Chapter 15: Cry

Margaret had an insane amount of equipment for archery. From a past conversation with the woman, she knew that the size of the bow you use depends on the size of the person on how long their arms are... But that was all she knew, so Esme decided not to skimp out on this matter and grabbed everything. Yes, everything. All of the bows, targets, and arrows were transferred to the bed of her truck, she even took the crossbow that had been in the glass case. She had just been settling the last of the items onto the bed of the truck when Esme heard the scream.

"Help!" a baby was crying, and the groans of the dead following after them.

Adrenaline began to course through Esme's body. She had a choice right now. Esme had her own babies to go home to, babies that would probably start waking up in the next twenty minutes.

"Gahhh! Please!"

"Waaah!" the shriek of a terrified baby made her heart lurch and her stomach roll.

She couldn't just ignore a child. She couldn't. Esme jumped into her truck, turning it on and driving towards the screams around the corner. There was a thin-malnourished woman on top of a car surrounded by five rotters with a crying toddler attached to her hip. The arrival of her truck caused two of the rotters to turn in her direction and shuffle towards her, Esme ran them over viciously. A male rotter approached her window, she lowered the window by a crack before stabbing the damn thing in the head with her machete. The woman had stopped screaming, though the toddler was still crying as Esme opened her door and kicked the closest rotter to her onto the floor, stabbing the other approaching dead bastard with her machete and unhooking her hatchet with her other hand and flinging it into the cranium of the downed rotter.

Esme panted harshly at the workout before locking eyes with the stunned woman. Tears were streaming freely from the woman's face, blood dripping down from a vicious bite mark on her right arm, while a sobbing toddler was clutched in the other. That woman was a goner. She'd been too late to save her, but the boy, an adorable albeit dirty African-American toddler, didn't seem to have any injuries. Moans made Esme turn to look at a decrepit building at the end of the street that once been their local farmers market. About ten rotters were now slowly ambling in their direction.

Her eyes shot back to the stunned woman, "Move! Get in the truck!"

Esme ran back inside the truck, slamming the door closed and turning on the ignition, barely giving the terrified woman and child sliding into the passengers seat a glance before peeling out of the town square. Three minutes of tensed silence, rotters now long gone in her rearview mirror, Esme pulled over to the side of the road and turned the engine off to stare at the first adult she'd seen in months. The woman stared back at her with knowing and grief-filled eyes. The toddler had stopped his shrill cries and was now sniffling into the woman's dirty shirt. The boy wasn't as malnourished as the woman was, giving Esme the impression that the woman had been giving all of her food to her young charge.

"I've been bit." the woman murmured. It almost startled Esme when the woman croaked out into the silence first, she simply nodded in response. "I'm dead." the woman continued, "My name's Cindy, this is Andre. His momma was in ma ol' group, we got overrun.. don' think she made it out."

"I'm sorry." Esme whispered.

Cindy's eyes filled with tears. "Me too."

This felt like Heather all over again. She squared her shoulders before looking at Cindy with determination. "What do you want to do?"

"I-I..." Cindy stammered for a moment before looking down lovingly at the toddler in her arms and then back up at Esme, "C-Can you take 'im? I'm gonna turn an' I-I, Andre, he don' deserve that."

Esme looked at the toddler's beautiful brown eyes before sharing, "I have a toddler at home, Lilac. She's two. Do you know how old he is?"

Cindy blinked rapidly, relief seeming to drain into her body, "I think he turned three a little while ago... I don't remember what day his momma say hi birthday was, but he's been with me for a little over seven months."

"I scared." Andre's soft voice mumbled.

Cindy tightened her hold over the toddler, "I know Drey, but you have to be a big boy. I got bit, so- so this nice lady..."

"Esme." she offered.

"Esme, she gonna take real good care of you." Cindy continued, tears had started to stream down her face.

"No." Andre whined, "I don' wanna."

Cindy looked close to full-on sobbing now. Esme breathed in deeply before smiling softly at the scared toddler, "Hey Andre, or is it Drey, I'm Esme."

"Hi." the toddler grumbled.

"I know it's a little bit scary, right?" Esme asked him, speaking in the same soft and soothing manner she always did when Lilac woke up from a nightmare, "But I have some new friends that would just love to play with you."

Andre's brow wrinkled in confusion, "Friend?"

Esme let her smile widen in enthusiasm, "Oh, yes. I have a daughter named Lilac, she would love to play with you. And Lilac has three younger siblings too," Esme ignored Cindy's gasp at that revelation, "Thomas is only one year old but he would be happy to have another boy in the house. Even our cat Baily is a girl."

"A cat?" Andre smiled, showing off his cute dimples.

"Oh yes," Esme whispered in a 'secret' manner, "An orange cat. She loves to play, would you like to come play with her?"

"Okay!" The toddler giggled, before frowning and looking up at Cindy, "Can Cindy come?"

Cindy smiled sadly, "I'm sorry Drey, I can' come."

"But why!" Andre whined.

The woman pet his hair gently, "Baby, I got bit. Remember what I tol' you? If you get bit by one of the monsters ya turn into one. I'm gonna turn inta one of the monsters an' I don' want ta hurt you. Tha's why Esme's gonna take real good care fo you now until your momma comes." The toddler sniffled, tears once more brimming in his eyes, "Don' cry, you gotta be big boy. Drey you listen to Esme, okay?" she demanded before pressing kisses onto the toddlers forehead with fervor, "I love you Drey."

Cindy disentangled herself from the sobbing toddler, "I only got one more shot left in my revolver, is you hadn' come I would've put him out of his misery before throwing myself to the deadies. I-I'll put ma-self down. Don' wanna be one of those things."

Esme nodded, she gently pulled Andre onto her lap and rocked the toddler softly, "I'll take care of him for you."

The woman opened the door, and smiled at her in gratitude, "Gonna walk back ta the square, don' wanna draw the deadies close to ya."

"You did a good job." Esme blurted out before Cindy shut the door, the woman turned to look at her with wide startled eyes, "You did a good job taking care of Andre. He's alive because of you. Thank you. I think his mother would be grateful, thank you for taking care of him, I'll take it from here. We won't forget you, Cindy."

Cindy let out a sob before a shaky smile pulled on the corners of her lips, "Thank you." the woman whispered before shutting the doors. Andre let out a cry that Esme smothered by pressing his face into her shoulder.

"Shhh, shhh. It's okay. I got you. It's okay."

Esme started to drive again when she heard the gunshot.

She needed to get home.

Now.

Words: 1,372

(Wow)

(SO... that happened.)

(On the bright side... I think this is the longest chapter I've written, so... Yay?)

(OMG you guys/ladies!)

(Now I'm curious, are there any guys out there reading this?)

(So I meant to post this on Sunday, but I fell asleep... then when I got home from work on Monday I found out that something broke in the breaker outside so I haven't had an internet connection until now. It was driving me CRAZY. Especially because I got some really interesting reviews I wanted to respond to! On top of that... I'm sick agaaain! It's so freaking depressing!)

(I debated for a good while whether or not to include Andre in this or not... his presence will be the most far-fetched aspect of this fic, but I really do want to see a happy Michone and maybe (since even I don't know) it will make her integration with the group easier!)

(celia azul: Aww, thanks! I'm a bit worried about writing interactions with Rick because at that point in TWD he had taken a leap off the deep end...)

(destidan: Thanks for reviewing! The last chapter was a lot rambling, totally agree on that, but that's mostly because Esme has a habit of retreating into her head since she doesn't have anyone to talk to that is on her intellectual wavelength (IE a fellow adult), no worries... that will be changing in the following chapters as she begins to interact with people. I hope you enjoyed this chapter more!)

(MerryLimp: I have been super antsy to respond to your review! The island is like a plan B or C depending on where I want to take the fic after the Prison Arc, the house on the island was actually never finished (only the framework is done) and if they actually end up going onto the island... a lot of work would need to be done to make it hospitable. The only thing that would be going for it is the solar-powered RV, and again... Esme doesn't have a feasible way of getting on the island (which by the way is a real place in the West Point lake, though from what I understand people don't live on it, and is actually the scene where my other TWD fic takes place... I have seen the movies Bird Box (like maybe 3 or so times because it's freaking awesome), there will be some struggles in the next coming chapter! At this point, I'm not sure if you remember the summary for this fic but the blurb implies that Esme was not doing well when Daryl and Maggie come across her... Anyway, I enjoyed all three of your reviews! They have given me some great ideas! Oh and about the thrift store; after Beachgirl25 brought it up I went on a research binge on the items you can find at these stores, especially in the south and in small towns, and holy shit it's a preppers dreamland! I wish that my local thrift store was that awesome! Anyway, I hope this helped clear up some of your concerns! I absolutely loved hearing what you have to say and it was not disheartening at all!)

(Thornewood: Hahaha! Enjoy!)