you, but you shouldn't discredit yourself in the looks department. You are very pretty yourself." Lucille had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing.
"You also have a pretty voice," Sophia said. Bobby turned and gave her narrowed eyes. She and Eliza started giggling. Lucille couldn't help but snort a laugh at Bobby's face.
"Is this flirting? Are you two flirting with me?" He pointed a finger at Eliza and Sophia accusingly.
"They are. They like to tag team. And they're ruthless," Carl sighed. Lucille laughed incredulously at his resigned response. Bobby sulked lightly before standing and looking up at the sky.
"I think we should head back. It's getting dark." Lucille nodded. The sounds of childish groans filled the air, but Lucille put her hand up
"Hey. Almost dinner time, gotta feed the black holes that are children stomachs," she poked Louis in the stomach and he swatted her hand away.
As they made their way back to the campsite, they saw everyone but Rick, Dale, and Shane sitting by the firepit. They did, however, see them walking from the wooded area surrounding the camp, so that was reassuring. Though, Dale looked troubled.
'I wonder why…' Lucille pondered. Carl, Louis, Eliza, and Sophia all ran back to their respective parents with big smiles on their faces.
"I see you lot had a fun time with the young Winchesters?" Lori looked at all of the smiling children. She looked happy with the results. They were all settling down when Shane made his announcement.
"I've been, uh I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now look, there are no There are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?"
Some people looked dazed at the fact that they were leaving tomorrow morning, but they accepted the fact that they couldn't stay there anymore. It just wasn't safe. So after a little dinner of squirrels that Daryl had caught that afternoon and canned beans and canned corn, they went to their individual tents for the night. Lucille and Bobby, being half celestial cosmic energy, didn't need to sleep very often, but they knew that since they hadn't shown any signs of sleeping the night before, they needed to play the part. That didn't mean, however, that they couldn't swap watch shifts with Dale every so often.
So with that plan in mind, as Lucille was going to pretend to be asleep, Bobby went over to where Dale was stationed on top of his RV and climbed the ladder. Dale turned around and smiled at the boy.
"Hey, Bobby. What are you doing here? You should be sleeping, 'cause I know you didn't get any zee's last night," he raised his eyebrows. Bobby ducked his head and smiled.
"I mean, I'm not tired at the moment so I thought maybe I could take the watch right now, and wake you up later?" Dale looked at him incredulously.
"Boy, how the hell are you not tired? You've been up for two days straight! You should be dead on your feet." Bobby laughed lightly. He sat besides the lawn chair Dale sat in and strapped to the RV.
"I'll tell you what, Dale. How about you stay out here to make sure I don't fall asleep for half the shift, and after you leave and I'll get my cousin for the rest of the time," Dale gave him a look like he wanted to disagree, but he knew that he was going to lose.
"Alright, kid. But the minute I see you dosing, you're kicked off and into your tent." Dale teased.
"You got a deal, sir," Bobby shook Dale's hand and kept a steady eye on the camp and surrounding woods.
Another thing about Nephilim, is that they can see better in the dark than normal humans and surprisingly angels. It couldn't be explained exactly, but Sam believed that since they were a different species from humans and angels entirely, that there were some things that weren't touched upon when there were more of them around. Along with the fact that they were hunted down immediately after they were born, but that's besides the point. The point is, a Nephilims eyesight is much like a cats, except the pupil still dilated like a normal humans.
"You see anything, Bobby?"
"Not yet."
Dale nodded stiffly.
"Good."
The night went like Bobby said. He went and "woke up" Lucille after Dale went to bed, and they both sat on top of the RV and talked about what came next for them.
"Do you think everyone is alright?"
Lucille knew Bobby was talking about their family. "We can only hope. Besides, its Sam and Dean Winchester in this world. They can't be beaten by it, as well as everyone associated to them."
Bobby sighed deeply.
"We need to figure out those coordinates, Lu. That's where our family is, and we need to catch up to them as soon as possible."
"And how do you think we can do that, Bobby? We can't take one of their cars, if it were up to Shane, these people would be walking straight into a Croat nest, and we still owe it to Rick for risking letting us into his camp when he knew it could've backfired in his face!"
"Okay, the CDC is a better option, I can see that, but it's not where we need to go."
"No but it's where Jim needs to go."
"Are you sure we can't heal him?"
"I don't know, Bobby. The fever set in, and I still don't think it's a good idea to out ourselves at this moment."
"Can we at least try?"
Lucille sighed.
"In the morning, we will try."
And so, before dawn broke, Bobby went down to their tent to get everything packed up and ready to go while Lucille stayed on watch. Glenn woke up not long afterwards and offered to take over, and Lucille let him. She walked over to him as he finished up.
"Is Dale up yet?" Bobby shrugged.
"I don't know, but when he is, we can go see Jim."
It was at that time Dale came out of his RV and walked urgently towards the cousins.
"Hey, you two," he said in a quiet voice, though he was still kind to them.
"What's up?"
"I heard you two talking on top of the RV last night. Now, before you freak out, let me ask you," he looked at them seriously, "can you heal Jim?"
Lucille swallowed back her nerves, "We don't know for sure. We can only hope and try our damnedest."
Dale nodded his head and motioned for them to follow. They walk into the RV and see Jim in a restless sleep, tossing and turning, the bed sheets drenched with sweat, he muttered every so often. They could tell he was getting much, much worse.
"Dale, you can't freak out about what you're about to see, and you can't tell anybody else." Lucille looked Dale in the eye. He looked confused.
"Why not?"
"You, Rick, Glenn, Daryl, and T-Dog? We trust you guys to not ostracized us or try to use us. It's everyone else we're worried about," Bobby relented quietly. Dale nodded in understanding.
"You also may want to sit down, if you're planning on watching," Lucille added her warning. Dale, luckily, complied.
Lucille gingerly sat on the edge of Jim's bed and held her hands over Jim's wrapped bite. Her hands began emitting a soft, pale blue, and her face scrunched up in concentration. Bobby looked over at Dale in concern and saw that he was looking at Lucille in astonishment. The glow grew brighter and looked more white than blue as Lucille pressed her lips together firmly.
"Bobby, I may need some help." Bobby leapt forward and hovered his hands above hers, and his, too, started emitting the heavenly light. Jim groaned in discomfort, and Lucille consoled him periodically.
After what seemed to be an hour to the young Winchesters, they had to stop. They panted softly, and Lucille pressed the back of her hand to his forehead and checked his temperature. She frowned before unwrapping his bandage carefully. It wasn't healed at all.
"Son of a bitch," Bobby whimpered. He wiped his eyes and nose, sniffled a little, before storming out of the RV. Lucille closed her eyes to stop the defeated, frustrated tears from escaping.
"I'm sorry," she gasped. Dale looked at her and to the door to the RV.
"What are you two? Angels?" He asked. Lucille gave a wet laugh.
"Close. Bobby and I are Nephilims. Half-Angel, Half-Human hybrids. There are some things we can do, like angels, and there are some things that we can't. I'm so sorry, Dale, we-"
"Tried every way you could, like you planned to," He said generously. Lucille smiled at him gratefully, before snapping Jim a new bandage and running after her cousin.
"Remember your promise," she jokingly threat. Dale nodded and turned back to Jim. She walked out and saw Carol looking worried.
"Do you know where Bobby went, Carol?" She pointed into the woods.
"He went in there and Daryl chased after him. He looked upset and wouldn't answer to anyone," Lucille placed a hand on her shoulder.
"He'll be okay, I'm gonna go try get them to not kill each other," she joked. Carol smiled weakly back and Lucille stalked into the woodland area.
"Alright kid, what's got your panties in a twist?" Daryl's voice was quiet, Lucille stepped carefully through the thick trees.
"It's none of your business." Bobby grumbled. They were getting louder, so she must be getting closer.
"The hell it isn't. As long as you two are a part of this group, you are my responsibility by association. Now, what the fuck's the matter with you." They got quieter. Nope, wrong turn, go back.
"It's always been our job to protect people, to save them from day one. We are not supposed to fail and let them suffer and die!" There they are!
"What do you want me to say, man? We can't save everyone. You know this life, know how bad it can get. I know it, too, but you can't let it drag you down like this, Bobby." Lucille finally emerged from the trees, and came closer to them.
"He's right. I hate this just as much as you do, Bobby, believe me. But this is how a Hunters life." Daryl rested his hand on Bobby's shoulder.
"I know that, but knowing it happens and seeing it are two different things." Bobby and Lucille leaned into their friend, asking for a hug. Daryl freezed for a second before wrapping his arms around the two kids.
"I know," he murmured.
They stayed like that for some time until Daryl coughed gruffly and told them they needed to get back to camp, help finish all the packing and what-not. They talked about the CDC and if it really was all it's cracked out to be. They decided that it was better than Fort Benning when Bobby and Lucille said that it was a Red Herring. They had passed it on the way to Atlanta with the rest of the Winchesters and there were people fighting to get out. It appeared that one of the injured civilians they let in was bitten and it was overrun. After everything was packed up and ready to go, Shane gathered everyone into a circle.
"Everybody listen of you with CB's, we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a CB, can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?"
"We're, uh... We're we're not going," Moralez announced.
Everyone looked at the with either a sneer (Andrea), concern, or questioningly.
"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people," Miranda explained, pulling Eliza closer to her.
"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back," Shane warned.
"We'll take the chance. I got to do what's best for my family." Moralez said, determined.
"You sure?" Rick asked.
"We talked about it. We're sure," he nodded.
"All right. Shane."
"Yeah, all right."
Rick and Shane dug around in their weapons bags.
".357?"
"Yeah."
Rick pulls out a handgun and gives it to Morales. Shane gives them a box of ammunition.
"The box is half full."
Thank you all. For everything," Miranda chokes out. Lori hugs her and kisses Eliza and Louis on top of their heads. Eliza and Louis hug Sophia and they start crying. Lucille helps Carl get down from on top of the Jeep's hood and he runs and joins them.
"Good luck, man," Rick shakes Morales' hand.
"Appreciate it."
Eliza gave Sophia her doll, to remember her. "Thank you. Bye."
Eliza and Louis walk up to Lucille and Bobby and give them both teary eyed hugs. Lucille squeezes Eliza and Louis and Bobby tucks their heads under his chin.
"Channel 40 if you change your minds. All right?" Rick tells them.
"Yeah. I know," Morales leads his family to their car. Bobby willed more jugs of water into existence in the back of their truck along with more food.
"What makes you think our odds are any better?" Shane asked Rick. Rick gave him a look.
"Come on. Let's go. Let's move out." They all climb into the cars, Lucille and Bobby went with Daryl in the pick up. Lucille sat in the passenger seat and Bobby rode in the back with the motorcycle.
They made it a rather far before Dale had to stop the RV. Rick, Daryl, T-Dog, Andrea, the teens and Shane went out to look at Dale's RV engine.
"I told you we'd never get far on that hose. I said I needed the one from the cube van," Dale told Rick. he sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"Can you jury-rig it?"
"That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape."
"I see something up ahead. A gas station if we're lucky," Shane turned to them after looking through his binoculars. Jaquie ran out of the RV in a hurry.
"Y'all, Jim- It's bad. I don't think he can take anymore," Rick and Lucille made their way to the RV. Daryl made his way back to his pick up.
"Hey, Rick, you want to hold down the fort? I'll drive ahead, see what I can bring back," Shane asked him.
"Yeah, I'll come along too and I'll back you up," T-Dog told hane, looking through the binoculars.
"Y'all keep your eyes open now. We'll be right back."
Rick and Lucille make their way to Jim's bed in the RV. He's looking out the window in his long stare. Lucille sat on the bed across from Jim.
"We'll be back on the road soon," Rick tells him gently.
"Oh no. Christ. My bones My bones are like glass. Every little bump God, this ride is killing me. Leave me here. I'm done. Just leave me. I want to be with my family," Jim pleaded with Rick. Rick crouches in front of Jim.
"They're all dead. I don't think you know what you're asking. The fever, you've been delirious more often than not," Rick tried to talk some sort of sense into him.
"I know. Don't you think I know? I'm clear now. In five minutes I may not be. Rick, I know what I'm asking. I want this. Leave me here. Now that's on me. Okay? My decision. Not your failure,"Jim reassured Rick.
Rick nodded his head in a daze and he walked down the small hallway, out the RV. Lucille goes to follow him, when Jim grabs her hand. She stops and looks at him in confusion.
"Yeah? Do you need anything?" Jim shakes his head.
"I just wanted to say thanks. For trying to help me. I don't care if it didn't work, you tried to help and that means you and that boy you're with. You're good people. This group needs you," he lets go of her hand and groans as he shifts into a better sitting position. Lucille paused outside the doorway and turned back to look at him.
"I can make it painless,"Jim looks at her.
"When they put me outside, tell me more." Lucille nodded her head stiffly. When she made it outside, she saw that everyone was talking about Jim's request. She stood in the doorway and listened to their conversation.
"It's what he says he wants," Rick said sadly.
"And he's lucid?"Carol asked.
"He seems to be. I would say yes," Rick rubbed his face. He's obvious stressed out about Jim's situation.
"Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer," Dale looked around.
"We just leave him here? We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that," Shane said morosely.
"It's not your call, either one of you," Lori told Rick and Shane. Bobby looked at Lori in masked confusion. He gave Lucille a look that they needed to talk later.
Rick and Shane carefully sat Jim down at the base of a big oak tree. Jim looked around after he was situated.
"Hey, another damn tree," he laughed.
"Hey, Jim I mean, you know it doesn't need to be this," Shane told him hopefully.
"No. It's good. The breeze feels nice," Jim sighed gratefully. Shane nodded regretfully.
"Just close your eyes, sweetie. Don't fight," Jacquie whispered sweetly. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and began to cry softly.
"Jim, do you want this?" Rick held up a small revolver. Jim shook his head.
"No. You'll need it. But you," he nodded towards Lucille, "you said you could make it painless?"
"Yes, but in the process I would need to kill you myself," she said regretfully. Everyone around her gave her a look of shock, which she ignored.
"Oh," Jim said. Lucille nodded.
"Do you still want it?" She asked him.
"Yes. It would be easier."
"Not for her, or us!" Jacquie cried, agast.
"It'll never be easier, Jacquie. Besides, this isn't the first time I've had to do this," Lucille told the older woman.
"Won't be the last time, either," Bobby said remorsefully.
"Okay," Rick nodded. Lori looked affronted.
"Rick-"
"It's not my call. It's theirs."
Lucille knelt down next to Jim and let her Angel Blade slip out of her sleeve.
"What I'm going to do, Jim, is I'll call off the sensations of your nerves, and put you to sleep. You won't feel anything, and you'll go peacefully," She brought her blade into his line of sight, "Then, I'll make it immediate. You won't feel it. It'll feel like you're dreaming, and then you'll be in your Heaven, happy, and with your loved ones."
Jim nods his head, and Lucille places her hand against his forehead. She bowed her head and closed her eyes. Dale stepped forward and kneeled in front of Jim.
"Thanks for, uh, for fighting for us," Dale told him. Jim nodded.
"Okay."
"Ta a noco adagita a Amayo, ol lava ar elasa dalagare oi coredazodizoda page ta ascha ta a sapah teloah quooiape en zol," Jim gasps, as if he's breathing clearly after a bad allergy season and moves around as if he never got bit.
"Beregida," Jim's eyes close and his breathing goes deep and steady.
"What the hell kinda Satanist shit is that?" T-Dog asked angrily.
"It's not Satanic, it's Enochian. She said a prayer to God," Bobby replied heatedly.
"You may want to take the kids back to the cars," Lucille spoke up, not opening her eyes.
"Alright," Rick turned to Lori and Carol to steer Carl and Sophia back to the road, out of view of the tree line.
"Why can't you just keep his nerves… turned off indefinitely and have him travel to the CDC? He's got a chance now!" Shane challenged. Lucille sighed.
"Because he'd still turn. Even in this state there's a chance he's going to wake up at any time and try to naw our faces off," she shot back at him. She turned to Rick.
"Can you help me sit him up?" He nodded his head and lifted Jim's torso.
Lucille lifted her blade and swiftly jabbed it into the base of his skull. It gave a crunch sound that most of everyone flinched at, except Bobby, Daryl, and Lucille. She gently pulled out her blade and helped Rick lean Jim's body back against the tree. She walked past everyone and went back to sit in the bed of Daryl's truck. The rest soon went to their respective vehicles and started back down the road.
Daryl gave Lucille a concerned look before getting back into the driver's seat, Bobby in the passengers, and followed the caravan to the CDC.
"Lord…" Lucille muttered, curling in on herself.