The sweet and sour scent of death hung in the air like a ghost, pouring into her nostrils and filling her mind with unsavoury thoughts. A lump materialised in her throat. She felt like throwing up as she stepped inside the cell block. Rick and Carl had escorted her, but stayed outside the room as she entered. A lady with short grey hair followed her in instead. "You bit?" She asked, getting straight down to business.

"No." The woman nodded but not in agreement. "Stand there and take off your clothes," she said, and indicated to a dim cell, while taking off Mona's wire bindings. "You can keep your underclothes." Mona's top lip curled into a grimace but she didn't refuse. She moved to the cell and undressed quickly, trying to ignore how the room seemed to radiate a skin-crawling sense of death. The woman padded around her on delicate feet, scrutinizing her every inch of flesh with a face that could have been carved out of clay, and eyes of blown glass. It seemed as if she had more important things on her mind than taking care of the new girl. She was unsympathetic and uninterested.

"You're clean." She said when finished. As if Mona didn't know. "You can put your clothes back on." The girl rushed to cover herself. She slid on the olive green jeans she used to love, that represented nothing but countless hungry nights lying in the dirt now, the cute white camisole with the pretty lacy design, a gift from a long dead friend, and the green army jacket she'd taken from a shop mannequin, that was the only thing in good shape. On its sleeves where layers of duct tape, stretching from the upper arm to the wrist in individual rings of metallic silver. The same thing protected her legs, starting just under the knee. She tucked her boots under the bed with the assumption that she'd be here awhile.

The woman, who hadn't bothered to introduce herself, left without a word when Mona had finished dressing, locking the cell behind her. She said something to Rick, who grunted. She disappeared around a corner and the man took her place, striding in with natural confidence that fitted him like a glove. Carl followed, trying to mimic his father's presence with long strides, and a straightened spine. Mona acknowledged them with a nod before she sat down on the floor and began slowly, methodically peeling the tape from her left leg. She could feel the man's eyes burn holes in her head. He left her in silence for a moment, just watching her work on the tape until the first ring was off. It came free with an excruciating ripping noise, and with it, a memory. Carl was transported back to when he was a kid- six, seven, eight?- sat on the kitchen table as his mom tore a plaster from his elbow, his knee, his chin- which ever part of his body he'd happened to injure. If you don't do it quickly it'll hurt more.... Aw c'mon Carl it's not that bad… Ready? One, two, thr- riiippppp. A soft smile played on the boy's lips.

"Pretty clever." Rick remarked. "It ever save you?" Mona took this as high praise from the man.

"No. But I saw it save someone," she said, "so, I thought it would be a good idea." He grunted again. Carl fiddled with the hem of his shirt restlessly. What did he know was coming?

"I'm gonna ask you some questions." Rick said, all of a sudden, blunt, "You will answer them truthfully, and you will answer them all." Mona stopped working on the tape and looked up.

"Fine, go ahead." She saw Carl lean against the wall, his expression a deep molasses of interest and worry that darkened his eyes and tugged at his mouth. Mona started to grow worried. Tortured fears fluttered around like caged birds in her head, desperate for freedom, but she refused to let them out. She kept them as caged creatures. At least for now.

"First." Rick subconsciously rested one finger on the gun at his hip. "How many walkers have you killed."

Mona scoffed. "Walkers. I like that."

"The question." He pressed.

"Guess I never really thought about it," she bit her lip in thought, "hundreds probably." She noticed Carl nodding in the background blur of her vision. Barely even there, just a smudged outline of colour that held no meaning. She ignored him.

"Second." Rick's middle finger joined the index on his gun. "How many people have you killed?" Her heart jumped and she looked at the floor.

"I… I don't remember."

"Bullshit, everyone counts. It's not something you just forget." Rick stopped himself from wincing at the lie. Even if he himself couldn't remember every face, every threat, every please don't, didn't mean she couldn't either. Rick could tell when he was being lied to, and he was.

"Answer the question." Mona clenched and unclenched the ball of duct tape she'd made in her hand. It crackled stickily as she squeezed.

"Five." She rolled the silver ball on the floor as she spoke, using the flat of her hand to push it around. It sounded like velcro being ripped apart and then stuck back together, then ripped and stuck back together, and rinse and repeat. "Just five."

Carl asked the final question, more than a little morbidly curious. "Why?"

"Why?!" Her pupils shrunk to pinpricks as the boy unblurred and became the main focus of her eye. Not just white noise in the background anymore.

"Why...?" She said again. Her eyes darted back and forth as quick as hummingbirds at nothing in particular, as if they were in her head searching its archives for a reason. She seemed to have found one as they settled on her hands, facing palms up in her lap. Rick took the gesture as 'here. look. I'm not hiding anything.' Her voice was slow and pensive.

"At first…" for a moment, she considered her next words. "At first, it was because I was scared." Her hand picked at the fraying duct tape. It crackled under her gentle touch. "And then, after a while, because I wasn't."

Mona didn't want to meet their eyes, didn't want to see their reaction, but the silence they produced told her nothing. The tired girl forced her gaze to rest on them, the thrum of her heart beat suddenly very obvious to her. She felt it pulse through her wrists and neck like living thing, but both men looked satisfied with her answer somehow. Mona let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in.

"So? Did I pass?" Rick raised an eyebrow at her poor attempt at a joke, but the crinkles that shot from the corners of his eyes, like little lightning bolts, told her all she needed to know. She smiled bashfully.

"We'll see."

The spell was abruptly broken as Rick turned to his son. "Carl, I need you to do something for me."

Carl straightened his back. "What is it?"

"I need you to stay here. Keep an eye on the girl. Make sure she stays put and out of trouble. I have something I need to do. Can I trust you?"

"I mean, yeah of course, but dad," Carl gripped Rick's forearm. "Where are you going to do?" The man pulled Carl's hand from his arm gently, aware that he was only worried about him.

"With Carol," he said, "we're going on a run."

The two kids watched him leave in silence, and stayed that way for a awkward moment. Carl fixated himself on a spec of dust, floating its lazy way through a beam of light. Mona watched him watch it.

"Isn't that odd?" She said just to break the silence.

"What is?" The spec vanished as it left the beam.

"That he would leave now. I mean with me here. I could be a threat. Shouldn't the leader stay at a time like this?"

"My dad knows what he's doing." Carl folded his arms defensively. "If he has to leave, he's doing it for a good reason."

"Right."

"Yeah." More stifling quiet.

Mona took that as the end of the conversation and began taking off the tape again. Carl watched her peel the final strip of tape from her left leg, and make a start on the right. The material under the tape was lighter and cleaner than the rest of the jeans, making them look like stripy green caterpillars. Neither of the two could find anything to say. Mona would have found the silence excruciating if it wasn't so refreshing. How long had it been since she'd had to worry about finding something to say to a (cute) boy? This place was already making her feel nostalgic in the best way. She thought of 'before' more in that moment than she had in a long time and felt herself missing it painfully. Mona was beginning to believe that she might like it here. She ripped off the last ring of tape and mashed it into the ball of silver she'd accumulated, smiling softly despite herself. Yeah, this place would be good for her. And Maddie. It was about time they got a break.

Carl muttered about getting some food and left- a very exciting development for Mona. The last time she'd eaten was… three days ago? She was starving. But she reminded herself that whatever she was feeling, Maddie was feeling it ten times worse. She was a growing child after all, there wasn't much a kid that was barely on solid food yet could eat that came in an airtight can. Mona hoped she was being treated well. She had been taken by a pretty blonde girl with a fierce southern accent, and had disappeared into the main building with her. The girl had seemed nice, but bad people can be nice too. Just as good people can be harsh. If actions spoke more than words, in this new world, they spoke torrents. Everyone's a good person until they're not. That was something she'd learnt the hard way, the bloody way.

Carl returned quicker than she'd expected with three cans. Each one only contained about a third of it's original contents, he must have snagged the leftovers from breakfast.

"Here," he said, suppressing a light smile, "Tinned carrots." He set down the first can, "tinned peas," the second, "and tinned beans." Mona stuck her hands through the bars and collected them. Carl also gave her a grimy fork and a glass of water. She said "thanks" although it didn't conveyed the shock of gratitude she felt towards him at that moment.

"You should be, I snagged a big helping just for you. You're probably eating better than most of us this morning." He didn't say it spitefully, which Mona appreciated. She couldn't believe he'd done that for her, someone he'd just met, someone who he shouldn't care about. She needed to say something more than just 'thanks'.

"Really Carl, thank you. This is the most anyone's done for me in a long time. The world needs more people like you, who help unconditionally."

The boy, looking even more boyish with a red flush on his cheeks, said nothing. Mona grinned at his reaction, making him blush even harder. 'Cute,' she thought, not for the first time. They talked frivolously for awhile as Mona ate. About nothing important, but at the same time, about everything that meant the most to them. Where are you from? Where did you go to school? Did you have pets? Did you play sports? Really? I'm the same! No way? It was pointless trivia, but the two kids felt almost normal talking to each other. Like the world outside wasn't trying to kill them. Mona hung on Carl's every 'this one time with my friend...' and in turn, he soaked in her every 'there was this one guy that...'. For the children who wore the scars of growing up too fast, it was humbling to talk as if they were back in school, stressing over exams and relationships. For that, Carl and Mona were both grateful. Grateful for the normality of each other's company.

Suddenly, Mona yawned, wide and loud.

"Tired?" Carl asked.

"Just a little," she said, eyes already half-lidded. She had slept in the last few days, but Maddie's cries of hunger had kept her up most nights. The fight she'd had outside the fence had taken a lot out of her too. She was ready to just lie down and let the pull of sleep carry her away into a place where nothing could hurt her. Ready to forget that the world was a scary place, and that there were people in it that wanted to kill her. In her dreams, she could be a kid again.

"Don't let me stop you." Carl said, pulling out a book. Mona read the title: Animal Farm by George Orwell.

"A good read." She said as she took off her jacket to use as a blanket, not bothering with delicacy as she tore the duct tape from the sleeves. She sat down on bed. The mattress under her spine was hard and unyielding when she lowered herself onto it.

"'All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others'." he recited with a sarcastic tone, "Too true, don't you think." Mona turned onto her side and closed her eyes, letting the blackness of the back of her head block everything out just for a moment.

"'The creatures outside looked from pig to man," she deadpanned, "and from man to pig, and from pig to man again;" she smiled sardonically, and her eyes opened to see nothing but a grey concrete wall, "but already it was impossible to say which was which."

"We're all just pigs aren't we?" Said Carl, and Mona didn't know whether to say yes or no or nothing at all.


Thank you for reading uwu

If it wasn't clear, Rick's 'run' with Carol is actually when he exiles her from the group. I'm not sure if I made it obvious or not. And of course the gray haired lady is Carol too.

Leave me a review please and I'll be super happy 0w0