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Chapter Thirty-Four: Cheese
**Rick**
He was packing up everything of his, keeping one eye on Judith in her little box and one ear open for sounds of trouble. It was no longer about being out of control of the people, now it was just about getting out.
Maybe it was for the best. He didn't think there was anyway any of them could find enough food to survive the winter.
Hell, everything was hopeless. They were just grasping at straws now. He wouldn't be surprised if half the convent was burning by morning. Maybe it was for the best of half of them died, more food for winter.
How the hell did he fall so far from grace that the thoughts of people dying were preferable? Like a fucking godsend?
He blinked, trying to clear his vision, for the past twenty minutes his eyes were blurring and he wasn't sure what was wrong. Rage, probably. He was irate as hell.
Judith garbled to him and he paused, standing over her, staring down at her pretty eyes.
If Lori were here the child would never be put down, but Rick wasn't her, he didn't have that matronly compassion within him. Hell, he was beginning to even doubt if Judith was his.
Rubbing at his temple in the hopes of chasing away the headache that had been gathering there for the past twenty minutes, Rick managed to stoop down and wiggle Judith's little hand with his.
"We'll find a home," he assured her. "Prbht..sta...phena..."
Rick blinked again, not sure where that thought came from. Standing again, he swayed a little, catching hold of the wall, before going back to clumsily packing up his things.
How the hell was he unable to cope? Shit happens and it rolls like water off a duck's back with Daryl and the others, but what the hell was wrong with him? He couldn't function. He…couldn't…
Rick dropped a case of .357 bullets and they scattered on the floor, but he was more concerned with meeting that floor, hands flying out to stay upright.
"Lorah," he managed to utter. Did he see her? No…it was…
His left leg gave out on him suddenly, just quit working and he dropped, slumping onto his side as his vision blurred into the muted greys and browns of the shed.
On his side on the floor, he struggled to get back up, but his left limbs weren't working and he ended up just flopping on the floor.
Judith began wailing in her box, but Rick couldn't move, his mind was screaming at his limbs to work, but nothing was getting to them. He could only lie on the floor of the shed and listen to Judith cry.
He needed more time. He just needed to…he had to…
Faces flashed before his eyes, people standing stark and crisp against the blurred wall he was facing.
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**Beth**
Her father had asked her to go down into the cellar with the children, but Noah had asked her onto the wall with him to patrol. And he had given her such a sweet, inviting look, pouting a little saying he had no wall partner, that she couldn't refuse.
"Noah?" She asked as they walked, rifles in hand.
"What?"
"Do you love me?" She asked.
"I dunno, I guess," he returned.
"Thanks."
He chuckled, walking the wall in front of her, stopping to turn at the corner and smile at her. "Why?"
"That Rhoades guy said boys only say that because they want one thing."
"Food?"
"Sex," she whispered.
Noah laughed. "Oh, then apparently my mind is pretty clean, because I want food all the time. I'm craving cheese like crazy."
She playfully reached out and smacked his shoulder.
"Oh shit, here comes my mom," Noah said as they reached the dark area of the wall behind the rose garden. "Keep moving."
"Noah!" Karen shouted. "Get off that wall! I told you to get down into the cellar with the others!"
"With the children," Noah argued. "Mom, we're fine up here. Beth said they're not going to attack us until later, we'll go in then."
"Noah, get off that wall, now!" There was a zipping sound, and then Karen dropped flat on her face to the ground.
"Mom?" Noah asked.
Another zip and Noah was falling forward into the rose bushes.
Beth raised her rifle at the trees, but a red dot zeroed in on the centre of her chest and she dropped her eyes to it in shock, before something slammed hard into her chest, shoving her back off the wall.
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**Merle**
Idly scratching at the irritated flesh under his blade's straps, Merle skulked in the darkness with Glenn.
Nearby Cash and Layla were on patrol, loaded to the nines for bear.
Every able bodied person at the convent was on watch, keeping an eye out for trouble. Every child was secured safely in the cellar, so that left everyone just walking around on guard.
"We should do another head count," Glenn said. "Just in case."
"Yeah," he agreed, moving off with the young man into the darkness.
"Wait!" The Lieutenant called out to them from the church door. "Get back here, all of you!"
Merle scowled, but approached the steps. "What?"
"Better put some vests on," the Cajun said. "Tell everyone else to duck inside and grab too, we're getting closer to time."
"Where are you going to be?" Glenn asked.
The Lieutenant turned his eyes upwards. "I won't take the tower, they'll probably hit that first, if they hit at all. I'll grab the church roof though, nice and high, get a better view."
"What about my brother?" Merle questioned, standing at the base of the steps as Grace handed him a vest from their cache of Marine gear from HQ.
"He's staying down in the church with Carol and Grace. Watching over Rhoades and O'Hara."
Allowing Grace to help him put his vest on, Merle nodded. "Alright, we'll be around."
Touching his vest, ensuring it was secure, Grace offered up a small, brave smile at him. "Be careful, Mr. Dixon."
Merle smirked and leaned down, stealing a rough kiss from her, mouth on hers.
When he pulled away, she frowned up at him.
"Thanks for worrying," he said with a wink at her. "But I'll be fine. Hey, if coonass dies, you think—"
"No," she stated firmly. "You're lucky I don't slap you."
Merle smirked as Grace hurried up the steps of the church, moving in close to her Cajun for protection from the wolf at the bottom of the stairs. He chuckled as the Lieutenant gave him a disapproving look, before moving inside with his woman.
"I can't believe you did that," Glenn said.
"I can't believe you didn't," he returned. "Shit, we might die tonight, live like it's your last." As they walked off into the darkness, he added, "that woman has the prettiest little mouth…"
"You're not worried at all that the Lieutenant might get you back for that?" Glenn demanded as they headed for the infirmary to check there first.
"Naw, that woman's clipped him like a gelding. He ain't got the balls anymore."
Glenn slowed as they neared the peach tree. "Do you hear that?"
Merle paused too, moving for coverage behind the tree as he listened.
"Sounds like a baby…Judith?" Glenn suggested.
Motioning towards the wolves den with his chin, Merle led Glenn in that direction quickly, bursting into the shed.
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**Cash**
"Jesus, this shit is heavy," he whined, strapping Layla in as Grace helped him.
"It'll stop bullets though," Carol said. "That's all you need right now."
"Sorry they don't come in your colour, princess," Rhoades remarked from the pew he was sitting. "What are you? A winter?"
Cash made a display of laughing, before sobering and suggesting to Carol, "shoot that one first."
The grey haired woman smiled serenely.
"Daryl, you'll have to talk to your brother about kissing people," Grace declared.
"Why?" Daryl growled.
"Because he tried to get fresh with her," the Lieutenant said, gearing up.
"Did he slip you tongue?" Daryl demanded.
"Of course not, I would have slapped him," Grace argued.
"Then it wasn't him getting fresh," Daryl pointed out, hopping off the railing that separated the nave from the crossing of the church and moving to grab a vest for Carol to put on. "He's probably just trying to get a rise out of you."
Cash studied Daryl's back, before turning his eyes on Grace and looking her up and down. He could see Merle's logic. If you had to kiss a woman before you died, Grace wasn't bad.
He took a quick glance at Carol and nodded. Maybe Carol.
Beside him Layla held on to her own .22 rifle, ready to patrol. Her son was in the cellar with Annie, where Cash had wanted Layla to be, but she stubbornly followed him around, not fully understanding the situation, only that they were in trouble.
And God bless her, she was sticking with him, even loaded up with .22 shells.
He offered her a very faint smile, not wanting to encourage her, but wanting to let her know he appreciated the back up.
Layla gave him a shining smile in return and he froze, tensed with fear.
That woman was trouble, maybe he wouldn't encourage her.
"Come on," he said to her, jerking his head towards the back of the church where they could exit from the back of the sacristy out into the graveyard.
She took his hand in hers as they walked through the dim church apse and he didn't reject her, holding his Glock and leading her on their patrol.
They were three steps from the backdoor when a scream from outside, had him bursting through it and into the night.
Cash aimed his gun into the night, allowing his eyes to adjust, shielding Layla inside the doorframe with his body, using the open door as a shield from the trees.
In the dark of night and the dim, faint glow of the yardlight, he could make out two forms struggling in the rose garden and pushed Layla further back into the church, to keep her safe as he stepped out cautiously checking everywhere near him, before approaching the garden.
Layla was behind him stubbornly, and others from the church were beginning to pour out into the graveyard as Cash hopped the low wrought iron fence that separated it from the rose garden and approached the figures, keeping an appropriate distance.
Sister Elizabeth's gurgling was all that was heard over the sound of a walker snapping and chewing on her throat.
Cash fired a bullet into the walker's head without giving much thought to how or where it came from, it dropped over top of Sister Elizabeth's jerking body.
"Jesus have mercy," Grace muttered as the others joined him standing over the body.
Cash flipped the walker over and scowled.
"Oh God, Karen," Carol muttered. "Looks like she was shot in the chest."
"Heart shot," the other Marine said.
"Christ," the Lieutenant murmured, raising his rifle and shooting Elizabeth's corpse in the forehead before she could get back up. "Everyone back into the church. There might be more."
Grace tried to kneel to offer both women last rites, but the tall Cajun scooped her up easily and handed her over to Cash, who grunted under the weight of the woman, but held on long enough for her to regain her senses. He then let her slide out of his arms and stand close to Carol.
Cash turned in time to see one of those soldiers from the other group, that Major O'Hara who came back with them, approach the nearby wall, his hand reaching up in the dark to touch a patch of blood.
"Was that woman supposed to be on the wall?" He asked, turning to them.
"Karen and Sister Elizabeth should have been walking the grounds," the Lieutenant said.
O'Hara nodded. "There's more. Better secure your people."
Grabbing hold of Cash, the Lieutenant said, "get everyone inside the church! Nobody leaves it until we come back for you!"
Cash nodded, watching as he and the Lieutenant took off cautiously into the dark dorms, presumably to wear those in the cellar first.
"Give me your spare gun," one of the men from the other group demanded of Carol, who was wearing a 9mm on her hip.
She handed it over to him without hesitation.
"Come on," Cash commanded, "you heard them, inside the church!"
He guided everyone back to the door, helping them up and in, before taking one last cautious glance at the graveyard around him and the two corpses left in the rose garden, before following them inside.
They secured the church first, ensured nothing got in on them, before barricading the back door.
Grace immediately dropped to her knees to pray at the altar, while the two soldiers went up to the tower on Carol's command to arm themselves.
Cash kept a close eye on Layla who was quiet and loyally glued to his side. She slid her hand into his again and he squeezed it gently, turning to her and saying, "you'll be alright." He could remember saying those words to her months ago when he released half of the women from that biker group, but tonight he knew she understood him. Her English was getting better every day.
"Nadir?" She asked.
"He'll be fine, they have better coverage in the cellar," he assured her.
Layla frowned.
"Nadir will be alright," he repeated simpler for her.
Finally she nodded in understanding.
The soldier and Marine came back from their weapons cache carrying everything they could.
"Figured if they strike your tower down, you might want this stuff safe," the tall Marine said, he would have looked almost like the Lieutenant, if it wasn't for his dark eyes.
O'Hara handed him a rifle.
"Might want something more high powered than that Glock," the soldier explained.
Cash took it and checked to see if it was loaded, before nodding his thanks.
The freckled soldier nodded back sombrely.
Outside the sound of a gunshot had everyone jumping, running to the windows to look out at the convent grounds, leaving only the Marine and soldier to continue gearing up calmly and the former nun praying at the altar.
Cash struggled to see anything in the night, but there was no movement outside the window.
The front door to the church burst open and Glenn ran in carrying Judith, his face wild and panicked.
"What's going around here?" He demanded, handing the squalling baby over to Carol, who began to coo over her. "Who's shooting?"
"Where were you?" Cash asked.
"In the infirmary with Rick, Herschel thinks he had a stroke."
"My Lord, is he alright?"
Glenn shrugged.
"Something killed Karen, she got Sister Elizabeth," Carol said.
"What?"
"There may be more of those infected out there," O'Hara added.
"What?" Glenn demanded. "How the fuck—?"
"Better gear up," the Marine said. "Looks like we have some soldiers who are still sticking to their mission."
"Where are you going?" Cash demanded as the Marine and soldier pushed past him, heading for the door.
"We're going to help," O'Hara said. "That's what you wanted, right?"
"The Lieutenant said—"
"I outrank him," O'Hara said. "What he says is irrelevant to me."
The Marine paused at the door with a funny look. "I, uh…" he shrugged and went out after O'Hara.
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DarylDixon'sLover - Thanks!
Merle's Right Hand - Yeah, poor Daryl and Carol...
Yazzy x - The Lt. really should learn not to hold things back, it only causes trouble.
Brazen Hussy - Poor Glenn. He's such a clueless cutie.
itsi3 - O_o? ^_^!
ArcheryLefty - I agree. Merle does need a woman. He needs all the love he can get.
vickih - In my experience men usually say things they should know better not to say. I think what the show fails to realize is that not everyone in the ZA world is a giant asshole. Some people wouldn't just want to kill others for what they have, even if it meant suffering themselves. Human nature is funny. (Not saying they wouldn't kill them once they realize the realty of the situation.)
Surplus Imagination - Where I come from, the older generation brings you a blanket or a sweater when you're crying or upset. Maybe it's related to a shock kind of thing...I dunno. I just imagine the Lt. was trying to offer Carol warmth with whatever he had on hand. It just happened instead of a blanket he had a tarp.