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.
Brendan: I'm glad you liked it! More reunions are yet to come. I have never watched Attack on Titan but it is on my "To Watch" list. Duncan will get a new motorcycle but it will be a while before he'll get one (Just like Daryl. Some time has passed until he got a new motorcycle after his old one was left behind at the prison). I don't have any plans related to the RE movies at the moment :)
Dr Changer: At first I considered this idea but I'll most likely go with Chef and Abraham not knowing each other before the outbreak. I hope you'll like their interaction once they will be properly introduced to each other in season 5 :)
Ms. Sleepy Clover: I'm glad you liked the chapter! :)
Bridgette, Heather, Tyreese, Carol, Lizzie, Mika and Judith were gathered on some old train tracks in the middle of the forest. Lizzie and Mika were sitting next to each other, Heather was standing next to them, keeping watch and holding sleeping Judith in her arms, Bridgette was next to Tyreese, tending his wounded arm by putting maple sap from a tree on the cut and Carol was sitting on Tyreese's other side, watching Bridgette tend his wound.
"It hurts." Bridgette said as she looked up at Tyreese, carefully moving her knife along his wound, "Right?"
"Yeah." Tyreese nodded, "It hurts."
"I learned about this trick a while ago along with DJ. Hershel told us about it. This will fight the infection." Bridgette began, turning her gaze back towards Tyreese's wound as Heather approached them, still holding sleeping Judith in her arms, "Might even bring down your fever."
Tyreese shifted his gaze between Bridgette, Heather and Carol before asking, "What do you think? Three days out? Four days?"
"We haven't seen any of those maps at the crossings." Carol replied, "I'm not sure."
"Only one way to find out." Heather stated as she looked over her shoulder at the road ahead of her and her group, "We'll know when we'll get to Terminus."
Tyreese looked at Lizzie who stood up from her seat and began pacing back and forth along the train tracks, "Lizzie's tough."
"When it comes to people." Carol specifed as Bridgette pulled out some bandage, intending to wrap it around Tyreese's wound.
"What do you mean?" Bridgette asked, confusion evident in her voice. Tyreese and Heather seemed to be confused by Carol's words too.
"You haven't seen it? All three of you?" Carol shifted her gaze between Tyreese, Bridgette and Heather, immediately noticing their confused expressions, "How she's confused about them, the walkers. She doesn't see what they are. She thinks they're just different."
"Is she like Hershel and his family?" Heather questioned, "Back when we've met them on the farm?"
"Something like that." Carol gave Heather a quick nod of confirmation in response to her question.
Tyreese turned to look at Mika, asking Carol, "Mika the same way?"
"No, she's worse." Carol stated, "She doesn't have a mean bone in her body."
The group of seven returned to their journey towards Terminus soon after Bridgette finished patching up Tyreese's wounded arm. Heather walked in the front of the group, wielding her pickax which she had grown quite fond of in the past few days in case if a walker appeared in her way. Carol and Mika walked closely behind her and Tyreese, Bridgette and Lizzie walked closely behind them, the surfer carrying Judith in her arms.
"Did "Tom Sawyer" have a happy ending?" Mika asked Carol, walking next to the short haired woman, "We never got to finish it."
"Well." Carol began, "Tom and Huck, they stop Injun Joe and his partner and wind up getting all his gold."
"So they wind up rich?" Mika questioned.
"Mm-hmm." Carol nodded in confirmation, "And the Widow Douglas adopts Huck."
"Like you adopted us?" Mika asked her another question.
"Yeah." Carol nodded, "Just like the Widow Douglas."
Mika smiled, "And I'm Huck Finn."
"I think you're more like Tom Sawyer." Lizzie stated.
"Yeah, you're right." Mika agreed with her sister, "You're way more like Huck Finn. You're not even grossed out by dead rabbits."
"Forgot you used to read to them." Tyreese stated.
Carol looked over her shoulder at him and nodded, "I did."
"You could have involved Noah in this, you know." Bridgette said to Carol, "We all know how much he likes to read."
"I thought about it at first." Carol admitted, "But I decided to go against it, considering the books I was reading were directed to children."
"Good call." Tyreese smiled slightly, "Knowing Noah, he'd probably die inside if he had to read some kids book in front of other people."
"If I managed to convice him." Carol stated, "I can already imagine him using one of his one liners to decline my offer."
Bridgette smiled, "This would most likely happen."
Heather smiled as she listened to the conversation between her group behind her. Her smile faded from her lips as she felt a familiar scent go through her nostrills. She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to look at her group, wanting to know if they could smell that too.
"You smell that?" She asked them.
Tyreese stayed silent for a few seconds before replying, "Yeah. There's a fire somewhere."
"Must be a big one." Carol stated, "It isn't anywhere around here."
"We should stop here." Bridgette said, "We need to look for water."
"Yeah. We're running low on it." Heather agreed with Bridgette, "I'll go. Is anyone coming with me?"
Tyreese stepped towards her, "I'll go with you."
"No. You should stay here." Carol stopped him from going further, "I'll go."
"She's right, Tyreese." Bridgette said, "You need to rest. Rest your arm."
"Mika will help me and Heather." Carol added, making her way to Heather's side as Mika exchanged a look with Lizzie before walking over to Heather and Carol.
It's been a while since Carol, Heather and Mika left to get some water for their group. Lizzie, Tyreese and Bridgette were sitting on the log, playing I-spy to kill the time they spent waiting for the rest of their group to return. Judith was wrapped in a blanket, laying on Bridgette's knees.
"I spy trees and weeds." Lizzie said as she looked to Bridgette, "Your turn."
Bridgette looked down at Judith on her knees, "I spy a baby laying on my knees." Tyreese and Lizzie let out shorts laughs as Bridgette turned her gaze to the side at Tyreese, "Your turn now, Ty."
Tyreese looked around him, trying to spot anything he could mention in his answer. He narrowed his eyes when he noticed something in the distance, walking towards him and his group, wanting to be sure if he wasn't just seeing things. He wasn't. A walker was making it's way towards him and his group.
He got up from his seat, "Stay here."
"Can you hold her?" Bridgette asked Lizzie, handing Judith to her. Lizzie took Judith from her, allowing the surfer to pull out her knife, "We'll be back in a moment."
Tyreese took out his hammer as Bridgette stood up from her seat. They began making their way towards the walker, making sure to be slow and careful while doing so. They were nearing the undead when something happened. The walker stepped into the hole in the train tracks and fell down, trapping itself in the hole. It couldn't move anymore and Tyreese and Bridgette intended to use it to their advantage.
"It's stuck." Bridgette stated as she sheathed her knife, looking down at the trapped walker.
"At least we won't have any problems with it." Tyreese stated. He was about to bring his hammer down and smash the walker's head with it but a familiar voice stopped him from doing so.
"Guys!" This voice belonged to Lizzie. They turned around in the direction of the voice and saw the said girl approaching them from behind, carrying Judith in her arms. She walked past them and looked down, setting her gaze on the trapped walker, "Sometimes we have to kill them. I know that. But sometimes we don't."
Bridgette and Tyreese exchanged looks of concern with each other as Lizzie continued to stare at the trapped walker.
Carol, Heather and Mika had returned to their group shorty after Lizzie conviced Tyreese and Bridgette to not kill the walker trapped in the train tracks with the news that they had discovered a house in the middle of a pecan grove. Knowing that they could use this place to rest for a couple of days, Carol, Mika and Heather led their group to the place they had recently discovered.
"You know, we could use this place to catch our break for a day or two." Bridgette stated, looking at the house ahead of them.
"I know." Heather agreed with her as Carol began creating some space in fence for them to walk through, "This is exactly what I thought the moment I set my eyes on it."
"We're still going to Terminus, right?" Lizzie asked.
"We'll just stay a day or two. Just like Bridgette said." Carol replied as she walked through the space that she just made, entering the other side of the fence. The others followed her, "There's a well full of water. Fences. They're not big, but they're something."
"We saw deer on our way here." Heather said, making her way to the other side of the fence, "They eat pecans. We should be able to kill one to eat."
"We can eat these, too, right?" Mika asked, referring to pecans she had picked up from the ground.
"Sure." Bridgette smiled at her, "You can eat your fill and then some."
Lizzie pointed at something in the distance, shouting, "Look!"
Everyone looked in the direction she was pointing at and saw a massive cloud of dark smoke in the air. Everyone quickly came to the same realization that this must have been the reason why they were smelling smoke.
"Bet that's what we were smelling." Heather voiced everyone's thoughts, "Looks far enough away."
"I wonder how it started." Mika asked, her gaze set on the dark cloud in the distance.
"Maybe lightning. Maybe a campfire." Tyreese stated, "I can patch that fence."
"It's probably where the deer are coming from." Heather stated as they all began making their way towards the house.
"We should leave it." Carol stated, "Just play it really safe in here."
Everyone agreed with her. It was just a matter of time before the group of seven made their way to the house. Bridgette, Tyreese, Carol and Heather got ready to check if the house was safe for all of them and stood in front of the front door of the house as Mika and Lizzie stayed behind, sitting on the chairs in the front yard with Judith.
Carol knocked on the door to see if there were any walkers inside, "If there's one in there, it's not moving much."
"Let's just stay close." Heather said, holding her pickax in ready, "Go slow room to room."
"Girls, you sit tight." Carol said to Lizzie and Mika, "You don't come in until we come out no matter what you hear."
"Okay." The two sisters voiced their understanding at the same time.
"Lizzie's got Judith." Carol continued, "Mika, get out your gun. You're gonna need to stand watch."
"Stand strong, little lady." Tyreese said to Mika as Carol and Heather walked into the house.
"We'll be back soon." Bridgette added, following Carol and Heather into the house along with Tyreese.
Mika looked at her sister right after the rest of the group entered the house, noticing her sister looking a bit sad, "They're gonna be okay."
"It's not that." Lizzie replied.
Mika looked at the grave that had baby shoes tied to the cross, "Is it that there was a baby?"
"No." Lizzie answered, "They're gonna find one in there and they're going..."
"Stop it." Mika cut her off, "They aren't people."
"But you're wrong." Lizzie stick to her beliefs, "All of you."
"They aren't people, Lizzie." Mika said, this time sounding more irritated, "They're just dead."
Lizzie was about to respond to her sisters words but somethin stopped her from doing so. A walker made it's way out of the house through the door on their left and fell of the forch, starling the two girls. Judith began crying as Mika aimed her pistol at the walker and fired, hitting it in the shoulder. She fired her pistol two more times, one of the bullets hitting the walker in the head as Tyreese, Carol, Heather and Bridgette rushed out of the house.
"I'm sorry, girls." Bridgette shook her head, knowing how close the walker had gotten to the kids, "We should have checked that part of the house at first."
"Are you okay?" Carol asked Lizzie, bringing her back to her feet.
"Come on." Tyreese said as he took Judith from Lizzie and began comforting her, "I got you."
"Mika." Heather said to Mika who still had her pistol in the air, "Lower your gun. There's no need to use it anymore."
"She's right, Mika." Carol agreed with Heather as Tyreese took Judith into the porch, Bridgette following him, "You did it. You saved them." Mika listened to her and slowly lowered her gun as Carol looked at Lizzie who was crying, "Why are you upset, Lizzie? Were you scared?"
Lizzie shook her head, sobbing, "No."
"Then why are you crying?" Carol wanted to know.
"I don't want to say." Lizzie replied. Heather looked at her in confusion. she titled her head towards Tyreese and Bridgette who seemed to be confused by Lizzie's behaviour as much as she was.
Lizzie turned away from Carol and ran up to the nearest seat. She sat down on it and set her gaze on the flowers next to it. Mika looked up at Carol, looking at her if as she knew why her sister was crying and Carol seemed to know that too. She walked past Carol, making her way to her crying sister.
"Lizzie. I'm sorry I yelled at you." She apologized to her sister after making her way to her. She pointed at the flowers Lizzie was looking at, "Just look at the flowers like you're supposed to. Count one, two, three. Come on, let's count together. Look at the pink ones over there. You see?"
It was the next morning and the group was seven was minding their own business in the house they had discovered yesterday. Heather, Bridgette, Tyreese, Mika and Judith were in the living room while Carol was in the kitchen. The short haired woman picked up the water filled bucket and poured some of it's contests into a kettle, intending to boil it.
She titled her head towards the window next to her when she heard someone laughing outside. She immediately spotted Lizzie who was playing with a walker which must have made it's way into this area during the night. Lizzie shouted to to the undead to follow her, letting it chase her around the area, laughing happily as she did so.
"Lizzie." She whispered to herself. She ran out of the kitchen and made her way to the exit from the house, pushing it open and rushing outside, "You get away from it!"
"No!" Lizzie shouted as she turned around to look at Carol who began making her way towards her and the walker, "No!"
"Lizzie!" Carol screamed as the walker almost grabbed Lizzie from behind. She pushed Lizzie out of her way, away from the walker, ignoring her cries to not to do it and pushed the walker, bringing it down to the ground before stabbing the walker in the head with her knife.
"She was playing with me!" Lizzie shouted as Carol looked up at her, "She wanted a friend!"
"She wanted to kill you." Carol pointed out, raising her voice at Lizzie.
"I was gonna lead her away!" Lizzie shouted, starting to cry.
"You could have died!" Carol pointed out another thing to Lizzie.
"It's the same thing! You killed her!" Lizzie pointed out in return, crying, "You killed her! It's the same thing! What if I killed you?! What if I killed you?!"
"Lizzie." Carol in a calmer tone, trying to calm Lizzie down.
"You don't understand. You don't understand." Lizzie kept repeating these three words over and over again, "You don't understand. You don't understand. You don't understand!"
"Lizzie." Carol called out for Lizzie again, calmly.
"You didn't have to. You didn't have to. She didn't want to hurt anyone!" Lizzie began screaming again, angry tears spilling down her cheeks, "She didn't want to hurt anybody! She was my friend and you killed her! You killed her! You killed her! She was my friend."
Tyreese, Heather and Bridgette watched the entire thing from the kitchen window, reacting in their own ways to what was happening outside. All three of them exchanged looks, coming to the same conclusion. Something was horribly wrong with Lizzie.
Later that day, Carol and Mika walked together through the area they were currently staying in, the latter carrying Tyreese's M1 carbine. Carol decided to head out with Mika for a moment because there was something she wanted to talk about with Lizzie's younger sister.
Mika looked ahead of them at the smoke they spotted yesterday, "The fire's still burning."
"It could have gone out." Carol stated.
"Nope." Mika shook her head, "The smoke's black. If it was white, the fire wouldn't be burning anymore. I miss science class. Except for when we had to do stuff like cut up planaria worms."
"You've got to do worse than that nowadays, Mika." Carol pointed out.
Mika once again shook her head, "I don't gotta."
"You do." Carol stick with what she just said to her, "Lizzie's bigger than you and in some ways she's stronger. But you're smarter and you understand these... things. You've got to look out for her. You have to..." She paused for a second and stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed a deer standing ahead of them. It's head was lowered, eating some grass. She looked at Mika again, "Go ahead. You do it. Just like I showed you at the prison."
Mika raised Tyreese's M1 carbine and aimed at the deer but lowered it after a moment, allowing the animal to walk away from them, "I can't."
Bridgette walked out of the house, wanting to get some fresh air. She walked down the stairs of the porch and looked around the area around her and spotted Heather who filling the buckets with water. Not having anything else to do right now, she began making her way towards her.
She walked over to Heather, offering her a quick greeting, "Hey, Heather."
Heather nodded her head at the surfer, greeting her back, "Bridgette."
"Do you need any help with it?" Bridgette asked, pointing at the empty bucket next to Heather's leg.
"No." Heather declined her offer, "Thanks for wanting to help but I'll handle this."
Bridgette nodded her head, "I never got the chance to ask you this. How are you holding up? After what happened at the prison."
"I'm trying not to think about it. I'm trying not to think about Hershel and DJ." Heather replied as Bridgette nodded her head in understanding because she was doing the same thing. She just wanted to get the image of Hershel and DJ dying by the Governor's and Jose's hands out of her head, "I just hope that the rest of our group made it out alive. I just hope Alejandro is still out there, somewhere."
"I'm trying not to think about it as well. I hope that Geoff is still out there. I hope that I'll see him again soon. I hope that I'll see my friends again soon. I hope that the people who did this to our friends, to our home didn't get away with this." Bridgette said. She knew that her younger self, the one from the times when the world was normal would be disgusted by those thoughts but she hoped that the Governor and Jose got what they deserved, "I have a few regrets in my life, you know? Not trying to convice Courtney to stay with us when she had the chance to do is one of them. Maybe if I tried to convice her, then maybe she would still be here with us."
"One of my biggest regrets is not making amends with Lindsay and Beth." Heather replied to Bridgette's words, "I lost the count of how many times I thought about how horrible I was to them. Do you know how many times I wished I could travel back in time and be their friend even though I know it's not possible? Because I lost the count of that as well."
Bridgette placed her hand on Heather's shoulder, "I don't know if this will make you feel better, but I'm certain that they would notice that you changed for the better if they were still here with us. I'm sure that they would forgive you for treating them the way you did."
"If you say so, Bridgette." Heather said as Bridgette took her hand off her shoulder, "I still think about Tyler too and how he gave up his own life so I could keep mine back on Hershel's farm when we were escaping from it."
"Don't blame yourself for his death Heather." Bridgette said as she remembered how much Heather blamed herself for Tyler's death for the few days after the fall of Hershel's farm. It was when her behaviour completely changed, "Tyler was doing whatever he could to stop people from sharing Lindsay's fate. He would have done the same if it was me or someone else in your place."
"I know." Heather admitted, "It still doesn't change the fact that I never interacted with him in a good way, even when we used to hang out around Shane back on Hershel's farm. I was a such a bitch to him, even threw a canoe on him once and he still gave up his own life to save mine without second thoughts. I just want to make sure that his sacrifice wasn't for nothng."
"You don't need to worry about making sure his death wasn't for nothing. You already did that. You made amends with everyone you wronged before all of this started. You became a better person." Bridgette assured Heather as the said girl nodded her head. Perharps one day, she'll do something to believe that herself.
"Thank you, Bridgette." Heather said in a grateful tone, "For what you just said and listening to what I had to say."
"We're in the same group, Heather. We have to help each other, right?" Bridgette offered Heather a smile and embraced her in a comforting hug.
Heather wasted no time and hugged her back, smilling, "Right."
Their hug didn't last long because they heard someone screaming in the distance. They immediately recognized the voices. They belonged to Mika and Lizzie. They were in trouble. They immediately released each other from the hug and pushed themselves into run towards the screams, Tyreese and Carol who must have heard the screams as well joining them shorty after.
It was just a matter of time before they reached their destination. They saw Lizzie and Mika running towards the fence with a few charred walkers chasing them. Lizzie climbed through the fence without any problem but Mika tripped over the wire fence and her shoe got stuck in it.
"Lizzie!" She shouted as one of the walkers grabbed onto her shoes. Lizzie turned around and made her way back to her, attempting to push the walker away from her sister. The sound of someone firing their pistol echoed behind them as the walkers holding onto Mika's head got shot in the head, killing it.
Mika freed herself from the now dead's walkers grasp as Carol cried out to them, "Get behind us!"
Lizzie and Mika got themselves back on their feet as Carol, Bridgette, Heather and Tyreese got themselves in front of them. Bridgette and Heather wasted no time and opened fire, firin their pistols at the undead as Carol and Tyreese followed their example, the former firing her revolver and the latter firing his M1 carbine. The walkers began dropping like flies as Lizzie and Mika joined their group in fighting off the walkers, firing their pistols at the undead. It was just a matter of time before each walker ended up on the ground, dead.
"It's okay." Carol placed her hand on Lizzie's shoulder right after she noticed the expression on her face, comforting her. Lizzie looked at Carol and hugged her, "You did it."
It's been a few hours since the incident with the walkers. The sun has already disappeared from the horizon, allowing the moon to take it's place. The group of seven was in the house. Carol was sitting at the dining table along with Lizzie, Mika was playing with her doll, Tyreese was sleeping on the chair, Heather was sleeping on the floor and Bridgette was sleeping on the couch, her arms wrapped around Judith who was sleeping as well.
"I had to help stop them." Lizzie said to Carol, staring ahead of herself at the wall.
"Do you understand what they are now?" Carol wanted to know.
"I know." Lizzie looked at Carol and nodded, "I know what I have to do now. I know."
"It's ugly and it's scary and it does change you." Carol admitted, "That's how we get to be here. That's the cost. That's growing up now."
"I don't want to hurt anyone." Mika said, making Carol and Lizzie look at her, "I don't want to be mean."
"You have to be sometimes." Lizzie stated, "But just sometimes."
"Now we have a lot of pecans here." Carol said as she looked at the pecan filled bowl on the table, trying to change the conversation.
Lizzie nodded, "A ton."
"You getting sick of them yet?" Carol questioned.
Mika smiled, "Nope."
It was the next day and Heather, Tyreese, Carol and Bridgette headed out of the house to get some food for their group, this food being the deers which were roaming around the area of the grove they were currently staying in.
"The girls like it here." Carol said, "We could build it up, plant more food. We could find a car for an escape route just in case." She turned to look at Tyreese, Heather and Bridgette, "If you don't want to go to Terminus, we could stay."
"We could." Tyreese replied, nodding his head.
"I'm rather conficted about it." Bridgette voiced her mind about this matter, "I would rather to stay in a place I already know about but there is a possibility that Geoff found the signs as well and might be heading to Terminus right now."
"I'm conflicted as well." Heather admitted, "Alejandro might be going there as well. Other people from our group might be going there as well."
"It doesn't mean we can't go there someday." Tyreese stated, "It's just... when we were getting closer and closer, I realized I'm just not ready to be around other people yet"
"Why?" Bridgette asked Tyreese out of concern, "Is it because of what happened back at the prison between you and Rick after Karen's death?"
"I dream about Karen." Tyreese began as Carol frowned while Heather and Bridgette looked at him in concern, "I see her every night. And every time I forget she's dead. Sometimes... we just talk. And sometimes I see her in the crowd... in a city I've never been to. And it's back before everything happened. And then... some nights, the bad ones... I see someone kill her. Some stranger." He continued as Carol felt how a wave of guilt went through her veins, regretting what she had done to Karen, "Then I lose her all over again. But that's the deal, right? The people who are living are haunted by the dead. We are who we are. And we do what we do 'cause they're still here. In our heads. In the forest. The whole world is haunted now. And there's no getting out of that. Not until we're dead."
"Tyreese." Carol said but quickly stopped herself from saying more, having no idea what to say to him, "...Maybe they're not haunting us. Maybe they're just teaching us. Helping remind us so that we can live with what we have to do."
"Hey. Don't you ever be ashamed of who you are, Carol. You did right by those girls." Tyreese said, mistaking Carol's discomfort as empathy. He embraced her in a hug as Carol relucantly hugged him back, "You did right by everyone."
Later that day, Carol, Bridgette, Heather and Tyreese were slowly making their way back to the house they were currently staying in, returning to their shelter from their hunting trip empty handed after they failed to hunt down a deer.
"We'll get one yet." Tyreese said.
"I wish Daryl or Duncan or Izzy or Chef were here." Heather said, "Catching a deer would be much easier with them."
"It's probably not even deer season." Tyreese stated.
"My husband used to hunt." Carol said, "He'd tell the same stupid joke every year."
"You gonna tell it?" Bridgette asked her.
"Well, I guess I have to now, right?" Carol asked her in return in a joking manner.
Bridgette smiled and nodded, "You do."
"Okay." Carol nodded, "What's the difference between beer nuts and deer nuts?"
Heather shrugged, "I don't know."
"Beer nuts are around 1.79, deer nuts are just under a buck." Carol explained as Tyreese, Bridgette and Heather laughed at her joke.
Heather shook her head with a smile, "That's good stupid, but in no way is it stupid good."
"Yeah, I told you." Carol said, "There's more where that came from."
They looked ahead of them and saw Lizzie standing in front of them, holding a bloody knife in her bloody hands with Judith watching her from the blanker and Mika laying on the ground behind her, her eyes closed and not a single breath leaving her lungs. She was dead. The four of them quickly pushed themselves into run towards the gruesome scenery.
"Don't worry. She'll be back." Lizzie offered them an assuring smile as if she truly believe that what she did was good, "I didn't hurt her brain."
She continued to smile as the rest of her group stopped in front of her. Carol let out a deep breath, her eyes wide, Tyreese watched her with wide eyes of pure shock, feeling how his jaw almost dropped to the ground, Bridgette put her hand over her mouth, feeling how the air left her lungs the moment she saw the gruesome scenery in front of her and Heather simply watched in silence, her eyes refusing to close.
Carol stepped towards Lizzie, wanting to take the knife away from but Lizzie stopped her from doing so by aiming her pistol at her, "No, no, no! We have to wait. I need to show you. You'll see. You'll finally get it. We have to wait."
"Lizzie." Tyreese said as calmly as he could at this moment, "Put the gun down."
"I just want us to wait." Lizzie explained.
"We can wait. We can wait." Carol saw no other option but to go along with what Lizzie was doing. She tried to not burst into tears as she held her hand out to Lizzie, wanting her to give her gun, "You just give me the gun. We can wait, I swear. You, Bridgette, Heather and Tyreese should take Judith back. It's not safe for her."
Lizzie slowly handed Carol her pistol, "But Judith can change, too. I was just about to..."
"She can't even walk yet." The surfer quickly cut her off, trying to stop Lizzie from doing the same thing to Judith, still not believing what was happening in front of her.
"Yeah, you're right." Lizzie slowly nodded her head in agreement.
"So you four take Judith back to the house and we'll have lunch." Carol said, "And I'll just tie Mika up. You know, just so she won't go anywhere."
"Promise that's what you'll do?" Lizzie wanted to be sure.
Carol gave her a tearful nod of her head, "Mm-hmm. I promise. I'll use her shoelaces."
Bridgette slowly stepped forward and made her way to Judith who started crying. She slowly picked her up from the blanket as Heather and Tyreese walked over to Lizzie.
"Let's go, Lizzie." Tyreese said as Lizzie turned around towards the house.
"Let's go into the house." Heather added, doing her best to hide how disturbed she was.
Bridgette watched how the rest of her group walked into the house before bursting into tears, not being able to stop herself from doing so anymore. She pulled out her knife and mentally prepared herself to prevent Mika from turning into a walker.
Heather, Carol, Tyreese, and Bridgette were gathered around the table in the house, discussing what they should do with Lizzie after what she did Mika, with Tyreese holding Judith in his arms.
"I and Ty brought her some food. Cleared out her room. Made sure she didn't have any knives, anything like that." Heather said, "We found one thing in her room. She has a shoe box full of mice. Ty asked her if she was the one feeding the walkers at the prison. She said yes."
"There one thing we should mention." Tyreese said, making everyone look at him, "At the prison, before the Governor and Jose attacked, I found this rabbit pulled apart and nailed to a board. That was her, too. Said she was just having fun. I was thinking, maybe she killed Karen and David. But I don't know how she could drag them away."
"She would have let them turn." Carol pointed out, her head in her hands, "It wasn't her."
"What do we do now?" Bridgette asked, "With Lizzie?"
"I could leave with her." Carol suggested.
Tyreese looked at her in suprise, "What?"
"We can't sleep with her and Judith under the same roof." Carol explained.
"You wouldn't make it." Heather shook her head at Carol's suggeston, "Not on your own."
"She can't be around other people." Carol pointed out.
"Maybe we could try to help her." Tyreese suggested, "Talk her back somehow."
"This is how she is." Carol stated, "It was already there. I didn't see it."
Heather shook her head, a sigh leaving her lungs, "How could you?"
"I should have seen it!" Carol repeated herself, this time a bit louder.
"Don't blame yourself for what happened Carol." Bridgette said, "Nobody could have foreseen what would happen."
"So maybe we go." Heather suggested, "Me, Bridgette, Ty and Judith."
"You won't make it either." Carol shook her head at Heather's suggestion, "She can't be around other people."
The four of them exchanges saddened looks with each other, knowing that that were left with only one option in Lizzie's matter which was something they wished they could have avoid.
A little later, Carol took Lizzie out of the house, under the pretext of making a nice bouquet for Mika once she'll return. Lizzie was walking happily by Carol's side, unaware of what was going to happen to her in the next few moments. Tyreese, Heather and Bridgette stayed in the house, watching the two of them walk away through the window.
Lizzie looked at the smoke they spotted the other day, "The fire's still burning."
"No." Carol shook her head, recalling what Mika told her, "The smoke's white. It's out."
"You know everything, ma'am." Lizzie stated.
"No." Carol once again shook her head, "I don't."
"What is it?" Lizzie asked Carol out of concern, noticing her discomfort and saddened expression, "Are you mad at me? Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?" Her voice was so shaky as she started crying, looking at Carol with tearful look on her face, "I'm sorry I pointed my gun at you. I just needed you to wait."
"I know." Carol nodded.
"I'm sorry." Lizzie apologized as she turned away from Carol, "You're mad at me."
"I love you, Lizzie." Carol said as Lizzie stopped in front of yellow flowers, gazing down at them, "And everything works out the way it's supposed to."
"I'm sorry." Lizzie apologized again, sobbing, "Please don't be mad at me. I'm sorry."
"Just look at the flowers, Lizzie." Carol said as she pulled out her revolver as Lizzie continued to cry, unaware that Carol had just pulled her gun out, "Just look at the flowers."
She raised her revolver and aimed it at Lizzie, starting to cry. She watched the troubled girl she had promised to take care of cry for a moment, tears streaming down her cheeks, before pulling the trigger. She put her revolver down and watched how Lizzie's lifeless body collapsed on the ground, dead.
Tyreese, Heather and Bridgette watched everything from the window. Thankfully, they didn't had to see how Lizzie got shot because a tree was blocking their view but it didn't made everything better. Tyreese and Heather watched what just happened with saddened looks on their faces as Bridgette let out a whimper, feeling tears building up in her eyelids.
Carol turned away from Lizzie's body and began making her way back to the house, sobbing her eyes out because of what she had to do for the own safety of Lizzie and the other people.
A while later, Carol, Heather, Tyreese and Bridgette dug graves for Mika and Lizzie in front of the house they were staying in and placed their bodies in them, giving the little girls a proper burial they deserved.
Carol and Tyreese were sitting at a table across each other, not exchanging a single word with each other, Heather was sitting on the floor, staring at the wall ahead of her, and Bridgette was sitting on the chair, her face burried in her hands. Carol held her revolved in her hand. Without saying anything, she pushed her gun towards Tyreese, confusing him.
"I killed Karen and David." She revealed as Tyreese looked at her angrily. Heather and Bridgette looked at her in shock, not knowing what to say, "I had to stop the illnessfrom breaking out. I had to stop other people from dying. It wasn't Lizzie. It wasn't a stranger. Tyreese, it was me."
"That's why you didn't return to the prison with Rick and Chef after your supply run." Heather said as Tyreese tearfully shook his head, "You didn't stay behind to gather some more supplies. You left."
"Yes." Carol nodded in confirmation as she turned to look at Heather, "I was planning to set up a camp close to the prison but then the Governor and Jose attacked." She turned to look at Tyreese again who was trying to contain his rage, resisting the urge to grab the gun, "You do what you have to do."
"Did she know what was happening?" Tyreese asked quietly, gripping the Carol's revolver, "Was she scared? It was quick?"
"Yes." Carol nodded, "Do what you have to do."
Tyreese slowly took his hand off the gun, "I forgive you." Carol looked at him as Bridgette and Heather watched the entire thing in silence, "I'm never gonna forget. It happened. You did it. You feel it. I know you do. It's a part of you now. Me, too. But I forgive you."
"Thank you." Carol quietly replied, tears going down her face. She slowly shifted her attention between Heather and Bridgette, "What about you two? Are you okay with me staying with you? I'll understand if you will want me gone."
"I won't look at you differently than I did before, Carol." Bridgette replied, assuring Carol that it didn't change anything between them, "I can see that you regret it."
"Exactly. You did it because you wanted to prevent more people from our group getting sick." Heather said, "You did it to protect our people, our friends. This is just what you do."
Carol nodded her head at them, "Thank you."
"We don't need to stay." Tyreese quietly said but it was loud for everyone else to hear.
"We can't stay here." Bridgette nodded in agreement, "Not after what happened."
It was exactly what they did the morning after. They packed up everything they had the moment they woke up and saw the sun shining on the horizon. They left the grove they have been staying in for the past few days and Heather took the lead of the group, holding her pickax in ready as Tyreese, Carol and Bridgette walked closely behind her, with the surfer having Judith on her back in the baby strap.
The group of five entered the train tracks and began walking down them, continuing their journey to Terminus.
Hope it wasn't that bad. See you in another chapter.