The breath of Life

They had buried Glenn's body at the Hilltop. Maggie's decision.

Another one gone. Another weeping widow having lost her entire family. Another child who'd never meet his father.

Her heart had shattered into a million pieces when she'd heard. Glenn… that one ray of light amidst the darkness. He'd always been the one who helped, the one who believed in people, the one who didn't kill. He'd always escaped death by a hair; always came back against all odds.

The last good man; one in which was the breath of life.

Not this time. Never again.

"You did well to leave, Carol. Stay in the Kingdom. It's best for you."

Maggie's words shocked her, cold as stone and furious.

Her fears had come true, of Maggie's heart hardening like it should never have. Back when they'd both been taken hostage by Paula's group, Carol had tried to stop it from happening. Maggie was supposed to be someone else. She and Glenn were supposed to be the noble people. The ones who would live instead of just surviving. The ones whose child would be truly saved.

This world was cursed and broken, and if its survivors were forced to turn into monsters, they could at least prevent others from becoming the same. But goodness had its price and it was way too expensive in a world like this where nothing was right anymore.

"Maggie, you can't stay here. We need you."

"I'm never going back there. This is Glenn's home now. This is where I'll stay."

"He's dead." A lethal silence followed Carol's words and she could almost feel the stone-cold hatred emanating from the soon-to-be mother. "And I'm sorry to say that, but he's dead and we are your family."

"He was my family!" Maggie snapped. "Dad, Bethy, they were my family! They're all gone! Because of Rick! And you! And me! I should've never made the arrangement. We shouldn't have attacked them, he was right; we didn't know shit."

"Maggie…"

"I want to see him dead. I want to cover my hands in his blood, I want to see his head crushed on the floor, like I was forced to see my husband's." Maggie's fists tightened. "One day, I swear to you…" She stopped, swallowed, and looked down. Revenge wouldn't change a thing and Maggie knew it. Glenn would still be dead after they'd gotten rid of Negan. It was all for nothing.

The wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and every intent of the thoughts of its heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man. For the earth was filled with violence because of him; and behold, he was about to destroy it.

Maggie turned away from Carol and kneeled in front of her husband's tombstone, and the discussion was over. Carol walked away, searching for some place where she could be alone and away from prying eyes. Rain started to fall, heavy drops of water in the cold autumn weather. She heard doors closing as she walked past the wooden shelters. Some people running for cover.

She just let the rain wash her sins away.

The world outside didn't frighten her anymore. She almost begged for the storm to come, destroy the good and the bad and the monsters it had created. She dreamed of the day when all the fountains of the great deep would burst and the floodgates of the sky would open. When the rain would fall upon the earth for forty days and forty nights, and the water would prevail fifteen cubits higher, covering mountains. All flesh that moved on the earth would perish, birds and cattle and every swarming thing that swarmed upon the earth, and all of mankind.

But there would be no ark this time. None would enter it, no male or female of all flesh, no beast after its kind, no cattle, not a single creeping thing that crept on the earth. They would all drown in the flood, and the Lord would have blotted out from the face of the land every living thing that he'd ever made.

She sensed his presence behind her as she walked.

"You should stop following me." Morgan didn't answer. She turned towards him. "Before you ask… no. I'm not fine."

"That's why I'm here."

"Will I ever get rid of you?"

"One day. When you no longer need me." He came closer, put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her into an embrace. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and paid attention to his ragged breathing and the change of pace in his heartbeat. His arms covered her like a blanket and hers held onto him for dear life.

They were two. Male and female of their kind, in which was the breath of life.

And the Lord closed the door behind them.

A/N: loose quotes from Genesis 6 and 7.