Carl stayed close to Blake, knowing she was extremely uncomfortable with the presence of all the new people. He was a bit uncomfortable himself. The man who laughed after almost being punched in the face? He was obviously strange. The three other new people were quiet. One of the girls stayed strangely close to the man with mullet, the other kept her head down.
Rick made sure Carl was near him at all times. Blake too. If the kids were separated from him again, Rick knew he wouldn't be able to contain his rage. Rick also kept a close eye on the new arrivals. He'd heard Abraham chuckling while he was climbing the fence, and had touched down to see Blake staring him down. Something had happened, but Michonne had resolved it before Rick could even ask.
"Here." Rick said after the group walked for a few minutes. Blake recognized the seemingly ordinary patch of land as the site where Rick had buried the bag of weapons. Rick immediately pulled the small shovel out from under a pile of leaves and began digging.
Everyone was watching Rick dig, some wondering what he was going to unearth, when Blake felt someone behind her. She quickly spun around, aiming her weapon at the head of the small, grey haired woman who stood a few feet away.
"Blake, don't shoot!" Carl nearly shouted, forcefully lowering the gun for her. Everyone looked up when Carl spoke, seeing the woman staring back at them.
Blake's eyebrow furrowed in confusion as Daryl ran toward the woman and pulled her into a tight embrace. He looked as if he was nearly in tears.
"Who…?" Blake almost whispered as Rick slowly rose and walked towards the woman as well.
"That's Carol." Carl's smile was audible. "She's been with us since the beginning."
Blake finally submitted, slinging the gun over her shoulder again.
"You have to come with me." Carol said, her voice slightly muffled by Rick's jacket as he hugged her.
Michonne had finished digging while the others had their reunion, and walked toward Carol with the bag on her back, smiling as the woman turned and begin leading the group to the road.
After a very short walk, a small house came into view. As the group got closer, the door opened and a man carrying something in his arms came out. Blake didn't go for her gun this time seeing as Rick and Daryl didn't. When the man who left the house turned around, Rick and Carl immediately began running to him, as did one of the girls form the train car that Blake didn't know.
It wasn't until Rick reached the man that Blake figured out why the two were running: Rick now held a baby in his arms. The woman who ran with them ran straight into the arms of the man.
"That Judith?" Blake asked Daryl.
"Yeah." Daryl smirked, watching Rick and Carl as they held back tears of relief. "That's lil' ass kicker."
TWDTWDTWDTWDTWD
Blake wandered through the woods, a thick mist coating the ground to the point where she couldn't tell what she was walking on. The air was still and silent, all she could hear was her own breath. The sky was dark, but she could see perfectly. The familiar weight of the gun strap on her shoulder was gone, but, for some reason, the lack of weapon didn't concern her.
"Blake." The voice behind her was soft and sweet. When she turned around, Blake nearly began crying at what she saw.
"Tegan." Blake ran to her sister, dropping to her knees and pulling her into an embrace faster than she thought was humanly possible. "I'm so sorry."
"Why?" Tegan asked, smiling. The smile that she used before the apocalypse. "You have nothing to be sorry for."
"Yes I do." Blake insisted, holding her sister out at arm's length, studying every detail of her face. Her ocean blue eyes, slightly crooked teeth and button nose all framed by a thick, messy mop of hair the color of chocolate syrup. They looked nothing alike, and acted nothing alike, but their bond had been deeper and stronger than any other set of siblings Blake had ever met. "I let you die."
"You didn't let me die." Tegan tilted her head to the side, something she did when she was in disbelief or confused. "I ran away."
"But I should have gotten there sooner and killed it."
"No you shouldn't have." Tegan insisted, her lopsided grin shrinking slightly. "I wasn't meant to be in this world."
"And I was?" Blake shook her head, resisting the urge to scoff.
"Well you're still here, aren't you?"
"I guess." Blake mumbled. "But if I'm so fit to be here then I should have been able to protect you."
"You did." Tegan's face turned serious. "You didn't let me come back."
"But I shouldn't have had to do that to you."
"You didn't do anything to me. You did it for me. Besides, I couldn't even kill walkers."
"But you did." Blake remembered the sight of the twice dead corpse mere feet from her near dead sister.
It was Tegan who scoffed this time. "Do you really think I could've done that if you were around? The only reason I killed it was so I could say goodbye to you."
"You could have learned. I could have taught you."
"No." Tegan smiled again. "It's not something you learn. It's something you have."
"But-"
"Besides." Tegan continued. "If I was still with you, you wouldn't be with them right now. You never would have met Michonne or Daryl. Never would have seen Carl again."
"How do you know?" Blake almost accused.
"Because we wouldn't be running without reason. I would complain too much."
Blake laughed. "True."
"Hey, do me a favor?"
"Anything."
"Let Carl back in. He won't hurt you."
Blake took a shaky breath before responding. "I'm trying."
"Well, try harder. He's only going to help."
"I know."
"I know you know. Now do it."
Blake smiled at her sister, shaking her head. "I miss you so much." She sniffed, letting a single tear fall.
"I miss you too." Tegan wiped the tear away. "But don't come see me too soon okay?"
"Okay." Blake agreed.
"I have to go now." Tegan stepped away from Blake, her face turning serious.
"Why?" Blake tried to reach out to Tegan but found her arms wouldn't move.
"I just do." Tegan replied as blood began to seep from under the left shoulder of her white shirt, right where she had been bit.
"Tegan!" Blake called as her sister's face contorted in pain and fear. She struggled to get off the ground but was frozen in place as Tegan's eyes rolled back and she collapsed to the ground.
Blake gasped as her eyes opened and sat up, clutching her gun with her left hand and her chest with the other. Tears were streaming down her face and she was breathing hard to compensate for her racing heart.
"Just a dream." She whispered to herself. "Just a dream."
As Blake tried to calm down, she peered through the darkness at the silhouettes of sleeping people. They had set up on the edge of the forest, practically in a ditch on the side of the road. Blake was a few feet away from Daryl, on the edge of the group. He was sleeping, undisturbed by Blake's outburst.
Blake heard light footsteps and her head shot up as she saw the figure of a woman approaching. It was the woman who had been keeping watch, Maggie? Yes, Maggie.
"You okay?" Maggie kept her voice quiet so as not to disturb the others as she knelt down in front of the skittish teen.
Blake only nodded in response, hoping the tears weren't visible in the dark.
"Bad dream?"
Blake nodded again, hesitantly this time. She didn't know this person.
"Wanna talk about it?"
"No." Blake shook her head.
"Can I do anything?"
"No." The answer was quieter this time.
"Okay." Maggie backed off, standing to head back to the fire.
"Maggie?"
"Yeah?"
"I'll take watch."
