The next morning Beth has to help Alma dress because she's beat so black and blue she can hardly move. After she got dragged to Dawn's office, Alma got beat to shit by Gorman and Licari. She got tossed back in her room late in the evening and left there without treatment. She didn't want it anyway.
The doctor comes in to check on her. She hardly responds to him, but Beth helps him get her stitched up. She also gets a wrap around her ribs because one of them might be broken. Probably when Gorman kicked her with his steel-toed boots.
"You'll heal fine once you get some rest," Steven says, adjusting the wrap around her torso. "Right as rain in a week or so."
Alma glares at him hard. "Fuckin' peachy."
He scoffs and stands up. "That should do it. Beth, you're with me today."
"What was the name of the drug you wanted me to give Trevitt?" Beth asks before he leaves. Alma looks up at her odd question with a swollen eye.
Steven freezes at the door. "Clonazepam." He takes a step.
Alma's face lights up. "No..." She says and stands with a creaking agony. She looks over at Beth who is trying to remain impassive, but her face is tense. Alma's thoughts whirl and she puts a hand to her head. "You said Clozapine. You told her 75 mg of Clozapine, not Clonazepam. You fucking fink! You made Beth kill him, why?"
Steven turns around. There's shock on his face for a blink, but it shifts into a practiced, empty grin. "I didn't -,"
"He was a doctor," Beth interrupts. "I found his Hospital ID in his wallet before we disposed of the body," she snaps. "That's why you had me kill him. Cause if he survived, you wouldn't be the only one."
"And you'd get tossed to the rotters in a heartbeat," Alma snarls.
Steven's facade fades. His lips pinch with tension, but his chin trembles. He looks down with a sigh. "Trevitt was an Oncologist at St. Ignatius. I - I knew him." He looks back up at the girls, his face wracked with grief and fear. "They would have kicked me out, or like Alma said, done much worse. I mean Gorman..." He shakes his head. "I didn't have a choice."
"Use everything you can use," Beth muses, tone grim.
"When they arrested Christ, Peter denied being one of his disciples. He didn't have a choice. They would have crucified him too," he replies, stern.
"Maybe," Alma spits, "but Peter didn't offer to drive the first nail in either."
Steven looks to her with an appropriate horror on his face. He leaves quick after that and the girls both deflate. Noah was right, this place was slipping. They needed to escape, and fast.
"I better go," Beth starts, "I'll come in a check on you soon, okay?"
Alma nods and Beth leaves. Alma sits down on the bed and lays herself down with careful precision. She curls up on her side and squeezes a pillow at her chest.
She'd hardly spent any time at Grady's, but it felt like a pointless eternity. She aches for Lupe something fierce. Her heart felt like it was missing a beat. Alma hoped Lupe wasn't too scared about what was happening to her. Lupe had to know that Alma would do anything to get back to her. Daryl better not have been an asshole and driven Lupe to abandon him. They'd both deny it, but neither of them should be alone. Not after losing the people they cared about in such a bullshit way. Alma hoped they could survive this, somehow. She falls asleep crying and hugging her pillow like the lost child she feels like. Nightmares and dreams became the same thing a long time ago.
Alma gets woken up by someone nudging her shoulders. She opens her eyes to see Beth and Noah standing at the side of her bed.
"We need to go, now," Beth urges.
"Good." Alma immediately rises and despite her grimacing, kneels next to the bed. Under the frame, wedged into the steel channels, she hid a few foot long pipes. She hands them out, they get slid into pants and sleeves, and they all hobble out of the room together.
They get to the elevator without incident using the key Beth stole. Once Noah finishes tying his sheet rope to the pipe, they lower Beth down. That's when the screaming starts.
"Go," Noah pleads. Alma shimmies down the rope as quick as she can.
Noah drops the rest of the sheets down and he descends. A walker reaches out for him at one of the abandoned lower floors. Noah tries to fight it off, but ends up falling the rest of the way and landing hard on the piles of half-eaten corpses. Alma and Beth jump down and help him up. He's limping worse on his old injury so they both agree to keep him safe.
"Alright," Alma says as she grabs the pipes they threw down, "let's get the fuck out of here."
They step into the dark basement and hear the shambling of walkers all over. They stay quiet and they don't use the flashlight at Alma's request. It was less disorienting that way. Plus, the open elevator shaft provided enough light for them to see the exit in the far corner. Alma leads and Beth is at the back with Noah in the middle. Beth and Alma only had to kill a few of the dead ones on their way out. They were able to sneak past all the rest.
Once they get outside, the sunlight is overwhelming. Beth leads and Alma steps in as Noah's crutch as he rasps directions. The three of them hobble through the remnants of safe camps set up around the perimeter of the hospital. They get across the lot and through a hole in one of the interior fences. There's one more fence to clear before they're free. Unfortunately, that space fills with the dead, attracted by the mere smell of humans. These city walkers had been lacking food a long while and their desperation showed.
Alma looks to Beth. "Beth, you and I need to cover Noah. Let's get him to the fence first, then we'll follow." She asks Noah, "Can you make it on your own or do you need one of us to help?"
"I got it. Thanks." He nods, appreciative, but it's hard to sound like it when he's hurting as much as he is.
"No problem. Let's go." Alma turns and the first maldito is within spitting distance. She charges at it and jabs it in the head with her pipe. The creature falls over and two more come forward in its place.
"Go!" Beth says pushing Noah behind them so he can try to slip between the gaps. With the girls kicking and smacking the brains out of all the undead, Noah has an easy time getting through.
"Come on!" Alma says and starts sprinting for the fence. She sees Noah there, waving and pointing in her direction. When Alma turns around, she sees Beth staggering in the center of five or six malditos. "Shit!" Alma goes straight for Beth and knocks out a few of the dead. She helps Beth shove off another and then they sprint towards the gate.
Gunshots fire and spray the asphalt at the girls' feet. They jump away from them pinging off the asphalt. The girls start running zig-zag to make them harder targets. They sprint and push and scream out their frustration until they reach the gate. But they don't quite make it before they're tackled by Grady cops.
Beth looks up and sees Noah outside the gates. His face screws up with anger, guilt, and indecision and he hits at the gate in a rage. She smiles at him wide and nods.
"Go!" Alma screeches. She screams because it pisses off the cops and draws the malditos. She'd be happy to watch them all turn. "Run! Don't stop!" Alma screams bloody murder to pull the dead ones at the gate away from Noah. The more she draws, the less likely the cops will be able to follow him. "Come mierda!" (Eat shit!) She bellows as the cops yank her to her feet, arms tied behind her back. "Anda a cagar, cabrones!" (Fuck off, assholes!)
Alma goes limp once she sees that Noah is gone and malditos are converging on the hospital. The officers drag Beth and Alma back up to the occupied floors. They separate them and shove them each into dark musty rooms, arms still bound. They're in there for hours. But the cops eventually come and take them straight into Dawn's office.
They're both sat on hard chairs with their hands bound behind their backs. The corpses of Gorman and the other cop still lay on the floor. The carnage pleases both Beth and Alma. The body of Joan is an undeserved tragedy.
"Who the hell do you two think you are?" Dawn yells at them, standing before the corpses like they're her backdrop for a speech.
"Gorman attacked me," Beth snarls. "Just like he attacked Joan! You let it happen!"
Dawn has the audacity to look pained.
"Don't you dare," Alma growls. "Don't you fucking dare act like you cared."
Dawn's mouth pops open in shock at Alma's words. "You have no idea what it takes to make it in this world."
"Don't we?" Alma responds. "We were doing fine till your bacon-bits kidnapped us." Dawn looks ready to deny it again so Alma shouts, "They kidnapped us! They raped Joan! They raped her! And you look the other way while they terrorize people! You're fucking scum! Cowards and monsters, all of you!"
"I didn't want it to be this way!" Dawn bites out. "It has to be this way! Mistakes court chaos. A good man's bad decision almost cost all of us our lives. I will be damned if I let that happen again."
Dawn steps forward and the soft condescension comes out. "Every sacrifice we make needs to be for the greater good. The second we lose sight of that? It's all over." She scoffs. "Neither of you are strong enough to make it on your own."
"We are strong," Beth insists, cold as ice.
Dawn turns on her. "How many people had to risk their lives to save yours?"
Both Beth and Alma fight the insecurity that burns within them. Alma has always hated herself for feeling too weak to survive this world. Lupe seemed like she could do just about anything. Alma believed in her like she believed the sun would rise every morning. Alma has never told her that out of sisterly spite. She might, if she ever gets out of this place.
"Hmm?" Dawn leans in towards the girls and waits for their answer.
After their silence, she continues, "In here, you are part of a system." She glares at them, a threat in her eyes. "The wards keep my officers happy. The happier my officers are, the harder they work to keep us going." Her empty stare returns. "None of this has been easy. There have been," she pauses and swallows, "compromises, but it's working."
"That is peak entitled goat-shit!" Alma spits. "You have some nerve thinking your officers deserve to be 'happy' while others suffer. Fuck you, Dawn."
"We're the ones holding on. That's the good we're doing here," Dawn growls. "You contributing to that is the only good you're capable of!" Her eyes flash and widen with a fanatical fire. "That's what makes you worth something. Because out there? You two are nothing except dead or somebody's burden."
"That's bullshit!" Beth snaps.
"We're worth more than you," Alma spits. "We aren't spineless slavers and rapists!"
"You are weak. You need to accept that. Some people just aren't meant for this life, they're too soft," Dawn says, ignoring them with fresh pity in her eyes. "And that's okay. As long as they don't take advantage of the ones who are." She grits her teeth and the fury is back. "Because when they rescue us, the ones who are worthy are going to be the ones who need to put the world back together."
"Whomst?" Alma laughs. "You think y'all are worthy?" She spits. "A bunch of murderers and rapists?"
Dawn glares at her. "We have to survive until someone -,"
"No one's coming, Dawn!" Beth says, gratingly stern. "No. One. Is. Coming." Her eyes widen, staring her down. "You are all gonna die, and you let this happen, for nothin'."
A desperate denial shines in the cop's eyes. Dawn moves to strike Beth, but Alma jumps from her seat. She rams her shoulder into Dawn's chest, sending her toppling back with a dull thud. Dawn climbs back to her feet with the sap club she grabbed from her desk and hits Alma across the face with it. She falls to the ground in a heap. Beth leaps up and kicks at Dawn. She lets out a wail at the hit and then two of her officers come charging in. They toss Beth to the floor and each one presses a knee into the girls' backs, pinning them to the ground.
"Both of you are worthless and it's time for that to change." Dawn stares down at them with a still fury. "I want them separated," she bites out through shaking, snarling lips. "Licari, you're in charge of Alma now. Alma, you'll tend to his every need or you'll get punished. Beth, you're working with me since you let Noah escape. You'll pick up all of his duties and you'll wish for punishment if you let me down." She glares at the girls with disgust. "Officers, get them out of my sight."
With that, both Lupe and Beth get dragged out of Dawn's office. Licari's got himself almost wrapped around Alma. He laughs every time she thrashes away from his touch. Beth tries to yank out of O'Donnel's grip but it's more than absolute, it's downright painful.
As they're getting pulled away, a set of cops come rushing in with a body on a stretcher. There's some yelling, and Dawn runs past the struggling girls, stopping at their side. She waves over the doctor and he comes to investigate.
Before Alma gets pulled away down a separate hall, she goes to shout to Beth, to tell her to stay strong, and not give up. She freezes at the look on the girl's face. One directed at the silvery-haired woman lying on the gurney, unconscious.
For the first time in a while, Alma sees hope shining bright in those big blue eyes