A day passed and my body is recovering enough to move around and check on everyone else still recovering. With the medicine working and me healing enough to help, Hershel leaves the quarantined area and I take over. Glenn rests, taking longer to recover since he was worse off and closer to death. Sasha and I manage to clean up the mess from the night before, no one else but Tyreese and Maggie come in to help us. Even with the medicine, Rick doesn't want anyone else catching it. That would mean more medicine to share, more to waste. I try not to think about Daryl, because when I do my body burns up and things get hazy. I don't care what Rick told everyone, if Daryl wanted to see me he would have by now. I rest on the bed, reading a book Hershel left for me when I hear an explosion. I run out of the quarantined cell, the door no longer locked and make my way out into the bright sunlight. I cover my eyes from the sun and walk towards the crowd formed at the gate "what's going on?" I whisper to Sasha.
"It's the governor" she says back.
My breath stops and I lower my hands to see in front of me. "It's not up to me. There's a council now." Rick shouts out. The rest of us stand behind him staring down at the small army in front of us. "They run this place."
"Is Hershel on the council?" He shouts back the question. A few moments pass when we see Hershel limping out of a car and put down onto his knee's. Maggie and Beth gasp at his site and hold on to each other's hands. "What about Michonne?" He asks. "She on the council, too?" And Michonne is led out right after that, put right next to Hershel on her knee's.
I can hear Rick's breathing pick up from behind him "I don't make decisions anymore." He spits out loudly.
"You're making the decisions today, Rick." He informs him. "Come down here. Let's... Let's have that talk." The Governor says calmly.
Rick looks to his side, to Daryl who nods very slightly. He then turns to his son and puts a hand to his face. Carl nods just as Daryl did "We can do this. All right?" Rick says in the smallest voice possible. He heads away from us, down to the field.
Daryl moves closer to the group and I comment "we can't take 'em all on."
He looks at me and then to everyone else "we'll go through the admin building, through the woods like we planned. We ain't got the numbers no more." he explains. "When's the last time someone checked the stash on the bus?" He asks.
"Day before we hit the Big Spot. We were running low on rations then. We're lower now." Sasha tells him.
"Yeah, we'll manage. Things go south, everyone heads for that bus. Let everybody know." Daryl directs, going to walk away.
"What if everybody doesn't know when things go bad? How long do we wait?" Tyreese asks.
"As long as we can." He says back, he then grabs a hold of my wrist and tugs for me to follow him. Although I want to pull away it's the first time he touched me in days and I yearn for him take a hold of my hand. We go inside the cell block, one I haven't been in since I was sick. "Can you get Judith's stuff together?" He asks me.
I nod, happy to be on Judith duty and not expected to kill anyone. He nods after I do and goes to walk away "Daryl, wait!" I say back to him. He stops and looks at me, waiting for what I am going to say "Why didn't you come see me?" I blurt out.
He puffs out "cause there's more important shit goin' on than you, Sadie-Mae."
His words hurt, and the anger pours out "Tyreese came in, Maggie.. why not you?" I push further.
He paces 3 steps before turning "cuz' they got someone to watch out for, someone they care about" he says.
"You don't?" I ask him, not believing what he's saying.
"I don't" He stares me in the eyes, stepping closer to me holding my stare.
I hold back tears from forming in my eyes "so the past couple months, meant nothing?" I ask. I tried to get it to come out as firm as possible, but my voice was shaking and it came out more like a loud whisper.
"Guess not" he spits back.
"I don't believe you" I argue.
"Look, the governor is down there right now with 2 of our people. This ain't the time nor the place to pick a fight!" His voice raises. Judith stirs from her sleep and Daryl's eyes soften at the sound "I just can't do what you need me to do." his voice lowers as he turns to walk away.
"Fine." I say back as he leaves "Bye, Daryl" I say as I walk to pick up the baby to soothe her. "It's okay Judith, it'll be okay." I hold her, rocking my body back and forth.
"We need to get to the bus" Mika comes in with 2 other kids, carrying Judith's car seat.
"Here" I strap the baby in "take her to the bus, I will get her food.. I'll be right there" I direct them. "Straight there!" The 3 of them go off and I move through the cell block throwing things in a bag for Judith. As I finish getting things together I hear screaming and then a gunshot. Something happened and this isn't going to end well. I hold my breath, trying to think of what to do. I need to protect Judith, get her to the bus and go. I throw her bag over my shoulder and go through the jail. I get on the bus "where's Judith? Mika?" I ask looking through the faces.
"Not here" Glenn breathes heavily from the front "Beth went to look for Judith, Maggie for her" He gets out. "please, go get them?" He begs me desperately.
"I will!" I shout back to him, already going back down the stairs to find them. I go back through the way I came from, gunshots and explosions still going off. I make my way out another way, through a court yard and see Judith's car seat in front of me. "Judith!" I shout out running to it. "No, no. Judith!" I cry. The seat is stained with blood but nothing else is in it. I look around me desperately searching for someone to be holding her, to tell me she's safe and keep moving but there is no one around. "no, no, no..." I cry holding onto the seat, clutching at it.
"You killed another one." My little sister's voice rings through my ears.
"No, no, no!" I whisper out loud, hitting my head to get her out of it "you're not real, you're not real!" I say.
"If you just killed yourself before, she would be alive" she says to me. I see her feet a distance away but do not look up to meet her eyes.
I shake my head "she can still be alive, she can be" I argue with myself.
"You don't believe that, look at all that blood" she reminds me.
Tears fall faster down my face and I look up, her little body holding what looks like a baby in her arms "GO AWAY!" I shout out loudly to her. I blink hard and when I open them she is gone, but in her place are two figures stumbling out from the smoke. They get closer and it's Rick and Carl. The young boy helping his bloodied father stand. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" I whisper as they get closer, getting close enough to see what I am gripping at.
"No." Rick cries, stumbling over his son. "Carl. Carl." He stands up before pushing them both to the ground, gripping to his son.
He sobs, as does Carl at what they see. "I, I'm sorry" I sob as well.
"We've got to get out of here." Rick cries out, his son stumbled over with grief. "We've got to go. Shh. Shh. Shh. It's over. It's over. It's over." He tries to console his son through the pain they are both sharing. I stand up, putting my other arm around Rick and the 3 of us slowly make our way out of the jail court yard towards the woods.
We make it out, the sun setting behind us. Carl goes to look at what used to be "don't look back, Carl." His dad directs him. "Just keep walking."