I don't own Total Drama and The Walking Dead.
Sorry if you find any grammar mistakes. I'm still learning English because it's not my first language.
mcgman651: I'm glad you liked the reference :) I got an idea to use this when I was replaying first season of TellTale's Walking Dead recently after finding out about it's tenth birthday (still can't believe it's been ten years). I wanted this scene to show much Chris had changed over the course of the story. My story is the same as yours. If I didn't discover the game back in 2012, I probably wouldn't be into The Walking right now as I started watching the show because I wanted to know what happened to Glenn after he left the group back in episode 1 (I had no idea the comics existed back then).
ThEndymam: Same here. Tyreese's death might have been just a bit too sudden for me, especially with Beth dying in the previous episode, but it didn't change the fact that it was sad to watch, especially with all the hallucinatios of the other characters, the characters trying desperately to save him and the breakdown Sasha started going through for the rest of the season. You'll find out soon if you're right about Emma and Kitty being in Alexandria. As for your death prediction video, go ahead, you can make it if you want to. I'm looking forward to see it :)
Darth krayt1: I have to agree with you here. Even though the episode was well done and Tyreese's slow death was sad to watch, his death just came out of nowhere considering that they killed off Beth the episode before this. My favourite characters from the games are Clementine, Lee and Kenny :)
Brendan: Alright. As for the other two things, you'll have to wait and see :)
Dr Changer: I'm glad you liked the chapter. I'm looking forward to write the groups encounter with Aaron. Who knows, perharps Aaron will be accompanied by someone else at the end of this chapter :)
Daryl and Duncan walked together through the woods, looking for food for their group. Daryl wanted to go by himself, like he always did ever since Beth's death in Atlanta, but Duncan managed to convince him to let him accompany during the hunting. Duncan and Carol grew worried for Daryl as the Dixon was isolating himself from the rest of the group since Atlanta. The two of them tried to spend as much time as they could with him, even though it was hard to get Daryl to acknowledge their presence around him.
Duncan split up from Daryl a few seconds later as something else in the area caught his attention. He noticed a bird on a tree. He immediately readied his bow and took out an arrow. He aligned it and let out a deep breath, intending his shot to be as much precise as possible. He and his group could definitely make a good use of this bird, even if it would be just a tiny bit of food.
He released an arrow, hoping that it will hit his target and it began flying towards the bird. Unfortunately, the result was not what he wanted. The bird moved out of the arrow's way in the last second. The arrow flied right past it's target, missing it only by an inch as the bird flew away out of Duncan's view which meant only one thing. He won't be returning to his group with any food.
"Dammit." Duncan cursed, shaking his head as he lowered his bow. If the bird didn't move in the last second, he would have gotten it, "Why did you move?"
He titled his head to the side when he heard someone approaching him. It didn't took him long to find out who it was. It was Daryl. The Dixon was chewing on something as he stopped in front of him, holding out a worm to him, offering it to him.
"...Screw it." He said after a second of eyeing the worm Daryl was offering him as he took it from him. He put it in his mouth and chewed on it for a few seconds before swallowing it, "I ate worse things..."
Sometime later, Daryl and Duncan walked out of the woods. Unfortunely their hunting trip was not successful. All they managed to find was several worms which Daryl dug out from the ground and if Duncan was honest with himself, he doubted anyone from their group would eat them. They met up with Maggie, Sasha, Izzy and Noah who were returning from their own hunting trips shorty after. They began heading towards their vehicles, looking to be exhausted.
"Any luck?" Duncan asked as he along with the others proceeded to walk towards their vehicles.
Maggie shook her head, looking to be exhausted, "No."
"Same here." Izzy added, referring to herself and Noah, "We couldn't find anything."
"Perfect." Noah commented the lack of success his group had at getting any food. His group wasn't annoyed by his comment as they knew he was just hungry and tired, like the rest of them, "We got nothing."
"We got a few worms." Duncan gestured to Daryl, "If anyone is interested we are willing to share."
Maggie shook her head at Duncan's offer, "I'll pass."
"Maybe some other time." Noah declined Duncan's offer as well. He may have been hungry, but he wasn't hungry to the point where he would start eating worms.
"Does anyone know how much road we have left until we will reach Washington?" Izzy wanted to know.
"About 60 miles." Sasha answered.
The group was walking along the road forward themselves after they were forced to abandon their vehicles in the middle of the road after they ran out of the fuel. Everyone looked to be utterly exhausted and tired by the road. The lack of water and food was clearly showing in all of them. Rick was carrying Judith as Daryl, Chef and Chris walked next to him. Everyone else walked behind them.
"We're not at our strongest." Rick looked over his shoulder at the rest of his group, "We'll get 'em when it's best. High ground, something like that. They're not going anywhere."
"It's been three weeks since Atlanta." Chris said as Daryl remained unresponsive, "All three of us know you lost something back there."
Daryl looked at the child in Rick's arms and heard how she started fussing, finding an opportunity to change the subject, "...She's hungry."
"She's okay." Rick adjusted his daughter in his arms, "She's going to be okay."
Daryl shifted his gaze from Judith to the road ahead of him and the others, "We need to find water, food."
"We'll hit something in the road." Rick answered.
"We'll find something on our way to Washington sooner or later." Chris stated, "There's no way we won't come across anything on our way there."
Chef looked up at the sky, "It's gonna rain sooner or later."
"I'm gonna head out." Daryl stepped away from Chris, Chef and Rick, making them look at him, "See what I can find."
"Alright." Chef nodded his head at him, "But don't be out there for too long."
Carol stepped forward from the rest of the group as she started approaching Daryl, "I'll go with you."
"So will I." Duncan added, following her.
Daryl shook his head at them volunteering to go with him, "I got it."
"You gonna stop either of us?" Carol asked as she and Duncan catched up to Daryl, the three of them going into the woods.
"Bridge." Geoff called out for Bridgette, with the intention of finally having the talk with her about her strange behavior around Sasha, Noah and Izzy which had gotten ever stranger after Tyreese's death, "There's something we need to talk about."
Bridgette looked at him, "What is it, Geoff?"
"It's about your behavior." Geoff revealed the topic he wanted to talk with her about, "Ever since we left Atlanta, you've been acting strangely whenever you're Sasha, Noah and Izzy or whenever you're around them. It has only gotten worse after Tyreese's death."
"I don't want to talk about it." Bridgette titled her head to the side, the feeling of guilt slowly overcoming her body.
"Why?" Geoff asked her, concern starting to appear on his face, "You know you can tell me everything, Bridge. You know I won't judge you or think less of you if it is something horrible."
Bridgette looked at the genuine concern on her boyfriends face and sighed, deciding to tell him about it, "The man who Sasha killed back in the church. His name was Martin."
"Yeah." The concern remained on Geoff's face as he spoke to her again. He looked slightly suprised by Bridgette knowing his name, though, "What about him?"
"I and Tyreese stumbled upon him before the church." Bridgette answered, the guilt of sparing Martin's life even after what he tried to do to Judith being now fully visible on her face, "He was the one who told us about you and the others being held prisoner in Terminus. I and Tyreese stayed with him when Carol and Heather left to save your."
"What happened after they left him with you?" Geoff wanted to know.
"He freed himself and threatened to hurt Judith if we won't do what he says." Bridgette revealed as she stopped in her spot, her gaze on the ground. Geoff's eyes snapped open as he stopped next to her, "We eventually got the upper and Tyreese started to punch him over and over again as I held Judith in my arms. We could have killed him back then, but we didn't. We spared his life and in return, he helped Gareth and Scott track us down and helped them kill Bob and Zeke."
"Bridge." Geoff softly began, realizing why Bridgette was acting the way she did around Sasha, Noah and Izzy. She felt guilty about Bob and Ezekiel's deaths, "What happened to Bob and Zeke wasn't your fault."
"It was." Bridgette cut him off as she clenched her hands, tears threatening to spill down from her eyes, "If we killed him when we had the chance instead of leavinghim alive, then Gareth and Scott wouldn't have found us."
"Bridgette." Geoff put his hand on her shoulder, "Don't blame yourself for what happened back in the church. You and Tyreese spared this Martin, because you thought it was the right thing to do. You couldn't have predicted what would happen afterwards. No one could."
"It still doesn't make me feel any less guilty about it." Bridgette lifted her head up to look at him, showing off her teary eyes to him, "I understand that you and the rest sometimes have to kill someone to defend our group and it doesn't bother me as much as it would back in the first months of all of this, but when it comes to doing it myself, I'm just unable of forcing myself to do it and now this weakness of mine led to the death of two members of our group."
Noticing the state his girlfriend was in when those words words left her mouth, Geoff wrapped his arms around her and brought her into a comforting hug, allowing her to cry into his shirt, "I already said it and I will say it again. Don't blame yourself for what happened to Bob and Zeke. What happened to them wasn't your fault. What you said about you unable forcing yourself to take someone else's life, don't think of it as a weakness. It still means you have a piece of humanity left in you. It means a piece of you from the time of the old world still remains in you."
Bridgette looked up at Geoff and offered him a teary smile, appreciating his words, "Thank you for saying those words to me, Geoff. It means a lot to me. I love you."
"I love you too, Bridge." Geoff smiled back at her, gladdened to see how his words made his girlfriend feel better about herself. He and Bridgette leaned towards each other and shared a quick kiss in the middle of the road. After sharing a quick kiss with his girlfriend, he glanced towards his group, wanting to know where they were, "We should go. We're getting left behind."
"Yeah." Bridgette nodded in agreement, grabbing Geoff's hand into hers. They started walking towards their group, hand in hand, with the intention of reaching them as quickly as possible.
Carl took out a box from his bag as walked over to her, holding it out to her, "Found this when we were looking for water."
Maggie looked at him and took the box he was holding out to her. She eyed it for a second, "What is it?"
"It used to play music. I asked Trent and Harold about it, because I thought they would know what it is and they told me it's a ballerina jewerly box" Carl responded as Maggie opened the box, but no music came out, "It's broken."
Maggie looked up from the box, offering Carl a grateful look on her face in response, "Thanks, Carl."
"I thought you might like it." Carl nodded his head at her as took a few steps forward, now walking in front of her.
"I used to joke these things were leftovers from the days of hair shirts." It was when Gabriel's voice rang through Maggie's ears. She looked over her shoulder and saw him walking behind her, "The church actually made..." Maggie looked away from Gabriel as Gabriel catched up to her, now walking next to her, "...Shirts out of hair. So if you wore it, you could atone just a little for your sins."
"I know what a hair shirt is." Maggie told him blankly, "My daddy was religious. I used to be."
"If you ever want to talk about your father or about Beth..." Gabriel started to say.
"Please, stop." Maggie tried to cut him off."
"...Whenever you're ready, I'm here." Gabriel allowed himself to finish what he saying.
"You never even met them." Maggie pointed out.
"I know you're in pain." Gabriel stated.
"You don't know shit." Maggie told him coldly, taking Gabriel by suprise, "You had a job. You were there to save your flock, right? But you didn't. You hid. Don't act like that didn't happen."
The group continued to make their way down the road, with a group of walkers behind them which they were ignoring until now because of how far away they were from their group getting closer to them. Carl was now carrying Judith in his arms, using his hat to shade her as Geoff took off his hat, using his hand to wipe some sweat from his forehead.
Trent stopped in his tracks once he saw how Sasha stopped and looked at the walkers behind them, "Sasha? What is it?"
"The walkers." Sasha began, her eyes not leaving the walkers behind her and her group, "We can take 'em."
Trent looked over his shoulder at the walkers and shook his head at Sasha's suggestion, "Rick's right. We barely have anything left. No use in spending it all now."
"I can take 'em." Sasha said, clearly wanting to take out all of her anger on the walkers.
Trent shook his head, knowing what Sasha was doing right now. He put his hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner, "I know you're angry, Sasha. Tyreese was angry too after Karen's death. When we were on the way to get the medication for you, we ran into a group of the walkers. He allowed himself to get surrounded but didn't care about it. He just kept slamming them with his hammer. I still don't know how he survived. Don't go the same path, Sasha. We don't want to lose you."
"We are not the same." Sasha shook her head at his words, "We never were."
"But it's still the same." Trent pointed out, "It just is."
Sasha gave him a look and pushed herself into walk, catching up to the rest of the group several seconds later. Trent sighed as he watched her walk away from him, wishing there was a way to make Sasha feel better after the deaths of her brother and Bob, but he knew nothing he would do right now would make her feel better.
After hours of doing nothing but walking down the road, the group eventually stumbled upon a bridge in the middle of the road. A huge group of the undead was standing on the other side of it.. Rick, Chef, Izzy, Glenn, Michonne, Abraham, Maggie, Sasha, Trent and Gwen made their way to the other side of the bridge with the intention of taking care of this problemwhile the rest of their group stayed behind.
After reaching the other side of the bridge, the group of ten split itself into two groups of five. The two groups stood on the either side of the road. Rick, Michonne, Glenn, Chef and Izzy stood on the right side of the road as Abraham, Maggie, Sasha, Trent and Gwen stood on the left side of the road. The two groups remained close to the edge of the bridge, with the intention of luring the undead to the edge once they would get close to them.
The walkers started to come closer to the group a few moments later. A walker lunged for Rick, holding out it's rotting arms out to him. Rick dodged the walker by simply moving to the side. The walker grunted as it stumbled forward. It was about to turn it's head towards Rick, but never got the chance to do so. It was pushed down below the bridge as soon as Rick dodged it's attack.
The rest of the group started going along with this plan and started to get rid of the walkers this way for the next several seconds, pushing more and more walkers down below the bridge. Unfortunely, not everything started going according to the plan. It fell apart shorty after, because it was when a walker approached Sasha. Sasha instead of pushing it down the bridge, stabbed it in the head with her knife and afterwards proceeded to do her own thing, causing the plan to completely fall apart.
"Shit." Gwen cursed, taking out her knife.
"Stay in line." Rick stepped forward from his group and unsheathed his machete, "Flank her. Keep it controlled."
Abraham took out his knife, "Plan just got dicked."
"We should have taken someone else instead of her." Chef muttered to himself, cursing him for taking Sasha, considering the state she was in ever since Tyreese's death.
Sasha glared at the walkers in front of her with murderous intentions in her eyes as she made her way to the nearest walker. She stabbed it in the head, killing it. She felt something touch her arm from behind and she immediately turned around to face it. She was about to swing her knife at it, but much to her shock was not met with a walker but with a concerned Trent.
"Stop." He told her, "Just get out of here."
Sasha didn't listen to him and rougly pushed him away from her. She moved towards the walkers again as her group proceede to take care of the undead. Rick almost got bit by a walker which lunged at him from the side, but Chef came in his rescue and stabbed the walker in the head. Izzy kicked the approaching walker in the knee, bringing it down to it's' knees, before stabbing it in the head with her hunting knife.
Sasha looked over her shoulder and saw a walker approaching her from behind. She quickly turned around to it, swinging her knife as she did so. The walker slit the walker's throat, but it wasn't the only thing that got cut by it. Abraham happened to be standing next to Sasha and her knife slightly cut his upper arm after slicing the throat of a walker open.
She let out a deep breath and moved towards another walker, killing the undead being the only thing on her mind. She swung her knife at another walker and stabbed it in the head, getting rid of it. She was about to do the same to another walker, but was stopped from doing so. It was when Trent pushed her away from the walker, making her collaps on the ground.
The musican stabbed the walker in the head, killing it and looked down at Sasha with a pitful look on his face, "I told you to stop. Don't let your anger consume you. We don't want you to die."
Sasha got herself back on her feet and gave him another look, before walking away from him, making her way back to the rest of the group.
The group proceeded to move further down the road after making their way to the other side of the bridge. They were forced to stop in their spots several minutes after they crossed the bridge, because it was when they noticed something which caught their interest in front of them. It was when they noticed a few abandoned cars, which they hopefully could use in their journey to Washington, in front of them.
At the view of the abandoned cars, Daryl stepped away from the rest of the group, beginning to head into the woods, "I'm gonna head into the woods, circle back."
"I'll go with you." Duncan volunteered to go with him.
Daryl shook his head at him, "No."
"Are you sure?" Carol wanted to be sure if Daryl wanted to go by himself.
"Yes." Daryl nodded, "Yes, just me."
Daryl went into the woods by himself, vanishing from his groups view a second later. His group made their way to the abandoned cars shorty after. They split up around the area, beginning to check if any of the cars was in a state that was good enough to drive. Maggie went away from the rest of her group as she went to check the state of the car in the back.
She wiped the window of the drivers seat of the car she had just approached. She looked through it into the car, wanting to know if it was open or if she will have to break the window. Thankfully, the car was open and she won't have to break the window to get into it, making the unnecessary noise in the process. She opened the door and got herself into the car.
After sitting down on the drivers seat, she began searching through the car, wanting if there was anything her group could use in the future in it. She didn't have to search fo the keys because they were already in the station, so she wouldn't have to look for them. She shifted her gaze back to the station several seconds, after finding nothing useful, just a couple of maps some and other papers, in the car.
She twisted the keys in the station and closed her eyes, hoping to hear the sound of the engine turning itself on. She didn't. Nothing rang through her ears. She twisted the keys again, hoping to start up the vehicle this time, but once again, it didn't. She sighed internally, knowing what that it meant only one thing. It meant that this car was not going anywhere.
She pulled the keys out of the station and got herself out of the car, having no reason to stay in it for any longer. She made her way to the trunk of the car, wanting to check it out and used the key to the trunk to open it. She opened the trunk and was greeted by the view which made her freeze in her place.
She saw a gagged and bounded walker of a woman. The walker snarled the moment it set it's lifeless eyes on her, slowly lifting it's head up. It couldn't do anything else, though as it was unable to move because of it's bounds. Maggie stared at the walker with a disturbed look on her face, but the state the walker was in wasn't the thing she was paying attention to. The thing she paid the attention to and disturbed her was the walkers blond hair. It reminded her of someone. It reminded her of Beth.
She slammed the trunk shut and started walking away from the trunk towards her group, visibly disturbed by what she saw in that trunk. She stopped in her tracks after taking a few steps, though. She looked over her shoulder at the trunk, hearing how the walker was banging it's tied up hands against it. She sighed, knowing that she couldn't just leave this walker in such a state and made her way back to the trunk. She grabbed the key again and twisted them, trying to open the trunk again.
She unfortunely couldn't do it, because the key got stuck. No matter how many times she tried to twist it, it just wouldn't move which could mean only one thing. This thing being that she won't be able to put this walker out of it's misery. In frustation, she slammed her hands against the trunk.
"Maggie." She felt someone touch her arm. She titled her head to this person and saw Glenn.
"There's one..." Maggie explained herself to her husband as soon as she set her eyes on him, "There's one in there. And I shut it and it's still in there..."
Glenn nodded his head in understanding as he reached down and grabbed the key. He managed to get the trunk open after several attempts and was instantly greeted by the view of a gagged walker. He pulled out his knife and stabbed it in the head, putting it out of it's misery.
He pulled his knife out of the walkers head and shifted his gaze from it to his wife, putting his free hand on her shoulder, "Let's go."
Sometime after searching abandoned cars, the entire group was sitting on the side of the road. The started up a fire to warm themselves up a bit as all of them tried to get some rest after walking for hours. Daryl returned to the group shorty after they checked if the cars they came across were in a good enough condition to drive. He returned empty-handed which meant he found nothing to eat in the woods.
Abraham took out a bottle of whiskey he had found at some point of their journey to Washington and unscrewed it. He poured a bit of Whiskey over his wound on the upper arm.
"Mind if I have a sip, Big A?" Izzy asked as she looked at Abraham. She and Abraham became pretty good friends over the course of the last few weeks.
Abraham looked at her with a questioning look on her face, before handing the bottle to her, "Big A?"
Izzy took the bottle from him and took sip from it before handing it back to him, "A nickname. Thought it might fit you."
"Big A. Has a nice ring to it." Abraham nodded his head at the nickname Izzy came up for him, liking it as he held his bottle out to Noah, offering it to him, "What about you? Want some?"
"I don't think it's a good idea." Izzy answered before Noah could say anything, "Alcohol and Noah, those two things don't do well together."
Noah put his hand on his forehead, letting out an annoyed sigh, "Great. You're bringing this up?"
"What?" Abraham smirked slightly at Noah, "You have a low alcohol tolerance?"
"I remember it." Glenn said from his spot as he smiled slightly at the memory, "Back when we were in the CDC, the two of us ended up getting drunk really bad."
Abraham's smirk widened, "Is that so?"
"Yeah." Izzy wrapped her arm around Noah, "Noah here couldn't lift his head up from the desk the next morning."
Noah crossed his arms, not liking Glenn and Izzy bringing up this embarassing memory of his, "I have no comment."
Tara watched how they shared a bottle of Whiskey from her spot, "It's not gonna help."
"He knows that." Rosita nodded her head to her wods.
"It's gonna make it worse." Gwen sighed, feeling quite thirsty herself.
Rosita nodded in agreement, "Yes, it is."
"He's a grown man." Eugene stated, referring to Abraham, "And I truly do not know if things can get worse."
Gwen sighed, "They can."
As soon as those words left her mouth, four wild dogs came out of the woods. The group heard how they came out of the woods and readied themselves, taking out their melee weapons. The four dogs stopped dead in their tracks a few meters in front of the group after noticing a group of people trying to relax on the side of the road. The group of dogs started barking and howling at them in a threatening manner.
The group tensed up, increasing their guard, aware that the dogs could attack them at any moment. Something happened before the dogs could attack them, though. A silenced shot echoed among them and they all turned to the source of it, seeing Sasha who had her silenced and scope rifle aimed at the dogs. Everyone watched how she shot down the dogs, one by one.
After watching how the dogs were slowly shot down one by one, Chef slowly got himself back on his feet and picked up a nearby tree branch as everyone else were suprised by Sasha shooting down the dogs. He snapped the branch into two, beginning to head towards the deceased dogs as Rick got himself back on his feet from his spot, picking up the nearest tree branch.
Everyone was cooking and eating the dogs that Sasha killed. A few of them seemed to have trouble eating it at first, because there were people among them who hated the idea of eating dogs, but this feeling quickly flew out of their minds, because of how hungry they were.
Duncan swallowed the piece of meat he was chewing on for the past few seconds and looked at Bridgette who had her eyes closed as she chewed on her own piece of meat, "How are you doing, Malibu?"
"I'm trying to make myself believe it's not a dog I'm eating right now." Bridgette replied, opening her eyes to look at him. She might have gave up on her vegan diet shorty after all of this started, but she never imagined herself eating dog flesh.
"Same here." Duncan agreed with her as he took another bite of his piece, remembering his dog which ran out on him when he was a kid, "Same here."
Sanders swallowed the last bite of her meat as she and Dylan sat next to each other. She looked up at Sasha when she was about to walk past her and Dylan, "I'm sorry about Tyreese, Sasha. He was a good man."
"Your brother..." Dylan looked up at Sasha too, "He tried to help me. I don't know if I'm gonna make it."
"Then you won't." Sasha coldly replied, looking down at him, "Don't think. Just eat."
Sanders looked at Dylan with a worried look on her face, "We're all here for you, Dylan. We'll survive until we'll find a good place to life. All of us will. I'm sure of that."
Sasha shifted her gaze between those people, before walking away from them towards her spot as her group proceeded to eat the meat.
After filling as much of their bellies as they could with meat they had gotten from those four dogs, the group left their resting spot on the side of the road and continued their journey to Washington.
Glenn pulled out a bottle of water and held it out to Maggie, "Maggie, take a drink."
"No." Maggie declined his offer, staring blankly ahead of herself.
"Okay." Glenn replied with an uncertain look on his face, "How about you just talk to me?"
"I never thought she was alive. I just didn't." Maggie began, "After Daddy, I don't know if I couldn't. And after what Daryl said, I hoped she was out there, alive. And then finding out that she was and then she wasn't in the same day. Seeing her like that, it- made it feel like none of it was ever really there. Before... this was just the dark part and... I don't know if I want to fight it anymore."
"You do." Glenn immediately replied to his wife's words as Noah seemed to be taken by suprise by her statement, "You do. You do. That's who you are."
"Weren't you trying to stop Beth from giving up back on the farm?" Noah reminded Maggie, "Do you think she would want you to give up like that? Or Hershel? A lot of people, them included died to get us this far. Do you want to take the easy way out? Do you want their deaths to be in vain, to mean nothing?"
"Noah..." Glenn tried to stop him from saying more.
"You want to leave us?" Noah continued, wanting Maggie to hear what he had to say to her, "Your husband? People who care about you? Do you realized how wrong it is? You don't just give up because it's hard. You stick it out and help the people you care about."
Maggie looked at him, looking to be slightly touched by his words. She wasn't the only one who was touched by his words. Izzy was touched by the as well. Even though she wasn't as distant as she was after Ezekiel's death, the death of him, Cody and Eva in such a short amount of time was still on the back of her mind. Everyone in the group who either lost their friend or a loved one or blamed themselves for someone's death or considered giving up at some point seemed touched by his words too.
"Noah." Glenn said to his friend, not knowing how his wife was going to react to his words, "That's enough."
Noah said nothing, continuing to walk forward himself. Abraham looked at him as he walked in the back of the group with Sasha, now understanding why Izzy considered him to be a close friend of hers. Noah might have been annoying from time to time with his comments and sarcastic remarks, but he cared about his group and the lives of people in it.
Glenn held the bottle out to his wife again, "Drink."
Maggie took the bottle from him and took a sip of water as Abraham held out his half filled bottle of Whiskey out to Sasha, offering it to her.
Sasha looked at him and shook her head at his offer, "You know it'll just make things worse."
"The way you're going." Abraham began, moving the bottle away from her, "You're what's gonna make things worse. Hey, you're with friends."
"We're not friends." Sasha angrily replied.
Abraham looked at her with an amused look on his face, taking another sip from his Whiskey bottle as Daryl went into the woods, going into another lone search for the water and food.
A bit later, Daryl was walking back to his group and was greeted by the view of them gathered around several bottles of clean water in the middle of the road. Rick turned around to look at him and held out a paper which read "FROM A FRIEND".
"What else are we gonna do?" Leshawna wanted to know.
"Not this." Rick replied, "We don't know who left it."
"Those bottles can be from anyone." Chef stated, his eyes set on bottles of water, "They can be from people who mean well, but they can also be from people who don't."
"A few bottles of water left in the middle of the road. This doesn't seem suspicious at all." Noah stated.
"If that's a trap, we already happen to be in it." Eugene stated, "But I, for one, would like to think it is indeed from a friend."
"You're not the only one." Geoff agreed with him.
"What if it isn't? " Carol voiced her doubts about the bottles of water, "They put something in it?"
"It's too risky for us to drink from them." Harold stated, letting out a sigh aftewards. He wished he could trust whoever left this water bottles, because his beloved Leshawna and friends were thirsty, but it just seemed too risky for him.
"What if it's someone's friendly?" Bridgette asked, "We'll be wasting a good supply of water if we will just leave it here."
"Only one way to find out." Geoff sighed after notcing the hesitation in his groups eyes, stepping forward from the rest of his group.
"What are you doing, man?" Duncan asked as Geoff picked up a water bottle from the road.
Geoff unscrewed the bottle and was about to take sip from it, "Someone has to check if this water is drinkable."
Before Geoff could take a sip from the bottle, Duncan walked over to him and swiped it away from his hand. The bottle fell out from Geoff's grasp and landed on the road, water beginning to spill from it.
"Don't do it, man." Duncan told him right after the bottle landed on the road, "Just don't."
Sanders nodded her head in agreement, "I know why you're doing this and I appreciate you willing to take the risk for us, but don't do it. It's not worth it."
Geoff stared at Duncan and Sanders with an apologetic look on his face. He opened his mouth to apologize for his foolish action, intending to explain to them that he just wanted his group to have some water for once, but his words died in his throat when he heard something. Everyone, including Geoff started to hear a thunder. They all looked up and saw the rain clouds coming in. They all looked up at them with hopeful expressions forming on some of their faces.
Their hopes weren't for nothing as the rain began pouring down from the sky shorty after. The entire group was rejoiced by this, a lot of them letting out happy laughs at the rain began to pour down on them, wetting their clothes. Geoff took off his hat, lifting his hands up in the air, having a complete mood shift which made his friends smile as Carl, Eugene, Izzy, Trent and Chris opened their mouths, allowing some rain drops to fall into their mouths. Leshawna, Alejandro, Bridgette, Tara and Rosita laid down on the ground, basking in the rain.
"See, pretty boy?" Chef smiled at Chris, patting his shoulder happily, "I told you it will rain soon!"
Chris closed his mouth, swallowing the few rain drops he had on his tongue and smiled back at him, "You did!"
Heather wiped her face in the water, "I never thought I'd be so happy when it will start to rain in the middle of the road."
"What a glarious feeling!" Leshawna exclaimed, laying down on the road as Harold smiled down at her after hearing her words, gladdened to see her happy.
Gabriel broke into sobs as he looked up at the sky, "I'm sorry, my Lord."
"Everybody get the bags." Rick declared as he crouched down, reaching into his bag, "Anything you can find. Come on."
Everyone started setting down anything that could gather some fresh rain water on the road such as empty water bottles or bowls. Unfortunely, their happiness of the rain was shorty lived, because they noticed that the thunder storms were getting louder.
"Dammit!" Heather cursed, her gladdened mood going away.
Gwen shook her head, "'It just had to be too good to be true."
"Let's keep moving." Rick declared after realizing it won't be safe for him and his group to be outside.
Daryl looked at him, "There's a barn."
"Where?" Rick wanted to know where the barn was.
The group arrived at the barn a few moments later. They went into it and began searching through the place, wanting to be sure if it was safe for them to wait out in the upcoming storm in. Maggie opened the door to a small room in the barn and noticed a female walker in it. The undead was laying on the ground and a gun was laying next to it.
Maggie went into the room and stabbed it in the head, putting it out of it's misery. She walked out of the room, stopping next to Carol who watched the entire thing, "She had a gun. She could have shot herself."
"Some people can't give up." Carol stated, "Like us."
After making sure the barn was safe, the group decided to stay there for the night. They group locked the doors to prevent anything from getting it. The group started up a small fire in the barn and some of them gathered around it, trying to warm themselves up a bit. It wasn't easy to start up the fire, because the wood was too weat, but fortunely they managed to do it after a few attempts.
Maggie looked at the ballerina box which was given to her by Carl back on the road. She put it on the ground and laid down to rest as Chef looked at the box with a curious look on his face, before getting up from his spot and picking it up. Leshawna and Harold slept next to each other, with the latter resting his head on the formers shoulder. Geoff leaned against the wall, his hat covering his closed eyes as he drifted into sleep a few moments ago as Bridgette rested her head on his knees, sleeping too.
"He's gonna be okay." Carol told Rick when she saw him glancing at his son, making Rick look at her. She, Rick, Glenn, Michonne, Daryl, Chris, Duncan, Trent and Gwen were resting next to the fire, "He bounces back more than any of us do."
"I used to feel sorry for kids that have to grow up now." Rick stated as Chef sat down next to him and put down the ballerina box next him, joining a few members of his group by the fire, "In this. But I think I got it wrong. Growing up is getting used to the world. This is easier for them."
"This isn't the world." Trent shook his head at his words, "This isn't it."
"It might be." Rick stated, "It might."
"That's giving up." Glenn stated.
"It's reality. Until we see otherwise, this is what we have to live with." Rick stated, "When I was a kid... I asked my grandpa once if he ever k*ll any Germans in the war. He wouldn't answer. He said that was grown-up stuff, so... so I asked if the Germans ever tried to kill him. But he got real quiet. He said he was dead the minute he stepped into enemy territory. Every day he woke up and told himself, "Rest in peace. Now get up and go to war." And then after a few years of pretending he was dead... he made it out alive. That's the trick of it, I think. We do what we need to do and then we get to live. But no matter what we find in DC, I know we'll be okay. Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves... that we are the walking dead."
Everyone were silenced by his words. Even the people who weren't gathered around the fire and were close enough to hear him speak were silenced by his speech. None of them knew how to respond to whatever he just said to them as Daryl got up from the ground, muttering something to himself as he made his way to the other side of the barn.
Later that night, when most of the group was asleep, the storm continued to get worse. Daryl, being the only member from his group who wasn't asleep at this point, was walking around the barn, pacing back and forth around it. It was when he heard something outside. He made his way to the chained up doors to the barn which were slightly opened and took a good look outside.
He noticed a large group of the walkers heading towards his and his group shelter for the night. His reaction to seeing such a thing was instant. He blocked the door and pressed his back against it, with the intention of stopping the walkers from getting in. The walkers started banging the door and slamming themselves against it, trying to get into the barn full of people.
Awoken by this noise, Maggie rose up from her sleeping spot and noticed what was happening. She quickly rushed over to Daryl to help him which was followed by Duncan doing the same because he was woken up by the noise. He was followed by Sasha and Chef. It was just a matter of seconds before the rest of the group was woken up by all the noise. They all made their way to the door to the barn, doing their best to not let the walkers in and to not get pushed back by them.
It was just a matter of seconds before the entire group was blocking the door to stop the walkers from getting in, the thunders outside and the snarls and grunts of the undead silencing the cries of Judith who was put on the ground by her brother so he would be able to help his group to hold the door.
The next morning, Maggie awoke in her sleeping spot. She opened her eyes, Judith who was sleeping with Rick being the first thing she saw after opening her eyes. She slowly got herself back on her feet and looked around herself, noticing that everyone except for Daryl who was messing with her ballerina box was still asleep. She pushed herself into walk towards him.
She reached him a few seconds later and sat down next to him, "You should get some sleep."
"Yeah." Daryl gave her a simple answer, nodding his head slightly.
"It's okay to rest now." Maggie pointed out as she shifted her gaze from him to Sasha who was still sleeping close to her and Daryl.
"He was tough." Daryl said, referring to Tyreese.
"He was." Maggie agreed with him, her eyes not leaving Sasha.
"So was she." Daryl added, this time referring to Beth, "She didn't know it, but she was." Maggie shifted her gaze from Sasha back to him and gave him a bitter smile in response. Daryl picked up her ballerina box from the ground and held it out to her, "Chef fixed it last night after the entire mess with the door. The gearbox had some grit in it."
Maggie took the box from him and looked at Chef who was sleeping the end of the barn, "Thank you."
She got up from her ground and made her way to Sasha. She put her hand on Sasha's arm and gently shook her, waking her up from her slumber. Sasha looked up at her with a questioning look on her face, confused by Maggie waking her up.
Maggie smiled at her softly, "Come on."
She and Sasha walked out of the barn a few seconds later, the latter making sure to take her rifle with her just in case if there will be any walkers left outside. The area outside the barn looked just like they excepted it to look after a storm. Many trees were knocked over by the wind, now laying on the ground. A lot of the walkers from last night were crushed by the trees.
The two of them made their way to a fallen log from which they had a nice view at an open field. They sat down on the log and stared ahead at the sunrise in silence, with Maggie placing the ballerina box on her knees.
"Why are we here?" Sasha wanted to know why she and Maggie came here.
"For this." Maggie replied.
"I see it." Sasha nodded, tears beginning to appear in his eyes, "Dylan, that kid... he said he didn't know if he can make it and his friend Sanders had to assure him that he is not going anywhere. I don't know if she convinced him. That's how I feel."
"You're gonna make it." Maggie assured her, "Both of us, we will. That's the hard part." She picked up her ballerina box and opened it, "Chef fixed it."
She started to wind the box up, trying to get it to play some music for her and Sasha, but no music came. It could mean only one thing. That this box was not working, even after Chef tried to fix it.
"You got to be kidding me." She sighed, she and Sasha sharing a quick laugh.
"Hey. Hi." An unknown man greeted them as he came out from the the area of the field, appearing in their their view with his hands raised in the air. He was accompanied by a young man who just like him had his hands raised in the air. His companion was pretty young. He couldn't have been older than some of the people from Maggie and Sasha's group, "We didn't mean to interrupt. Good morning."
Maggie and Sasha's reaction to spotting these two completely unknown people walking towards them was instant. They got up from the log and took out their pistols, now aiming them at the strangers.
"I understand why you're being cautious of us, considering that from your from your perspective we are two strangers who came out of nowhere, but, I assure you, there's no need of pointing your guns at us. Me and my friend here mean no harm to you or to your group." The other man spoke up, keeping his hands raised in the air as he tried to assure Maggie and Sasha that he and his friend had good intentions. He had a short black hair, almost as if he came from the army. He wore the same jacket as his friend. His jacket was unzipped, revealing a grey shirt underneath. He wore green army pants and had army boots on his feet.
"My name is Aaron." The first man introduced himself to them as Aaron and gestured towards his companion, "My friend over here is Brick and just like he said, we mean no harm to you."
"We would like talk to the person in charge. His name is Rick, right?" The young man, now known to Maggie and Sasha as Brick explained his and Aaron's intentions to them, offering the two women a friendly smile.
"How do you know?" Maggie wanted to know how these two strangers knew Rick's name.
"Why?" Sasha wanted to know why these two complete strangers wanted to talk with Rick.
Aaron exchanged a glance with Brick and answered to Sasha's question, "...We have good news."
It was when Maggie and Sasha titled their heads to the side, hearing how the ballerina box started playing music, turning out to be working after all.
Brick is here! He had officially appeared in the story, making him the first TD character who was confirmed to be living in Alexandria. What other TD characters do you think will be living in Alexandria?
Hope it wasn't that bad. See you in another chapter.
