3rd person POV
There were no walkers no the way back.
Only long silent halls, and a cell block full of bodies.
Neither Maggie nor Carl were in a state to process the familiar holes in the walkers heads.
Carl followed Maggie like he was on a tether. Just being pulled along by her shuffled steps as she started crying, the weight of everything that had happened flooding through her as her shoulder gently pushed the final rusted chain-link gate to the outside yard. Where not even an hour ago everyone and everything was completely fine. Happy even.
Hershel and Beth watched the others come running back out of the cell block entrance that T and Carol ran into after shutting the gate, as they finished searching it after clearing out their block and only managing to find Randall stuck in a cell surrounded by walkers.
"Hershel!" Rick called out to him.
"You didn't find them?"
"We thought maybe they came back out here." Glenn answered/asked.
Both he and Beth shook their heads.
"What about T? Carol?" Hershel asked.
"They didn't make it." Daryl answered, Carol's scarf and T-Dog's glove from the hallway where they found the walkers loitering, burning a hole in his pants pocket.
"That doesn't mean the others didn't. We're going back." Rick declared. "Daryl and Glenn, you come with me—"
Rick cut himself off and turned at the distinctive sound of a baby crying.
Maggie pushed the rusty door gate to the outside yard with her shoulder.
The whole atmosphere changed in a heartbeat. All eyes drawing to the baby and the state of the two who barely lifted their feet off the ground as they moved forward slower than a loitering walker.
Rick walked towards them, dropping the axe in his hand on the ground.
Maggie tried to open her mouth to speak but that's all it did. It just opened and closed, and trembled, and she couldn't do anything but hold in the sobs that wanted so desperately to just take her to her knees and wail until she can't breathe.
Rick looked around them, taking staggered steps as if Maggie is somehow blocking his view to his wife. His mind refusing to process the obvious.
"Whe— where is she?"
Maggie didn't answer and Rick tried to walk past her but she quickly shifted the baby even though her hands are shaking and just barely managed to grab his arm before he could get past her. "No— Rick, no."
Rick stopped and finally dropped his gun, a sudden sob jerking his whole body.
He covered his eyes as two more jerked him before he dropped his hands and looked at Carl, taking a deep breath, trying to compose himself as best he can for Carl.
But as soon as his eyes landed on his son, his blank downcast expression. Rick's shoulders dropped.
Every scrap of whatever it was that was keeping him together shattered, and he sobbed. "Ohh no. No"
Hearing his father cry finally broke Carl out of his daze but he didn't cry. A sole tear was the only thing that escaped and he watched it miss his cheek almost entirely and splatter on the ground like a lonely raindrop.
Daryl looked down at the ground as Rick staggered and tried to stammer before he collapsed on the concrete.
Nothing but sobbing and baby cries filling the silence that felt like it lasting forever.
As if a trigger had been pulled the baby's cries began to get louder and a shift of urgency descended over the atmosphere about as slow as a cannonball.
"Where's Eve?" Randall finally broke the silence, unable to keep the burning question to himself anymore.
Maggie looked at him, worry written plain as day all over his face, and sucked in a breath to stop her own cries.
"She's alive, she—" she swallowed, clearing her throat of mucus and looked at Daryl almost as if she was talking to him more than Randall. "She distracted the walkers — went deeper into the prison so we could get out of the boiler room."
Maggie sniffled, breathing in harshly to speak again but Carl beat her to it; Numb and monotone and feeling so many things but at the same time, nothing at all.
"She'll come back. She promised...she promised she'll be back."
"Then she'll be back." Daryl stated matter of factly.
Eve don't make promises she can't keep. If anybody's got a shot of making it back from those tunnels, it's her.
Especially if he goes after her.
To Rick, everything sounded like it was under a hundred feet of water.
This constant… noise...in his ear.
A low but high buzz that drowned out everything around him. Like standing next to a jet engine of a plane as it was taking off.
"Rick."
He barely heard and didn't even process that Daryl was saying his name, his voice muffled like screaming from under a pillow.
He can't even hear his own heart beating in his ears.
"Rick, you with me?"
"Rick" Daryl waved his hand in front of Rick's face but it's like he's comatose. He couldn't even keep himself on his feet as he fell back for the 3rd time.
Daryl shook his head to himself. He can't bring Rick to go after Eve like this. But it'd be suicide to go by himself and as much as he wants to get to her as fast as possible, it's no good if he dies along the way. Even just him and Glenn, or him Glenn and Maggie won't be enough.
They don't have enough people to go after her like this.
Eve's pulled miracles before and she's a quick thinker — especially in a pinch.
Somehow he trusts that she's ok, she wouldn't have gone through with her plan if she didn't.
That doesn't mean the burning pit in his stomach like he ate a whole case of lit cigars or the world-ending need to find her, is any less intense.
It's for how long that she'll be ok that worries him.
The muscles in his chest are trying to tear themselves apart like pulled pork, wondering if this will be like searching for Sophia, where if he'd been any later finding her in that hole, he may not have found her at all.
He was denyin' it before but ever since that happened, every time something happens, he always wonders if it'll be like then.
If she's in trouble and there's a timer on how long she can hold her own and if this time he'll be too late.
But he can't focus on that now. If Eve were here, she'd focus on the most pressing thing first, so that's what he's gonna do. And right now that thing is the baby.
Maggie passed the baby to Carl just as Hershel took charge. "Let me see the baby."
Daryl snapped back to reality as Carl moved.
"We gotta feed it. We got anything a baby can eat?" He followed Carl over as the kid brought his baby sister to Hershel.
Hershel pulled Carl's jacket apart to look at the newborn, blood and placenta still covering her skin.
"The good news is, she looks healthy." He turned his eyes to Daryl. "But she needs formula, and soon, or she won't survive."
"Nope. No way. Not her." Daryl slung his crossbow over his shoulders. "We ain't losin' nobody else. I'm goin' for a run."
"I'll back you up." Maggie volunteered.
"I'll go too." Glenn said not even a breath after she finished her sentence.
"Ok, think where we're goin. Beth," Daryl tapped the blonde girl's shoulder and she followed him a few steps to the side.
"Kid just lost his mom, his dad ain't doin' so hot, and the only other person he's close to ain't here."
Beth nodded, already understanding without him having to come out and say it. "I'll look out for him."
Daryl nodded and looked over her head, stretching his neck a little to see up around Hershel's head at the 3 prisoners.
"You 3 get the fence. Too many pile up, we got ourselves a problem. Randall, you got the tower." Daryl dished out jobs and the 4 nodded without hesitation, Randall already running off to take watch at the tower that overlooks the entire front half of the prison.
"Glenn, Maggie, vamonos." Daryl barely finished his sentence before Rick suddenly moved and grabbed the black axe off the ground.
"Rick!" Maggie called after him as he threw the gate to the cellblock door open and stormed inside.
"Get the gate." Daryl ordered the prisoners, completely ignoring Rick unlike everyone else.
Whatever he's gotta do right now, he's gotta do.
"Come on we gonna lose the light!" Daryl shouted, quickly losing his patience with everyone just standing around. They gotta do this now they don't got time to go chasin after Rick wherever the Hell he's goin.
With him out of commission and Eve gone god knows where, he's the next in charge.
The two runners moved their asses and the whole group kicked into gear on their assigned tasks.
"There's a Piggly Wiggly on 95." Glenn said as the 3 of them jogged in haste towards the cars.
"No the baby station's been cleared. Lori asked me to keep an eye out, I haven't had much luck." Maggie talked fast and tucked her sweat-grimy hair behind her ear, out of her eyes.
"Is there any place that hasn't been completely looted?" Daryl's frustration rose in his voice but it was directed at the world and life itself right now.
Glenn's mind raced through his memories before giving him something as Maggie dug into the backseat of the green car. "We saw signs for a shopping center just north of here."
Maggie straightened back up out of the car. "Yeah but there's too much debris on the road, a car will never get through there."
"I can take one a ya." Daryl put on his vest, already knowing they'll have to choose between each other, but he'll let them sort it out themselves. If Eve were here, they'd already be gone by now.
"I'll go." Maggie volunteered almost immediately, and Glenn's face dropped into the closest thing to alarmed that he gets these days, without there being an actual emergency.
"No, Maggie." Glenn approached his girlfriend, and spoke low and personally not so much that Daryl couldn't hear but soft and intimate, and meant to comfort her. "After everything that you've been through, ok, I'll go."
Maggie adopted the same tone. "I want to go. For Lori, I have to."
Glenn stared into her eyes for a moment before sighing as she softly nodded at him.
"Ok" he breathed and reached past her into the car to grab her bag back out.
He turned back around as she moved behind him and cupped touched the side of her neck, almost cupping her cheek with his hand.
"I love you. Be safe." He stressed and Maggie leaned forward, pressing her lips against his in a long kiss. Like it would be their last one. A habit they've unfortunately fallen into whenever one of them has to leave the other. Just in case.
As soon as it ended Maggie gave him another short peck and Glenn reluctantly passed her backpack over and followed her to Daryl's bike just in front of the car as she swung the blue durable backpack on and climbed on the back of Daryl's bike already raring to go.
Daryl glanced down to make sure her feet weren't on the ground as Maggie loosely held onto his side and outright denied acknowledging the thought that flickered across his mind about the only other person aside from Carol he's ever let on his bike. And they took off.
Glenn watched her back as they passed through the gates that the prisoners had opened and closed. A million things running through his head as he had to watch the only woman he's ever loved drive away into untold danger.
Daryl will keep her safe. He knows that, he just… you can't ever predict what happens out there.
He can't even imagine how Daryl feels.
Eve can handle herself but trouble and bad luck love to visit her at the most inconvenient times.
Half the group is gone.
T-Dog and Carol managed to close the gate but… didn't make it out of the tombs in the other cell block.
The baby's alive but they lost Lori and Eve's just gone.
Rick's in there doing god knows what with an axe. Maggie & Daryl took off.
Half the group is gone and he has to be in charge of everyone who's left. Hershel, Carl, Beth, the baby, and the 3 prisoners that he can't keep himself from blaming for all of this.
This morning when he woke up, Glenn had his whole family, even after almost losing Hershel yesterday, and everything was fine.
Now barely a couple hours until the sun is down and only a handful of them are here standing in front of him.
Glenn covered his eyes with his hand. The layers of sweat, dirt and grime reflecting the kind of day it's been. And a sigh the weight of moon parted his lips.
His throat wants him to cry but he's so exhausted and just empty, not even shedding tears will lift this growing weight off of his chest.
It feels like he just lived a whole year of his life in one day.
'Please be ok, Eve. I can't take it if we lose you too.'
Glenn looked over as he was digging graves in the yard when he heard footsteps.
Axel, Oscar, and Big Tiny came up.
He paused in his digging, trying not to grit his teeth as he got out of the 3 foot hole he's managed so far.
"How's the perimeter?"
"We got the walkers spread out. Need help?" Axel asked.
Glenn didn't answer.
Axel crossed his arms over his chest, awkwardly. "Your friends they—… they were good folks."
Glenn stopped and looked at him and Axel immediately regretted opening his mouth. "They were family."
"I think I had one friend like that my whole life." Oscar interjected. "You got a whole group."
Glenn looked down, stabbing the tip of the shovel into the dirt.
"Sorry you lost 'em." Oscar's condolences weirdly worked a little but nothing can make Glenn feel better about this.
"Whatever you guys need us to do, just say the words." Big Tiny offered, and Glenn looked at the three of them, but his eyes drifted behind them to Hershel at the inner fence, looking like he wants him to go over.
Glenn tongued his molars and stabbed the shovel into the ground one more time before roughly pushing it into Axel's hand. "I need 2 more."
The 3 of them set to work, using the extra tools on the ground and began digging as Glenn walked away and made the short hike up to the fence.
When he got there, he grabbed the chain link with one hand, resting the other on his hip.
"Rick?"
"Still inside." Hershel answered.
"Okay, I'll get him." Glenn sighed and looked behind him at the prisoners and turned back to Hershel. "A third of our group in one day."
"Cause of one asshole." Hershel watched Glenn carefully. The way his thumb rubbed the chainlink and the way he just kind of stared at nothing, tipping him off that he has more to say.
"Part of me kind of wishes we had killed all the prisoners on sight..." Glenn confessed. He feels guilty but no amount of guilt could ever outweigh the anger that just won't stop storming inside him.
Everything was fine before they went down into those tombs and found those guys.
Hershel took a deep breath through his nose. "Axel, Oscar, and Tiny seem like good guys."
Glenn shifted and glanced off to the side. "You know when the evacuations started, T-Dog drove his church van to the home of every senior he knew. Just in case they needed a ride. He saved my ass," Glenn shook his head, not even being able to count. "a thousand times. He isn't just a good guy. He's the best. And Eve. I never even would've made it past the first day if she hadn't been right there. She wouldn't even hesitate to save someone she'd never seen before in her life. She's the toughest person I've ever met and the best friend I've ever had."
Hershel took another breath. "She didn't hesitate to speak up on behalf of Randall before, and now he's apart of our group. She and T-Dog both advocated to save these men and give them a chance to prove themselves. She didn't hesitate to give Maggie, Carl, and the baby the best chance at survival. T-Dog and Carol managed to close the gate. If they hadn't done that..."
Glenn looked down a little. "It could've been Maggie."
"It's wrong but," Glenn nodded, squeezing his eyes shut for a long moment, avoiding Hershel's eyes as he continued. "I'd trade any number of people for one of ours any day."
Hershel was quiet for a second before he laid his hand over Glenn's through the fence. "Don't lose your hope, son. You believe in Eve, I see it in your eyes. Believe that she will come back until proven otherwise. She's done it before, have faith that she'll do it again."
Glenn looked to the side again, at the orange sun. The last rays of daylight hitting his sweat-slick skin. And he turned, wordlessly heading back down to the graves.
Unedited
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