westerlo4 Guess you'll just have to wait xD

GreekGoddess102 Hello! Thank you so much!

inazumahunter I swear, when the machete is made into merch I'm going to buy the fuck out of that shit.

Dealing with the Termite infestation.

CW: v gory...

Time passes like chalk on a chalkboard. Every second is worse than the last. The silence is messing with me again, but luckily, soon, Carl starts tapping a finger against his gun grip, beating a slow, faint rhythm that helps — which helps.

Judith's awake, looking around like she thinks we're all acting very strangely, then her eyes snap to the door, and we all hear the footsteps.

I remember reading this book on African wildlife — I'm really into African wildlife; it's something not a lot of people know about me. Another thing is that I have this mild obsession with zebra. I don't know, I just do. I think of this thing I read that zebra foals can do: In a big herd of hundreds of zebras, one foul can identify their own mother out of all of them just by her stripes. It's crazy. And what's even crazier to me is that I can do that, too, with footsteps. Like a zebra's stripes, each person's footstep is similar, but completely unique. It's the slight scuff of Rick's boots that give him away. Carl, much like his father, walks with a scuff, though it's lighter. Michonne walks with a determined, confident stride, and Tyreese has heavy, distinct beats that have recently started squeaking, and Carol has a very light and precise step, much like my own.

These footsteps, however, I don't recognise.

I get this feeling like a zebra foal that's just stumbled into the wrong herd — a herd that happens to be a pride of lions. I glance at Carl next to me, heart bashing in my chest. He looks at me and nods silently.

They're breaking in. We all take out our guns, aiming at the office door. Bob lays still and weak on the couch. Tyreese tries to settle him. Gabriel cowers behind his desk, clutching prayer beads and mumbling. Judith is glancing around the room, nervous. Then the church doors crack open and the Termites are inside. We listen to them make their way along the chapel.

"Well, I guess you know we're here!" I get a hunch of who this guy is: Gareth, the Termite leader. "And we know you're here. And we're armed, so there's really no point in hiding anymore..."

They're getting closer.

"We've been watching you. We know who's here! There's, Bob — unless you put him out of his misery already. And Eugene. Rosita. Martin's good friends Tyreese and Oliver. Carl... Judith."

Not all of this adds up in my head. How would Gareth know Martin ever even met me and Tyreese? Confused, I look at him accusingly. Tyreese is wincing. He didn't do it. I know he didn't. He didn't kill him.

"Rick and the rest walked out!" Gareth yells. He's at the altar now. They all are. "With a lot of your guns. Listen, we don't know where you all are but this isn't a big place, so why don't you stop this now before things get more painful than they need to be?"

The door handle rattles. I grip my Glock tighter, finger hovering over the trigger.

They should be here by now.

The rattling stops. In the distance, I hear the office door rattling, too. My palms are sweating. Beads run down my temples and clump my hair. I'm shaking and holding my breath.

"Look," Gareth says, "you're behind one of these two doors and we have more than enough fire power to take down both. Can't imagine that's what you all want." Several guns are clicking and it makes my spine crawl.

They'll be here. They'll be here.

"How about the priest?!" Gareth asks. "Father?" Gabriel's shaking. "If you help us wrap this up we'll let you walk away from this. Just open the door and you can go. You can take the baby with you. What do you say?"

Gabriel's hands stay entwined in his beads, his eyes shut. Someone steps in front of the door — I see the shadow under the gap.

Then Judith starts crying.

Carl collapses across the room for her.

"I don't know, maybe we'll keep the kid," I hear from outside. "I'm starting to like this girl." The shadow under the door walks away. "That's your last chance right now to tell us you're coming out," Gareth orders. Rosita glares Gabriel down.

"Are we done?" I hear Martin.

Gareth must agree. "Hit the hinges..."

Two silenced bullets fire in the chapel, and with them, two heavy masses hit the floor outside the door with loud thumps and clatters. I perk up, horrified.

"Put your guns on the floor..."

"Rick, well fire right into that office! So you lower you — GAH!" Gareth's howl and the silenced bullet make me gasp. I think for a moment he's been killed, but I'm proven wrong when I hear his laboured breath and heaving whimpers.

"Put your guns on the floor and kneel!" Rick repeats.

"Do what he says!" Gareth yelps. A pool of blood is growing under the door frame. It touches the end of my boot and I step aside. "Martin, there's no choice here!"

"Yeah, there is..."

"Wanna bet?" Abraham asks.

I hear the shuffling and kneeling and grunting.

"No point in begging, right?" Gareth asks breathlessly.

"No," is all Rick answers.

"Still, you coulda killed us when you came in," Gareth rasps. "There had to be a reason for that?"

"We didn't wanna waist the bullets."

"We used to help people. We saved people," Gareth begs. "Things changed. They came in and... agh!" I push away any part of me that feels sorry for him. You're either the butcher or the cattle. "After that?" Gareth goes on. "I know that you've been out there—but I can see it. You don't know what it is... to be hungry."

Nobody says anything.

"You don't have to do this — we will walk away," Gareth offers, "and we will never have to cross path's again. I promise you."

"But you'll cross somebody's path?" Rick's gun cocks. "You'd do this to anyone, right? Besides... I already made you a promise."

I hear my machete being drawn. Realisation hits me over the face. The screaming comes in shock-waves. Worse than the silence. It doesn't stop. Not for a long time. All we can do is listen to the bludgeon.

Tyreese rushes to the door. I try to snatch his arm but he's too strong. He grabs Gabriel by the collar. "Gimmie the key!" He does. Then the office door cracks open and the rest of the Termites are being slaughtered. I hug myself. Tyreese's whole body grows ten feet then shrinks shrinks shrinks to ant size.

Finally, everything goes quiet. I just hear laboured breath and coughing and dripping and I try hard not to think that we were the lions all along.

Tyreese moves away from the door and I get a look at Gareth. He's torn at Rick's feet, diced into a heap. I see brain and eyeball and fingers and teeth. Martin's throat has been shredded. The rest of them, either shot or slashed or scattered across benches and the floor. Michonne retrieves her katana from one of the bodies. Sasha is in another world, staring at the blood on her hands.

"It coulda been us," Rick says.

"Yeah," she whispers.

Glenn and Tara are in the middle isle, Maggie standing beside them behind a bench, all watching. Gabriel leaves the office, looking like he doesn't recognise this place or the human species. Rick walks into the room, shortly followed by Abraham and Sasha. Abraham checks on Eugene and Rosita while Sasha sits with her brother and boyfriend. Rick puts his hand on my shoulder. I jump and step back. He tries to get me to look at him, but I don't. I watch Gareth. Rick says my name. My eyes snap to the blood splatter across his white faux collar. I try to say something, but end up mumbling nothing. I nod, then look him in the eye.

Rick goes to his children.

I'm leaving the office, my legs moving of their own accord to a bench that isn't covered in blood. Gabriel stands ahead, and he looks at the others.

"This is The Lord's house..."

"No," Maggie whispers, "it's just four walls and a roof."

Notes

Should be, like, a little less death and gore in the next chapter. Some. But not as much as this one.

As always,
Happy reading.