AN - Hello and thank you to my new reviews, followers, likers! Sorry for the long wait for an update, hope you like this one :)
Chapter 7: Tell Mama
With all the horrible things the group had been through in the past year, Jordyn knew how easy it was to become jaded and expect the worst in every situation. And in most cases, it turned out to be an accurate expectation. Losing Sophia, the farm, Dale, Andrea, Shane, Patricia. The hell they'd been through just surviving, the starving days baking in the heat and bitterly cold nights freezing out in the cold. All of it just created such a negative mindset, they were all used to things going just as bad as they expected.
That changed for once, and it changed with Hershel.
He had been bitten by a walker, just a random prison walker down in the tombs, and he was still alive. He was still human. Cutting off the farmer's leg had worked. For whatever reason and in whatever way, it had worked. He was alive, talking, and showing no signs of becoming a walker.
Right after the attack, when they had brought Hershel back up to cell block C, Rick had handcuffed him to his bunk just in case the worst had happened. Those cuffs were now cast aside on the floor, and a tired, but somewhat energized, Hershel grasped only a hand of each of his daughters. Beth and Maggie were glued to their father's side, crying tears of relief that he was still with them.
Jordyn could feel how much the relief uplifted them all. Not only had Hershel survived, but they had found a solution. However barbaric and risky, they had actually found a solution to deal with a walker bite. Cutting off Hershel's leg had stopped the infection from spreading and killing him. Keeping him alive had saved him from becoming undead.
The mechanics of the infection were something Jordyn had always wondered about. And since Rick shared Jenner's diagnosis that all of humanity was infected, that it didn't matter how any one person died, each of them was destined to reanimate, Jordyn had seen Marnie's future as nothing but a bleak path to an inevitably horrific death. Hershel's recovery changed things. They now had proof that it was possible to be bitten and survive. Lose a limb in the process, but survive. And that gave them all hope.
Next part of Hershel's recuperation plan was to get him up on his foot to begin regaining his strength. T-Dog and Jordyn had found crutches in a storeroom on the second level of cells just around the bend of the corridor into Cell Block C. There wasn't much else in there, a mop and bucket, two brooms, the crutches, and a lot of spiders. But it was the roof of the storeroom that Jordyn became very interested in, and she spent the morning orchestrating a plan for Marnie.
It was mid morning when Jordyn came back to find her sister watching Hershel through the bars of his cell. Carol, Lori and the Greene sisters were getting Hershel used to balancing on his crutches. He was a little unsteady, but learning fast. He was a tough bastard, and Jordyn felt a surge of pride as she watched him hobble around.
Marnie watched Hershel with clear trepidation. She had Elroy in her hands and was pulling nervously at his ear. Despite Jordyn's assurances that he was going to be okay, Marnie regarded Hershel with obvious hesitation. As though he might instantly turn into a walker right before her eyes.
Jordyn gently pulled her sister's braid to get her attention. "Hey, lady, I've got something to show you. Bring Elroy." She reached out and took her sister's hand, then lead her out of the cell block into the common room.
The common room was where Jordyn, Carol and Maggie were getting everything (food, clothes, weapons) organized. That was the plan, but they hadn't really had spare time to really get started. There were a half dozen tables secured to the floor which were all decorated in various collections of items that needed sorting. As Jordyn walked around it, she noticed how out of hand it was getting and resolved to start the process that night.
"What happened to Hershel's other leg?" Marnie suddenly asked.
Jordyn lead her up a metal staircase to the catwalk where the prison guards would have looked down into the common room. Jordyn had taken this path to the fire escape repeatedly, it was clear and free of walkers. "What do you mean?"
"He got bitten on his leg," Marnie said. "And now it's gone and he's okay, so that means his leg is still sick. So, where is it?"
Jordyn hadn't really given Hershel's discarded limb a second thought after she'd held it in place so Rick could hack it off. "I guess it's wherever we left it."
"What if it comes back?"
"What if what comes back?"
"His leg?" Marnie whispered, her grip around Elroy tightening. "If dead people can walk around, why can't a broken leg?"
Jordyn had to clench her jaw to kill her smile because from the look on Marnie's face, her question was a legitimate one. Pausing out the front of the fire escape door, Jordyn leant over so she could see into her sister's eyes. "You know, I hadn't thought about that." Jordyn told her honestly. "But think about all the places we've been, all the walkers. Have you ever seen just a leg out there?"
Marnie shook her head and buried her face in Elroy's thinning fur.
"And how would it get up here anyway?" Jordyn continued, this time allowing herself to grin. "Would it hop up the stairs all by itself?" Marnie's face broke into a tiny smile. "Would it find the keys and unlock all our gates? Or wait patiently for one of us to let it in?"
Marnie giggled, relieved, and loosened her grip on Elroy.
"Come on," Jordyn pushed open the fire escape door and lead her sister upstairs to the roof. The lock on the fire escape door had been broken long ago. In fact, it was the banging sound the door made in the wind and the subsequent search for the source of the noise that allowed Jordyn to find the new hiding place.
Jordyn let Marnie push open the fire escape door and the pair walked onto the rooftop. It was a gorgeous day, the sun was warm and the sky was clear. This high up, Jordyn couldn't even hear the walkers moaning against the fence.
The brick of the prison walls was built up around the rooftop like a fence, and off to the left was a ladder leading to the roof of the building next door. That was the building Jordyn needed to get Marnie to.
"Okay," Jordyn knelt down and held Marnie by her waist. "See that ladder?" Jordyn pointed to the metal pipe ladder, approximately double the length of a normal house ladder, attached to the wall of the second rooftop. "We're gonna climb all the way to the top."
Marnie stared sceptically up at the ladder. "It's high."
"I know, but I'll be with you the whole time, okay?" Jordyn rose, directed Marnie to the ladder. She helped her sister stuff Elroy inside her shirt and then tuck her shirt into her jeans.
As Marnie climbed up a few rungs, Jordyn enclosed herself around her sister so that, even if Marnie slipped, Jordyn would be able to catch her. "Go slow and don't look down," Jordyn said calmly, but once they started climbing, Marnie didn't seem perturbed by the height at all.
The ascended slowly. Jordyn didn't rush her sister to climb faster, and didn't help her. She made sure she wouldn't fall, but she didn't give her a boost or nudge her upwards. When they finally got to the top, Marnie crawled onto the ledge and pulled Elroy free from inside of her shirt.
"What are we doing up here?" Marnie asked as she waited for Jordyn clamber onto the rooftop.
"Come here, look," Jordyn directed Marnie to look at a square gap in the cement covered in a metal grate. Kneeling down beside it, Jordyn explained to her sister what it was. "It's a vent. Here, you turn this," Jordyn unlocked the slide latch and pulled the grate open. "And it opens. You try." Jordyn locked the latch and let Marnie unlock it herself. The little girl struggled to push the vent open, but Jordyn didn't help her. She needed to do it herself.
It took her a couple of shoves but she managed to do it. When it was open, Marnie peered down the hole. The the metal siding of the air-vent went down about eight feet and then doglegged sharply to the left. On the side of the vent was a ladder, a different ladder to the one the sisters had just climbed. This one had been made by denting the rungs internally into the metal siding. The kind of ladder built for the person who installed or repaired it, not meant for everyday use.
"Drop Elroy down there." Jordyn told her sister.
Marnie looked horrified and hugged Elroy tightly. "No!"
Jordyn smiled. Having inspected the vent twice over that morning, she knew what she was doing. "I promise he won't get lost and he won't get hurt."
Marnie gave her a look that reminded her very much of their mother. Then she took a deep breath, held Elroy over the gap and dropped him. He bounced off the bottom and tumbled out of sight behind around the bend of the vent. Jordyn had a momentary flashback to when she had fallen down the mineshaft and her chest seized. Her rib had since healed, but in moments like this she felt the throbbing pain of that fall all over again.
"Come on," Jordyn ignored her twinging rib and took her sisters back down the extra long ladder, back inside the jail all the way to supply closet where T-Dog had found the crutches, and where Jordyn had managed to cram in a bunk bed from one of the unused cells. "Climb to the top bunk," Jordyn instructed Marnie. "Now, see that?" Jordyn pointed to the roof above the top bunk where there was a square vent identical to the one on the roof. "Open that up, just like the one on the roof. You'll have to push it open."
It took Marnie a little longer to get the latch unhooked, but she managed to do it and then stood up on the mattress, opening the vent as she rose. It was so rusty the squeal it made echoed through the vent, and it just stuck in place when Marnie let go of it.
From the ground, Jordyn saw Marnie's face light up when she peeked inside the vent. "Elroy!" Marnie cried happily, flopping back down onto the top bunk with her beloved teddy bear clasped in her arms.
"It's a secret passage way," Jordyn explained, pulling herself up on the side of the bunk to reach up and lock the vent again. "And it leads all the way up to the roof where we just dropped Elroy," Jordyn pulled Marnie's legs over the edge of the top bunk and held her in place. "It's where I want you to hide if something bad happens."
Marnie looked up, eyes bright with sudden fear. "Like what?"
"Just in case," Jordyn said calmly. "If something happens and the walkers make it inside, you can go through this vent and climb up to the roof. And you'll be safe there, the walkers won't be able to get you. And I'll know exactly where to find you."
Marnie didn't look relieved, and instead hugged Elroy tighter which caused her necklace to peek through her shirt and catch the sunlight. Hanging off the twine and resting on Elroy's fuzzy back, was their mothers engagement ring. Jordyn reached out and took the ring in her fingers. It felt like a lifetime ago that Daryl had handed it to her as they buried her parents in the backyard of her family home. Jordyn hadn't known what the heck to do with it, but when they found Marnie she knew it belonged to her. Jordyn made a necklace of twine so the ring was always by Marnie's heart.
"Where did you find Mummy and Daddy?" Marnie suddenly asked.
The question made Jordyn's stomach drop. In a year, Marnie had never asked about their family. Sometimes she would mention them in a passing comment, and Jordyn heard her mumble their names in her sleep, but she had never asked specifically about them. Jordyn had been grateful for that, and hoped that her innocent memory kept them alive. She didn't want to have to tell her seven year old sister that her mother and father overdosed together instead of looking for their children.
"At home," Jordyn said, too tired or not able to lie to her. "They were together. They still are."
"Were they walkers?"
Chewing her lip, Jordyn's first instinct was to deny the truth. But why? It wasn't as though Marnie asked daily about her parents. It had taken her this long to ask, she deserved an honest answer. "No, they weren't. They... they were so heartbroken when they thought we were all gone. You, me, Connor. They just wanted us all to be together. So," Jordyn searched her mind for the right words, the least cruel words. "They laid down in their bed and went to sleep and didn't wake up."
Marnie's eyelids drooped and her shoulders sunk in. She looked like she might cry, but her eyes remained dry.
"But they would be so proud of how brave you are," Jordyn continued, allowing tears to creep into her own eyes. "I don't know if I could have been as brave as you were when you were on your own."
Jordyn was actually quite sure she wouldn't have been an ounce as brave as Marnie. She was almost mute during the early days of the infection. Having to kill her infected brother, Marnie being missing, her parents gone, the world overrun with the undead. No, she wasn't brave at all. She just sat quietly and let Lori lead her around. And Marnie, six years old at the time, had been bussed from her school to a refugee camp full of strangers with no clue of what had happened or would happen. It was the one piece of luck, the one good thing that had happened, when Jordyn had found her sister.
"Do you ever talk to Mummy?" Marnie asked, again catching her sister on the wrong foot.
"Ah," Jordyn's lips curled into half a smile. She didn't feel the need to lie this time. "Sometimes. If I get scared when we're out on a supply run, I ask her to make sure the walkers won't hear us. And when I'm by myself, I like to ask her if she thinks I'm doing the right thing."
"Does she ever answer back?"
Jordyn heart ached a little as she shook her head. "No."
Marnie looked as though she understood, and gave a weak smile. "She never answers me, either."
Jordyn reached out and pulled Marnie off the top bunk and into her arms. Marnie hugged her sister tight around her neck. "Let's go outside, okay?" Jordyn rubbed Marnie's back and carried her back downstairs. "It's a beautiful day."
xxx
