It was morning and Amity was left staring at a petri dish all alone.
Bandit had left early that morning to go talk to Rick and Glenn some more about what had happened and in the meantime, Amity had discovered something that put her frantic rushing about the clinic to a halt.
Noah's blood type was B+ and now Amity was out of ideas.
Her plan to throw a hail mary pass and inject the younger man with her blood in hopes that if her immunity to the bite was due to something in her immune system, rather than a genetic mutation, then it could possibly help him fight off the virus as well was now a completely moot point.
Injecting her A+ blood into his system would do nothing but guarantee that he would die a painful death.
Resting her forehead in her hands, Amity sucked in deep breaths through her nose and before letting them out through her mouth as slowly as possible.
She could feel the stronghold that she had been keeping on her emotions crumbling as her brain spun in circles, trying to think up another solution.
But from where she was stood, there wasn't one.
She had no equipment that would help her study her own blood in an attempt to find something out of the ordinary, and even if they did, she was no pathologist. It was so far out of her area of expertise that she just as well should have been a baseball player being asked to build a rocket ship.
There was nothing else she could do but wait.
A low groan of pain sounded from in front of her, causing Amity to snap up straight in her seat and watch with wide eyes as Noah squinted against the light from the window and looked around with obvious confusion.
"I thought... I'm not dead?" He asked and Amity's chest clenched painfully at such a question.
"No, Noah. You're not dead." She soothed him, now on her feet and coming to his side to brush the back of her hand against his forehead.
The boy was burning up.
"But we were... where's Glenn? And Bandit? Are they okay? Did you get Tara?" Noah asked in a rush until he finally reacted to Amity's gentle shushing and fell silent.
"The boys are okay... and Tara, she's here with us." She explained, gesturing over to where the woman quietly laid.
"I-Is she?" He began to ask but Amity shook her head, cutting him off.
"She took a hard blow, sweetheart, but I have faith in her. She's strong- like you."
At the mention of his strength, Noah's eyes finally fell onto his arm... or rather where his arm used to be.
"I remember now... being bitten." He whispered.
"It sucks," Amity said knowingly, receiving a pained chuckle from the boy in response.
"Yeah... it does." He trailed off before pulling his gaze from his arm to look the redhead in the eye. "I'm not going to make it like you did."
"Noah, you don't know that," Amity said sternly but he shook his head at her protests.
"I can feel it, Amity. I'm... I'm just so tired. I wasn't supposed to make it back here." He told her, his eyes drifting to look out the window. "No one should die here. Not in a place like this... not with how the world is now. I should have died back at that stupid store. That would have at least made sense."
"You can't give up, Noah. Not now. You got back here for a reason." Amity argued but the boy wasn't having it.
"I got back here because Glenn and Bandit are too good to leave anyone behind. That's the only reason and that's okay, Amity. I've made my peace with that."
Now, Amity was rapidly blinking to keep the tears that were stinging in her eyes from falling. She couldn't be a complete mess when Noah was staying so calm.
No one as young as Noah should be so wise in the face of their own mortality.
This world was so fucked.
Amity wanted to shake the kid, to remind him that Beth gave her life so that he would get to live freely, but she couldn't be that cruel. Not when she couldn't honestly promise him that he would fight off the virus as she had.
She wanted him to fight tooth and nail to live, but perhaps it was better that he felt at ease if he did pass. Bob had went with peace in his heart and Amity knew that the man's acceptance of his fate and appreciation for what he had in his last days had helped soothe some of those he had left behind.
"Well, I'm not convinced that it's your time, kiddo, so you're just going to have to deal with me planting my happy ass right here in the meantime," Amity told him, retaking her seat now that she had scooted it closer to his bed with a firm nod.
"I've had worse company," Noah replied and Amity chuckled, quickly wiping away the tear that had finally escaped from her eye.
"I'm really feeling the love, No."
It wasn't long before the young man had fallen back into a fitful sleep and Amity was once again left alone with her thoughts. She kept her hands tightly clasped together, hunching over to rest her forehead against them.
She was only roused to her feet when Rosita came by to check on Tara and Noah.
The quiet companionship Amity had found with the other woman as she took a seat next to her was nice, but once the door opened again an hour or so later and Bandit entered the room, Rosita decided to take her leave, mentioning needing to talk to Michonne about some things.
"How'd your talk go?" Amity asked her friend as he crossed the room towards her, both waiting until the front door had closed behind Rosita to speak.
"Did he wake up any?" Bandit asked, avoiding her question with ease and Amity let it slide.
"He did... not for very long though."
"What did he say?" The marine asked and Amity sucked in a deep breath before patting the chair next to hers.
"That bad?" He asked but took the seat nonetheless.
"He said... that he wasn't going to make it." She told him gently, hating the way his jaw clenched so tightly that she was concerned about his teeth while his eyes refused to meet hers. "He said that he wasn't supposed to make it back from the run, but that you and Glenn were too good to leave him there. He has... come to terms with it all."
"So that's it then? The kid is just going to..." Bandit cut himself off, rubbing one hand roughly over his shaved head and down his face. "This is never gonna change. Same shit, different day- different dead kid."
"Bandit..." Amity began softly but the Marine shook his head to stop her.
"I'm not saying anything that's not true, Amity. It happened before this fucking outbreak and it happens now and its always going to happen to someone somewhere. It's the shittiest part of life."
"I know." She agreed, knowing that it wasn't bitterness driving Bandit's rant, but instead experience.
"What can we do?" He asked as he looked over at Noah's sleeping form.
"We can make sure that the before is worth it. That we're all living every second as we should be then, when that time comes, that whoever passes as peacefully as we can make it." Amity offered before letting a heavy silence settle between them.
"I'm going to let this run its course. I think... I think its close to time anyways, and when he's gone... if he goes, that is, then I'm going to make sure that's his final end." She informed her friend who shook his head immediately.
"No, Bambi, I'll do it." He offered but Amity's mind wasn't going to be changed.
"I know what you're trying to do, Bandit and I appreciate it but I've already got blood on my hands. Making it so that he doesn't come back as one of those things... it's the least I can do for him... and for Beth." She explained, holding her friend's gaze as he searched her eyes for any sign of hesitance before nodding once.
"I'll be here." He promised.
"I counted on that."
With a tight smile, Amity reached for one of her friend's large hands, wrapping it up between both of hers.
Hours passed before Amity noticed that Noah's sleep had gone from restless to deathly still.
With a heavy heart, she rose to her feet and took a deep steadying breath before reaching out and pressing her fingers against this throat, seeking a pulse and finding none.
"He's gone." She announced, her voice breaking as she turned to look at Bandit, her heart shattering in her chest.
"Steady, angel," Bandit soothed, reaching out to hold her tight against his warm chest and for a few long moments she allowed it.
"I need to... I need to do this." Amity said finally after hardening herself against her next task, pushing herself away from the shelter that was Bandit's arms to face reality once more on her own two feet.
Checking Noah's pulse once more in both his throat and wrist, Amity bit her cheek until it drew blood upon once again finding nothing.
She couldn't waste any more time.
It was unfair to let him turn due to her selfish hesitation.
"I'm sorry this was the ending to your story, Noah. You... you deserved so much more." Amity whispered before she gently tugged his torso upwards, exposing the back of his head to her so that she could shove her thinnest blade, kept deadly sharp thanks to Daryl, into the base of his skull.
With trembling hands, she left it there for a long moment before pulling it out, aware that the only bleeding that would come from the wound would be minimal and due to gravity.
She didn't want people seeing him looking too unlike himself when they came to say goodbye.
"We'll see you on the other side, kid." Bandit said softly, his hands resting on Amity's shoulders as he prompted her to lay the young man back down so that he could tuck the blanket around him, covering his missing limb and the site of the infection.
The pair stood silently until Amity felt herself slowly return from the numbness that had settled deep into her mind and body, not knowing if it was mere seconds or hours that had passed since Noah's final breaths.
"We need to tell people... so they can say goodbye and we can bury him," Amity said and Bandit immediately nodded.
"You check on Tara and I'll go tell everyone that its time to say goodbye." He directed and Amity agreed, needing to do something useful and it seemed that Bandit had caught on to as much.
When the first of their family arrived, Carol and Eugene, Amity quickly excused herself from the room.
She couldn't stand to listen to any more goodbyes after having said her own.
She had done what she could and now she was going to pass that baton before she ended up dropping it.
She headed towards the house that she shared with a large part of her family and immediately went upstairs to her and Daryl's room.
Her heart ached as she tucked herself under the covers on his side of the bed, inhaling deeply into the pillow in search of some comfort and strength to draw from the man she loved even while he was away.
She would give anything for Daryl to be back now.
A knock on her door had her rousing from a fitful nap though Amity wasn't sure how long she had been dozing.
"Wanted to check in on ya, bug. You had a hard night and morning." Her brother's voice called from the other side and Amity only hesitated a moment before telling him to come in.
One look at the small woman wrapped up in her comforter had Michael smiling sadly, crossing the room to take a seat on the edge of her bed like he had done so many times when she was a lovesick teen.
"You did right by him, Amity," Michael told her, his words being ones that she so desperately needed to hear. "Him and Beth both."
"It's never gonna stop, Mikey. Bandit said as much and he's right. Death, even tragic ones like this, happened before the outbreak and it will keep happening now. I just... I wish I could do more." Amity admitted.
"We're all doin' the best we can, bug. We're tryin' damn hard to make a better life for all of us and we're makin' more progress every day. I wish we could change the terrible things that have happened along the way, but we can't... and that's just the way it is." He reasoned, setting a heavy hand on her head before gently ruffling her hair.
"I'm sorry," Amity said after a brief pause. "I shouldn't have been moping, I know there's still a lot to do."
"You deserve the time to rest and mourn, bug." Michael corrected, looking at her closely for a minute before patting her leg.
"Come on, let's go for a walk. I know you're not about to go back to sleep now." He requested, knowing his sister like the back of his hand.
Giving in to his request, Amity kicked off the covers and pulled on her old worn boots, not caring how rough they looked to everyone now, especially when paired with her clean black skinny jeans and light pink blouse.
The siblings made their way off the porch and began their stroll down the street when they heard it- loud yelling from a few houses over.
"What the hell?" Michael wondered aloud, but neither sibling wasted time questioning the noise once they heard the very distinct sound of glass shattering and instead ran towards it.
The Walkers came upon the scene of a fight at the same time that many of their family did, watching a bloody Rick roll around on the ground with... Pete?
"What the fuck?" Amity asked, looking around at the crowd in search of an answer as to what the hell was going on but only found shocked and confused faces looking much like she imagined hers did.
As Pete gained the upper hand, his hands circling Rick's throat, Jessie decided to intervene and got violently knocked to the ground by her husband for her trouble.
Michael immediately went to the woman's side, helping pull her back to her feet and half-dragging her to Carol's side to keep her from getting back into the fray just as Carl went to stop his dad now as well.
"Carl!" Amity called out just before the boy got knocked away by his father as well.
Anger ignited hot and sharp in Amity's chest at that, but she couldn't decide her next move before Deanna had shown up and demanded the men to stop.
"You touch them again and I'll kill you," Rick growled into Pete's face and slowly, pieces were starting to fall into place for Amity.
The empty bottles in the office, Pete's explosive temper, Jessie's timid behavior, and now... whatever this was.
"Damn it, Rick! I said stop." Deanna demanded and finally, Rick let go of the resident doctor.
Once he had, a few Alexandrians went to move towards him but were stopped by Rick pulling a gun from his waistband.
"Or what? You gonna kick me out?" Rick asked the woman.
"Rick!" Amity said sharply, shocked at how the man so casually pointed a gun at the people around them but Bandit's sudden presence at her side and his hand grasping her elbow kept her from intervening.
"Put that gun down, Rick," Deanna said calmly, trying now to diffuse the situation that had quickly spiraled out of control.
Amity had to wonder if Deanna knew more about what was going on than herself. She believed as much. The leader of the town was a very intelligent woman and she seemed to always have an ear to the ground, which made Amity wonder how long she had been ignoring the strife occurring in the doctor's house.
"You still don't get it. None of you do!" Rick snapped from where he was kneeling on the asphalt, the gun still in his hand though he was no longer directly pointing it at anyone.
"We know what needs to be done and we do it. We're the ones who live. You, you just sit and plan and hesitate. You pretend like you know when you don't." Rick told the crowd and Deanna. "You wish things weren't what they are. Well, you want to live? You want this place to stay standing? Your way of doing things is done! Things don't get better because you want them to."
"Starting right now, we have to live in the real world. We have to control who lives here." Rick told the leader, gesturing towards where Pete lay prone on the ground.
"That's never been more clear to me than it is right now," Deanna replied coldly, her words making Amity's heart pound loudly in her ears.
Deanna wanted them gone.
Alexandria was already slipping through their fingertips and they had just arrived. Amity knew that she shouldn't have let her guard down with this place- nothing good ever seemed to last in this new world.
Secrets were always kept, wrongs were ignored, violence always blossomed, and now they were going to be kicked out and that meant that Alexandria didn't have long before it fell either.
There was a reason Deanna sought to bring them in, after all.
"Me? Me? You mean me?" Rick asked before laughing harshly, the blood covering his face from the brawl making him seem that much more erratic as he looked at the people standing all around them before honing in on the leader of the town once more.
"Your way is gonna destroy this place. It's gonna get people killed." Rick snapped. "It's already gotten people killed. And I'm not gonna stand by and just let it happen. If you don't fight, you die. I'm not gonna stand by-"
Michonne came out of nowhere and suddenly, Rick was crumpling to the ground.
The woman reached down to pick up the gun he had been brandishing and Amity looked between her friend on the ground to her friend standing over him before finally turning her eyes to Deanna.
The leader of Alexandria's next move would be what made or broke them and her precious community.
Amity could only react when whatever happened, happened and now, she was ready to act.