Title: Bad Things

Rated for: T – general grossness, gore, zombie deaths etc.

Genre: Horror

Fandom/Universe: The Walking Dead

Characters: Carol Peletier, Beth Greene, Judith Grimes, Louis Morales, Tyreese, Mika and Lizze, Daryl Dixon / OC's - Waverly Skye, Tenneyson Skye

Pairings:

Spoilers/Warning:

Disclaimer: The Walking Dead and all related characters come from the great mind of Robert Kirkman, then AMC for the TV adaptation/spin off? No infringement intended.

Summary: Coming home wasn't how they imagined it would be. Home wasn't there anymore. Home was over-run by walking corpses hungry for human flesh. The world ended and the promise of 'family' became something else.

Status: In-Progress

Author's Note: I'm totally going AU on this one, and it will be short. Just a few chapters left to the end.

Chapter: For With Are Many


Its quiet.

The sun shining down on the meadow where the trio moves as one.

"How much longer?" Tenneyson straightens out of the half crouch and pouts.

"Will you shut up?" Waverly hisses in a semi-whispered growl.

"You are both too loud."

The siblings fall silent at his words, the tone as familiar as their own.

"As long as you have been with me," he sighs shaking his head. "As much as I have tried to teach you the way-."

"The way of the warrior, yeah." Tenneyson rolls his eyes. "Come on, you know you make most of this up."

"He does not." Waverly defends. "Read a book, dummy."

"I read-."

"Manga doesn't count." Waverly cuts in.

"Enough."

Again, the siblings quiet immediately.

"Your Father will be here in a few days."

And then … well, its back to a life they can barely remember living.

.*.

Waverly wakes up. Her face hurts, so does her head. It's kinda dark and she wonders if Tenneyson found them a safe place to hole up. She remembers the events just before blacking out but sitting up makes her want to puke. She grits her teeth and struggles out of the bed she hopes her brother put her in. The windows in the room are boarded up but some light peeks through the edges. At the door, Waverly drags in a breath and squeezes her eyes shut for just a second. The nausea subsides so she carefully opens the door, trying her best to keep it quiet. She has no idea where she is or if her brother is alright…

In the hall, she braces a hand on the wall and takes a few steps forward. She can hear the singing and frowns because it's not Tenneyson's voice and it definitely sounds too sweet to be Carol's, so … "What the…?"

"Guess she's not a fan of that song."

"No… f-ing way." Waverly repeats because she is certain that is her little brothers teasing voice. "This better not … Tenneyson Skye!" it's a hissed whisper just a little louder than she'd normally dare. It gets results and she's glaring at her brother poking his head around the corner trying to keep whatever is in his arms hidden.

"Waves!" Tenneyson sounds nervously upbeat. That tells her more than if he'd come right out and admit to what she's going to yell at him for anyway.

"What the fuck?" Waverly demands watching her brother approach. And behind him is a visual of the fussy baby he can't pretend she didn't hear. Her eyes narrow on the blond girl – very clearly not Carol.

"I can expl-."

"A baby?" Waverly demands with a weak fist smacking his arm. "Are you fucking retarded!" the sound of her raised voice sets the baby off again and she glares at the blond girl unable to keep the cherubic siren on silent.

Tenneyson sighs, eyes turned to the ceiling. He can hear the tread of running feet and knows his sister will too.

"NO." Waverly shoves him aside and gapes at the two girls frozen on either side of the hall. The heavy tread of Carol's steps pauses as well.

"Just give it a chance." Tenneyson urges reaching for her shoulder.

"NO!" Waverly shrugs him off, her eyes narrowing on the loudly crying baby.

"Sorry." Tenneyson apologizes moving around his sister but not before she sees them all start to walk away. And Carol ushering the girls back to the main floor. "Do you remember when silence was golden?" Tenneyson demands facing his sister once again.

"Do you!" Waverly yells at him. "NO groups! Tenneyson, I said no groups- a baby?" she grabs at her hair wincing because it hurts her head more. "Damn it! A crying baby- what the hell were you thinking!"

"That you needed help." He is quick to reply.

"Bull shit." Waverly jabs a finger at his chest.

"You were-are hurt, Waves. You fell three stories." He points out.

"So you had us join a group?!" she exclaims, which only aggravates the huge pins being shoved into her brain. "With crying babies- and kids. Shut up." She shoves at his chest with both hands. "Pack your stuff." She orders stumbling against the wall.

"You should rest."

Waverly squints, staring at the guy with the shaggy haircut and sleeveless shirt standing at the end of the hall. She hadn't heard him come up.

"Thanks." Waverly grabs her brothers shirt. "I'll take two and call you in the morning." She retorts frowning at the sighed eye roll from the stranger. Beside him, Carol smiles and offers a shrug as she steps into the hallway.

"I see the resemblance." Daryl notes.

"I like her more when she's sleeping." Tenneyson shrugs. "Ouch." He pulls his leg up, away from his sisters foot because he knows she has a bad habit of kicking him. "Look," he frowns. "We aren't going anywhere."

"We are not staying." Waverly is adamant. And she's stubborn enough to stumble her way out of the house if that's what its going to take.

"They know Louis." Tenneyson waves his hand in the general direction of the pair at the end of the hall. "Them, not the others." He glances over his shoulder to where Daryl and Carol are watching them. "Sorry." He apologizes because his sister is making a big fuss, just like he knew she would.

Daryl just nods, the kid makes him laugh. Sometimes, well it doesn't really annoy him as much now that he's been stuck with the kid a few days.

"I don't give a shit." Waverly snaps. "We're not staying. No groups."

"Fine." Tenneyson glares. "We can go when you're not about to pass out."

"I'm not." Waverly denies but she is unsteady on her feet and there's doubles of her little brother.

"Right," Tenneyson scoffs. He tries to grab her arms but she brushes him off. "So you're not swaying like that time you got drunk on sake."

"I wasn't drunk." She denies.

Tenneyson throws his hands up, exasperated and looks at Carol and Daryl with the universal 'You see what I'm dealing with?' that Waverly doesn't miss.

.*.

Beth keeps Judith content, singing to the baby softly on the couch while the 'grown-ups' introduce themselves to Waverly. Its been a day since they first met…

"We were at a prison…" Tyreese trails off.

"Yeah, Carol told us about your prison." Waverly glances at their Elephant seeing the discomfort pass over her face. "We noticed 'the walking dead' in our neighborhood. More than there had been before we started to clean up. It wasn't safe anymore." She shrugs gingerly because her body still hurts, as well as her head but the dim lighting is easier to stand than full on daylight. They wont let her sleep anymore, Tenneyson says two days is more than enough.

"They were attacked by another group." Carol already heard this from Tyreese and then from Daryl and Beth. She's been wondering, the same as everyone else, how many others made it out safely…

Waverly looks meaningfully at her brother. "No. Groups." She re-iterates. "And that's why." Though her main reason was growing attached to people that would only die off eventually. They'd be eaten, get bit, or die of the fever… they would all die and all Waverly cared about was making sure her little brother survived. She just didn't know what they were surviving for, aside that something inside her, refused to let her give up and die.

"Waves," Tenneyson sighs. "Would you let them finish before you start planning our leave?"

She just sits back and crosses her arms waiting silently to hear the sad, soppy story of how they all ended up together and then, how it all came crashing down. What made them think their sob story was any less tragic than theirs? Or someone else's? Everyone in the world had lost more than one someone to this apocalypse. Why did these people have to feel so entitled to that feeling? What made them any different than her family had been?

"Tyreese found us."

Waverly focuses on the skinny little blond girl. Its creepy, the way she fiddles with the knife in her hand but then, its become a favored weapon- a necessity to stay alive.

"They had Judith." The big black man adds. "They…saved me."

"We killed her." The little blond girl chimes in. "The woman that was going to shoot him. We killed her first."

Waverly sucks in a breath. She shouldn't be shocked, it's a kill or be killed world they live in now and haven't they killed plenty too? But this little girl…there's something dead in her eyes, the tone of her voice- sort of detached, like killing another human being isn't the traumatic event it is for people in the 21st century.

"Lizzie…" Carol gets up and ushers her to the opposite side of the living room where her sister is sitting with Beth and the baby.

"There's something wrong with that kid." Waverly mutters.

"Somethin' wrong with all of us." Daryl snaps glaring at her. Its not that he hasn't noticed the kid is slightly skewed but then they are living in a world where the dead come to life and try to eat you.

"She didn't mean it like that." Tenneyson apologizes but he's noticed the same thing. Out of all the kids, Lizzie is the coldest – even Louis doesn't behave like her and he's done some killing too.

"I did mean it." Waverly glares at her brother. "Quit apologizing for me, Tenn. Do you see Louis acting like that?" she points to where Lizzie is looking over at them.

"You want to leave so bad, there's the door." Daryl points to the barricaded entrance.

"Daryl-." Tenneyson protest.

"What?" Daryl glares. "No groups. That's what she wants. We're still gonna look for the rest of ours."

"Have a nice trip." Waverly shakes her head. "Good luck avoiding scavengers wanting a piece of the girls. Or evading a herd- you should be thinking about the ones you've already found and keeping them alive as long as you're able to." She pushes off the couch, hating to look weak when Tenneyson pulls her to her feet. "We all end up dead in the end."

Tenneyson herds her towards the stairs looking at the group over his shoulder-

"Don't apologize for me!" Waverly snaps, punctuating the hissed order with a back handed smack to his midsection.

.*.

Louis tries to sneak in her room quietly but she can hear him all the same.

"Quit moving so fast." Her voice whispers towards him from the window seat and the shafts of moon light streaking through the cracks in the curtain.

"What's the point?" Louis replies. "You still hear me." But he's trying to tread lightly as he moves across the room to sit beside her. "We can't go."

Waverly sighs. She figured that's what he'd say –

"We can't. I don't want to leave Carol or Daryl."

"They have their people, Louis." Waverly looks at him. "They'll be putting themselves in danger looking for the missing ones. They've got a friggin baby!" she glares turning to look out the window into the front yard. "That kid is like a siren calling every damn Walker right to us."

"Judith." Louis says. He ducks his head and whispers; "She's Carl's baby sister."

Waverly sighs, her head resting against the wall. She knows about Carl, his Mom, his Dad, their cop friend that had 'felt off' to Louis… She doesn't say anything, just waits for Louis to tell her what he needs to say.

"…Tyreese, Lizzie, Micah and Judith were following the train tracks to a safe place… but they got cut off – too many Walkers." He sighs and looks up. "They were here, they heard Daryl's new bike. We almost ran over Tyreese when he ran out to make Daryl shut up."

"Bike?" Waverly frowns. "Like tatted-up, Son's of Anarchy bike, like that kind of bike?"

"Uh," Louis nods hesitantly. "It's a Harley."

"God…damn it, Tenneyson." She breathes out and turns to the door where her little brother is closing it behind him.

"Yup," he nods crossing the room. "Daryl has a bike. He picked up as we were leaving town. Almost got stuck behind the herd-."

"We ran through them." Louis chimes in.

"Awesome." Waverly rolls her eyes. "I'm out a couple of hours and you start inviting every tom, dick and jane to roll with us. A baby?" she glares at Tenneyson. "And now we got a hog riding red-neck roaring down the road alerting every Zombie in the vicinity-. How the hell are we supposed to survive with these idiots?" she demands feeling her head start to pound yet again.

"Be. Nice." Tenneyson orders, his eyes narrowed on her face. "Carol has put up with your sour 'tude and bitchiness for him." He points to Louis. "She cleaned you up, Waverly. Her and Beth- she the scrawny blond girl." He adds because he knows Waverly hasn't been paying attention to who is who. "They cleaned up the blood and your scratches, they friggin cared for you because even in this apocalyptic, zombie infested world we've inherited, I'm still not allowed to-."

"You say 'sponge bath' and I will hurt you!" Waverly cuts in.

"They didn't." Louis assures with just a slight wrinkling of his nose.

"You don't smell like roses either, kid." Waverly retorts but she's relieved not to have that embarrassment to live down.

"Look," Tenneyson breathes out a long sigh. "By the time we got flagged down by Tyreese you'd already been out for a day and we didn't have anywhere else to go. Its not like there's a hospital available. Carol knew him, so did Daryl and Beth. Please, he had the girls with him and …Waves, they can't survive out there alone."

"And why the hell should I care?" Waverly demands. "Why is it our job to carry them?"

"Carry…? Waverly-."

"Because its what the Capt. would do." Louis says into their silence. "He did it for us, for my Mom and Dad and Eliza."

"What he said." Tenneyson nods, whole-heartedly agreeing.

Waverly still doesn't like the idea of a baby and more people. They can't make her like it.

.*.