Rick slowly nodded, the motion a little shaky and unstable, like a part of him was resisting the change but he knew he needed to agree, for himself if no one else; failing to consciously realize in his muddled state of mind that it really wasn't a choice.
Rick's trusted weapon lowered to Eve's side as she let her hand down, and she watched with a stressed solemn heart as Rick made his way into the cell-block, hopefully to lie down and sleep for a while.
He's the second person in charge now who's cracked under the pressure and lost their mind, though he lasted much longer than Shane.
Eve doesn't dare take this position lightly.
It's safe to say that a clear chain of command is gonna be required. Not just a tacit understanding of who it defaults to when something happens and leaving it up to them to figure out what they should do in the event of a crisis. It would be better if everyone knew what they were supposed to do the majority of the time and didn't have to be told each time.
They don't have time to set up everything they need for this sudden change of leadership with Woodbury bearing arms and preparing for an attack.
She needs to prioritize — she needs to think, somewhere quiet where she won't be disturbed, but they don't have long to prepare. Having everyone dilly-dally here and just do whatever isn't gonna fly. Not only will it waste time, it'll put anxieties on the rise.
Eve looked up with a determined resolute gaze. "Carol, you handle the next meal. Carl, Randall, you're on watch. Beth, look after Judith. Big T, T-Dog, take stock of our supplies starting with ammo, food and gas, then report to me. Maggie, rest. Glenn, your priority is recovery. When you're ready, come see me."
"You," Eve looked at Michonne and the samurai stiffened, not knowing what to expect. "Rest."
Eve could see the confusion on her face and normally she wouldn't bother explaining but from what little she knows about this woman, she's prone to impulsive strikes and just from her posture she's even more tense than when Rick was waving around a gun.
It's understandable that she doesn't trust Eve, they haven't really spoken and speaking is neither of their strong suits. Thus she has no insight into Eve's character or her intentions and vice versa. It's natural for them to be wary of each other but they can't afford that right now. Nobody's stance or role can be ambiguous, so Eve opened her mouth.
"You helped start this fight, so take your share of responsibility. Until this is over, your place here is assured. No matter the outcome, afterwards you will be free to go. I have no reason to trust you, so Axel will keep an eye on you until further notice."
Michonne's lips pressed tight and nodded, resolutely. Agreeing that this is a fair arrangement, better than she could have expected to be honest.
She doesn't like being watched but she can't refute that while Rick may have had some reason, Eve has no reason to trust her, even though she helped save at least 4 from their group including herself.
Everything that's happened up to now, even with the rescue working in her favor, they've pretty much just broken even on the scale of who owes who.
Eve doesn't seem like the type of person to mess around (if only she knew), she seems a great deal more cautious than the others, Michonne saw that when she first saw the woman as she watched from behind a van when Merle was capturing them, back when he was chasing her down to kill her for the Governor.
It would be better to avoid getting on Eve's bad side.
As off-kilter as this group is, they're for the most part, reasonable, and a lot better than the secretive clown smiles of Woodbury, but it seems any form of slight or even just perceived betrayal is their bottom line. It won't be tolerated and as she just saw, Eve's intolerance comes with no warning.
Eve looked at Axel and he unintentionally held his breath. It took several long seconds of simply being stared at to realize she was waiting for him to accept the task, even though it hadn't sounded like it was a choice when she said it.
Upon realizing this, he nodded rapidly, having no objection. Even though it had sounded like an order, it felt strangely nice to be more or less "asked" if he was alright with the task.
His whole life he's gotten used to just being told what to do, he's rarely been offered the option to decline but the longer he thought about it, the more he liked having that option. Not that he would've declined, it's just nice to know the option was there.
Axel wasn't alone in thinking that this arrangement is already off to a much better start. Before, it felt like they were limping along on one wheel, and when Rick took over with his 'no more democracy' it felt very tyrannical, even if it was a necessary decision at the time.
No one really knew what to expect when Eve — very in-keeping with herself — blind sided all of them and abruptly took charge, but her decisive actions, issuing tasks and taking control of the situation that had just started spiraling, felt similar to the bus driver having a heart attack and someone near the front jumping out of their seat to make sure it didn't crash.
Rick's been the leader for so long, it feels a little weird and even frightening for someone else to be in charge, and admittedly that was their first reaction, but Eve has possessed an uncanny aura of safety for a very long time. So long that no one would be able to point to an exact time when her presence had started to feel that way.
Knowing that someone always has your back takes an enormous amount of pressure off. Even if you can do it yourself, just knowing that someone is nearby who can help share the load if it becomes too much, gives a sense of assurance and stress relief of the highest magnitude. Much less knowing that there's someone with lightning reflexes catching the dishes you drop.
With their tasks assigned and a direction to follow, everyone began to disperse to do what they were told, quickly emptying the room.
Eve tipped Carl's hat as he and Randall moved past her and pretended as if she'd done nothing as he looked back to throw a playful glare at her, earning a brief smile in return before the prison door closed behind the two.
Eve's smile didn't last long but the brief moment of teasing did her a world of good, relaxing the tight knots forming in her shoulders before T-Dog walked up to her.
"You should get some rest too." T-Dog reminded her and all he received was a slight nod before Eve joined in the dispersing to go find her handy little notebooks and retreat to a quiet place so she could think, and more importantly, plan.
Finding a place wasn't difficult, she just went to one of the outdoor over-walks where she could look at the sky, in a place where she can do her best thinking and try to push this last day to the back of her mind, to be examined and processed at a later date.
It's hot today, but thankfully there's some cloud cover so all she had to do was take off her jacket, and yet that proved to be more difficult than imagined.
Her muscles and arms were so sore she could barely tolerate sitting up after she struggled free of the leather.
She leaned her back against the fence enclosing the hallway-sized platform walkway and just took a moment to breathe. Breathe deep through her nose and try to relax her body a little. She regrets not bringing a cushion of some kind out here.
She watched Carl and Randall at the top of their respective guard towers at the upper and lower gates.
Even though she can't see it, she imagines both of them are wearing tough stone-like faces, like proper guards, taking their jobs very seriously; observing everything from the treeline, to the amount of walkers at the fences, to the weather.
They may be young but they're both surprisingly diligent. Eve was a little worried about how well they'd get along but from what she's seen they do fine. They're not best friends or anything but they don't really fight, and Randall's become a lot more sure of himself. It seems he's found some principles of his own to stick to. That's reassuring.
Carl has started to seem a little emotionally stunted but given everything that's happened to him recently, it would be strange and more worrisome if he was behaving normally.
Eve's no parent. She can't ever fill his mother's shoes but she would never dare to.
She promised she would look after him so that's what she's gonna do, and she's gonna do it the only way she knows how. By being there for him, and teaching him how to take care of himself, because that's the best thing you can do for someone.
It may not last forever but there will be a time in everybody's life when they are alone, and they will either know how to handle themselves, or will have to learn fast.
She was the latter, it just so happens that her "training" started early. So it's her job to ensure that Carl is the former and someday, Judith too.
Before she knew it, over half an hour had passed, just sitting there thinking deeply about heavy things and feeling the weight of the world they live in. The only thing she relied on to pull her out of these hazes isn't here to stop her. She's become dependent, but she can't tell if she's just always needed someone to do it and hasn't had anyone until recently, or if she has truly become dependent. After all, no one person can do everything, everyone has shortcomings.
The idea of needing someone else doesn't sit well with her and made her shift uncomfortably, debating whether or not it was harmful to be reliant on someone like this but ultimately she came to the conclusion that it's irrelevant. She doesn't know if it's harmful to rely on someone to fill in her shortcomings but she knows for a fact that it would be more harmful to deny the facts.
Yes, everybody needs somebody and for different reasons. It doesn't matter what those reasons are or what holes they're filling, they're still reasons and they still fill in the gaps, like cement between bricks.
When she finally managed to pull herself from the heavy atmosphere and start jotting things down in her notebooks, making notes and just starting to sort out priorities and organize them into task lists, a certain one-footed white-haired old man found her hiding spot.
Eve looked over at the sound of the door opening and sighed in her heart, already setting her books down in her lap, even though she just started.
Hershel made his way over and looked down at her little pile of notebooks surrounding her. "You look like you're hard at work. Am I interrupting?"
Eve shook her head, knowing there must be a reason he came out here to find her.
"It's good that you took charge. I don't think anyone else could have."
"It was necessary." Eve answered, turning her eyes down and scribbling down the thought that just struck her before returning her gaze upward.
"I agree." Hershel replied honestly. "I've known for a while that Rick was on the edge, I suspect you have too. We all have. I did what I could to at least delay it but the burden of responsibility is a heavy one. No one person can bear it for long."
Eve got the strange feeling the latter half of that was directed at her.
"I think I speak for everyone when I say that I have faith in your abilities, Eve. I know you'll take care of things but you must avoid the traps of your predecessors. You have a tendency to hide the severity of your wounds and isolate yourself to heal alone."
Eve looked down at her lap, discomfort growing inside her and making her want to squirm as she listened.
"I'm telling you this now, because I don't want to see you hurt yourself, that you can't do that forever. Now that you're in this position, you can't run off or hunker down when you don't want to be seen."
He leaned down and braced a heavy hand on her shoulder. "Try not to overburden yourself. I know that Daryl leaving has been and will be the hardest on you. You relied on him, we all did, but he's not the only person here you can rely on."
Eve nodded gratefully after a moment of letting his words sink in. She's not foolish enough to think she could do this alone, nor is she in any state to try. What she can do, is take over directing this disastrous play.
"I have faith in you to lead us in Rick's place."
"You've misunderstood." Eve scribbled in her notebook, dragging another into her lap to search through it. "I'm not the leader, or replacing him."
Hershel's eyebrows knit in bewilderment but instead of trying to figure out what this enigma meant by that statement, he just decided to ask. "What are you then?"
Eve looked up, eyes filled with a quiet steadiness and replied without a moment of hesitation.
"I'm the fail-safe."
I'm proud to announce that I am launching my own website sometime this month (June 2020)! Where you can read all of my works, present and future; some of which will be exclusively available on my site, but will still be free to read!
Among many features, it'll be complete with dark mode, font size adjusting, a phone compatible design so you can comfortably read on your devices, a full screen mode, an easy access donate button with 3 fast & easy options (including a direct online payment), an honorary shout-out section for everyone and anyone who has and will support me, even a white noise option with different mood setting and reading-friendly sounds, a comment section to leave your thoughts, receive email notifications of updates on your choice (or all) of my stories, even a way to contact me!
I've been working on this for about a month now and I'm proud to say it's coming along very smoothly and it's likely that in as little as 2 or 3 weeks it'll be ready for launch! Some features will still be in development but the main features are finished and it already looks amazing, I'm very happy with it, so be on the look out for when I drop the link in one of the coming updates.
I'm so excited!
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Xhak
Jessica Taylor
Tessasgoat
Jupiter /Enis