Wow, it's been quite a while! As always, my vast apologies for my delayed updates and extended absences. Life happens, ya know?
In light of last night's episode, we are picking up where we left off! Onwards and upwards!
Star ducked and dodged her way through the forest, only slowing long enough to hear four other frantic sets of footsteps before regaining her speed. She heard Daryl's heavy, boot-laden foosteps zigging erratic patterns behind her, and caught small bits of the two girls' panicked breathing.
She wasn't sure how far was far enough, even as the whizzing of bullets faded to silence, and stayed that way. Still, she waited until a particularly thick grouping of the charred trees before slowing her sprint to a jog, and finally coming a stop in the middle of the black trunks. Dwight was hot on her heels, Daryl closely following with the two young girls. Star's eyes remained vigilantly upward as the four caught their breaths.
"What th' hell was that?" Daryl gasped at Dwight, Tina and Honey. "Who were those guys?"
"Our old group," Honey replied without making eye contact.
Star set her eyes on the greasy, pale man. "Dwight, you took them from those men?"
"More or less," Dwight replied. Star caught Daryl's eyes meaningfully. Daryl held her gaze, but didn't make any motion of decision, other than pointing his gun at Dwight and gruffly stating, "Let's keep movin'."
The group picked their way through the dead forest silently, with no direction and no idea what to do next. The tense uncertainty was broken when Tina gasped and ran towards a molten, transparent heap of glass and twisted metal in a clearing.
"NO!" she screamed, throwing herself down at the side of what appeared to be a melted greenhouse. "Sammy! Dawn! NO!"
"Shut her up," Daryl warned Honey. Honey glared at his callousness but knelt by her friend and wrapped an arm around her, shushing her gently.
"We did this," the girl sobbed hysterically. "This is our fault. Why were they even out here?!"
Star approached the scene and jumped slightly when, underneath the thick layers of mangled glass, two walkers were moving in minute manners, barely able to groan with the tight seal of material around their bodies. They were charred and burned almost beyond being recognized as humans.
"You knew them?" she gasped in horror. Dwight only nodded sadly.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this," Honey chimed in from Tina's side. "No one was supposed to be outside the walls…it was supposed to be just a distraction so we could get out."
The talking seemed to agitate the walkers encased in the glass. They began sinking down into the soft earth underneath, creating more space under the glass tomb to scratch and gnash.
"Let's get goin'," Daryl insisted. "Ain't no good comin' from bein' out here."
"Where are we going?" Dwight insisted. "We've got nowhere to go now."
Daryl caught Star's eyes, and she gave a small nod.
"We'll talk 'bout it, jus' not here," Daryl told the man as he holstered his gun again.
Dwight seemed to accept this, and turned to his two mourning companions. "Tina, Honey, come on."
Honey got to her feet, but Tina remained on her knees. "We can't just leave them like this," she insisted with tears in her eyes. "It's not right. They were good people."
"We can't let 'em out," Daryl reasoned with her. "Too risky."
Star sympathized more with the young girl. "Here," she volunteered, and picked up four charred sticks from the forest floor. She used her spear to cut some loose strings from the cloth bag, and hastily fashioned two crosses from the items.
"I'm not sure if they were religious, but…" she shrugged, and handed them to the girl on the ground. Tina sniffed and took the crosses, and got to her feet to select a few stones from the area to prop the crosses up with.
"We don't got time for this," Daryl insisted to Star quietly. She placed a hand on his shoulder and looked deep into his blue eyes.
"At ease," she soothed him. "There needs to be time for this."
Her nodded in acknowledgement, and leaned slightly into her palm. She gave him a small smile as the sound of shattering glass cracked the air.
"TINA!" Honey screamed, rushing forward and being stopped immediately by Dwight's arms around her chest. Star charged to the girl as the walker shook through the broken shards and sunk its rotting teeth into her shoulder.
Star grabbed the girl's arm and tried to pull her free, but the walker would not relent its hold. The girl's wound spurted more blood and her screams grew more agonized the harder Star pulled.
"DON'T!" Honey screeched, and Daryl was suddenly at Star's side, gun aimed and firing twice into the young woman's temple before Star could recognize what was happening. Star stabbed her spear into the walker's skull, and silence consumed the world again, broken only by the tiny shards of glass cascading to the forest floor.
The grave for Tina look an hour to dig, and another fifteen minutes to bury her. The entire time was blanketed in a dreary silence. The only one to say anything over her was Honey, who whispered a broken, "It wasn't supposed to be like this."
The group circled back to the motorcycle abandoned by Star and Daryl earlier that day. As he hauled the machinery upright, he handed the guns he'd taken from Dwight's group to Star, and then tossed his head towards the two left. Star handed them the pieces back wordlessly, and Dwight took them with the same amount of words.
"How many walkers have you killed?" Daryl asked the man. The man seemed taken aback by the question, but answered, "Who knows that anymore?"
"How many people have you killed?"
Guilt flooded Dwight's face. "More than I thought. More than I wanted to."
"Why?"
"Why?!"
"Yah, why?"
"To stay alive. To keep them…her…alive."
Daryl nodded in acceptance. "We have a community, and we bring people in. You should come there with us," he said plainly.
"Really?" Honey perked up. "Where?"
"Come with us," Star reiterated. "You said you have nowhere to go."
Honey and Dwight exchanged significant glances. Dwight turned the gun over in his hand.
"Here's the thing…" he said, and then swung the piece up to aim it square at Star's forehead. Daryl immediately jumped forward, but Star lowered her spear to block him.
"Daryl, don't," she suggested.
"Gimme the bow," Dwight demanded. Daryl lowered the crossbow from his shoulder and tossed it at Honey's feet, who struggled to pick the heavy weapon up.
"You were decent to us back there," Dwight commended, "so we'll leave you with the spear. But we see you again, we will kill you. Honey, get on the bike."
Dwight mounted the vehicle after her, then handed her the piece to kep trained on Star, and drove off thorugh the forest towards the road without another word.
"Son of a bitch," Star cursed their ash trail. She turned to look at Daryl, who looked exhausted and annoyed.
"That's what we get," he quipped at her. She gave him a tight-lipped smile.
"Remind me to laugh about it later," she joked back. "Shall we?"
Six miles down the road, Star's spear tips were covered in decayed human matter, and both of their weary faces were covered in a thin layer of sweat.
"What is it with you Southerners and keeping your water in your air?" Star joked at Daryl, trying to make him laugh, or at least make a sound. He just raised his brows at her, and looked back at the stretch of road ahead of them. Something caught his eye, and Star saw a glimmer of enthusiasm reach them. She turned her head to follow his gaze.
"AA Pattrick Fuel Co," she read on the side of a sizeable truck up ahead. Daryl broke into a light run towards it, and Star followed his lead. When they reach the truck, he pointed at the license plate.
"PATTY002," she read aloud. "No way."
He smiled at her for the first time in a long day. "Shall we?" he quipped back.