Reluctantly at first, Maggie allowed Tara to to lead her somewhere else for the time being. She ran alongside the other woman, whose fingers were firmly gripped onto the fabric of Maggie's outer shirt, refusing to let go as she tugged her along. There were no buildings in sight, so Tara began to run towards the woods, presumably in the hopes that the trees would block most, if not all of the rainfall.
The ground was muddy and slippery, causing Maggie's feet to slide considerably as each heavy step she took caused mud to splash onto her legs from underneath her boots, the increasingly heavy rain soaking her hair, which was sticking to her face in small, dark, dripping pieces.
By the time Tara had stopped running and therefore caused Maggie to do the same, both women were out of breath and practically gasping for air. Maggie doubled over, placing both of her hands on her knees as she squeezed her eyes shut, inhaling and exhaling heavily as she pushed Tara's hand away from her body with what little energy she had left. "I don't…need y'to…treat me like…a kid," she choked out between deep and desperate attempts to fill her lungs with air.
Tara had placed one hand up against the rough and slippery moss-covered bark of a nearby tree, leaning against it as she kept her head down, presumably trying to catch her breath as well. Maggie weakly lifted her head up, stealing a quick glance at Tara, just barely catching sight of the other woman shaking her head with defiance. "You need my help," Tara muttered, her voice low and almost completely drowned out by the sound of heavy rainfall pounding against the treetops and muddy forest floor.
Maggie scoffed softly, half hoping that Tara hadn't heard her do so. "I don't need anythin' from you," she spat harshly, removing her hands from her knees as she backed up, slumping up against a tree. "I'm askin' for your help 'cause I got no one else to ask."
"Whatever," Tara muttered, keeping her head down as she avoided looking at Maggie. "Doesn't matter why you asked me to help you, the point is that you need me to. I owe it to you."
Maggie rolled her eyes, using the back of one of her hands to sloppily brush away the wet strands of hair that were sticking to her sweaty forehead. "Will you stop it with that 'I owe you' crap already?" She mumbled, taking another deep breath as her breathing finally returned to normal.
"No, I won't," Tara said, clearly showing the hurt in her voice at Maggie's remark as it trembled, her sad eyes finding Maggie's as a small frown formed itself onto her lips. "I owe you so much more than this…your entire family is dead because of me."
Maggie quickly snapped her head upwards, glaring angrily at Tara as she couldn't bare to spend another second dwelling on everything that she had lost. "Your family is dead, too," she snapped, her voice loud and full of malice, wanting Tara to feel just as bad as Tara had made her feel.
"Yeah, well that's not your fault. That's Brian's fault…" Tara muttered, quickly averting her gaze to the ground as she began to draw a messy pattern in the soft mud with the toe of her boot, her voice trembling presumably with the remembrance of her late father, sister, and niece.
Feeling guilty that she had purposely hurt Tara, Maggie used both of her hands to push her weak body off of the tree that she had slumped onto, stepping over to the other woman and loosely draping her arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry…that was pretty mean," she whispered, silently urging Tara to sit down on the ground, despite that it was muddy. "I know what you really meant by telling me that my entire family is dead," Maggie continued as she sat down on the ground beside Tara, leaning her head on the other woman's shoulder as she allowed her eyes to flutter shut, her arm dropping and wrapping itself firmly around Tara's back. "I get it, okay? I get that you think you owe me 'cause of what happened at the prison…but I don't blame you for any of that. Yeah, I was upset that you weren't jus' honest with me from the beginning, an' didn't jus' tell me that you were there, but that doesn't really matter anymore. I kinda need to get along with you…I'm stuck with you, aren't I?" Maggie asked playfully, lifting her head up for a brief moment as she opened her eyes, a small smile forming on her lips as she looked at Tara.
Allowing herself to let out a soft chuckle, Tara nodded in agreement to Maggie's question, bringing a single hand to her face as she tucked a loose piece of short, dark hair behind her ear.
After seeing that Tara had no longer looked upset, Maggie lowered her head, leaning it against Tara's shoulder again, this time keeping her eyes opened. "You're right…I do need your help, Tara. But it's not 'cause I think you 'owe' me. It's 'cause I trust you, an' I know that you're capable of helpin' me…an' to be honest; I don't got a whole lot of options…I need to save my friends before they get killed," Maggie said, her voice growing softer with each word she spoke as she moved her shivering body closer to Tara's, wrapping her other arm around the front of the other woman after she had pulled her knees tightly to her chest. "I can't let anybody else die…" she whispered, her bottom lip trembling as she began to think of Glenn again, and how she could have died instead of him, which she gladly would have done if she had had the choice.
"You didn't 'let' Glenn die, Maggie. He chose to…to save you. That's not your fault. Those people at Terminus are sick fucking bastards, and they're the ones at fault," Tara spoke gently despite the anger that was clearly behind her words, resting her cheek against the top of Maggie's head as she awkwardly wrapped her arm around Maggie's waist, trying to comfort her and share body heat as the temperature progressively continued to drop.
"I'm not gonna let you die," Maggie said suddenly after a few long moments of silence had passed between the two women. Her voice was low and slurred as her eyelids began to grow heavy, her body falling more heavily onto Tara's as she started to fall asleep. "I won't let you die..."