A/N All characters belong to the writers and creators of The Walking Dead. Except those that arose from my own twisted imagination.
And many, many apologies for the delay in the update! Also, apologies for the length! I just thought that would make up for the delay in the update. Now that season 5 will be starting soon, I figured I best get ahead of the writers again! Let's see if they copy from me again…just kidding! =)
Chapter 50-Waiting
"Maggie!" Taylor had to run to keep up with her. He'd stopped to catch his breath and take a drink of water but she'd never even broken stride. When he finally caught up to her, he was dripping sweat again. "You know," he said as he tried to breathe through the humidity. "You're not gonna do Glenn any good if you're dead from heat stroke." Maggie didn't respond, her jaw was set and focused on the road ahead. They had been walking for hours looking for the bus. Taylor knew it was like finding a needle in a haystack but Maggie couldn't be dissuaded. He looked up in the sky and figured it to be three in the afternoon. He slowed to get his canteen out of his backpack again when Maggie suddenly dropped hers and began running.
"Maggie!" Taylor dropped his backpack next to hers and ran to catch up to her, wondering what had caught her attention. Just as he was finally catching up, she came to a dead stop. Taylor stopped next to her, breathing hard.
"Damn girl. Don't take off like that ag-"
"Taylor just shut up and look." She pointed straight ahead to the bus. Taylor's jaw dropped in shock.
"I'll be damned," he said but Maggie was already walking towards the bus, her knife in her hand. Taylor was faster this time and grabbed her arm to stop her.
"Maggie, seriously, stop." Maggie finally turned to him, her eyes pleading.
"I have to know Taylor. I just...I have to check." Taylor nodded. She looked back at the bus but didn't hurry to run to it. "It would be easier if I had help." Taylor nodded and removed his own knife from the sheath.
"You've got it Maggie." Maggie glanced at him, smiled slightly and the two of them walked slowly to the bus.
Andrea turned and looked into the back of the SUV where Mika and Dylan were sprawled out asleep. Lizzie sat next to Andrea, holding Jesse and singing to him. The little boy was fighting sleep and losing quickly. Judith relaxed back against Andrea and she knew that the little girl would soon be out as well.
"You're really good with him," she told Lizzie. Lizzie stopped singing and looked up at Andrea, her face serious.
"He needs a mom until he gets his back. All kids need their mom." She looked back at the baby. "Carol was like my mom. After my dad didn't come back, she watched me and Mika. Taught us things that we needed to know." Andrea nodded.
"Like using the gun?" Lizzie looked up at her.
"And knives. You only use the gun when you have to. Guns make noise, noise brings walkers." She looked back down at the baby. "And walkers bring death." The tone of her voice rang warning bells with Andrea but she brushed it off.
"They don't have to you know. If you know how to protect yourself, walkers don't have to mean death." Lizzie looked up at Andrea and smiled, the smile on her lips not even coming close to the girl's eyes.
"I know. I know everything about them." Lizzie leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes. Andrea frowned and looked at Abraham but if he had heard any of the conversation, he was not reacting to it. Tyreese glanced back at her and slightly shook his head. Biting her lip, Andrea leaned back and looked out the window. The trees, the green grass, the abandoned cars, the occasional walker...it was all so hypnotic...
When Abraham finally looked behind him, Andrea was fast asleep.
Maggie approached the bus with true fear. She didn't want to know if Glenn was on the bus but she had to know. The door was shut and the windows were up, making it impossible to see inside. After staring at the bus for a moment Maggie pounded on the side, knowing if anyone alive or dead was there, she'd get a reaction. Immediately, a walker hand smacked the window, followed by a deformed and hungry face. Maggie choked back a sob and backed into Taylor. He put his arms around her.
"You don't know that it's Glenn." He immediately thought of Alice, Bill, Janet, Sergei, little Maddie, Darnell and the Barbie sisters, not to mention the other people he had helped load up on the bus. He took a deep breath and carefully stepped around Maggie. Keeping his eyes fixed on hers, he pulled the door to the bus open.
The first walker stumbled down the steps. Maggie backed away several steps before stabbing it through the head. The second quickly followed. After it was dispatched, both Tyler and Maggie boarded the bus.
Scanning the seats, Maggie could see at least a dozen walkers. She had to think of them that way, she couldn't think of them as her friends. Tyler grabbed her arm and pulled her backwards.
"There's too many. This isn't going to work." They hurried off the bus and pulled the doors shut again. Another walker slapped and clawed at the doors. Taylor took a deep breath and looked back at Maggie.
"I didn't see him." Maggie shook her head.
"I have to know Taylor. I have to know where he is." Taylor nodded and walked around to the back of the bus, motioning towards the emergency exit.
"What about this? It'll slow them down so we can check." Maggie nodded and stood back, knife at the ready.
"Open it." Taylor struggled with the handle and pulled the door open. A walker, who must have been slumped against the door, tumbled out. It reached for his leg but Taylor was well out of reach. Maggie rushed forward to kill it just before the next one fell out the opening.
Ten minutes later, the two of them stared at the pile of walker bodies in the road. Maggie began to cry.
"He's not here. He wasn't on the bus." She turned to Taylor and he put his arms around her as she cried. "Where is he? What happened to him?" Taylor shook his head and stared down at Sergei's body, at the guy who had been his friend.
"I don't know Maggie. I don't know where he is."
Glenn woke suddenly when he felt something grab his arm and quickly jerked away, his eyes opening in a panic. Alice raised her hands and Glenn realized he had pulled his knife on her. Embarrassed, he put it back down on the ground.
"Sorry." Alice smiled and went back to changing the dressing on his shoulder.
"My fault. Thought you were still asleep." As she removed the old bandage, she inspected the bullet wound. "No sign of infection. That's good." Glenn winced when she cleaned it with the water from the creek. It still hurt, no doubt about that.
"How's Bill doing?" Alice glanced over her shoulder to where Bill lay on the ground and shook her head. Bill had been shot three times. One bullet just grazed his head, another had passed cleanly through his upper arm but the third remained lodged in his thigh. While adrenaline had enabled him to walk onto the bus at the prison, he was now unable to move and had been running a fever for several days.
"His leg's infected. Looks like gangrene. He can't keep moving like we've been. I can't do anything for him now except keep him comfortable." Glenn could hear the pain in Alice's voice as she tried to maintain the clinical detachment that had kept her going.
"You can't amputate?" Alice shook her head.
"Even if I had something that could cut through bone, I couldn't control the bleeding. I grabbed the first aid kit from D block before I ran out to the bus. It's got bandages, some antiseptic and sutures that might come in handy if you get a small scratch over your eye. But I can't amputate his leg with any hope of him not dying in pain anyway." Glenn looked over at Bill as he moaned and jerked in his sleep, sweat covering his face.
"I'm sorry." Alice smiled and shook her head.
"Don't. It's not your fault. You got him off the bus, hurt as you were. It's just…." Alice took a deep breath. "When the time…comes…I don't think….I can't…" Alice's voice trailed off in sobs and Glenn put his hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, don't worry ok? When the time comes I'll take care of it." Alice smiled through her tears.
"Thank you." She repacked her first aid kit and stood. "We've got some water and those berries you found the other day. Not much for breakfast but I don't want to light a fire if we don't have to." Glenn nodded and slowly got to his feet.
"We're going to have to leave soon Alice. We can't stay here forever you know." Alice frowned and looked over at Bill.
"I can't leave him like this Glenn." Suddenly she laughed. "You know, not that long before the attack he was talkin' about takin' off and headin' to Ohio again. I told him no, that we couldn't just leave everybody when the fence was like it was. But he wanted to go. He wanted to help me find my brother." She shook her head. "I know Darnell's dead but Bill wouldn't ever let me give up hope. He kept sayin' we'd finally head up there and we'd find him on campus somewhere, holed up with other survivors like we were." She bit her lip. "But I know he's dead. And I know Rick was never gonna leave the prison and head up to Ohio unless we had a damn good reason and now we're all scattered like leaves. We couldn't head up to Ohio even if we wanted to." Glenn put his arm around her and she buried her face in his good shoulder.
"We'll get through this Alice. We made it this far. We'll wait for Bill and then we'll go try to find Maggie and the others. Other people had to make it out of the prison. We can't be the only ones left."
"Andrea honey,' Abraham's voice cut through her dreams. "We've stopped." Andrea opened her eyes and looked ahead. The two story house in front of them was boarded up, save for the open front door.
"Is it safe?" Abraham nodded.
"Yeah. A few walkers inside but Tyreese and I took care of them while you all slept out here. We've checked every room, every closet and the basement twice. It's all clear. There's even some food in the kitchen." He opened up the door and picked up Dylan who barely even flinched in his sleep. Mika and Lizzie were rubbing sleep from their eyes. Andrea looked around.
"Where are the babies?" Abraham nodded towards the house.
"Tyreese is inside with them. Judith woke up but Jesse's still asleep. I figure he'll be up again pretty soon wanting something to eat." He adjusted his grip on Dylan so he could pick up the heavy bag filled with powdered baby formula. "I just hope this stuff is still good."
Andrea climbed out of the car and stretched. The night was cooler than she had expected and she shivered.
"What made you pick this place over the house where you found the formula?" Abraham jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
"See that high fence back there? Surrounds the whole property. It's thin but seems sturdy and it might help keep walkers out so long as that gate stays shut." Andrea nodded and helped Lizzie out of the car.
"Can't we just go back to sleep?" Andrea smiled.
"Once we get inside you can sleep."
The next morning, Andrea woke early and stretched out on the bed. Abraham was gone and Dylan was still stretched out next to her. She kissed his cheek and pulled the blanket over his shoulder.
Downstairs, Abraham and Tyreese were going over the map from the car while Ty fed Jesse and Judith played with an empty plastic cup in the corner.
"Tyreese you want me to take him?" Ty shook his head and smiled down at the baby.
"No it's alright. This little guy and I are good friends." In response, Jesse grinned around the bottle and kicked his legs as formula ran down his chin. Tyreese set the bottle down so he could wipe Jesse's mouth. "Now there you go makin' a mess." Jesse's smile grew and he laughed. It was a small, quick sound but the adults looked at him in awe. Tyreese looked up.
"Did you hear that?" He looked back down at the baby. "Is somethin' funny to you?" Jesse responded by kicking his legs and laughing the same quick way as before. Andrea smiled and sat down at the table, taking Jesse's hand in hers.
"I hope he does that when we find Daryl and Dani," she said. "They're going to love hearing that."
"So what?" Everyone turned at the sound of Lizzie's voice. The little girl was standing in the doorway, a bored look on her face. "So he laughs. Anyone can do that." Andrea smiled at her.
"But this was the first time he laughed. That's special." Lizzie shrugged her shoulders and walked into the kitchen, stepping between Andrea and Jesse.
"I'm hungry." Andrea glanced over at Abraham who shrugged. Lizzie was acting like oldest child in a family that just brought home a new baby. Andrea stood and patted Lizzie's shoulder.
"I'll get you something to eat." She took the jar of peanut butter down off the shelf along with a box of saltine crackers. They had been sitting out on the table when they had arrived last night along with an open jar of pickled pig's feet. The small vase of wilted flowers in the center of the table had made it look as if someone had just sat down to a nice meal.
When Andrea turned around with the food, Lizzie shot up from the table.
"I should go check on Mika. She probably wants to eat too." She bolted out of the room before Andrea could respond. Andrea shook her head and set the peanut butter and crackers on the table.
"Well boys," she said with a smile. "Breakfast is served!"
Alice hadn't cried when Bill had stopped breathing in the night and Glenn put him down. She hadn't said a word as they buried him in a shallow grave dug in the soft ground near the creek and had quickly packed up camp. They both wanted to move on and away from this latest death.
They walked into the small town they had raided for supplies many times just after noon. They looked closely at cars and buildings for signs of other people but found nothing. Late in the afternoon, they climbed to the second floor of an older, abandoned building for the night. The large window had no glass and overlooked what used to be the town square. Bodies lay motionless in the street, cars abandoned and wrecked. Alice stood at the window and stared down at the street below.
"It's really all gone isn't it?" She asked quietly and looked over her shoulder back at Glenn. Glenn sat up and shook his head.
"Not all of it. Maggie's still out there. Probably Rick, Daryl, and Michonne. Maybe even Dani and Beth. We're going to find them Alice. We can all start over." Alice smiled sadly and hung her head.
"Bill and I never got married you know? He'd asked me and I said yes but we couldn't plan a wedding. He was always traveling for the government, always overseas, never home. I didn't care about the money he was makin'. I wanted a house, I wanted a husband and I wanted babies but I didn't want to be left raising the kids while he ran off for a year or more on a government contract. About two months before this thing started, Bill got another call to retrofit another damn embassy building in the Middle East. We fought; I threw the ring in his face and moved out. We didn't talk again until the night Atlanta fell when he came to the hospital to find me to get out of the city. I loved that man so much Glenn." Glenn nodded.
"I know you did. Just like I love Maggie. And I'm sorry." Alice turned back to the window and stared into the darkening sky.
Abraham walked up behind Andrea as she washed the few dishes. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck.
"Damn fine breakfast Honey." Andrea smiled and turned back to kiss him over her shoulder.
"Can't go wrong with peanut butter and crackers right?" Abraham spun her around and kissed her deep. When they broke apart he looked her in the eyes and brushed her hair out of her face.
"You're an amazing woman Andrea. And I'm a lucky man to have someone like you by my side." Andrea smiled and started to answer when she saw movement out the window of the kitchen. Quickly she turned and saw Lizzie in the yard with a walker. Lizzie appeared to be playing with it, dodging away from it's shuffling feet and reaching arms. Andrea heard the girl laugh and taunt the walker like it was another child on the playground.
"You can't get me!" she teased and dodged around the walker again as it grabbed for her.
"Oh Jesus!" Abraham said as he too saw the dangerous game being played outside. He ran out the back door with Andrea right on his heels.
"Lizzie!" he called. "Sweetheart, get away from it!" The walker turned at the sound of his voice and began to shuffle towards him. Lizzie froze and turned to Abraham as he raised his gun.
"Don't you kill her!" Abraham fired one shot and dropped the walker. Lizzie's face contorted into a mask of sorrow and anger. "Noooo!" She turned on Abraham and charged at him.
"What did you do? Why did you kill her?" Abraham caught the girl before she could strike him.
"Whoa now sweetheart! Just calm down!" Lizzie fought against him, trying to hit him, to bite him, all the while screaming about the dead walker. Tyreese came running from the side of the house with Mika and Dylan and Andrea heard one of the babies start to cry inside. Lizzie continued to scream and hit at Abraham until she collapsed on the ground crying. Andrea hugged her and tried to quiet the girl. Tyreese walked over to Abraham with Mika and Dylan right behind him.
"What the hell happened?" Abraham's eyes were wide with confusion as he watched Andrea comfort the crying girl.
"Lizzie was playing with a walker. I killed it and she just started screaming at me."
"She likes walkers," said Mika. "Always did. She never saw them like monsters. She used to give them names at the prison until Carl told her to stop it." Abraham and Tyreese exchanged a look and Tyreese shook his head. Andrea looked up at them both.
"She'll be fine ok? What's happened is a lot for her to handle. She lost her parents and now she's lost Carol. Just be patient with her." Mika nodded and smiled down at her sister.
"Wanna play checkers Lizzie?" Lizzie nodded and got to her feet. Mika held out her hand. "I'm gonna get the box. Come with me?" Lizzie took Mika's hand and the girls hurried into the house. Andrea got to her feet and followed the girls inside.
"They're not different from us you know." Dylan looked up from the checkers game to see Lizzie staring intently at Abraham and Tyreese as they dragged the walker body off to a nearby clearing to burn. They had brought the checkers game outside to the blanket since it was so hot upstairs. Lizzie had carried Judith out with them and Andrea, after feeding Jesse and getting him to go back to sleep, had brought him out and lay him next to Dylan. Andrea was on the other side of the house gathering wood. The kids had been playing for almost an hour when Lizzie got bored and began to focus on where the walker had fallen. Now, she looked at Dylan.
"You know, when they come back, they just want to be with us again." Mika snorted in irritation at her sister.
"Don't start that again. You know what Carl said at the prison when…" Lizzie snapped around to stare wild eyed at her sister.
"He was wrong! He just wanted to kill everything! Just like Abraham and Tyreese and Andrea!" Jesse began to cry in his sleep and Judith raised herself up on the blanket and looked at Lizzie, grinning just enough for her top teeth to show. Something about the look in Lizzie's eyes scared Dylan bad. Mika frowned and shushed Jesse.
"You're scaring Jesse. Keep your voice down." Lizzie shook her head and stood up.
"I can show you and you'll believe me." Dylan's eyes grew wide when he saw the butcher knife in Lizzie's hand. "You'll see." Her hand came down and blood splattered across the checkerboard. "You'll see I'm right!"
Andrea turned her head sharply when she heard the scream outside. Before she was even out the door, she could see Abraham and Tyreese running across the yard towards the kids. Lizzie stood over Dylan and was screaming at him. At first, Andrea couldn't understand what she was saying. Then she saw Mika's body on the ground and the blood covering Lizzie's hands and splattered across her face. Dylan was sitting between Lizzie and both babies.
"You move out of the way so I can show you! You have to believe me!" Dylan shook his head.
"Lizzie!" The little girl turned towards Andrea when she heard her name. "Lizzie, what did you do?" Abraham and Tyreese had stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the blood. Lizzie smiled, tears in her eyes.
"They didn't believe me. I know what they're like, that they're just like us but Mika and Dylan didn't believe me. I had to show them." Andrea shook her head and tried to keep her voice calm.
"Show them what honey? What did you have to show them?" Lizzie pointed the knife towards Mika's body.
"I didn't hurt her brain. She'll come back and I can prove everything to you." She looked back towards the babies and Dylan spread his arms out protectively. "I was going to do the same for Judith and Jesse but Dylan…" the anger came back to the girl's face as she turned back towards the boy. "Dylan won't let me! He doesn't believe me!" Andrea walked closer to Lizzie.
"Honey, it's not fair to do that to the babies. They're not big enough. They can't even walk yet." She glanced up at Abraham who was watching her with a stunned look. "Lizzie, why don't you give me the knife ok? Then we can watch Mika together." Lizzie shook her head.
"No. You're trying to trick me." Andrea shook her head and smiled.
"No honey. I'm not trying to trick you." Lizzie raised her knife and took a step towards Andrea.
"You can't trick me!" A gunshot rang out and Lizzie's eyes went blank. She dropped to the ground and only then did Andrea see a crying Dylan holding the gun. She ran to the boy, kicking the knife away from Lizzie as she passed her still body, and gathered Dylan into her arms.
"She was going to kill you! She wanted to kill me too! I didn't want to kill her." Dylan's voice choked off in sobs and Andrea shushed him, stroking his hair and rocking him in her arms. She was aware that Tyreese had picked up Jesse and was quieting the screaming baby. She was aware that Judith had crawled over and was patting her leg, seemingly unaffected by the events around her. And she was aware when Abraham finished off Mika and Lizzie to keep them from turning. After a few minutes, Dylan's sobs subsided and he pulled away from her, fear in his face.
"Am I in trouble?" Andrea smiled and shook her head.
"No baby. What you did was very brave." Dylan hugged her tight and Andrea looked over to Abraham.
"I should have seen it. This morning when you killed that walker she was so upset. She kept saying that we didn't understand them but I didn't think….I didn't know…." Abraham shook his head.
"None of us knew Andrea. None of us saw this coming at all." Tyreese stared in shock at the two dead girls as he quieted the screaming baby.
"We should bury them. We always bury our own."
Daryl could just make out three walkers across the field as the group continued to follow the railroad tracks to Terminus. Knowing that they would be long gone before the walkers would be able to make it to the tracks, he wasn't worried. He and Rick walked ahead while Dani, Michonne and Carl stayed a few yards behind them. Carl was quiet and clung to Michonne. The boy appeared to be numb, which didn't surprise Daryl at all. They had been walking since the early morning, everyone determined to reach Terminus and the supposed sanctuary it offered.
"You think it's too good to be true?" He had asked Rick when they had found the last map that had advertised Terminus. Rick nodded his head.
"Yeah, I do. But I have to hold on to the belief that there's someone out there that has what we had at the prison." Now, as they walked along, Daryl couldn't help but wonder if there was such a place again. Everyone else that they had run into had tried to kill them. The Governor, Joe and his gang, whoever had knocked Dani out and taken Beth…Daryl didn't expect that there were too many good people left in the world. Now, he became aware that Dani was walking beside him moments before her fingers entwined with his. Looking over at her he couldn't ignore the dark circles under her sad eyes.
"You holdin' up alright?" Dani nodded.
"Yeah," she glanced up at him and smiled slightly. "I've just spent way too much time away from you." Daryl nodded and quickly looked away. The railroad tracks went on for miles and it was getting late in the day. He began scanning ahead and saw a small building about three miles down. He nudged Rick and pointed.
"We should check that out. Stop there for the night if it's secure. Better than sleepin' on the ground in the woods again." Rick agreed and fell back to walk with Michonne and Carl.
"We're gonna stop in a little while and set up camp." He looked from Carl to Michonne. When his eyes met hers, he saw the worried look in her eyes. Michonne shook her head and nodded to Carl. He took her to mean she would talk to him later, probably after the boy was asleep.
"Do you need me to help clear it?" she asked as cover. Carl may have acted like he wasn't listening but she knew that he was hearing every word that was said in the group. Thankfully, Rick understood.
"No," he said. "Daryl and I've got it. You, Dani and Carl can hang back." He put his hand on Carl's shoulder. The boy looked up at him and Rick was startled to catch a glimpse of both the child he was along with the man he was going to become.
"You alright?" Carl nodded.
"Yeah Dad," he said, his voice cracking slightly, a reminder to Rick that his son was now a teenager. Rick smiled down at him and tilted Carl's hat back.
"We'll stop soon and get somethin' to eat. I'll have Dani and Daryl go hunt us up dinner." Carl rolled his eyes.
"We don't have to eat squirrel again do we?" Michonne smiled and Rick laughed.
"I'll see if they'll take requests and get you somethin' else." He looked up ahead at Daryl and Dani who had stopped to let them catch up and both seemed highly amused with the conversation.
The building had a couple of sluggish walkers. Lack of food had made them almost dormant, something they were seeing more often with the fallen walkers in the woods, and Rick and Daryl dispatched them both easily. Daryl and Dani had gone hunting, Dani returning with a large catfish she had caught by hand.
"How's this for not squirrel?" she asked Carl who smiled the first genuine smile anyone had seen in a very long time.
"That's cool. How'd you get it?" While Dani told Carl about how her cousins used to take her noodling, Daryl sat in the darkened corner and watched the group. He kept thinking about Terminus and tried to ignore the apprehensive voice in his head that told him they were walking into something bad.