Chapter 61 - A piece of car

FOUR DAYS EARLIER:

THE PRISON – MORNING AFTER THE GOVERNOR'S ATTACK

Slowly opening his eyes, Glenn's head pounded and spun as he stared up at blue sky, taking a long moment to figure out where the hell he was.

The position of the sun told him it was early morning – although which morning, he wasn't entirely sure. Pushing himself to sit and only just resisting the urge to vomit, the snarl of walkers below quickly focused him, and looking around he realised he was on the edge of the crumbling prison walkway, undead hands reaching up for him, and more undead as far as he could see – the prison was overrun. And worse, it looked like he was the only living person here.

"Maggie!" he shouted helplessly, mostly just to hear a sound other than rasping.

He had to hope that she'd gotten out safely. Had to believe that she had. Staggering back into the eerily quiet cellblock, he cautiously made his way towards his cell, keeping a nervous eye out for any of the undead. Still recovering from the virus, he felt totally drained, but forced himself to start gathering things together – riot gear; a gun; anything at all that could be used as a weapon; his picture of Maggie.

Wavering for a moment, the hopelessness of the situation overtook him, and he collapsed heavily onto his bed, squeezing his eyes shut tight. Their once safe haven of the prison was destroyed; God knows how many of their own were dead; the rest scattered; Maggie gone; him alone.

All of a sudden, a muffled cry caused his eyes to spring open.

"MotherFUCKER!"

Did he just hear...?

"FUCK!"

Yep. Someone else was definitely in here too.

Filled with renewed energy, Glenn grabbed his gear and moved slowly through the cellblock.

"Hello?" he called warily as he checked each of the cells. "Is someone here?"

And then he spotted a booted foot poking out from one of the cells near the entrance.

A grin broke out on his face as he neared and saw who it was.

"Tahly?! What the hell?!" he exclaimed happily as he arrived at her side, his spirits lifting from the knowledge that he wasn't alone. But his happiness soon faded as he registered the state of her.

She was lying on the cold concrete, the metallic tang of blood hanging in the air. Half her face was covered in drying blood from a nasty looking headwound along her hairline; something had burned through her pant leg and left a mug-sized oozing burn on her calf; but of more immediate concern was the large, jagged piece of metal sticking out of the left side of her lower abdomen.

"Glenn!" uttered Tahlia, startled. "I thought I was the only one left in this fucking place!"

Kneeling by her side, Glenn's hands hovered in the air over her body as he had no idea what to do. "Uh... you don't look so good."

"How dare you?!" she laughed, immediately wincing from the pain it caused. "What about you? Are you ok? What are you even doing here? I thought you were on the bus!"

He nodded. "I was on the bus, but they wanted to leave and Maggie still hadn't come back out, so I got off and went to find her and then... I don't know. I just woke up on the walkway. Everyone else is gone." Then his tone became urgent. "Tahly, we've got to get you up, get out of here. This place is crawling with walkers and these buildings aren't secure anymore, I don't know how long before they find their way inside. We've gotta go!"

Tahlia gave him an indulgent smile. "Aw. That's a nice idea. But I can't get up."

"Yes, you can!" Glenn insisted. "We're going to get out of here."

"Glenn. You need to go. Leave me."

He raised his eyebrows. "Uh, I think you're being a little dramatic."

"No! It hurts to move. I just want to lie here." she said petulantly. "You've got to leave me. I'm serious."

"I'm not leaving you!" exclaimed Glenn in exasperation. "Would you leave me?"

Sucking her teeth briefly, Tahlia then fixed him with a hard stare. "Yes. Without hesitation." she lied firmly.

He punched her in the arm. "Bullshit!"

"Oww!" She rubbed at her shoulder. "Well, I would definitely consider it after that!"

"Tahly. You know my life would not be worth living if Daryl found out that I just left you here to die. So, this is actually more for my sake than for yours." He suddenly glanced around as if just realising something. "Wait. Where is Daryl?"

"Last I saw he was down by the fences with Beth. I'm hoping that they got out safely."

Glenn looked at her like she was crazy. "Uh... Tahly... Daryl would never just leave you."

Tahlia shook her head. "Not leave, just get out. That was the plan – to get out of here and then meet up in the woods!"

"It's morning, Tahly."

"What has that got to do with anything?"

Glenn didn't know how to put it delicately. "You think Daryl would be sitting out in the woods for all this time just waiting for you to appear? The minute you didn't show he'd be back in here tearing this place to pieces to find you."

Tahlia's blood ran cold. "What are you saying?" Her voice faint and far away.

"Tahls..." Glenn said quietly, sadly, apologetically.

"No!" She only just grasped what Glenn was implying and tried to sit up, but gasped in pain and dropped back to the concrete. "Glenn, no way! There is no fucking way that Daryl is dead! He's not! He can't... he wouldn't... he..." She trailed off as her throat closed over and tears stung her eyes.

"He'd never leave you, Tahls." Glenn repeated gently.

And then her insides were hollowing out, disappearing, everything falling away around her as she considered for the first time that something could have happened to Daryl. The cold concrete started to swallow her whole, take her over, and she would gladly let it. She must have been the one making that anguished moaning noise that was now echoing around the block, but she couldn't be sure because she was disengaged from her body, leaving it behind.

Didn't need it anymore. Didn't want to be here without him.

She wished Glenn would let go of her hand and stop the repetitive, murmured condolences because that was keeping her in the present and she wanted to just fade away.

"Tahly?" ventured Glenn, squeezing her shoulder hard to try and get her to pay attention to him. "Tahls, we really need to get moving."

"Shit!" she said suddenly, slamming back into her senses. "He saw me get into the car!"

"What car?"

"Amos, Della and Eleanor were the last ones in here and I was helping them out. The bus had already gone so we were heading for a car just outside. Then one of the Governor's guys shot at us – he shot Eleanor! What kind of fucker shoots an old lady?! So, I... killed him, then got her into the car with the others. Daryl was watching and waved at me to go, so I waved and then jumped in the back. But then I saw that the guy I'd killed had this big I-mean-business gun, and my knife was still in his face, so I thought I'd better go get those weapons first - then just as I was turning to go back, that fucking tank blew the car up! Mangled the whole thing!" Her expression darkened. "Killed those lovely people, just like that. The explosion blew me back onto my ass, landed me with a piece of car in me-" She gestured to the metal. "Walkers were already rolling on up to the flames, so I butt-shuffled my way back here into this block, kicked the door shut, and passed out. So..."

Glenn stared at her, wide eyed. "So... Daryl probably thought you were still in that car! Shit, Tahly – he must've thought that he saw you..."

Biting her lip, Tahlia nodded, a pained expression on her face. "You're right. Fuck. I mean either he thought he saw me get blown to pieces, or leaving me here was just his way of breaking up with me." She feebly attempted to joke, but Glenn didn't share in it.

"He's going to be in a world of pain right now." murmured Glenn. "That poor fucking guy."

"He'll be ok." pronounced Tahlia - more for her own benefit than for Glenn's. "It's Daryl. He's so strong, he's a survivor. He'll just get on with it. He'll be ok."

Although Glenn admired her positivity, he didn't share her sentiments. But he also didn't think it was a good time to reiterate how much he imagined Daryl would be struggling to cope without her. So, instead, he clapped his hands together. "Ok! So - we've got to get out of here. Find Daryl. Find Maggie. Tell me what we need to do to get you up and moving."

Tahlia gave a resolute nod. "Right. I guess I'd better sort that piece of car out." she said, cupping a hand lightly around the metal sticking out of her. "How bad is it? I haven't really looked at it properly yet."

Glenn made a face. "I mean... well, it's... it's definitely not good..."

"Yikes. Ok. I probably need to get that out and then stitch myself up. Can you get to my cell? My blue satchel should be on the shelf – it has first aid stuff in there. Bring the big bottle of water too."

Without hesitation, Glenn was off, and within minutes, he'd returned to her side, proffering the items she'd requested.

"Grabbed you another t-shirt too, and these." He pointed to the drawings he'd taken from her wall and Daryl's sketch book and Tahlia smiled gratefully.

Instructing him to tear strips from the sheet on the cell bed, she had Glenn help her clean the blood from her face first so that she could see properly, and then he applied a bandage to her headwound. Next, he cut the leg of her pants off at the knee and managed to extract some of the burnt material from her leg, then put ointment on the burn and bandaged that up too.

"Ok. Now you're gonna have to pull that out."

"Me?!" Glenn looked horrified.

"I just can't bring myself to do it." Tahlia glanced down, then raised her eyebrows. "Maybe I could just leave it in. You know, just wear it like an accessory."

Glenn laughed, grateful that she never lost her sense of humour. "It's coming out. Brace yourself."

Wrapping his hands in sheet-strips to protect them from the jagged metal, he gripped tight, and looked to Tahlia for reassurance. At her nod, slowly but firmly he dragged the piece of metal from her side, hearing the squelch of tissue as it exited her body despite the teeth-clenching roar that ripped from her at the same time.

A sheen of sweat covered her pale face and she looked about a hair away from passing out, but she nodded in approval. "Need to stem some of the blood, then... shit, I got nothing to disinfect the wound."

Glenn had a thought. "I've got Bob's whiskey?" he offered, as he gingerly pressed a wad of fabric down on the 5-inch long ragged gash.

Tahlia grabbed the bottle from him and took a long slug before passing it back. "Ok, hit me."

About to dab the whiskey onto a rag, he changed his mind at the last second and upended the bottle straight over her wound, wrinkling his nose in sympathy as he did so.

"Nggghhhhhhhhhhh! Fuuuuck. YOU!" Tahlia hissed through gritted teeth, dropping her head back on the concrete in pain. After a few moments of laboured breathing and repetitive cursing, she lifted her head again. "Ok, sorry, I didn't mean that. Hand me the suturing stuff."

Glenn threaded a needle for her and helped her to a half-seated position, then watched with gruesome interest as she sewed the length of the gaping wound back together, her cursing even more colourful.

"What if you have internal bleeding or something? What if you have tetanus?!"

Tahlia frowned. "Shush. I've got enough shit to worry about without thinking about that kind of stuff! So let's just pretend those things don't exist. Anyway. This is all I can do for now. If I end up drowning in my own blood, then so be it."

Glenn shrugged. She had a point.

He then helped to wind a long strip of sheet around her waist over top of the stitches, then cut her t-shirt off and pulled the new one on her.

"Fresh as a daisy!" he declared facetiously, laughing at Tahlia's withering look.

Gathering their things together, he then grabbed her hands. "Ready?"

A violent hiss escaped from Tahlia as he pulled her to her feet, and she leaned heavily against him for a moment.

Their progress to the door was slow and Tahlia shook her head. "Glenn, how the hell are we gonna get through all the walkers out there? I stink of delicious blood, and I'm hardly Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Glenn grimaced. "I don't know yet. But we're going to do it."

As they reached the door and peered out, assessing what lay ahead, Tahlia pointed a finger. "Is that...?"

Glenn followed her gesture. Inside the fenced herb garden, a girl was sitting morosely, knees tucked up to her chin. "Whoa. Yep. That's a person. Should we...?"

"I guess you've enforced the 'leave no man behind' policy, so…" Tahlia shrugged. "Plus, she looks a lot healthier than both of us combined - maybe she can carry us both out."

"Ok. Wait here. I'm gonna go over and suss her out, then we'll create some kind of distraction, draw the walkers away, come get you, then walk right out of here."

Tahlia nodded, her lips quirking. "Great. Sounds foolproof."

With a grin and another punch at her shoulder, Glenn lowered his riot mask and launched himself out into the mass of walkers, shoving and barreling his way through until he reached the garden, slamming the gate shut quickly behind him.

"Hey there, whatcha doin?" he asked, but got no response. He stared at the stranger for a moment more – she looked a little older than him, and generally speaking, very non-threatening. Slowly he took her gun and checked it.

"It's full. You didn't fire a shot?"

The girl finally looked up, her big brown eyes despondent. "No. But I was part of that, I was out there. We did this to you."

"Come on. Let's get outta here."

"No. I don't deserve it." she replied, dropping her gaze back to the ground. "We killed your people, destroyed your home."

"But you didn't." reasoned Glenn. "You didn't kill anyone."

Still, she didn't move, and Glenn gave an exasperated sigh as he glanced nervously at the mass of walkers beyond the garden. "Look, if you want to make up for it, then get up. I need your help. My friend is back there and she's in a pretty bad way. I need you to help me get her out of here, I can't do it on my own. If you don't, then she'll die. We probably all will."

Blinking thoughtfully, her brow furrowed. "I don't want anyone else to die." she said quietly. "I'll help you."

"Ok. Ok, good. What's your name?" Glenn asked, pulling her to her feet.

"Tara."

"Tara. I'm Glenn. My friend back behind the door over there is Tahlia. Now, I'm going to make this little molotov cocktail, throw it at that car, and you're going to run back that way and grab Tahlia, then we're gonna head down along that wall and out through that gap in the fence over there. Got it?"

Tara nodded, eyes wide, but ready.

The next minutes passed by in a blur. A car on fire; swarming walkers; Glenn leading the charge with a shield and a rifle; Tahlia stumbling close behind with a gun in one hand and a knife in the other; Tara bringing up the rear, one hand free to keep Tahlia on her feet.

Sweating and panting but somehow unscathed, they made it out of the prison grounds and onto the road.

"Holy shit. We made it out!" exclaimed Tahlia triumphantly as she turned to Glenn - who promptly dry heaved then passed out on the grass. She exchanged a look with Tara and was about to check on him when another five walkers came lurching out of the woods towards them.

"Shit! Glenn! Not the best time to take a nap!" cried Tahlia as she raised her gun and shot at the two closest walkers stumbling their way.

"I'll get these assholes!" Tara shot the next two then slammed the butt of her weapon into the skull of the last that was nearly upon her.

And then the rumbling of an engine caused them both to look up again only to see an army vehicle driving slowly towards them, rolling to a stop just feet away.

"These your friends?" Tara asked Tahlia.

"Not yet." Tahlia turned a hopeful smile to the serious faces of three people staring at them through the windscreen.

A big burly man jumped out of the vehicle and cast a glance over the three of them.

"Well, shit!" he declared loudly. "What a damn sorry state you folk are in! Look like you got about as much chance of making it as a fart in a gale!" Amusement danced in his eyes, then he indicated the truck. "We're en route to Washington, D.C. if you want to hitch a lift in that direction."

And that's how Tahlia, Tara and a still unconscious Glenn found themselves on the bed of a truck with the prison at their backs and the wind on their faces, speeding down the highway.

Their new travelling companions were the very capable and no-nonsense ex-military Abraham and Rosita who were on a mission to escort the intelligent, if somewhat humourless, Eugene Porter to Washington because he was a scientist with classified information about a cure that might be able to end this whole nightmare.

Resting against a mildly uncomfortable duffel bag, Tahlia blew a big pink bubble with the strawberry bubblegum Tara had produced from her pack.

"We had been doing ok this whole time, you know? Me, my sister, my dad, my niece. Surviving. And it had been ok." Tara mistily related her story. "Then Brian – or the Governor or whatever the hell name he went by – arrived and we took a chance and... well, it felt like I lost everyone right after that. But I trusted him. Even when we rolled up to your gates, I knew it wasn't right, but I still trusted him, or maybe just wanted to trust him. I'm scared that I'll do that again. Put my faith in people I've just met and then they turn out to be the wrong people." She cast a long sideways stare at Tahlia.

"You don't need to worry about me." grinned Tahlia. "I'm super trustworthy. Honest." Then she blew another huge bubble and Tara couldn't resist smacking her hand on it, popping the gum all over Tahlia's face and making her splutter.

"Fuck! It's in my eyebrows!" complained Tahlia through her giggles as she attempted to peel the gum off her.

Tara laughed. "Oh come on! You totally set yourself up for that one!"

"Gonna get you back."

"I'm not dumb enough to blow bubbles that big within popping distance of someone." countered Tara teasingly.

Tahlia elbowed her, then grew serious. "I know what that feels like. To be alone and to have lost your faith in people. But you can't close yourself off. You still have to trust, love, put yourself out there. And in my experience, 90% of people are pretty amazing. There's just a few that taint that perception, but given the odds... there's a very high chance that the next group you stick with will be awesome." She waggled her brows and indicated herself and the still-passed-out Glenn. "And I can't vouch for those guys-" she thrust a thumb towards the cab, "-but everyone in our group is pretty awesome too, so I'm really hoping we can find some of them and then you can see for yourself. See if we're the kind of people worth putting your faith in."

Sucking in a quick shaky breath, Tara bit the inside of her cheek to stop the sudden wave of emotion inside her from overflowing. She'd lost everything and right at her lowest point, these two strangers had swept her up and kept her from drowning. And as much as it scared her to believe in strangers right now, she knew she already trusted Tahlia. Couldn't help it. Something about her just made her feel at ease, and she reached for Tahlia's hand, squeezing it tight.

When she was back in control of her emotions, Tara said, "Hey. I'm sure your people are out there. I'm sure we'll find them. Find your guy."

"Oh shit." With some difficulty, Tahlia pushed herself up to look over the edge of the truck bed. "We should probably get them to stop before we travel too far."

Tara nodded. "Ok, sure."

Banging on the back window of the cab, she managed to get Abraham's attention and persuade him to stop the vehicle as Tahlia roused Glenn.

"Where the hell are we?" asked Glenn, glancing around groggily.

"Uh..." Tahlia looked a little sheepish. "I'm not sure."

"And who are...?" Glenn, alert now, had a panicked look in his eye and he quickly jumped off the back of the truck. "How long have we been driving for?! What the HELL, Tahly?! We could be miles in the completely wrong direction!"

"Sorry!" Tahlia slowly made her way down to join him. "I'm sorry, it's just that you were passed out and there were walkers everywhere and these guys showed up and helped us get out of dodge."

Glenn stared at her trying to process that. "How are we supposed to find Maggie and Daryl if we don't even know where we are?!"

"We really haven't been on the road that long." Tara tried to placate him, but Glenn just shook his head.

"We need to go back this way." he said curtly as he began walking in the direction they'd just come from.

"That your plan?" Abraham leaned an elbow on the side of the truck. "Just start walking and see if you can find your friends? Sounds pretty dumb to me, but hey. Suit yourself."

"Shit. I'd better..." Tahlia gestured at the retreating form of Glenn.

"And I'd stick with this sweet ride if I were you." Abraham told Tahlia bluntly as he raked a skeptical gaze over her. "Coz, sister, you look like you're about to fall apart."

Tahlia couldn't help but laugh at that. That was exactly how she felt. "Thanks for the lift! Good luck! And we'll be looking forward to that guy putting an end to all this mess."

Tara echoed the sentiment, then the two of them started off after Glenn.

Watching them go, Rosita glanced at Abraham. "We should give them some supplies."

"Ain't giving them shit!" retorted Abraham, folding his arms.

Rosita rolled her eyes, then ducked back towards the cab and pulled out a map, then grabbed a bag from the back of the truck on her way past. "Hold up, guys!" she called as she ran after the trio. "At least take a look at this map before you go!"

"Fuck me sideways." grumbled Abraham as he followed her.

With the map spread out on the hot tarmac, Glenn, Tahlia, Tara and Rosita crouched around it, while the latter tried to ignore Abraham standing behind her bellyaching about how they needed to get moving and carry on with their mission.

"Which direction do we even want to aim for? Everyone scattered." said Tahlia, her head starting to pound.

"Ok, so let's think about this logically." Glenn tapped his lips with his fingers. "The plan was to go south into the woods. So we're talking about this area." He circled a green spot on the map. "We want to find Maggie and we want to find Daryl. You said you last saw Daryl with Beth, so presumably, Beth will be looking for Maggie too, and Maggie will be looking for me. Therefore... we need to get to Maggie, since that'll be where Daryl will end up too. Yeah?"

Tahlia stared at him blankly, then glanced over to Tara. "Did you follow any of that?" she whispered, and Tara just shrugged.

Glenn rolled his eyes. "We'll find Maggie, and so will Daryl."

"Oh! Ok. Why didn't you just-"

Tahlia was cut off as rapid gunfire over by the truck cracked through the air.

"Holy balls!" Abraham was on his feet and running towards the truck where Eugene, brandishing an assault rifle, was firing haphazardly at a group of walkers stumbling towards him, missing all the undead and hitting the side of the truck instead.

"Put that damn gun down!" shouted Abraham, closely followed by the others. They were at Eugene's rescue in moments, making short work of the hungry walkers, but the damage had been done.

"Seems that I have punctured the fuel supply." Eugene stated plainly as he stared down at the steady trickle of gas from the tank dampening the road.

"No shit, Doc." growled Abraham, shaking his head at the now-useless vehicle.

"Guess it looks like we're going with them, then." declared Rosita as she unloaded their gear from the truck.

Abraham frowned. "But we gotta-"

"Oh, come on. What else are we going to do?"

"I would have to accede with her logic." mumbled Eugene as he scrambled after the others, leaving Abraham no choice but to follow.

They walked at an unhurried pace for the afternoon – and although no one alluded to it, Tahlia was fairly certain it was for her benefit.

To pass the time, she and Tara attempted to draw the others into a game of 'Would you rather…?'. Glenn was too preoccupied with finding any trace of Maggie to play, but Rosita and Abraham sometimes joined in, and Eugene was a keen player, keeping Tahlia and Tara endlessly amused by his careful deliberation and literal take on every scenario.

Much later, after they had found a spot in the woods to make camp for the night and shared some food around a small fire, Abraham and Glenn were keeping watch while the others settled down for some rest. Tahlia felt like she'd done a pretty decent job of getting to know her new travelling companions – in her way, of course, which was less traditional 'and what do you do?' questions, and more probing for useless information and extracting entertaining anecdotes. She'd worked extra hard at that this afternoon because at least while she was concentrating on the others, she wasn't drowning in thoughts of Daryl.

Goddamn, she missed him so much it made her chest ache. She knew that seemed stupid because, really, it had been little more than 24 hours since she'd last seen him - but the fact that she didn't know where the hell he was or even if he was ok was nearly more than she could bear. Hot tears prickled the back of her eyes and she quickly raised her gaze skywards, blinking her blurry vision away. A little laugh escaped her at the thought that if Daryl ever found out that she was having a cry over missing him after only one day, she'd never hear the end of it.

But she'd happily put up with that, with any amount of teasing and tormenting, just to be back with him.

They were following along the railway tracks the next morning when Glenn, at the front of the group, let out a sudden loud cry.

There in front of him was a sign for Terminus. And at the bottom of the sign, written in smears of blood was the message:

Glenn, go to Terminus – Maggie & Sasha

The weight of the relief that swamped him just from the knowledge that Maggie was alive nearly buckled Glenn's knees, and he let out a long, forceful exhale before throwing an arm around Tahlia's shoulders.

"She's alive! And she can't be that far away!"

Tahlia hugged him back, overjoyed at this news despite the stark contrast of the sharp gnawing inside that there was no sign of Daryl.

"We ain't going all the way to this Terminus place." Abraham told Rosita firmly, but she spread her palms.

"We might as well. Could get some more supplies there, a vehicle, maybe even recruit some others to come with us to Washington."

Contemplating this for a long moment, Abraham then nodded. "Alright. Let's get our butts to Terminus."

Glenn nodded emphatically. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Tahlia could tell Glenn was getting impatient, but she just couldn't keep up with the pace he wanted to set. The burn on her leg ached and pulled with every step, and the pain in her side was beating like a heart.

"Glenn. I need to stop."

He glanced around in agitation. "Ok." he conceded. "How long do you need?"

"No. I mean - I need to stop, and you need to go on."

Glenn waved a dismissive hand at her. "Not this again, Tahly! I'm not leaving you! Just rest now, and then we'll carry on."

"Yeah, let's just have a rest." Tara agreed.

Tahlia shook her head, her expression serious. "You need to find Maggie. You need to catch up to her. You might find the others at the same time, then you can come back for me or I'll make it to you. Either way, I'll only be a day or two behind you guys."

"No." he replied firmly, grabbing her arm. "We're not leaving you! We stick together. I won't lose anyone else!"

"Glenn!" she glared at him. "This is different! You got me out of the prison, but now I'm too goddamned slow to make the kind of progress that we need to make. So you have to go on ahead and find Maggie and find Daryl. Please. Maggie's looking for you, but Daryl isn't looking for me. And at this rate, I'm never going to catch up to him. I need you to find him for me."

Glenn eyed her up carefully, considering her words.

"You need to let him know I'm alive. The longer we wait, the further away they could get, and then we run the risk of losing them altogether."

"Tahly, I-"

"Please." she begged, a note of desperation rippling through her tone.

"I can't just leave you."

"I'll stay with her." offered Tara with a casual shrug. "You guys go on ahead."

Tahlia snorted. "Tara honey, you might want to rethink that. For your own survival, that group-" she indicated burly Abraham and the tough-looking Rosita, "-is a much better bet than mangy old me."

"I'll take my chances." grinned Tara. "Anyway. I've still got some gum left. What more do we need?"

Laughing at that, Tahlia then turned back to Glenn. "See? We have gum. We'll be fine."

Glenn was too on edge to manage a smile, but he nodded slowly. "Ok. If you're sure."

"I am."

"We'll go on ahead, you and Tara stick near the train tracks and aim for Terminus. We'll meet you there, or, if it's no good, then we'll double back and find you." He embraced Tahlia tightly, then gripped her shoulders. "I'll see you soon." he promised.

"Real soon."

Then Tahlia unclasped the necklace from around her neck. "And if you see Daryl before I do, give him this. And a message from me to go with it."

And now you know what happened to her :D

I hadn't planned to post another chapter this side of Xmas, but if there is the interest for it then I can try and get one done - let me know x