Day 1095 - Evening

Annie

Annie stood with Becca. The two of them watched Lyle and Anders discussing matters diligently at the entrance to the mall; the two men didn't seem angry at each other – in fact they seemed to be agreeing on something – but they were definitely angry at someone.

Annie guessed the two adults were annoyed with Sully. From what she had heard he had drunk something bad which had made him angry, shouted at Bonnie a lot and Anders knocked him out. She'd also been told Bonnie had left the mall and hadn't made contact since.

While Annie had known Bonnie for quite a while, she still could not find it within herself to forgive the woman for pulling her away from Wyatt's dying body. Annie wanted to stay with him until he either got better or died, and even though Wyatt had told Bonnie to get Annie to safety, it likely meant that he died alone and afraid. That said, Annie knew she was unfairly shifting blame onto the woman, doing anything she could to try and forget it was truly her own fault Wyatt had died in the first place.

"What are they doing?" someone asked. Annie looked over her shoulder and saw Becca's new friend, Natalia, looking at Becca as she approached them both. Natalia seemed nice and had been nothing but kind to Annie, but the eight-year-old couldn't help but feel a miniscule grain of resentment after Becca had seemingly ditched her to hang out with the other teenager a week prior.

Becca shrugged as Natalia stood alongside them. "Sounds like they're gonna go look for Bonnie."

"They've been talking about it for a long time." Annie added, scratching her head. "If they wanted to go, wouldn't they have gone by now?"

"Maybe it's dangerous," Natalia proposed. "There might be walkers out there, or worse."

"Can't hurt to ask." Becca said, striding forwards and approaching the two adults. Once Annie and Natalia caught up, sharing slightly confused glances, Anders and Lyle clamped up and turned to face them all.

"What's up?" Anders asked.

"Before you say anything, you can't come with us." Lyle added, folding his arms as if he meant business.

Becca ignored the statement; Annie guessed she didn't want to go with them in the first place. "Where are you going, anyway? Can't be a supply run because Anders would just do that himself."

Anders shook his head. "We're gonna go looking for Bonnie again."

"You've been more than once?"

"Yeah." the man mumbled. "We've checked priddy much everywhere excepd for dhe east. She can't have got far."

"You're going out in the dark?" Natalia questioned, grabbing her upper left arm with her right hand nervously. "Don't you know that's very dangerous?"

"Groups barely ever move around at night," Anders told her. "Chances are we won't bump into anyone excepd Bonnie, plus we've got a place to hole up if we have to."

Lyle shook his head. "We could have avoided this is Sully hadn't screamed at her like he did."

Becca crossed her arms and lifted her shoulders, pursing her lips. "He wasn't exactly wrong." she mumbled.

"You're saying she's not worth bringing back to safety?" Lyle pressed, staring at her intently. When Becca didn't answer he directed his attention to Annie who avoided his gaze and looked away. She didn't want to be dragged into an argument.

"Regardless, we're going." Anders told them. "Gary and Don are on watch duty 'til we get back."

"Not sure I want to leave that kid up there." Lyle admitted, referring to Gary. "He's still a bit shaky, y'know?"

Anders shook his head. "Don will keep him under control. Anyway, we'd better ged going if we want to ged to the safe place by nightfall." He slung his crossbow and a backpack over his brown shirt and turned to face the exit, glancing over his shoulder once to make sure Lyle was coming. The younger man followed the Swede's example. "If you kids want to make yourself useful, go and make sure Sully doesn't have brain damage, okay? Lucia's got him at the moment."

On that note, the two adults pushed their way out of the exit and headed off into the fading evening light. Annie felt a disturbing lurch in her stomach as they disappeared out of the parking lot, as if she knew something bad might happen, but she didn't say anything to Becca or Natalia about it. Anders and Lyle were capable; they knew how to take care of themselves. They were not children like her.

"Should we go and check on Sully like he suggested?" Natalia asked. Much like Annie, the teenager always deferred decisions to Becca because she was never sure of what to do. In a way, Annie probably understood the way the fourteen-year-old's mind worked more than Becca ever could, regardless of the age difference.

The three children – of varying age – turned away from the entrance and began walking in the direction of the sick bay. As they ambled slowly, relaxed, Annie found her eyes drawn to the scabbard and sword which were strapped to Natalia's hip. Instantly all resentment was dropped as she gaped at the weapon. "Cooooooool..." she approved, eyes wide as she pointed at the blade. "Sword."

"Huh? Oh," Natalia hummed, looking down at the scabbard. "I found this in a museum with two of my brothers."

"You have more than two?"Becca asked, dumbfounded. "Jesus, how many brothers do you have?"

"Four." Natalia informed her. "Two older brothers, a younger brother and a twin brother. And a sister."

"Fuck." Becca blurted. "I only had an older sister. Before all this your house must've been cramped."

"I didn't have anybody." Annie frowned, massaging her forearms with both hands, feeling the lining of her hoody rub against the pink scars of multiple cigarette burns. Only Becca and Wyatt knew of them, and she hadn't enjoyed telling either of them. Vince didn't even know.

Becca's face fell as she caught onto Annie's allusion. "Yeah... but try and forget that, huh? There's us now. We're a family... I guess." she turned to face the sick bay. "Now come on," she announced, slightly more sternly, "we've gotta check on Sully."

The three of them pushed the door to Lucia's makeshift medical centre open and looked inside. Sully was lying on the table, clearly awake, pressing a damp towel against the back of his head. Emily sat by his side, gripping his free hand while Lucia leaned against the wall with her good arm supporting her bad one.

"Don't mind us," Natalia mumbled. "Lyle sent us to check on Sully."

Groaning, Sully pushed himself up into a sitting position. "I'm fine." he paused. "Some ice would've been great, though."

Lucia shrugged. "When you find a working freezer you tell me straight away."

Sully chuckled but winced not long after, lying back down. "You'll be okay," Emily told him. "You just need rest."

"I'm surprised he's not concussed," Natalia observed, leaning forward for a better look at the back of the man's head. "What happened exactly?"

"He drank bad stuff which made him angry." Annie told her, pointing at Sully accusingly. "Now Bonnie's gone. What if he does it again and sends someone else away?"

Emily shook her head. "It's not like him to get drunk, Annie. I'm sure he won't do it again," she glared at Sully, "Right?"

Sully tipped his head back and forth rapidly, holding up his free hand in surrender. "Yeah, sure. No more alcohol. It was just... my leg was getting to me."

"He only woke up this morning," Lucia told the children. "If someone wants to go and find Vince and tell him he is awake now, that'd be great; Emily and I still need to check on his leg."

"Two beautiful women touching my upper leg." Sully smirked. "How can I resist?" He caught Emily's scowl once again and chuckled. "Don't worry," he smiled, "I'm just kidding, darling."

Annie spied Lucia, vacant and disheartened, staring nowhere in particular. She was probably thinking about Daniel, her boyfriend, who had died from a knife wound a couple of months ago. Becca seemed to understand this too and walked over to the nurse, patting her shoulder warmly and snapping her back to reality.

"I'll go find Vince," Becca told her, keeping hold of the nurse's shoulder reassuringly as she looked over at the other two adults. "And can you cool it for a minute?"

Sully looked over his shoulder and saw how visibly upset Lucia was. "Yeah, sure. Let's just get this leg checked on, huh?"

As Becca turned and guided her two younger friends out of the room, Annie glanced over her shoulder and scowled at Sully. While he was nice most of the time he had saddened Lucia and had drunk something similar to whatever Annie's biological father used to drink all those years ago – and it made them both insatiably angry if things were how they sounded.

Gripping her forearm, Annie looked ahead and deduced that she'd have to keep an eye on the man before he did something rash.