Evangeline Takashi
Present
I groaned as I cracked my neck, being in a car for three hours was horrible. Seeing those nasty creatures, was horrible. But at least I had my kids and my mom. I knew I was one of the lucky few. Not everyone had their mother to hold them as they broke down but I did. She is my everything next to my kids. Which were currently annoying the shit out of me. Florence was nodding her head to her i-pod as she tried to ignore her 8 year old sister who was currently shooting spit wads at her two year old brother who was picking his nose and flicking them back at her.
"You two are disgusting!" Florence said to them.
"You two are disgusting!" Eleanor copied.
"Shut up!"
"Shut up!" Eleanor continued. I looked over at my mom who was laughing her butt off as she drove my VW in the god awful traffic.
"Mom!" Florence looked at me as I looked back at them.
"Mom!" Eleanor copied.
"Eleanor…" I said calmly. I knew this was how she was dealing with everything but it was still hard to try to mediate.
"Yes?" she answered.
"Stop." I told her with a straight face.
"Okay… can I play with my DS?" she asked me. I nodded my head. She had her personal bag packed with all things pokemon, her dad was obsessed with them and when he died, she got all his collection. It was one of the things that helped her stay close with him.
"I'm going to go see what's taking so long…" mom said going to open her door.
"Wait. How bout I go? Florence you wanna go?" I asked her.
"Yes please." my fifteen year old pushed her glasses up on her nose and climbed over Eleanor.
"I wanna go!"
"Me two!" Eleanor and Galileo yelled.
"No, you two are going to stay with me." Mom said.
"Yes, you protect your grandma." I told them.
"Otay…" Gally said as Eleanor grumbled a pissed off response.
"Eleanor." I growled at the angry girl.
"Fine." she huffed looking away from me. Florence had pulled her beanie on and was walking at my side as we took a few step out of the lane. I noticed that we weren't the only ones out of their car. More like one of the last ones. Most people were having weird tailgating like time, eating and trying to talk about what was going on. What they had seen.
"Mom." I looked at Florence. "What did you see that made you leave work so early?" she asked me.
"A man." I grabbed her hand as we walked. She was my little girl. No matter how old she was. "A very sick man, was in Grayson's office. Eating him." I mumbled the last bit.
"Like… like zombies?" she asked me.
"Exactly like a zombie. Ralph shot the guy in the chest, four times. He kept coming. It was scary. Very scary." I mumbled.
"I bet. So what now?" I looked at my abnormal teenager and shrugged my shoulders.
"We find a safe place. Try to get to a military base."
"Is that why you brought dad's guns and your bow?" she asked.
"Yeah… I don't know how long it's going to take. But we need to protect ourselves. No matter what comes our way." I paused beside two women and their kids, I looked at my daughter in the eyes and kissed her forehead. "Your grandpa and dad taught me a lot. I will keep you three safe no matter what."
"I'm scared mom." she mumbled laying her head on my chest.
"I am too." I whispered rubbing her back.
"Evangeline Garcia?" I turned at the sound of a man's voice. I looked up to see an older version of my brother's best friend, Shane Walsh. "Evan's little sister right? Its me, Shane! I know I look different, I'm part of the law now." he said proudly.
"Oh! Wow! No way. I thought you'd be outta this state long ago." I tapped his badge and it was our old town. "Still in King's county?" I asked him grinning.
"Yes ma'am. I knew you'd leave, you were always destine for something better than King's County." he grinned at me.
"Thanks, yeah. I was. It was Arizona. This is my daughter by the way. Florence Takashi." I said pulling my daughter to my side.
"Whoa you married young." he said looking at Florence.
"No… actually I got knocked up, this was my awesome possum prize." I said kissing the 15 year old's cheek.
"Mooommm!" she whined.
"While you were in King's County?" he asked. I nodded my head. He stared at Florence for a while and then I watched the light click in his mind.
"So how have you been?" I asked him, changing the topic, Florence knew everything as a single mother I didn't lie to her, ever.
"Great. Except for this now. You know I'm a sheriff, what did you do?" he asked me.
"I became a history teacher and translator. That's how I met my husband." I said touching my locket that held his picture.
"Really?! That's great. You remember Lori right?" he asked motioning his arm towards the brunette woman we had stopped beside and she wrapped an arm around a young boy of about 9 or 10.
"You were a cheerleader right?" I asked her.
"Yeah, and you were the student body president." she commented. I pushed my hair behind my ear as I nodded my head.
"Yeah. Victor took over for me when I moved. How have you guys been?" I asked her.
"Great… other than…" she motioned for her son to play with the little girl with them. She took a step closer to us. So only the grownups and Florence could hear. "Rick, my husband."
"Ex-Husband." Shane commented. She sent him a glare.
"My ex-husband was shot and died when this all went down. You remember Rick right? You two went on a date once." I knew what she was doing. So did, Florence, who was glaring at the mean bitch almost as much as Shane was.
"For like a month." Shane gritted out.
"Yeah, so when were you born Florence?" she asked my daughter. Florence took a step towards the women and I had to grip her wrist to stop her from punching the bitch.
"None of your business." I hissed quietly then looked at Shane who seemed sorry for what he had brought on us two. "Nice to see you again Shane…" I said taking Florence and leading her back to the bus.
"Mom we never found out what's going on." Florence said as I leaned against the side of the bus. I took a deep breath trying to think of what I was going to do… I looked up at my 15 year old and hugged her to me. "Mom are you okay?" I shook my head as I felt tears come down my face. When Yuu was stationed here, I had a hope that maybe I could introduce her to Rick, maybe she'd like to meet him, when the world went to shit and before I found out he was dead, I didn't even think that was possible but then I run into my old school mates and I now know its totally impossible. "We're going to be okay mom." she said rubbing my back.
"I know… Lets get in before your grandmother has a heart attack." I said opening the door to see mom holding Galileo in the front row. Eleanor was playing with her stuffed Pikachu and Charmander.
"How'd it go?" Mom asked me as Florence climbed in the back and I climbed in. I gave her a small smile and went to pull Vega out of her cage. The large cat was on her harness and looked like she needed to go to the restroom. "Florence why don't you keep an eye on Galileo and Eleanor." Mom said motioning me to climb out again. I walked Vega to the other side where my mom was messing with a blunt for her anxiety.
"How much do you have left?" I asked her.
"A lot." she said. "So what happened?" she asked me.
"I ran into Shane Walsh and Lori… Grimes." I mumbled.
"Ohhh darling, he married her?" she asked me. I nodded my head and looked down as Vega who was currently peeing in the grass and trying to cover her poop with the asphalt.
"Yeah, it sucks… so bad… he died…" I mumbled as I felt tears begin to fall. God I hated this. I hated how emotional I became after losing Yuu, he was my rock and kept me stable. I pushed a hand through my hair as I thought about what was going to happen now. We'd get to Atlanta, stay in a safe zone until this is all fixed up and then what? Go back to living like this never happened?
Two Month Later
I stood in the compartment store holding Florence's hand as we watched the walkers on the other side of the glass try to get through. My girl sucked in a breath and pushed her head into my chest as I hugged her. This was a bad idea, taking her. I should have left her with mom and the little ones. "Mom, we're going to die." she whispered sucking in a sob as she began to cry into my top. I rocked her side to side, as well as any mother could with a 15 year old.
"No. No. We're not." I whispered rocking her. I was trying to think of something else to tell her, but what could I say. All that separated us from the walkers was a freaking row of glass doors. Strong glass doors but still. We both jumped as we heard shooting in the street in front of the store. I pulled Florence behind the display case as Andrea got all worked up.
"Who the fuck is making that noise!" She screamed making some of the walkers who were going to go after the shooting turn towards us again.
"Shut up you stupid bitch!" I hissed as quietly as I could. It was quiet for a few moments and then more shooting and a bomb like sound went off. Then I could hear fucking Merle letting his wrath go on those walkers. He was tweeking. Fucking junkies.
"I'm back. I got a guest plus four geeks in the alley." I looked over at T-Dog and Morales who were dressed ready to kill the walkers. I placed a kiss on Florence's head as I grabbed my long bow from the counter.
"Stay here." I told her as I grabbed my quiver off the glass counter as well.
"What? Mom!" she whispered after me as I followed T-Dog out to help Glenn. I pulled an arrow ready to loosen it if any walkers got past the two of them. Glenn and his new friend ran up. Just as the officer ran past me I looked into his eyes.
"Evangeline." he whispered as Glenn pushed him forward into the building. I could have sworn he said my name but maybe I was wrong.
"Lets go! Guys!" I yelled at the two men. They ran in behind me before the door locked behind them. I followed behind Glenn only to see Andrea walking up to the new man with a gun in her hand.
"What the fuck, Andrea!" I hissed pulling an arrow and lining it with her head.
"You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you!" she yelled pointing the gun at the new guys head.
"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off." Morales tried to talk to her. I took a step closer to her so my arrow lined up with her temple.
"What is wrong with you?!" I asked her.
"What's wrong with me? You're kidding me right? We're dead because of this stupid asshole." She hissed angrily.
"Evangeline, put your bow down. Andrea, I said back the hell off." Morales said. I shook my head.
"This bitch is going to get us all killed. Using a fucking a gun in an enclosed place like this. It will attract the walkers faster than his shit." I nodded to the new guy. "I'm getting out of this alive with my daughter, you all can go fuck yourselves before I let this bitch let loose more noise." I hissed.
"Mom." Florence walked up.
"We're dead… All of us. Because of you. Don't you care Evangeline?" Andrea looked at me.
"I don't understand." The officer confessed. I dropped my bow at this and went over to my daughter. I draped my bow over my shoulder and held Florence to my chest who was shaking.
"Shhh, shhh its going to be okay." the new guy was staring intensely at me, as I consoled my daughter.
"Look, we came in the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the OK Corral." Morales almost yelled at the new guy. He stood kind of humiliated because he didn't know what he had done.
"Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds." T-Dog said.
"You just rang the dinner bell." Andrea sneered at him.
"Get the picture now?!" Morales hissed at the man.
"What were you doing out there anyway?" Florence asked quietly. He turned to face us fully.
"Trying to flag the helicopter." he said looking me in the eyes.
"Helicopter?" I asked him.
"Man, that's crap. Aint no damn helicopter." T-Dog shook his head.
"I saw it." The man said.
"Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B. Can you contact the others?" Morales asked as I moved Florence and I away from the others.
"Others? The refugee center?" The man asked us. I shook my head and kissed Florence's head.
"Yeah, the refugee center. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us." Jacqui sarcastically said grabbing a cute scarf off of a rack and placing it on Florence. She pushed her long brown locks to the side and touched my daughter's cheek. "There ya go, darling. Look beautiful." She said. Jacqui was a sweet woman and helped me and mom when she could.
"I'm Rick Grimes." the man said holding a hand out to me. I felt my heart beat faster. I slowly took his hand.
"Rick, oh my gosh. I'm…"
"Evangeline Garcia, I remember you." he said I felt my breath escape my chest as tears fell down my cheeks. I went around the counter leaving Florence with Jacqui as I hugged the man. I placed my head into his shoulder as I cried.
"I thought you were dead…" I whispered hugging him.
"Evangeline, I heard about something a few month ago…" he looked over at Florence.
"Heard what?" I asked him.
"Your oldest brother, Erik tracked me down. He said…"
"That asshole…" I whispered taking a step away from him and towards empty space.
"Is it true?" he asked me. I nodded my head when I turned to face him.
"Florence, baby come here." I whispered she stepped away from Jacqui and came to my side. "Florence, this is him. Your father." The fifteen year old girl stood still.