Author's Corner
HELLO AGAIN MY LOVELIES I AM BACK! BACK FROM THE VACATION AND READY TO GIVE YOU MORE CHAPTERS!
I hope you've all been well! I for one have been very well (aside from nearly dying from Spanish heat). The time away gave me ultra inspiration, and I now can write a TON of stuff! Chapters for this, She Wolf, and even more awesome things! Thanks for waiting for me, I'll shut up now.
Thank you again for all the kind words and support. Please enjoy the chapter and give me your thoughts at the end!
Disclaimer: My visit abroad didn't give me the chance to steal rights to TWD, but I'm not giving up. I'm sure that was Gimple I saw in the market... If only I coul've dragged him into an alleyway and forced him to hand the rights over.
RUNNING BLIND
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As the group came to the edge of that particular rooftop, they stopped and stared down at the square below. Just beyond, there was a barricade constructed entirely of dead bodies and even live walkers, which had been skewered on poles, thus unable to wander off . . . Left to hang there with their arms flailing out and their growls echoing out into the square.
"What the devil is that?" asked Shepherd, staring down at the spectacle below.
Molly's eyes narrowed, and her lips pressed into a firm line before she re-opened it to answer . . . "Crawford."
"What's Crawford?" Beth asked.
". . . Crawford was a community at the start of the turn," she explained with a sour frown, "At first it seemed okay . . . But then they started enforcing all these rules. No children, no elderly, or anyone with a medical condition were permitted. Food was rationed harshly and anyone who went against the rules was . . . punished. They set up a barrier of geeks to separate their district from the rest of the city, to keep other geeks and survivors away. But now . . . Now that's all gone."
"What happened?" Effy asked, eyes trained on Molly intently, "Why is it all gone now?"
"Why do you think?"
Beth stared at the barricade of walkers for a while, head throbbing and ears ringing as she just stared. Slowly, an idea began to take place in her mind . . . A stupid, crazy, probably highly illogical idea . . . That could actually have some worth and positive results.
"You say the place is overrun, right?" she asked Molly, who nodded in response. "Then it's just walkers in there we have to worry about? And no people?"
"Well, yeah," Molly said again, brow raised suspiciously as she tried to work out where the conversation was going.
"What if we went in there?" Beth asked after a minute of thought.
Edwards didn't like the sound of that (not that Beth thought he would). "W . . .What? Why would we wanna do that?" he spluttered.
"By the sound of it, this place was pretty well stocked up on food and other stuff," Beth explained, "If there's no one in there but brainless monsters . . . No one to guard the goods . . . Then what's to stop us from sneaking in and taking some things? It's not exactly like we'd be stealing if there's no one there who needs it."
There's no one coming back to this like with the funeral home . . . she thought. No need to leave a thank you note this time.
"I don't know . . ." Molly sighed, "I went in there with another group who had the same idea . . . And it didn't go so well. Plus there was hardly anything left worth taking anyway."
Beth flashed a tiny smile, and Molly stared in even more confusion. "Why're you smiling like that all of a sudden?" she asked.
"You said hardly anythin' . . . Not that there was nothing."
Molly went quiet then, and Beth knew she was right. This could work. They needed the supplies, and an opportunity had arisen, so they had to take it. It was the smartest thing to do . . . It was what Rick would do.
"Then it's simple." she smiled, "We don't all have to go in, just a few of us can sneak in, grab what we need, then get out. Tanaka's still weak so he can stay here. Effy, Edwards, and Shepherd can take care of him. And the rest of us'll go get the job done."
"Why do I have to stay?" Shepherd frowned, "You can use all the help you can get."
Beth shook her head. "If something happens here, I need you here. Your job is to look after these three. We all got jobs to do, and that's yours."
"This is crazy . . . You're crazy." Molly shook her head.
Beth turned back to face her, smile fading and expression taking on a more sincere one. "You don't have to help if you don't want to. No one does. I'm just asking you to help . . ." Molly was unfazed, so she tried something else.
"Don't you get tired of being on your own sometimes?" she asked, "Of only looking out for yourself? I'm not asking you to die for us, I'm just giving you the chance to change that. To show that it's not worthless helping others. That it's not all about take, take, and no give . . . You can help us without needing to give up anything dire. All I'm asking is that you help."
The other blonde stared at her, seemingly at a loss for words. But Beth wasn't angry. Molly had been alone for so long, trusting no one and having no one trusting her . . . It was only natural for her to act like this. She may choose to part ways with them, or she may choose to help. Beth wasn't forcing her into anything. Like she'd said, she was only asking. Because that's all you could do now . . . Ask for help, and hope that person agreed. Just ask.
Maybe you gotta keep on remindin' me sometimes.
All you had to do was ask.
"Please?"
". . . This . . ." Molly stumbled over her words, "This doesn't mean anything then? Just this one time?"
Beth nodded.
". . . " Molly sighed. "Okay. I'm in."
"Me too," Morgan nodded, and Beth's heart leapt at their agreement.
She beamed at them both and turned back to the others. "We'll be back as soon as we can." she promised, "Take care of each other, and if something goes wrong . . . Fire your gun."
"But you said noise attracts." Edwards countered.
"I know, but I'll hear it too. So if something happens, you fire that gun and make for the cars before any walkers come walking. I'll meet you there or somewhere along the road if you have to get out in a hurry . . . Just don't die."
". . . All right." Shepherd nodded, "We'll see you."
"Good luck," Effy smiled, and Beth gave her a nod.
Molly snorted. "She has enough of that to go around," she remarked dryly.
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Beth clambered messily over the walker barrier that had been erected around Crawford, slashing the bottom jaws off any live walker that went for her with the red axe. She covered her mouth with the back of her free hand and coughed violently, the smell of decay and rot overwhelming her sense of smell. It was absolutely foul, and her front was now covered in a layer of old blood and guts from climbing across the fallen corpses.
So much for changing clothes earlier.
Once over the barricade, she leaped down onto the pavement below and coughed loudly again. Morgan and Molly joined her, landing beside her and covering their mouths as well.
"Fucking disgusting." Molly spat, "Way worse than last time. But I guess that's to be expected since there's no one around maintaining the place."
After an array of coughs, Beth removed her hand from over her mouth began walking away from the rotting pile, unable to stay close to it for much longer. Despite the way things were now, the smell was something you just couldn't get used to. And never would.
Clearing her throat, she turned to Molly. "You said you came here before . . ." she started. "Why?"
Molly shrugged. "Same as why I'm here now. A group had the same idea you did, I decided to help."
"What happened?"
"We got in, got what we came for . . . Lost a couple of people along the way . . . Then got out, somehow."
"Thought you didn't like helpin' people?" Morgan remarked, "What made ya help that group?"
". . . I guess it was the guy who led them that made me wanna help. His name was Lee Everett. You might know him from the news, he was a convicted criminal on his way to prison just before all this started."
Beth nodded. "Yeah, I heard about him. He killed someone for sleeping with his wife, right?"
"That was him. But . . . He was a good guy. There was somethin' about him that made me wanna help 'em out. Had a kid he was takin' care of an' all, a little girl. I couldn't leave her to die . . ." Her gaze was fixed on the ground as they walked. "That's why, I guess . . ."
Beth couldn't help but notice the number of times the word was, was used when talking about Lee, but she decided not to comment on it. "And why are you helping us?" she asked instead.
Molly stared at her then, mouth opening but no words coming out. She seemed to be thinking about something, but what, Beth didn't know.
"Why does anyone help others these days?" Molly eventually mumbled with a shrug. "Help isn't something you come by easily, people don't just hand it out anymore. Unless you're worth somethin'."
"Ya keep saying that . . . About being worth something." Morgan trailed, "But what does that actually mean? What determines your worth?"
"I . . . I don't know. I guess it's determined by how useful you are in means of surviving. How you can be of help to make sure other people survive too . . . How strong you are."
Beth frowned. "People have different ideas on what it is to be strong now. Strength comes in many different forms. It's just as important to be mentally powerful as well as physically . . . Sure enough, if you can take out a whole bunch of walkers with ease, that's nothing if your mind and emotional state are slowly deteriorating."
Morgan looked at her then, and she met his gaze, holding it as he just stared. Beth thought back to the way he had swung the sign around back by the docks, and his eyes had been filled with such cold rage. The rage that compelled to kill, anything and anyone, just to satisfy that desperation for bloodshed.
Strength was in the body, yes, but in the mind too, in the form of willpower and morality. Because without those, you may just as well be one of the walking corpses . . . Brain-dead and emotionless; no longer containing what it meant to be human.
"Come on,"
The streets of Crawford, unfortunately, weren't as empty as the rest of Savannah, and the trio was forced to the shadows to avoid being spotted. Beth squeezed the handle of her axe and poked her head out of the alley they were hiding in.
"Any idea whereabouts we can find what it is we need?" Morgan asked from behind.
"There's an armoury and pharmacy in the school just near here, then kind of a pantry where they used to keep all their canned stuff just beyond that," Molly explained.
"Three places . . . Three of us . . ." Beth mumbled to herself, "We should split up. There are three places we need to be, and three of us. It'd be a lot faster for us to split up and assign a place to each of us."
"What are we? The Scooby-Doo gang?" Molly snorted.
"As long as I get to be the blonde guy with the ascot." Morgan remarked, "He was always good with the ladies."
Beth released a tiny giggle without meaning to and turned back to them. "Well unlike Fred, I'm gonna ask who wants to go where, instead of just leaving Shaggy and Scooby for bait."
How long had it been since she'd watched TV? Far too long. If only the electricity in the prison had worked on the television screens and given them channels again. Watching a show like Scooby-Doo had never felt so appealing to Beth. She had a feeling she would've watched anything if given the chance.
"I can scour the armoury?" Morgan offered, "I'm good with things like that. Well, I've become good with things like that."
Beth nodded. "Well my daddy was a vet, so I know a little about medicine. I can check the pharmacy?"
"And that leaves me with the pantry. Great, food." Molly fist-pumped.
"Try to get as much as you can. But don't overload yourself so you can't carry it all. Just get enough." Beth instructed.
"You got it, missy." Molly nodded, "But I don't know how much you people eat, so how will I know what's enough?"
It must have been a rhetorical question because she hopped up onto one of the rooftops with her pickaxe and scurried off in the direction of the pantry before Beth could even think of an answer.
Beth and Morgan watched her orange figure disappear over the roofs, and looked at each other. They decided it was best to stay together until it was totally necessary to go their separate ways. There was no telling what was around every corner, after all, and they could use all the help they could get.
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The old school building was visible down the street, and Beth peeked out from the alley again.
One walker was staggering dangerously close to where they were hidden and threatened to expose them. So Beth lifted her axe and drove it into the creature's head, before pulling it into the alley with them and hoping none around had noticed.
Morgan watched her slice open the walker's belly with interest, and blinked as she smeared a handful of its entrails onto her already bloody front.
"What're you doing?" he asked.
"Something people from my group did a long time ago," she answered whilst shoveling more onto her neck and smearing a little on her cheeks. "I was trying to do it earlier with the others . . . But it went wrong . . . So I'm trying again."
"But what're you doing?"
She smeared a thick mark along the scar on her cheek and smiled. "This works as a camouflage against them. They think you're one of them because of the smell, so they leave you alone."
". . . That works?" he asked,
She shrugged. "It did for my friends."
Eventually, he crouched down beside her and copied what she was doing, rubbing guts onto his front and frowning at the consistency building on his fingers. "How are you so confident about things you can't be one hundred percent sure on? What makes you so sure they can work?" he asked.
"I guess . . . I guess I just like to think you can still believe in things. Believe that even if it seems like a lost cause . . . Things'll be okay."
"But what if you know they're completely impossible?"
". . . I'm still here, aren't I?"
Morgan was silent again, seemingly at a loss for words. He was looking at her again, with those eyes filled with such puzzlement and wonder. It made her squirm under the intensity of his gaze.
But still, she smiled. "Even after a shot to the head, I'm still up and walking when I should probably be dead. Still running." Her eyes went to the walkers staggering around in the street as they walked by in their camouflage, unnoticed and undisturbed. "Hell, we're still alive even after this hideous outbreak . . . That's a pretty impossible thing if you ask me. But it shows we can make it through impossible things, you just gotta have faith."
"Faith . . ." he whispered.
They were silent for a bit as they passed several walkers, hoping to avoid looking too out of the ordinary. When they had passed, however, Morgan resumed talking.
"I was a man of faith," he said, "Used to go to church every Sunday with my boy and the missus . . . Before all this . . . Then I lost them, and then my faith too."
"Why did you lose it?" Beth asked, although she already knew the answer.
"I wondered what every man of faith surely must've then . . . I wondered that if there was a God up there, watching over and protecting us . . . why would he condemn us like this? Why would he just leave us to die?"
They reached the door to the school building, and Beth opened it and gave the side a loud tap to check for any inside activity. When no sound erupted from within, she nodded at Morgan and walked in carefully with her weapon held up. Walkers sprung up anywhere these days, so you could never feel too safe.
"God condemned humanity before, in the Old Testament," she pointed out as they walked through the entryway of the building. "He was angry over the amount of sin mankind had, so he flooded the world with rain in an attempt to drown them all."
"And is that what's happening now?" he asked, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth. Is that what this is? We're the sinners, and the dead have risen from the overcrowded pits of Hell . . . to demolish the world?"
There was a flashlight laying on the ground by an array of lockers, and Beth leaned down to pick it up.
"God may have been unmerciful when he tried to flood the world then, but he entrusted the remains of goodness to the man named Noah, who built the ark and saved two of each animal . . . You know the story. So whilst he may be ruthless in sending this apocalypse down on us . . . He's not entirely without compassion."
"And why do you say that?"
"Because he gave Noah a chance. A chance to save all he could of the old world, and rebuild a better one, without sin. A debatable way of doing it, this way I agree, but understandable when you think about it. He's giving us the chance to be a part of something bigger. Something better."
The reformation of a new world. A new future.
"Not sure I wanna be a part of it," he mumbled. "If this is the cost. Not even sure if there's even somethin' we can be a part of. There's just nothing."
"Sometimes . . . you gotta create what you wanna be a part of. We have to shape our future, we have a say in what it'll be like. And ourselves too . . . This is kinda like starting over. We're not tied down by all our past mistakes. We have a say in who we are now."
". . . You kept more faith than I did. I'm afraid I don't follow you."
She hit the flashlight with her fist, trying to get it to work so they could have a little light shed in the dark school building they were in.
"I think God gave us the chance to do that. To save what we can of the old world, then rebuild a better one, and start over. Sure he sentenced us to death by sending the living dead out to tear us apart, but at the end of the day . . . We're still here, still fighting. Fighting to live in this world of darkness."
She hit the flashlight harder this time.
"Because even in a world of darkness and death like this one . . ."
The flashlight flickered to life on the third bash of her fist, and shone bright beams of light down the corridor . . .
". . . Light still finds a way to shine through . . ."
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Author's Corner
The next few chapters are already written. I may give you the next one faster if you review.. ;)
~DirtyCookiie