My neck felt weird when my satellite dish was removed. I pulled a face and rubbed my neck, looking at the lovely bruise on it in the mirror that Kirsty handed to me. I sighed and shrugged.
"Could have been worse, I suppose. I just don't think yellow is quite my colour." I handed the mirror back to her and she smiled.
"You still have to take it easy."
"Hey, I've survived worse than this. Don't worry about it," I pushed myself off the bed and started heading for the door, turning around and looking at her, "Where did you get all this stuff anyway? We didn't have it before you were here. I should know, I had to take stock of everything we had in the way of medical supplies." Kirsty smiled secretively.
"I had it with me when I came here. We found it ages ago."
"We?"
"My husband and I. He's dead. So our are our little girls." She said it with little sadness, something that really got to me. How much had she lost that she seemed so numb about losing her family? It hit me more than the things that had happened to me in the past. At least I could still feel emotions and sadness and all that. Only thing she seemed able to feel was... well, whatever she felt for Daryl.
"I... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."
"You weren't to know." Kirsty looked at her hands, clasped daintily in front of her. I chewed my bottom lip and nodded, leaving the infirmary. I had hardly stepped out the door when Macy and Trent took me by each arm and started guiding me away.
"Hello, Alex!" Macy chirped. I tried to pull away, but stopped when I felt something jab me in the ribs. I looked at Trent, loathing in my eyes. Of course, there was no proof, but it felt suspiciously like a gun that was being pressed against my ribs.
"What do you want?"
"We have a little something we want to show you." Macy smiled innocently and I felt like pushing her, maybe giving her and Trent matching noses.
"There are easier ways to show me something than kidnapping me at gunpoint." I muttered. If no one noticed this, then they were all insane. Everyone here should know that the Reeves and I hated each other. Why was no one stepping in? I looked around, trying to find anyone who might be willing to step in. Where were Daryl or Rick when you needed them?! Macy made tutting noises and shook her head, that stupid smile still plastered to her face.
"We aren't kidnapping you! We're escorting you!"
"Right. With a gun rammed into my ribs. That makes me feel so trusting." I spat, trying to wrench my arms away from the Reeves' hold.
"Try that again and I will shoot." Trent smiled, though it ended up looking more like a grimace due to his crooked nose. I scowled.
"You know, you should really get that nose fixed. Makes you look even uglier than you already were."
"You little bitch." He hissed. I smirked.
"You know, people call me that so often that I should just have my name changed to Bitch. It'd make life so much easier, don't you think?"
"You think you're so smart, don't you?"
"No, it's just that you're stupid." I smiled at him sweetly and got punched in the gut for my insolence.
"Enough! We don't want to draw attention to ourselves!" Macy hissed. I laughed. Well, it came out more as a wheeze. Trent wasn't weak, so he had managed to wind me pretty thoroughly.
"And you think acting all buddy bud with me won't draw attention? Man, you guys are idiot." Trent went to hit me again, but Macy stopped him, glaring at him quietly, then she helped me to stand up straight. I glared at her, then continued to stumble along. Why was no one noticing how strange this was? Why was no one noticing that these two half wits were acting friendly towards me? Was I honestly doomed? They forced me up the steps to their house and closed the door behind them.
"Take her to the basement." Their mum said. The twins just stood there, expressionless as always, watching me. I was so screwed. Trent and Macy nodded and forced me down the steps to the basement, me struggling the whole time. I managed to make Trent drop his gun and head butted him, feeling something crack again. Had I just smashed his nose? Man, I was not being very nice to the poor guy. He clutched his nose while his mum grabbed the back of my neck and squeezed lightly. Even that little pressure made me screw my face up in pain.
"Behave. Understand?" I nodded and she released me, moving past me to open the door to the basement. Macy looked at her and I could tell that there was something very bad in there. I started struggling again, trying to get back up the steps, but a man was stood behind me, blocking the way. Mr Reeves.
"You aren't getting away that easily." He said in his booming voice. What was it about bad guys always having such deep voices?! I looked around as Macy took my knife away from me. Whatever they were doing, it was probably going to end up killing me. I shook my head, silently begging her not to do this. She just smirked at me, but I could tell she was doubting whether or not she should do this.
"As soon as I open this door you have to get her in there. Understand?" Their mum said. Macy silently nodded. Their mum smiled. Man, these guys really were evil. Or insane. It was hard to tell who was more insane, them or my dad. She opened the door and I was shoved in. I fell to the floor, shaking my head after it collided with the corner of a table. Damn, what was it about me and hitting my head on things?! I slowly stood up and froze.
"Shit!" I said. In front of me was a walker. How had these insane idiots managed to get a walker into their basement?! And guess what? I had no weapon. I was so doomed. I heard a bolt sliding across the door and looked around, knowing that it would be useless to try and open that door. For once making noise didn't seem like such a bad idea.
"Oi! Let me outta here!" I yelled as loudly as I could. I knew that the Reeves would never open that door, but maybe, just maybe, if I was very lucky, someone else would hear me. The walker lurched towards me, snapping it's mouth open and closed as it finally noticed me. I ducked around it, the world spinning with the sudden motion. I shook my head trying to clear it but failing rather miserably.
Stay alive. It's either you or them.
Why was it that my insane dad's words always came to me at the worst of times? I screwed up my face, feeling sick. The brain. That was the only way to kill a walker. I had no weapon. Or did I? I glanced around the room, my heart thumping in my chest, searching for something - anything - I could use as a weapon. But it wasn't going to be that easy, the only other thing in the room was the table that I knocked my head on. There was no way I could use that as a weapon, it was pretty solid and heavy looking, considering that it didn't move when I knocked it. The only thing I could really use it for was keeping the walker away from me while I tried to get someone's attention. I scrambled under the table and away from the walker, standing up on the other side and watching as it attempted to grab me, groping at thing air. No weapon. Walker trying to kill me. Only thing that I could use to kill it was...
Play to your strengths.
"Fuck this." I muttered. Just the thought of what I was about to do was enough to make me feel like throwing up. I paused and felt the disgust melt from my face, a look of complete confusion and horror replacing it. I shook my head as I recognised the walker. It was a man. One that I had thought was dead.
"Josh... oh no..." I looked away for a second as he lurched towards me, bracing myself for what I had to do. I screwed up my face and lunged forwards around the table, shoving my hand up inside him. It felt disgusting, slimy, and yet somehow it was rather difficult to force my hands up through his chest, past his rotting lungs and still heart, and the smell was even worse. I used one hand to get up inside him, the other hand to hold him back so he wouldn't bite me.
"Someone! Get me the hell out of here!" I yelled again, tears almost in my voice, like they were on my cheeks. Whether they were of panic or sadness, I didn't know. I didn't want to do this. Maybe someone would hear me and come to my rescue before – nope. Apparently not. My hand wrapped around John's brain, soft and squishing under my fingers, slipping through them like mud or something equally disgusting feeling, and I ripped it out, throwing it aside as he stopped trying to bite me.
"Aw, man. That is just disgusting." I said, stepping away from him and holding my hands as far away from me sides as I could, just as Daryl barged in. I looked at him, annoyed.
"Well you took your sweet goddamned time!" I said, disgust still on my face. He looked at the dead walker and the brain on the ground and looked equally disgusted. I shuddered. It was surprising me that I hadn't thrown up yet, either that or collapsed on the floor due to how much the room was spinning. I was past the point of feeling queezey.
"You alright?" Daryl asked, crossbow in his hand. I nodded.
"I wasn't bit, if that's what you mean. But I tell ya, I will never be the same again. Pulling out a walker's brain is no walk in the park." I stormed out of the building, shoving Macy back, leaving a disgusting hand print on her t-shirt. She screamed and ran away. I smirked slightly. At least something good had come out of the exercise.
"They knew I knew Josh, I'm certain of it." I muttered, pacing around the room. I was with Carl, Rick, Judith, and Michonne in their house. Daryl was leaning against the wall, not looking very impressed. Rick was pinching the bridge of his nose, Carl was holding Judith.
"How could they have known?"
"My lying bastard of a dad. He claimed that he hadn't gone looking for Eric and me in the city. He had. I'm sure of it. He met Josh. Either that or they had been deployed to the same place and Jedidiah had told Josh to find us and look after us. The Reeves and Jedidiah were working together." I stopped pacing and collapsed into a chair. Rick shook his head.
"Can you prove it?" He asked. I shook my head.
"How the hell would I be able to prove that? It's just a strong suspicion. Anyway, what are you going to do with them? They kept a walker in their basement and tried to feed me to him." I said. Daryl snorted. He didn't approve of me calling the walker 'him'. I supposed that the dead didn't really have genders, but I had known Josh when he was still alive. I couldn't just forget about that.
"I don't know. I just don't know. It only seemed like you that they had a thing against, and usually Daryl and I could keep them in check. But this. This was going too far." Rick sighed and leaned back. Michonne placed a hand on his shoulder and I raised an eyebrow. How long had that been going on? Probably as long as I had been in Alexandria, but I wasn't very good at noticing these things. She said something that I didn't bother listening to and I sighed, frowning. I shook my head, not able to believe what I was about to say.
"Don't send them away. Keep them here, just keep them under surveillance."
"What?" Daryl asked.
"If I am right and it's not a coincidence that it was Josh that they used, if I am right and they're working for Jedidiah, then send them away and they'll go crawling back to him. And he would probably kill them himself for putting me in that kind of danger. Either that or he was testing my abilities. Either way, not a very nice outcome." I said.
"But you're the one who kept warning us about them. You're the one who they put in that situation." Carl said. Evidently I was confusing him. I nodded.
"I know. And I am pissed off at them for it. But I forgave Dad for putting me in hospital when he sliced my back open. I forgave him for breaking my leg when I was five. I forgave him for all those things. I think that eventually I will, maybe, be able to forgive the Reeves for what they did. If I retaliate again, then they'll retaliate in kind, and this thing will just spin even more out of control. We have more important things to worry about, I suspect."
"What do you mean?"
"I may not know Jedidiah all that well anymore, but I know what he used to be like. He won't lose, and judging by how insane he's seeming... I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to attack you. Just so that he would get his children." I chewed my lower lip. Things seemed to escalate so quickly. I wished things were different, yet they weren't. And they never could be. Eric ran into the building and gave me a hug. He had probably heard about what had happened by now. I was glad that I had managed to get cleaned up.
"You alright?" He asked, checking me over. I smiled.
"Well, I'm not on loopy drugs and I'm not dead. So, not too bad."
"Good." He nodded and walked over to Carl and Judith. He loved Judith, she was new, she was small, she was fun. To him at least. It amazed me how sweet and innocent Eric seemed, despite the world he was growing up in. And yet he was the most bad ass ten year old I knew, not that I knew many.
"Us." Michonne said. I looked at her, mildly surprised.
"What?"
"You wouldn't be surprised if he attacked us. You're part of this group too."
"I know. Just hard to come to terms with it, I suppose."
"Come on, Alex. It's easy. You're more used to people than I am, and I accept that I'm part of their group." Eric said, holding Judith and sitting on the floor next to Carl's seat. I raised an eyebrow at him.
"You adjust to anything with a snap of the fingers. You're just special."
"Nah, you're just a stick in the mud. You feel like you'll lose anyone you become close to. You're afraid that you'll lose everyone if you accept you are a part of the group. Just because Mum died, because Josh died, because Dad turned out to be an insane maniac willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. You're afraid that you become attached to anyone else and they'll go the same way." Everyone looked at Eric in amazement, me the most amazed. How the hell had he managed to figure all that out? I hadn't even realised it. He really didn't act his age sometimes. No one said anything for a moment and I shook my head in bewilderment.
"Just because you've lost people in the past doesn't mean you'll lose people now, doesn't mean you'll lose them in the future." He said. I swallowed. Maybe he was still naive. In this world it was guaranteed that more people you cared about would die. It was just a question of when.