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.
Darth krayt1: I don't think I would pair Beth with Duncan if I decided to spare her. I think I would pair her with Daryl if I decided to spare her.
ThEndymam: Yeah. Beth's death suprised me and saddened as well back when this episode came out. I remember how much controversy her death sparked back when the episode came out. I'm glad you like the idea of Sanders joining the main group. In the early stages of the story after I started to think where characters from other TD generations should appear, I had her stay in the hospital, leaving her status unknown, but ultimately I decided to have her leave with the main group. I hope you will like the characters that will appear in Alexandria as there will be several of them :)
Brendan: Arcane is on my "To Watch" list. A few friends of mine recommended shorty after it came out. I don't know if I should watch it, though, because I don't know about League of Legends (never was much interested in it) and I don't know if you need to know anything about it to watch the show. The only thing I know about League of Legends are the K/DA songs that I listened to on YouTube.
It had been seventeen days since Beth's death. The group was on the way to the settlement Dylan had told them about after Beth's funeral. The road to this settlement was quite a long one as at least 500 miles was separating them from it, but despise that, the group still decided to give it a chance, having no better options right now. If the place would turn out to be as safe as Dylan made it out to be or if would turn out to no longer exist, then they would just keep going.
Two cars drove ahead of the rest of the group as the group sent some people to check if the place was safe for all of them. The people in the first car were Rick, Michonne, Glenn, Tyreese and Dylan and the people in the second car were Chris, Harold, Geoff, Sanders and Alejandro. At first, Duncan was supposed to come instead of Alejandro, but the juvie decided to stay with the rest of the group to watch over Daryl who was not doing well ever since the group left Atlanta which worried him and Carol and Alejandro volunteered to go instead of him.
Rick looked at Dylan and asked, "How far out are we?"
"About five miles." Dylan answered, his eyes set on the road ahead of him.
Rick nodded and grabbed his walkie-talkie, calling out for Chris, "Chris. We're about five miles away from the place."
"Understood." Chris' voice sounded in Rick's walkie-talkie, "Let me know where you will want to stop."
"I will." Rick nodded before calling out for Carol and Chef, "Carol. Chef."
"I'm here." Carol replied a few seconds later.
"Me too." Chef answered right after Carol.
"We're just about there." Rick explained, "Just wanted to take the range for you guys."
Everybody's holding tight." Carol replied, "We've made it 500 miles. Maybe this can be the easy part."
"I sure hope so, Carol." Chef said, "I sure hope so."
"Got to think we're due." Rick rubbed his beard with his free hand, "Give us 20 minutes to check in."
"We don't hear from you, we'll come looking." Chef said.
Rick nodded in understanding, "Copy that."
Dylan looked at Tyreese, who was in the driver's seat, "I've been wanting to tell you something."
"What's that?" Tyreese asked, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of him.
"The trade." Dylan replied, "It was the right play. It worked. It did work. Just something else happened after.
"It went the way it had to." Tyreese stated, "The way it was always going to."
"I never wanted to kill anybody before." Dylan stated.
Tyreese looked at him for a second before shifting his gaze back to the road, "I've wanted that. But it just made it so I didn't see anything except what I wanted. I wasn't facing it."
"Facing what?" Dylan wanted to know.
"What happened, what's going on." Tyreese responded, "My dad always told Sasha and me that it was our duty as citizens of the world to keep up with the news. When I was little and I was in his car, there were always those stories on the radio. Something happens 1,000 miles away or down the block. Some kind of horror I couldn't even wrap my head around. But he didn't change the channel. He didn't turn it off. He just kept listening. To face it. Keeping your eyes open. My dad always called that paying the high cost of living."
"I lost my dad in Atlanta." Dylan revealed, "I think he would have liked yours. Still got a mom and a couple of twin brothers. I hope."
Tyresse nodded his head to that, "I hope so, too."
Dylan looked at the road ahead of him, before looking over his shoulder at Rick, "Two more miles."
"All right." Rick nodded and patted Tyreese's shoulder, earning his attention, "Let's pull into the woods. We'll go on foot. Stay off the road."
"We don't need to." Dylan said as Rick grabbed his walkie-talkie with the intention of informing Chris about them stopping the woods.
"Just in case." Rick explained before calling out for Chris, "Chris. We'll be pulling into the woods and from there we will go foot Stay off the road."
Chris' answer came after a few seconds, "Got it."
A few moments later, the group drove into the woods and parked their cars next to a few downed vehicles. They all got out of the cars and began readying themselves to head into Dylan's settlement, making sure to pull their equipment out of their cars.
Rick eyed his surroundings, wanting to be sure if he and his group picked the right place to hide their vehicles, "This is good. Through the trees, it might just look like part of the wreck."
Sanders looked at Dylan, "Where should we go now?"
Dylan pointed in the direction of his settlement, "It's this way."
Geoff nodded, "Lead the way, dude."
Dylan nodded and began walking in the direction of his settlement, with the rest following him. The group of ten began making their way through the forest, climbing through the wire fence on the way to their destination. Dylan cut his eyebrow a little as he climbed through the fence, but the group didn't stop to treat it, because it wasn't anything severe.
"Your people all cautious." Sanders commented, looking over her shoulder at the wire fence as she and Dylan walked next to each other.
"Just wait until you'll see the rest of the place." Dylan told her as the group stopped in their tracks on the side of the road to the settlement, now being able to see the front of the settlement from their position, "Trust me, it will be much better than the hospital."
Rick put his hand on Dylan's shoulder, earning his attention, "They have spotters? Snipers?"
Dylan shook his head at the question, "We built a perch on a truck. Sometimes it's out front."
Chris looked through the scope of his rifle at the gates of the settlement and lowered his rifle a few seconds later, "Not today."
The group exchanged glances as they all got out of the woods and began walking along the road, towards the main gate to the settlement. The group held their guns in ready as Dylan led them to the gate. He tried to open the gate as soon as he reached it, but he couldn't. It was locked. He knocked it a few times, hoping that this will get someone to open it, but no one came. He pressed his ear against the gate, hoping to hear someone on the other side, hearing nothing.
"Why is it still locked?" Alejandro asked as Dylan moved his head away from the gate.
"I don't know." Dylan replied, looking to be quite confused about it.
"Just wait." Glenn said, holstering his pistol. He climbed up the fence, allowing himself to take a look at the other side of the fence.
"Do you see anything?" Harold questioned but received no answer as Glenn remained silent, "Glenn?"
Glenn looked over his shoulder at his group and shook his head sadly at them. This instantly got a reaction out of Dylan. He immediately climbed his way to the other side of the fence as everyone else lowered their guns, before following his example. Once they were on the other side of the fence, they were able to see what Glenn just saw. The view of a burned house with two burned corpses laying in front of it made Dylan limp forward, everyone else following him.
They made their way to the middle of the street from where they were able to take a good look at the entire settlement. The settlement wasn't in a good condition to say the least. The houses were all abandoned and there were a lot of bodies laying on either the streets or the ground. There were a few walkers roaming around as well. It didn't took everyone long to realize that this place had been abandoned for a long time.
Dylan shook his head and put his hands behind his head after seeing his settlement in such a state as he started crying. His legs gave up a few seconds later as he fell on the ground, crying.
Sanders went over to him to comfort him. She put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly, looking at him with pity in her eyes, "I'm sorry, Dylan."
Tyreese went to comforting Dylan as well, "Come on. It's all right. You're gonna be with us now."
"We should have excepted this." Alejandro shook his head, "This place seemed to good to be true."
"It was still worth a shot." Geoff stated, looking at crying Dylan with pity in his eyes.
"I know." Alejandro nodded. He sighed sadly once he set his eyes on Dylan, "It's not like we had any other places to check out."
Chris looked to this side and saw "WOLVES NOT FAR" painted in a white paint on a small bridge wall. He narrowed his eyes at it. He was about to ask his group about it but no words regarding this topic came out of his mouth because it was when he noticed a walker walking towards him and his group. He looked through the scope of his rifle and fired at the walker. The bullet hit the walker between it's eyes, killing it instantly. The body of a walker fell down to the ground like a ton of bricks.
Rick walked over to Dylan and knelt down in front of him, a look of genuine pity on his face, "I'm sorry, Dylan. I truly am."
"What do we do now?" Geoff asked.
"We should check the houses before we'll leave." Harold suggested, "We might find some food in them."
Rick nodded in agreement, "We should check if the cars have any gas left in them."
Michonne watched how a couple of walkers were making their way towards her and her group before looking over her shoulder at Rick, "Then what?"
She didn't allow Rick to answer to her question as she unsheathed her katana and began making her way towards the undead, with the intention of taking all of them as quickly as possible. Geoff unsheathed his machete and began making his way towards the walkers, with the intention of helping her.
"We can make a quick sweep." Glenn nodded his head to the idea of searching through the place.
"I'll stay with him." Tyreese volunteered to stay with Dylan.
Sanders nodded her head, volunteering as well, "I will stay with him too."
Rick nodded his head at them and grabbed his walkie-talkie, "Carol, Chef you copy?"
"We're here." Carol replied a second later.
"What she said." Chef confirmed his presence right after Carol confirmed hers.
"We made it." Rick began as Michonne and Geoff began cutting through the approaching walkers, "It's gone."
Chef could be heard letting out a sigh, "I see..."
Chris, Geoff, Harold and Alejandro split up from the rest of the group and went to check a pretty big house. It was probably the largest one from the houses in this neighbourhood. At first, Rick, Michonne and Glenn were supposed to go with them, but ultimately the group decided to split up, because this way they would be able to check out more houses and save some time.
The impression the house made on the group of four after they entered it wasn't the best. The place looked completely abandoned, just like the rest of this settlement. It looked like they weren't a living soul in it for a long time. The group split up shorty after entering it. Alejandro and Harold went to the check the upper floor as Chris and Geoff remained on the lower floor.
Chris grabbed the door handle, holding his knife in his other hand in ready as he opened the door. He took one large step backwards, starled, because a floor mop flew right at him right after he opened the door. He let out a sigh of relief after seeing that it wasn't a walker as the mop collided with the floor. At the same time. he let out a bitter chuckle, wondering how in the world something like that managed to scare him.
Not having a reason to search through this room anymore, he made his way to the living room where Geoff was supposed to be. He saw the party animal as soon as he entered the living room, "Find anything, Geoff? Because I have nothing."
"No." Geoff turned around to look at him and shook his head, "All I found was an empty bag of dog food in the kitchen which is something I doubt we would eat. even if it had something left in it."
"I see." Chris nodded in understanding, "Perharps Harold and Alejandro will have a better luck upstairs."
"I hope so. We could use some luck after the last few weeks." Geoff nodded in agreement, letting out a sigh as all the things that happened in the last few weeks flew through his head. He looked over his shoulder at the family pictures hanging on the wall behind him. He sighed once he saw the smilling faces of a man, the woman who was probably his wife and the boy who was probably his son. This must have been the family that lived in this house. He shifted his gaze back to Chris after a second, "Hey. Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." Chris replied, "What is it?"
"It's about Bridge." Geoff revealed to Chris, "She's been acting weirdly ever since we left the church."
"Really?" Chris asked, "What's the cause of it?"
"I don't know." Geoff answered, "She acts normally for most of the time but starts acting weirdly whenever Sasha, Noah and Izzy are around or are brought up by me or someone else. I asked them about Bridge's behavior a few days ago. Izzy and Noah had no idea and Sasha said that Bridge should tell me herself about it."
"Well, I think you should follow their advice." Chris voiced his mind about this matter, "I'm sure she will tell you what is happening with her."
"That's what I was thinking." Geoff nodded in agreement, "I'll talk with her about on the next opportunity I will get."
"...Guys!" Harold's voice rang through their ears as he came running down the stairs, "You need to go with me!"
Geoff made his way to the staircase along with Chris, "What's wrong, dude?"
"It's Alejandro." Harold revealed what was the problem.
Geoff and Chris exchanged glances before following Harold to the upper floor. A few seconds later they behind him n a hallway leading to a dead-end. On the ceiling there was an open hatch, with a retractable ladder expanded all the way to the floor.
"Alejandro said he heard something in the attic and went into it to check it out." Harold began his explanation of what happened, "He hasn't come back down for a few minutes now and everytime when I called out for him, silence is all I was receiving in response. I know I could have went to check out what's wrong with him but I preferred to let you two know about this at first."
"Okay." Chris nodded in understanding as he moved past Harold towards the ladder, "Let's go see what's wrong with him."
Harold and Geoff nodded in agreement. Chris put his foot on the ladder and climbed up the attic, not knowing what was waiting for him up there. Harold and Geoff followed him. It was only a matter of several seconds before all three of them were in the attic. The group of three eyed the attic as soon as they made their way into it. It looked just as any other attic.
It wasn't long, a few seconds to tbe exact, before they spotted the person they came in here looking for. Alejandro was standing in one spot in front of them as if something had froze him, his back facing them. He had his tomahawk in his hand and his grip around it was tight, as if he was looking at something he hated to see.
"Alejandro?" Geoff called out for him as he took one step towards him, "Are you there, bro?"
Harold stepped towards Alejandro, "Is everything alright?"
Chris stopped dead in his tracks and covered his nose after a horrible stench punched him right in the face, Geoff and Harold doing the same, "What it this stench?" Alejandro remained silent as Chris, Harold and Geoff moved towards him again, "Alejandro, what is going on?..." His words died in his throat when he glanced ahead of him and the rest, he and the others finding out what made Alejandro stay unresponsive, "Oh my God..."
They saw a walker of a few year old boy. He couldn't be older than ten when he met his demise and turned into one of the undead. It must have been the boy from the family picture they saw shorty after they entered his house. The state this boy was in made everyone pause in their spots and look at it in a stunned shock. After seeing and experiencing so many terrible things since all of this started, nothing could have prepared them to seeing something like this.
The undead boy in front of them was barely dressed, wearing only his underwear and he was anorexic that he looked like a sheleton with some skin on it. The boy slowly shifted his gaze to them, noticing a group of humans in front of them. He slowly began making his way towards them, but didn't got too close. A sickening snap echoed through the ceiling and his leg shattered in half like a twig.
The undead boy collapsed on the ground, his bones too feeble to stand him on his feet. He looked ahead at the humans in front of him, reaching out his skinny skin hand towards them, letting out quiet grunts. The undead boy couldn't even grunt like a regular walker. His grunts were like the shouts of a strangled cat.
"...Now you know why I completely froze after I entered the attic." Alejandro broke the silence in the attic after staying silent for the past few moments, "This poor kid. He couldn't have been older than ten when he died."
"What happened to him?" Geoff couldn't believe what he was seeing. Everything he had seen so far was nothing compared to what he was seeing right now.
"He ain't got any body fat. He must have hid in here when this place fall apart and waited for someone to rescue him." Harold theorised. He felt so bad for the boy. Starvation was slow and painful. He didn't want to think what this poor boy must have been going through in the last few days of his life, "He must have starved to death."
Chris shook his head at the scenario of a little boy starving to death while waiting for the help which never came, "...Jesus."
"Guys." Geoff said, his eyes not leaving the undead boy in front of him, "Someone's gotta, you know. We can't leave him in here like this."
"I'll do it." Chris immediately volunteered to take care of the boy, "None of you should take care of something like this."
Harold, Alejandro and Geoff looked at Chris as he stepped forward from their group. The host of Total Drama swallowed, taking a deep breath as he started to make his way towards the undead boy. His march towards him was slow. On his way to the boy, he noticed the cot and the blankets in which the boy slept in, along with an empty water bottle and a spotless plate.
He quickly pushed the thoughts of an empty plate away as he stopped in front of the boy. The undead boy now had his attention entirely focused on him, completely forgetting about Alejandro, Harold and Geoff. Chris' shoulders were heavy as he looked down at the boy. He looked up at the ceiling, trying to make himself look away from the young boy who despise having a pleading look on his face was trying to eat him. He pressed his shoe against the boy's head, pinning the walker down to the floor, hearing how this slight action almost squished the boy's head.
"I'm sorry this happened to you." He said to the undead as he looked down at the boy again. He couldn't look away from it, despise his body and mind telling him to do so. He shook his head, his face wearing the look of pity.
The undead boy responded by letting out another weak grunt as soon as those words left Chris' mouth. It was when Chris put more pressure against the undead's boy head, squishing the walker's head in, putting the boy out of his misery. Harold moved towards him from his spot a few seconds after Chris took care of the undead boy and Geoff and Alejandro followed him.
"We should bury him." Harold said, looking at the now deceased boy.
Chris nodded in agreement, "Yeah."
Alejandro leaned down and picked up the body, now carrying the deceased boy in his arms, "Let's take care of it."
"We never let anyone know about what we saw in this house, right?" Geoff asked, turning away from where the boy used to be a few seconds ago as he and the others started to head towards the exit from the attic. He didn't want to imagine how Bridgette would react to him telling her about what happened in this attic.
Harold nodded in agreement, not wanting Leshawna to know about this, "It will be better for them if we will spare them the knowledge of what happened in this house."
Chris and Alejandro nodded silently in agreement, the group of four making their way out of the attic with the intention of giving this boy a proper burial. It was the least he deserved after suffering through so much in the final days of his life...
Sanders and Tyreese watched how Dylan continued mourning the loss of the settlement and all the people who were living in it which included his own family. The young man was sitting on the ground, his face between his knees as he continued to sob.
"...I wanted to die for what I lost." Tyreese suddenly spoke up, "Who I had lost. I stepped out into a crowd of those things just trying to... take it all out on them until they took me. Put them all in front of me so I didn't see anything. But I just kept going. And then later, I was there for Judith when she needed me. I saved her. I brought her back to her dad. And that wouldn't have happened if I had just given up... if I hadn't chosen to live."
"He's right, Dylan." Sanders nodded her head as she came closer to Dylan and knelt down in front of him, "Remember what I told you about McArthur? A friend of mine who stayed behind to make sure I'll climb over the fence and get away from the rotters? The guilt that I felt for the next few days after her death was eating me. I even had suicidal thoughts, because of it, but I didn't gave up. If I gave up, I wouldn't be here now and I wouldn't be helping you."
"Dylan." Tyreese called out for Dylan as he walked over to him and Sanders. Dylan looked up at them as Tyreese put his hand on his shoulders, "This isn't the end."
Sanders got up into a standing position and held her hand out to Dylan. Dylan looked at her for a second before grabbing her hand, allowing her to bring him back on his feet. She let go off his hand after she brought him on his feet and gave him a slight smile, "There you go."
Tyreese patted Dylan's shoulder, "That's right." Dylan looked at something in front of him and stepped forward, beginning to make his way towards it, "Hey, we should..."
"Dylan!" Sanders shouted after Dylan as Dylan pushed himself into a run.
"Dylan!" Tyreese screamed after Dylan as he and Sanders began running after Dylan.
Rick, Glenn and Michonne were searching through a house together. Michonne was searching through the garage, eventually bringing something to Glenn and Rick whenever she stumbled upon something they could use as Glenn and Rick stood together on the driveway, looking through the stuff Michonne found in the garage.
"I was thinking about that guy in the storage container." Glenn said as Rick looked at him, "Back at Terminus. How I made us stop. After the prison, on my trip, I got Maggie back. Things went okay. Losing Washington... losing- losing Beth right after just finding out she's alive... I hadn't caught up with you yet. If it were now, I wouldn't make us stop. We'd run right by." Michonne walked out of the garage, she and Rick listening to what Glenn had to say, "And I would have shot that woman dead. Right or wrong."
"We need to stop." Michonne spoke up as soon as Glenn said what he had to say, "You can be out here too long."
"Guys." A familiar voice which they immediately recognized as Chris' rang through their ears. Glenn, Rick and Michonne looked to the source of it and saw Chris, Alejandro, Harold and Geoff walking towards them.
"Hey." Glenn said, "Did you find anything in the house you went to check?"
"No." Chris shook his head, not wanting to them to know about what he and the other three found in the attic of the house they searched through, "There was nothing we could use in that house."
Rick, Glenn and Michonne looked at Chris, Alejandro, Geoff and Harold, feeling like there wasn't something they didn't want to tell them. Rick was about to ask them about it but backed away from it once he saw the expressions Chris, Alejandro, Geoff and Harold had on their faces. He stayed silent about it and so did Glenn and Michonne, feeling like maybe it would have been better if they remained unaware about the things Chris, Alejandro, Geoff and Harold saw in that house.
Sanders and Tyreese finally managed to catch up to Dylan after following him throughout the neighbourhood for a few moments. They catched up to him when Dylan entered the area of one of the houses, his eyes set on it as if nothing else mattered to him at the moment. He was clearly interested in visiting it.
Tyreese stopped in front of Dylan, putting his hand on his shoulder to stop him, "Hey."
"Why did you come to this house?" Sanders asked, even though she already suspected why Dylan went to this house as she stood next to Tyreese.
"This is my house." Dylan revealed to them why he went to this house.
Tyreese put his hand on Dylan's shoulder, stopping him from going further, "You don't want to go in there."
Dylan nodded his head, convinced that he wanted to go into his house, "Yes, I do."
"He needs to have closure, Tyreese." Sanders told Tyreese, understanding why Dylan wanted to go into his house, "I didn't got a chance to have a closure because after I returned to the place where the rotters got McArthur, there was nothing left of her."
Tyreese looked at Sanders and looked back at Dylan a second later. He nodded his head at him, unsheathing his knife, "Me and Sanders go first."
Sanders and Dylan nodded at him. He turned away from Dylan and began walking towards the opened entrance to the house as Sanders went after him and catched up to him, holding her handgun in ready. Dylan followed them as Sanders and Tyreese stopped in front of the entrance. Tyreese hit the wall with the butt of his knife a few times, wanting to know if there were any walkers inside.
The silence he received in response was enough for everyone. Sanders entered the house, holding her handgun in front of her as Tyreese and Dylan followed her, the former holding his knife in ready. Sanders stopped in her tracks a few seconds later as she set her eyes on something in the living room. Dylan and Tyreese noticed it as well a few seconds later.
They saw a rotten body of a woman on the floor. Tyreese and Sanders didn't have to ask Dylan to find out who it was. The immediately knew it was Dylan's mother. The saddened expression on Dylan's face only confirmed their suspicion. Dylan stepped forward and walked over to his deceased mother. He knelt down in front of the body and grabbed a nearby blanket, using it to cover his mom's rotten face.
"I tried." He said, putting his hand on her face, "I tried to come back sooner."
Sanders looked at him sadly, walking over to him. She put her hand on his shoulder, "You did everything you could, Dylan."
As Dylan continued to mourn his mother and Sanders continued to comfort him, Tyreese went further into the house, hearing some noise from one of the rooms. He walked through the hallway for a few seconds before stopping in his tracks after noticing something out of the corner of his eye. He slowly walked through the open door into a bedroom, noticing a rotting corpse of a boy he suspected to be Dylan's brother on the bed.
He walked further into the bedroom as he looked at the body of Dylan's younger brother sadly, forgetting about the noise he heard a few seconds earlier. He shifted his gaze away from the body to the wall next to the bed it was laying on. He saw a few pictures hanging on it. He walked closer to the wall, allowing himself to get a better look at the pictures.
He let out a deep breath, watching what those pictures were displaying. They were displaying Dylan's younger brothers, in the happier times, back when the people didn't have to worry about walkers. The two boys on the pictures were smilling, enjoying their life, unaware of the grim future ahead of them. Tyreese's chest hurt at the thought of what happened to the boys showed on the pictures.
It was when his eyes widened once he heard something behind him. He turned around and saw a walker of Dylan's other younger brother. The undead lunged at him from behind. Tyreese had no time to react because it all happened so suddenly. The undead sunk it's teeth in his arm, bitting off a piece of flesh as Tyreese screamed in pain. He moved his arm away from the walker and kicked it in the chest, pushing it away from him.
He stumbled backwards and landed on his butt, now leaning against the wall. The walker showed off it's bloody teeth, moving towards Tyreese as Tyreese clutched his bleeding arm. It was when Sanders and Dylan who were allerted by his scream rushed into the room. Sanders aimed her handgun at the walker and fired. The bullet hit the undead in the head, killing it.
Sanders lowered her smoking handgun and looked down at Tyreese. She looked at him in horror, knowing what had just happened, "Oh, no. He's been bit."
Dylan shook his head, "You're okay. Just hold on. We'll get them. We'll get them."
Sanders and Dylan quickly rushed out of the room and ran out of the house to get the others, leaving Tyreese in the room all by himself.
Tyreese remained on the floor, one deep breath leaving his lungs after another as he continued to clutch his bleeding hand, feeling how his own blood was staining his other hand and his knee. Every passing second felt like an eternity for him. He quickly moved his head to the other side of the room once he heard how the radio on top of the table turned on on it's own and started working.
Much to his suprise, a voice echoed in the radio a few seconds later, "At least 68 citizens of the republic have been killed in four deadly attacks along the main coastal district. The group has continued their campaign of random violence, moving across the countryside unfettered with the republic's military forces in disarray..."
"I tried to tell you. I tried to tell you, man." Tyreese shifted his gaze in the direction of this voice as soon as it rang throug his ears. His eyes widened in suprise like he had just spotted a ghost. He saw Martin. A man from Terminus leaning against the wall, all bloodied up with noticeable stab wounds on his chest, "It was gonna be you. You're the kind of guy who saves babies. You think Gareth and Scott would have been able to follow you guys if you or Bridgette would have just put a bullet in my brain? Cut me up like your sister did or how Izzy did with Scott?"
Tyreese's eyes were refusing to close as he let out a deep breath, clearly unsettled by what he was seeing right now. He slowly started getting himself back on his feet as he wanted to get away from Martin, his hand not leaving his bite wound.
"Oh, whoa, whoa. Don't get up." Martin held his hand in front of him on a stop motion, making Tyreese stop, "If I hadn't told them that you and Bridgette were there, maybe Gareth and Scott wouldn't have gone after you. Maybe they wouldn't be dead. Maybe Bob wouldn't be dead. Maybe Ezekiel wouldn't be dead. Maybe the two of them being alive, maybe something about that would have changed things with Beth. Domino shit." He let out a bittersweet chuckle as Tyreese let out another deep breath, "Maybe not. Maybe you wouldn't be bit right now."
"Man, that is bullshit." It was when Bob's voice rang through Tyreese's ears. The beanie wearing man looked in the direction of it and saw not only Bob but Ezekiel too. The two of them were sitting on the bed next to each other. Bob had a missing leg and Ezekiel had a noticeable stab wounds on his gut, "I got bit at the food bank. It went the way it had to, the way it was always going to. Just like this. "
"You did what you thought was right, Tyreese." Ezekiel spoke next, "You couldn't have predicted what would happen. You and Bridgette tried to react in a humane way and that is an admirable trait nowadays." He titled his head towards Bob, "Like Bob over here said, eh. It went the way it had to. The way it was always meant to be."
"...then terrorizing the village by night, carrying out revenge attacks involving hacking innocents with machetes and, in some cases, setting them on fire." The voice on the radio spoke again, but Tyreese ignored it.
"If you just did it, if you didn't lie like a bitch, it might have changed things." Martin stated, "Maybe the bill would have been paid."
It was when another familiar voice rang through Tyreese's ears, "You can't be the same man you were before, Tyreese."
He looked up and saw Jose standing in front of him, his dark green eyes looking down at him angrily. Tyreese gasped upon seeing the state Jose was in. Alejandro's older brother looked horrible. He had multiple bite wounds across his body as if multiple walkers had bitten into him at the same time, had a wound as if someone had stabbed him through his chest and his knees were busted. He was still standing on his feet despise the latter.
Jose crouched down and looked straight into his eyes as he spoke to him again, "You needed to change if you wanted to survive in this new world. I changed to defend the place I called home. The place that gave me hope after I had to kill Carlos to make sure he won't turn into one of the muertos. The people who I grew to see as my friends." He pointed at Ezekiel and Bob, his eyes not leaving Tyreese, "You couldn't do it, even if it meant protecting someone from your own group and see how it ended!"
It was when Jose got himself back to a standing position and moved to the side, allowing Tyreese to look at the corner of the room where he saw the Governor standing with a bullet hole in his forehead, "The bill has to be paid." Tyreese's breath became shaky as Jose went over to the Governor's side, "You have to earn your keep. You told me you'd do whatever you had to do to earn your keep. That's what you said. Hmm? Remember that?"
"...It's alright, Tyreese." Tyreese glanced to his side once he heard this voice. He saw Lizzie and Mika sitting next to him. Lizzie had a bullet hole in the back of her head as Mika had a few stab wounds on her chest, "It's better now."
Mika nodded in agreement, "It is."
"Never thought I would say something this or agree with little girls like those two." Tyreese's eyes wandered to his other side and saw Eva. The jockness was leaning against the wall, her arms folded. She had a large cut on her neck, but there was no blood pouring out from it, "What we have right now is a good reward after constantly fighting for our lives for a year." She looked at the Governor and Jose and glared at them. Her glare was mostly directed towards Jose, the man who murdered her, "In what we have right now, we don't have to deal with the people who will cut our throats. The world right here is like the world we used to know before all of this shit happened."
Jose scoffed after hearing what those three just said to Tyreese, "Better? It is better right now? I can't remember the last time when I heard such nonsense."
"It's not better now." The Governor agreed with Jose as he moved closer to Tyreese, "You know damn well what..."
Tyreese didn't get to hear what the one eyed man had to say as it was when he snapped out of his hallucination and saw a walker walking towards him. He quickly got up from the floor and tried to fight the walker the best he could, but it was no use as he was already too weak after losing so much blood in the past few moments. The walker got the upper hand and backed him against a bookshelf.
Having no other choice, he let the walker bite his arm, letting out a scream once the walker's teeth collided with his arm. Using the fact that the walker was too busy with his arm right now, he grabbed a large rock from the bookshelf and hit the walker in the head with it. The walker stumbled backwards and Tyreese hit it again and again. He continued hitting ithe walker until it was dead. After taking care of it, Tyreese collapsed on the floor, crawling himself back to his spot.
Rick, Michonne, Glenn, Chris, Harold, Geoff and Alejandro were walking down the street with the supplies they had gathered from the houses they had searched through in the past several moments. Michonne was still to convince them to see if they can make this place work.
She pointed at the hole in the fence at the end of the street, "We could put some of the garage doors together against the break. Park a car against them until we can brick it back up. It can work."
"This place is surrounded by a forest. There's no sight lines." Rick pointed out, "Whoever, whatever would be on top of us without us even knowing it. That's probably what happened."
"That's what happened to us back at the prison." Alejandro added, his mind flying back to how the Governor and his older brother attacked the prison which resulted in the destruction of their home.
"We could start taking down the trees." Michonne tried to convince her group to give this place a chance, "We use them to build the walls up."
"I don't think this would work, Michonne." Harold shook his head at Michonne's suggestion.
"Look." Michonne pointed at the hole in the fence again and began making her way towards it. The others followed her. As they made it to the hole and walked through it, the saw a couple of walkers with the half of their bodies missing.
Chris shook his head at the view, "Jesus."
"Let's get outta here." Geoff shook his head at the gruesome scene, "Let's find Sanders, Tyreese and Dylan and leave this place."
"Look." Harold said, earning everyone's attention as he pointed the fence. Everyone looked at the fence and saw that it was filled with cracks, "With all those cracks, it ain't going to hold for long."
"It doesn't matter." Glenn spoke up.
Rick looked at him, "What?"
"You said you wondered if it even mattered if you kill her or not." Glenn explained what he meant by his words, "It doesn't matter if you had done it or if I had, or that Daryl did. It doesn't matter."
"Washington." Michonne suddenly said, making everyone look at her, "Eugene lied about a cure, but he thought of Washington for a reason."
"Maybe he did this to keep his lie for as long as he could." Alejandro said, "He and Abraham could have feen pretty far from Washington when they met."
"What if he didn't?" Michonne asked him, "What if he did the math and realized that Washington was the place where there'd be a chance. We're close." She sighed once she saw the skeptical look on everyone's faces. Even Glenn and Geoff who back in the prison always tried to be optimistic, "What if there are people there? Huh? What if it's someplace that we can be safe? We're 100 miles away. It's a possibility. It's a chance. Instead of just being out here. Instead of just making it." She pointed at the gruesome scene of the bodies of the undead, "Because right now, this is what making it looks like." She looked at Rick, looking at him almost pleadingly, "Don't you want one more day with a chance?"
"We should go." Rick answered as Michonne sighed, thinking he meant leaving the place instead of going to Washington. Chris, Glenn, Alejandro, Geoff and Harold turned away, beginning to head through the hole in the fence. Everyone stopped in their tracks when Rick added, "It's 100 miles away. We should go to Washington. "
It was when Sanders and Dylan came running to them down the street, the latter crying out to get everyone else's attention, "Hey!"
"Guys?" Chris said as Sanders and Dylan reached him and the rest, "What's wrong?"
"It's Tyreese!" Sanders revealed as soon as she and Dylan reached Rick, Chris, Michonne, Glenn, Geoff, Harold and Alejandro, "He's been bit!"
"What?" Geoff's eyes widened at the information, "Where?"
"My house." Dylan revealed where Tyreese was bitten to them.
The group's reaction to it was instant. They quickly pushed themselves into run and began running towards Dylan's house as fast as they could, wanting to get to the bitten member of their group as soon as it was possible.
Tyreese was still in Dylan's house. He was still on the floor as he proceeded to clutch his bleeding arm, leaning against the wall. His eyes were set ahead of him as he still hallucinated the dead people from his group. One more person joined the people he was hallucinating, though. This person was Beth. The blond haired girl was sitting on chair behind Mika and Lizzie, playing a guitar.
"Every man has a right to live. Love is all that we have to give. Together we struggle..." She sang, her eyes set on the guitar she was playing as the baby cry echoed across the room, " ...By our will to survive and together we'll fight just to stay alive. Struggling man has got to move. Struggling man, no time to lose. I'm a struggling man and I've got to move on." She shifted her gaze from the guitar to Tyreese, "It's okay, Tyreese. You gotta know that now."
"It's okay that you didn't want to be a part of it anymore, Ty." Bob said.
Eva nodded her head in agreement to Bob's words, "You don't have to be a part of it."
Martin chuckled, making Tyreese look at him, "See, that's your problem right there."
"What's my problem?" Tyreese asked him.
"You didn't want to be part of it, but being part of it is being now." Martin explained, "That's what it is. Open your eyes."
"You don't have to." Mika said as Tyreese looked at her.
"Not everyone can be part of it, Tyreese." Ezekiel said.
"He's right." Lizzie nodded in agreement, "This is better."
"You told me you'd earn your keep." The Governor said as he paced back and forth across the room. Jose watched his pace back and forth from the corner of the room, with his arms crossed, "You had no idea what you were talking about, did you?" He got himself on his knee and looked straight into Tyreese's eyes, "Did you?! Your eyes were open, but you didn't want to see. Even though I made you see it. I showed you. But did you adapt?"
"No." Jose approached the Governor from his place in the room and knelt down, looking at Tyreese with a displeased look on his face, "He didn't. Just like I said, he didn't change, even after I or you showed him. He didn't use the opportunity we had given him and look at him now. He would sit there in front of a woman who killed someone hed loved and he would forgive her."
"That's all there is." Bob said from his spot on the bed.
"This is all there is." Jose said, folding his arms as he got up into a standing position.
The Governor got up from his kneeling position a second after Jose, nodding his head, "This is it."
Tyreese slowly started getting himself back on his feet. It was hard for him to get up, because of him losing a lot of his blood ever since he got bit. After a few moments of struggling to get up, he stood on his feet, his eyes shifting between the Governor and Jose, "I didn't know who I was talking to. I said I would do what I had to to earn my keep, but I didn't know you. But I know- I know who I am. I know what happened and what's going on. I know. You didn't show me shit." He pointed at the Govenor and Jose, "You, you're dead, both of you are. Everything that you two were is dead. And it's not over. I forgave her because... it's not over."
"It's not over?" Jose sounded unconvinced by Tyreese's words, "Look at yourself, Tyreese. Do you really think it's the end of the road for you?"
Tyreese lowered his head and broke into sobs, "It's not over. I didn't turn away. I kept listening to the news so I could do what I could to help! I'm not giving up. You hear me? I'm not giving up! People like me, people like me, they can live. Ain't nobody got to die today."
"You have to pay the bill!" The Governor screamed as he pushed Tyreese.
"It has to paid one way or another, Tyreese." Jose added, his arms crossed as Tyreese fell to the floor.
Tyreese let out a sigh as he leaned against the wall again, feeling himself becoming weaker with each passing moment. His eyes wandered to the side when he felt someone grab his arm. He saw Mika and Lizzie. The two girls grabbed his arm, saoking their hands with his blood and smiled at him.
It was when he snapped out of his hallucination and saw Rick and Chris holding his arm instead of Lizzie and Mika. Glenn and Geoff were keeping his pinned against the wall, to make sure he won't many any sudden moves as Michonne stood in front of his arm, with her katana raised in the air. Alejandro was holding a white blanket in his arms as Dylan, Harold and Sanders stood in back of the room, watching the entire thing.
"Quick!" Rick shouted, "Cut it off!"
"Come on!" Geoff yelled, "Do it!"
Michonne wasted no time and swung her katana down at Tyreese's hand, slicing it off. The group knowing that they had to hurry quickly readied themselves to move out of the room. Alejandro put the blanket over Tyreese's wound before Rick and Geoff brought Tyreese back on his feet and wrapped their arms around him. The group started making their way out of the house shorty after.
"Just hang in there, Ty." Alejandro said, glancing over his shoulder as he ran ahead of Tyreese, Rick and Geoff, "You're tougher than this!"
They ran out of the house a few seconds later and began running along the streets towards the locked gate. There were several walkers on the other of the gate, waiting for someone to let them into the ruins of the settlement. Sanders aimed her handgun at the lock and fired it, the bullet shot the lock off. The walkers began walking through the now open gate as the group started fighting them.
Seeing that the group needed their help, Rick and Geoff handed Tyreese to Dylan and went to help their help. Tyreese was however too much for Dylan to handle as Dylan placed him on the ground. Tyreese let out a deep breath as the white nlanket fell off his wound, revealing the part of his arm which wasn't cut off my Michonne. Dylan knelt down in front of him and began saying something to him but Tyreese couldn't understand a single word he was saying to him.
Time seemed to slow down for Tyreese as his group continued to slaughter the undead in front of him as fast as they could, aware of how little time they had. A walker walked past Rick and began making it's way towards Tyreese. It never reached him, though as Rick turned around and shot the walker in the back of it's head. Another walker tried to walk past Geoff and get to Tyreese, but Geoff didn't allow it to get past him as he swung his machete at it, cutting it's head in the half.
As soon as the road was cleared off of the walkers, Dylan put the blanket around Tyreese's wound again before Rick and Geoff brought him back on his feet. They walked through the gate and began making their way towards the forest, the place where they left their vehicles.
Chris ran ahead of the group and saw another walker walking towards them, but it was too far from their group to be any danger, "Leave it!"
"Stay with us, Ty." Glenn shouted, glancing over his shoulder at Tyreese for a brief second.
They ran into the woods and began running through the forest, eventually reaching the wire fence. They quickly made sure to get Tyreese on the other side of it, making sure to be as careful as they could. Tyreese almost fell on the ground as his group tried to get him on the other side of the wire fence as this point he was simply too weak to stand on his own.
Fortunely, from there, it didn't took them long to get to their vehicles. They managed to reach them just a few moments later. Geoff opened the door to one of the seats in the back and climbed into the car as Rick with the help of Chris and Sanders put Tyreese into the car. Geoff made sure Tyreese was seated in the seat and had him rest his head against the window as Rick closed the door.
It was when the group split up and went into separate vehicles, with the intention of getting back to their group as quickly as possible. Rick, Glenn and Michonne went into the same car as Geoff and Tyreese as Harold, Alejandro, Chris, Sanders and Dylan went into the other vehicle.
Rick grabbed his walkie-talkie after getting himself into the car, calling out for Carol and Chef, "Carol. Chef. We're at the car. Tell Bridgette to get ready. We need to cauterize the arm and wrap it. Get Sasha and Carl away. They don't need to see this."
He put the walkie-talkie away as soon as those words left his mouth and started up the vehicle. He was about to drive off towards where the rest of his group was waiting for him and the others, but unfortunely the car got stuck in the ground. He gritted his teeth as he continued to press the pedal, with the hopes of freeing the car as quickly as possible.
Quickly noticing what was happening with Rick's vehicle, Chris and Alejandro got out of their own vehicle. They made their way to the back of Rick's vehicle and they pressed their hans against it before starting to push it it forward. With their help, the car was freed a few seconds later and Rick was finally able to drive. Rick drove forward and crashed into the abandoned truck in front of him.
The impact of the the two vehicles colliding destroyed a bit of the back of the truck, making whatever was contained in the truck to spill out onto the front of Rick's vehicle. A few walkers heads with "W" carved on their forehead landed on the front of Rick's vehicle.
"What is this?" Alejandro asked, visibly unsettled by what he was seeing right now.
"Doesn't matter!" Chris shouted, turning back to his vehicle, "We gotta go!"
Alejandro didn't had to hear it twice. He and Chris quickly made their way back to their vehicle as Rick began driving away towards the nearest road. the heads falling off the front of it and landing on the ground. Chris quickly grabbed the steering wheel of his vehicle and pressed the pedal. His car drove forward and began driving after Rick, crashing a few of the heads of the walkers which fell out of the truck.
As the group reached the road and began driving along it, Tyreese could hear how the radio in his car started working which was followed by a male voice saying, "...There have been troubling reports of cannibalism having broken out in refugee camps along the republic's transportation corridor. And despite the string of victories by rebel forces, there are disturbing reports of increasing the brutality of their tactics including the wholesale destruction of villages, burning down local prisons, targeting of civilians, and even the widespread mutilation of children and young mothers. And this seems like only the beginning of their campaign that they label as an endless war against..."
Tyreese listened to what the radio was saying to him as he rested his head against the window, watching the passing trees, "...Turn it off."
Bob looked over his shoulder, sitting in front of Tyreese and narrowed his eyes at him, "You sure?"
Beth turned around to look at him as she sat in the driver's seat, "It's okay, Tyreese."
A hand reached out from behind Tyreese and patted his shoulder. This person, whoever they were, was sitting behind him in the back of the car. Tyreese had no idea who it was and started slowly moving his head towards this person. Tyreese didn't had to wait long to find out who this was because this person spoke to him and he instantly recognized this voice as Ezekiel's.
"You gotta know that now, eh." The homeschool told him, moving his hand away from Tyreese's shoulder.
Tyreese stopped moving his head once he set his eyes on the seats next to him, because he noticed Lizzie and Mika sitting on them.
Lizzie offered him a smile as she spoke to him, "It isn't just okay."
Mika nodded in agreement as she added, smilling, just like her sister, "It's better now."
It was when Tyreese slowly looked around himself and saw every person in the car smilling at him. He couldn't see Ezekiel because he was sitting behind him and he was too weak to look behind him at this point, but the homeschool was probably smilling at him as well. He slowly moved his head towards the window and rested his head against it. The last thing he saw before closing his eyes for one last time was the sun...
"...Come on, Ty." Geoff said as he shook Tyreese in a desperate attempt to get any reaction out of him, "Come on, dude. Not you too..."
He reached his hand out to Tyreese's unmoving body and pressed it to his neck, hoping for a pulse, finding none. He shook his head in a saddened manner, knowing that it meant only one thing. He lowered his head in a saddened manner and sighed as Rick looked in the front view mirror, realizing that it was too late to do anything to save Tyreese at this point.
Tyreese was already gone...
Rick stopped his vehicle on the side of the road. Seeing this, Chris stopped his vehicle too. Chris, Sanders, Dylan, Harold and Alejandro got out of their vehicle and began walking towards their group. All of them had saddened expressions on their faces, because they knew that there was only one reason why their group stopped.
Rick and Michonne got out of their vehicle as Geoff and Glenn took Tyreese's lifeless body and laid him down on the ground. Geoff walked away from his group and took off his hat, before throwing it on the ground. He didn't want to imagine how Sasha was going to react after finding out what happened to her brother. Rick looked away from Tyreese's body as Michonne unsheathed her katana.
It had been a while after Rick, Michonne, Glenn, Dylan, Chris, Harold, Geoff, Sanders and Alejandro made it back to the group and informed everyone about Tyreese's demise. The entire group was now gathered in front of the grave they had dug for Tyreese. A cross was behind the grave with Tyreese's beanie resting on top of it. Tyreese's body was carefully placed into the grave by Chef and Rick, the former covering it with a white sheet as Gabriel was standing in front of Tyreese's grave with his Bible in his hands.
"We look not at what can be seen, but we look at what cannot be seen." He read from his Bible. The group was slowly approaching the grave, one by one, and shoveling a piece of dirt into the grave with a small shovel as a way of saying their goodbye to Tyreese, "For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made from hands, eternal in the heavens. In the heavens."
Trent and Geoff walked over to the grave together, the two of them deeply saddened by the death of a man who took them and Eva into his group, which allowed them to reunite with their friends. Heather handed Trent a shovel as Trent nodded his head at her. He put a bit of dirt into Tyreese's grave, saying his final goodbye to him. Afterwards, he gave the shovel to Geoff who did the same.
Sasha was the last person from her group to approach the grave. She looked down at her brothers covered body as she took the shovel from Geoff. She had a shocked look on her face as she seemed to be too shocked by the death of her brother to react to it. She proceeded to look down at her brothers lifeless corpse for a few more seconds, before looking away from it, unable to force herself to bury him.
She walked away from Tyreese's grave as Gabriel closed his Bible, not having a reason to keep it open. Rick picked up the shovel from the ground and walked over to the grave. He started filling it up with dirt, enraged he's lost another friend, the very man who saved his daughter...
Hope it wasn't that bad. See you in another chapter.