Chapter 16
Babes in the Woods
I couldn't seem to summon the courage to go home. The peace and security of the island was far too comforting to leave and enter the frightful aura back in Alexandria, especially with our present company. Every time I closed my eyes I saw the mess of Spencer's guts spilling all over the pavement and the look in Negan's eyes as he looked down at it all.

But if I didn't go back soon, Dad would send out a search party and people would be put in danger because of me. Or maybe with luck, he wouldn't bother with one, figuring I was resourceful enough not to worry too much. I sincerely hoped so. He knew about the island. Perhaps he would think I'd go there.

I kept that in mind as I tried to take my mind off of the murder today. To distract myself, I passed the time by listening to Bianca on a windup radio. Most of what she said was unheard as I tried to settle down.

"So remember everyone, having outer and inner walls is a good thing." She announced over the miles and miles separating her from her listeners. "Even having dividers between your living areas, fields, and livestock has proven to be very beneficial. I know it's a lot more work but in the long run it's observed to be safer as well as a good fallback in case parts of your barriers fail. That way if there's a massive horde that's broken through you can retreat into inner walls and the casualty rates will be minimal."

"Another thing that's always good to have: booby traps. Explosives and pitfalls can be very reliable to set up around the perimeter of your community and outer walls. Not just for corpses but for enemies as well. Never feel it's overkill to be prepared for attackers. I don't know how many times I've heard of people or communities that were attacked and overrun simply for being unprepared for things like that. Even if it feels excessive, trust me—it's not.

"Just keep in mind to mark them accordingly for your people. This way you can at least avoid future accidents. If they trick a person they'll trick a corpse. Bells and windchimes can be used to lure corpses from your walls, so if you feel like booby traps seem a bit too dangerous especially if there's a lot of people coming in and out, see if strategically spaced bells work for you."

She went on and I listened half-heartedly. Most of what she said was stuff I'd heard before. There were a few traps around the town as she described, including some diversion methods like blockades and ditches that walkers tended to fall in, so we were a bit more prepared than Bianca needed to tell us. Out of boredom, I turned the station off and sat in silence in the specious bedroom.

I curled up on the bed with the curse book still on the chest at the foot of it. Vanessa sat beside me, sometimes filling the silence with a lullaby as I lied there.

When I was young
And scared of the world
My mother would sing me a song
A tune that I keep in a sacred place
'Cause I know that my life won't be long
It tells of the place where you go
When your time here on earth is through
A beautiful place we call heaven
Is it true?
Please God I pray that it's true

'Cause once this land was heaven on earth
Green hills were all you could see
But now it's soot and steel and brick
So it looks more like hell to me
And each day brings more and more suffering
And each night is silence and fear
And I wake to the sound of your voice
But you're not here
Why oh why aren't you here?

So now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the lord my soul to keep
Please let me die before I wake
So the lord my soul, can take
Then maybe I'll finally find you
'Midst the beauty of paradise
And you'll sing not of dying but living
Wouldn't that be nice?
Wouldn't that be nice?

I drifted a bit into a restless sleep with dreams of my innards spilling from my stomach and demons dancing over my lifeless body. When I woke again it was dim in the room and the sun was setting. In the back of my mind I knew Dad was going to be furious that I had stayed out so late.

With that to consider I got up and left the island, saying a reluctant goodbye to Vanessa as I left. I didn't want to go. I was afraid that Negan would be waiting for me back home and would mock me for running after seeing Spencer's demise. Or worse, he would… he might…

Okay, in total honesty I wasn't sure what he would do and the uncertainty of that terrified me most. I would have rather stayed on the island to wait for my dad to come and get me when the warlord was gone, but I knew it was much more dangerous for him to wander out if he didn't have to than it was for me. So I left my sanctuary and turned home once more.

The wind picked up the moment I was on the other side and I saw heavy rainclouds moving in. I pulled the cloak closer and walked hastily.

Thunder rumbled above my head and the air became charged, preparing for rain. I tried to pick up my pace but the forest seemed to groan nervously as the beat of the leaves in the wind drowned out all thought inside my head other than the desperate need to make it back home before something toppled on me.

And then the rain came.

It started first as a light sprinkle then turned into a downpour. I was soaked in seconds and no matter how tightly I held my cloak, the rain seeped through. Thankfully it wasn't freezing, only wet and irksome. My cowgirl boots filled with water and every step I took felt like I was carrying puddles around.

I could hear walkers roaming a few yards away, gathered in a herd and ambling no closer to me than necessary.

Thunder roared above and the strange dead stopped just then, tottering in circles as they gazed up at the clouds. The sounds seem to attract them greatly but it also confused them. They saw the sparks in the sky and even reached mindlessly for the lightning, but I could tell they were unable to figure out how to reach the source of activity.

For the first time I stopped to consider these soulless creatures.

What did the world look like to them?

They were people once, with thoughts and feeling and ambitions and dreams. But not anymore. Now they just existed.

We all knew they were mindless starving monsters, intent to search out and devour anything that moved or made any kind of sound… well anything except me.

I leaned against a tree, blinking through the rain as I watched them till one seemed to sense my presence and looked towards me. It hovered for a small thoughtful moment before turning its feet around and following a different path that lead in the opposite direction. A few others noticed its change and looked only once towards me before following their companion's flight. Others further away merely followed the crowd when it began moving again, like a flock of sheep.

I sighed, feeling the weight of this strange power pin me where I stood, watching them disappear.

Why was I different? Why didn't they hurt me, or dare come near me? What was I?

I moved to turn from these things when suddenly a hand slapped over my mouth and lifted me off my feet. Instinctively I kicked out, screaming hard into the gag as my body flailed wildly.

Whoever held me seemed to know what they were doing. They took no time in slamming me hard against a tree, where I was pinned and helpless against the two solid bodies.

"I know what you are!" A sinister guttural voice hissed in my ear. From the sound of it I guessed my attacker was female. "I've watched you for weeks!"

My heart leapt in my throat and I felt pure blind panic clog all my senses as I worked to free myself from this maniac.

"Able to control the dead, can you?" She hissed. "Well you'll be coming with me now. The Wolves will make good use of you, little witch!"

Oh god! OH GOD!

I couldn't think of anything other than to fight. My hand reached for it before my thoughts did. Metal sang, my arm tore forward, and the one behind me screamed loud as the edge of a blade slashed through her gut. Her iron grip on me left and I slipped to the ground in a slosh of water, blinking through the rain as I turned around.

Now that I had a better look at her, I surveyed this mad woman. She had tangled dirty hair the color of rust. She was thin and her face was gaunt and even in the downpour I could see that it was caked with dirt and other filth. Her hands grasped the place I had stuck her and she growled low as she looked at the blood.

"You little bitch!" She hissed, reaching towards me with one hand while the other held her bleeding side.

Without thought I slashed the knife again, cutting her in the space between her forefinger and thumb. She roared again trying to dive towards me, but I rolled. My boots slipped on mud as I scrambled to my feet and sprinted away, running blind.

"Get back here!" The woman screamed, sprinting after me.

My legs hammered the ground while my heart hammered in my chest. The woman's legs were much longer than mine and I knew she would have outran me if I hadn't had the good sense to maim her first.

In my panic to keep ahead of her I didn't realize I was running away from Alexandria until something stepped in my path and I collided with another solid body. Hands pinned my arms to their sides and wrestled my knife away from me.

"NO!" I screamed, feeling my weapon being yanked from my hand.

I heard other voices and watched more people step out from behind trees. They carried knives and spears and looked like wild men as they moved in.

Stupid me! I should have known that wolves hunted in packs!

"You got her?" One asked.

"I got her! Little brat's putting up a big fight, though."

"Get control on her. We can't let—,"

He was interrupted just then as my piercing scream cut through all sound and I doubled my efforts to work out of the grip ensnaring me.

"Shut up! You're going to—,"

He trailed off as a walker ambled up the path, attracted by the activity, just as I intended. More were coming up the path behind it and lightning cracked the sky, illuminating the herd as it moved forward.

"Fuck!" Someone hissed. "Brat's called in the reinforcements!"

With them distracted, my hand dipped into my boot and pulled out my second knife concealed inside. It dug into the thigh of the man behind me and he yelled out as his grip on me loosened and I pulled away, sprinting once again. I dove into the herd, putting space between me and the wolves in the safety of the flesh eaters.

There were various yells and cries of fear as I was lost within and the herd advanced on my assailants. I could hear the clang of the weapons as they fought through the bodies but the thickness of the crowd kept me safe from their pursuit again.

I ran and ran, unable to tell where I was headed anymore, but knowing that I needed to put as much distance between me and the hunters as I could. The rain beat on me, and splashed in my face, making visibility impossible as I kept running. The boom of thunder clapped above and the trees groaned in a wordless threat.

Just then I heard snaps and something cracked loudly. I turned and watched as a massive black shadow dove towards me. I felt arms and nails rake my skin as I screamed, throwing me to the ground where I was pinned and unable to move.

...And then there was nothing.

My own hacking coughs woke me up, heaving through a throat on fire. There was water on my face and my whole body shivered with a freezing cold. I coughed again, feeling mud and grass and rocks on my back as something like branches and leaves scratched my face. My eyes fluttered opened, staring up at dying leaves and the blue sky seeping through them. I could feel a near crushing weight pinning me where I lied, unmoving and constricting. Upon further inspection I realized it was a fallen tree, the same that I had mistaken for a body attacking me the night before.

I coughed more, trying to get air into my burning lungs. My mouth was dry and I felt dehydrated. The moment I was free I would need to find water. I struggled in the branchy cage, worming my arms free to grip at the bough pinned on my chest and pushed hard. There was something gripping me around my ankle, making it difficult in working myself free. Taking a moment to regain my energy I breathed carefully before bracing once more and forcing my body out. I felt my ankle twist and a sharp pain lit under the skin, where I knew something had moved in a way it shouldn't have.

I yelped sharply, but stifled any other sounds of pain as my mind went to the events of the night before, fearing my hunters may have been lurking around the nearest bush.

Wincing, I used the majority of my strength to work onto my belly and crawled the rest of the way out of the tree. My attention was focused more on my pained ankle and the need to get free of these branches as fast as possible was so much, that I failed to see the twig that cut me right along the forehead and another that poked me in the eye.

I whimpered, stopping momentarily to palm the cut and wipe away the blood and tears the best I could before resuming my first mission. The end of the tunnel was in sight and I crawled through dirt, mud, leaves, and braches before finally, finally breaking through to freedom.

I tumbled through the opening, coughing and whimpering more as I took in the results of the storm from last night. The size of the tree that I had been trapped under made me shiver involuntary while I gawked by how close to death I had come. There was no doubt that I had been born under some real lucky stars.

Thankfully you don't feel pain when you are dead and the wounds all over my body was proof enough of that I was still very much alive and I was grateful for every bruise, scratch, gash, and ache in my whole body.

Once again, I marveled on the shear madness of it.

I should have been dead. I actually should have been dead.

But I was I was alive; alive to tell this tale so long as I acted quickly.

My eyes scanned the area, searching for something I could use to help me. Then I saw my savior: wild catnip.

Tearing off a large handful I balled it up and held it against my forehead. It soothed instantly and after patting it down a bit more the bleeding began to slow. I looked in my pockets and found my handkerchief. Folding it in a triangle, I padded it with some of the herb and wrapped it around my scalp.

Then my attention turned to my ankle. It smarted with every move I made. Best case scenario, it was only sprained; worse case it was broken, but I was fairly sure it wasn't the latter. Still, I would need to keep as much weight off of it as I could. I scavenged a bit around and hacked off a strong enough branch that would serve as my crutch for me to amble back home.

But that might have been a slight problem.

I couldn't know how to get home if I didn't even know where I was. During the night, I had been so focused on escaping my attackers that I hadn't paid any mind to where I was going and now… this whole part of the forest looked entirely unfamiliar to me.

With dread it dawned on me that I was lost.

"Okay, calm down," I told myself, before I was about to panic. "If you can make it to a road it will lead you back to the safe zone and you can find home back that way. Easy-peezy."

I started walking, guided a bit by a passing herd. Sure walkers were dumb but they seemed to have a set of strange instincts that almost felt like it led them to people, a kind of mental compass or sixth sense, in a way. Plus there was the added safety with being in their crowd that made it so I didn't have to worry so much about other people approaching, like the Wolves.

Of course the herd looked to get away as soon as they caught sight of me, but I just followed them and hoped they would lead me towards signs of civilization.

The sky eventually rumbled above and I knew another storm was coming. Moments later the rain came.

I was starving and thirsty and while I bent my head up to take in the water offered to me, it did little to silence the need for something solid in my belly. There was plenty of pine in the walkers' path and I tore away the outer bark of a tree and carved out a good sized chunk, chewing it hungrily. I also found some wild onion and a few shaggy mane mushrooms.

It would have been nice to cook them with meat, but I couldn't plan for things nor time I didn't have. I was pressed to get home as soon as possible and cooking something was going to take more time than I wanted to waste.

"Dad is going to kill me," I muttered chewing up the onion. I tried not to imagine the look of worry and outrage he was bound to hold when I arrived home, I just wanted to get back as soon as possible to get that episode over with before he sent a search party out for me.

Eventually I split away from the herd when I spotted a road and followed that in the direction I predicted would take me back home. The rain continued to beat and I shivered, wanting out of the downpour. I had already been freezing and wet when I woke and my wool cloak did little to warm me when it was so wet and heavy. I tried jogging, thinking that I could maybe find a car and use that to take shelter in until the rain had gone. Instead I found a bridge, which was probably the best roof I was going to find.

There was immediate relief in me when I dove under it. I wrung out my clothes and leaned against the wall, sliding down and resting my bad leg. Just then scuffling sounded behind me and I leapt back up, brandishing my crutch, instantly prepared for a fight.

My thoughts had jumped to the Wolves, thinking they had followed me again and when I saw the state of the strangers I first assumed they really were those animals; that or I believed they were walkers since they resembled corpses more than anything else. But their movement suggested otherwise and when I got a better look at them, I saw three frightened dirty children huddled together, staring back at me with wide terror-filled eyes.

They were quite possibly the dirtiest, most ragged, most frightened things I had ever seen. Blood coated them from head to foot and I deduced that it may have been from walkers. It was a trick people used in case they ever got cornered or needed to escape through a herd. Though the people I knew rarely resorted to methods like that, keeping in mind that these things could very well carry diseases and other harmful pathogens that just may end up killing them later rather than sooner. And even when they did, it was wiser to use a poncho made from old blankets or sheets rather that painting the blood directly on the skin. Kids like these though, may not have considered something like that.

I addressed them with caution, just in case they acted as feral as they looked.

"Hey…" I said, unable to think of anything smarter than that. They looked skinny and half starved. I still had some onion on me and more of the mushrooms.

"Are… are you hungry?" I tried offering the greens to them. Just to show I was in their confidence and wasn't planning on poisoning them, I nibbled a bit off of one of the stalks to show that it was alright. They didn't come any closer, so I inched carefully towards them, leaving the food in the center between us all. Then I scooted back to my place, waiting for them to move. The older one seemed wary, but maybe her need for food won out over her fear, because she untangled from the other two and approached the offering with caution. Her eyes never left me though, mindful that it could have been a trick and unwilling to trust strangers even if I myself was a child.

Smart girl.

She picked up the mushroom I had nibbled off of and took a bite of it. A moment went by while she waited, maybe for some trick she predicted I was playing long enough for a poison to take effect. When nothing happened she picked up the rest and brought it back to her companions.

I watched them divide the miniscule bit between them equally and gobble it all down in moments before I turned back into the rain. A few minutes later I returned with more wild onions, pine and as an added bonus I was able to find some gooseberries as well. I spread it all out before them, tasting a bit of everything to let them know it was all safe.

Feeling a bit more trusting they didn't wait for me to back away but scooted closer to inspect the finds. Once they started eating I was able to get a better look at them. Even as dirty as they all were I could see the resemblance they all had with one another and concluded that they must have been siblings.

The oldest was a girl I estimated to be about my age. The second was another girl that was maybe five and when I viewed her a bit closer my heart clenched at the sight of a twisted lip she tried to hide behind the curtain of her jaw-length hair. My pity didn't end there however, when I caught sight of the third, I had to real back tears. The last child was a little boy that couldn't have been a year older than two and struggled to eat with his left hand as I saw his right was missing, hidden by his sleeve as the girl hid her face in her hair.

What on earth had they been, through?

I attempted to talk to them to see if they understood, but they didn't respond other than to watch me carefully, like wild animals observing a man with a weapon.

Even when I spoke clearly, they made no indication to suggest they grasped my words. Perhaps then they didn't know English.

I understood that people in different parts of the world spoke different languages, but there were none here that I knew of, and to travel so far from your own land and mother tongue under the conditions of the world and countless threats presented was near impossible. And for three children on their own…

Something moved behind us just then and I saw a walker stumble down the hill to approach the bridge. We all turned to it but when I looked back they were already running away. Yet just as they dodged out the opposite end, two more walkers stepped in their way, gnashing their teeth and ready to bite into all three.

I dove forward, ignoring the discomfort in my ankle as I came to their aid, swinging my stick at the monsters and putting myself between them and the children.

The walker nearest stopped in his pursuit and stared its empty eyes at me before it moved away. Its companions followed it and once more there was silence under the bridge. I could feel the eyes of the children on my back and I looked over at them to see all their mouths hanging open. Then our attentions turned once more towards movement and we watched as more and more walkers stumbled across the path. The children behind me tensed some more, but I was sure to keep myself always in the line of sight with the walkers, discouraging their hunger immediately.

There must have been a hundred in that single herd as they all ambled passed, each taking only a single look under the bridge towards me before deciding against entering and going on their way.

When there was silence at last the children looked up at me as if looking on an alien space craft. There were mixed emotions of amazement and fear on their faces and they moved a bit closer, eased by my strange power.

The rain didn't let up at all through the rest of the day, only grew harder, cascading down the bridge in great harsh waterfalls. Thunder clapped loud, shaking the foundation of our makeshift shelter. I was able to build us a small fire out of wood that was already under the bridge and we huddled around it as the day grew dark again. A few times a walker or two poked their heads under the bridge, attracted by the light of the fire before diving back into the rain once they caught sight of me.

It was sometime after what I thought was sunset when the small trickling stream the bridge crossed over began to flood dangerously and we all had to move before being swept away by the rising current. The children carried only one bag with them; an old duffel worn with holes and questionable stains.

We all trudged through the storm, bundling ourselves up the best we could as we searched for a new shelter. Finally we came across a set of cars. Two of them had walkers in them and I didn't feel like opening them just to spend the night in the death-smelling compartments they were rotting in. Thankfully the third one was unoccupied and we were all able to pile inside to wait out the storm.

I got comfortable in the front of the old minivan while the three others folded down the seats in the back and curled up with the single blanket they carried in their duffel. We ate more from the berries and greens I had gathered but it wasn't a whole lot in retrospect, and in only a few bites it was all gone. We settled in as it grew darker and darker. Every now and then the children would tense as they heard the sounds of the occasional passing walker, but they'd duck under their blanket and remain quiet as we waited for them to pass.

I kept watch for a while, but it seemed obvious that we weren't bound to find any travelers on the road in this weather, so I settled in and drifted for a while. I was so exhausted that my dreams were empty and held only the darkness behind my lids.

Sometime in the night, though, I was roused by sobbing. I looked over and saw the little girl crying where she lay. It was quiet though, like she didn't want to wake the other two. I shifted in my seat to turn towards her, reaching a hand out and rubbing her back gently.

She turned cautiously around to face me, tears sparkling in her eyes.

"It's okay," I said gently. "It was just a nightmare."

She sniffed and reached for their bag, digging out a rusted music box with a pair of mice painted on the top of the lid. She wound it up and a lullaby filled the space in the small vehicle compartment.

I recognized the tune and hummed a bit of it with the hopes that maybe it would sooth her better.

"If I had words to make a day for you
I'd sing you a morning golden and new

I would make this day last for all times
Give you a night deep in moonshine"

The song was short but the girl listened intently all the same. She let me finish my words before singing out her version in an entirely different language. Even with her twisted lip, her voice was like nothing I'd ever heard. It was clear and rich and sweet. It was like the voice of an angel.

I snag out once more, but felt a little self conscious about my own voice now, mindful that there were notes that sounded shaky and flat. But she didn't seem to mind and she finished in that same language as before. When the music box wound to an end there was nothing but the rain to fill the silence and the frequent thunder rumbling above.

I looked down at her, realizing just then that I never properly introduced myself to them. It was apparent that they didn't understand English so I pointed to my chest and said only one word.

"Judith."

She looked at me, her head tilting in bewilderment.

"Judith," I repeated pointing more firmly towards my chest.

She was quiet for a moment but then seemed to understand what I was trying to say. She pointed to her own chest and announced, "Tanti," back to me.

"Tanti," I repeated, "That's pretty."

Then she pointed to her brother and sister. "Luis. Mari."

"Tanti, Luis, and Mari." I repeated back, showing her I understood.

She smiled her marred smile and pointed back towards me in understanding, "Judith."

"Yep," I announced looking whimsically back at her. "That's me. Judith."

She settled back down, her eyes resting on me before they fluttered closed and she was asleep once more, lulled by the rain and the storm outside.

Author's notes: the first song is the Lullaby from the last episode of Penny Dreadful, sung in the credits. Tanti's lullaby is If I had Words, inspired from the movie Babe, although the original was sung by Scott Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley back in I think the seventies.

I wanted to work some more Bianca in here since she's been mentioned so little for someone who will be important later as the story develops.

Tanti, Mari, and Luis are all OCs created by me... well sort of. We'll get more into that next chapter.

If I get a few more reviews this time around I'll post another chapter a bit earlier. I love every single comment you guys send me and enjoy hearing your thoughts. Sometimes though, it can be a bit discouraging when you work on a project for an extended period of time, spend so much time editing and revising it to make sure it all makes sense, and then there ends up being so little feedback on it. I know that's no one's fault and it should be enough to write something simply because I want to write what I enjoy and just because it gets me excited doesn't mean it'll be mutual for others.

Still, if you I can throw me a comment it makes everything that much more encouraging. I luv ya all and hope you guys liked the new chapter.